BP Fallon/RTE interview 1985

[ibeh]

Many thanks to John for locating this tape, and for his reflections on the event. It's a fascinating account of the Pogues' early reception in Ireland. It's also, as far as I know, the only recording of the event that exists, as BP and RTE no longer have copies. John - I can send you a copy of my last book (a short history of Irish rock) as a gesture of appreciation.

Thanks again.

All best,
Sean.

[philipchevron]

Many thanks to John for locating this tape, and for his reflections on the event. It's a fascinating account of the Pogues' early reception in Ireland. It's also, as far as I know, the only recording of the event that exists, as BP and RTE no longer have copies. John - I can send you a copy of my last book (a short history of Irish rock) as a gesture of appreciation.

Thanks again.

All best,
Sean.

Incidentally, while Noel Hill has probably taken enough of a beating from us over the years, I must say I find his attitudes even more repellent now than I did then. I realise now that his "terrible abortion of Irish music" was inferred about the Pogues rather than baldly stated, but his question about Seamus Ennis - had any of us ever heard - "or even heard of" Seamus Ennis - is beyond contempt. Fuck me, I've got more Seamus Ennis records than Seamus Ennis knew he made! It does indicate, though, the gulf that existed between ourselves and our tormentors. It never would have occurred to us not to have Seamus Ennis on our playlists along with Otis Redding, David Bowie, Phil Ochs, Sandy Denny, Miles Davis, Hank Williams, Tom Waits etc etc etc, but apparently such an inclusive or eclectic musical worldview was quite beyond Noel Hill.

[territa]

Was that a cassette or a reel-to-reel? I didn't think tape lasted that long... 25 years!... it sounds crisp and clear. Did you have to tweak it?

[fluke]

just had time to listen to the first half.. So interesting, so funny but man the questions are, so far, realy suggestive.. The atmosphere is soo strange..
The joke of Shane about the stones is soo funny. Who is burping the whole time?? Kinda strange on a radio interview..
What I like most about this clip is to hear the pogues as a funny, chaotic but tight group of people. And the Terry bit offcourse. To me this is history..

[philipchevron]

just had time to listen to the first half.. So interesting, so funny but man the questions are, so far, realy suggestive.. The atmosphere is soo strange..
The joke of Shane about the stones is soo funny. Who is burping the whole time?? Kinda strange on a radio interview..
What I like most about this clip is to hear the pogues as a funny, chaotic but tight group of people. And the Terry bit offcourse. To me this is history..

The burping could be almost any of us, as we were all drinking Heineken or Harp or something, but my money's on James, who also contributes his distinctive appalled laugh at one point.

[moose]

Total respect to John A guy comes on the Forum and asks, "has any one got a 25 yr old obscure recording of a show"
And up pops John and says "here you go mate" That in itself is quite astonishing....and then you find that he was actually their is even more remarkable....well done that man

[johnfoyle]

Was that a cassette or a reel-to-reel? I didn't think tape lasted that long... 25 years!... it sounds crisp and clear. Did you have to tweak it?

It was a 120minute cassette. Heavens knows how it survived so well. Maybe mortification at my contribution ensured I rarely played it . Martin, my brother, did the digital transfer. He babbled on about the various programmes he used to do so which all went, of course, over my head.

[martinfoyle]

Taped the show on a C120. Used Nero to create a WAV file, in the red all the way since those C120 didn't have much depth of sound, edited that with CDWAVE, joined the interview bits into one WAV file with ADDAWAV and converted that to mp3 with Audioshampoo Audiocenter. Took about an hour & a half, which included the real time transfer of the cassette.

[McBollox]

Life long Pogues/Shane/Shane & Popes fan and delighted to hear this after so many years of hearing about this broadcast and it's significance. Thanks for making it available.

Have to say though, I was a bit suprised...it wasn't /isn't the hatchet job / ambush I expected it to be (or was given the impression it was). Sure, Noel Hill was a bit peeved, but his irk wasn't just directed at the Pogues, more so the entire folk scene arising out of establishments such as O'Donoghues etc.. I think there was one other speaker, from the Sunday World, Ithink, who was anti-Pogues so to speak. The overwhelming majority of speakers spoke favourably

Fact is, the majority of the audience were competion winners and therefore fans, and I don't think it's unfair to agree with the last speaker who accused Cait of being a bit snotty with her responses to genuine questions from genuine fans. The oinking was embarrasing to listen to to say the least. The show might have been edited, I'll grant you, however, I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek and be capable of identifying those who were actually arguing (better than they managed themselves) their case for them.

Slightly disappointed, I have to say.

Another myth busted!

[philipchevron]

Life long Pogues/Shane/Shane & Popes fan and delighted to hear this after so many years of hearing about this broadcast and it's significance. Thanks for making it available.

Have to say though, I was a bit suprised...it wasn't /isn't the hatchet job / ambush I expected it to be (or was given the impression it was). Sure, Noel Hill was a bit peeved, but his irk wasn't just directed at the Pogues, more so the entire folk scene arising out of establishments such as O'Donoghues etc.. I think there was one other speaker, from the Sunday World, Ithink, who was anti-Pogues so to speak. The overwhelming majority of speakers spoke favourably

Fact is, the majority of the audience were competion winners and therefore fans, and I don't think it's unfair to agree with the last speaker who accused Cait of being a bit snotty with her responses to genuine questions from genuine fans. The oinking was embarrasing to listen to to say the least. The show might have been edited, I'll grant you, however, I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek and be capable of identifying those who were actually arguing (better than they managed themselves) their case for them.

Slightly disappointed, I have to say.

Another myth busted!

Well, there was never any myth about it, you know, as far as we were concerned: other people made it so, we were just furious. The mood got so ugly that the only way the press conference could be broadcast was to edit it into something resembling a nice happy singalong event, though I confess I had laboured under the illusion all these years that it went out "as live". Hearing the eventual edit for the first time ever this week, I was struck by how much of the really nasty stuff is absent: it's an efficient edit job by the Fallon Show people and, on reflection, that was probably the best way to deal with it. Now, having let the genie out of the bottle, I'd just as soon forget the whole thing for the rest of my life, but if you really want perspectives on it from people who were there, do read the earlier posts above by both myself and, perhaps more objectively, by John Foyle.

[NewJerseyRich]

Life long Pogues/Shane/Shane & Popes fan and delighted to hear this after so many years of hearing about this broadcast and it's significance. Thanks for making it available.

Have to say though, I was a bit suprised...it wasn't /isn't the hatchet job / ambush I expected it to be (or was given the impression it was). Sure, Noel Hill was a bit peeved, but his irk wasn't just directed at the Pogues, more so the entire folk scene arising out of establishments such as O'Donoghues etc.. I think there was one other speaker, from the Sunday World, Ithink, who was anti-Pogues so to speak. The overwhelming majority of speakers spoke favourably

Fact is, the majority of the audience were competion winners and therefore fans, and I don't think it's unfair to agree with the last speaker who accused Cait of being a bit snotty with her responses to genuine questions from genuine fans. The oinking was embarrasing to listen to to say the least. The show might have been edited, I'll grant you, however, I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek and be capable of identifying those who were actually arguing (better than they managed themselves) their case for them.

Slightly disappointed, I have to say.

Another myth busted!

It's always the Guests that talk alot of shit.
"I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek"

Why the hell would you expect that? What young brash band has ever done that? What are they the fuckin Johnas Brothers?? With Miley fuckin Cyrus? Yeah a young punk/folk/soul/rock band circa 1985 coming off a hot album and tour being called out basically for being an "Irish" band is going to mind their manners and be robots. Who are you fuckin Thatcher? Do you get the subtext? How about you go read a history book.....and where the hell were you in '85? Were you even in the womb yet?
Go fuck off.

[McBollox]

x

Life long Pogues/Shane/Shane & Popes fan and delighted to hear this after so many years of hearing about this broadcast and it's significance. Thanks for making it available.

Have to say though, I was a bit suprised...it wasn't /isn't the hatchet job / ambush I expected it to be (or was given the impression it was). Sure, Noel Hill was a bit peeved, but his irk wasn't just directed at the Pogues, more so the entire folk scene arising out of establishments such as O'Donoghues etc.. I think there was one other speaker, from the Sunday World, Ithink, who was anti-Pogues so to speak. The overwhelming majority of speakers spoke favourably

Fact is, the majority of the audience were competion winners and therefore fans, and I don't think it's unfair to agree with the last speaker who accused Cait of being a bit snotty with her responses to genuine questions from genuine fans. The oinking was embarrasing to listen to to say the least. The show might have been edited, I'll grant you, however, I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek and be capable of identifying those who were actually arguing (better than they managed themselves) their case for them.

Slightly disappointed, I have to say.

Another myth busted!

It's always the Guests that talk alot of shit.
"I would have thought that the Pogues could have, and should have, had the intelligence to turn the other cheek"

Why the hell would you expect that? What young brash band has ever done that? What are they the fuckin Johnas Brothers?? With Miley fuckin Cyrus? Yeah a young punk/folk/soul/rock band circa 1985 coming off a hot album and tour being called out basically for being an "Irish" band is going to mind their manners and be robots. Who are you fuckin Thatcher? Do you get the subtext? How about you go read a history book.....and where the hell were you in '85? Were you even in the womb yet?
Go fuck off.

Way to welcome someone to Medusa!

Where was I in 1985? Probaly having a pint or two in the Stags Head, just off Camden High Road, not far from the Greeks (aka the Marathon) mentioned in Majestic Shannon. Probaly getting ready to go see the Pogues. Would have been kind of difficult, and no doubt breaking some kind of law to do that from the womb..but hey, you never know.

Turning the other cheek is an Irish thing...you wouldn't understand. Let others make dicks of themselves by their words and actions while you keep a dignified silence. Again, as a right leaning yank, you wouldn't understand that either.

And as for talking shit, a brief look at your history here suggests you have the monopoly on that score my good buddy!

Thanks for your reply Philip, I guess the editing didn't/doesn't give us the full picture of what really happened.

By the by, I'm off to find a friendlier raft to float upon.

[Zuzana]

It's always the Guests that talk alot of shit. (...) Go fuck off.

Rich, this is far from a civil reply to somebody expressing his opinion, no matter if he is a guest or a registered member. Maybe you should refresh your memory regarding the acceptable forum behavior?

[johnfoyle]

To, perhaps, close this subject here's a response a friend sent me. He works for RTE and addresses an aspect that perhaps we as fans might not have noticed-

Wow, what a piece of archive. Mind if I send a copy to Archives! I'm
sure they'd like a copy. It's incredible to think that a music station
such as Radio 2 would stick its neck out so far, give out tickets to
punters one day and then host a live press conference a few days later.
That's what amazed me more than any of the comments. I cant recall
hearing a more vibrant, exciting piece of radio in a long time.


Strange to think how old Rocky turned out in the end. She was
aggressive, but that's what it needed! The Pogues couldn't be loveable
rogues. They had to be nasty. It's in the rock ethics handbook. As for
your part you accepted the response with a level of stoicism that should
be commended, enough to rouse the angst of Ambrose who rose to the bait.

God I miss that.

[NewJerseyRich]

Turning the other cheek is an Irish thing...you wouldn't understand. Let others make dicks of themselves by their words and actions while you keep a dignified silence. Again, as a right leaning yank, you wouldn't understand that either.

And as for talking shit, a brief look at your history here suggests you have the monopoly on that score my good buddy!.

Please spare me the holier then thou speech. It's funny you post under a guest pseudonym yet you know all of my actions, I smell a rat that was too afraid to post his true feelings with his own name maybe? I call 'em as I see 'em. Maybe that's an American thing you wouldn't understand.

John again thank you for the opportunity to hear a piece of storied history