All God's Children Gotta Have Their Freedom

I went to sixteen gigs in 2025, a pretty good number, and several of them were very memorable- Sabres Of Paradise (twice!), Iggy Pop, and Mercury Rev all stand out in my mind and The Beta Band were really good too though spoilt slightly by the crowd. In early May I saw Shack at The Ritz which as far as good gigs go was right up there, the Head brothers in sparkling form. This song wasn't on the setlist that night but I've been playing it loads recently, a 1990 standalone single. 

I Know You Well (12"Extended Mix)

Mick Head's songwriting chops are very evident, the sound is pure 1990 guitar band (Mick has said he was massively inspired by The Stone Roses debut album) and it marries 1966 Beatles (the bass from Taxman, the Revolver style acid guitar lines) with spacious, indie dance beats. The section from two minutes fourteen seconds is psychedelic Scouse and then the breakdown at two minutes thirty is indie dance heaven. 

The video is pure low budget 1990 too...

Mick also nods his head to his biggest musical hero, Arthur Lee of Love, with the line, 'All God's children gotta have their freedom', a line from Love's The Red Telephone. When I saw Shack at The Ritz in May they encored with one song, a cover of Love's A House Is Not A Motel. I haven't posted nearly enough Love at Bagging Area. This pair of songs are from Forever Changes, an album that shows Arthur Lee's disillusion with the hippy dream, an album released at the height of flower power, but where Lee could see it was built on sand. Forever Changes is a lament in some ways, for a new age that wasn't going to arrive.

Alone Again Or

Alone Again Or is utter beauty, complete 1967 brilliance. It was written by Bryan MacLean. Arthur Lee wasn't in the studio when it was recorded and reportedly grew jealous of people's praise for it. Lee then added the word 'or' to the song's title and re- recorded it with his voice to the fore on co- lead vox. These things contribute to bands splitting up- it led to Bryan quitting the group after the reelase of Forever Changes- but listen to the acoustic guitars, those horns, the orchestral flourishes and the bittersweet lyrics, and bask in it. What a song. 

Andmoreagain

Andmoreagain is an Arthur Lee song, sumptuous psychedelic folk with sweeping Burt Bacharach style strings and LA's Wrecking Crew playing (Carole Kaye on bass, Hal Blaine on drums, Billy Strange on guitar and Don Randi on keys). Bewilderingly good. Lee's lyrics are a stream of consciousness about addiction, temptations and defence mechanisms. 

Fifty Million Reasons

Shack have got back together after an absence of fifteen years since they last played together (and nineteen since their last album). They played at The Ritz on Friday night. The Head brothers, Mick and John, formed Shack in the late 80s after their first band The Pale Fountains split and recorded some very fine albums- Waterpistol, HMS Fable, The Magical World Of The Strands in the 90s and Here's Tom With The Weather and On The Corner Of Miles And Gil in the 00s. Playing live again the brothers have been joined by bassist Pete Wilkinson and drummer Ian Skelly on loan from The Coral (following the sad death of original drummer Ian Templeton in 2022) plus a duo filling out the sound with horns and flute. 

Shack exist in their own world and space, a band out of time. They seem entirely untouched by 2025, by Tik Tok, Snapchat and Spotify. Their sound- analogue warmth, California in 1967 by way of Liverpool in 1991- is a joy, beautifully crafted songs that ease their way in, songs touched by melancholy and fragility, tales of drug addiction and woe, but also filled with love and joy, the sound of an eternal summer. Mick Head's acoustic guitar and John's semi- acoustic electric mesh together perfectly, wrapping their sounds around each other, with the bass and drums locked in tight, Skelly's drums occupying a space somewhere in between rock and jazz. And then they sing, two voices wracked with over thirty years of living, most of the songs sung by Mick with John taking the lead on three or four. 

They kick off with Sgt. Major from Waterpistol (an album that was nearly lost forever in 1991 following a series of misadventures- a studio fire, tapes left in a taxi). Mick Head between songs seems almost overcome by the occasion, the love and warmth in the room from the crowd to the band and back again. The Ritz was very much a Manchester/ Liverpool event on Friday night, lots of Scousers heading across on the M62 for the gig, the crowd peppered with La's t- shirts. The set ebbs and flows, John and Mick's songs sounding exactly as they should- lived in and loved. Cornish Town (written and sung by John) is a beauty. So is Undecided, one of Mick's best songs, a song for lost summer days, with guitars that cross The Byrds with Fairport Convention, and the line about sticking a needle in your arm jumping out.

Undecided 

It's a dream setlist- Butterfly, Mr. Appointment, the wondrous sea shanty/ folk song Captain's Table, Mick's songbook high point Comedy, a song that cries and laughs- and concludes with the electrifying Streets Of Kenny, Mick's tale of trawling the streets of his home, Kensington (the Liverpool one not the London one), looking for heroin, a sidestep away from Love and into Velvet Underground territory, John shaking his guitar.  

Captain's Table

After a brief disappearance they return for a one song encore, a cover of a song by the band whose DNA runs through Shack more than any other, Love's A House Is Not A Motel. 

Comedy (Radio Edit)

Shack are possibly the cult band's cult band, a band dogged by bad luck and human frailties but loaded with songs. They go largely under the radar and are unknown to most. They lit up The Ritz on Friday night, the set sounding like a celebration. 'When you cry it pulls me through', Mick songs on Comedy, a line echoing down the line from the late 90s, as the Head brothers pluck victory out of the fire. 

Forty Minutes Of Mick Head

Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band have a new single out this week, Shirl's Ghost (on Wednesday) with a new album to follow. The perfect time to revisit Mick's back catalogue, one stuffed full of some of the best songs of the 90s and 2000s. I don't listen to a huge amount of guitar based songs any more but always make an exception for Mick. I meant to include some of the songs from 1998's The Magical World Of The Strands, Forever Changes transplanted to late 90s Liverpool, but couldn't find my CD copy, something that concerns me a little. Instead there are songs here from Shack, the group he formed with his brother John, and from various Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band releases, any and all of which you should own. Mick Head is one of the greats, barely known about, still playing small venues (all the better to see him in) and about to put out one of 2024's best albums no doubt. 

Forty Minutes Of Mick Head

• I Know You Well (Extended Mix)
• Undecided
• Velvets In The Dark
• Picasso
• Josephine
• Lucinda Byre
• The Ten
• Tie Me Down
• Comedy (Radio Edit)

I Know You Well was a standalone single in 1990, the chiming guitars, backwards effects and Beatles in '66/ Revolver bassline coupled with 1990 drums sounding still very fresh all these years later. 

Undecided is from the legendary Waterpistol album, Shack's 1991 which went unreleased until 1995. Bad luck and disaster beset the album- the studio containing the master tapes burnt down, Shack broke up, Mick developed a serious drug habit- but when it saw the light of day it was widely praised but rarely heard. By '95 and the resurgence of 60s guitar rock these songs should have topped charts. Shack didn't manage to get it back together until 1999 and their HMS Fable album. 

Velvets In The Dark was a 2014 single, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band, a 7" on Violette Records. Mick wrote the song after hearing of Lou Reed's death. The blend of Mick's voice, the acoustic guitars and trumpet are irresistible, with Mick singing, 'you found me in the park/ listening to The Velvets in the dark'.

Picasso and Josephine are from 2017's Adios Senor Pussycat, scouse cosmic folk, an album that is pure brilliance from start to finish. I could have included any of the songs from it here- warm, wise, melancholic, melodic, confessional and storytelling, human and emotional. It's got everything. My favourite Mick Head album. 'It's not like it in the movies/ There may be police involved', Mick sings on Picasso

Lucinda Byre was song from a 2014 EP titled Artorius Revisited, a song that starts out in a cafe with Mick taking acid and then walking up Liverpool's Bold Street and trying to see if he can get to the top. Lucinda Byre was a ladies clothes boutique on that street which opened in the mid 60s and survived through until the 80s. The song is a melancholic wonder, all violin and strummed guitar and acres of reverb.

The Ten is from 2022's Dear Scott, a record beautifully produced by Bill Ryder- Jones in West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula. The Ten tells of some of the places to be found in Liverpool L10, while sounding like Love updated for 2022.   

Tie Me Down was the opening song on Shack's 2006 album On The Corner Of Miles And Gil, Mick's love of West Coast 60s folk rock, Love and The Byrds, evident throughout. Tie Me Down starts out with a fanfare of horns and then lyrically dives into the sweetly sung world of Louise and her love of bondage. 

Comedy was on Shack's 1999 H.M.S. Fable, an album packed with songs that saw Mick christened 'the UK's greatest songwriter' by the NME. The album is unflinching lyrically, desolate songs about trying to score heroin on the streets of Liverpool's Kensington, but has some uplifting moments too, not least on Comedy, a heartfelt and rousing song that jangles and soars, guitar lines peeling off like bells and Mick singing one of those hard- won wisdom lyrics he's so good at, a voice that sounds like it's got a mouthful of the Mersey in it, 'when you cry it pulls me through', he sings as the strings swirl around. 

Ciao Ciao Bambino

Mick Head and his Red Elastic Band are back with the first new song since their 2022 album Dear Scott. The new song, Ciao Ciao Bambino, doesn't stray far from the Mick Head template but it is everything that makes him great in a three minute nutshell. Produced by Bill Ryder- Jones it sounds like Love transplanted from West Coast USA in 1967 to Liverpool in 2023, a perfect blend of fuzz bass, trumpets, gently strummed acoustic guitars and Mick's voice of experience singing lines of hard won wisdom- 'I used to do the gee gees/ But they done me/ I had to ditch tequila/ She set me free'. It's the sort of song you can't imagine hasn't existed before last week, it sounds like it's been around forever. 

If you don't know Mick Head and The Red Elastic Band's two recent albums, Dear Scott from last year and 2017'w Adios Senor Pussycat then you're in for a treat playing them for the first time. If you do know them, re- listening and rediscovering is a treat too. 

Adios Amigo is from Adios Senor Pussycat, a jangle of guitars and sweeping strings to close the album, with Mick singing adieu, 'Goodbye Saint Domingo/ Farewell Letitia Street/ It's adios amigo/ Gonna have to set you free/ Still got no time for money/ And money's got no time for me/ It's adios amigo, Gonna have to set you free...'

Adios Amigo

On 2022's  Dear Scott Mick found himself on the crest of a wave, the album featuring at the top end of many end of year lists. In the middle of side two was The Ten, a lush, gorgeous, melodic gem, a lyrical  tour through Liverpool, and ending with some very evocative strings, the fade out to an imaginary film from the 60s about a young couple running away from everything, reaching the beach and finding there's nowhere left to go. 

The Ten

Kismet

Michael Head, in some ways Liverpool's finest but most unsung songsmith, is back with his Red Elastic Band and a new song ahead of a new album. His 2017 album Adios Senor Pussycat, at that point his fist album for eleven years, was one of that year's best and a record I keep going back to- the songwriting, the playing, the moods and textures, the hard won wisdom and melancholic celebration of the lyrics never gets tired or overdone. I saw him play at Gorilla in May 2018, a gig which lives long in the memory. 

The new song is called Kismet and is as wonderful as anything on Adios Senor Pussycat, acoustic guitars and acid rock guitars and Mick's voice all sounding as you'd want them to. 

Looking For The Boys Again

I've spent some of the week just gone addressing storage issues- records and CDs, but mainly records, spilling all over the room and a shortage of shelf space. An Ikea Kallax shelving unit has been purchased and assembled and the order has been restored. Several years worth of record buying has been filed away- some of the ones at the back of the oldest unfiled stack of records dated back to 2012. The situation has now been resolved with all parties happy.

In a box of CDs, mainly discs given away free with music magazines, I found a freebie the long departed Select magazine, dating from December 1999. The CD was a tie in with Xfm (when I hear Xfm Manchester in the barber's they seem to only have the songs of three artists and those artists are Oasis, U2 and Arctic Monkeys). Select did some really good CDs with remixes, B-sides and exclusives that were often worth hanging on to. This CD is not one those CDs so I couldn't work out at first why I'd bothered to save it and why I still had it two decades later.

All the songs are radio sessions and the list of bands is a mixture of late 90s mainstream indie (Travis, Stereophonics, Reef, Gomez, Catatonia), American indie survivors (Sebadoh, The Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices, Mercury Rev), Suede, Skunk Anansie and two bands that I don't know (Seafruit and Merz). None of which explains why this CD must have escaped several culls in the last twenty years. I can only assume it was this- Shack, live in the Xfm studio, playing Mick Head's description of desperately trawling through Kensington, Liverpool, looking for heroin.

Streets Of Kenny (Xfm Session)

Dragonfly

If indie guitar bands in 1987 wanted to sound like the band in yesterday's post (The Motorcycle Boy) by 1991 things had moved on. A post- Madchester world had ambitions for a bigger, looser, different sound. In 1991 Shack recorded their second album Waterpistol. Mick Head was inspired by The Stone Roses, The Charlatans and Flowered Up and he was chasing that 60s psychedelic sound, acoustic and electric guitars, crossed with that early 90s groove. In an ideal world Mick's song writing would set him apart. Unfortunately things went wrong- producer Chris Allison had difficulties getting Mick to finish songs and in late '91 the recording studio burned down taking the master tapes with it. Shack's record company went bust soon after. Chris Allison left the DAT tapes in a hire car while on holiday in the US. Bassist John Power joined The La's. Mick got into heroin.

Waterpistol eventually surfaced in 1995 after Allison tracked down the hire car company and the lost DAT tapes, and a German label Marina put it out. By this point Britpop was at its height and Mick's songs should have found an audience but despite rave reviews Mick and Shack remained mired in substance problems. In 1999 a reformed Shack released HMS Fable and began to reap a bit of what they had sewn but Waterpistol remains a lost gem. It's been re-released a couple of times since, by different labels, with different sleeves and different numbers of tracks (mine has twelve songs, the Marina release with the smoking schoolboy on the cover). If you haven't got it, it's well worth tracking down- never has cosmic Scouser psychedelia been so well realised as on this album's songs.

Dragonfly

Josephine

I first heard this last week at Echorich's place and have been coming back to it daily since then- a new song from Mick Head, formerly of Shack, The Pale Fountains and The Strands. Michael's new group is The Red Elastic Band and they've got an album ready to release in the autumn, his first for a decade. Mick knows his way around a tune and this one is a lilting, folk-influenced thing, with harmonies and hooks to spare. The video is made up to archive footage of Liverpool in the early-to-mid 1960s and is a treat too.