Wandering Oak presents Little Barrie

Cast in the grand tradition of great British rock bands, and fuelled by a love of American blues, funk and soul, Little Barrie’s sixth studio album is the first released solely under the band’s own name since the death of drummer Virgil Howe in September 2017. The LP follows more than two decades of activity that have established the band as a key force in UK psychedelic rock and soul. Following Howe’s passing, Cadogan and founding bassist Lewis Wharton placed the future of the band on hold. After initial plans to resume playing were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the pair began collaborating with long-time friend Malcolm Catto (The Heliocentrics). This partnership resulted in two albums, Quatermass Seven (2020) and Electric War, released on Easy Eye Sound in April 2025. For Gravity Freeze, the hooks are sharper, the grooves are deeper, and the atmospherics thicker, building on the band’s previous, highly-acclaimed work.

“Have you ever had sleep paralysis?” asks Cadogan, discussing the title track of the trio’s latest offering. “That’s what ‘Gravity Freeze’ is written about. It’s like a nickname I gave to that moment where you’ve woken up and you’re still dreaming. The first time that happened to me, I freaked because I couldn’t move, but I couldn’t tell if I was awake or not. It’s a very strange feeling, and you do weird things, like trying to walk through wardrobes. There are a few elements on the album that reflect what we’ve been through in the last few years. We’ve been through a lot, some of which we’re still processing.”

Work on the LP began in late 2023. The album was recorded at Rat Salad Studios in Hornsey, North London, with Rupert Lyddon serving as recording engineer and co-producer. Continuing the band’s established DIY approach, early demos were captured in a cold room room in Dalston surrounded by partial drum kits, art equipment, and random bits of wood and metal, before formal recording sessions began. Coote joined the band for the album, contributing performances informed by classic jazz, soul and blues rhythms. Recording took place alongside Cadogan’s commitments as a touring and session guitarist, including work with Liam Gallagher and John Squire, The Black Keys, and THE THE, as well as sessions at Easy Eye Sound Studios in Nashville.

Gravity Freeze was written and sequenced with vinyl in mind and marks over 25 years since Little Barrie's first singles on Stark Reality. The release represents a new chapter for the band following a nine-year gap since their previous studio album.

Liverpool-born Edgar Jones made his mark in the early '90s as the leader of the highly regarded '60s revivalists The Stairs, then transitioned into a sideman with artists such as Paul Weller and St Etienne. He also launched a solo career under various names and group settings that swerved from reverb-heavy garage rock and swaggering blues-rock to off-kilter '60s-isnspired pop and even swinging jazz. No matter the sound or name of the group, Jones could be counted on to deliver breezy pop music, anchored by his languorous vocals and skillful musicianship.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 (now 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. But he didn't sit around feeling blue, instead relaunching the mothballed 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. Fittingly, The Stairs were soon called out of retirement. Though Viper had done much to keep their name alive by issuing collections of rare songs, it was the band the Wicked Whispers who convinced Jones and company to re-form for a show in November of 2015. In support, they 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 show went so well that 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, it was released in early 2017. Things were quiet on the recording front for Jones for a few years after, though he returned to the marketplace with the three-disc collection The Way It Is: 25 Years of Solo Adventures in early 2021. It was issued by Cherry Red and covered solo recordings and songs made by the various post-Stairs incarnations Jones played and recorded in.

FFO The Stairs / Captain Beefheart / The Coral / The La’s