I just found out that The Pogues, complete with Shane MacGowan and Cait O’Riordan (AKA- The Most Beautiful Woman Ever) did a few reunion shows before Christmas.
Anybody lucky enough to attend? Any word on how the shows were? Will a CD from the shows be released?
And, of course, did Shane get through the gigs in a somewhat reasonable manner? 
Cait O’Riordan was there? Wow, that’s fantastic news! I thought she was dead! I’m not sure why I thought that, but damn, am I ever glad to know I was wrong!
Maybe you were thinking of Kirsty McColl, who sang that beautiful duet with Shane on “Fairytale of New York”? She died tragically a year or two ago, in a car accident.
Oh, wow. I didn’t know about the reunion show. 
Yes, please, UK Dopers, tell us how it went.
Boat accident, not car. She was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and got run over by a speedboat. And it was almost exactly four years ago. And her last name was MacColl.
I’m a bit of a fan, if you hadn’t guessed.
Worse than that: she was mashed by a speedboat while swimming in Mexico.
I stand corrected; my ignorance has been fought and vanquished. She is still missed, regardless.
Well, you were right about one thing: “Fairytale in New York” really is amazingly beautiful.
Which is pretty impressive for a song that contains the lyric, “You scumbag. you faggot, you cheap lousy maggot, Happy Christmas my ass, I thank God it’s our last.”
A reunion show?!? Maybe more than one?!?
I would have flown over if I’d known more than a week in advance!
How was it? I am so jealous!
Unfortunately I was not there in Brixton myself.
But the reviewer in the Daily Telegraph had some interesting things to say about it. He described Shame McGowan as looking “half-embalmed” but that his “enunciation got better the more he drank”.
Apparently, he managed to balance “a pint of colourless liquid - realistically, gin & tonic” on his head and was lucid enough to remove it before it fell off.
The rendition of “Fairy Tale of New York” with Ms O’Riordan (who hadn’t played with the Pogues for 18 years) was “bleary but beautiful”.
Sounds like a hoot.
Side question,
Which one married Elvis Costello? I could have sworn one of them did.
Anybody?
Side question,
Which one married Elvis Costello? I could have sworn one of them did.
Anybody?
I’m not a UK Doper, but I believe that Diana Krall is married to Elvis Costello.
He is now, but he was married to Cait O’Riordan.
Man, do I wish I could’ve seen one of these shows…
Yep, Mr Costello married the aforesaid Ms O’Riordan in 1985 after divorcing his first wife.
My familiarity with the Pogues is extremely slight, but is this song by any chance related to the J. P. Donleavy novel A Fairy Tale of New York? Donleavy + Pogues would seem to be a natural match.
According to this site, yes.
Okay, so none of our Dopers in Ireland or the UK saw any of shows. Fair enough.
I wish I could have been there. Maybe someone had the foresight to record the shows, and I hope I will hear then some day. Aw, man, Cait singing Fairytale of NY in her own way.
I’m a freeborn man of the USA.
Lorelei is the only Pogues song I know, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. 
(The only other thing I know about the Pogues is that Black 47 mentions one of them in Rockin’ The Bronx. :D)
Oh wow, if you like Black 47, you will LOVE the Pogues. They were probably the biggest influence on Black 47, Flogging Molly, and the Dropkick Murphys, all amazing bands in their own right. I strongly recommend you pick up the Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash,” which is my personal favorite of their albums and a great way to intoduce yourself to the band.