What's your very first memory of hearing the Pogues

[philipchevron]

15 years old, hearing "London Girl" being played on Irish radio. Was stunned: it sounded exicting, full-on, alive, and completely unlike any of the other shyte that was polluting the airwaves back in the mid eighties (jaysis it was an awful time for music). Through the Pogues I got to know the Clash, and from then on the floodgates were open.

The Pogues saved me from crap music. And if any of them are reading this, thanks, lads!

"London Girl" was a good record. Welcome to Medusa!

[Beholder]

Welcome to Medusa!

Thanks very much!

[Welshie]

Beholder, don't know if you've read my first memory, but it was very similar. Hearing London Girl and thinking "thats different".
Welcome
Aled

[Beholder]

Beholder, don't know if you've read my first memory, but it was very similar. Hearing London Girl and thinking "thats different".
Welcome
Aled

I can't claim to have read your mind, Welshie, as I have difficulty enough reading my own. London Girl was a cracking little song, though (and still is, for that matter).

[Welshie]

Didnt describe that very well Beholder (English is my 2nd language!) i've left a similar post earlier on in this thread.
London girl cracking song, also enjoyed body of an american as well.
Cheers
Aled

[Chris C]

This is the way I remember it, anyway --

1993 and I was in the US Navy. I'm the right age (41) that I should have been aware of the Pogues as a teenager, but wasn't. A Navy friend and I were in an "Irish Pub" in (I think) Spain, drinking Guinness and the stereo was playing some sort of Celtic/New Age elevator stuff. I was complaining, saying I'd never been to Ireland (I have since) but I'm pretty sure they don't sit around drinking and listening to this crap. He said I should check out the Pogues. He only had Pogues on LPs so he didn't have them shipped over, so he had none to lend me.

A few weeks later we were in Paris and sitting in an Irish Pub (you can see this was a habit). There was a band and they were fine. People came and sat in, we continued drinking and conversing. As different people were sitting it, the energy level just started rising exponentially. I was enjoying it greatly, and my friend repeated that if I liked this, I really needed to check out some Pogues. Later we talked to one of the guys and turns out he (and some of the others) were in the Pogues. To this day I can't tell you who was there - the guy we talked to played whistle, so maybe James McNally. Needless to say, when we finished our trip, I went down to the base exchange and ordered some Pogues CDs. Been a fan ever since. Finally got to see them this year in Dallas.

[mekongwhiskey]

I was listening to KROQ in L.A. with Richard Blade as deejay (Best deejay everrrrr... miss him to death) mid 80's, I guess, when Fairy Tale came on. When it got to the "scumbag, maggot.... faggot part, I was like, "WTF????"

[Clash Cadillac]

I was listening to KROQ in L.A. with Richard Blade as deejay (Best deejay everrrrr... miss him to death) mid 80's, I guess, when Fairy Tale came on. When it got to the "scumbag, maggot.... faggot part, I was like, "WTF????"

Richard Blade now does a show on the Sirius stationFirst Wave.

[mekongwhiskey]

Thanks for the info, Clash Cadillac. My husband gets Sirius in his car, so I get to enjoy Richard Blade on First Wave occasionally, but I miss turning on the regular old radio and hearing his commentaries on local events , and music group interviews, in addition to the great music he plays. I was ecstatic to find him on satellite radio, however. I'll take whatever I can get!

[cagliostro]

I was just getting into that evil punk rock music in Wichita, Kansas in the mid-late 80's. The radio station that actually played it there was a college station, and they only played it from 12am-5am. It was a dedicated bunch, I assure you. I would randomly tape and happened to catch what I later found was called Sally Maclennane. What I didn't tape was the part where the DJ said who the artist was and what the name of the song was. I loved the song, and wanted more, but couldn't figure out how to track it down. MTV had a show called the Cutting Edge that ran a little section on the Pogues. I don't remember if I remember this correctly, but I remember it in black and white with Shane smoking at the piano. When I first saw the Fairytale of New York video, it looked just the same. I would kill today to have that bit from the Cutting Edge. But the upshot is that I finally had the name of the band, but not the song. I picked up Poguetry in Motion, then Red Roses for Me, and finally Rum Sodomy and the Lash, where I finally found the song I was looking for. It all felt so exotic to me, and Red Roses for Me in particular. RSatL was a pretty quick love, and when Fall From Grace came out, I picked it up the first day and was cemented as a fan. It took me a few years to fall in love with Roses - I think it was when I started to enjoy drinking that I really fell in love with it, truth be told. I later worked at that radio station as a DJ for that show, and I played a lot of Pogues.

[DzM]

MTV had a show called the Cutting Edge that ran a little section on the Pogues. I don't remember if I remember this correctly, but I remember it in black and white with Shane smoking at the piano. When I first saw the Fairytale of New York video, it looked just the same. I would kill today to have that bit from the Cutting Edge.

Was it this clip?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6a7OkN-W-c

[cagliostro]

It might have been, but I know they did more than one song. Why the hell didn't I tape it?

[DzM]

It might have been, but I know they did more than one song. Why the hell didn't I tape it?

That clip has two songs. Dirty Ol' Town and Body of an American (in B&W no less), plus some Shane and Spider interviewing.

It came from MTV in the late 1980s, featured B&W, etc. Seems a pretty close match.

[cagliostro]

Oh, hell, yeah....I do think that must be it. I don't have sound at work, so I watched a bit of the beginning and put it in the basket of "things I must watch when I get home." I kicked around through the vid and that was definitely the host of The Cutting Edge, so this is most definitely it. Thanks for presenting that. It really is responsible for me finally being able to track them down. And now I can watch it again after all this time. Very cool. Thanks again.

[DzM]

Oh, hell, yeah....I do think that must be it. I don't have sound at work, so I watched a bit of the beginning and put it in the basket of "things I must watch when I get home." I kicked around through the vid and that was definitely the host of The Cutting Edge, so this is most definitely it. Thanks for presenting that. It really is responsible for me finally being able to track them down. And now I can watch it again after all this time. Very cool. Thanks again.

Yay! I helped!

Now about that hit ... lessee ... who do I need killed? Lessee....