by MacRua Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:47 pm
by Martin Dardis
Full URL Here's a little story about how I ended up playing guitar for Shane MacGowan.
I'm sure it was around 1997 down in Waterville Co.Kerry at a fundraiser for some arts festival, myself and Joe arrived at the hotel where the gig was around 2pm as that was the start time for Shane to do his set.
Low and behold no Shane,, surprise, surprise, well not really as Shane is not normally on time.
So we sussed the place out, not a bad little spot at all, plenty of bars here, had a listen to Donavan and a few other bands, great stuff, and the more we drank the beer the better they all sounded.
We had an old guitar in the car and started our own session in the lobby with lots of heads joining in, it was now around eleven pm and Shane Macgowan still hadn't arrived.
Shane then appeared on stage around 12pm, 7 hours late. Well I took my guitar with me and headed for the stage upstairs, Shane had no band with him so he poached a few lads that had been playing through the day.
When I got to where the action was at the front of the stage area they were playing ''Dirty Old Town'' , so I started strumming along, lots of pushing and shoving going on in the crowd but I still managed to play along with my acoustic guitar.
When Dirty Old Town was over I shouted for Sally MacLennon, at this stage I was laying on the floor trying to get the plec out of the guitar and shouting at Shane to play the bloody song. that must have been some sight'
He said to me ''Can you play it'' , I shouted back ''no problem boss'' , he said your up,, ''F,,, Me I said to myself as I was walking up to the stage, this man must be mad asking me on stage to play Sally MacLennan, as I was pissed drunk, so I threw my guitar to one side and the fella on stage gave me the guitar that was plugged in.
I started playing the intro chords, the little riff that goes before the start of the song, I already knew what key Shane played this song in as I had played along to the record many times, so I knew feck all could go wrong,and nothing did, before I knew it the song was over and I was walking away thinking that I had just played guitar with my hero Shane MacGowan.
I will always be grateful for Shane giving me the chance to play along with him on stage, a really great bloke.
by Martin Dardis
[url=http://irishsongs.blogspot.com/2008/06/shane-macgowan.html]Full URL[/url]
[indent]Here's a little story about how I ended up playing guitar for Shane MacGowan.
I'm sure it was around 1997 down in Waterville Co.Kerry at a fundraiser for some arts festival, myself and Joe arrived at the hotel where the gig was around 2pm as that was the start time for Shane to do his set.
Low and behold no Shane,, surprise, surprise, well not really as Shane is not normally on time.
So we sussed the place out, not a bad little spot at all, plenty of bars here, had a listen to Donavan and a few other bands, great stuff, and the more we drank the beer the better they all sounded.
We had an old guitar in the car and started our own session in the lobby with lots of heads joining in, it was now around eleven pm and Shane Macgowan still hadn't arrived.
Shane then appeared on stage around 12pm, 7 hours late. Well I took my guitar with me and headed for the stage upstairs, Shane had no band with him so he poached a few lads that had been playing through the day.
When I got to where the action was at the front of the stage area they were playing ''Dirty Old Town'' , so I started strumming along, lots of pushing and shoving going on in the crowd but I still managed to play along with my acoustic guitar.
When Dirty Old Town was over I shouted for Sally MacLennon, at this stage I was laying on the floor trying to get the plec out of the guitar and shouting at Shane to play the bloody song. that must have been some sight'
He said to me ''Can you play it'' , I shouted back ''no problem boss'' , he said your up,, ''F,,, Me I said to myself as I was walking up to the stage, this man must be mad asking me on stage to play Sally MacLennan, as I was pissed drunk, so I threw my guitar to one side and the fella on stage gave me the guitar that was plugged in.
I started playing the intro chords, the little riff that goes before the start of the song, I already knew what key Shane played this song in as I had played along to the record many times, so I knew feck all could go wrong,and nothing did, before I knew it the song was over and I was walking away thinking that I had just played guitar with my hero Shane MacGowan.
I will always be grateful for Shane giving me the chance to play along with him on stage, a really great bloke.[/indent]
