Tag: The Pogues

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Christmas, Light and Dark

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An assortment of Christmas songs I have recently listened to and enjoyed. Some light, some heavy, all festive.

The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl, Fairytale of New York – In honor of its 25th birthday this week, and because it is a holiday song I listen to year ’round.
 

 
August Burns Red, Carol of the Bells– There’s very little I like better than heavy metal Christmas carols. Unless it’s hardcore Christmas carols where the band gives the drummer free reign. This is my #1 favorite rendition of this song. It’s heavy and orchestral and amazing.
 

 
Six Shooter, Carol of the Bells – Be sure to watch this one before you hit the egg-nog. I’m not sure I would have filmed it quite the same way, but I’ll forgive a lot because there are heavily tattooed dudes in black Santa hats shredding, and Santa himself sitting in with the band.
 

 
The Lost Brothers with Bill Ryder-Jones, St. Christopher – This one is both dark and light, sweet and melancholy at the same time. It’s available for sale on The Lost Brothers website, and proceeds will go to the Peter McVerry Trust, which supports the young homeless in Dublin.
 
https://soundcloud.com/thelostbrothers/st-christopher
 
Picardy III, O Holy Night, from Rainboot Christmas: Volume Two – Also in the category of “both dark and light”, Picardy III’s version of one of my favorite carols is a highlight of Rainboot’s second annual Christmas compilation record. Proceeds from the sale of this song/the record will go to Save the Children.
 

 
The Candle Thieves, When Santa Clause Comes To Town – And now, for some light. This is a bouncy little tune, excellent for trimming the tree or shoveling snow or drinking alcoholic hot chocolate and having a Kitchen Dance Party.
 
https://soundcloud.com/thecandlethieves/when-santa-claus-comes-to-town
 

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Strummer Week: The Pogues

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We continue our week-long Joe Strummer tribute, leading up to the 10-year anniversary of his death on December 22, with a bit about the Pogues. The lives of the Pogues weaved around Joe’s for a number of years, beginning before the Pogues even existed. In the late ’70s, young Shane MacGowan was a visible fixture on the London punk scene, but more as a fan than as a music maker. The first known intersection in the lives of Joe and Shane came on October 23, 1976, at the Clash’s first headlining gig in London at the ICA on the Mall. Part of the reason the date is so memorable involves Shane.

 

Cannibalism at Clash Gig - news clip featuring young Shane MacGowan

 

Yes, you recognize him: that young man in the pinstriped jacket, with blood later streaming down the side of his head is the same person who would later go on to pen literary and poignant tunes like “Fairytale of New York” and “A Pair of Brown Eyes”.

A true punk, Shane wouldn’t let a little bloody tussle keep him away from gigs, and he was captured again at a Clash show in 1977.

Clash gig 1977, with Shane MacGowan in the audience

 

In 1984, the Pogues toured in support of their first album Red Roses for Me, and a few of those gigs found them opening for the Clash. (This was during the end times of the Clash, after Mick Jones had been kicked out, and the band was collapsing in on itself.)

In 1986, a tour of Nicaragua was planned that would include Joe, the Pogues, and Elvis Costello. Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy – the soundtrack to which Joe composed much of, and the Pogues composed the rest) was set to film the tour for a documentary while also scouting for locations for an upcoming film (that film would be Walker, to which Joe penned a beautiful, Latin-influenced score – Joe also had a bit part in the film). The tour never came together, but the musicians were recruited for a new idea: the sublimely ridiculous 1987 film Straight to Hell (named after the Clash song).

Straight to Hell excerpt

 

The Pogues were set to tour the U.S. in 1987 when guitarist Phil Chevron fell ill with a stomach ulcer. Pogues manager Frank Murray asked Joe to fill in.

“London Calling” – The Pogues with Joe Strummer

 

Joe was brought in to produce the Pogues’ album Hell’s Ditch in 1990. It was a tumultuous time for the Pogues as Shane seemed to be at odds with the rest of his bandmates and was at one of his low points at the hands of drugs and drink. Joe is said to have handled the situation with a fairly keen understanding of Shane’s temperament, sometimes recording the reluctant singer word-by-word, and then splicing the performance into a whole.

“Summer in Siam” – The Pogues

 

Shane left the band partway through the tour for Hell’s Ditch , and Joe was once again tapped to fill a space. Joe was understandably hesitant to jump into the fray the second time around, but he eventually overcame his doubts and threw in with the Pogues once again.

“If I Should Fall from Grace with God” – The Pogues with Joe Strummer

 

Joe became good friends with Pogues multi-instrumentalist Jem Finer over the years, and they had talked of recording together, but the talk never came to fruition.

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Saturday Matinee: If I Should Fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story

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This documentary about the lead singer of Irish-by-way-of-London band the Pogues paints a complex, heartrending, and ultimately frustrating portrait of an artist who could still be contributing so much to music if he could just get his shit together. But it’s never as easy as that, is it?

 

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Postcards from the Pit: The Pogues

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The Pogues’ last tour, which I caught as they rolled through New York during St. Patrick’s Day (really St. Patrick’s Week, or Month), was titled “A Parting Glass” and meant to be the last one. For a lot of reasons, I hope that’s not actually true. Not least because St. Patrick’s Day in New York will not ever be the same without them. These shots are actually from March 16, the second night of a three day run at T5.

I didn’t stay in the pit very long, a combination of it being a school night and the pit being a little bit rough. I actually did the most dancing of the evening once I had retreated upstairs to the couches near the bar, where I twirled through a couple of measures of Dirty Old Town with a stranger. Though if this was their last go-round, I’ll hoard that memory as a fine send-off.

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The Ghost of Ronnie Drew

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That’s right, I’m going to do an Irish music post for St. Patrick’s Day. Bite me.

I’ve always loved traditional Irish music, and my favorite voice in that genre, by far, is that of Ronnie Drew. If you know this classic performance of “The Irish Rover” by the Pogues and the Dubliners, you know Ronnie Drew. He’s the handsome, white-haired gentleman who takes the first verse. (Please excuse the advertisement at the beginning.)


The Pogues & Dubliners – The Irish Rover by Renaud_lyon

 

 

Drew’s deep gravel was sublime on its own, but as a part of the Dubliners (who were originally known as the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group when they formed in 1962), his voice was a beautiful complement to the tenors of Luke Kelly and Ciarán Bourke, as can be heard in the chorus of “The Rocky Road to Dublin”, one of my all-time favorite songs.

 

 

Another example of how fine Drew’s voice was in harmony can be found in this lovely Gaelic tune, “Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile”, which translates to “Oh-ro, You’re Welcome Home”.

 

 

In January of 2008, U2, the Dubliners, Kíla and a who’s who of Irish music (including Shane MacGowan, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Glen Hansard, Sinéad O’Connor, Bob Geldof and more) recorded “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew” with the proceeds from sales of the single going to the Irish Cancer Society. The song ended up being a send off of sorts when Drew died the following August.

I could keep this up all day, inundating you with “Slow and Easy, “McAlpine’s Fusiliers”, “Seven Drunk Nights and so on, but I’ll end here with this clip of “The Auld Triangle” that marked Ciarán Bourke’s last appearance before his death in 1988.