"The first day, cos the hotel was in Times Square, it was like, 'Whaaaaatttt??!!'"

Sometimes New York really does feel like the top of the world, and Shack's resident genius Michael Head is drinking in the city. "I love it," he bubbles. "I was just saying to my brother, I'm getting right into this now, and we're getting off today."

Shack's visit to New York was short but clearly a joy for Mick and brother/guitarist John, the fruit of a long-overdue blossoming in their fortunes. They've just finished a round of successful festival gigs, the critics are still all aflutter about new album HMS Fable, and they are about to release an album in the U.S. for the first time in more than a decade. The New York visit is a chance to meet some label people, play some low-key shows and make a few friends in The City. Who knows if Shack will ever make it there, but after all they've been through, making it anywhere would be nice.

Mick Head has been cast as the hard luck man of pop, you see. A career beset by label failures, heroin addiction, studio fires, misplaced master tapes and generally poor timing has kept him at the margins of pop, despite a clutch of classic tunes and three albums that rank among the best of the '90s. But is he bitter? Not on your life. In fact, Mick Head's sense of perspective and good humor are almost overwhelming.

"Personally, I don't dwell on things, anyway," he says, winningly. "I think it's like a Liverpool attitude of like, 'So be it,' or 'What's next…'

Well, that'll be the bright side of things, then.

"I've obviously thought of the negative side of it, it was a downer when [Waterpistol] didn't come out. But I got a lot of satisfaction when it did come out on [Marina], and I got even more satisfaction when people were coming up to me having got this import saying "I've got your album!" and I didn't even know it was out."

If ever a record deserved a second lease on life, it was Waterpistol. It is both a collection of detailed, impassioned individual songs and a wonderfully atmospheric, cohesive whole, and you can almost hear Head mastering his craft as the record plays. It's a form he hasn't lost -- the folky, largely acoustic Strands side project produced another wonderful album, The Magical World of the Strands, in 1997. And now, with the arrival of HMS Fable, it seems people finally may be listening.

After the critics' trumpeting of his last two records got them precisely nowhere, it would be unsurprising if Mick were taking the reaction to HMS Fable with a grain of salt. But where you'd expect to find cynicism, Mick Head is always ready with good-natured optimism.

"It's massive to me," he says. "As a songwriter…it really is important to me. I'm not gonna dwell on it, but it's always amazing if you do something creative and someone says, 'It's good.' I defy anyone not to get a buzz from that."