at a glance...

Formed: Liverpool 1982 (as The Pale Fountains); Shack formed 1988

Personnel:
Michael Head -vocal, guitar
John Head -guitars
Peter Wilkinson -bass
??? -drums

Bands In The Family:
The Pale Fountains, Michael Head Introducing The Strands

Notes:
Liverpudlian Mick Head started to make music with The Pale Fountains, a Love-obsessed early-'80s band whose tenure with Virgin records fell apart after two albums when the A&R man who signed them jumped ship. Head and brother John regrouped as Shack in the late '80s, recording two albums for Ghetto, the second of which, '91's Waterpistol, was abandoned when the master tapes were first thought lost in a studio fire and later left in a rental car in America. In late 1995 a copy turned up, and German label Marina released Waterpistol to rave reviews in the British press, who hailed it as one of the best LPs of the decade. By this time the Heads were recording as The Strands, although they have since resumed work as Shack with beleaguered A&M offshoot London Records.

Links:
Interview with Micheal Head

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the folks at Marina. If they hadn't rescued this troubled record and given it its overdue release in 1995, I'd have been left with a big hole in my life.

Waterpistol is a special record, one of those lifestyle albums you wonder how you ever lived without. I don't think I'd have enjoyed late-night tea, red wine or falling asleep slowly for most of 1996 if someone had taken it away. Kissing, reading old magazines, and my friend Giles' 3 a.m. philosophy would have suffered too, truth be told.

It's a melancholy record, but not a depressing one: Mick Head writes with such honesty and sensitivity, even his bleakest lyrical settings warm the lonely heart. "Neighbours" and the magnificent Byrdsian waltz of "Time Machine" are noble tales of resignation behind closed doors, while "Mood of the Morning" takes an upbeat strum through the domestic life of the struggling Scouse musician, mooning over a lively girl who finishes beers and bops to Happy Mondays in the a.m. And while every Northern band tried to pry that effortless jangling groove out of their copy of The Stone Roses in the early '90s, "Dragonfly" and "Sgt. Major" nail it cold. Oh yeah - you also get "Undecided" and "London Town," two of the best ballads ever written, and reminders why the acoustic guitar was invented.

Most of all, you get an artist with more heart than sense, a friend to take into a long night and an album you'll cherish forever.