I went to the Pogues gig in Dublin a few months ago.
I wasn’t expecting too much from McGowan, but the lineup was to good to be missed an the Proclaimers and the Saw Doctors were the support acts.
The Proclaimers were brilliant
The Saw Doctors were utterly amazing and were worth the price of the ticket alone.
After the Saw Doctors finished there was the usual very long wait before the Pogues came out.
Shane was fairly sober and had a pint glass of water with him ( I could tell that it was water as he only sipped it and it lasted all night). He struggled through most of the songs and it was only because I knew all the words that I could make out a few of the things he said. The band did their best to keep everything together but all in all it was a terrible show.
At least I wasn’t expecting too much, but it is a pity to see someone as brilliant as he is, obviously dying from drink. No Pogues fan goes to a concert nowadays unaware of the fact that there is a good chance that he will either not show or will be unable to perform, but you still go in the hope that you will see a spark of his brilliance.
And here I thought the gig of theirs I saw in Chicago a year and a half ago was the wackiest live show of any sort I’d ever seen, including a Dead show at Alpine valley at which I was probably the only person there who was NOT tripping…
Shane was holding himself up on the mike stand, because he was plainly too drunk to remain vertical otherwise. Midway through one song, he stopped, puked (which didn’t faze him in the least), and with a brief “Well, then” and a wipe of his face on his sleeve, kept singing. A real pro, I tell you.
Yes, it was sad to see a brilliant songwwriter destroying his internal organs that way, but now I feel privileged in comparison. At least it only cost $1.50 to get home on the El…
Here’s a picture of MacGowan at a 10 AM press conference. Note the stains on his fingers that are either 1) nicotine from the cig burning too far down or 2) blood.
That pic is at least 2 years old, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long.
So am I. He looks like a trainwreck. Actually, he looks like someone dragged out of a trainwreck. And the train they were on was going to the hospital for emergency surgery after they severely disfigured their face in a multi car pileup.
Forgive a humble Aussie who hasn’t heard much music of The Pogues - however, after reading this thread, I can’t help but feel as though I’m reading an alcohol parallel story to the Layne Staley story - except that Shane hasn’t locked himself in a condominium for the last 6 years.
At the risk of seeming like a buzzard, just what sort of shit has this guy got up to over the years in regards to his personal abuse. Surely his story can’t be any more frightening than Layne’s?
I’ve been a big Pogues fan since discovering them on Napster about a year and a half ago.
I had read that the Pogues got back together for a couple of gigs with Shane sometime around last Christmas. The reviewer said that Shane had actually seemed to weather the years better than his old bandmates.
I was pleasantly surprised. Had Shane given up the hooch? Could the Pogues possibly be getting back together and making more terrific music?
Guess not. Oh, well. I’m going to go listen to If I Should Fall From Grace With God (one of my favorite discs of all time) and wonder why he keeps doing this to himself.
If Shane does up and die on us, I hope somebody will post a thread about it. I have a feeling that he isn’t newsworthy enough in the U.S. to get even a two-line obit in the papers, much less a TV story.
Yeah, you’re probably right, CF. An enlightened place like this can appreciate his music. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans that I’ve talked to have never even heard of the Pogues, let alone their former drunken lead singer.
Now if Britney Spears should happen to overdose or something, that would unleash torrents of front-page sympathy that probably wouldn’t let up for months. Ugh, where are our priorities?
Just a nitpick: I think that if Ms. Spears OD’d, the press would not react with sympathy, but rather with rabid glee, highlighting every lurid detail of her demise. The American press does not like celebrities; what they like is to sell papers. They also like the challenge of deconstructing someone who tries to present a wholesome image, presenting their avid readers with “the REAL story”.
That said, if Ms. Spears died unexpectedly, I would feel a twinge of sympathy for her family, then move on. When Shane McGowan dies, which I predict will be a very abrupt occurence (maybe backstage just before the show starts), I will be deeply saddened. But when you think about it, we’re already doing much of our grieving now.
Oh, well. I’m going to go listen to If I Should Fall From Grace With God (one of my favorite discs of all time) and wonder why he keeps doing this to himself.
