Before founding Shack, Michael and John Head were in the cult 1980s band The Pale Fountains, and released two albums, Pacific Street in March 1984 and ...From Across The Kitchen Table in March 1985. However, though critically acclaimed, the albums only reached Numbers 85 and 94 in the UK Albums Chart. That band folded in 1986 when bassist Chris "Biffa" McCaffrey died of a brain tumour.
The Head brothers soon re-emerged as Shack, signing to the Ghetto Recording Company, home of record producer Ian Broudie's solo project, The Lightning Seeds and British soul band Distant Cousins. Shack's first album Zilch was released in 1988, but was neither critically nor commercially successful. The follow-up, Waterpistol, was recorded in 1991 at London's Star Street Studio. Shortly after the recording of Waterpistol was complete, the studio burnt down and most of the tapes were destroyed. The only remaining DAT of the album was in the possession of producer Chris Allison. At the time, Allison was in Los Angeles, California and when he returned, it transpired that he had left the copy in his hire car. It was only found weeks later after a frenzied search. However, by this point, Ghetto had folded so the record was without a distributor. Shack split, with Wilkinson joining fellow Liverpudlian John Power (formerly of The La's) to form the successful Britpop band Cast. The Head brothers accompanied Love for a few touring dates. They then went on to form The Strands, which found them further critical acclaim.
Waterpistol was finally released in 1995 on the German independent record label, Marina (NME described Mick Head as "a lost genius and among the most gifted British songwriters of his generation"), but had negligible sales. Mick Head went on to suffer problems with heroin addiction.
The Head brothers, along with Iain Templeton (who drummed on The Magical World of the Strands) and bassist Ren Parry reformed Shack in 1998, releasing HMS Fable (1999). Perry was replaced by Guy Rigby on bass for ... Here's Tom With the Weather (2003). Wilkinson rejoined in 2005, replacing the departed Rigby.
The band are currently signed to Noel Gallagher's 'Sour Mash' record label. May 2006 saw the release of the album ...The Corner of Miles and Gil named after two of the Head brothers' heroes, Miles Davis and Gil Evans.
In October 2007 the band released their greatest hits compilation album, Time Machine, including two new tracks. They toured briefly in England in October and November with Martyn Campbell on bass, including a set at the Liverpool Academy on 26 October 2007, which was filmed and recorded for a possible live album and/or DVD.
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