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Saturday 6 November 2010 8:30 pm
Rodewald Suite, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
John and his band play at The Royal Philharmonic Hall as part of the After 8 series
After 8 is the Phil’s very popular series of select roots, jazz and unplugged gigs in the Rodewald Suite, a delightfully intimate space with its own entrance in Sugnall Street.
With informal cabaret seating, an in-house bar, rooftop terrace and the opportunity to meet the artists and other guests after the performance, After 8 shows are a unique experience and a great night out.
Nearly all of the After 8 series sold out in the Spring and Summer, so book early to avoid disappointment.
Doors open at 8pm, John will start performance at approximately 8:30pm.
John will be playing a live show at The Deaf Institute in Manchester on Sunday 12th September 2010.
The Deaf Institute
135 Grosvenor Street
Manchester
M1 7HE
T: 0161 276 9350
Doors open 7.30pm, Curfew 11pm
Tickets £8.00 adv : available from The Deaf Institute, Piccadilly Records or Click Here
A surefire blood relation of the family Zilch with its John Kline bits and its Broudie bobs, “Room In a Circle” chimes along to Mick’s 12-string acoustic guitar, John’s arpeggio Rickenbacker and a jabbering drum machine. I’m not sure what the lyric is all about, and as ever it’s best to make your own interpretation, but, for some reason, I’ve always linked it to Shack’s proto-band name “The L-Shaped Room”. It must be a room/shape thing.
I first heard a recording of the song about five years ago on a borrowed, hissy old C60 which was succumbing to the effects of time. It was one of those tracks that was always out there but never followed the path of many others from tape to digital – possibly due to the poor quality of those recordings in circulation. So here we have it, for the very first time, a shiny box-fresh version for your time-ravaged lug holes. Enjoy.
Shack – Room In A Circle (unreleased recording circa 1988/89)
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Photo by Mark McNulty
Have you got different expectations?
Or was there something you wanted from me?
Or maybe desperation
That made you treat my door so affectionately
Could be pacification
I’d love to love my nation
Don’t give me realizations
Don’t give me expectation
For years the poster above was fixed to the wall of the Everyman bistro in Liverpool and is where Mick got some of the inspiration for the lyrics for “Realization”.
The following clip is from Jérôme de Missolz‘s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” documentary from 1992:
A couple of alternative versions of the poster:
 
You can get yourself a nice framed version from here.
Shack at De Bees. 6th June 2010.
Winsford is a town with a vibrant local music scene. De Bees is it’s headquarters. Today’s event, organised by Keo Martin & Pete Thomas, brought much of that local musical talent together in raising funds and awareness for SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death In Epilepsy) and especially in memory of Pete’s daughter Lian.
The announcement of this gig back in March was met by many with a fair amount of surprise and disbelief as it was generally considered that Mick & John were too committed to their individual musical projects to consider a full-on Shack reunion, even if it was for a single show.
The rumour mill grinded ever more in the run up to the gig and even on the day there is still word that at least one essential Shack ingredient might be missing. Any anxiety turned to relief when word arrives at around 7.30pm that Mick, John and Iain are in the building.
A small Shacknet contingent gathers around the garden bar amongst the locals: GeordieDave, his mate Rob, Jodie & Pete Wally, the ever-present Mike & Sheila, Mags and his crew of Shacknuts. Around 8.30pm we all gather inside close to the stage half chatting about what the gig might hold and half keeping an eye on Skinny as he tests the mics and prepares two distinctive acoustic guitars on stage: Mick’s “Marilyn” Farida and John’s favourite Martin. By 8.40pm, ‘Skins gives the thumbs up to the sound desk, all vantage points around the stage are occupied as more and more people clamour around the stage to get a decent view. It’s 8.45pm and it’s fair to say it’s rammed.
Mick and John amble on stage right to loud cheers led by Mags and his crew, spreading raucously across the venue. A big thumbs-up from Mick to the crowd as he strides across the stage and straps on his guitar, John meticulously checks each string for tuning. Iain, back on duty with a bandaged wrist after his bike accident, takes to his stool and scratches his head. The hubbub from the crowd settles, Mick gets John’s attention, “OK?” he mumbles, eyebrows raised, John nods and grins, a “1…2…3…1…2…3” from Mick and without fuss we are straight into the waltzing, opening bars of “Stranger”. It is at this point you can usually gauge the quality of a Shack gig and the signs are good. “Stranger” drifts, ebbs and flows as it draws towards it’s conclusion: “Yes, you’ve gone, you’ve gone down river, and it’s right…Stranger…Stranger…”, John’s exquisite closing guitar sequence played out on an acoustic guitar fading out and the crowd roars. I love that roar at end of a first song.
As the bellow subsides it is clear something isn’t right with the drums, words and concerned expressions are exchanged between the band. A miffed Iain gets up from his stool as his borrowed kit is dismantled and reassembled. My drummer mate spotted before the gig that the hi-hat is missing and it’s now apparent that Iain is also a left-handed drummer who plays a right-handed kit and whatever assortment of drums and gear is in front of him, it isn’t set up right. During this break Mick banters with individuals in the crowd whilst John watches the activity going on behind him with the drums with mild amusement. The crowd shout for “Baker Street”, (a reference to Mick’s impromptu rendition at the end of John’s show in Crosby the week before). Mick laughs and dismisses the calls, his preparation for this gig doesn’t provide the levels of bravery needed to singlehandedly tackle Gerry Raftery’s sax-driven 70s pomp classic.
Everything is now set for the next song, that Shack live staple “Pull Together” and this acoustic version with full drums give this familiar old song a slightly lighter, breezy twist. “You and I’ve been criticised, We gotta’ pull together, You and I’ve been criticised, We gotta’ pull together”. For a song I’ve probably heard played live over twenty times it takes on a refreshingly different sound.
John’s “Miles Apart” follows which he sings as ever with gusto, eyes tightly shut: “Who said this is not right? And if we’re lying and dreaming, in courting our own demise. but what we got is beautiful moments”. Indeed. After the song finishes it’s clear that all is still not well with Iain and the now infamous drum kit. He’s ready for kicking the shit out of it and Mick & John look to him to get it sorted out.
Mick starts up “X Hits The Spot” and after two lines aborts the song. Mick & John both turn to Iain. It’s the drums again. Mick presses on straight into “Something Like You” followed by “Streets of Kenny” after which there are more frowns in the direction of the drummer. Iain has clearly lost all patience and given up all hope of the kit ever being quite right and tells them both to “…just fucking deal with it!”. John turns away and laughs, calls for a drink from the bar and strikes up “Cornish Town” at the slightly slower pace he has recently fashioned with his new band.
Mick sings “Amy” with renewed levels of vigour as he hollers “C’mon! C’mon! C’mon! C’mon!…”. It is a song which he clearly enjoys playing and seems especially well rehearsed which bodes well for his forthcoming Red Elastic Band gig. A ramshackle version of “Meant To Be” follows with Mick leading the Shacknet horns and applauding their input at the end.
The set closes with “Comedy” dedicated to Lian & Biffa. As it ends and the crowd shows it appreciation, Iain stands up from his stool, flings his drum sticks to the floor and storms off to the bar. If he had some lighter fuel handy I’m sure he would’ve put Hendrix to shame with that drum kit. The band are cheered off the stage, hugs all round with the fambo and they follow Iain to the bar for a well earned drink.
Something very special happens when Mick & John play and sing together that is rarely quite captured in their solo projects. I saw it again in effortless abundance tonight: Mick’s steady rhythm, embellished with his trademark latin and staccato fills perfectly entwining with John’s beautiful picking and counter guitar melodies – complementing and flawlessly balanced. Their vocals and harmonies fit so perfectly together that has everything to do with them being brothers and being blessed with the ability to express their souls. Combine all of this with exquisite song writing and the heady cocktail has the potential to simultaneously blow your mind and make you smile. Something very special indeed.
Setlist : Stranger, Pull Together, Miles Apart, X Hits the Spot, Streets of Kenny, Something Like You, Cornish Town, Amy, Meant To Be, Comedy
Photographs by John Johnson
LOVE – Live at Paris L’Europeen – 27 April 1992
(Arthur Lee, Michael Head, John Head, Martyn Campbell, Johnnie Baxter)
Orange Skies, A House is Not A Motel, And More Again, Stephanie Knows Who, She Comes In Colors, Signed DC, My Little Red Book, Seven And Seven Is, Passing By, The Daily Planet, Your Mind & We Belong Together, Hey Joe
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I was there the night Arthur met Shack in Paris in 1992.
I was in the support band for the gig the next night. There was a sound check (to this day I swear they played Butterfly, years before I heard it again) and the rest of my band had sloped off to practice their mumbling and aloofness. I remember the sound man had something to do with the Stone Roses and had got riled when I asked what they were up to. I’d got talking to the shy John and wigged out Michael by saying how much I loved the Pale Fountains then Shack, telling them about gigs at the International 2 and Green Room in Manchester. I was telling their much more accessible manager Andrew the same. Then Arthur arrived.
Arthur had been listening to Shack’s drummer Johnnie Baxter and walked up to them onto the stage to show him what the song should sound like. He could play as well. And it was my drum kit. Then he swapped to guitar and suggested a song, asking if they knew it. Mick and John started playing it. Mr Lee couldn’t stop grinning. It was fantastic. They knew more songs than Arthur had remembered.
I got to sit in an near empty art deco theatre in the centre of Paris shouting out my favourite Love songs and they got played. Whenever Arthur didn’t like something he picked up the instrument and played the part how it should be. Guitar, bass or drums. This went on until they got told to turn the volume down as the police had been round after noise complaints. They simply moved to acoustics and carried on. Name a Love song and they played it. Signed DC was chilling, You Set the Scene and Orange Skies were note perfect. This went on for a good couple of hours to an audience of four. The guy who owned the theatre (Stephane Bismuth), a girl called Hilda, one of her friends and me. They’d immediately bonded on the stage and the gig the next night was stunning.
I was so captivated that the next week when they played the Garage in London I ended up selling t shirts, just to feel a part of it.
It’s my best memory of being in a band, and the only part I ever recount. Whenever anyone mentions Love or Arthur Lee I can stun them into silence by saying ‘I’ve met him’.
- Damien Warburton, April 2010
Photograph by Damien Warburton
The Pale Fountains – Janice Long session
Broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on 14th May 1983
1. Hey There Fred
2. Lavinia’s Dream
3. (There’s Always) Something on My Mind (part)
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Attempts to find a recording of the infamous missing Janice Long Session for Marina’s 1998 Pale Fountains’ compilation “Longshot For Your Love” were fruitless and abandoned, believing that the session was lost forever.
Marina clearly hadn’t bargained on a young Graham Ennis, in his bedroom, poised over a radio cassette recorder loaded with a blank C60 cassette:
From the outside looking in 1983 was a curious year for The Pale Fountains.
Formed only two years earlier they had gone from second support to Orange Juice to the next big thing signed to a major label.
If I close my eyes, and sometimes if I don’t, I can still see me and Neil Cooper stood right in front of the stage at Plato’s Ballroom watching a nervous Michael Head strumming his twelve string acoustic and singing with eyes shut tight.
Plato’s Ballroom. Pickwicks. Pick-a-dicks. A tattered and torn old school Liverpool cabaret nite-spot. Glitter curtains, seated lounge area, sticky carpet.
Let’s not pretend, we came for Orange Juice. For Edwyn. In our tiny world they were massive. Postcard Records. Long fringes. Gretsch guitars. We had spied the lads sticking the billposters up around Button Street and, still wet, they peeled off in one piece. We both had one on our walls for years after.
I was 15. Just starting out going to gigs. Orange Juice were possibly my first band-crush. The first band I discovered for myself. Then came The Pale Fountains.
I was touched by them instantly. Incredibly perhaps none of the songs they did that night have ever commercially seen the light of day. Neil nabbed the set-list and so we knew they were called ‘Chaise Longue’, ‘The Lonely Cottage’ and ‘Kittyjay’ but that was about it. In fact next time they played they had even disappeared from their live-set. Neil has the set-list from the second Plato’s gig too so even though we’d never heard those songs either we knew they weren’t played in 1981.
By then, a magical single had appeared and the band had reported signed for Virgin for a footballer sized signing on fee. Their first major label single – the glorious ‘Thank You’ was released in November 1982 and almost charted. Rumour has it if it wasn’t for the expensive orchestration they would have appeared on Top Of The Pops.
Either way 1983 promised to be their year.
In late April the band recorded a Janice Long session. Janice had not long moved from Radio Merseyside and still regularly flew the flag for her hometown bands. (There’s an unbelievable Persuaders session from June/July which I’d love to hear again if anyone…)
So one Saturday I found myself hunched over a little Sharp radio-cassette, my finger hovering over the pause button waiting. Waiting.
And the first track was ‘Hey There Fred’. The now legendary ‘Hey There Fred’. Janice loved it. I thought it was best thing they’d done. From that high, somewhat disappointingly the other two tracks were versions (albeit more sophisticated) of songs already released – ‘Lavinia’s Dream’ and ‘Something On My Mind’. I taped all three and you’re possibly listening to them now while reading this.
I kept the tape for years and then lost it. In a clichéd Head way I remembered I’d done a tape for Paul years ago and thankfully he’d still got it. So here it is.
A few weeks later, ‘Palm Of My Hand’ was released and its probably my least favourite Paleys track. Mainly because it’s not ‘Hey There Fred’. We were promised. Smash Hits said it would be a … well, smash hit.
The song was played again on the Old Grey Whistle Test and then it too disappeared. For years. Not completely though. These are the things.
I started by saying 1983 was a curious year and so it was. The promised album never appeared amid NME ‘Tzers’ that they were going through producers at a rate of knots, including apparently Barry Blue.
Whatever. Something clearly happened in the studio though. What it was, I can’t really say but its possibly best explained by the next time I saw them live. I’m rubbish with dates but it was Ten Bands For Ten Bob at the Royal Court. Early 1984. The Paleys headlined. In support there must have at least four or five Paleys influenced combos all acoustic guitars and late sixties folky melodies.
Yet when The Paleys bounced on stage, they plugged in. Electric. Noisy. I can’t remember anything apart from ‘Natural’ and ‘Start A War’ which I still claim had the line ‘David Alton fixed the back windows in our house’. Honest.
It was the end of the beginning.
- Graham Ennis, May 2010
Photograph kindly donated by Mark Baker
Recording kindly donated by Graham Ennis
These are Mick’s original handwritten lyrics for “Hazy”, written over three sides of A6 notepaper. One day these will be permanently exhibited in a glass case at the Shackworld museum just next to the charred remains of some master tapes or other and opposite Richard Branson’s old barge.
It is a strange feeling to hold and examine these scraps of paper, to think that this probably represents the conception of a song you would grow to love and cherish. It is probably akin to Cliff Richard having a sniff of the Turin shroud.
It’s also good to finally lay to rest the mystery of the first line of the second verse. The album inlay reckons on “Michael poured..”, I always opted for “I’d prefer…”. Both wrong as it turns out.
The alternate version of the song also featured here was recorded at Chapel Studios in Lincoln and is almost fully formed: just short of a few tweaks on the arrangement, John’s final guitar and that warm, glossy-echo Waterpistol production. It sounds great and perfectly complements the final recorded version.
Shack - Hazy (Chapel Monitor Mix)
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The 14th Crosby Music Festival
From Friday 28th to Monday 31st May 2010
John Head with band on stage on Sunday 30th May 2010 at around 5pm
For more info click the poster
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