Rehearsal Jams

[AllBusiness37]

Whenever the Pogues have played live in recent years, the set list has been fairly standardized, as it must be though, for with playing only a handful of times each year, I imagine that the band wants to deliver the best of its output to its fans during the few short hours that they spend together.

Still, I wonder if there are any songs that the band likes to play during rehearsals for the reason that they won't make it into the set list. Are there or have there been any, Philip? (Does the band even continue to practice at this point?)

[DownInTheGround]

Whenever the Pogues have played live in recent years, the set list has been fairly standardized, as it must be though, for with playing only a handful of times each year, I imagine that the band wants to deliver the best of its output to its fans during the few short hours that they spend together.

Still, I wonder if there are any songs that the band likes to play during rehearsals for the reason that they won't make it into the set list. Are there or have there been any, Philip? (Does the band even continue to practice at this point?)

Good question, we demand to know!

[philipchevron]

Whenever the Pogues have played live in recent years, the set list has been fairly standardized, as it must be though, for with playing only a handful of times each year, I imagine that the band wants to deliver the best of its output to its fans during the few short hours that they spend together.

Still, I wonder if there are any songs that the band likes to play during rehearsals for the reason that they won't make it into the set list. Are there or have there been any, Philip? (Does the band even continue to practice at this point?)

If a "new" old song has made it as far as a soundcheck or rehearsal, there is a strong chance it has been propelled to such a lofty position following weeks or even months of discussion and preparation, at first gentle, almost casual, more mentioned in irony than shrewd thinking, really, forget I brought it up at all.....but then, gradually, with some still almost imperceptible sense of purpose attached, it is Returned To. James, for example, may have been "breaking in" his new mobile laptop printer, say, and found himself cutting and pasting some Pogues lyrics as a test project. Nothing special, mind, just any old Pogues song really. 'Hell's Ditch', 'Connemara, Let's Go', 'London You're A Lady', 'Lorca's Novena', 'Transmetropolitan', 'Sea Shanty', 'Rake At The Gates of Hell'........why the list is almost, by definition, infinite. Such blindingly good songs really. Who knew? Stonkin' Geronimo.

It the song's chances of staging a comeback should falter at this crucial soundcheck/rehearsal hurdle, this will most likely have occurred at one of a couple of vitally strategic points, which is not to rule out the guest appearance of a fresh stumbling block not hitherto encountered, previously suspected, or had extra supplies of winter fuel laid in as insurance against itself. The band will have run it down a few times, Spider multitasking as deputy lead vocalist, Man On Phone and occasional tin whistler, in advance of Mac's scheduled personal appearance, using the time to iron out the ever-vexatious question of whether Terry's cittern break is ad-libbed as a Kerry "three" or a Galway "six" and someone, most likely Darryl, may even have gotten as far as translating this into drummer-speak for Andrew's benefit ("that's ONCEs round, Andy, not twices, ok?" "Thank you, Darryl, and now, kindly fuck off".). A tiny degree of static will be hiding somewhere in the corner of the room on foot of Daz's presumption that he, not Woods, should have emerged as the Keeper Of The West Clare Repetitions after all these centuries, but it will have flickered and extinguished itself in an impressive display of spontaneous combustion. Soon the tune will have taken on an acceptable approximation of whatever it was that made it work last time we played it. Soon, from all or most parties involved, there will be hooplas of "rockin", "grand, so", nothing more commited or enthused than that. Indeed, the nonchalant shrug of a now otherly-reveréed shoulder of bassist may be enough to signal a positive approach to the resurrection.

Then Shane will show up and will suddenly realise he cannot remember nearly as many lyrics of the new/old song as he'd thought he could manage. Not necessarily a disastrous turn of events however, as one of James's brace of daughters back in Los Angeles will thoughtfully have been mucking about on Pop's scanner/printer a few weeks back and...well, guess what spewed up, entirely by coincidence when the machine was switched on? You got it. Well, well, there's an episode for Bloguemahone, for sure. After Mac has touched base with the new/old song's text for the first time in 20 years or more, an odd squinting mechanism has begun to creep into its contemporary performance curve. Shane, the only Pogue who does not use eyeglasses for reading these days, is also perhaps the one most in need of some basic pointers from an even semi-qualified optician. We could loan him one of our many pairs of course, but, well, it's Shane we're talking about here. He might actually LIKE them, and never give them back and, well, that's all very well, but what are the chances he'll believe you bought them in a moment of affirmative hubris masquerading as ever-improving levels of self-esteem, exchanging $750 for the privilege at some airport shop or other? Indeed, how would you even BEGIN to deconstruct such high-tech psychobabble concepts with him? How would he accept the news that this is, indeed, the World he now lives in? That might not rest easily on his stomach for days, weeks even. So, bad idea. Besides, as even the dogs in the street appear to have confided in him, everyone knows that if Shane needed glasses, Shane could and would HAVE the glasses of his wildest dreams, complete with imbedded emeralds, should the mood so strike him at his point of purchase.

In this manner, then, will the matter have been settled. The decision is unspoken, but it is no less unanimous for all that - we will Return To this song once Shane has struck an ideological position on the subject of emerald-imbeds which will not stand between him and a morally-uncompromised good night's sleep. Tomorrow, next week, next year, some day, never. Touchingly, Mac indicates only temporary retreat by carefully folding up the lyrics and adding them to the contents of today's plastic bag, whence they may or may not later re-emerge to receive the singer's private perusal in more ambient environments. This is certainly no less than the lyrics deserve, especially once you have factored in considerations about the diligence of the Fearnley girls. We all greet this plan with a broad but mainly accordant repertoire of Actors Studio hums, clucks and farts of affirmation, The current guitarist has even attempted one of those emotional and furious bouts of head nodding which transliterates approximately to "identifying with you to the max here, buddy, let it all out on the floor, man. Own it, dude. Secrets keep you sick" one sees so often in AA Rooms as Brooklyn Barney - there's one in every town - spills his guts about that unfortunate business in Coney Island. Had they only known where to look for Barney, the cops could have closed in on Barney's twilight world many times. But that was the trouble with Cops, wasn't it?. They never needed AA Rooms because they never had the moral....stuff....to become real Alkies in the first place.

In any event, we appear to be agreed. It does indeed sound grand-so, rockin etc etc. Think how REALLY good it could be if there were a bit of a vocal on top. The glory of the anticipation of it all will keep us strong, steadfast. These things can't be rushed. By now the current guitarist will be languidly, idly, controversially but, in any case, silencefully, speculating on an otherwise unaddressed presumption that even if Shane DID possess a good sturdy pair of working glasses, he'd rather use them to commit to memory the entire works of the great gentleman poets of Ireland, in the original laudinum-burnished Gaelic, than expend brain power on re-learning the likes of 'Billy's Bones' which, as Shane will invariably point out with his usual faultless logic, EVERYBODY knows the words of! Even James's DAUGHTERS know it, and they live in Bloody Los Angeles! At this stage, the banjo player's more immediate concerns appear to be lying in the minor irritation of his most recent manicure, and he will now address himself singlemindedly to the task of paring down his nails, the better to accomodate the special banjo picks he uses. Of this assembly of musos, Jem Finer is almost certainly alone in posessing the galvanizing combination of charisma and tact required to move this donkey a little further into the meadow but alas, his fondness for efficiency and getting-the-job-done is almost always fatally compromised by his devotion to Zen codes of living and observational sentry-duty. Spider will have put his whistle away and resumed the relishable cellphone conversation he had been having with the T-Shirt people about why there were not enough "XLs" available at last night's show ("where are we, the fucken' MidWest already?"). Not much point consulting the memory banks for the whistle counterpoints and descants in the midst of such an unpromising-looking impasse.

Sometimes though, I wonder if there's not a bit more double-bluffing going on than most of us would care to admit to. We LOVE these songs - the ones we don't love stand no chance of even getting INTO the preliminary rounds of the ironic mention shortlists. Every time we go back to one, there's always a chance we called it wrong in the first place and, well, life is just too deflating already these days without positively inviting deflation to come on in, make itself at home, have a couple of scoops, see what's shaking................

[Irish Rover]

What a great insight into the band

Cheers Philip

[Fr. McGreer]

Brilliant reading, thanks Mr. Chevron. What about getting the cittern player to dust off South Australia on the next tour. Audience participation assurred! HEAVE AWAY, HAUL AWAY!

[nboldock]

What a fantastic post, Philip. Great reading.

[AllBusiness37]

Never before have I read a more stunning articulation of the rehearsal process! I opened the thread, indulged both my intellect and my heart, checked the time of day, and I was moved. (jokes)

In all sincerity, thanks for the insight. It's a very interesting depiction of the band's dynamics.

[Simon]

Thanks Phillip a great read

[Mick Molloy]

Hahahaha it all sounds so familiar

[Simon Maguire]

Thats great read Phil, Edited 105 Times in a day?

[Funkfuzzi]

Hahahaha it all sounds so familiar

that's right...except for the reading glasses !

[Beisty]

So, that clears that up then.

[Corey MacLennane]

So what was the answer?