What's your very first memory of hearing the Pogues

**Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:39 pm**

First that I really am sure of was in Iceland. It was in a Reykjavik hotel room. I was there with this ex-girlfriend of mine and they played a loop of christmas songs on a music channel in television. One of the songs was Fairytale of New York. We were in Iceland because we were on our way from Finland to spend christmas in New york! We just stopped in Iceland for two nights to check Reykjavik out.

I immediately fell in love with the song and the style the band had. I remember hearing the song again in New York. When I got back to Finland, I went to a library and borrowed IISFFGWG. The beginning of a life long love. (with me and the music, I haven´t seen the girl in years)

Anyway, I am sure that I have heard Dirty Old Town thousands of times before that.

**Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:15 pm**

but it must have been either "A pair of brown eyes" on Sky Channel or music from Sid & Nancy Love kills. I didn' t listen to the radio in the 80's, but Sky Channel was the best and I remember seeing very interesting music video which later turned out to be Pogues song.

But not until "Fairytale of New York" was a hit at christmas 87, I really discovered The Pogues.

**Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:08 pm**

i'll try an keep this brief. i first heard the pogues when i was 8. i shared a room with my bro who is 8 yrs my senior and i would listen to his music with him. although i don't remember the very first time i do recall soon after 'rum' came out me singin spiders parts to his shane during 'sally'.
coming from glasgow he would go and see the pogues every time,2 an 3 nights on the trot at the barrowland (best concert hall in the world ) and come home with drunken stories of mayhem, sometimes a wrestled for set-list, a poster or tshirt.the next weekend he'd get the bootleg from the barras market and i could live the show, terrace chanting and all. although the tapes were recorded in the crowd it was no accident that sometimes you couldn't hear shanes voice for the audience. i couldn't get into the shows cos it was over 18's but he always promised to take me one day.
i think it was 88 they played the SEC, with separate bar which meant i could go. YES! he got seating tickets for him,his mates and myself(aye, seating, always looking out for me even if it means seating at the pogues ) i was 11 and i'll never forget it. i have since seen them almost every scottish date as well as shane and popes in amsterdam, london and edinburgh. im 30 now and almost as excited now about seeing the pogues at the academy in december as i was 20 yrs ago. LONG LIVE THE POGUES!

**Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:24 pm**

Probably about '86 on a juke box at my local at the time, I think it was"Sally"I used to put it on every time I went to the bar which was quite often back then...Might be wrong with the year though 'cos it's a time when I spent most of my free life in the pubs

**Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:09 pm**

I am very happy to join in these forums... I regret not joining sooner... I hope to revel in the camaraderie :wink:

In 1990 a girlfriend gifted to me a leather jacket with Red Roses For Me in a pocket... The first time I wore the jacket was a week later at autumnal equinox... i ended up taking LSD and discovered the tape... i set for home and spent the rest of the night playing it over and over and over. My memories are dear and the Pogues has been my favorite band ever since. My Favourite song at that time was Auld Triangle and Red Roses will always have a place in my heart alongside all the other albums

Currently I have had a deep love for Lorelei and A Rainy Night In Soho...

**Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:27 am**

Welcome onboard Neal. Will you be making any shows this year?

**Fri Oct 12, 2007 3:48 pm**

I hadn't heard the Pogues until 1991 when I was a deckhand on a 100 year old Norwegian ship sailing from Australia to France with a mainly UK crew. Someone had a tape of Red Roses for Me. I fell in love with the Pogues then, Shane's voice screaming with the wind through the sails....

**Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:51 pm**

I first heard the Pogues on an Irish compilation cassette tape that featured a live version of "Dirty Old Town". I was a budding teenager from a very conservative home and had really only been exposed to gospel music and some really bad 80s pop. When I heard "Blue Heaven" and "Lorelei" off P&L at a friend's birthday party I was hooked. I begged my friend for a copy (being without funds to purchase my own) and proceeded to wear the tape out. From that point on I expanded my Pogues collection whenever I could. To this day I am continually impressed with the depth and candor of their lyrics and their heart-felt vocals. Plus they are just damned good musicians and entertainers to boot.

**Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:39 am**

Hearing Sally Maclennan in a Liverpool nightclub 1985

& then seeing them Xmas of the same year on a thursday night at Liverpool university...then going into school the next day with a black eye after an unfortunate encounter with a friends elbow during Streams of Whisky

**Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:50 pm**

I actually can't remember when i first heard the Pogues, but i remember lying on the hood of my friend Dave's car, being driven slowly home from midnight mass on Xmas eve, several friends walking beside the car, all loudly singing Fairytale... , so i'm guessing it was '88, making me 15. I shone like a star on the "I coulda bin someone..." line.

**Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:23 pm**

My first memory of ever hearing a Pogues song was when I was about 2 years old. I was in our backyard on our swingset and my dad was blasting "Bottle of Smoke" and my mom was screaming at him because the song has bad language. Haha, good times.

**Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:08 pm**

Mine was listening to "Red Roses For Me". A friend of mine lent me the album. The power in the music and lyrics connected with me straight away. Shane is very articulate and writes superb lyrics. To hear those words wrapped up in such exhilarating arrangements was life changing. I then got a copy of "Rum Sodomy & The Lash on vinyl,which I have almost worn out.

Dazzler

**Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:54 pm**

I remember my husband (yeah, we’re truly old, unlike DmZ) came home one day in the early eighties with this amazing tape, Rum Sodomy and the Lash.

We wore the tape out, and bought more. Took them on sabbatical in France in ’89-90. Our youngest heard them plenty before he was hatched.

Now we have the CD’s.

I loved, still do, Old Main Drag and Rainy Night in Soho. The Pogues’ music is funny and poignant, the love songs really are love songs, and it’s way easier to explain about swear words to a 5 year old than to explain about violence.

**Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:20 pm**

Sandyfromvancouver wrote:.... and it’s way easier to explain about swear words to a 5 year old than to explain about violence.

I agree. My daughter picked up "bloody" and "bastard" outright.... "F@ youz all" (Popes) was dismissed as Efusol (a chemical... or so I claimed). All this to a 3-6 year old who was in the 99th percentile within her peer group for knowing whiskey songs. Sorry, that's parental pride.

But violence is another story. Very hard to explain why people hurt or kill other people, or that dad's job is somehow tied up in all that (U.S. DoD). But I don't dodge it.

Back to the core of this topic. I can picture as I type, the room I was sitting in, the angle from which I was looking at the stereo from, and the general disposition of the room, that Sunday morning I first heard the Pogues. My first thought was that they sounded like a lot of people playing real instruments. By the end of IISFFGWG I realized my first hunch was right on. I liked it, but didn't seek it out until years later. Now I'm an addict.

"My name is Eric V and I'm a Pogues addict."

**Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:12 pm**

Happy 3000th post Mr V.

What's your very first memory of hearing the Pogues

Not quite sure

first time

First memory

First Hearing of the Pogues

First hearing the Pogues

Re: First hearing the Pogues

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