Saw him around and about a few times over the years and he was properly messed up on each occasion. At least he got his teeth fixed in the his latter years.
Shane was of course born in Kent and went to Westminster School, fact fans.
didn't meet him but saw him outside Camden tube station around 2001. There used to be a set of railings as you came out of the station where the homeless gathered to beg from the people leaving the station, he was sitting there with them and had a crate of beer cans.
I had completely forgotten that I saw the Pogues play a festival in 1991... when they were supposed to take the stage, there was no sign of them and instead we got The Wonderstuff who announced they were playing early as Shane was too drunk to go on... The Wonderstuff played their famous song "You know that I've been drunk a thousand times, and these should be the best days of our lives, life is not what I thought it was"
When The Pogues eventually took the stage, a hammered Shane incoherently sang his songs, might not have been singing the right ones and spent the whole time being held up by Kirsty McColl... Great times
All due respect but it sounds like you might not be entirely on top of the Pogues back catalogue - both ‘If I fall from grace with god’ and ‘Rum, sodomy and the lash’ are (rightly in my opinion) generally considered to be classic albums
We asked 100 people if they could name a Pogues song other than Fairytale of New York.
50 people said "no". 25 said "The one about the bells ringing out on Christmas Day". 24 said "The one that was banned for using a rude word about a gay person". One person was familiar with their wider back catalogue"
I doubt many would have known that the band were originally called Pogue Mahone, which is kiss my hole in Gaelic.
Sad to see him go, but he lasted a lot longer than most expected him to. He was great poet and story teller. Not so much of role model but a great advocate of Irish in England.
I can honestly say that I'm thankful to have The Pogues in my life. I absolutely love "If I should fall from grace with God" where the famous Fairytale of New York comes from. Let's examine the lyrics of "Bottle of Smoke":
The day being clear, the sky being bright He came up on the left like a streak of light Like a drunken fvck on a Saturday night Up came the bottle of smoke
20 fvcking five to one Me gambling days are done I bet on a horse called the "Bottle of smoke" And my horse won
There will literally never be a better song lyric than
''I could have been someone ' ... 'Well so could anyone'
but here is A Pair of Brown Eyes
One summer evening drunk to hell I stood there nearly lifeless An old man in the corner sang Where the water lilies grow And on the jukebox johnny sang About a thing called love And its how are you kid and whats your name And how would you bloody know? In blood and death neath a screaming sky I lay down on the ground And the arms and legs of other men Were scattered all around Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed Then prayed and bled some more And the only thing that I could see Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me But when we got back, labeled parts one to three There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me All I could do was hate him While Ray and Philomena sang Of my elusive dream I saw the streams, the rolling hills Where his brown eyes were waiting And I thought about a pair of brown eyes That waited once for me So drunk to hell I left the place Sometimes crawling sometimes walking A hungry sound came across the breeze So I gave the walls a talking And I heard the sounds of long ago From the old canal And the birds were whistling in the trees Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go A rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go For a pair of brown eyes For a pair of brown eyes
normally I don't really care when a celeb pops off but for some reason, Shane has bothered me. Such a real talent and I've really enjoyed his songs for decades.
Some are fun, some are deadly serious and some are great workings of trad songs and none of it is paddywhackery (which I classify the Dropkick Murphy's as)
watched the Pogues live at the "Town & Country" (O2 Forum) in 1988 last night. What a great show, Shane was drunk but coherent enough. Guest appearance by Joe Strummer doing London Calling (Joe went on to replace Shane for a while)
As with my fav rocker, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, also notorious for his hard living, you can wear that partying/hard drinking/drugs lifestyle until your middle years, but it catches up with you in the end. Both men suffered startling declines in their last couple of years. Shane as they say rescued folk from the folkies, and he was also excellent in his early punk years with The Nipple Erectors, a band inspired by his seeing the Sex Pistols, aged 18. He seemed to have a thing for band names designed to give the BBC a fit of the vapours of course, Pogue Mahone being an anglicisation of an Irish phrase meaning "kiss my a**e". Always made me smile to think of oblivious middle-class DJs saying that for a couple of years until one day a colleague on BBC Radio Scotland alerted them to what it meant lol. I saw the Pogues in 1988, and it remains one of the top 5 gigs I’ve ever been at, up there with The Stooges and the Pistols and early SLF for sheer moshing anarchy.
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Astonishing he made it to 65.
Saw him around and about a few times over the years and he was properly messed up on each occasion. At least he got his teeth fixed in the his latter years.
Shane was of course born in Kent and went to Westminster School, fact fans.
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Absolutely.
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didn't meet him but saw him outside Camden tube station around 2001. There used to be a set of railings as you came out of the station where the homeless gathered to beg from the people leaving the station, he was sitting there with them and had a crate of beer cans.
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Just before his annual cheque too.
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I don't think he was ever concerned with the trappings of money, it just helped him maintain his lifestyle
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Isn't maintaining a lifestyle the main "trapping" of money?
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perhaps but I mean that he could drink as much as he liked without being on the dole.
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To be fair I think you could probably drink the maximum amount of alcohol just before enough that would kill you on a stipend of around £20k a year.
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Hope the crematorium puts in place a 400 metre exclusion zone just in case
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I had completely forgotten that I saw the Pogues play a festival in 1991... when they were supposed to take the stage, there was no sign of them and instead we got The Wonderstuff who announced they were playing early as Shane was too drunk to go on... The Wonderstuff played their famous song "You know that I've been drunk a thousand times, and these should be the best days of our lives, life is not what I thought it was"
When The Pogues eventually took the stage, a hammered Shane incoherently sang his songs, might not have been singing the right ones and spent the whole time being held up by Kirsty McColl... Great times
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according to wikipedia he was chucked out of westminster school for drug taking after 2 years
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With Kirsty already gone fairy tale of New York will be pretty poignant
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Bloke who should have died years ago, and had one halfway-decent song a millenium ago, knocks all other news off the top spot, across all channels.
Good job it was a slow news day, eh? Not like any Jews or Arabs got killed.
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All due respect but it sounds like you might not be entirely on top of the Pogues back catalogue - both ‘If I fall from grace with god’ and ‘Rum, sodomy and the lash’ are (rightly in my opinion) generally considered to be classic albums
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He had a myriad of decent songs ffs
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65. All things considered that's some age
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We asked 100 people if they could name a Pogues song other than Fairytale of New York.
50 people said "no". 25 said "The one about the bells ringing out on Christmas Day". 24 said "The one that was banned for using a rude word about a gay person". One person was familiar with their wider back catalogue"
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I doubt many would have known that the band were originally called Pogue Mahone, which is kiss my hole in Gaelic.
Sad to see him go, but he lasted a lot longer than most expected him to. He was great poet and story teller. Not so much of role model but a great advocate of Irish in England.
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The BBC will no doubt have that documentary about FONY playing every night between now and Christmas Day.
Apparently the NYPD Choir never sang Galway Bay.
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I can honestly say that I'm thankful to have The Pogues in my life. I absolutely love "If I should fall from grace with God" where the famous Fairytale of New York comes from. Let's examine the lyrics of "Bottle of Smoke":
The day being clear, the sky being bright
He came up on the left like a streak of light
Like a drunken fvck on a Saturday night
Up came the bottle of smoke
20 fvcking five to one
Me gambling days are done
I bet on a horse called the "Bottle of smoke"
And my horse won
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There will literally never be a better song lyric than
''I could have been someone ' ... 'Well so could anyone'
but here is A Pair of Brown Eyes
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox johnny sang
About a thing called love
And its how are you kid and whats your name
And how would you bloody know?
In blood and death neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labeled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While Ray and Philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
A rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
And a rovin, a rovin, a rovin I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
For a pair of brown eyes
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Always loved that line
‘So I gave the walls a talking’
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normally I don't really care when a celeb pops off but for some reason, Shane has bothered me. Such a real talent and I've really enjoyed his songs for decades.
Some are fun, some are deadly serious and some are great workings of trad songs and none of it is paddywhackery (which I classify the Dropkick Murphy's as)
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My mother didn't like the name. We listened to the Chieftains.
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No fairy-tale ending, I guess
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we're signed to the same modelling agency so hoping my no. of gigs will pick up
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Ronald you need the next line Macoll line for the full effect I think.
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
That whole verse is sort of shattering.
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Completely agree the I could have been someone … but so could anyone is up there with the best song lyrics ever written
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watched the Pogues live at the "Town & Country" (O2 Forum) in 1988 last night. What a great show, Shane was drunk but coherent enough. Guest appearance by Joe Strummer doing London Calling (Joe went on to replace Shane for a while)
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As with my fav rocker, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, also notorious for his hard living, you can wear that partying/hard drinking/drugs lifestyle until your middle years, but it catches up with you in the end. Both men suffered startling declines in their last couple of years. Shane as they say rescued folk from the folkies, and he was also excellent in his early punk years with The Nipple Erectors, a band inspired by his seeing the Sex Pistols, aged 18. He seemed to have a thing for band names designed to give the BBC a fit of the vapours of course, Pogue Mahone being an anglicisation of an Irish phrase meaning "kiss my a**e". Always made me smile to think of oblivious middle-class DJs saying that for a couple of years until one day a colleague on BBC Radio Scotland alerted them to what it meant lol. I saw the Pogues in 1988, and it remains one of the top 5 gigs I’ve ever been at, up there with The Stooges and the Pistols and early SLF for sheer moshing anarchy.
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fook off you little herrenvolk shite
Lol
https://www.nme.com/news/music/fans-are-celebrating-the-pogues-infamous…
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It would be a dull world withou people like him. Having encepahlitis must have been truly sxit.
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Eddie - top choice - bottle of smoke is probably my favourite pogues song ever, with sick bed of cuchulain a close second
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also I was at that show in ‘88
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