About

Liverpool-born Edgar Jones (also known as Edgar Summertyme), is an English singer-songwriter and musician who made his mark in the early '90s as the leader of the highly regarded '60s revivalists ‘The Stairs’. He also formed and fronted The Isrites, The Big Kids, Edgar Jones & The Joneses and Free Peace.

He's been a sideman with other artists, playing bass for Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen), Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, Saint Etienne, Cherry Ghost, The Las and Love. He's also joined many live acts on tour, including Robert Cray and Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

He has had a solo career under various names and group settings that swerve from reverb-heavy garage rock and swaggering blues-rock to off-kilter '60s-inspired pop and even swinging jazz.

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Starting his career at the tender age of 20, Jones joined Ian McCullough's post-Echo And The Bunnymen band in 1990, playing bass on-stage and on 1992's Mysterio album. Meanwhile, Jones (using the name Edgar Summertyme), guitarist Ged Lynn, and drummer Paul Maguire launched The Stairs, releasing their first single, "Weed Bus," in 1991, then the Mexican R 'n' B album in 1992.

The band made a point of dressing and playing as if music had stopped dead in 1966, a view that was out of step with the prevailing musical landscape. After a few more singles that year, they began work on a second album, but ended up leaving their label Go! Discs and taking a turn into blues-rock territory before splitting up in 1994.

His next project was more straightforward: the blues-rock trio Free Peace, which featured Stuart Gimblett on guitar and drummer Nick Miniski. They released one album, Stormy Weather, in 2011, then broke up soon afterward despite snagging a spot supporting Oasis.

Edgar relaunched the Edgar Summertyme name for two albums, 2012's Sense of Harmony and 2013's Morphic Fields, both of which refined Jones' approach into a unique kind of pastoral psychedelic soul.

The Stairs were called out of retirement in November of 2015 and released a new collection of rarities on Viper called The Great Lemonade Machine in the Sky, from which a single, "Shit Town," was culled.

The band stayed together to tour the next year with the Wicked Whispers, hitting the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia along the way. At the same time, Jones was readying his next solo album for The Coral's Skeleton Key label. Titled The Song Of Day and Night, which was released in early 2017.

In early 2021, Edgar released a three-disc collection, ‘The Way It Is: 25 Years of Solo Adventures’, issued by Cherry Red which covered solo recordings and songs made by the various post-Stairs incarnations Jones played and recorded in.

In 2023, Edgar released the album ‘Reflections of a Soul Dimension’. A 4-star MOJO review called it a "great soul album" "full of period detail and bristling with dancefloor energy". Critics highlight Jones's signature vocal style and the rich instrumentation, including strings and brass, contributing to its "wonderfully persuasive" sound and marking it as his best work.

Edgar is currently working on an agnostic influenced album, and is currently performing new material across the UK.