Statement from Shane re: Bham cancellation, July 2005

[Ingrid Knetsch (F.o.S.)]

Ingrid, Shane would like you to post the following statement on the forum.Thanks, Gerry.

Official Statement from Shane Mac Gowan July 3rd 2005

Shane would like to state that he was very ill with a stomach complaint this week and is very sorry to have have disappointed you all with the cancelled shows.However he is feeling a little better and would like to thank you all for your patience and messages of support. He would also like to clear up any confusion with regard to upcoming gigs billed as Shane Mac Gowan & The Popes, there will be no more Shane Mac Gowan & The Popes shows without an official statement from Shane.There have been gigs billed under the above title publicised on the internet, billboards etc where Shane had not personally committed to the shows.Shane would like you to know that he is writing and going through a creative time, he will be concentrating on this and looks forward to announcing future projects.

[DzM]

Hello Ingrid, and welcome to the Medusa fora. Thanks for passing along this note from Shane. I'm sure it will go a long way to clearing up the recent confusion and speculation.

I look forward to future participation from you here!

[wwfcpogue]

thanks ingrid and thanks shane for this statement ,i hope youre well soon my son .im confused sumwhat about this statement ,you say' he was not commited to some of these gigs personaly ,and there wil be no more until a futher statement from shane' as he is busy in a creative mode [ie writing?]
do i read this right? the tickets i hold for the brum gig are probably better being handed back in?it looks that way to me ,and it looks as if the shane macgowan and the popes are no more
ive never said a bad thing about shane ,nor may i add never will ,but if he was ill all week ,why oh why cancell the gig at 5.00pm ,i didnt know until five to six ,a call from ticket web alerted me to the cancellation
this announcement is intriguiging ,gigs have been set up ,money spent without shane even knowing he was commited to them? strange !!!!!!!!!!1

[Guest]

"He would also like to clear up any confusion with regard to upcoming gigs billed as Shane Mac Gowan & The Popes, there will be no more Shane Mac Gowan & The Popes shows without an official statement from Shane"

If Shane says he's ill I believe him, but the wording of his statement combined with the cancellations does make you wonder whether he is distancing himself from the Popes. Whether the last six words of that sentence above should be there at all?

The last FIVE consecutive shows, spanning May June July, of Shane MacGowan & the Popes have been cancelled (Glasgow, London, Norwich, Birmingham, Manchester). Even for a man with a rep for cancelling shows (often exaggertated BTW) this is unprecedented. Perhaps it's coincidence, a run of bad luck, ill health / poor promotion, but it does make you wonder if it's not the first step towards his working more with a certain other band begining with P.

[The King]

This sounds kind of like when Morrissey cancelled playing The Isle Of Wight festival a couple of weeks before it actually occurred recently. He claimed that he himself had never agreed to play it. However, he must have known it was being advertised and that people were buying tickets for it to see him. I feel that this must be the case here

[territa]

Ingrid, would you please clarify something for us? In what capacity is Gerry O'Boyle speaking on behalf of Shane?

[Guest]

I imagine Shane was down Gerry's boozer and Gerry worded the statement for him. If O'Boyle is taking a greater hand in Shane's affairs, this is a surely a good thing. O'Boyle is 1) a razorsharp businessman and promotor. 2) He is absolutely teetotal. Needless to say, Shane's current manager is infamous for being neither.

[Guest]

MySpace URL

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Shane Macgowan on Myspace

Yes, this is actually Shane Macgowan's myspace account.

Other "official" websites seem to get information such as tour dates, etc. wrong and Shane thought this would be the best way to open up a direct line of communication with his fans around the world & bypass irresponsible webmasters who are content to pass on misinformation. For example, some of the Popes shows have been billed incorrectly as including Shane when he never had an intention of fronting the band for those dates. Subsequently the dates would be included on the aforementioned "official" websites & fans would become disappointed with Shane "not showing up", and misinformed rumors in regards to his health, etc. would arise.

Shane may post a few "blogs" on here or whatever he feels up to it. Remember tho Shane is concentratign on his writing during this time & is working on some future projects.

We will be getting a few songs up soon enough.

cheers,
-jc

[DzM]

MySpace URL

Other "official" websites seem to get information such as tour dates, etc. wrong and Shane thought this would be the best way to open up a direct line of communication with his fans around the world & bypass irresponsible webmasters who are content to pass on misinformation.

I'll make the assumption that this is genuine for the purposes of a rebuttal.

This is a dig at the <i>Friends of Shane</i>, <i>Pumpaction Paddy</i>, and <i>Medusa</i> sites and our ability to keep accurate dates regarding Shane and his shows (though I wonder to what extent <i>Medusa</i> is included since I have never claimed to be an authoritative source of information for Shane's shows). Never-the-less, I feel as though we are all being branded unfairly and must respond.

The problems with making reliable information available to fans has never been due to a lack of desire to provide timely and accurate information, nor a twisted desire to provide misguided and misleading information. It's always been due to the (very well advertised) lack of effective communication from Shane's management. If errors were made in trying to get information to the fans, they were made with the best of intentions and based upon the only information available.

The janitors for these sites have extremely easy to locate contact information on their pages. If Shane has been misrepresented by the sites a simple solution has always been for Shane (or his designated representatives) to simply email the janitors with timely and accurate information. I'm absolutely positive each of us would be delighted to make the information available in a professional way.

So an open offer to Shane, his representatives, and all the rest of The Pogues and their representatives:

If you want to get word out to your fans about live shows, music releases, your latest projects, your opinions on the merits of fine literature, etc you are cordially invited to contact me directly at "dzm@dzm.com". I will be delighted to make your information available on http://www.pogues.com . Some members of The Pogues do this today with satisfactory results, and some go so far as directly participating on the fora here, again with satisfactory results. I am positive that if you extend the courtesy of contact to the site janitors of http://www.shanemacgowan.com and http://www.pumpactionpaddy.com they will also extend to you like services, all for the low low cost of "free."

I have confidence that working with us will get you much more positive results than establishing difficult to find and infrequently updated web sites ( http://www.shanemacgowanofficialtourdates.com ) or membership in cliquish community sites ( http://www.myspace.com/shanemacgowan ).

Thanks for your attention, and I look forward to hearing from you.

DzM

[Guest]

"The problems with making reliable information available has never been due to a lack of desire to provide timely and accurate information nor a desire for misguided and misleading information. It's always been due to the (very well advertised) lack of effective communication from Shane's management. If errors were made in trying to get information to the fans, they were made with the best of intentions and based upon the only information available."

---------------------------

you're quite right of course DzM ... And you do a great job here! Same goes for the other websites - trying their best, often with conflicting info, espec re Shane & the Popes shows.

[Ingrid Knetsch (F.o.S.)]

I have confidence that working with us will get you much more positive results than establishing difficult to find and infrequently updated web sites ( http://www.shanemacgowanofficialtourdates.com ) or membership in cliquish community sites ( http://www.myspace.com/shanemacgowan ).


Hi Dzm,

I agree 100% with you, though I think that statement was just another desparate try from some life time looser to get back on scene. A good laugh, really.

Keep up the good work.

Ingrid

[DzM]

Thank you Ingrid. And likewise to you too.

[MacRua]

Well, I don't know guys but look:
shanemacgowan General Info:
Member Since 7/29/2005

29 July, the day they're supposed to be busy in Japan. A bit suspicious as for me.

[Guest]

or more likely? Joey and Shane have internet in the hotel and nothing to do but kill time till the gig ...

[Eyeball_Kid]

I like the idea that "Shane thought" that such a community website would be the best way to communicate with his fans...