Shack Sets First UK Tour Since 2007

Renowned as much for the beauty of their songwriting as the meandering, adventure-prone history as a band, Liverpool’s masters of melody, Shack have announced their first tour since 2007, bringing their critically and fan-adored songbook back home with a first SOLD-OUT show at Liverpool’s 2,000-capacity Olympia Theatre on Fri 25 April 2025. 

Featuring the West Coast-by-Kirby street poetry of Michael Head and guitarist brother, John Head, the addition of three, further nationwide dates have shown the enduring strength of feeling for one of Britain’s most revered bands. With limited tickets remaining, Shack, with a line-up including original bassist, Pete Wilkinson, go on to play additional dates in May, taking in Glasgow, Manchester and London (SOLD OUT).

Starting their gentle return by celebrating the band’s remarkable albums with a run of special vinyl reissues last year, beginning with 2003’s Here’s Tom With The Weather and then 90’s classic, HMS Fable, the brothers’ fate in reuniting Shack was seeded as their promotional duties took them to a surprise BBC 6 Music live session with Marc Riley and Gideon Coe last December. Overwhelming fans with deep cuts and classics, including the sing-a-long hymnal Comedy, hopes rose that, despite the loss of integral member and drummer, Iain Templeton in late 2022, the band could be on course to return.

“Iain was a massive part of Shack,” explains John Head. “I didn’t ever think that this could happen because Iain was no longer around. His contribution was enormous and he was one of us. It’s still a massive thing him not being here. He remains irreplaceable, but we have someone on board now in Ian (Skelly – The Coral), who will do an amazing job and is a huge fan of what Iain did with Shack himself.”

Enlisting the help of The Coral’s dexterous drummer, alongside the multi-instrumentalist skills of Nathaniel Cummings, a member and co-songwriter in Michael Head’s Red Elastic Band, the 2025 version of Shack is one of prodigious musicianship and long-standing friendships. Whilst some of the faces on stage will be new, some of Shack’s old habits have, thankfully, proven to be the hardest to break.

“We got together only the day before the 6 Music session,” explains Michael Head. “It was so natural. Whatever it is that we’ve got, it still works. Like John said to me, it was like slipping back in to a favourite pair of slippers. It’s what we’ve always done, all those years at our ma’s we’d just be playing together, guitars in every room, doing her head in. Nothing’s changed.”

Although the band never officially split up, Shack has only performed together, largely without ceremony for a charity gig in Liverpool in 2008 and a one-off in Glasgow in 2016. Each member found different turn-offs from the band’s winding road in 2007, exploring new projects following a tour in support of a greatest hits compilation, Time Machine. Surprising themselves that the gap between that last tour and today has spanned 18 years, the old bandmates have wasted no time in getting reacquainted.

“We’ve practiced together again for the first time,” reveals Wilkinson. “When we played ‘Undecided’, I can’t explain how easy it was. There’s just this feeling. I just know when Mick’s going to make a change or bring an idea in, like we always did, it just happens so easily. We’ve been playing together since I was 19, and it was apparent then that it was going to be easy for us to gel. He didn’t need to spend time explaining stuff to me, which is most important to Mick. It happens then, as it does now, without words.”

Whilst Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band have routinely honoured the songs of both Shack and the Head brothers’ original band, The Pale Fountains during recent tours, any songs written by John or co-written by the brothers have remained largely off set-lists. Having hinted at the full band return of Undecided, as well as playing Soldier Man and Butterfly in their 6 Music session, both brothers remain tight-lipped on what might make it into the final set list.

With five cult- and straight-up classic albums to choose from, including their debut, 1988’s Zilch, 1995’s Waterpistol and 2006’s The Corner Of Miles And Gil, the extensive Shack songbook will be condensed into a compact, distilled and potent celebration of the band’s legacy.

Confirmed Shack 2025 live dates:

• Fri 25 April - Liverpool Olympia - SOLD OUT
• Thu 1 May – Glasgow, St. Luke’s
• Fri 2 May – Manchester, O2 Ritz
• Mon 5 May – London, Union Chapel – SOLD OUT

With writing and performing careers spanning four decades, Michael and John Head initially formed The Pale Fountains in 1980, going on to sign a deal with Virgin Records and releasing two albums, Pacific Street and …From Across The Kitchen Table. Following the band’s split in 1987, the brothers formed Shack, with a brief, yet hugely influential detour to form Michael Head & The Strands in 1996, releasing the critically-acclaimed The Magical World of The Strands album. Following Shack’s hiatus in 2007, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band have released three albums, including 2022’s Mojo Album Of The Year, Dear Scott.

Whilst plagued by poor fortune and personal issues that hampered the sense of an inevitable commercial breakthrough for the Head’s musical ventures, they have been able to count Noel Gallagher, George Michael and Coldplay’s Chris Martin as vocal fans of their music.

Photo Credit: Mark McNulty

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