01 Mar Michael Head sings obsessive love on ‘Connemara’
Plucked from the 12 songs on his upcoming album, Michael Head and his Red Elastic Band release their latest single, the flute and brass-embellished, intricately-picked psych-folk beauty of Connemara. Taking flight to open greens far from the tarmacked greys of his own Liverpool streets, Head’s picture book storytelling through song lands in lush Irish landscapes only to backdrop a story of intense, forbidden love.
Hinting heavily at what was to come, Head’s first new music since the release of his highest-ever-charting, critically-acclaimed 2022 album, Dear Scott, came in late 2023 with statement-of-intent, West Coast pop of Ciao Ciao Bambino. Confirming not only the release of his 11th studio album, Loophole – released on Fri 3 May 2024 on Modern Sky – with the reveal of January’s follow-up single, Shirl’s Ghost, Head also thrilled long-standing fans, newcomers and music-loving bystanders with news that his autobiography will also arrive in the summer.
Grabbing hearts and minds with the power of words, as well as melody, over a career which marks important milestones every passing year – not least this week’s 40-year anniversary of the release of his first band, The Pale Fountains’ first, cult-classic album Pacific Street – the intricacies in Connemara’s composition counts another song into the ‘classic Mick Head’ canon. Ambiguity meets surety with the tale of a peculiar, possibly real, perhaps imagined romance shimmers into vivid colour, as Head’s voice narrates the words between two lovers.
Head reflects on the story, saying: “’Connemara’ is about a decades long on/off love affair between Mrs. Rafferty, a lecturer and her ex-student. The older they get the more obsessive and eccentric it becomes. They need each other, so, on it goes, and Mrs Rafferty’s seen a hundred cheeky smiles.”
Personal milestones as well as musical ones are also being counted, one-by-one, this year as Head reflects more widely on 62 years of loves, losses, wins and near-misses as a musician, dad, brother and friend by writing his life story: Ciao Ciao Bambino: A Magical Memoir. Set for publication by Nine Eight Books on Thu 15 August 2024, the act of journeying into the past – whether moments as a young child on his beloved Liverpool streets or starting to tour the world with his music – has profoundly impacted the writing of Loophole at the same time.
Where Connemara might be partly-veiled in mystery, Shirl’s Ghost told the true ‘Toxteth ghost story’ of a suspected haunting at his own flat, while first single, Ciao Ciao Bambino invited listeners to peer into Head’s cot as a baby as his mum sang the Italian Mid-Century standard to him at bedtime. Set for release on standard and collectors’ vinyl editions, CD, cassette and digital editions, Loophole promises to open more windows onto the singer-songwriter’s private world for his fans to look into.
Songs from Loophole as well other eras of his rich, occasionally wild life as a musician will be performed across seven UK Tour dates, opening in Glasgow in early May and culminating in December with an unmissable night at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. All currently confirmed dates are as follows:
Thu 2 May – Glasgow, Mackintosh Church
Fri 3 May – Newcastle, Gosforth Civic Theatre
Sat 4 May – Leeds, City Varieties
Wed 8 May – Brighton, CHALK
Thu 9 May – London, Earth Theatre
Fri 10 May – Manchester, Gorilla
Fri 13 Dec – Liverpool, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Remaining tickets are available now via booking links available at www.michaelheadofficial.com
