'Red Roses for Me' sleeve

[Mick Molloy]

Okay so today I got the Red Rose for Me Lp and for the first time I actually looked at I have to ask two things:

1) Why isn't Andrew on the normal picture but is he stuck somewhere in the corner
2) What's that with the JFK painting (I had never seen that before and yeah I know I should be ashamed now)

[Zuzana]

1) Why isn't Andrew on the normal picture but is he stuck somewhere in the corner

"(...) by the time they realized that the front cover photos would have to be re-done, Andrew had disappeared on holiday. A small Ranken mugshot was subsequently slapped beneath the rest of the band."
(from the one and only Lost Decade)

[Fitzgerald]

Hahah, Ranken just disappeared on holiday? Hilarious.

[TheIrishRover]

John F. Kennedy was an Irish-American president. He took alot of trips and stuff to Ireland, and he's fairly liked there. From what I've heard, it's not uncommon to find paintings/pictures of him hanging in people's houses, especially ten and twenty years ago.

[MacRua]

Another citation from the geek:<blockquote>So we’d not only get rock gigs, we played loads of Irish venues, and ballrooms and weddings, and things like that, where there would be three generations of people digging it. Like, at one gig, a priest introduced us. And we played with the Shillelagh Sisters, in the big hall in front, with the Kennedy picture, in the Camden Irish Centre. (A photo of the Pogues in front of this same Kennedy painting adorns the cover of their first album; “Red Roses For Me”)...
A Drink With Shane MacGowan Reviewed by Rory Dubhdara</blockquote>
I wouldn't insist it was the same painting but it's atmospheric, so to say, for sure

[firehazard]

And I used to know why Shane has his foot in plaster in the picture on the back of the sleeve (love those coats, too), but for the moment I can't remember. Doubtless someone can remind me...

[MacRua]

According to Ann Scanlon Shane "had been involved in a late night collision with three flights of stairs, suffered a broken ankle and now carried a stick"

[firehazard]

Yes, I remember the story now. Thanks once again, MacRua.

[Mick Molloy]

Yeah I know about JFK but I thought there might've been some other explanation

[philipchevron]

Another citation from the geek:<blockquote>So we’d not only get rock gigs, we played loads of Irish venues, and ballrooms and weddings, and things like that, where there would be three generations of people digging it. Like, at one gig, a priest introduced us. And we played with the Shillelagh Sisters, in the big hall in front, with the Kennedy picture, in the Camden Irish Centre. (A photo of the Pogues in front of this same Kennedy painting adorns the cover of their first album; “Red Roses For Me”)...
A Drink With Shane MacGowan Reviewed by Rory Dubhdara</blockquote>
I wouldn't insist it was the same painting but it's atmospheric, so to say, for sure

It is indeed the same painting, a focal point of the Irish Centre in Camden Town. And yes, Andrew was on holidays, so his face appears serarately on what has come to be known as "the paper doily". Andrew redeemed himself by titling the next album.

[Guest]

There was always a picture of JFK in my grans house in Sligo, prob after two of my aunts emigrated to America. He was seen as a great man in Ireland.
There's a reference to JFK in a Christy Moore song, I think called Delirium Tremlus, which is obviously about going thru the horrors after being on the lash.
Goes something like " pulled my head from under the blankets, looked up at the fire place, the pope and John F Kennedy were staring at me face, suddenly it dawned on me, I was getting the ole DT's, as the Child of Prague began to dance up on the mantelpiece!"

[MacRua]

TREMENS