Pogues reunion is fitting tribute to Shane MacGowan
Legendary band returning to Dublin stage later this month with guests, one year on from singer's death
THE church of Saint Mary of the Rosary had never seen anything like it.
Nick Cave on the keys, Johnny Depp on the altar and Bono on the intercom as Tipperary gave Shane MacGowan the mother and father of all send-offs.
At the centre of it all were The Pogues playing The Parting Glass and Fairytale of New York as the congregation danced in the aisles.
When the band finished playing, they howled out for more.
MacGowan gave the world songs that can move your feet and move your heart. Songs that can make you laugh and cry, scream and shout and dance.
But his greatest gift to the world — in death as in life — was The Pogues.
A band like no other brought together by a man like no other. A man you don’t meet every day.
12 months ago, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, James Fearnley and Terry Woods reunited in Nenagh to give the great punk poet the greatest of farewells.
Cait O’Riordan was there too, performing with John Francis Flynn in a fitting passing of the torch.
The influence of MacGowan and The Pogues can’t be overstated. Without them there may never have been artists like Lankum, Lisa O’Neill or The Mary Wallopers. They even laid the tracks for riotous acts like Kneecap.
And it was The Pogues, the band started by MacGowan, that made that magic together.
The great singer and songwriter spun the story of quarrelling lovers in Fairytale, but it was Finer who laid the foundation stones with the main melody, it’s Fearnley playing those unmistakable opening notes on the piano and it’s Stacy’s tin whistle that gets people swinging.
MacGowan pulled The Pogues together from the ashes of The Nips — a punk outfit featuring himself, Fearnley and people like Shanne Bradley (later of The Men They Couldn’t Hang) and Jon Moss (later of Culture Club).
The Nips never made an impression on the charts, but were rated and even supported The Jam.
“I remember they did one gig with us and Shane was dressed as a Roman centurion. That was his latest guise,” Paul Weller told me in 2018.
“I don’t know if the whole band were, but he was in the f**king toga and all that gear and just pelting bottles of drink and all the rest of it.
“Someone who did not give a f**k, definitely!”
In his book Here Comes Everybody Fearnley wrote that MacGowan had been inspired for the look after reading about ancient Rome and the “hedonism… and proximity of death” central to that society.
MacGowan also wanted a new cyclical sound like Cretan, Arabic or traditional Irish music to go with the garb.
It was almost a tuning fork for what was to come with The Pogues.
40 years ago they unleashed their debut album Red Roses For Me on an unsuspecting world, mixing folk and punk with trad’s cyclical rhythms to blaze a trail.
Hedonism and the proximity of death were never far away either. Resurrection too.
“I remember one time Shane got knocked down by a taxi and wound up in hospital,” Horslips drummer Eamon Carr told me last year.
“We went to visit him in hospital, his leg broken in a few places. Dates were getting cancelled and (manager) Frank Murray was worried.
“Two nights later I’m in The Devonshire Arms and there’s a ruckus and then I see these feet coming in the door. And it’s Shane.
“He’s being carried into the pub feet first before being perched up at the bar! It was unbelievable.”
Behind the unruly image there was a seriousness to the music and Fearnley always knew MacGowan meant business when he arrived at the studio in a freshly dry-cleaned suit.
MacGowan wrote about characters like Richard Tauber, John McCormack, Philomena Begley and Ray Lynam and the people who listened to them.
He painted pictures of heaven and hell and all the fever dreams in-between and The Pogues brought them to life.
MacGowan made some fine music with The Popes, but was at his creative peak when alongside the evolving Pogues line-up of Finer, Fearnley, Stacy, O’Riordan, Andrew Ranken, Woods, Darryl Hunt and Phil Chevron.
Since his death MacGowan has been remembered in tribute shows, murals and even the jersey of his beloved Shannon Rovers GAA club.
And his passing has also brought The Pogues back together. First on the altar and now on the road.
Later this month Finer, Fearnley and Stacy will be joined by a bunch of guests, including members of The Fontaines, Lankum and Nadine Shah for a special 3Arena show to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Red Roses For Me.
A UK tour will follow next year to celebrate four decades since the release of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.
In a way it’s MacGowan’s parting gift to the world. In death as it was in life. The Pogues burning it up on stage all over again.
One more resurrection. One more tune.
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