How Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band is the true voice of the North
- Jan 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 4
Cast your mind back to the not-so-recent past, and there was a massive fuss when it was announced in 2024 that Oasis were reforming and going on tour. No offence to the Burnage boys, but there was a northern band going on tour that I was a little more excited about – and that was Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band.
As someone who grew up in Greater Manchester in the 80s and 90s, surrounded by the sounds of ‘the Madchester’ scene, there were plenty of northern bands I was excited about. - from the louche, dry wit and lyricism of The Smiths, to the soaring, wandering basslines of Peter Hook. Manchester always delivered plenty of musical inspiration, from seeing The Stone Rose’s Ian Brown slouching around the Arndale Centre; New Order propping up the bar at the Hacienda; or the club’s then-worker Noel Gallagher assembling his mates for a quick rehearsal at the nearby Boardwalk (where I inadvertently ended up seeing their first gig, off to see my friend's mates band The Catchmen).
Yet, for me, the North West’s true musical genius doesn’t hail from my home city at all, but from another rainy place thirty-five miles up the M62.
Liverpool’s Michael Head – lead singer-songwriter of The Pale Fountains, Shack, the Strands and, since 2013, the Red Elastic Band – is arguably one of the UK’s best kept musical secrets.
I’ve been a fan of Michael Head since I first heard The Pale Fountains when I was eleven and my sixteen-year-old sister came home with a 7- inch single Palm of My Hand. From the moment the stylus hit the groove, and the crackle gave way to the opening burst of chords, my love affair started – and all these years on, I’m still hooked.
For me, the singer’s lowkey balladry and melancholic but oddly joyous pop is truly the epitome of the north, speaking of grey drizzle, plain speaking and doomed conversations (‘ I said, “look stupid, I’m not dressing for you”’), lost love affairs, and catching a National Express coach because there’s nothing better to do. (‘Southbound excursion is taking me far, far away / not that I’m too worried, I’m not here to stay…’ )
As someone who took a Southbound Excursion thirty years ago, and never came back, Michael Head throughout all his musical incarnations has been the voice I’ve always turned to whenever I’ ve felt lovesick for the north.
And I’m not the only one -- apparently Noel Gallagher is such a fan he released Shack’s last album, 2006’s ‘The Corner of Miles and Gil’, on his Sour Mash label, and described the group as ‘the second best band in the world’. The Coral and Manic Street Preachers are also devotees, and, finally, at the age of sixty-two – with the Red Elastic Band’s critically-acclaimed latest LP ‘Loophole’ released early last year, and the 2022 ‘Dear Scott’ winning.Mojo’s Album of the Year – Michael Head seems to be getting the plaudits he deserves.
Along with his brother John, the singer songwriter also comes with his own share of musical mythology in a roller-coaster career blighted by heroin addiction, the death of band members, label mismanagement, studio fires and missing master tapes.
If you haven’t heard the band already, give them a try.
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