Latest topics from “The Medusa Fora” Latest topics from “The Medusa Fora” board. http://www.pogues.com/forum/index.php Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:58:20 -0700 Fr. McGreer Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:26:44 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=10469 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=10469 Need 1 Dublin (friday) Ticket
Yours Hoping, nay begging!

Fr. McGreer.]]> MacRua Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:01:32 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10467 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10467 DATES: November -December -January 21 Nov, 2009 – Tripod, with Alabama 3
Harcourt St – Dublin 2.
Doors – 7:30pm
Tickets €22.50/27.50 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets.
It’s Alabama the Revolver Soul Tour, to mark the release of the group’s 7th studio album.
PLUS after show aprty at Turks Head, Temple bar


6 Dec, 2009 - Lillie's Bordello – After show charity party
Grafton st Dublin
Tickets €20.00
All proceeds are for the Capuchin Day CEnter for homeless people.
Bands playing are Friend? and Funzo (you may remember them from last year charity)
PLUS! DJ S MAC will take over til we all get thrown out.


18 Dec, 2009 – Jamm Brixton – after show party
261 Brixton Road, London, UK
Tickets £10
Various bands + DJ S MAC will play his usual set.



*POST CHRISTMAS IRISH TOUR WITH SHARON SHANNON, MUNDY, IMELDA MAY & OTHERS*

27th Dec, 2009 - Royal Theatre
Adress: TF Royal Theatre, Old Westport Rd, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
Phone: 0818 300 000
Email: info@royaltheatre.ie
Website: http://www.royaltheatre.ie
Time: 11:30pm
Tickets: €44.50 (unreserved seats) - €39.50 (standing)


28th Dec, 2009 - Abbey Hotel
Adress: Donegal Town, Co.Donegal, Ireland,
Phone: +353 (0) 7497 21014
Email: info@abbeyhoteldonegal.com
Website: http://abbeyhoteldonegal.com
Time: 9:30 PM
Tickets: €37.50


29th Dec, 2009 - The West County Hotel
Adress: Clare Road, Ennis, Ennis, Co.Clare, Ireland,
Phone: +353 (0)65 6828421
Email:
Website:
Time: 8:00 PM
Cost: €30.00 plus booking fee (Special Offer: 2 Tickets - €55.00 From Hotel Reception on 065 6828421)


30th Dec, 2009 - The Hub
Adress: The Hub At Cillin Hill, Dublin Road, Kilkenny, Co.Kilkenny, Ireland,
Phone: +353 (0)56 7789778
Email: info@thehubkilkenny.ie
Website: http://thehubkilkenny.ie
Time: 8:30 PM
Cost: €44.00


31st Dec, 2009 - INEC
Adress: Muckross Rd, Killarney, Killarney, Co.Kerry, Ireland,
Phone: +353 (0)64 71555
Email: info@inec.ie
Website: http://inec.ie
Cost: €44.00


2nd Jan, 2010 - The Tommy Leddy Theatre
Adress: Drogheda, Drogheda, Co.Louth, Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)41 9878560
Email: info@thetlt.ie
Website: http://www.thetlt.ie
Cost: €40.00 / 45.00
]]> O'Blivion Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:44:44 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10465 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10465 Nov 16 : Auto de Fe Nov 16

1491
Image
At a spectacular Auto de Fe (the ritual of public
penance of condemned heretics and apostates -
auto de fé in medieval Spanish means "act of
faith") held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of
Ávila on November 16, 1491, two Jews and several
Conversos (Jews who had recently converted to
Catholicism) were publicly put to death for the ritual
murder of an unidentified young Christian boy. One
of the Conversos, found with a communion wafer in
his possession, had confessed after five days of
torture to a horrifying crime: that he and a
group of accomplices-both Conversos and Jews-
had taken part in a diabolical plot involving the
wafer and the heart of a Christian boy, the object
being to concoct a Jewish magic potion that would
kill all Christians and enable the Jews to inherit the
earth. This confession resulted in the arrests of
other suspects, including the alleged "ringleader",
Jute Franco.

Image
from The Age of Torquemada by John Edward Longhurst:

The conduct of the subsequent "trials" is a tribute to that
human madness which refuses to let uneasy facts, or the
absence of evidence, or patent contradictions, deter the
Righteous from the path of Truth. The question was not
whether a Ritual Murder had been committed, nor even
whether the prisoners on hand were the ones who had
committed it. Juce Franco insisted that the accusations
against him were "the greatest falsehoods in the world."
But after repeated questionings under torture, more and
more admissions were gradually extracted from the prisoners.
Probably the biggest break in the case came in July of 1491
when, after a year and a half of intense effort, the labors of
the Inquisitors were rewarded by a confession from Juce Franco.

Image
About three years before, he said, he and his
fellow prisoners had taken a Christian boy to
a cave near La Guardia. There they had
crucified him in a cruel mockery of the Passion
of Christ, ripping his heart out of his body and
draining off his blood. Some time later they
reassembled at the scene of the crime. The
heart was produced, along with a consecrated
wafer. One of the other Jews took these
properties to a corner of the cave where
he performed certain magic ceremonies
which, he assured the others, would protect
them from the Inquisition, for any Inquisitor
who laid hands on them would turn into a
raving maniac before a year was out.

Image
Further prompting during the next few months brought
more grisly details. However, there were two sticky problems
to be cleared up before the case could be made airtight.
First, the identity of the boy martyr had to be established,
and a corpus dilecti produced. Second, the testimonies of
the prisoners conflicted in many details, and needed to be
harmonized.

Image
Identifying the boy martyr turned out to be an exercise in frustration.
No reports of missing children had been made in La Guardia; no frantic
mother had appeared to bewail the loss of a son. Even the prisoners
didn't seem to know who their victim was. One of them did finally
come up with a name, and identified the missing martyr as the son
of one Alonso Martin of the village of Quintanar. Inquiries at Quintanar
turned up several Alonso Martins -- the name was a common one - but
none of them had missed any sons. Another prisoner was persuaded to
confess that he had buried the remains. So he was convoyed to the
scene at La Guardia to point out the grave. Unfortunately, no body
was found, although the officials who inspected the alleged grave
reported that it looked as though somebody had dug a hole there.
Image
The efforts of the Inquisitors to reconcile the conflicting testimonies
of their prisoners turned into a comedy of errors. In September 1491,
all the prisoners were again tortured and asked some leading questions,
but their stories still did not harmonize. So on November 2, they were
tortured again and asked another series of leading questions, this time
prepared carefully in advance. Even then, no agreement could be obtained
on the date-or even on the year-when the Ritual Murder was supposed to
have taken place. There were even discrepancies on the number of hearts
that had been passed around. (Somebody obviously was confessing too
hard.) Nor could Torquemada's experts get any kind of a straight story
about how the victim was obtained, nor from where, nor just who had
obtained him. The Inquisitors finally gave up the task as hopeless. The
inconsistencies of testimony and the disappearance of both heart and
cadaver only convinced them that they were dealing with congenital liars
as well as Satan's helpers.

So, on November 16, 1491, the two Jewish prisoners were torn with hot
pincers and then burned to death. The corpses of three other Jews who
had also been implicated were dug up and burned, together with their
effigies. The Conversos, including Benito Garcia, professed repentance
for their crime, begging to betaken back into the True Faith. They were
therefore mercifully strangled before their bodies were consigned to the
flames.

The Holy Infant, although he had never been identified or found, was
quickly made into a saint by popular acclaim, and his "death" greatly
assisted the Spanish Inquisition and its Inquisitor General, Tomás de
Torquemada, in their campaign against heresy and crypto-Judaism.
The following year, Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict banishing
all Jews from Spain.

The cult of the Holy Infant is still celebrated in La Guardia.
Image


1906
Image
On this day in 1906, Enrico Caruso was charged with an indecent
act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house
of New York City's Central Park Zoo.

1938
Image
LSD was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann
at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland as part of a large research program searching
for medically useful ergot alkaloid derivatives. LSD's psychedelic properties were not discovered
until 5 years later when Hofmann accidentally ingested an unknown quantity of the chemical.


Born This Day:
Image
W. C. Handy, who said:

"A lean loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept... As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars....The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard."

Image
Hubert Sumlin (left, with Howlin' Wolf), who plays that music.]]> irish hillbilly Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:52:45 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10461 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10461 Cait? Richi3 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:59:33 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=10458 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=10458 4 pogues tickets for sale
Face value of tickets is £30.00 plus booking fee

i would accept £100.00 for 4 tickets.

please call richard on 07717062424 or email me richardbrown562@msn.com]]> RoddyRuddy Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:38:48 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10457 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10457 Thatcher dies – that's moggy, not Maggie The letter of condolence was almost written before Canadian Conservatives realised some alarming news was about
A CAT............BlackBerrys flickered like summer lightning as the appalling – yet not entirely unexpected – news spread among 2,000 Canadian Conservatives gathered in Toronto for a black-tie dinner. Rarely has the death of a cat caused such high-level consternation.

Most of the shocked audience heard only the bald statement "Thatcher has died", and not the furry backstory. To many in the room, Margaret Thatcher is a hero, one of the towering figures of 20th-century politics. Faces registered utter shock, and still the news spread.

A buzz of horrified conversation rose from many tables, and the organisers huddled in corners: should the grim message be announced from the podium? Or would that ruin the evening for those at the first True Patriot Love Tribute dinner who hadn't yet heard?

The decision was taken not to make a public announcement at the event honouring Canadian military families. But the news was broken discreetly at the top table and Dimitri Soudas, aide to the prime minister, Stephen Harper, was dispatched to a back room to draft a suitable letter of condolence.

When he rang Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street, he learned that the 84-year-old baroness blessedly remained in the land of the living. She attended the Armistice Day service at Westminster Abbey this week.

After further inquiries it emerged that there had indeed been the tragic passing of a Thatcher. The heartbroken transport minister, John Baird, had texted from his home in Ottawa to a friend at the Toronto dinner the news that his 16-year-old grey cat, named in honour of the Iron Lady, was no more.

Thatcher is not the first top cat to cause consternation. Questions were asked in parliament in 1997 when Alan Clark demanded the ancient law of habeas corpus be respected, and that the government either produce the body of Humphrey the Downing Street cat or prove that he was still alive.

The political rumour mill had been churning out statements that Cherie Blair, then in residence as wife of the prime minister, so much disliked the creature who had flourished as chief mouser to the Cabinet Office under both Thatcher and John Major, that she had him assassinated.

Downing Street duly issued a photograph of Humphrey in retirement, posing with that day's newspapers. When he really did die, a full nine years later, the tragic news was announced by Tony Blair in person.

False reports of the deaths of mere human notables are commonplace. The most ghastly recent example of mass slaughter, which still causes journalists to break out in a cold sweat, happened in April 2003 when it emerged that scores of obituaries of world figures were stored without password protection in the development section of the CNN broadcasting website. The inevitable followed.

Worse was that many were only partly complete and were based on a template made up from other obits: the pope's "love of racing" was duly celebrated, along with Dick Cheney's surprising eulogy as the "UK's favourite grandmother", a description already applied to the Queen Mother who really had died the previous year.

Bob Hope was prematurely mourned at least twice, but lived to celebrate his centenary before finally turning up his cowboy boot toes in 2003. Mark Twain was also killed off twice in the press, producing the famous pronouncement in the New York Journal in June 1897, infinitely parodied and usually misquoted: "The report of my death is an exaggeration."

As for poor furry Thatcher, the free world mourns – except the mortified Soudas, who is reported to have snarled: "If the cat wasn't dead, I'd have killed it by now."


.........................."End Quote http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/no ... ath-canada]]> RoddyRuddy Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:19:26 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10456 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10456 Burnt Out Stars Quote"........Buy archive quality fine art photo images from proud.co.uk. ... including
the funeral of Marilyn Monroe, the visit of Pope John Paul II to Los Angeles ..."end Quote

http://www.proud.co.uk/]]> RoddyRuddy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:35:37 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10455 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10455 Little Anthony And The Imperials - Spider Stacy My Space
Just listened to this track on Spiders My Space site .Has anyone got any background knowledge to it.]]> RoddyRuddy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:07:22 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10454 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10454 Wanted Ads
REGIS on the hunt for a new drummer...
Current mood: savage
Category: Music
Hot on the heels of the departure of Ronnie McDunnald, our dear friend Gabby Byrne is moving on to bigger and better. While we wish him nothing but the best, it leaves us with a gigantic hole to fill come November. That's why we're putting out the call to you, Mighty Mobsters all...if you know of a kick-arse drummer lookin' for a band to join, send him our way, yeah? He or she should be professional, easy-going, and have some affinity for punk (celtic or otherwise). Any fan of TMR knows how unbelievable Gabby Byrne's been behind the kit for us, and we do NOT want to take a step backward. We're findin' out how hard a task this is, and if you can be of any help, we'd be forever grateful.

On a side note, the amazing and handsome Paul Rucker of THE STREET DOGS has graciously offered to fill in for us once he returns from his "State Of Grace" tour. While we hope to have someone in place before then, that's not a bad fallback plan, yeah? (Sticks Downey was unavailable, by the way.).........end quote
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... =511726142

http://blogs.myspace.com/themightyregis]]> Clash Cadillac Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:32:31 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10453 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10453 World's Largest Record Collection http://vimeo.com/1546186

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it.]]> mctoon Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:16 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10452 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10452 Snoring!!!!! ]]> NewJerseyRich Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:56:43 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10451 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10451 Invasion of privacy... http://indymedia.us

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/11/108157.html

From the article...

"The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from http://www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on."

unbelievable]]> oz Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:26:49 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10449 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10449 aussie tour EnvendaInosse Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:42:49 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10447 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10447 Hey I'm new mh2004 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:08:19 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10450 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10450 Shane on The Hour http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/The_Hou ... 1278886585]]> O'Blivion Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:32:25 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10446 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10446 Nov 9 Eighteen Straight Whiskeys
Dylan Thomas died in New York on 9 November 1953.
The first rumours were of a brain haemorrhage, followed by
reports that he had been mugged. Soon came the stories about
alcohol, that he drank himself to death. Later, there were
speculations about drugs and diabetes.

He was already ill when he arrived in New York on 20 October
to take part in Under Milk Wood at the city's prestigious Poetry
Center. He also took part in a recorded symposium on 28 October
at Cinema 16: "Poetry And The Film" which included panellists
Amos Vogel, Maya Deren, Parker Tyler, and Willard Maas.

Image
Thomas had a history of blackouts and chest
problems, and was using an inhaler to help
his breathing. The director of the Poetry
Center was John Brinnin. He was also
Thomas's tour agent, taking a hefty
twenty-five percent fee. Despite his
duty of care, Brinnin remained at home
in Boston and handed responsibility to
his assistant, Liz Reitell. She met
Thomas at Idlewild Airport. He told her
that he had had a terrible week, had
missed her terribly and wanted to go
to bed with her. Despite Liz's previous
misgivings about their relationship
(they had begun an affair earlier that
year) they spent the rest of the day and
night together at the Chelsea.

Image
The next day she invited him to her
apartment but he declined saying that
he was not feeling well and retired to
his bed for the rest of the afternoon.

After spending the night with him at the hotel Liz went back to her own apartment
for a change of clothes. At breakfast Herb Hannum noticed how sick Dylan was
looking and suggested a visit to a Dr. Feltenstein before the performance of Under
Milk Wood that evening.
Image
Liz would later describe him as a wild doctor who believed injections could cure anything.
He went quickly to work with his needle, and Thomas made it through the two performances
of Under Milk Wood, but collapsed straight afterwards.

October 27 was his thirty-ninth birthday. In the evening, he went to a party in his honour
but was so unwell that he returned to his hotel. A turning point came on 2 November, when
air pollution rose to levels that were a threat to those with chest problems. By the end of the
month, over two hundred New Yorkers had died from the smog.

During an incident on Tuesday, 3 November 1953, Thomas wept in his bedroom at the Chelsea,
and told Liz Reitell that he wanted to die and “go to the garden of Eden.” Later that night Thomas
returned to the Chelsea Hotel from the White Horse Tavern and exclaimed, "I've had eighteen
straight whiskies, I think that is a record." These were not, as is popularly supposed, his last
words. Moreover, the barman and the owner of the pub who served Thomas at the time later told
Ruthven Todd, the Scottish poet who had introduced Thomas to the White Horse, that Thomas
couldn't have imbibed more than half that amount.

Image

Thomas had an appointment to visit a clam-house in New Jersey on 4 November, but when telephoned
at the Chelsea that morning he said that he was feeling awful and asked to take a "rain-check". He did
however accompany Liz to the White Horse for a few beers. Feeling sick he again returned to the hotel.

Feltenstein came to see him three times that day, on the third call prescribing morphine. This seriously
affected Dylan's breathing. At midnight on 5 November, his breathing became more difficult and his face
turned blue. Liz Reitell unsuccessfully tried to get hold of Feltenstein. The night porter at the hotel then
called the police who summoned an ambulance.

By 1:58 Thomas had been admitted to the emergency ward at nearby St Vincent's, by which time he was
profoundly comatose. The doctors on duty found bronchitis in all parts of his bronchial tree, both left and
right sides. An X-ray showed pneumonia, and a raised white cell count confirmed the presence of an infection.
The hospital let the pneumonia run its course.

Caitlin arrived at Idlewild Airport on Sunday morning, asking “Well, is the bloody man dead or alive?” She broke down when she saw Dylan, dismayed the nurses by smoking near the oxygen tent and threatening Dylan’s breathing in a loving embrace, and in her deep despair began to abuse and attack Brinnin and the hospital staff. She was put in a strait-jacket, taken to the Rivercrest Mental Institution on Long Island, and later wrote, “I was possessed of 10,000 ravaging demons. My madness: an untutored broken heart.”

Dylan died at lunchtime on 9 November 1953, while a nurse was giving him a bed bath. Poet John Berryman was the only other person present.

At the post-mortem, the pathologist found that the
immediate cause of death was swelling of the brain,
caused by the pneumonia reducing the supply of oxygen.
Despite his heavy drinking, his liver showed little sign
of cirrhosis. However, there was pressure on the brain
from a build-up of cerebro-spinal fluid caused by alcohol
poisoning.

Image
According to Lycett the main cause of Dylan's demise
was the alcoholic co-dependent relationship with his
wife Caitlin, doomed by her resentment at his
sexual betrayals in America.

A memorial service held in New York soon after his
death was attended by notable alcoholic writers such
as Tennessee Williams, e. e. cummings and William
Faulkner.

Image

Following his death, his body was brought back to
Wales for his burial in the village churchyard at
Laugharne on 25 November. One of the last people
to stay at his graveside after the funeral was his
mother, Florence. His wife, Caitlin, died in 1994
and was buried alongside him.


Image
The rumor that Dylan's death was related
to alcoholism is denied in the book 'Fatal
Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?', by
David N. Thomas, in which he suggests
Dylan died from medical malpractice when
Dr. Feltenstein gave him morphine for delirium
tremens — in actuality, he had pneumonia.
Thomas also suggests that Feltenstein covered
his tracks by pressuring other doctors to agree
that it was an alcohol-related death.


Image
Of course today it is accepted as fact that Dylan Thomas simply
drank himself to death.]]> CraigBatty Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:03:26 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10445 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10445 Fintan Music The next 10 copies of 'Signed & Sealed' are FREE!

The album has been uploaded via ReverbNation's Digital Distribution Service and will be available online for download in the next 3-6 weeks. This has been a Great Leap Forward for FINTAN Music it terms of increasing the opportunities for people to give the old music a listen. Stay tuned for further confirmation of online release date.

In the meantime, there is still a 'small' stock of CDs to move that were pressed with all good intentions back in 2006. The more of them I sell, the closer I get to getting this thing called a music career back on track. I've been so touched by the support received from all of you over the past 3 years (epecially the 'dark f&#@ed-in-the-head interruption' period) by purchasing CDs and such. Thank you. So, it's time to give a few away to anyone who wants one for themselves or as a XMAS gift for a loved one.

- Just message me your postal details (or those of the intended recipient) and any required personalised message required.
- Pay $7 AUS postage/handling via Paypal, and I'll ship it out next day.

Don't miss out - 10 FREE CDs TO GO!

"Get 'em while they're hot, they're lovvverly!"

"The Lords help them who helps themselves..."]]> RoddyRuddy Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:47:20 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10443 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10443 Uncle Charlie Posters http://www.unclecharlieart.com/uc_main.html
http://www.unclecharlieart.com/uc_main.html

Just found the above site of art/band poster by artist Uncle Charlie Hardwick.
Many bands on there as well as The Pogues for House Of Blues .[#11]]]> philipchevron Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:41:36 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10441 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10441 First "Fairytale" of the Season? Fionn MacCool Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:06:44 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10440 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10440 Alright champs - Fionn is here
Should be making the 2 London shows (and the 3rd... :wink:) so might meet some of you bucks there]]> CPoguesFan Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:28:50 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10439 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10439 Fort Hood Irishbookish Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:26:48 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10437 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10437 Gunpowder, Treason & Plot gunpowder, treason and plot,
We see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

Image

Anybody go to the fireworks?? We did. The only things that ruined it were, the girl who fell over into the mud with her new jeans on (God help us all for the ensuing wailing and gnashing of teeth), the two kiddies wailing (understandable..) and the bloke next to me who kept shouting B-A-N-G before each of the fireworks.
Still good stuff.

Image]]> padraig reed Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:44:18 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10434 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10434 Mr. Chevron...lasting impressions of this latest US tour?
as always, thanks for your time.]]> AlistairMitchell92 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:59:45 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10432 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10432 Own style guitars

cheers for replys]]> Zuzana Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:36:56 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10431 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10431 -KansasCity.com: The Pogues provide a memorable night The Pogues provide a memorable night

Timothy Finn
Posted on Mon, Oct. 26, 2009
KansasCity.com

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About 1,300 fans showed up on a raw, rainy Sunday night for the Pogues at the Midland theater. And though I can only guess how many were seeing this renowned Irish/punk band for the first time, everyone was seeing them in Kansas City for the first time.

Thus the air of anticipation in the room before the show, much of it due to the band’s frontman, Shane MacGowan, whose infatuation with alcohol is legend.

About 9:20 p.m., the lights went down and the P.A. started playing the Clash’s “Straight to Hell.” MacGowan and his band were reporting for duty. Within moments they were singing “Streams of Whiskey,” foreshadowing intended.

The Pogues played for about 105 minutes. MacGowan was on stage for nearly 80 percent of that time. He tripped once — took a face-down header to the floor as he left the stage. But he responded with a rejoinder: “That’s why they call me Captain Trips.” Otherwise, he was upright, if not completely upstanding, and relatively sharp, his enunciation notwithstanding.

If you could pick a time to see one of your favorite bands for the first time, it probably would not be when most of the members were headed toward their 60s and the lead singer was in his third decade of debauchery. It’d be when they were vibrant and vital, like the Stones or the Who in the late ’60s.

At the end of the new millennium’s first decade, the reunited Pogues aren’t young and vibrant, but they have rekindled some of their vitality. As a freewheeling band, they can still start a roaring fire, especially accordionist James Fearnley, the resident gymnast and cheerleader, who slid across the stage on knee pads several times, and banjo player Jem Finer and mandolinist Terry Woods, who applied accents and filigrees to the arrangements all night.

When MacGowan was escorted/ushered off the stage, someone took over lead vocals, like Spider Stacy on the jaunty “Tuesday Morning,” a track recorded after MacGowan was booted from the band.

The center of most everyone’s attention, though, was the cadaverous MacGowan, whose acccessories included large sunglasses, a lit cigarette and a drink. As he strutted on stage, he looked like a combination of Keith Richards and Cruella De Vil (with a touch of Dean Martin).

When he spoke — a mix of a hard growl and a wheeze — he was pretty much incomprehensible, kind of like Ozzy Osbourne. (“I need closed-captioning,” a friend texted.)

But when he sang it was usually a different story. He sounded rough and reckless during a few songs, and he wasn’t helped by the sound mix, which was spotty at best.

But MacGowan can still deliver a performance that will make a longtime fan grateful he was there to hear it. Notables included his heartfelt rendition of “Rainy Night in Soho,” and the evening’s other stellar moment, the Celtic string-band rendition of “Dirty Old Town.” Even the hyperventilating version of “If I Should Fall From Grace With God,” an early highlight, sounded close enough to the original that you could ignore its sloppy edges.

There were other highlights: the traditional “Irish Rover,” which MacGowan introduced as “Dog, which is God spelled backward”; “Sunnyside of the Street”; “The Old Main Drag”; “Bottle of Smoke”; and the two rollicking closers, “Poor Paddy” and “Fiesta.”

Those of us who had never seen the Pogues had nothing to compare this show to. So it would be easy to let the thrill of the opportunity overshadow the quality of the performance and MacGowan’s behavior, which was both charming and oddball at the same time — like the random banshee shrieks he issued a few times.

He also smoked and drank nonstop on stage. During the final number, he poured a bottle of beer onto his face and into his mouth; much of it ended up on the floor. You could get indignant about the stereotype he was reinforcing, or you could laugh, shake your head and look the other way, which is what most people seemed to do.

Even by the strictest of measures, this was a lively and entertaining — though imperfect — show, certainly worth the $45 admission. It was also a once-in-a-lifetime performance, if only because it’s highly unlikely the Pogues will come this way again, no matter how long Shane remains standing.

The Detroit Cobras: The opener, a garage/cover band from Motown, has improved its live shows. The band made a good impression on a crowd that was hungering for the headliners. The Midland felt a little large for them, though. At a place like the RecordBar, they would have killed.

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© KansasCity.com]]> Alex Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:46:17 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10428 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10428 The Voodoo Experience, New Orleans, November 01, 2009
http://www.life.com/search/?q0=pogues&x=0&y=0

Has a setlist yet turned up?]]> Alex Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:18:53 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10427 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10427 -The Pogues rock; Shane MacGowan sort of sways The Pogues rock; Shane MacGowan sort of sways

By Alison Fensterstock
November 01, 2009, 12:28PM
nola.com

I have never seen a human being so deathly pale without wearing makeup - which, because of the Halloween theme of this Voodoo weekend, I assumed Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan was. He was not.

The Pogues, rather against the odds, gained fame in the 80's by injecting traditional Irish music with a violent surge of punk rock energy. Besides the infectious stomp of their accordion and string-based assault, the band is also famous - or infamous - for the irascible and boozy MacGowan's tragic-romantic lifestyle of drink, drugs, self-destruction and a giant middle finger in the air.

Of course, a steady diet of Guinness, cocaine and bar fights makes for great songs - not so much great relationships. MacGowan was asked to leave the Pogues before the end of the 80's; the Clash's Joe Strummer filled in on tours. They finally disbanded in the mid-90's.

In 2001, they reunited (and MacGowan got a full set of new teeth.) Today at Voodoo, the originial lineup, minus bassist Cait O'Riordan, sounded absolutely crack - which made MacGowan's lurching sloppiness that much more apparent.

Tin whistle player Spider Stacy - a sort of sour-faced martinet in a black captain's hat and drape coat - opened the set with a snarled "Thank you very much," that sounded, somehow, like an invitation to do something unspeakable to your mother. MacGowan joined the band -clutching a can of Foster's - after three songs, to wild applause, and proceeded to sway, lurch, and stumble.

Image
Danny Bourque / The Times-PicayuneSpider Stacy of The Pogues performs on Sunday.

It seemed as if the band - who absolutely smoked - were playing around him in a way that was not unpracticed. It didn't interrupt the flow at all when he periodically wandered backstage to sit and rest on one of the Flaming Lips' road boxes, smoke cigarettes and accept swigs from fans' flasks (which, as the set went on, seemed like the kind of cringe-worthy enabling that followers crippled famous junkies like Johnny Thunders and William S. Burroughs with, late in their lives.) When onstage, he fumbled with the mike stand and cord, tangling it up and knocking it over.

Stacy, who recorded vocals for the band during the lead singer's period of banishment, handled most of those duties today, singing lead on "Thousands Are Sailing" and "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" from the album of that name - both originally sung by MacGowan.

When Stacy sang the opening to "Dirty Old Town," from the Elvis Costello-produced "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash," I heard someone yell, "Aw, no! Don't do this without Shane!"

Shane leaned on a friend, teetering, in the wings and watched.

He was led back to the stage and given a chair and a cigarette for the closer, "The Sickbed of Cuchulainn:" "There's devils on each side of you, with bottles in their hands."

The band disappeared like a shot when the song was done. The singer remained onstage, looking uncertain. His friend, or handler, led him to the microphone to say goodbye to the fans - some of whom had brought an oversized Irish flag and were waving it in the front row - but it had been turned off.]]> Low D Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:59:18 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10425 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10425 What were you for halloween? wee bit too tight...

I can't figure out how to past in a picture, any help?]]> Zuzana Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:13:36 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10423 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10423 -Blogofneworleans.com: Pogues Q&A Pogues Q&A

Posted by: Noah Bonaparte Pais
October 27, 2009
Blogofneworleans.com

FULL URL

“Shane (MacGowan) doesn’t do interviews.” So went the response from the Pogues‘ publicist when I requested a chat with the venerable Irish/English band’s famously capricious frontman. Lucky for Gambit’s Voodoo coverage, guitarist Philip Chevron does do interviews, and he does them uncommonly well. Over 40 enlivened minutes, the sharp-witted and equally sharp-tongued Dubliner detailed his 25 years (give or take a few breaks) on tour with the inveterate boozers. What was worse, babysitting the orbital MacGowan or battling advanced throat cancer and chemotherapy? Read on.

It was a pleasant surprise to see your name added to the Voodoo lineup.
It’s been a long time since we played in New Orleans, so we’re very much looking forward to it. We played in Tipitina’s a couple times, must have been 1988, ’89. We made two or three visits to New Orleans, the Grace of God tour or just after. I love New Orleans. I was there earlier this year as a private citizen, as it were. I was actually checking out the Treme district, because a friend of ours, David Simon, was making his new HBO thing down there. We know him and George Pelecanos. They used “Body of an American” and a few other things in The Wire. One thing led to another, and we kind of hooked up and discovered we were mutual fans. Myself and Spider in particular were early adopters of The Wire.

I just wrote a story about the filming of the pilot. The team of writers he assembled is incredible: Pelecanos, Tom Piazza, Lolis Eric Elie.
I bought Faubourg Treme to have a look at it. And I was fascinated! That tells the story we really don’t know, that New Orleans existed almost as a parallel entity, really, even during the Jim Crow days. It’s a really good film, that. The way they got those narratives from people, and stuck with the same people throughout, was really brilliant. My response when I saw it was absolutely the same as David: I’ve got to find out more about this. This is too good a story not to know.

We’re so used to being portrayed in caricature. Simon’s approach should be quite a change.
I’m fascinated by the city, always have been. I’m fascinated by how it kind of exists likely at an angle from America. Of course the whole business of Katrina revealed so much of what mainstream America, Main Street America, felt about New Orleans. It really did have a quite extraordinary effect outside of America, because it was a bit like looking at pictures of Calcutta. It was hard to believe that there was a Third World country within the United States. I’m very much aware that the political ramifications and fallout of Katrina are still not sorted, and nowhere near resolved. I think that’s a huge shame. But it’s the same old story. The vultures will descend and try to turn New Orleans into a theme park version of itself, if they can. People have continued to fight it. But if anyone can fight it, New Orleans can fight it, because it’s had such an independent history in the past. I’ve always been fascinated by the mixture of elements, in a way. It was in part a great Irish immigrant city and port, and had its own part to tell in that story. So, a fascinating place. I can’t wait to get back.

How are the tours going?
We probably would do this more often, if only we could pin Shane down to rehearsal. I would consider it a problem if it were something that was solvable. But it’s not. He just lives under his own clock and schedule. He absolutely, 100 percent means to be there at the time that rehearsal is happening. But something happens that delays him. You learn early on when you have someone like Shane in your life that you have to accept that there’s an alternative clock going on there. And that twice a day, if you’re lucky, it will be set at the same time as you are.

I read a humorous piece from Shane’s 2006 Guardian blog, about how he’d been out the entire night before a show, and thank God for the human alarm clocks waking him up 10 minutes before he was supposed to be onstage.
Gosh, I remember that incident as well! The hotel was on red alert because nobody could get into his room. And the hotel security was saying, ‘We can’t interrupt Mr. MacGowan. We must respect his privacy.’ We were saying, ‘Let us in! Give us the f—king pass key! We need to get him out of there!’ ‘I’m sorry sir, we can’t do that. Mr. MacGowan has left strict instructions that he’s not to be disturbed.’ (Laughs) Eventually, God knows how, they did eventually get him out. We got him on the stage only 10 minutes late or something. This doesn’t happen very often. Usually it will occur because something quite innocuous has happened. If he picks up on a new film — he got into Brokeback Mountain in a big way for a while, and he was watching nothing but Brokeback Mountain, incessantly. ‘You’ve got 20 minutes before it’s time to go to the gig, Shane.’ ‘I can’t! I’m still watching the movie.’ ‘You should’ve thought of that and put it on a bit earlier, maybe.’ That’s a logic that never quite works for him. The logic that works for him is, I’ll be there when I finish watching this movie. (Laughs)

You seem to have kept your sense of humor about it after all these years.
The thing about it is, you find ways around all that. It doesn’t come unstuck very often. Of course, I can talk merrily about it because it’s not my problem; it is the problem of tour managers and other people who are paid for it to be their problem. (Good stories from them?) I bet they have. They’re all taping them for their books, I think.

Speaking of, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on Shane’s book (2001’s A Drink With Shane MacGowan).
I kind of skimmed through it. I enjoyed the bits that I caught in it, but I can’t say I read it cover to cover. I also felt a little irked by the editorialization that was going on with Victoria. There’s a sort of secondary narrative going on about her. Which, while she’s a delightful woman and perfectly charming, I wasn’t very interested in reading that book. So there was some curd of doubt about whether this was Shane’s book or her book. And the book slightly got lost in the crack between those two points of view, I think. I never felt inclined to read it all the way through. The bits that caught me eye and looked like they might be an entertaining, 10-minute read, I read and enjoyed. And of course, it being Shane, a great deal of it is 3 o’clock in the morning, excessive nonsense, that is his own false recollection of what actually went on. Because he’s one of those people that when he actually decides that something happened a certain way, that is the way it will have happened forever more. There is no such thing as contradictory evidence; contradictory evidence is just simply flawed. So there is that element where, if you were to take a book like that seriously, it might hurt you or offend you.

Shane, bless him, when he heard it was coming out quite soon — I think it was our former manager who had taken legal advice on it, and was threatening to put some sort of legal injunction on the thing (he was well history at that point). I think Shane used the book to settle a few old scores. Something about the consequences of that never quite registered with him, and it suddenly dawned on him: ‘Oh, shit. This might actually upset some people.’ At which point he said, ‘It can’t come out!’ And Victoria said, ‘But darling, it’s on the bookshelves already. It’s in the shops. You can’t stop it coming out — it’s out!’ I think there must have been, at some point in the proceedings, a comparable incident where he kind of got cold feet, because he did add that final page to it where he basically says, ‘Nothing personal, f—k you all if you take it personally anyway. You should know me better than that by now.’ Which indeed is true. We do. None of that shit ever hung over our getting back together again, because it’s all just f—king showbiz with Shane, you know? He’s like some old vaudevillian who knows how best to present himself.

You two met in a London record shop, is that right?
We both worked in kind of parallel sister record shops. Mine was Rock On; his was Rocks Off. They were both in London, and they were both run by Irish people. My history, such as it is with Shane, goes back even before the record shops. He was one of the first people who came to see my previous band, the Radiators. We came to London. And he was in the Nipple Erectors, or the Nips as they became. We had shared history, shared contacts. The same sort of shared contacts that ran record shops also ran Chiswick Records, which was home to both the Radiators and the Nips at various points. So we had a shared sort of hinterland of Irish people in London. We knew each other quite well from that sort of tangential part of the London punk scene in 1977 and so on.

I was more inclined to see Shane in pubs over the years than in record shops. He would come up to Candontown where I worked and we’d go and have a few pints. In fact, one of our drinking sessions there was when the song “Boys From the County Hell” was born. Because Shane had a habit of borrowing money off people by saying, ‘Do you want a drink?’ You’d say yeah. ‘Got any money then?’ That’s how the whole, ‘Lend me 10 pounds and I’ll buy you a drink’ thing came about. Because Shane actually said it to me once. And I thought it was so funny, that immediately he stored it away for future use. That’s the Shane we know and love: generous to a fault. I’ll buy you a drink with my last pound. The only thing is, you need to give me that last pound first. (Laughs) Which I always thought characterized so much about who Shane MacGowan is, because he literally would give you his last pound. But he’d have to first find out how to get it. Again, that’s the strange, convoluted logic that works for him. And once you get used to it, works for you as well.

How do you compare the Shane that had to be ousted from the band (in 1991) to the guy you welcomed back (in 2001)? How did you go about making amends?
What we did was remove the things that made it so unbearable the first time, which is essentially that we were just overworking. We were working for agents and managers rather than for ourselves. We found ourselves on these endless roller coasters of tours, and there never seemed to be any way of getting off. Every time we tried to call a halt, there would be just one more tour we had to do because we were contracted to do it. Then there would be something else at the end of that tour. We have to go out and do this tour, because we lost money on the last one, and we have to make up losses on this next one. It was a constant battle between common sense and common decency, with the reality we actually faced, which was we were on this constant treadmill — and in the middle find time to write songs and make an album while all that was going on. Very often the tours weren’t particularly expertly routed, either. At the level we were working at, with the sort of pressure we were under to deliver commercially all the time as well, it was really unhealthy for all of us.

With the exception of Shane, we all felt nevertheless we had more in us; we felt, if we can just slow it down a bit, we had more to say as a band. But it was very clear that Shane, who really, unless you’ve been the lead singer, the focal point in a band — and I have been — you can’t fully know how much additional pressure there is there. Everybody wants to know about you. As often as possible, the interview is with you, and the photographs are of you. It becomes intolerable at a certain point. However hard it is to be the guitarist or the drummer or the bass player, unmistakably it’s twice as hard to be the singer and the focal point and the man who writes the best songs. It collapsed him a lot quicker than it collapsed the rest of us, and it was very clear that he wasn’t able to cope with it. But at the same time, he was able to walk away from it. There was an element he felt that if he walked away from it, he would be letting everyone down. We had to take that on board and say, ‘He’s not going to do it. We’re going to tell him he has to do it.’

Tell me about that day.
It was an extremely uncomfortable position to be in, but it had to be done, and I think we were all very glad that it was done. It was in Japan, in a hotel room. And after the meeting, we just all went out and had dinner together, and remained friends. That’s the thing: Although Shane got a lot of valuable mileage out of the whole thing — ‘The f—kers sacked me! Those bastards, they sacked me’ — he got a lot of press and a lot of sympathy. It wasn’t true, and he knew it wasn’t. So there were never any wounds to heal when we got back together. All we did was, we recognized it had been a few years since we’d seen each other, expressed how wonderful it was to see each other again, and got on with the job.

How do you feel about being a spokesman, in effect, for Shane?
You ask Shane a question, he will think deeply about it before he answers it. There isn’t a part of his brain that files away not so much stock answers but a kind of reservoir where the answers come from — which I have and which Spider has, which we can draw on to tell you the truth, but nevertheless with the confidence that comes from knowing that you have the answer in your head. Shane doesn’t work like that. He rather sort of thinks, ‘Why did you ask that question? What sort of person are you to have asked that question? Why could you possibly want to know?’ And then, when all that’s footworked through, ‘What am I going to tell you instead?’ That in itself is exhausting, and I understand perfectly why he doesn’t do it very often.

You come to recognize as well that the best of Shane MacGowan is without a shadow of a doubt the two hours he’s onstage every day that he’s with us. And whatever it takes to get those two hours out of him is worth doing. If that includes him not doing interviews, that’s fine with the rest of us. He understands that equation as well, and subscribes very much to that. Because he knows if he f—ks up in that two hours, there’s not so much hell to pay, but he becomes aware that everyone knows he f—ked up, and it’s an unpleasant position for him to be in. So he does everything in his power to make sure that he’s at his optimum for the two hours that he’s onstage. Most of the time that works out pretty well. There are occasional mishaps, but not very often. Maybe three or four in the last six or seven years. Which is pretty good, considering the amount of touring we still do. Though it’s nothing like in the old days, we still do a pretty fair amount.

Is there a part of you that wishes you could still play Irish pubs?
Well, we never really played pubs in Ireland. It was London Irish pubs, because that’s where all the sort of immigrant Paddys ended up. There’s a culture in London Irish pubs that isn’t in Irish pubs. Different attitude, different atmosphere, different preoccupations, a different sort of melancholy. But also, the pubs we played in were specifically music pubs. They weren’t just London Irish pubs, although there were a few that were. We progressed very slowly from pubs to small concert halls and clubs. At the same time, we were moving outwards: We were playing in Germany, in Norway, playing in places that didn’t necessarily have Irish bars. They did later, but they were prepackaged, sort of Irish bar in a box affairs that people bought and set up like franchises in every town in Germany and Norway and God knows where. The McDonald’s Irish bar, which became a very frequent occurrence the world over. But the only real Irish bars are in Ireland, New York and London.

So we were expanding our horizons anyway. We never regretted playing to larger audiences. The whole point was to play to the largest possible audience. What you then have to do is figure out a way of reducing the size of the venue down to the size of an Irish bar — rather than scaling up what you do to the size of an arena or a stadium. It’s not difficult if you stay true to what you do. I’m always fascinated by the solutions other people find to this problem. I don’t really understand what is to be gained by doing what U2 do, which is to get ever bigger stage sets and ever bigger 200-truck entourages to carry your stage around. It’s a failure of imagination or something if you have to do that. I actually think that particular band are now at a point where they are finding themselves that, if it’s not a failure of imagination, it’s certainly something that has come to a natural end. And the only way they can survive, I think, is to figure out a way to make the venue smaller, like we did.

I was going to ask you about U2. They seem like a supernova, just primed to implode.
Yeah, there is that. I think that’s a danger. You leave yourself wide open for that if you go down the stadium rock route. We’re canny, but we weren’t calculated about it. We just said, ‘Look, if we keep doing what we’re doing, and more and more people come to see us, we will know if we’re doing it right. But if we start getting it wrong, we’ll also know.’ We have sort of tempered things as we’ve gone along. There are certain places where they won’t tolerate us playing a large venue. In London, at a certain point when you get big enough, you play Wembley Arena rather than playing three nights at the Brixton Academy. But when we did that, we found we didn’t like doing that, and the fans didn’t like seeing us there. It wasn’t the same atmosphere. It was a massive gig, and it was a hugely successful gig on every level, but it wasn’t right; it wasn’t what we wanted to do. So we went back to doing the three nights in a row at the 5,000-seater venue. We’ve never found a happy medium in Dublin. So we’re doing three shows at a theater there this Christmas, instead of trying to win a losing battles against hopelessly acoustic venues that seat 8,000 people at a time. There are some places where we can quite happily play to 8,000 people at once. It’s just nicer to scale it down to something that’s more manageable for the audience and for the band.

There’s a quote from one of you that I thought was telling, about how not doing new material is what’s keeping the band happy. Is that still the case?
I think that remains true. Inevitably people want to know if you’re doing new material; it’s a perfectly natural question. But it’s never one that we’ve particularly given a great thought to ourselves. Certainly it’s been discussed and broached by management, and we looked at the possibilities there. But I think the only way we can really do it is to allow ourselves to kind of get back on the hamster wheel, to an extent. Because you can’t just put out an album now and hope it will sell a certain number of copies that will allow you to make another record. The music business doesn’t work like that anymore. It doesn’t allow for honorable failure; it doesn’t allow for modest success. I think it’s become a point of major angst for all the major artists in the world today who do make records still. Because if they sold nine million of the last one, and this one looks like it’s only going to sell four million, they become like a company trading on Wall Street: They become negative equity. That’s very damaging for them, and very damaging for the record company. The corporatization of the music business has been very damaging to music in general, I think. Fortunately it has gone parallel with an alternative culture that’s found its voice through the Internet and so on, so it hasn’t been all bad. But it does mean that we would have to compete, and I don’t think we feel like competing.

How’s the dynamic of the current lineup?
This eight-piece lineup is now together twice as long as it was the first time round. That kind of crept up on us, and it surprised the hell out of us to realize. Because it feels like a lot shorter than it did the first time round. It seems like we’re nowhere near halfway through it. It will last as long as it remains fun, as long as people stay healthy enough to do it, I think.

I know you just went through an ordeal with throat cancer. How’s the recovery going?
It was a pretty ropy two years. The worst thing about getting cancer is not so much getting cancer as getting treatment for cancer. It took me two years just to get the f—king chemo drugs out of my system. All sorts of things happen to your body that have never happened before, including in my case going deaf for three months. It affected my whole life: going to the theater and not hearing anything. My lifestyle was removed from me when I went deaf. Not just the part of it that accounts for me being the guitarist for the Pogues. It was an enormous relief when that turned out to be just a side effect of the chemotherapy. I’m already deaf in one ear anyway, since birth. For all intents and purposes, I was totally deaf. I was able to work on the box set while all that was going on because I was using a laptop with really heavy-duty headphones turned up full. And I was still just hearing the faintest amount of music. But enough to get the box set done. It was one of those moments in life where you think, ‘F—k this! I’m not going to let this near deafness stop me from doing this box set.’ (Laughs) I think ultimately that’s what gets you through shit like cancer: just a determination that it’s not going to slow you down. The determination to carry on, regardless, is what got me through. It’s quite a trip, f—king hell.


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Best Of New Orleans Blog © 2008 All Rights Reserved.]]> Spider Stacy Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:03:51 -0800 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10421 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10421 SHANE IN NEW ORLEANS? UPDATE: Shane is alive and well and on the Voodoo stage. We are recalling the milk cartons. All is well. --DzM


Original message:
Not a joke. Has anyone seen Shane in New Orleans over the last 24 hours? If you have any information please contact DZM asap.


===--===
shane@dzm.com
Make with the clicky clicky.]]> Zuzana Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:20:44 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10418 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10418 Sounds of the Gallery - new project Jem participates in Kate Muir: on setting art to music
The Times
October 31, 2009

Rap with Raphael? It’s a better idea than it sounds

The trouble with the greatest paintings in our grandest museums is that they eventually turn into tea towels. Or mousemats, umbrellas, wrapping paper, Google images and clichés. And at that point, you can never look them in the eye again.
(...)
So how do museums give the jaded art-lover a good slap in the face and get the tourists to slow down? Set the art to music, of course. Now this idea is not as bad as I suspected as I headed into the National Gallery in London this week to preview its new Sounds of the Gallery tour. Composers and ageing rockers had been let loose in the museum, each making a three-minute soundscape, “a sound art piece, created in direct response to a painting”.
(...)
There are 11 soundtracked paintings. Jem Finer of the Pogues interprets Monet’s The Thames below Westminster with the creaks of the wooden pier, the distant foghorns and a rippling, dappling score — all unexpectedly polite.
(...)

You can read the full article reviewing the exhibition HERE.

More info about the exhibition is HERE, including this comment by Jem:

Jem Finer, who chose Monet’s Thames below Westminister as his inspiration, explains, ‘There is something slightly odd about composing for a painting. They are undeniably silent but far from mute. I thought of the river as a drone, a constant through history and as a sound about which composition would revolve. It was hard to make recordings in situ. At all times of the day and night traffic was present, bleeding on to my tapes. Even below the waters there was no escape from noise pollution… In the end I made the recordings in the middle of the night when at least the boats were silent.’

Image
Thames Below Westminster by Monet]]> Clash Cadillac Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:25:14 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10417 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10417 House of Blues Dallas Texas Oct 30
On the way in to the venue we ran into James and Spider who were visiting with Justin Townes Earle so we stopped to say hello.

After the show we visited with Phro37 and his little brother. Very nice guys indeed. While we were visiting with Phro, Shane came back out on stage, waved and when I asked if he would be attending the after show gathering he indicated he had to head for New Orleans. He did wave to the girls so I blew him a kiss as he was leaving. He took another step then turned around and blew a kiss back and gave me a big smile.

We missed you GFCH. OK, we are finally headed back to Dakota on Sunday.]]> Frame Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:55:50 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10416 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10416 House of Blues- Houston , TX August 29
I read a lot of reviews that all begin the band was great, Shane was great, etc, etc no matter how good or bad Shane is. I must say with out hyperbole, however, that tonight , the band was great as usual and Shane was dead on. Houston really has no idea how lucky we were.

This tour, I saw them in Seattle and LA. It was pretty apparent that Shane was off and not due to drink. However, in Houston, he was top notch. No real major screw ups. The rest of the band was good as usual and surprisingly energetic to play in our little old town. House of Blues, despite having overpriced drinks, had a great sound system. It was also very cool after traveling to a lot of reunion gigs to walk two blocks from my apartment and to know people in the crowd.

Set list seemed to be the same as the Austin show. Was surprised to hear Young Ned of the Hill again and to see the set list change from the first gigs. Did miss Sayonara and Turkish Song of the Damned. Most of my friends were surprised how well the Pogues sounded. Most of them had not seen them in since the 89 show at Numbers, some not at all, and they were all impressed how clear Shane's vocals were. Probably the best show I have seen in two years.

For the record, I was up front and center, and yelled at the band a few occasions. Right before they did Broad Majestic Shannon, I yelled " Shane, sing a song about Tipperary". He looked at Spider who said " I think he said sing a song about Napoleon". So for the rest of the night, they kept dedicating songs to Napoleon. Is it my fault I mumble worse than Shane?

On that note, I guess I should apologize somewhat for getting drunk on Jagr and Guinness and yelling at the band. However, I have traveled across the States and across the pond to see them on numerous and have had my small handful of nights where Shane has been less than par due to drink. God forbid the Pogues play in my neck of the woods and have to deal with my drunk ass for one night.

Thank you for playing such a great gig so close to home.]]> Smerker Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:59:59 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10415 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10415 Lyrical Homages/Influences/Steals
"If there is one water in Europe I want, it is the
Black cold pool where into the scented twilight
A child squatting full of sadness, launches
A boat as fragile as a butterfly in May."

And, I was re-reading the Pickering Manuscript by William Blake and in the poem 'William Bond' are the lines;

"And an Angel of Providence at his feet,
And an Angel of Providence at his head,
And in the midst a black, black cloud,
And in the midst the sick man on his bed."

Any other decent ones?
Pretty much the opening verse to Sickbed, innit?

Of course, we all know the Brendan Behan influences throughout the early stuff. The Poguetry page is a great way to waste an afternoon. 'Compliments pass when the quality meet' comes directly from Borstal Boy. Behan reused it in Confessions, actually, when the deaf couple argue in taps on the bar.]]> Zuzana Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:02:43 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10414 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10414 -Chron.com: Pogues stir up a big fiesta (Houston review) Pogues stir up a big fiesta

Andrew Dansby
October 30, 2009
blogs.chron.com

FULL URL

The band was tight and the frontman, at least when singing, was largely cohesive. Nearly 20 years after earning a reputation as a crapshoot on stage the Pogues have become reliable. The band didn't exude perfection last night at House of Blues. Perfection and the Pogues fit as well as modesty and Rolex.

Frontman Shane MacGowan - the only one drinking something other than a tumbler of water - got lost on a lyric or two. But I've seen the guy in pretty much every state, from a show where he was borderline lucid to a another where he tripped before the first song, spilled his margarita, screamed an expletive and stormed off stage. Reunited with his old band and in Houston for the first time, I believe, since they played Numbers in 1989, MacGowan largely kept it together, spitting his marvelous songs with a semi-sloshed sneer that gradually stirred up an enthusiastic crowd that ranged from those who remember the band from its 1980s heyday to others not born at that time. It might not have been the best show I've seen this year, but it was a visceral thrill to see this beloved band so functional. If not the best, sentimentality made it my favorite.

I'd read an account from an earlier tour stop in Kansas City written by a disappointed concert-goer who said MacGowan was unintelligible. Last night MacGowan seemed fine when immersed in song. It was only the between-song banter that was indecipherable. Occasionally it involved Napoleon.

Often slow to get the wheels turning, MacGowan seemed on the beat from the outset with a feisty three-song opener: Streams of Whiskey, If I Should Fall From Grace With God and The Broad Majestic Shannon.

Then he took a one-song break. The breaks - there'd be a few more - were a little awkward, but Terry Woods, Phil Chevron and Spider Stacy admirably stood in for turns at the mic. MacGowan seemed to fall back on his heels on Boys From the County Hell, but after a second break he gained energy as the evening rolled on. The backstage visits are a necessary concession to a life lived a certain way. I've seen the guy look worse, hanging to a mic stand for dear life. He now walks like an elderly woman after a hip replacement. But unlike the overly blitzed nights of the past he sang with gritty purpose. His yeearghs remain among rock's finest primal screams. As for the rest of the Pogues, they have the look of gleeful survivors. Gone are the full heads of curly hair, but in their place is a clear-eyed zeal for playing this music.

He tripped up a bit on A Pair of Brown Eyes, a moot point as the lovely song is unbreakable. And from Sunny Side of the Street on, he sang, drank and smoked with persistent purpose, adding the requisite disdain to Dirty Old Town, and stirring up revelry with Irish Rover and Bottle of Smoke. He got lost on the second verse of the latter, but it hardly mattered: The chorus is the deal-closer.

A show-closing Fiesta was an apt summation for the whole thing: a celebration of people and places and drink, from con leche to brandy, shaken up into a multi-lingual froth inspired by a film shoot and a wedding, dappled with ill translations, references to Coleridge and the most joyous instrumentation (including a baking sheet) that punk orthodoxy would allow.

MacGowan then baptized himself by pouring half a bottle of wine down his gullet and the other half down the front of his shirt. The act drew hoots and hollers but was a grim reminder of how committed he is to this dubious existence, a house poet and jester and tortured entertainer. He's a weathered 51; if the band takes 20 years to come back to Houston, it seems unthinkable he'd be coming along.

So it mattered more than ever that one could understand his singing. As much as MacGowan's oceanic drinking is celebrated, it's the byproduct of what he does. The lyrics and the vocals -- smart, angry, defiant, funny, poignant and sometimes sentimental -- are what makes him a compelling and great artist with a deep catalog of memorable songs. They're the reason for the whole fiesta.

----------------------------------------
Copyright © 2009 The Houston Chronicle]]> Paddy_Garcia Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:16:59 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10413 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10413 A Favour For A Fellow Medusan gill.mills@nmeradio.co.uk and nominate it to be played on NME Radio this coming Sunday.All you need to say is Raymond Meade Tracing Air. Tell everone you know! It's hard to get heard anywhere these days so I'm hoping I can maybe win the vote and get some exposure.

You can hear the song here - www.myspace.com/raymondmeademusic and you can also watch the video from the night I joined Shane onstage for a rioutous 5 song set.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

Raymond x]]> Zuzana Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:29:35 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10412 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10412 Cranky George at Molly Malone's, LA - November 6, 2009 Cranky George will be playing at Molly Malone's on the 6th November, at 8.15 pm.
Molly Malone's is on Fairfax Avenue, near the corner of 6th, in Los Angeles.

Entrance: $10
Venue address: 575 South Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles
Venue website: http://www.mollymalonesla.com
Band myspace (with song samples): http://www.myspace.com/crankygeorge

Go, go, go! :)]]> etxegina Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:40:37 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10410 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10410 Jack Flash - Take Notice EP Jack Flash is a Toowoomba (Australia) born and based folk/punk six-piece with a unique brand of catchy, dancing tunes, lyrical genius and fancy flair. Originating in the spring of 2006 they developed a style which brings traditional Australian folk styles and themes to a punk audience.

Jack Flash is influenced by such acts as Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy’s, Red Gum, The Pogues and The Bushwhackers Band. Drawing on a rich background of Celtic, Australian and American tunes, the ‘Flash boys have forged their own sound and a fresh contribution to the Folk/Punk genre.

Their first EP 'Take Notice' which was recorded in 2007 at Homegrown Audio with Justin Myers, is now able to be download in full & for free on bandcamp.

Click below to take you to their bandcamp site

http://jackflash1.bandcamp.com]]> Clash Cadillac Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:53:13 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10409 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10409 Stubb's Bar-B-Q Austin Texas October 28
I'm not positive as we didn't have the girls with us so we were able to "let loose" a bit more last night, however i believe the set list was the same as Denver and KC except, confirmation required...

Streams of Whiskey
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Young Ned Of The Hill
Boys From The County Hell
A Pair of Brown Eyes
Tuesday Morning
Kitty
Sunnyside of the Street
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
Body of an American
Old Main Drag
Thousands
Dirty Old Town
Irish Rover
Bottle of Smoke
Sickbed

Star of the County Down
Rainy Night in Soho
Sally Maclennane


Paddy on the Railway
Fiesta]]> Zuzana Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:33:07 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10408 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10408 -Austin360.com: Live Reivew: Pogues at Stubb’s Live Reivew: Pogues at Stubb’s

By Joe Gross
Thursday, October 29, 2009, 09:16 AM
Austin360.com

Full URL

The fact that Pogues singer Shane MacGowan is still alive is one of the stranger realities of 21st century pop music.

Much in the way that people of my parents’ generation thought that Joe Cocker wouldn’t get out of the ’70s alive (and yet he thrives), many of us thought that MacGowan’s long-suffering liver would have said, “Right; enough of this” and ejected itself out of his toothless body a long time ago.

Yet there he was, Wednesday night at Stubb’s, 20 years after everyone thought he was a goner, 18 years after he was fired for erratic behavior, the classic Pogues line-up with him, walking out to the Clash’s “Straight to Hell.” (Clash singer Joe Strummer replaced MacGowan in the Pogues for a time in the early ’90s. Strummer died in 2002 of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He’s gone, MacGowan endures - it is to laugh.)

The band has reunited for some sort of tour since 2001, but this show was the first time they had been to Austin in 20 years.

Every kind of Pogues fan was in the crowd, from middle-age folks in sweaters to crusty punks to frat guys to people trying very hard to look like the just got off the boat from Dublin. Virtually everyone had a drink in his or her hand; most of those were cans of Guinness. Some fans weren’t born the last time the band was in town.

A few minutes into the show, one thing became clear: This was a profoundly damaged man up there singing, decades of boozing and drugging having taken a significant physical toll. The rest of the band looked liked your average 50-something musicians, MacGowan looked liked he had been cursed by a witch to look about 90. His on-stage banter was completely unintelligible.

Here’s the weird thing: He can still sing. It was remarkable to witness.

The first few songs (“Streams of Whiskey,” “If I Should Fall From Grace With God”) were very rough. Things did not look promising, even though the band was (mostly) sticking to tunes from their amazing first three albums (“Red Roses For Me,” Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” and “If I Should Fall….”).

Runs through “The Broad Majestic Shannon” and “Boys From the County Hell” did not fare much better. It was sad to see MacGowan up there, odd top-hat on, staggering around. The Pogues are God’s own bar band, and they were pros, gamely cranking through the songs.

But the epic “A Pair of Brown Eyes” was a revelation. As beers were lifted, MacGowan suddenly sounded like it was 1985 or 1990 or 2001 or 1840. It was one of the best arguments for singing-as-muscle-memory I’ve ever witnessed. “And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I’ll go/For a pair of brown eyes,” everyone belted. Then took a belt.

Tin whistle player Spider Stacy sang his “Tuesday Morning,” a rather straight-forward rocker from when MacGowan was out of the band, and Philip Chevron warbled his deeply moving immigrant song “Thousands Are Sailing.” The brilliant “The Body of An American” suffered from some let’s-call-it-shaky timekeeping, mostly on MacGowan’s part, “The Old Main Drag” and “Dirty Old Town” sounded dirty and old. Just like MacGowan.

Good luck with the rest of your life man, clearly someone is watching out for you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman. All rights reserved. ]]> Alex Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:29:18 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10407 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10407 -Tigerweekly: The Pogues - Voodoo 2009 (Fearnley interview) The Pogues - Voodoo 2009

By Tim Jones
10-28-09
Tigerweekly

The Pogues are a legendary band in the truest sense of the word. Their brand, with influences of Irish, folk and punk, is still felt today in bands like Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy's, and The Decemberists. The latter of those bands even has two members who play in Kiss My Royal Irish Ass, a Pacific Northwest indie-rock Pogues tribute band that plays every St. Patrick's Day.

James Fearnley, accordionist for the band says of The Pogues' influence, "All sorts of fans and bands took up with what we did, and we took what we did from the Dubliners and all the traditional songs we've done."

The other side of the legend comes from front man Shane Macgowan's reputation as one of the best and hardest-drinking songwriters alive, who started drinking at age four and smoking at five.

Fearnley says that reputation is all behind them. "We're all within licking distance of our pensions, we can't be difficult anymore because we're too f**kin' old. I was 26 when we started so we weren't even really a young band then."

Beginning in 1982 and going on for ''eleven years of hard floggin' hilarity", as Fearnley put it, The Pogues recorded seven full length albums. Two of these, being 1985's "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" and 1987's "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" are flawless examples of the best possible marriage of traditional Irish music and punk rock's attitude and musical aesthetic. The latter contains The Pogues' biggest hit, "Fairytale of New York," a wonderful duet between MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl which went to #1 in Ireland and #2 in the UK at its release, and was voted best Christmas song in all three years that VH1 UK ran a poll on the topic.

After recording 1991's "Hell's Ditch," MacGowan was fired from the band for being unreliable and eventually replaced with another punk icon, Joe Strummer of the Clash.

"[Having Joe in the band was] bittersweet in a way, because the only reason we had Joe in the first place was because Philip [Chevron, guitarist] got a stomach ulcer and had to stay home, so we asked him to play guitar for us. And then when we sacked our lead singer, we had Joe in, which was kind of weird. But once we had him in the band, I imagine it must have been weird for people to come see him in our band," said Fearnley of Strummer's time in the band.

The band reformed with all its original members - save bassist Cait O'Riordan - in 2001 for a Christmas tour and has been together since then without any plans to record any new material. Says Fearnley, "It's a nice excuse to hang out with people I've known for 30 years and play music with them. We're much better musicians than we were before."

The Pogues are playing at 2:15 p.m. on the Playstation/Billboard stage on Saturday at Voodoo Fest. Make sure to watch for tin whistle player Spider Stacey smashing himself over the head with a beer tray during a few songs.

edit:
Ack, the Pogues are playing on Sunday after Brand New. My fault.
Tim Jones | 2009-10-28 - 06:57:08 PM (CDT)]]> Zuzana Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:27:41 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10406 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10406 -Dallas Observer: The Pogues Aren't The Drinkers... The Pogues Aren't The Drinkers They Once Were. Well, For The Most Part.

By Jesse Hughey
Published on October 28, 2009 at 11:53am
Dallas Observer

FULL URL

Maybe it's because they're part Irish. Maybe it's because the tear-jerking ballads and raucous Celtic-folk rock jigs just inspire audiences to have a few pints of their own. Or maybe it's frontman Shane MacGowan's disheveled appearance, horrendous teeth and spotty attendance to his own band's gigs.

Whatever the reason, The Pogues—and particularly MacGowan—have a reputation as insatiably thirsty boozers. And that rep, says accordionist James Fearnley, is undeserved.

Well, somewhat.

"Shane has been completely blitzed at shows, but rarely nowadays, thankfully," he says via telephone from his home in Los Angeles. "But, also, I wonder if that's a misinterpretation by a lot of people. I've worked with the guy for nearly 30 years, and he's just that kind of guy—that that's what it looks like. The first impression that you get is that he's zonked. I'm not saying it's a performance: That's just who he is. He's from another planet, and I think people are very ready to assume that he's drunk. I think he was made that way. The cosmos gave us Shane MacGowan in that particular form."

Drinking has been a sensitive subject for Fearnley since the band first began getting attention—one he likens to racial profiling: Because the band plays Irish music, they must be Irish. And because they're Irish, they must be drunks.

"I've read heavy-metal biographies that would put ours to shame," Fearnley says. "So maybe I'm a bit prickly that we were assumed to be drunk all the time." He laughs. "Which we were!"

But a lot has changed since the band formed in 1982. Fearnley, now sober, has lived in Los Angeles since he left The Pogues in 1993, maintaining his California residency even after rejoining the band for its 2001 reunion tour and subsequent jaunts.

"So it's been eight years of this malarkey," he says, laughing.

Even after eight years of what Fearnley calls "a serial reunion," the band has been leery to seriously discuss the idea of recording again, he says.

"There was always talk of it, and it was never too far away, the actual possibility of doing it," he says. "I think it's cyclical, and every now and then, it spills out. But it seems to be a bit of a fraught one, that is. It's hard to think about how we would go about recording together. There's no question that the level of playing is up there with the best we ever played when we were together from '82 to '93, for me. We're all, for all intents and purposes, sober now. Except for one glaring exception, if you know what I mean."

He laughs.

"It seems like a shame to miss recording when we all are, for the most part, sober. But at the same time, it's like, 'Oh my God, how do we go about approaching the songs?'"

As for the question of what songs, well, MacGowan (who was not available for interview) has been the group's primary songwriter, though Jem Finer, Spider Stacy, Terry Woods and other members have contributed to The Pogues' catalog individually and as co-writers with MacGowan. Yet Fearnley—who is so awe-struck by MacGowan's songwriting gift that he didn't write for the band until MacGowan left in 1991—readily admits that "the onus is on the singer" for new material. And as far as new songs, says Fearnley, "I don't know what he's got, frankly."

Even without The Pogues going into the studio, Fearnley has kept busy with music-related projects. First, there's his alt-folk side project, Cranky George, with actor Dermot Mulroney, Mulroney's writer/director brother Kieran and producer Brad Wood. The band plays infrequent gigs at Molly Malone's, the same L.A. Irish bar that gave Flogging Molly its name. ("We're following in Flogging Molly's footsteps in the sense that we only play there," Fearnley jokes.). More importantly, he's at work on Here Comes Everybody, a Pogues memoir for Faber & Faber to be published in spring 2011.

"I'm only at chapter nine at the minute, and I outlined 20 chapters," he says. "But I think it's going to be more like 25 or 26."

Fearnley describes his prose-writing process as very different from the songwriting process. With his prose (which includes a handful of semi-abandoned novels along with the memoir), it's a matter of sitting in one place and hammering it out, whereas with lyrics he likes to compose out loud while walking.

Naturally, his process is different than that of the inimitable MacGowan. Fearnley remembers MacGowan scribbling and tapping his feet on tour buses, "as if he were going over something in his head."

"Usually he would have it all sorted out in his head, and it was a matter of Jem and I getting it to come out," he says. "And whether he refined it as it was coming out of him where it was more of just a model before, I'm not quite sure. That was my suspicion sometimes."

Collaborative songs—including perhaps the greatest Christmas song ever written, "Fairytale of New York"—were more of a melding or trading process, he says.

"I can still identify parts and say, 'That's Jem's' or 'That's Shane's,'" he says. "But then there was a gestation period with that particular song that took in contributions from outside, notably Jem's wife, Marcia. Jem came to his wife and said, 'I've written this.' And she said, 'Why does everybody have to write a Christmas song where people get on all the time? Why can't they write a song where people don't get on?'"

Fortunately for fans, the band is getting on enough to play Dallas for the first time since—well, Fearnley can't remember when. Was it in 1989, when they were supposed to open for Bob Dylan and Shane didn't make it? Whatever the case, Fearnley promises a good show.

After the show, though, there probably won't be too much partying on his part. He's working on the memoir even on the road, as his deadline is fast approaching—and there are still plenty of "misinterpretations" to set straight.

-----------------------------------------------
© 2009 Village Voice Media All rights reserved. ]]> mcguck Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:12:25 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10400 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10400 Programme? Alex Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:16:31 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10399 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10399 -Pogues return to Austin after 2 decades(Austin MusicSource) The Pogues return to Austin after 2 decades

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By Brian T. Atkinson
AUSTIN MUSIC SOURCE

Twenty-two years later, the Pogues' crispest vignettes ("Thousands Are Sailing," "Fairytale of New York") remain modern songwriting masterworks. Unfortunately, front man Shane MacGowan's legendary excesses steal most spotlights. "Our alcohol consumption will always be a part of our history, but I suppose we just have a less dramatic view of it than other people might have," says guitarist Philip Chevron, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2007.

Absent Austin two decades, the Pogues perform Wednesday at Stubb's.

American-Statesman: What's the status of your cancer recovery?

Philip Chevron: As far as I can tell, it's gone. Thanks for asking. Certainly it's gone for the time being, and hopefully for the foreseeable future. The chemotherapy and radiation I had two years ago obviously worked. I'm pretty much back to normal health.

Has it affected you as a performer?

No, not since we got rid of the nuclear plant onstage (laughs). My voice is about as good or as bad as it's ever been. I did actually go deaf for a while, which was a result of the chemotherapy.

You'd been remastering the Pogues catalog before your diagnosis. How necessary was that?

Well, you realize that when "Rum, Sodomy and (the) Lash" came out on CD in 1985, compact discs were in their infancy. The hype was that CDs sound brilliant. They said you can put them in the toaster and put butter and jelly on them and they'd still play. The reality is that most early CDs were pitifully mastered. They sound tinny and hollow.

How did the songs themselves stand up as you listened to them again?

We have discovered that the songs have their own long-term organic life. They remain really interesting to play; I suppose because we're different people. We're older and hopefully wiser. A huge portion of the material stands the test of time.

As a band, how are you standing against that test? Is the dynamic good today?

It's pretty good, actually. This lineup, which we consider the classic eight-piece Pogues lineup from the "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" album, is now together twice as long as it was the first time around. That crept up on us without us even noticing. When we did this the first time around, it was inherently self-destructive because of the nature of the touring and what you have to keep the tour-album-tour-album circus going. Also, several of the members of the band have considerably different lifestyles.

Right. You're 15 years sober. Does that make it frustrating to work with Shane?

It doesn't matter in the slightest. All that matters to me is that I stay sober. Shane's responsible for himself, and it's not the least bit offputting or intimidating. Why would it be? He's still the same Shane that I've always known and loved, and it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference that we've gone on different lifestyle paths.

At least that path finally has led back to Austin.

Yeah, it's been 20 years, I think, since we last played in Austin. We're looking forward to it. Last time, they had to take a side of the venue off because it was so swelteringly hot. Even with one whole wall of the venue removed, it was still the hottest gig we'd ever played. We almost fainted after.]]> Zuzana Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:38:08 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10398 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10398 -Over the weekend: The Pogues at the Ogden Theatre Over the weekend: The Pogues at the Ogden Theatre

By Jon Solomon in Last Night's Show
Denver Westword (Denver Music Blog)
Mon., Oct. 26 2009 @ 8:00AM

FULL URL (with photos)

The Pogues
Friday, October 23, 2009
Ogden Theatre
Better than: expected. Much better.

"Sorry it's taken us awhile to get here," guitarist Philip Chevron said during the Pogues' first show ever in Denver. "Almost thirty years in fact, but we finally got here." But holy Jesus, the epic two-hour set these guys delivered was more than worth the wait.

There had been some less than favorable accounts of frontman Shane MacGowan's at a few other dates on the current American tour, but MacGowan delivered a damn fine performance at the sold-out Ogden Friday night, much better than what a lot of folks might have expected due to his drug and booze-soaked reputation. After the band took the stage as the Clash's "Straight to Hell" played on the sound system, a roadie gave MacGowan a lit cigarette and the singer came out wearing sunglasses an oversized black and white striped sweater that made him look, as a friend pointed out, a bit like a Love and Rockets Bubbleman.

But once MacGowan started singing, it was easy to look past the sweater as he's still got some fine pipes, even if was tough to make out what he was singing about at times. He was fairly easy to understand on the first two cuts -- "Streams of Whiskey" and "If I Should Fall From Grace From God" -- but it was more of challenge on "The Broad Majestic Shannon," with MacGowan slurring the hell out of the words. His in between song banter was even less decipherable, but none of that really mattered. That's MacGowan for you. That's what he does.

While it might be a minor miracle that MacGowan made it through the entire set without taking a spill, it wasn't at all surprising that the rest of the guys in the band, most of whom have been with the Pogues since the beginning, were was spot on. Spider Stacy was an ace on the tin whistle and singing on "Tuesday Morning," and the stoic Chevron sang superbly on "Thousands Are Sailing."

The band completely nailed the more energetic songs like "If I Should Fall From Grace From God From God," "Sunnyside of the Street," the "The Irish Rover" and "Boys From Country Hell." They also delivered some first-rate versions of slower tunes like "A Pair of Brown Eyes," "Kitty" and two of the night's many highlights: "Old Main Drag," which Stacy said was about death and stuff, and "Dirty Old Town."

By the time the group finished the set with an insanely rousing take on "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn," one of five tunes the band played from the brilliant 1985 release Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, it was hard to think it could get any better. But after some enthusiastic applause, the Pogues came back for "Star of the County Down," "Rainy Night in Soho" and "Sally MacLennane," followed by a second encore that included "Paddy on the Railway" and a vigorous take on "Fiesta," which featured Stacy repeatedly smacking his head a cookie sheet.

Just before the band the left the stage for the night, Stacy told the amped-up Ogden crowd, "You're fucking great. You're fucking brilliant. Can we play here every week?"

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
PERSONAL BIAS: I was a bit skeptical going into the show, but it only took a few songs to throw any doubts out the window.
RANDOM DETAIL: Shane MacGowan kept his sunglasses on for nearly the entire show, only lifting them up a few times.
BY THE WAY: Denver was one of seven cities on this tour that the band has never played before.

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©2009 Village Voice Media All rights reserved. ]]> DzM Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:24:36 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10397 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=10397 Karadzic is no-show at trial
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-26-voa10.cfm

This bites. Having a fair trial of Karadzic would help Serbia close the books on an ugly page of its history. Best wishes to our own IrishRover as well as all of Serbia on having this brought to a close.]]> Clash Cadillac Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:01:57 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10395 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10395 Shane Dancin' to Zepplin Shadow38x Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:52:07 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10393 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10393 Midland Theatre Kansas City, MO October 25, 2009 Zuzana Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:49:42 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10392 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10392 -The Pogues continue to defy punk-rocker odds The Pogues continue to defy punk-rocker odds

By ANDREW DANSBY
Houston Chronicle
Oct. 23, 2009, 11:16AM

FULL URL

Musicians and early death often intersect with predictability. But some deaths are still surprises, especially as one grows older and watches the totems of his youth do the same. So the news of Joe Strummer's death in 2002 at age 50, the result of a congenital heart defect, was chilling. That the Pogues, a band he produced and played with, are playing House of Blues on Thursday, on the other hand, seems nothing short of a miracle.

The band formed in 1982 and set about creating breakneck traditional Irish music. The songs were part history and part punk, sometimes about martyrs, sometimes about drunks. The styles and themes threaded together thrillingly. Along the way the band's affinity for alcohol — particularly frontman Shane MacGowan's affinity for alcohol — earned it a reputation that too often preceded the music.

But guitarist Phil Chevron hopes the fact the band kicked against the pitchfork's pricks will recast perceptions of it. “I think it's important we're here to tell the tale,” he says. “Some say that mode of auto-destruction is part of being Irish. I'd argue that it isn't.”

He laughs. “Survival is more complex than that. It's more nuanced than that. I'd like to think it's more like old Irish playwrights or poets. Survival becomes the point. So you can keep doing something you love.”

Though MacGowan had a reputation as an unreliable performer, Chevron says the band members have all made adjustments to their lives to facilitate the shows. “Like everybody else, he's figured out a way to do it,” he says. “It's not the way I figured it out, but we all have our ways of making work the focus. At some point you mature and have to take responsibility for your own (expletive).”

While the band consumes less fuel these days, it hasn't changed its approach to performing. The shows tend to be based on a core songbook from the band's five albums with MacGowan. Rehearsals, tours and doing press derailed its attempts to create new music. “We're the architects of our own folly,” Chevron says.

“But something strange happens when we get together. It's almost always like the first time. There's a spontaneity about the way we play and there's always been. A sense that a song is happening in the moment. The moment becomes the point, which is great. It helps that the songs were always timeless.”

That's a point worth making, because the best Pogues songs — perhaps because of the parts rooted in tradition — still sound grand today.

Some of the troubles in Ireland that MacGowan addressed have been resolved, but his eye often drifted to other conflict-riddled parts of the world. While his vulgar lyrics tend to draw the most attention, they're commonly dialogue or written from a third-person perspective. When MacGowan is the narrator, there's a knuckled elegance and flow, with tips to Samuel Taylor Coleridge or traditional songs and chanteys.

Chevron's Thousands Are Sailing — which compares two waves of Irish emigrants to America separated by 140 years — is a fine example, a song that sounds at once vintage and new. He suggests the traditional elements were a natural extension of the band's interests. But the group needed to distinguish itself from purely traditional players. So they married those sounds to punk, a scene that had grown long in the tooth and needed a fresher approach.

“If you work with a tradition of writing that is hundreds of years older than you, you don't want to be slavishly writing in that tradition as prestige. You have to take into account things that happened since the 18th century, and that includes rock and punk rock,” he said.

“But music has always turned in on itself. One of the great roots of American rock is country music, which is an adaptation of Appalachian tradition, which is an adaptation of Scots Irish music. We played music that had in common rock and Irish and country and blues, but a punk attitude simplified everything.”

But punk hasn't been a forgiving field. Three of the four Ramones are dead, along with Strummer, a Sex Pistol and numerous other punk figureheads. And the snobbery remains that practitioners of punk — or more generally rock — should have an expiration date.

Chevron uses Strummer as an example of why they keep going; the Clash singer maintained a youthful enthusiasm for writing, recording and performing until his death.

“It becomes more than what you did with your life,” Chevron says. “It becomes what you do with it.” He mentions performing at a festival years ago with Chuck Berry. “People think he's a cynical old (expletive), but he isn't. It's clear the man loves what he does. Rock 'n' roll appeared to be a youthful phenomenon, but it's not. Maturation is an interesting part of it. Neil Young, Bowie, Lou Reed, they've become a fascinating part of what we know to be rock 'n' roll, how they deal with advancing age. Some deal well, some deal in embarrassing ways. I won't name names, but we know who I'm talking about.

“I just hope we can keep doing it so that people know we love doing it.”

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Copyright © 2009 The Houston Chronicle]]> Clash Cadillac Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:58:20 -0700 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10389 http://www.pogues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10389 Ogden Theater Denver Colorado Oct 23 Kitty and the report is that Shane sounds great tonight. 8)]]>