Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

This popular British ensemble, skilled at fusing soul with psychedelic and progressive elements, grew out of Jaymes Fenda And The Vulcans, one among several groups awarded a recording deal after competing on the television program Ready Steady Win. John Ford, the former Vulcans songwriter born 1 July 1948 in Fulham, London, England, and playing bass, linked up with Dave Terry on vocals and guitar, Colin Forster on guitar, and Richard Hudson, born Richard William Stafford Hudson on 9 May 1948 in London, England, on drums, all previously of the R&B outfit Five Proud Walkers. The resulting group took the name Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera to reflect Terry’s stage attire, which echoed the preacher portrayed in the 1960 film Elmer Gantry. Their strong debut album from 1967 featured the driving track “Flames,” which, despite repeated plays on BBC Radio 1’s Top Gear, never charted.

Diverging views on musical direction prompted Gantry and Forster to exit. The remaining musicians shortened the name to Velvet Opera, brought in Paul Brett on guitar along with John Joyce, born 1933 in England and deceased February 2004 in England, on vocals, and issued Ride A Hustler’s Dream. That release lacked the focus of its predecessor, aside from the strong cut “Anna Dance Square.” The quartet dissolved after Hudson and Ford moved to the Strawbs, where they stayed through 1973. Having penned several of the group’s most commercial songs, the pair then departed to launch their own Hudson-Ford project. By 1974 Gantry was leading an act that, until halted by legal action, took unauthorized engagements billed as Fleetwood Mac during the real band’s absence from touring. The following year he resurfaced as vocalist on Stretch’s only UK chart success, “Why Did You Do It?,” and later collaborated with the Alan Parsons Project and Cozy Powell. Colin Forster, an earlier member, briefly participated in a revived Velvet Opera lineup during the early 1970s.