Reviews, set lists, pictures, press, etc

[Guest]

For the ones who are at the concert tonight and who will be enough gentle to write a review on late night or later, please, don't forget to mention the setlist and for the ones who assisted to 2001 ReUnion, feel free to make a first comparaison with the last tour three years ago.
Thanks.

[taffy1969]

wish i was theer tonight but will be saturday in manc land and will gladly post a review comparing to the ma academy 2 gig last reunion tour which was bloody blinding !!!!

[MacRua]

The Pogues
FOLK REVIEW
ANDREA MULLANEY
THE biggest surprise of this Pogues original lineup reunion is not that Cait O’Riordan is back in the band for the first time since 1986 but that Shane MacGowan is still here. References to his problems may be tedious but you couldn’t pretend they were not part of his appeal, as the crowd shouted "there’s only one Shane MacGowan".
The set featured plenty of raucous folk singalongs and old favourites. O’Riordan’s voice added a plaintive, appealing note to A Pair Of Brown Eyes and a lovely version of A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day, softening MacGowan’s snarl. This pre-Christmas gig couldn’t end any other way but with Fairytale of New York . O’Riordan takes the lines originally written for her, and she and MacGowan waltz in a touching celebration of survival.

[Che]

Thought the gig last night was excellent, even better than the December 01 show at the SECC.

They opened with Streams Of Whiskey, then it was straight into If I Should Fall from Grace With God, The Broad Majestic Shannon, Boys From The County Hell.........and I'm way too hungover to remember and post the exact order from there!!!!!!!!!

Basically they played pretty much everything you would want to hear, drawing mainly on Red Roses For Me, Rum Sodomy & The Lash, If I Should Fall from Grace With God and Peace & Love, with the set list very similar to that of the 01 shows.

Highlights?? Where do you start!? I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day (with Cait on vocals), A Rainy Night In Soho, The Old Main Drag, A Pair Of Brown Eyes.........hell just make that the entire show!!!!!!!!!

There were two encores and they finished with Fairytale Of New York (with everyone in the venue singing every word) and Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah.

I'm going back tonight.

[Bottle_of_Smoke]

who played support>?

[Che]

Didn't get to the Academy until 8:15 pm by which time they had finished.

Think it was a band called The Basement but someone else would need to confirm.

Just for your information, The Pogues came on just after nine o'clock and finished bang on eleven.

[Parlyboy]

I apprached this gig with a great deal of fear that my memories of the Pogues gigs that I attended at the Barrowland in Glasgow in the 1980's would be tainted byt a wasted, incoherent McGowan.

Just after nine the all just kind of drifted on stage, my first thoughts, not having seen anyof them in the flesh for almost 15 years was that they generally all lloked pretty good. Ok there was a lot less hair, wider waist bands and a little less of the fluid movment of youth but who of us can say that isn't the case for ourselves. Spider on the other hand looked bllody awful, I think he's skipped diner one too often and I felt like chucking him a bag of chips. He was decked out in a Celtic strip (play to your audience) and he just came across as someone who hadn't rehersed any of the songs. McGowan was less of surprsie, his physical decline has been well documented so when he shabled on, bottle of Blossom Hill in in one hand and fag in the other I was wasn't so shocked, I did however dread what he was going to sound like.

The launched in Streams of Whiskey, Spider missed his cue, the sounds mix was crap and Shanes vocals were completely lost. I feared the worst and I cursed the fact that I was sober. I shouldn't have been so worried, McGowan somehow manages to pull himself togther just enough to carry off the vocals and the rest of the guy in the band prop him up brilliantly and so as things went on they really started to get into the swing of things as did the crowd.

On came Cait looking utterly fabulous, well she does have half of Elvis Costello's money now so she's proably richer than the rest of the band put together. Her introduction really raised the game of the band and the just seemed a lot happeir after that, Shane looked really chuffed to have her on stage, she sang "I'M A Man..." beautifully even although she did forget some of the word towards the end, but then the Pogues were never note or word perfect were they. Chevron sang Thousands are Sailing instead of Shane, good call in my opinion and Shane tried to inject some inbetween song banter which was completely lost on anyone who wasn't as bladdered as her was......but he was smiling, genuinely looking as if he was having fun.

Spider stepped up to sign Tuesday Morning, not a bad song but not quite sure why it was included, perhaps to give Shane a brea and let them all have a go a vocals.....very democratic and probably sensible to keep Shane of themic for a wee while.

Back came Cait for the encores and A Fairytale Of New York brought the house down, a few sore throats this morning after that I reckon. Yeah Yeah Yeah finished things off and Shane was the lst to leave stage to a hugh ovation, then came the backing tapes.....Joes Strummer signing hsi version of Redemption Song.....nice touch that I thought.

If I'd never seen them before I'd have said fabulous gig, my girlfriend thought as much and I convinced myself that comparison of the 2004 Pogues with the 1985 vintage at the Barra just wasn't fair. So basically I thought that it was much better than it had any right to be, Shane handled the vocals well, it was fabulous have Cait on stage (she looked like she had a ball!!) and the band just got better as the evening went on.

If they keep improving like this then they'll be on fire come the end of the tour.....just don't let Shane talk!!!

Duncan

[buckrodgers]

got back from glasgow about 11am with the biggest widest grin on ma face,so what if they fucked up a couple of times i was pretty fucked up myself,absolutley brilliant,cheers guys and sorry to everyone i drunkenly stumbled into.

[DzM]

Shamelessly lifted from the Paddy Rolling Stone forum:

sjhislop AT blueyonder DOT co DOT uk

Hi Folks ,

For what its worth , I thought that the Pogues where rocking last night.

They arrived on stage at 9.10pm and left at 11.10 , after Shane had downed 3 bottles of wine/port.

Shane hardly missed a line throughout , the music was excellent and the venue & crowd just added to what became a very enjoyable and memorable evening , which took me back to the Pogues era of '86/'87.

I managed to get Jem's Original setlist at the end of the show and the full list was as follows :

1) Streams of Whiskey
2) If I Should Fall From Grace
3) Boys From The County Hell
4) Broad Majestic Shannon
5) Young Ned of the Hill
6) Turkish Song of the Damned
7) Rainy Night in Soho
8) Tuesday Morning
9) Rain Street
10) Medley
11) I'm a Man You Dont Meet Every Day (Cait on vocals)
12) Pair of Brown Eyes
13) Repeal
14) White City
15) Old Main Drag
16) Thousands are Sailing
17) Body of an American
18) Lullaby of London
19) Dirty Old Town
20) Bottle of Smoke
21) Sick Bed of Cuchulainn

1st Encore :
Sally MacLenanne
Irish Rover
Fiesta

2nd Encore :
Star of the County Down
Fairytale of New York (Cait on Vocals)
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

For those going this week , try and not to drink TOO much because this is one gig you will want to remember.

Slainte.
Scott

[MacGee]

This is a very long review of last night's gig but unfortunatly, it's in dutch :
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/3voor12/magazine ... s=20290262

If someone on this forum knows a bit about this language, feel free to say what are the main points of this article.

[Silverrom]

A BIG THANK'S TO DzM!!!!

74 Hours to Birmingham show, look up Sweden is in preparation for U.K. weekend!!
CHERRS!!

[DzM]

This is a very long review of last night's gig but unfortunatly, it's in dutch :
LINK

AltaVista translation gives this really entertaining text:<blockquote><blockquote type=cite>That ie still live a wonder can be called. Shane MacGowan weak in the heyday days of the Pogues, small fifteen years suffered already the impression every moment definitively to be able succumb to the impact of excessive alcoholinname. There did not come later still heroin addiction on top of, therefore this way crazy that already wide seven years no new song has come from its pen, is it. But the human wreck MacGowan, which reaches on first kerstdag 47 years of age, has again got itself on the leg. Of the heroin he is finished, and he looked for its do, Monday night rather conserved in the Glasgow Academy, where he with its old makkers of The Pogues the first of a range reünie actions looked after.

It is already the second time that the Pogues itself around kerstmis herformeren. Three years it was suffered ever the MacGowan put because of onberekenbaarheid from the group in mercy had also already fallen and the range actions astonished then friend and enemy. MacGowan sang much improve products then we of its actions with the much inferior popes got used, he knew its texts and you saw how he was pushed up by the sublime game of its old link. That deserved a continuation, but the other Pogues withdrew themselves in the relatively quiet - read without alcohol - leventje. Most Pogues-leden had meanwhile won the fighting against alcohol addiction, something that gladly this way wanted keep them. And that is cumbersome with a consumer such as MacGowan in your direct surroundings.

And Shane MacGowan themselves? Those expired in its zelfgekozen pitiful junkie existence. He acted with its popes regularly. Also in the Netherlands where he, if he came already, the rooms let hours wait frequently in itself. But new work has been since its second soloplaat The Crock or had no longer applied there had appeared.

Toch there hope is. In an excellent tale in the most recent number of the illustrated magazine become, stands read that MacGowan are anyway from the heroin. The other Pogues when the current tour a success proves to be even, however, of plate prerecordings thinks. Dear news perhaps is that Cait O'Riordan have dovetailed themselves after eighteen years the men.

That is remarkable, because the bassiste and singer on the first two Pogues-albums have not gone in 1986, certain nicely gone at its link. In MacGowans words then, she went there vandoor with the producer who had gone for its part with all loot vandoor. In reality she married with Elvis Costello, producer of second Pogues-album rum, Sodomy & The Lash from 1985.

But well, small twenty years later its Mr and Ms Costello each other (Elvis take off it with jazzdiva Diana Krall) and make O'Riordan music. She is it also that ensures in Glasgow most of the tenderising, and perhaps still more memorable makes these shows suffered than those of three years.

Only four songs are the former bassiste on the podium present, as a singer. But it are these songs which determine the largest difference with formerly. One times rather heard I her the splendour number a man You Don't measure Everyday to sing, in 1985, then its later spouse Elvis Costello in Paradiso behind the mengtafel softly meeneuriede with an amorous can in its eyes.

Nineteen years later the Pogues have again incorporated it in their set, O'Riordan sing it blood-curdling nicely. Beside her MacGowan provide just as fragile as intensely a second voice. It is beautiful also the moment when O'Riordan him whispers a text rule of a Pair or Brown Eyes. You see Shane fighting against itself, he wants of it really the bests make, but those flatlied refuse texts! The fast dancing numbers, Streams or Whiskey, If I Should Fall From Grace With god and boys From The County Hell, who succeed still. Moreover it are roarred rapidly that this way oorverdovend by public that a missed syllabe does not disturb. But such a rag text such as Pair or Brown Eyes, which was really cumbersome. Fortunately, it appears fall further with its vergeetachtigheid. Old Main Drag, Rainy Night in Soho and Lullaby or London, three of the most beautiful songs concerning London and textual peaks in MacGowans oeuvre, comes foutloos. And then there were of course the two songs where the Pogues up to in perpetuity will be reminded to: Dirty Old Town and Fairytale or New York. In Word-artikel stand read that MacGowan this ultimate kerstnummer that Fairytale are meanwhile become, wrote for Cait O'Riordan, and also demoversies of Shane with Cait would exist. We know it as a duet between MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl: It were Christmas eve baby, in the drunk tank. Always a fraai number, entirely in December, but since MacColl, four years suffered during a holiday had been crossed by a speedboot, has been the expectations how they would will play it live nevertheless differently.

The memory to the ninth group paragraph MacColl was kept in Glasgow living collectanten changed as kerstmannen who leaflets distributed: Justice For Kirsty. The driver of the speedboat, responsibly for Kirsty's dead has been, as it happens, never continued, whereas he prohibited in area fodder. (For more information: http://www.justiceforkirsty.org) touch those buses quite full and apart from this tragiek you realise that beside MacColl also Joe Strummer and John peel, also key characters in the history of The Pogues, no longer live yourself...

Them have anyway survived MacGowan. When he with Cait O'Riordan Fairytale or sings New York, with as locking a dearly dance of the pair. Try keep dry the eyes then. ' I can't make it all alone, I've bolt my dreams around you '. Verdomme Cait, think you then. Many years' thrown away of your life with such a piece chagrijn which you dump for jazz-tutje, whereas here your future lay. Look once what you have caused!

But he who weet. The beginning of hopelijk a new cooperation is there. Kerstmis has started with The Pogues. Two hours wallow in poëzie and folk, punk and especially soul (John peel right he she had then suffered twenty years exclaimed to favoriete soulband). Not to get that numbers (these yielded again appear all plates gemasterd with bonustracks), and surrounded by these seven men and a woman live MacGowan this way the time of its life to see. Now Shane continue. We have your necessary, still.</blockquote></blockquote>Anyone read Dutch? Can you do a better translation?

[Hellbeard]

I was at the premiere too last evening.
What can I say? Really. I had an emotional meltdown. It was really touching.
The band did great, Such raw energy and they all seemed to have fun, entertaining the audience very well.. and what a great audience! There was alot of dancing going on.

The sound mix in the beginning was a bit blurry. But that has nothing to do with the performance of the band and what you guys are going to experience in the next following gigs. I wish I would be there too! Have fun.

And by the way, didn't Shane drink water towards the end?

[Raindog4182]

I am stoked! The reviews of last night's show have gotten me even more excited for the Dec 18th show! Flying out of Toronto, Canada Thursday night, driving up to Manchester from London on Friday & going to the show on Saturday night!

Bringing my 3 year old daughter - she's been listening to the Pogues since she was in the womb! Bringing her some earplugs for sure...

[Guest]

Was at the concert last night, and it was FANTASTIC!! Started with "Streams of Whiskey", and played all the classics, right through finishing with "Fiesta". Disappointed not to hear "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda", but that's the only one I expected that they didn't play. They're in Newcastle tonight, I thoroughly reccomend that you try and catch them if you can...