SHACK READY TO BUILD ON ACCLAIM; LIVERPOOL QUARTET'S FIRST U.S. RELEASE COULD END OBSCURITY.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

It's a hot, sunny afternoon in Manhattan and in a dimly lit hotel bar a waiter who suspiciously resembles a ``Jaws''-era Richard Dreyfuss brings Michael Head another round.

Unless you're a UK resident or a dedicated follower of music fashion, you probably don't know Head, leader of Shack, one of the most acclaimed and least productive British acts of the '90s. The quartet's dazzling new album, ``H.M.S. Fable,'' released Tuesday, contains arguably the best set of songs from across the pond since Oasis' ``Definitely Maybe.''

To say Shack has traveled a rocky road since their inception in Liverpool a dozen years ago wouldn't start to describe what this band has gone through.

``There's no point thinking about what could've and should've been,'' Head, 36, says. ``There's no point thinking, `What if.' Cause it all comes around.''

Head is visiting New York for the first time to do promotional duties for Shack's fourth album, ``H.M.S. Fable'' (London), a shining 12-song set of urban folk songs that sometimes resembles the Verve, other times the Byrds. Britain's New Musical Express gave it nine out of 10, adding: ``It's so splendid it will make you cry.''

It's the first Shack album to get a U.S. release.

``It would be a bit of a tragedy if it just got lost,'' Head admits. ``Anything could happen, but I just hope as many people hear it as possible.''

Head and his partner in Shack, younger brother John, grew up in Kensington, a failed '60s prefab housing experiment near Liverpool's tough council estate of Toxteth, the scene of riots in 1981.

Head remembers ``cardboard walls'' and gang wars there in the early '70s. Eventually, the brothers picked up their dad's guitar, inspired by Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen from Liverpool's then-thriving post-punk scene.

Then a friend introduced the 17-year-old to Los Angeles' legendary '60s psychedelic folk band Love, led by imprisoned singer-songwriter Arthur Lee, currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for parole violations that included gun-possession charges.

``Me and John would play this game as kids where if we heard a record we liked, we'd give it points up to 10,'' Head recalled. ``When we heard Love, it was like 10-10-10. The songs are so beautiful, and the chords are so accessible. As you're learning them, you get into the beauty of it. They're my favorite band, everything about them.''

Head formed the Love Fountains in 1981, later renaming the band the Pale Fountains. The strange blend of pastoral West Coast psychedelia and bossa nova suffered from overproduction, and the Fountains split in '86.

Head started Shack the following year, and his folk-tinged Merseybeat, which anticipated Britpop, was said to have inspired the La's, Liverpool's other great lost band of the '90s.

In the early '90s, Head was contacted by Arthur Lee's manager, who said the onetime leader of Love needed a backup band for three European dates.

``He asked what Love songs we knew, and we said, `All of them.' '' Head said. ``He didn't believe us. We sent along some of our stuff, and Arthur liked it, and there we were. People say when you meet your heroes, it's disappointing. But Arthur was like Arthur, only more again. I just totally loved him - and he loved us as well. It seemed the guy was reincarnated from out of medieval England or something.''

Shack's acclaimed ``Waterpistol'' album was released in 1995 on a small German indie label, four years after it was completed and following setbacks that included studio fires, lost masters and label closures. The reviews were ecstatic.

By this time, Head's appetite for self-destruction was taking hold, including a nearly 10-year heroin habit. Echo & the Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch was already calling Shack ``the most overlooked group in the history of Liverpool.''

After an adventurously baroque 1997 album, ``The Magical World of the Strands,'' recorded for a small French label, Head kicked the drugs and Shack finally got down to business, spending two years writing and recording ``H.M.S. Fable.''

But even while rave reviews and acclaim for Shack's few live gigs have been coming from all sides, Head remains in Liverpool because of loyalty to his hometown, largely divorced from the business of music.

``You'd be surprised what it's like there,'' he said. ``There's not many clubs or venues. It's getting a little better because there's been a recent influx of students, but Liverpool has done nothing with its musical heritage. I mean, look, this is where the Beatles started. Penny Lane in any other city would be an enormous tourist attraction, right? In Liverpool, Penny Lane is the plainest, most basic street you've ever seen in your life. It's a mentality people have there. But it's where I've always lived.''

While Head admits he hasn't the slightest idea how the business operates in the U.S., he hopes the label scores some airplay for ``H.M.S. Fable,'' which includes such readily accessible material as ``Comedy,'' ``Streets of Kenny,'' ``Captain's Table'' and others.

``I get great satisfaction when people come up to me and say, `I stumbled across `Waterpistol,' and it totally blew me away,' '' Head says. ``I like it when people come across something by fluke. They seem to cherish it more that way.''

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Photo

Photo: Shack leader John Head, left, with brother Michael belong to one of Britain's most acclaimed but least productive bands.