Stretch - Lifeblood (Reissue) (1977/1990) Lossless

They were wild days, back in the mid-Seventies, when bands were tough, hard rocking and determined to carve out a piece of the action. Those were the days when record companies were falling over themselves in the rush to sign new outfits they hoped would compete with mega-successful outfits, like Free, Bad Company, and Deep Purple. There was plenty of money around, and loads of clubs, festivals and tours, enough to support scores of musicians who could expect to make a reasonable living, plying their trade. Throughout Germany, Britain and America, there was a rich variety of hard rock bands who relied on the power of screaming vocalists, wailing guitarists and super charged drummers to kick ass. Night after night on the road they got the fans up on their feet, cheering and waving their blazing cigarette lighters in support. There was no need to worry about the horrors to come - punk rock, disco, rap and dance music. Rock bands were kings of the road, and even the least famous could live out dreams of stardom. Among those hard working dreamers was a band called Stretch, a British outfit who recorded for the Anchor label. Their first LP was in fact "Elastique", produced by Martin Rushent, and now re-issued by Repertoire, enabling whole new generations to rediscover the power of a band once hailed as one of the hottest new names of 1975.

Stretch featured the fine vocal talents of one Elmer Gantry (who named himself in honour of the character in the Burt Lancaster movie Elmer Gantry). Elmer had previously led an outfit called Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, which released three singles in the late Sixties on the Direction label. They were "Flames", (1967), "Mary Jane", (1968), and "Volcano", (1969), all now collector's items. He also recorded a song called "Psychobabble", featured on an Alan Parsons Project Album "Eye In The Sky". They all helped establish Elmer's reputation as a fine, expressive singer and imaginative composer. Stretch was a much more bluesy kind of band and featured a hot young guitarist, and songwriter simply known as "Kirby". Elmer was the lead vocalist and also played some guitar. They made a strong team, ably backed by Steve Emery (bass guitar), and Jim Russell (drums), who also played with rock'n'roll revival band The Wild Angels. Stretch was augmented on the album by horn players Mike Bailey and Ron Carthy, saxophonists Mick Eve and Chris Mercer, and keyboard player John Cook.

The band had made a promising start and enjoyed the thrill of a hit single, when "Why Did You Do It" (written by Kirby and featured on this CD) got to Number 16 in the U.K. in November 1975. It spent nine weeks in the charts and seemed to signal the start of a hugely successful career...