Pogues

Subject: Pogues
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:05 AM

Can anyone tell me what the Pogues are doing at the moment in time.I do like there music.
Scooby.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: CharleyO'Neill
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:44 AM

The Pogues just seem to get together each Christmas for a British tour.Tickets are expensive and they fill big venues. MacGowan really is a shambles, taking frequent refreshment breaks throughout the set.The band are generally tight (hats off to Terry Woods!), but they really seem to have their work cut out keeping Shane on track. Granted, the guy is (was?) a true Irish poet, but you would never really have known this listening to his semi-comatose, slurred performance on the last tour. However, Shane is the man who the crowds come to see. In the same way as the similarly refreshed Georgie Best and Oliver Reed were 'must see tv' as they slurred their way through interviews on British chat shows, we truly love a car crash. The Pogues saw diminishing returns towards the end of their legitimate career when Shane was no longer with them and even a cameo from the late Joe Strummer as frontman failed to save the day. So if The Christmas Pogues are so appalling, why do I go ? I'm fuc*ed if I know!! It has become a tradition.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:48 AM

No new material for eight years. Although Shane keeps 'promising' it - who knows it ay happen, although I have an inkling it is likely to be mostly unreleased tracks.

Charlie I was at the Brixton Christmas gig and although the auld fella looks more bloated by the second I thought he was the most coherent I have seen him for years. I know the atmosphere helps carry him along, but I am in the camp that believe I am watching a true poetic genius.

He is 50 this year, maybe he'll make it a good'un.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: CharleyO'Neill
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 09:49 AM

There is no denying the mans genius as a writer and indeed the highly inovative nature of the band in its prime. I just think its a shame that its perhaps as a comedy Irish drunk that he will be remembered.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 10:08 AM

There seems to be something deep in the human psyche - as opposed to shallow and on the surface - that is excited by the "self-destructive artist", the "god" "sacrificing himself" for the benefit (somehow) of the rest of us (any Jungians want to help us out?). I was looking at comments on Youtube the other day, under an Amy Winehouse video clip - probably about half of them were expressing a kind of exhilaration inspired by the idea that she is (apparently) destroying herself with substance abuse and pig-headedness.

There is of course the admiration for the rebel who, unlike the rest of us poor but sensible slobs, is unrestricted by social rules. We both scorn and envy the freedom of the holy fool, the passion of the driven artist whose vision (supposedly) drives him to excess and madness ... (Weave a circle 'round him thrice,/And close your eyes with holy dread,/For he on honey-dew hath fed,/And drunk the milk of paradise.)

Just a passing thought ...

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 11:03 AM

Maybe he's having a serious amount of dental work done?
Sal

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 01:26 PM

I doubt if any Pogues fan is excited by Shane's alcoholism. To think he could curtail his writing years short through self inflicted abuse is just sad.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 01:39 PM

On the contrary, I have often heard fans express gleeful approval of Shane's alcoholic behaviour, and the aura of drunken excess that surrounded the Pogues .... I agree with the rest of what you say.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: bubblyrat
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 06:37 PM

I have to agree with Guest Meself----I have always thought of Shane MacGowan as being a sort of singing (just ) Dylan Thomas.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 06:40 PM

Thank you for the info.
Scooby

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: oggie
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 01:18 PM

....I say nearer to Brendan Behan meself. I have a tape of him where they seem to have put him in a recording studio, turned on the tape and left him to it, shambling with the odd flash of genius.

oggie

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: Shaneo
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 01:27 PM

His voice went from bad to worse when he lost the remaining few teeth,
If he got new teeth I'm sure he would be able to do better.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: jimlad9
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 01:28 PM

I went to see the Pogues at the MEN Arena a few days before Xmas and agree with the previously stared views regarding Shane Mac Gowans perfomance which was equalled in awfulness by that of the sound engineers on the night.
If I were them I would not give up the day job

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: CharleyO'Neill
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 07:06 PM

True, the sound was appalling, especially at the beginning of the gig. Admitedly, I think Shane slightly improved and got a bit more in to his stride as the gig went on. Although not my cup of tea, support act The Sawdoctors appeared to be much more in control than Mr. MacGowan. Not to my taste, but they did have seemingly loyal followers who appeared to lap it up.

Going to see Willie Nelson at the same venue on Saturday. I have a feeling he may take things a little more seriously than the infamous Shane.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: jimlad9
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 05:25 AM

CharleyONeill

I am glad it wasn't just me mate that thought the sound was awful.
Regarding the Sawdoctors. I must confess that I had never heard of them,well I am quite old
and know that there are fossils younger than me. However I thought they were excellent and will watch out for them in future.

Enjoy 'Box Car' Wille Nelson on Saturday. I beleve there is a cure for 'Box Car Willie' on the NHS now

I'll get me coat !

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: JeremyC
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 10:42 AM

I thought I heard that MacGowan was considering dentures because he realizes he can't sing effectively without teeth.

I heard a Brendan Behan story that made me laugh, regarding the alcoholism: Guinness wanted him to write them an advertising slogan, and as inspiration, they gave him some ridiculous number of kegs, like nine or ten. A month or two later, he'd finished drinking them all, and the slogan he provided, when asked, was "Guinness gets you drunk."

True or not, that's pretty damn funny.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 02:30 PM

Shaneo: hear hear to you Sir!
sal

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: Bee
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 02:42 PM

Are you serious that the man needs dentures and won't get them? Whyever not?

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: Myrtle
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 03:54 PM

Jimlad and CharleyO, I was at the MEN Arena gig too. I too thought the sound was terrible, to the point that sometimes I couldn't actually distinguish which song it was that the man was singing, bless him.
I've been a fan of the Sawdoctors for a long long time and I LOVE their music, and their concerts are invariably brilliant..just as well really, as I'd treated my partner to the gig for a Christmas pressie, and he was more than underwhelmed by the Pogues!
Regards, Myrtle.

Subject: RE: Pogues
From: the fence
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 04:52 PM

I have been into the Sawdoctors for a year or so now and thoroughly enjoyed their session, as for the pogues, brilliant musicians!!! shame I couldn't understand a word of the lead singer!!!

Subject: Pogues end of 2015
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Feb 16 - 01:28 PM

It's all over the Internet now. Shane MacGowan granted an interview in the last four months or so. He explained that the surviving members (RIP P. Chevron) of the Pogues have always been friends, and they remain friends so long as they don't tour together; when they do tour, including in recent years, they get to hate each other all over again. So they are still connected and have probably put the touring lifestyle away.

There's another thread on this next, but never mind:
Summary of oral health.
MacGowan was fitted with dentures. He loathed them, and kept them in his trouser pocket. Says they were a poor fit.
His longtime friend, Victoria Mary Clarke, got herself some dental implants from an Irish practitioner. She was fully satisfied with them, MacGowan observed her satisfaction, was impressed. Ms. Clarke talked MacGowan into approaching the same dentist who worked successfully on her.
The work was done in 2015 in Ireland, it took months and it took multiple dentists including a "dental surgeon."   
(Didn't help that MacGowan suffered a fractured pelvis last year.)

There is now a YouTube video, inside the dentist's surgery. MacGowan is reclining in THAT chair, with the paper bib under his chin. The medics give him an ovation, and he bites into an apple and chews away.