He is most famous as the lead singer and songwriter for Shack and the Pale Fountains, both of which also feature his younger brother John Head.

[1] Though the bands never achieved mainstream success, they have a strong following and NME have described him as "a lost genius and among the most gifted British songwriters of his generation."

[citation needed] In 1986, Head formed Shack with John on lead guitar, Peter Wilkinson on bass and Mick Hurst on drums.

[2] The group debuted in 1988 with Zilch, falling victim to the commercial indifference which earlier plagued The Pale Fountains' career.

Producer Chris Allison had the only surviving copy of the album, but unaware of a fire that demolished the studio, carelessly left his copy of the tape in a rental car while in the U.S.; upon returning to the UK and learning of the studio's fate he managed to contact the rental car company and rescue the DAT, but the record company had collapsed and there was no one to distribute it.

In October 2017, Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band released an album called Adiós Señor Pussycat.