THERE are some bands whose story is easy to tell. They are the bands for whom it all just falls into place: their sound is easy to describe, their look is stylised and just so, their philosophy drips into a classic, easily defined rock’n’roll mould.
Edgar Jones and the Joneses are not one of those bands. They’re much more interesting...
Their debut album, Soothing Music for Stray Cats, was Noel Gallagher’s album of the year for 2005, when he proclaimed it "one of the best records I have ever heard". High praise indeed.
The follow up Gettin' A Little Help from the Joneses is out now, and already has a brace of retro musos clasped it to their hearts.
When listening to their music, it’s hard to escape the word, and the concept retro. For Edgar, it seems the present fades like a ghost, thinned by teeming visions from decades of creativity.
He finds it hard to pin down what it is he likes, but makes it clear it’s nothing contemporary:
“I mostly listen to music made between 1920 and 1970,” he ponders.
“These days, because I’ve got a bass player in now and I just concentrate on the singing, I’m really into vocalists.
“I like a lot of American rhythm and blues, people like Little Willie John. He did the original versions of All Around the World and Fever.”
Edgar is on an eternal quest to find increasingly obscure and interesting records.
“When I was younger I used to do a lot of touring, and when I woke up in a new town I’d go out really early in the morning and find the old record shops.” He grins. “America and Japan were always the best. I used to get some really hard to find original 45s when I was on tour.
“Now I get a lot of it on eBay, and more and more is being issued on CD. I think music is opening up, and more people are hearing things they might not have chosen to listen to before.”
Not for Edgar the shallow trappings of fame. The Joneses – Edgar plus Robert Stringer (keyboard) , Austin Murphy (saxophone/rhythm guitar/flute), Paul Blakesley (bass/double bass), Karl Penney (drums) and Jamie Backhouse (lead guitar) – eschew a mainsteam label, opting rather for Viper, a great Liverpool independent, but comparitive minnows in the music industry.
“I like Viper – I don’t have any of the constraints of a major label,” says Edgar. “I’m too grown up now to want to be famous. I want to keep the rhythm and blues thing going.
“There used to be a lot of young bands playing interesting music, but post-Libertines it seems it’s dying out.
“There are still some you see playing in town – but they’re the ones that are already famous, like The Coral and The Zutons. I’d like to see more new bands taking risks.”
As well as making his music, Edgar DJs at Heebie Jeebies.
“I play music I like,” he laughs. “I play a lot of old soul, rhythm and blues, some old Motown. I don’t know, sometimes I think maybe I’m an old stick in the mud for it.”
Last week the band recorded a session for Mark Lamarr’s excellent Radio 2 show.
“We did three new tracks for him,” explains Edgar. “He’s always been really good to us. He gets us in every year and promotes whatever we do. He’s supported what I’ve been doing since The Stairs days I think.”
In the time between the demise of The Stairs and starting The Joneses, Edgar recorded with Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, St Etienne and the lost La, Lee Mavers, while still continuing to plough his own distinctive retro furrow.
“People think I was doing nothing, just sitting in the house, but I was playing on other people’s records,” he says.
More recently, he featured on Cherry Ghost’s acclaimed album Mathematics.
“Simon is great, because he’s in his thirties his craft is really well developed,” says Edgar. “We recorded it at Ape Studios on the Wirral. They have the best vintage equipment there. I wish we’d done (The Stairs’ iconic album) Mexican R 'n' B there.”
Edgar Jones and the Joneses play Zanzibar on December 21. For more information, see www.myspace.com/edgarjonesandthejoneses.