You never know with Chinese whispers in this game, do you? Often rumours are just that, amounting to nothing at all despite their persistence. Yet there's always that one time when the improbable or unlikely might just become a reality. Back in the mid-'90s it came true with the arrival (on import) of Shack's tremendous 'Waterpistol' and on Merseyside circa 2008, such an improbability is again ready to send shockwaves through the cognoscenti.
I'm talking about the arrival of THE STAIRS' second album, of course. Having proved themselves to be (at least) five years ahead of their time courtesy of their acclaimed debut 'Mexican R'n'B', Edgar Summertyme (nee Jones) and his crew were strongly rumoured to have laid down a mind-blowing follow up before they finally imploded around 1994 or so. So often had this reviewer heard the rumours himself that he'd long since ceased to believe they were the truth, but then they do things differently in Liverpool and thanks to the usual loving care and affection afforded by Messrs. Hemmings and Badger at The Viper Label, the enigmatically-titled 'Who Is This Is' finally arrives to confound expectations and remind us why Edgar 'Jones' Jones is fast establishing himself as a musical colossus on Merseyside.
Because, regardless of the lateness of its' official arrival, 'Who Is This Is' is a fantastic record that has no intention of inhabiting anything but its' own headspace. Yes, of course they sound positively Hendrixian on the initial blowout of 'Skin Up' and even get away with a shaggin' drum solo (!) on the 'Moby Dick'-style 'Stop Messin'', but it's simply because they can and they will and it's all part of a far greater whole. Let's face it, The Stairs' vision was always far more far-reaching and all-encompassing than most, but any band that can find room under their umbrella for tunes as fabulous and disparate as the hard-edged Brit-psyche of 'Happyland' and the virtually indescribable tempo shifts and punk/prog aggression of 'Teenage Head Cancer Blues' is more than welcome to keep me dry, thank you very much.
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Besides, Edgar and co were/are also wily enough to understand that linear'n'direct can co-exist with their more starsailing moments, which means we get treats like the driving, kaleidoscopic Stones-style 'She's So Fine', the irresistible, Detroit soul-meets-Dingle-grit of 'When She Walks Down My Street' and the robust, Spencer Davis-ish 'It Was Alright', which has of course been co-opted into the more recent Joneses songbook in a slightly different guise. All of which – in a fair-minded universe – would be hits writ large, but I guess that's another story.
Indeed, it's a testament to Edgar's creative drive and the skill of Messrs. Maguire, Lynn and Cook that even the two additional tunes left off the album shake with the same kind of exhilarating breadth of vision and indeed in the case of the epic 'Love Has Come & Gone Away' it's wonderful (if a little scary) to think that they had more of these monumental sonic workouts in reserve for a rainy day.
But that's Edgar 'Jones' Jones all over really. He'd go on to form the ridiculously under-rated Big Kids in the wake of all this before finally gaining some real recognition with his first 'solo' album, 'Soothing Music For Stray Cats' and his story is still thankfully an ongoing one. Whatever, his work with The Stairs is already earning the epithet 'legendary' in Liverpool and on the basis of 'Who Is This Is' it's not too hard to hear why. Even belatedly, this one flies eight miles high and climbing.
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