Little Barrie

Little Barrie are a rock and R&B group from the United Kingdom, originally forming as a solo project around Barrie Cadogan. The core line-up centres on Cadogan and Virgil “Sparo” Howe, with Lewis Wharton also part of the band’s established trio configuration. Cadogan handles vocals and guitar, Wharton plays bass and vocals, and Howe plays drums and vocals. The group remains active from 2000 to the present.

Sound and style

The band’s music draws on a wide range of styles, including freakbeat, garage rock, UK R&B, neo-psychedelia, surf music, krautrock, funk and rock and roll. Their early material is shaped strongly by soul, funk and R&B rhythms, while later recordings also move towards harder-edged surf and garage sounds, with overdriven guitars, feedback and heavier bass and drums. Their 2014 album Shadow has a darker character, with more reverb and fuzz and stronger freakbeat, psychedelia and krautrock influences.

Early releases and formation

The first Little Barrie single, Shrug Off Love / Reply Me (It Don’t Deny Me), appears on Stark Reality in 2000 and comes from a demo recorded in 1999 by Cadogan with friends Chris Lee on drums and Miles Newbold engineering the sessions and playing organ on the B-side. Cadogan then meets drummer Wayne Fullwood, and the two begin writing together as a duo. After a period of playing a handful of gigs without a fixed full line-up, the group relocates to London in September 2000 and meets bassist Lewis Wharton.

In London, the trio plays clubs and releases two more Stark Reality singles: Don’t Call It The Truth / Give Me A Microphone in 2001 and Memories Well / Didn’t Mean A Thing in 2002, both produced by Mike Burnham. Through Andy Hackett of The Rockingbirds, the band meets Edwyn Collins and engineer Seb Lewsley, who later help shape their debut album.

Albums and recordings

We Are Little Barrie is recorded after Collins offers to produce further tracks at West Heath Yard in London, despite the band not yet having a record deal. It is released on Genuine in 2005. After touring in Europe, Japan, Australia and the US, the band begins work on its second album, Stand Your Ground, in late 2005. Initial sessions are produced by Dan the Automator, with Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on drums and Scott Harding engineering in Brooklyn. Back in London, Billy Skinner joins on drums and Mike “Prince Fatty” Pelanconi produces the continuing sessions. The album, which includes rockabilly elements alongside the band’s R&B and funk influences, is released on Genuine in 2007 and features Martin Duffy of Primal Scream on keys and Bill Denton on harmonica.

By late 2007 Virgil Howe replaces Skinner on drums. The new line-up first records in March 2008 when, with Martin Duffy on keys, the trio backs Mareva Galanter on Happy Fiu. Work then begins on King Of The Waves, which is demoed at Pipe Dream Studios in north London and recorded at West Heath Yard with Collins and Lewsley in 2010. Shawn Lee mixes six of the tracks at Transyank Studios. The album is released in Japan in December 2010 and in the UK and US in 2011. Its opening track, “Surf Hell,” gains wider attention through use in Rocksmith and on television, and “Money In Paper” includes backing vocals from Collins.

The band follows this with further touring in Japan and Europe, then works on Shadow from 2012. Demos are recorded around touring and other commitments. In 2013 the group tours further, including shows with Dinosaur Jr and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, support slots with The Stone Roses at La Cigalle in Paris, and performances in Vietnam and Japan. Shadow is recorded, mixed and mastered at West Heath Yard over 17 days, apart from the title track, which is recorded and mixed by Miles Newbold at The Chicken Shack in Nottingham. The album includes “Fuzzbomb,” with backing vocals by Shawn Lee, and a version of “Only You,” originally written and sung by Danny Kirwan during his time with Fleetwood Mac. A limited-edition 7-inch of “Fuzzbomb” / “Only You” appears for Record Store Day 2014.

The group releases Death Express in 2017.

Collaborations and associated acts

Barrie Cadogan also plays with a number of other artists and groups. He performs as a session guitarist for Morrissey in 2004, joins Primal Scream as a session guitarist in 2006 and continues to work with them, and also plays live with Edwyn Collins, Paul Weller, Pete Molinari, BP Fallon and Saint Etienne. His studio work includes sessions with Primal Scream, Edwyn Collins, Paul Weller, Spiritualized, Scott Asheton, Pete Molinari, Andrew Weatherall, Zook, The Chemical Bros, Aspects, The Greg Foat Group, Bent, Paul Butler of The Bees, Patti Palladin, Brendan Lynch and The Proclaimers, and he also produces Gil De Ray. Before Little Barrie, he plays in the Nottingham instrumental group Polska with Paul Isherwood, Adam Cann and Dorian Conway, who later form The Soundcarriers.

Virgil Howe also plays drums with The Dirty Feel and The Killer Meters, records solo material, and tours with Shawn Lee, Amorphous Androgynous and Bryan Ferry. Lewis Wharton also works as a designer and illustrator and presents his first exhibition at the Bolt motorcycle shop and gallery in Hackney, London, in 2014.

Other performances and links

The band backs Paul Weller on the title track of 22 Dreams. In November 2011 it opens for Charles Bradley and The Extrordinaires in Spain, leading to further touring with Bradley in the US in 2012. The trio also opens for Dinosaur Jr and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and supports The Stone Roses in Paris during 2013.

Line-up

Little Barrie is centred on Barrie Cadogan and Virgil “Sparo” Howe, with Lewis Wharton part of the group’s trio line-up and earlier and later drumming changes around Wayne Fullwood and Billy Skinner.