The Pogues @ M.E.N. Arena
Dan Stubbs
16/12/06
Full URL
*** (out of 5)
HIS speech is slurred, his singing is off-key and his eyes are somewhere else entirely. Is Pogues singer Shane MacGowan the proto Pete Doherty?
As with the Babyshambles star, a night in MacGowan's company promises to be full of car crash moments.
Advertisement your story continues below
But beyond that, there's a reason MacGowan is still packing in the crowds five years after reuniting with the Pogues.
The Irish-bred singer is the visionary who first melded punk dynamics with traditional Irish music, the creator of countless boozy, heartbroken anthems.
But on Saturday night, it was a fairly sullen figure that took to the stage at the M.E.N. Arena. In spite of a rousing reception from an enthusiastically drunk crowd, MacGowan appeared, at times, like a man who has lost the fire in his belly.
Microphone problems dogged the first few songs and MacGowan wasn't happy. He exited the stage after three numbers and, for a moment, it seemed like we'd seen the last of him.
Reappeared
But this, it turns out, is MacGowan's way. For the duration of the two-hour show he waddled on stage for a few songs, waddled off again and reappeared five minutes later.
His band - the full classic line-up of the Pogues, no less - were left to do the rest.
But in a fairly shambolic performance, there were moments of brilliance. The tin whistle-led Sunny Side Of The Street was one. The swaggering Dirty Old Town was another, introduced by Shane as being "written about this place".
He wasn't technically right: Ewan MacColl - father of Kirsty - penned the song about his childhood in Salford.
The main event - given the time of the season - was Fairytale Of New York, the ubiquitous Christmas song that reached number three on re-release last year.
If some people in the crowd went solely to hear it, they had a long wait - it appeared with a blizzard of fake snow in the second and final encore.
But it was worth it, Ella Finer (daughter of Pogues guitarist/banjo player Jeremy Finer) filling in the Kirsty MacColl part with aplomb.
-------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2006 Manchester Evening News.
[b]The Pogues @ M.E.N. Arena[/b]
[i]Dan Stubbs
16/12/06[/i]
[url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/livereviews/s/231/231179_the_pogues__men_arena.html]Full URL[/url]
*** (out of 5)
[img]http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ContentResources/205.$plit/C_17_Articles_231179_BodyWeb_Detail_0_Image.jpg[/img]
HIS speech is slurred, his singing is off-key and his eyes are somewhere else entirely. Is Pogues singer Shane MacGowan the proto Pete Doherty?
As with the Babyshambles star, a night in MacGowan's company promises to be full of car crash moments.
Advertisement your story continues below
But beyond that, there's a reason MacGowan is still packing in the crowds five years after reuniting with the Pogues.
The Irish-bred singer is the visionary who first melded punk dynamics with traditional Irish music, the creator of countless boozy, heartbroken anthems.
But on Saturday night, it was a fairly sullen figure that took to the stage at the M.E.N. Arena. In spite of a rousing reception from an enthusiastically drunk crowd, MacGowan appeared, at times, like a man who has lost the fire in his belly.
Microphone problems dogged the first few songs and MacGowan wasn't happy. He exited the stage after three numbers and, for a moment, it seemed like we'd seen the last of him.
Reappeared
But this, it turns out, is MacGowan's way. For the duration of the two-hour show he waddled on stage for a few songs, waddled off again and reappeared five minutes later.
His band - the full classic line-up of the Pogues, no less - were left to do the rest.
But in a fairly shambolic performance, there were moments of brilliance. The tin whistle-led Sunny Side Of The Street was one. The swaggering Dirty Old Town was another, introduced by Shane as being "written about this place".
He wasn't technically right: Ewan MacColl - father of Kirsty - penned the song about his childhood in Salford.
The main event - given the time of the season - was Fairytale Of New York, the ubiquitous Christmas song that reached number three on re-release last year.
If some people in the crowd went solely to hear it, they had a long wait - it appeared with a blizzard of fake snow in the second and final encore.
But it was worth it, Ella Finer (daughter of Pogues guitarist/banjo player Jeremy Finer) filling in the Kirsty MacColl part with aplomb.
-------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2006 Manchester Evening News.
