God, how much more can his constitution take?
And is it true what I’ve been told—that the reason his teeth are so bad is that a cop kicked him in the mouth?
I started a thread on this on a different message board. If they knocked his teeth out, I hope he thanked them, old Shane looks like he’s got a mouth full of coco pops.
Like Iggy, Keef and a select few others, Shane never gets picked in dead pools as he’s essentially indestructable. For the last 15 years or so, if not before, he’s become content with trying to drink himself to death in and around the west end of London. Pint of Martini anyone?
A friend of mine is head of security at Tower Records in Piccadilly circus. He’s kicked Shane out late at night a few times, principally for being drunk/pissing on video racks/throwing up etc. Therefore, although it seems like a nasty unprovoked attack, he’s not really in a position to defend himself. He was probably tumbledown drunk and smashed into the 2 kids that chinned him (not that i’m defending them)
And I really like The Pogues
Clarification: I meant, someone told me Shane had been kicked in the teeth years and years ago, resulting in the “mouth full of Cocoa Pops”. Which may or may not be true, and may or may not have been done by a cop if it is true.
But you’re right: if he’s not dead by now, he’ll never die.
nope, he fell off a tour bus in Japan, which was the impetus for the Pogues splitting up (they’d had enough of having to miss gigs because of shane’s Drinking/ drug use (far more of the former than the latter, no matter what the tabloids tell you.)
he never had great teeth to begin with, but it just got worse with the wear and tear of challenging industructability.
I don’t think this is true. It is not mentioned in If I should Fall From Grace, a documentary on Shane MacGowan. According to the documentary (including interviews with former Pogues), there were artistic differences. Shane wanted to continue to make the same kind of music that made The Pogues famous, whilst the other band members wanted to expand. In the film, Shane seems very hurt that he was kicked out of the band. Philip Chevron (I believe) said that Shane has a way of talking around issues such that he gets his way (i.e., leaves the band) but makes it appear that it was not his idea.
In any case, I don’t remember hearing anything about falling off a bus resulting in his ouster.
As for his teeth, they’ve always looked like Candy Corn; and you can see them become progressively worse over the years as you watch the documentary.
you know this will all end with Shane, Keith Richards, & Courtney Love dueling with broadswords… there can be only One
Nah, have to disagree. Courtneys got about 2 years left in her tops. replace her with Iggy, Shawn Ryder or Lou Reed and we’re laughing.
Best laugh I’ve had all week!
Re McGowan’s teeth
Smiling young Shane with a mouth full of …umm… pegs
Intermediate Shane with, well… fewer pegs
Modern 2003 Shane with a few stumps
I read about this incident this morning! I love the Pogues, and I love making people who’ve never heard them listen to them.
Ahem: just to be annoying, I’d like to point out that someone did pick him in this year’s Death Pool. 
But good gracious! That guy looks like Gollum!
Horrendous photos! OTOH, Shane should be in high demand as a historical-film extra, as a Breughel-style peasant, a village idiot, a product of extreme inbreeding, or what have you. (That’s one thing the movies rarely get: the sheer overwhelming grunginess of the premodern era. They can put the extras in homespun-like material, but as long as the teeth are sparkling and aligned and the complexions are suspiciously clear of 'pox scars, it isn’t exactly authentic.)
Poor Shane.
It’s really a sad state that we’re mourning his teeth when we should mourn…
Oh, nevermind. Those were some teeth.
Maybe now he can become the pearl diver he talked about in the documentary, going down 1000 feet in the water…
Just thought I’d share a story of when jeevmon and I went to a concert of his here in Chicago a couple years back…it was an interesting evening on sooooo many levels, but the next-to-last paragraph of this review of that concert will enlighten you on why I am sometimes glad I’m too short to see the stage at a show like that:
Are you sure those are photos of McGowan–I swear to God this guy lived further up the “holler” than me back when I was gowing up in southern KY–is name was Emmet or Giles or Two-Toes Begley or William Williams, or Ol’ Leonard Who Fucks Cows* or something. I know I pulled him out of the creek a couple times.
Seriously, I’m pissed at myself that I let one molar go far enough to need a root canal and cap–I don’t feel so bad now.
Sir Rhosis
*All real people, I kid you not, Jack Paar.
Dude, my friends were at that concert and the puke towel landed a row or two in front of them. It was the defining moment of their young lives.
They also said that the dude that caught it kept it on his lap(!) for the remainder of the show.
I have to say, my first thought on seeing the thread title was “By what, his liver?”