The new single sees Head go back to the narcotic mid-noughties Shack days in a wistful tale of band-led abandon as the autobiographical album Loophole, released on Fri 3 May 2024 via Modern Sky is on its way. Pre-order here.
Already touring with his Red Elastic Band through May, Head has also announced a run of intimate acoustic dates and meet-and-greets. Tickets here.
A wild trip across the Italian Alps as thrusting musicians on the ride of a lifetime is told in measured, later-life tempo by Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band on Ambrosia, the latest single to be lifted from The Pale Fountains and Shack legend’s upcoming, third solo album. Evocative, clear-eyed and with picture-perfect lyrical reflection, characters from Head’s former life come rushing into the present as the Bill Ryder-Jones-produced new record.
Slow waltzing through memories as if only yesterday, Ambrosia’s deceptively calm and collected tour story, starting in Glasgow and taking a ‘walk through the privets’ before heading into Europe in the enlightened grip of cheap acid, sets the listener alongside Head and his Shack bandmates in the back of the van in the mid-noughties. With every second and every line wrapped in warmth for those that came along for the ride and a sense of nostalgic pride, Ambrosia is Head’s loving hymn to Shack and loose, unshackled days of love and chaos left behind.
Head says ”Ambrosia was written when I was reminiscing about the days playing and touring with Shack. Some of the members, Iain Templeton, Pete Wilkinson, our John and the tour manager, Eastie and I are all mentioned. Tripping off our heads, we left Eastie outside a pizzeria in Italy and had to go back to rescue him! Iain passed away halfway through writing the song. Bill’s production really captures the essence of the story.”
Shack, Head’s second band after The Pale Fountains split in 1987, was originally formed of the singer-songwriter and his brother, John Head on guitars, joined by Pete Wilkinson on bass and Mick Hurst on drums. Still centred on the brothers but with a rolling, supporting cast thereafter, the band released ‘lost classic’ albums, Zilch (1988), Waterpistol (1995), HMS Fable (1999) and Here’s Tom With The Weather (2003) before an extended hiatus kicked in in 2008.
Promising an album that skimmed stones over his past, not only as a feted musician blessed with as many well-documented lows as uncontested highs but as a fixture in off-centre British culture for five decades, much of Loophole was written and recorded at the same time as Head was considering the chapters of his life for an upcoming autobiography.
Readying the book, titled Ciao Ciao Bambino: A Magical Memoir for publication by Nine Eight Books on Thu 15 August 2024, the stories told in Ambrosia and previous singles, Ciao Ciao Bambino, Connemara and Shirl’s Ghost, came rushing to mind as prose and then, inevitably, fell into place as lyrics.
Ready to perform songs from Loophole alongside tracks from his highest charting, 2022 album Dear Scott, plus fan-favourites from the back catalogues of The Pale Fountains, Shack and The Strands, Head and his band prepare for seven UK Tour dates, opening in Glasgow in early May. December brings another career and lifetime landmark for Head as he gathers friends and fans for an unmissable night at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
Check out the video for new single Ambrosia below.
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Photo by John Johnson ©
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