Psychedelic Jukebox: [1967] Elmar Gantry's Velvet Opera - Salisbury Plain

 

Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera began as a more conventional R&B-influenced outfit known as The Five Proud Walkers before undergoing a stylistic metamorphosis that paralleled their interactions with the shifting tides of London's underground music scene. This evolution accelerated after a pivotal tour supporting Pink Floyd in the spring of 1967—a tour that exposed the group not only to psychedelic textures but to the exploratory ethos underpinning the era’s most progressive music. By the time the band entered the studio later that year, they had begun to embrace the emerging lexicon of psychedelia, folding Mellotron swells, reversed tape effects, modal harmonies, and non-Western tonalities into their compositions. Nowhere is this more evident than on “Salisbury Plain,” a track that sits at the crossroads of pastoral mysticism and studio experimentation.

Originally released as the B-side to “Flames,” “Salisbury Plain” immediately set itself apart from the typical flipside filler that characterized many singles of the period. The track opens in a haze of drone and sustained organ tones, gradually layering subtle guitar textures and echoed percussive elements to establish a dreamlike, suspended atmosphere. Its structure eschews conventional verse-chorus repetition, opting instead for a slow-blooming progression reminiscent of a raga or a meditative incantation. The vocals—delivered in a solemn, almost liturgical cadence—enhance the impression that the listener has been transported to a sacred sonic space. While the lyrics themselves remain sparse and elusive, they hint at ancient landscapes and internal voyages, conjuring the titular Salisbury Plain not as a literal location but as a mythic realm imbued with spiritual resonance.

The choice of Salisbury Plain as a thematic and titular anchor is itself significant. As the geographic site of Stonehenge and one of the most archaeologically potent areas in the British Isles, Salisbury Plain has long symbolized mystery, pre-Christian ritual, and the veil between the material and the mystical. By invoking this locale, the band subtly aligned themselves with the psychogeography that underpinned much of British psychedelia, a movement deeply interested in the past as a means to reimagine the present. Unlike the more lysergic Californian psychedelia, which tended toward vibrant color and ecstatic liberation, British psychedelia often turned inward and backward, fusing folk memory, ancient landscapes, and esoteric symbolism into sound. “Salisbury Plain” exemplifies this tendency in both structure and spirit.

The recording of the track took place under uniquely intense and insular conditions. The band, by all accounts, more or less lived in the Denmark Street studio for extended sessions during the second half of 1967, surrounded by Mellotron units, tangled cabling, makeshift bedding, and a haze of creative exhaustion. The studio space, though technically limited by modern standards, became a crucible for sonic alchemy. With tape loops, reverb chambers, backwards tracking, and extended instrumental passages, the production of “Salisbury Plain” reflects a kind of intimate and obsessive craftsmanship. The constraints of time and equipment appear to have spurred creativity rather than limited it. The ambient drones and backward effects that permeate the piece give it a liminal, floating quality, making it feel less like a conventional song and more like an unearthed transmission from a forgotten rite.

Though the track never charted and was initially overlooked by mainstream outlets, its life extended in unexpected ways. “Salisbury Plain” was later featured in the Middle Earth compilation box set, a retrospective honoring the London club of the same name that had served as a hub for the city’s psychedelic avant-garde. Its inclusion there signaled the track’s real-time relevance to the scene that birthed it, positioning it not merely as a B-side curio but as an active component of the experimental underground. The band’s live performances at Middle Earth and other countercultural venues gave audiences a more expansive rendition of the song—sometimes stretching beyond its recorded length, layering improvisational flutes, sustained organ textures, and live tape manipulation.

One of the most revelatory discoveries in recent years was the unearthing of a longer, unreleased demo version of the track in the 2022 anthology Long Nights of Summer. Sourced from fragile acetate discs—the only surviving artifacts of many original recordings—this version revealed additional instrumental sections, extended Mellotron washes, and a different vocal phrasing that emphasized the track’s druidic, ritualistic undertones. The demo’s rawness and unvarnished atmosphere further illuminated the creative intent behind the piece, suggesting that “Salisbury Plain” may have originally been conceived as a longer-form meditation rather than a conventional single B-side.

Critics and historians alike have increasingly pointed to “Salisbury Plain” as a missing link in the evolution of British psychedelic and progressive rock. Its minimalism, tonality, and atmospheric density anticipate elements that would later define early progressive rock acts such as King Crimson, while its pastoral mysticism aligns it with the acid-folk movement.

Sources:

1. https://atthebarrier.com/2025/03/27/middle-earth-the-soundtrack-of-londons-legendary-psychedelic-club-1967-1969-boxset-review/
2. https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/07/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera-long-nights-of-summer-the-elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera-anthology-2022.html
3. https://theseconddisc.com/2022/11/16/dream-starts-grapefruit-collects-elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera-on-new-anthology/
4. https://www.discogs.com/release/33489581-Various-Middle-Earth-The-soundtrack-of-Londons-Legendary-Psychedelic-Club-1967-1969
5. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14y5im