What's your very first memory of hearing the Pogues

[cagliostro]

Ahh, wetwork. Yeah, I could get out my tools again. Just say the word, sir...

[Skylark]

I was around 17 and still living at home, around 1991, watching telly one night, when I came across a tight, tense little BBC drama called "A Man You Don't Meet Every Day" starring Harriet Walters. The plot seemed quite conventional at first, but had a surprising IRA twist at the end, as far as I can remember - and the whole atmosphere just had that special something you cannot put your finger on, but which leaves a great impression. During a scene in a bar, a band was playing in the background, and I sat glued to the telly afterwards to catch the band's name. Unfortunately, as it was before the Internet and I was living in a Danish suburb, merely knowing the name didn't help me much ... but thanks to Google and YouTube and Amazon, I have since been able to catch up. I remembered one specific line from the song and was able to track it down from there. Still have the image in my head of Shane McGowan lifting his sunglasses a little and singing "and I ruined my good looks down by the main drag" ...

[philipchevron]

I was around 17 and still living at home, around 1991, watching telly one night, when I came across a tight, tense little BBC drama called "A Man You Don't Meet Every Day" starring Harriet Walters. The plot seemed quite conventional at first, but had a surprising IRA twist at the end, as far as I can remember - and the whole atmosphere just had that special something you cannot put your finger on, but which leaves a great impression. During a scene in a bar, a band was playing in the background, and I sat glued to the telly afterwards to catch the band's name. Unfortunately, as it was before the Internet and I was living in a Danish suburb, merely knowing the name didn't help me much ... but thanks to Google and YouTube and Amazon, I have since been able to catch up. I remembered one specific line from the song and was able to track it down from there. Still have the image in my head of Shane McGowan lifting his sunglasses a little and singing "and I ruined my good looks down by the main drag" ...

The film has the peculiarity of having The Pogues on the soundtrack and Shane MacGowan and the Popes on film.

[Skylark]

I guess the film was made around the time Shane MG exited The Pogues? So the band in the film was his newly formed band, doing lip-sync to a song already recorded with his old band? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow

[just8]

In March 1985, Dutch television broadcast a british (Channel 4, I think) programme called 'The Tube'.
This programme featured bands playing live, and that show (which in the UK may have been broadcast in 1984) featured, among others, The Pogues. I had never heard of them before. Now some songs, when you hear them, you know within a couple of seconds they're great, and this was one such occasion. I was transfixed. The band on television played as if being chased by the devil. They played 3 songs, 'Boys from the county hell', 'Waxie's Dargle', - I don't know what the 3rd song was. (Boys from the county hell is, IMO, still one of their greatest songs). You all know the background vocals in Waxie's Dargle, I presume? Well, during this live version, they were shouting even harder and more out of tune than on Red Roses For Me. And it was brilliant, such energy - playing as if their life depended on it.
Next day, I went to the record store to see if they had any records by this band, and they had one - Red Roses For Me, which I immediately purchased (just the other week I had gotten a record coupon (or is that record voucher? English is not my mother's tongue) for my birthday). I remember my cousin visiting just as I was listening to it - the record was just at the end of 'Down in the ground where the dead men go' and he (being a Santana fan) wasn't as enthusiastic as I was (he said something like: What kind of noise are you listening to?)
Then, a couple of months later, Music Box (for those of you who are a bit younger than I am: that was a kind of precursor for MTV) showed the video for 'A pair of Brown Eyes'. The schedule for Music Box was, they showed music videos for 6 hours, and then repeat that 3 times. 24 hour-a-day broadcasting. Now, this was a year before I moved out with my parents, we didn't have a VCR, you couldn't plug a tapedeck in the TV, so 6 hours later I sat with my little brother's portable radio/cassette player in front of the TV to record this song, so I could listen to it some more times. (This was years before the internet, we had to make our own fun).
Flash forward a couple of months, Rum Sodomy & The Lash was released, but not yet in the Netherlands, so I purchased a british import because I didn't want to wait for a couple of weeks.
And some weeks later I saw them play at The Paradiso and I had to leave halfway because I had to catch the last $%&*ing train (they have night trains now - and I have a car now - no, wait, driving after a Pogues gig? maybe not an ideal situation... ).

[mats]

driving after a Pogues gig? maybe not an ideal situation... ).

not before, during or after.........

great story by the way

[coyley]

Well it'd be the Bull and Bush Putney, round about 1985 or so - video for a pair of brown eyes was being recorded that night. Wild time, great night - My mate Mick had been listening to Red Roses for Me and I heard the tape, (yes tape), a few times but the gig - awesome -. I remember seeing Robiie Coltraine turn up too - hanging with the band after great fun. the first of many. And now I'm reminiscing because I'm off to Manchester friday to see them again, like being 22 again

[darrencp22]

I was a teenager in New York City and heard The Pogues were going to be on Saturday Night Live. I had heard of them before mostly because my last name is Pogue and from Shane's love of booze, but had never heard any Pogues music before. I watched SNL and The Pogues performed White City. Fan ever since.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can find clips of their performance? I can't find anything on youTube. I also can't remember the other song they played.

[kmurray105]

I was a teenager in New York City and heard The Pogues were going to be on Saturday Night Live. I had heard of them before mostly because my last name is Pogue and from Shane's love of booze, but had never heard any Pogues music before. I watched SNL and The Pogues performed White City. Fan ever since.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can find clips of their performance? I can't find anything on youTube. I also can't remember the other song they played.

They played Body of an American. They did not play Battle of Brisbane. There was a discussion on this some years back on the fora so you might be able to search around and see if a video was linked somewhere.

[DzM]

I was a teenager in New York City and heard The Pogues were going to be on Saturday Night Live. I had heard of them before mostly because my last name is Pogue and from Shane's love of booze, but had never heard any Pogues music before. I watched SNL and The Pogues performed White City. Fan ever since.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can find clips of their performance? I can't find anything on youTube. I also can't remember the other song they played.

They played Body of an American. They did not play Battle of Brisbane. There was a discussion on this some years back on the fora so you might be able to search around and see if a video was linked somewhere.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=287

[old barney greyheron]

Darren...maybe you can't get the clips where you are...there are thousands.

[Villajohn]

Coyley,you were almost right,the actual venue was the Bull and Gate,Kentish Town,i have a photo of Mr.Coltrane taken with a young lady who he took an instant disliking to,as she was wearing a swastika badge and also a badge depicting the face of Myra Hindley.Alex Cox arrived too late to set up his equiptment the way he would have liked,but he did film the gig,but,if my memory serves me correctly,the actual print was not considered good enough by all concerned.Great night though.

[IrishTexan]

1984... Dave Fanning on RTE Radio 2 when I should have been doing my homework. That drum roll at the beginning of Sally MacLennane caught my attention, got Rum.. that same Christmas and have been hooked ever since. It's travelled across the world with me and I'm listening to it now on the other side of the world 26 years later and it still gives me goosebumps.

[Mike M]

I suspect, although I cannot confirm, that my first contact with The Pogues was probably through MTV's iconic "120 Minutes", during the years when it was hosted by Dave Kendall. I have definite memories of seeing the video for "White City", but I'm thinking there must have been others prior to that, as I remember knowing *of* the band well before Peace and Love was released.

I do, however, have a very distinct memory of the first person I ever met that had seen the band live...met him around 1990, and he had seen them here in St. Louis at the now-defunct Mississippi Nights nightclub. I wasn't living in St. Louis at the time, but was a mere 90 miles away. Of course, being the days of no internet, I had no way to find out about shows in STL, so naturally missed my chance to see the boys before the big break-up. I remember being insanely jealous at the time that he had been able to see them live, and in a fairly small club, and I had not. The jealousy was finally tempered a bit when I got to see the boys live in KC in '09, but I still wish I'd been at that earlier show...

[Smoz]

1984... Dave Fanning on RTE Radio 2 when I should have been doing my homework. That drum roll at the beginning of Sally MacLennane caught my attention, got Rum.. that same Christmas and have been hooked ever since. It's travelled across the world with me and I'm listening to it now on the other side of the world 26 years later and it still gives me goosebumps.

Apologies for being in pedantic mode but RS&TL came out in August 1985.

http://www.pogues.com/Releases/Disco/LPs.html

The release of this album was also my first hearing of the Pogues, I bought a copy without having heard any of the tracks on it, I had read about the band in the UK music press and thought that it was worth taking a chance on buying it.