The Medusa Fora

Has anybody here ever seen Strummer perform with the pogues? It must have been great, especially if you're a big fan of both the pogues and the clash. I wish I could have seen those shows .

oops someone posted about this in another section, sorry about that

Happens to everybody, Séamus! You'll find that one of the mods will engage in a bit of surgical-strike thread-transporting any day now, and *WHOOSH!* this thread will either magically re-sprout in the appropriate Forum, or be permanently deleted to Hell, in which case you will never read this anyway.

seamus_mcshanty1 wrote:Has anybody here ever seen Strummer perform with the pogues? It must have been great, especially if you're a big fan of both the pogues and the clash. I wish I could have seen those shows .

Yes I've seen Joe Strummer perform with The Pogues, he was awesome.

Yes, I was at Brixton when Joe was fronting the band. It was fantastic. The energy on stage was electrifying. He gave the band a new lease of life after the 'difficult' period leading up to Shane's departure when things weren't going so well. I had seen the band headline the London Fleadh with Shane just a few months earlier, just prior to his leaving the band, and the atmosphere then was very different. You could kinda tell that something had to give.

Hey Cornish Andy, love yer avatar! And a great post re: the late great Strummer. Careful, if you don't read this post, it'll be converted into ANOTHER Starbucks outlet before you can blink.....

Yep I saw them with the mighty Joe in Manchester (Apollo I think?) . I remember they did London Calling and he sounded fantastic with the Pogues behind him.
Didn't Joe say once that If I should fall from grace with God was one of his fave songs? He certainly did it justice that night.

Never got to see him with the Pogues but i did catch him with the Mascaleros the year before he passed on at the Birmingham Academy a few months before the first reunion tour, managed to get the Pogues Tour poster off the wall aswell

I have heard London Calling with Strummer & Pogues, but are there any recordings of him singing Pogues songs?

SonOfErin wrote:I have heard London Calling with Strummer & Pogues, but are there any recordings of him singing Pogues songs?

Yeah i'm sure there are some gigs of the Pogues with Joe as lead singer on the ftp.

I saw Joe with the Pogues in Cambridge in Nov '91, great gig, Joe certainly came across well on the Pogues numbers, but for me the absolute show stopper was their performance of "Straight To Hell". The Pogues were brilliant on it, James' accordion in particular really giving the track another dimension, and Joe put his heart and soul into the vocals. Superb.

Yep, saw them in Paris, Montmartre Elysee with Joe Strummer lead singer. I remember that they played 'The Medley', which was not often played much before or since, which I personally think is a shame 'cos it's a great tune! Anyway, as well as 'Sraight to Hell', think there were only 3 other Clash numbers, 'I fought the law', 'London Calling' and I think 'Brand New Cadillac'. Remember Joe exhorting the crowd to 'Aide - moi' as he sang Dirty old Town....

seamus_mcshanty1 wrote:Has anybody here ever seen Strummer perform with the pogues? It must have been great, especially if you're a big fan of both the pogues and the clash. I wish I could have seen those shows .

I saw Joe both times he was with the Pogues Dec. 1987 (filling in for Mr. Chevron) and in 1991 when he fronted them. I do have a great version
of Turkish Song of the Damned with Joe on lead vocals. Not sure if I got it off the FTP or back in the wild west early days of napster.

Based on Mike From Boston’s post, I guess it was the 1987 Pogues show (at Spit or Axis, or whatever the club was called that year) in Boston… I was in the backstage area before the show, and saw Joe sitting ten feet away playing guitar. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say something, but I didn’t want to blurt out the typical fawning fan crap. So I casually sauntered over and said “um, could you show me the chords for ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’?” He played the song, using chords I didn’t recognize (okay, I only knew maybe 6-10 chords, and hadn’t even mastered bar-chords yet!), and I said “oh, I thought it was ____ (whatever it is – D/G/D?)”. So he strummed those chords and said “yeah, you’re right.” At which point I walked (on air!) back to the person I’d been talking to and said “I just taught Joe Strummer to play a Clash song.” Granted, that may be something of an exaggeration, but it’s still a story I like to tell!

Dosgatas wrote:Based on Mike From Boston’s post, I guess it was the 1987 Pogues show (at Spit or Axis, or whatever the club was called that year) in Boston… I was in the backstage area before the show, and saw Joe sitting ten feet away playing guitar. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say something, but I didn’t want to blurt out the typical fawning fan crap. So I casually sauntered over and said “um, could you show me the chords for ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’?” He played the song, using chords I didn’t recognize (okay, I only knew maybe 6-10 chords, and hadn’t even mastered bar-chords yet!), and I said “oh, I thought it was ____ (whatever it is – D/G/D?)”. So he strummed those chords and said “yeah, you’re right.” At which point I walked (on air!) back to the person I’d been talking to and said “I just taught Joe Strummer to play a Clash song.” Granted, that may be something of an exaggeration, but it’s still a story I like to tell!

That's a brilliant story.