Manchester Underperformance !

**Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:58 pm**

If I' m here typing at this time, then things have taken a turn for the worse! Gutted at the perfofmance early on & think it really shown on the band. Booked to Dublin 4 Thursday & feeling bit deflated !

Woz I really therse ?

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:11 am**

Just in from Manchester. First 3 or so songs couldn't hear Shane, was it a sound system fault, don't know. Thought it took Shane till the first encore to get going. Did I sense the rest of the band were getting a bit pissed off. Anyway it was good to hear a few different songs, Ella was good. Thought the Saw Doctors rocked.
Irish Rover you got your wish for the Tom call out, was it Heather off this board who also got a call out

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:31 am**

Texas, I think you are being a little unfair here, sure I personally thought it took Shane 3 or 4 numbers to get going but the band as a whole were great tonight. Ray, how can you say it took until the encores to get going, I thought Shane was great when performing "Kitty" and "Dirty old Town" and "Lullaby of London" if anything he seemed in better form than last year, but yes I concede he was "off" for the first few numbers. I don't think the band are going to get too pissed off with Shane, they are pretty good now at adapting to his " off the cuff style"!

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:41 am**

Completely agree with Texas, there were 8 musicians out there and 7 of them were brilliant. Shane tonight apart from the ballads was awful. Right from the beginning when he stood at the wrong mic and fluffing up the start of Streams of whiskey i knew there were problems. He also did not look well at all. Fairytale i thought was great, but this was Shane's worst performance in a long time. As usual 1000's are sailing was superb!

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:07 am**

My view is that the sound level on the band was just two high - it drownd out the vocals - irrespective of who was singing them. No fault of the band - maybe the sound engineer? This became clear on the ballards when the band was more muted and the vocals came through loud and clear.

On the train home I was listening to the two live performances I have on CD and whilst I accepted these will have been mixed and "treated" they were 1000% better than the performance I'd just attended.

A bit disappointed since this was my first Pogues gig but I'll be back for more in the future!

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:17 am**

im just back and gutted to have to agree this was the worst pogues show i've seen since i started going 18 years ago.

I've seen Shane in far worse states but what i've never seen before is the total lack of energy from the band, the singer and the crowd. I normally come out of pogues\popes gigs like a wrung out dish cloth, soaked in sweat and ears ringing. Tonight it just didnt happen, the gig just never got going.

There were some great moments, repeal was amazing, i didnt want the singer to come back after that one, kitty, lullaby, auld triangle and rainy night were special and seemed to underline how bad everything else was.

I hate to be so negative about a band i've loved for 20 years, hopefully it was just one bad night.

Good luck for the rest of the tour.

RIP Tom Mc

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:18 am**

Thank you to all The pogues for some great gigs in Glasgow(2),Nottingham & M/chester .
M/chester being the last for me on this tour.
Sadly there where some sounds problems from Shanes microphone, it did take a few songs to get the level right . There have been much worse sound problems at last years gig in Cardiff.But considering the sad news about Tom (R.I.P.) I think Shane held it together pretty well.Glad Phil took the time to dedicate 1000 Are Sailing to Tom Mc Manamon. Ella was beautiful in the green dress & sang a fantastic version of FTONY .Dispite having a heavy heart for the loss of Tom I still had great night /gig in M/chester & would like to thank all The Pogues once again. Hope I get another chance to see them live soon.

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:42 am**

Hi,

having seen the pogues about 25 times I have to agree tonight was the worst overall. The set list was about the same as Birmingham minus Poor Paddy but the first decent song with Shane singing was probably Kitty about 40 minutes in. I did notice that Shane was shouting at the soundman about his mike volume but the sound overall was not good until Kitty.

Thereafter things got a lot better until Fiesta which was also a bit of a mess.

Hopefully tonight was just a one-off but it was still great in places including Thousands, Tuesday Morning, Repeal, Kitty, Body of An American, Fairytale and Irish Rover

Regards,
Jim

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:26 am**

Glad (me) I'm the only one who feels this way. The band's face sez it all !

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:03 am**

I thought it was more to do with the initial sound problems than anything else. Shane mic was too low for the first few songs which he kept pointing out to the sound man. All in all our lot had a great night and didn't think the band were at fault at all. Considring the rcent loss I thought it was a pretty good show. i went home as sweaty and euphoric as usual

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:30 am**

Gotta say i kind of agree, it took a while to get going.

Not to sure about the mic problems because Spider, Terry and Phil sounded ok on their numbers.

It did get better tho as the night went on.

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:06 am**

Shane was definitely giving the sound people grief about his mic after or before the second song and there was certainly something wrong as he could hardly be heard at all. Once the problem was resolved I thought it was a great show, certainly not lacking in energy from what I saw. Highlights for me were Kitty and as ever Dirty Old Town. Maybe it is something to do with the venue's proximity to Salford. Also quite liked Spider's reply to James's "I was born here," line.

Apart from the first two numbers a great gig for me. Cheers guys.

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:16 am**

I thought it was good once it got going, a fair few there to see it to, any idea of number mr Chevron?

great to meet some Medusans pre gig too and Heather, i'll forgive you for what you said :wink:

Anyway, off to get the train to London for Brixton soon... :lol:

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:33 am**

Sadly, I didn't think it was entirely down to the sound mix. Shane's late arrival was managed beautifully by the lads. It felt like Shane just couldn't get the lyrics out on the faster numbers. He got better after about 40 minutes but a lot of the time it felt like the lads were carrying him. James missing a beat playing keyboard on Rainy Night to enable Shane to catch up was a classic.

The highlight for me were Thousands, Ned, Tuesday and Repeal. I guess that probably says it all. Dirty Old Town was brilliant but that was partly down to the audience participation.............

I though the crowd was fantastic, really up for it and way better than Birmingham.

Nice to briefly meet some more medusan faces in Mulligans. Hope you had a good one.
Roll on Dublin on Thursday.

**Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:23 am**

I think that says it all, that the highlights of the show were the songs that Shane didn't sing on. It appears there were sound problems earlier on but i dont think that was the reason for the poor performance as those problems were not evident when Terry and Spider did their tunes. Fiesta was an absolute mess for me and i think maybe we have just got to put it down to that show being an 'off' night for Shane. So far on the tour Phil has usually posted a message to say thanks etc, but for this show it hasnt happened yet so maybe the band know that Shane was well under par last night. Hopefully the rest of the tour will be as good as the first few shows.

Manchester Underperformance !

Manchester Underperformance !

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