Not the theme song to the once popular soap opera (though I suppose that was alright as a signal that it would be safe to use the phone in half an hour), the song from Liverpool’s finest – Shack.

Mick Head’s one of the few performers who can nail kitchen sink drama as song, whether that’s about itching for drugs, looking to buy drugs, taking drugs… I’m half joking, half not. Obviously there’s a lot of songs about drugs in his oeuvre but there’s also the most wonderful ordinariness, Shack songs are working class songs, they’re Liverpool songs, they’re songs about your neighbours, songs about football, tea, bondage, being somewhere.

‘Comedy’ got me through homelessness, Neighbours is their finest tho.

There’s a frustration to Neighbours that I don’t think I’ve ever heard in any other song. The scream midway offers no release from the humdrum, from the checking the window. It just is.

That’s where Shack shine – music that just is. It’s wonderful stuff.


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