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.