by philipchevron Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:18 am
Hoist a pint! The Pogues return again!
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Jim Sullivan
jimsullivanink.com
Full ULRAs St. Patrick’s Day approaches, so do the Pogues - for the second year running. They’ll be playing three shows at Avalon (with the final show Saturday March 10) and one at the Orpheum Theatre on the 11th. (Now, the shows are technically sold out, which means you may have to beg, borrow or steal a ticket somewhere on the street. Also, sometimes a venue, like the Orpheum, releases tickets held by the band for friends (that don't make it) right before show time.) The band that invented Celtic punk back in 1982 is in a zone somewhere between “active” and on “hiatus.” We rang up the Pogues mandolin player, Terry Woods, to get his take on the Pogues of 2007 and what they mean – yesterday and today.
“What happened, “ says Woods, who turns 60 at the end of the year, “was the end of the Pogues came in early ‘90s and that band fizzled out, didn’t have a decent full stop. Me, I got into the business end of music, management and production, and didn’t play for eight or nine years, and it was Shane that got me back into it.” Shane, of course, is Shane MacGowan the singer and main songwriter who’s noted both for his prodigious intake of alcohol and his wrenching songs of heartbreak, remorse, anger and joy – sometimes all of those tangled up in one package. At one point, he was kicked out of the Pogues for a variety of reasons, including failure to appear at shows. He’s been seen by many as someone in the Irish tradition of artistry-done-in-by-drink a la Brendan Behan. Then again, he’s alive and kicking, and many predicted that wouldn’t be the case at this point in time.
“For such a big important band,” continues Woods, “it galled me the Pogues quietly stopped. We never really fell out, we just fell apart. I thought it was very unfortunate. In 2001, one of business associates of the Pogues said he was getting interest from promoters about the possibility of a reunion, a Christmas show.” (It should be noted that MacGowan went on with a post-Pogues career, singing and writing with the Popes.) “He put out the feelers. He got interest back, put it together and got even better interest. So we played Christmas 2001, and did a small UK/ Irish tour. For me, it was the full stop that never happened. It was good for every one of us. When we went to rehearsals, it was as if we left the instruments down just a few months earlier. Playing the instruments was a bit like therapy, being able to get lost in music. I resolved at that point not to put the instruments away again … The tour went well, we all got on. It showed us things we were missing. There was a good reason to miss it, and there was an audience that wanted to hear what we had to offer.”
“We never wanted to get back to the way it was, the mad touring, that was self-destructive for us. But it became obvious there was enough work to do –certain things, at a reasonably high level, get paid for it, and enjoy without killing each other through drink, drugs or anything else. It kind of evolved from there. One of the last places we hadn’t played until last year was the USA , and it was such fun playing New York and Boston.” This year, they’ll rehearse where the tour starts, in Chicago, and play Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
Will there be any new material? No. “I’m writing, Shane is writing, I’m sure some of the others are writing,” says Woods. “We have had a tentative conversation about making a record; it hasn’t been totally shot out of the water. At the same time we haven’t agreed to do it next Wednesday. There won’ be new material (in concert). We will be dipping into the back catalog. On a personal level, I think it’d be a good idea” to do new material.
“One of the things I find strange is we’re developing a younger audience. I was expecting the Pogues audience to be older. While there are some older people, there’s quite a lot of young people. In some strange way, we’ve managed to keep street credibility without doing anything about it. For me, that’s wonderful. We never were in fashion in the first place. The rock music fashion – we never fitted into any of the categories, so we always were a bit left of center. We did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.”
And, the big question: How’s Shane? “He’s in really good form, for Shane he’s in great form. Shane is his own man; I retired from the wild life a long time ago. I retired defeated, but that’s fine. I can’t complain. But I grew up eventually, a little late. but I got that out. Shane is his own man. He’s not as bad as people think he is, but because he’s Shane they feel he’s worse than he is. That pisses me off, because they put him into corners. I’ve known Shane since he was young, and he was always awkward. He’d come into a bar and knock over your drink without having a drink in him. I joined the band because of Shane, the way he was writing. I’ve been since the ‘60s” – most notably with Steeleye Span – “and I never played from the emigrants view of Irish music and that’s what Shane had.” He was an Irish-born, London-raised kid, fueled by punk rock. He led a B-level punk band called the Nips.
Woods’ take on the Irish in America: “The Ireland Americans remember is long gone, it’s relevant to them. Playing with the Pogues, it amazes me the way it would bring the Irish out in people in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, anywhere there was an Irish connection. The rest of the year people didn’t feel Irish. To have this effect is a pretty lucky thing. It’s funny to affect people who don’t know me from Adam. It never ceases to amaze me.”
Funny note, post interview: The Pogues' "Sunny Side of the Street" popped up on tht TV during the Oscar broadcast. It seems Cadillac bought the rights and, indeed, it is a "sunny" song - especially before Shane starts barking. And he just barely starts as the commercialwinds down - the same thing Mitsubishi did with the Fall and Mark E. Smith in their current advert.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JimSullivan.com © Copyright 2006, unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved.
Hoist a pint! The Pogues return again!
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Jim Sullivan
jimsullivanink.com
[url=http://www.jimsullivanink.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=38]Full ULR[/url]
As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, so do the Pogues - for the second year running. They’ll be playing three shows at Avalon (with the final show Saturday March 10) and one at the Orpheum Theatre on the 11th. (Now, the shows are technically sold out, which means you may have to beg, borrow or steal a ticket somewhere on the street. Also, sometimes a venue, like the Orpheum, releases tickets held by the band for friends (that don't make it) right before show time.) The band that invented Celtic punk back in 1982 is in a zone somewhere between “active” and on “hiatus.” We rang up the Pogues mandolin player, Terry Woods, to get his take on the Pogues of 2007 and what they mean – yesterday and today.
“What happened, “ says Woods, who turns 60 at the end of the year, “was the end of the Pogues came in early ‘90s and that band fizzled out, didn’t have a decent full stop. Me, I got into the business end of music, management and production, and didn’t play for eight or nine years, and it was Shane that got me back into it.” Shane, of course, is Shane MacGowan the singer and main songwriter who’s noted both for his prodigious intake of alcohol and his wrenching songs of heartbreak, remorse, anger and joy – sometimes all of those tangled up in one package. At one point, he was kicked out of the Pogues for a variety of reasons, including failure to appear at shows. He’s been seen by many as someone in the Irish tradition of artistry-done-in-by-drink a la Brendan Behan. Then again, he’s alive and kicking, and many predicted that wouldn’t be the case at this point in time.
“For such a big important band,” continues Woods, “it galled me the Pogues quietly stopped. We never really fell out, we just fell apart. I thought it was very unfortunate. In 2001, one of business associates of the Pogues said he was getting interest from promoters about the possibility of a reunion, a Christmas show.” (It should be noted that MacGowan went on with a post-Pogues career, singing and writing with the Popes.) “He put out the feelers. He got interest back, put it together and got even better interest. So we played Christmas 2001, and did a small UK/ Irish tour. For me, it was the full stop that never happened. It was good for every one of us. When we went to rehearsals, it was as if we left the instruments down just a few months earlier. Playing the instruments was a bit like therapy, being able to get lost in music. I resolved at that point not to put the instruments away again … The tour went well, we all got on. It showed us things we were missing. There was a good reason to miss it, and there was an audience that wanted to hear what we had to offer.”
“We never wanted to get back to the way it was, the mad touring, that was self-destructive for us. But it became obvious there was enough work to do –certain things, at a reasonably high level, get paid for it, and enjoy without killing each other through drink, drugs or anything else. It kind of evolved from there. One of the last places we hadn’t played until last year was the USA , and it was such fun playing New York and Boston.” This year, they’ll rehearse where the tour starts, in Chicago, and play Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
Will there be any new material? No. “I’m writing, Shane is writing, I’m sure some of the others are writing,” says Woods. “We have had a tentative conversation about making a record; it hasn’t been totally shot out of the water. At the same time we haven’t agreed to do it next Wednesday. There won’ be new material (in concert). We will be dipping into the back catalog. On a personal level, I think it’d be a good idea” to do new material.
“One of the things I find strange is we’re developing a younger audience. I was expecting the Pogues audience to be older. While there are some older people, there’s quite a lot of young people. In some strange way, we’ve managed to keep street credibility without doing anything about it. For me, that’s wonderful. We never were in fashion in the first place. The rock music fashion – we never fitted into any of the categories, so we always were a bit left of center. We did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.”
And, the big question: How’s Shane? “He’s in really good form, for Shane he’s in great form. Shane is his own man; I retired from the wild life a long time ago. I retired defeated, but that’s fine. I can’t complain. But I grew up eventually, a little late. but I got that out. Shane is his own man. He’s not as bad as people think he is, but because he’s Shane they feel he’s worse than he is. That pisses me off, because they put him into corners. I’ve known Shane since he was young, and he was always awkward. He’d come into a bar and knock over your drink without having a drink in him. I joined the band because of Shane, the way he was writing. I’ve been since the ‘60s” – most notably with Steeleye Span – “and I never played from the emigrants view of Irish music and that’s what Shane had.” He was an Irish-born, London-raised kid, fueled by punk rock. He led a B-level punk band called the Nips.
Woods’ take on the Irish in America: “The Ireland Americans remember is long gone, it’s relevant to them. Playing with the Pogues, it amazes me the way it would bring the Irish out in people in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, anywhere there was an Irish connection. The rest of the year people didn’t feel Irish. To have this effect is a pretty lucky thing. It’s funny to affect people who don’t know me from Adam. It never ceases to amaze me.”
Funny note, post interview: The Pogues' "Sunny Side of the Street" popped up on tht TV during the Oscar broadcast. It seems Cadillac bought the rights and, indeed, it is a "sunny" song - especially before Shane starts barking. And he just barely starts as the commercialwinds down - the same thing Mitsubishi did with the Fall and Mark E. Smith in their current advert.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JimSullivan.com © Copyright 2006, unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved.
