Manchester Underperformance !

[philipchevron]

I think that says it all, that the highlights of the show were the songs that Shane didn't sing on. It appears there were sound problems earlier on but i dont think that was the reason for the poor performance as those problems were not evident when Terry and Spider did their tunes. Fiesta was an absolute mess for me and i think maybe we have just got to put it down to that show being an 'off' night for Shane. So far on the tour Phil has usually posted a message to say thanks etc, but for this show it hasnt happened yet so maybe the band know that Shane was well under par last night. Hopefully the rest of the tour will be as good as the first few shows.

I'm tempted to shirk this one, but what would be the point? Yesterday was a troublesome day for most of us and for some of us more than others. That's a reason, not an excuse. We're human. We'll do better tonight. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

[Guest]

last night was a bit of an anti climax to be honest

shane was in a terrible state and i felt sorry for the other 7 band members who i thought were superb and i also felt sorry for us 14000 or so that shane decided to put in one of his worst performances in a long time.

from the start i got the impression that he was " so far out of it " and did really appear interested

on a better note, i was backstage and met all but shane who decided not to appear although i am delighted that i got to meet my other 7 heroes

thank you philip chevron for a great night ( hope you like the celtic shirt )

and i can confirm that the rest of the band were far from happy with shane last night, he really did let a lot of people down and i am now at the stage where i dont he really cares at all, very very sad indeed !!

[Keith Willis]

I think that says it all, that the highlights of the show were the songs that Shane didn't sing on. It appears there were sound problems earlier on but i dont think that was the reason for the poor performance as those problems were not evident when Terry and Spider did their tunes. Fiesta was an absolute mess for me and i think maybe we have just got to put it down to that show being an 'off' night for Shane. So far on the tour Phil has usually posted a message to say thanks etc, but for this show it hasnt happened yet so maybe the band know that Shane was well under par last night. Hopefully the rest of the tour will be as good as the first few shows.

I'm tempted to shirk this one, but what would be the point? Yesterday was a troublesome day for most of us and for some of us more than others. That's a reason, not an excuse. We're human. We'll do better tonight. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

Thanks for the reply Phil! I understand that Tommy passing away would be on Shanes mind as well as everyone else. Good luck with the rest of the tour and hopefully will see you all again next year. All the best!

[Heather]

Just in from Manchester. First 3 or so songs couldn't hear Shane, was it a sound system fault, don't know. Thought it took Shane till the first encore to get going. Did I sense the rest of the band were getting a bit pissed off. Anyway it was good to hear a few different songs, Ella was good. Thought the Saw Doctors rocked.
Irish Rover you got your wish for the Tom call out, was it Heather off this board who also got a call out

Yes it was me who got the call out.

[Heather]

great to meet some Medusans pre gig too and Heather, i'll forgive you for what you said

You do know I was only joking.

[moose]

After seeing them in Brum (which was a fantastic gig) i can only assume that the sad news about Tom which had a big affect on this gig, i was not there but reading between the lines......

[JohnG]

Reading reports on the gigs elsewhere, there appears to be an ongoing problems with the sound this year round. I hope that the rest of the shows go well and if there any teething problems at Brixton they're overcome by Monday for my annual visit.

[RICHB]

Shows how ballooned I was as I thought it was spot on ha ha. Thanks for the Auld Triangle, it was quality

[wwfcpogue]

i agree with the thread post ,shane was not fit to grace the stage last night ,he was worse for wear ,and left a nasty taste in my mouth .i truly wish i had not of witnessed it ,compared to wednesday night ,it was very poor

[Eric V]

Well, after a string of ...what, 70 or so? .... fabulous gigs, there was bound to be a hitch at some point. Here's to the next string of great performances.

[ray]

I think that says it all, that the highlights of the show were the songs that Shane didn't sing on. It appears there were sound problems earlier on but i dont think that was the reason for the poor performance as those problems were not evident when Terry and Spider did their tunes. Fiesta was an absolute mess for me and i think maybe we have just got to put it down to that show being an 'off' night for Shane. So far on the tour Phil has usually posted a message to say thanks etc, but for this show it hasnt happened yet so maybe the band know that Shane was well under par last night. Hopefully the rest of the tour will be as good as the first few shows.

I'm tempted to shirk this one, but what would be the point? Yesterday was a troublesome day for most of us and for some of us more than others. That's a reason, not an excuse. We're human. We'll do better tonight. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

Thanks for responding Philip. All though there as been a lot of negatives I really enjoyed the sounds the lads in the band were putting out.
How much weight does Jim lose doing a show, he was really going for it last night. That man must have muscles on muscles throwing that thing all over the place. Hope all goes well for the rest of the tour.

[oldpunky]

I thought they took a while to get going - maybe 30 mins or so - but after that I thought they weren't too bad at all. Quite shocked at all the negative comments on here to be honest. Shane wasn't too different to usual, a few sound problems probably made it seem much worse.
This was my first Manchester visit (I usually go to the Newcastle gigs) and I thought the crowd were great, really friendly and a cracking party atmosphere. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the night.

[DownInTheGround]

twas my first show. and now my first post. i enjoyed last night and although it was obvious there where other places Macgowan wanted to be his sheer prescence made it a good evening. i thought the other pogues more than made up for shane. oh and Hi everyone.

[nboldock]

To be honest I'm amazed at people complaining about the gig. Yes, the sound was abominable for the first few numbers, but this is the fault of the sound men, not the band. Not only Shane's voice disappeared in the "mix" - Spider's whistle was non-existent too. The sound techs need shooting for that. Not good enough.

Aside from that, I personally thought it was a corking gig and Shane seemed on cracking form from where I was sitting. Particularly on the slower numbers (Kitty had me salivating in the aisles).

Until today I didn't know that Tom Mc had passed away (or until Phil's dedication anyhoo) but I'm sure if one of my mates had just pegged it, I'd like to think that people might not be so keen to start criticising me for missing the odd line here and there. Okay, Fiesta was a shambles (for Shane anyway) but personally I'd had such a storming night by that point it didn't really matter a toss whether they ballsed it up or not. And I think Shane could be forgiven for letting it slip towards the end, under the circumstances.

To the band - thanks lads (and lass). We had a ball.

To the soundboard men - does the letter "P" and the number "45" mean anything to you?

Anyway, rant over. I thought the gig was absolutely brilliant (and so did my mate who came along with me). Can't wait for the next one.

[IrishRover]

Come on people, goive Shaneo and the guys a bit of break...
Shane is what he is, great punker, worldwoide outstanding Oirish philosopher and so are the Pogues. Whatever the reason is, microphone, bad sound adjustments or factors within Shane and Pogues, oi wouldn't be dissapointed! Ya appreciate what Pogues represent, loive performance is loive performance - not listening to CD recording. This ain't classical music or sth, where ya expect to hear every tune and word in perfect manner and ya sit in a chair.
Oi faced similar judgements when oi was performing and learned those comments are mainly from people who expect sth that oim not really offering.
Thanks for mentioning Tom!