Michael Head and the Strands - The Magical World of The Strands

Limited edition vinyl reissue of Michael Head and the Strands.

After a couple of demos for the French promoter who paired him with his childhood
hero Love’s Arthur Lee in 1992, Pale Fountains and Shack legend Michael Head entered a Liverpool recording studio the following year, with a new project in mind, ‘The Strands’. Michael teamed up with his brother and lifelong companion, John, his long-time drummer Iain Templeton and two new recruits, Michelle Brown on bass and Les Roberts on flute. The recording sessions would last two years and were only halted because Michael was offered a new major label deal. A deal, not for his current work, but for him to record as Shack again. 

So it came to be that Stephane Bismuth, the French promoter, was left with 100 or
so minutes of a thwarted project, only a third of which had made it to the mixing
studio in Sheffield in the summer of ‘95.

Patch-working and weaving rough mixes and sketches – by engineer Steve Powell,
made in Liverpool – with completed mixes by producer Mark Coyle who had hired an
arranger and string section for sessions in Sheffield, Stephane Bismuth founded a
new label Megaphone and finally released ‘The Magical World of The Strands’, in
autumn of 1997.

“AN EXTRAORDINARY GEM’’ - 5/5 MOJO.
“ANDMOREAGAIN! A LOVE-LORN MASTERPIECE.IF ANYTHING IT HAS IMPROVED
WITH AGE’’ - 9/10 UNCUT.
“ONE OF THE 1990'S GREAT LOST ALBUMS..MORE REDOLENT OF SUMMER-OF-LOVE
SAN FRANCISCO THAN BRITPOP MERSEYSIDE...A CLASSIC...” - SUNDAY TIMES 'MUSTHAVE REISSUE'.
“ONE OF THE FURTHEST REACHING GUITAR RECORDS OF THE 90’s’’ - 4/5 THE
GUARDIAN.