Long Nights Of Summer: The Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera Anthology 3CD Set

Formed in earnest in 1967 after having their minds blown by seeing Pink Floyd in concert, Elmer Gantrys Velvet Opera were one of a handful of British psychedelic bands to successfully incorporate soul elements into their sound, delivering the strongest example of this with their debut single, "Flames." Though the groups time was brief, they were active and dramatic, with multiple lineup changes, name changes, and complete stylistic upheavals happening in the short three-year span they existed. Long Nights of Summer chronicles all these changes and then some, with more than 70 tracks that include both the bands self-titled 1968 debut, their 1969 follow-up Ride a Hustlers Dream, as well as multiple singles, demos, and BBC performances from across the groups various iterations. The material from the time of their debut is some of the most compelling, with tunes like the happy-go-lucky pop of "Mary Jane" and "Long Nights of Summer" balancing out the more soul-geared "Volcano" and "Flames," or experimental and Moody Blues- or Pink Floyd-informed numbers like "Reactions of a Young Man." Lead vocalist Dave Terry (aka Elmer Gantry) left the band before their second LP, Ride a Hustlers Dream, was recorded, and that album is a different beast all together. There are some nice moments, like the Dylanesque acoustic 12-string beauty of the minute-long title track and the jumpy, greasy funk-rock of "Dont You Realise," but on the whole the record is confused and uneven. Long Nights of Summer exhaustively chronicles the many shifts of this short-lived band, including not just the sole 1970 single made by the last iteration of the group featuring Tintern Abbeys Dave MacTavish on lead vocals, but a BBC performance by this version of the band. Multiple BBC sessions are joined by mono mixes, singles, and demos, offering a thorough impression of every phase that this obscure group went through. ~ Fred Thomas