Sometimes it’s the people what make it. Sometimes you’re at a gig and you look around and everyone is smiling and you know you are among your people. Such is the way of things when you see Michael Head and his Red Elastic Band.
To briefly paraphrase Fatboy Slim, we’ve come a long, long way together (via The Pale Saints, The Strands and Shack) through the hard times (the studio that burned down after Shack recorded Waterpistol to name but one thing) and the good (all the music). And so, as we all gather in Gorilla on this sun-baked Friday evening in early May, we’re all here to praise Michael Head like we should.
Tonight’s set is dominated by newbies from the yet-to-be released longplayer, Loophole – from the opening salvo of ‘A Ricochet Moment’, ‘Ciao Ciao Bambino’ (the biggest hit of the year in a version of reality that ensures only the best songs do really well), ‘Shirl’s Ghost’ and ‘Tout Suite!’, to the likes of Connemara (gorgeous acoustic fare cut from the same cloth as The Strands’ ‘Queen Mathilda’), ‘Ambrosia’ and ‘Merry-Go-Round’ – future classics all.
But as you’d expect there’s also a good showing for snapshots from the past too – so we get ‘Strangers’ from that aforementioned Waterpistol album (which is absolutely the place to start with Michael Head if you’re interested), as well as Meant To Be and Streets of Kenny from what no-one is probably calling ‘the Shack years’, as well as stellar beauties from more recent albums like ‘Kismet’ (another song that should have been the biggest hit of the year it came out) and ‘Broken Beauty’ and ‘Newby Street’.
The thing to know about the gig, though – and the reason why I mentioned the audience, and the fact that these people are my people – is that from about ‘Newby Street’ onwards, every song is basically a massive singalong featuring 500 people including Mick Head, and everyone is smiling and singing and – there’s happiness here, you know? Which is a rare old commodity.
Just about the only criticism you can level at a Michael Head gig these days is (a) it doesn’t go on for anywhere near long enough and (b) you’re left with a stack of songs you also wanted to hear (‘Mood of the Morning’, ‘Cadiz’, ‘Hazy’, ‘Byrds Turn to Stone’… the list goes on and on). Saying all that, though, they did leave the stage after a blistering cover of ‘Love’s A House is Not a Motel’ so we’ll stop being ungrateful and just say thank you Mr Head sir for a fantastic night. Long may you reign.
Words by Pete Wild
Picky Bastards 
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