The Medusa Fora

Before I start, I have to say how much I loved this doc. I enjoyed Philip's views on Shane and the band before the reunion and the contrasting views that Shane and Philip had on how Shane and Pogues went that seperate ways also on the extra that Philip brought up the point of sterotyping The Pogues as "Druken Irish Louts" and the point of racism.

That said I was wondering why you were the "chossen one" Philip? I know it was a Shane MacGowan doc not a Pogues one but I'd liked to have seen more of The Pogues various views on Shane and the band.

Thanks Simon.

If I might pose a possible answer or two"

1. Philip is obviously very active in the forum here, and therefor may have more of an interest in a current look-back at the old days.

2. When I read A Drink With Shane MacGowan, I couldn't put a finger on exactly the impression I took away from Shane's comments about Philip. The best I could come up with was "respect."

Just a couple of thoughts... looking forward to Philip's answer...

Well, my being an active participant on here is directly linked to my owning a computer, which was not actually the case when Sarah Share made her Fall From Grace film.

I don't know how many Pogues Sarah asked to participate but I do know that of those asked, I am the only one who agreed (Spider appears in some live shots but declined to be interviewed). I like Shane. I love Shane. He's a frustrating bloody man. I got to say all of those things about him on my own terms at a time when a great number of people felt they knew my story better than I did. Plus I got to spend a lovely weekend in Galway at the film company's expense and even found time to see John Mahoney (the Dad in Frasier) in Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Town Hall Theatre.

Mutual respect too? Hell, yeah.

And The Great Hunger, although I did decline to take part in that one, was immensely frustrating. As I watched people like Bono, Nick Cave and Christy Moore talking hagiographic shite, I felt the film was unfair to both Shane and his part in the greater entity that is The Pogues. I felt an impression was starting to form that The Pogues and The Popes were somehow interchangeable. Wrong.

As far as I could see the Great Hunger was basically saying “This is Shane MacGowan and he’s a genius, when he’d had enough of the Pogues he formed a new band called the Popes and carried on where he left off”

Then again a documentary that starts with the words “Shane MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 on the banks of the River Shannon in rural Ireland” was never going to be fully informed was it?

philipchevron wrote:And The Great Hunger, although I did decline to take part in that one, was immensely frustrating. As I watched people like Bono, Nick Cave and Christy Moore talking hagiographic shite, I felt the film was unfair to both Shane and his part in the greater entity that is The Pogues. I felt an impression was starting to form that The Pogues and The Popes were somehow interchangeable. Wrong.

I agree Phillip. I'm not trying to bash anybody or get anybody down, because I enjoy the Pogues and the Popes, but Shane speaks about the Popes sometimeas as if they're more Irish or allow him to mess up without stopping the song etc. etc., as if that makes them a better band for him right now. I have to say, that as much as I enjoy the Popes and their music, they don't have the full, rich sound as the Pogues, nor the energy or the ability to play a fast hard song at full tilt.

Live at Monteuix (sp?) when they play Fall From Grace, I could barely believe they played the intro with a fiddle that was louder than the small accordion they were using. It sounded like a shadow of the former recording and performances I'd seen with the Pogues. To say the two groups are interchangeable, or that the Popes can play the Pogues songs to any sort of measurable degree is false.

Again, I'm not Popes bashing--I like them, but they're not the Pogues.

philipchevron wrote:Well, my being an active participant on here is directly linked to my owning a computer, which was not actually the case when Sarah Share made her Fall From Grace film.

I don't know how many Pogues Sarah asked to participate but I do know that of those asked, I am the only one who agreed (Spider appears in some live shots but declined to be interviewed). I like Shane. I love Shane. He's a frustrating bloody man. I got to say all of those things about him on my own terms at a time when a great number of people felt they knew my story better than I did. Plus I got to spend a lovely weekend in Galway at the film company's expense and even found time to see John Mahoney (the Dad in Frasier) in Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Town Hall Theatre.

Mutual respect too? Hell, yeah.

Thanks for the reply Philip, I missed the great hunger when it was on a few months back and was truely gutted, my Dad never quite figured out how to work the fiddley old VCR.

and even found time to see John Mahoney (the Dad in Frasier) in Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Town Hall Theatre

excellent. you know eddie died earlier this year. RIP

Yes, though I understand he was actualy the second Eddie.

Yes the second Eddie was the son or daughter of the first as I recall. one of them was actually named Moose. Neither was actually named Eddie.

That's quite normal. The cat who plays Wee Thomas in The Lieutenant Of Inishmore is not called Wee Thomas. Lassie was a bloke.

philipchevron wrote:That's quite normal. The cat who plays Wee Thomas in The Lieutenant Of Inishmore is not called Wee Thomas. Lassie was a bloke. [/i]

Next thing you'll be telling that the Widow Twanky wasn't even a proper woman! I thought her moustache was just an unfortunate genetic affliction...