The Basement Rug

This CD-single from 1992 is out-of-print and apparently quite collectible, fetching about $50 when it is available. Collectible CD-singles from the early 1990s? I guess I am getting old. That’s only 15 years ago. Is that considered ancient history these days? I guess it is “totally” ancient if you are 15 years old and living in the iPod generation.

In 20 years of CD collecting, this is the first and only CD-single I have ever purchased. When the CD-single first arrived in stores my immediate response was WTF, who the hell is gonna buy into this stupid concept?

Well apparently millions of people actually. You don’t see the CD-single as much any more, but yup they are still out there. For what purpose, I have no idea - especially when you consider the prevelence of the MP3 format. But in this particular case, it’s the only way to find these recordings in hard media, unless you happen to be able to find the even rarer vinyl version.

The Stairs (UK) should not be confused with the Boston band of the same name that broke up earlier this year.

I couldn’t find much info on the UK band, so I just lifted a few words from this one article that has been reproduced on several other websites:

The Stairs were truly one of the great long lost bands of the early nineties. The Liverpudlian four-piece love of retro pop formed the basis of a cool mix of psych and R’nB that promised so much but in the end delivered very little.

Not that the band were to blame. Far from it. In Edgar Summertyme they had a charismatic and colourful lead singer with a distinctive bluesy growl that put a prime Mick Jagger to shame and with an obsessive heart for attention to detail. They had the look and the cool to match. The seminal EP ‘Weed Bus’ is now a collectors item and the only album ‘Mexican R’n'B’ is packed with pop classics unashamedly ripped off left, right and centre from every obscure 60’s band there ever was.

There was plenty more where that came from as well. Edgar was a musical nut with big ideas of how the band would develop but their record company, Go! Discs, lost interest and the music press, as ever, were indifferent to their retro leanings after the initial hype.

This wasn’t a fad thing, or spurious attempt to jump on a 60s bandwagon. This was serious stuff for the Stairs. The charts were still full of bland shit. The feel and energy of great 60’s pop stood out from all the dross so why not interpret it for new audience too young to witness it first time around? The Stairs were the real, authentic thing. A treat to retro fans everywhere. Their demise is a real sad loss and Edgar presence is missed greatly. He was a great guy who, along with fellow song writing genius Lee Mavers of the La’s, seems to have fallen foul of the trapping of success. The two were recently reported to have started song writing together but the last we heard from The Stairs was about three years ago and they were thumping out heavy blues based rock complete with ten minute drum solos(!) to a dwindling fan base that was evidently destined to keep the band languishing in obscurity. A far cry from their effortlessly cool pop leaning of yore.