Sunday Observer - Music Observer Monthly section
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Sunday Observer - Music Observer Monthly section
Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:32 pm
Last page of today's MOM has a Q&A for Shane. Katie Melua asks him about 10 questions. No URL link I'm afraid
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Kilkenny Cat - Pedrolino
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:54 pm
- Location: Brighton
Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:37 pm
Q & A
Pop starlet Katie Melua quizzes Pogues singer Shane MacGowan about Johnny Depp, duetting on 'Fairytale of New York' and how to celebrate at Christmas ...
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer
Katie Melua: Hi Shane! Your song 'Fairytale of New York' has become a Christmas staple. I've always wondered if the lyrics are in any way autobiographical.
Shane MacGowan: They're about any fucked up relationship based on a promise that nobody can keep. The song's not meant to be about just one person; it's about what people are doing at Christmas. They're dying or not dying or trying to patch up something or even marrying someone. Christmas is one of those times when you're forced together with other people you're supposed to love.
KM: You've kindly asked me to step into Kirsty MacColl's shoes for a couple of TV appearances to promote the song's reissue, which I have to say is quite daunting.
SM: Nobody's expecting you to fill Kirsty's shoes, although I'm sure you could if you hung around us long enough to get pissed off with me! Then you'd bring that out in the song. It doesn't matter if you don't sound like Kirsty on some bits because Kirsty's not here and she can't do it. I don't want people to try to be the same. I want people to bring their own meaning to it. It's amazing having a great girl singer calling you a scumbag and a maggot, but at the end the song turns into a high-stepping waltz. It's not happy, it's not sad, it's everything flipping out. But Kirsty did civilise us. If a beautiful, sexy woman tells you to chill out and stop being a wanker, you do it. We used to get in real scraps. We had a very friendly but extremely disrespectful, volatile relationship.
KM: Are you surprised that the song's such a favourite?
SM: No. What I like about it, and what I think people like about it, is that it's got a great character, but it's not depressing. It's just life at Christmas. I think the Pogues are far more unreasonable than Nick Cave and probably even more unreasonable than the Sex Pistols ever were. Certainly less commercial. And yet we've got this incredibly popular Christmas hit. But as long as people are pissed off there will always be an audience for that song.
KM: Johnny Depp recently said you've produced 'beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world.' What do you make of that? A fair summary?
SM: Ha! He is a great actor and a great guitar player too. We played together. He really heavied it up. His guitar playing releases all of his rage and frustration. We did one song together, but forgot to record it. But it sounded like an atom bomb going off!
KM: You took a small part in his recent film The Libertine, didn't you?
SM: Yeah, I enjoyed working with him, but they dumped the bit I was in. I was supposed to be a drunken minstrel so I put together a really offensive anti-Catholic, anti-Monarchist, anti-English song that would offend everyone in the crowd. They hadn't told the crowd of extras that they weren't meant to clap politely. But Johnny and I might work together again, on the story of Brendan Behan, who at the height of his fame managed to drink himself to death.
KM: What was the happiest moment of your life?
SM: There have been many happy days and many unhappy ones, but the most important was the day I met my missus, who is sometimes estranged and sometimes not. She got me off smack - although that's not the main reason it's the happiest moment.
KM: I started singing as a child growing up in Georgia and then as my family moved quite a bit, it kept me stable. How early on did you discover music? Was music in the family?
SM: My mother was a champion Irish dancer and singer and most of my family were musical, particularly in Irish dancing. Music is all about spewing out your emotions. A mixture of a good tune and a good beat and everyone playing their guts out and something that grabs people's attention.
KM: How do you feel about playing with the Pogues again?
SM: It's good. There's a lot of bitching going on and all of that, but then if there wasn't a lot of bitching going on it wouldn't be the Pogues! We don't have to work at rehearsals because we can just play the same old songs. We've done it so many times, we can't get it wrong. So you can concentrate on chatting up women in the audience or whatever.
KM: What are you doing for Christmas? Christmas Day is your birthday, isn't it?
SM: It's always my birthday! I'm getting drunk in Ireland. And then probably going on somewhere else to get more drunk!
KM: Finally Shane, how much would I have to be able to drink to join the band permanently?
SM: A sack full! But I reckon you could take it.
· 'Fairytale of New York' by the Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl (WEA) is re-released tomorrow. The Pogues are on tour now
Pop starlet Katie Melua quizzes Pogues singer Shane MacGowan about Johnny Depp, duetting on 'Fairytale of New York' and how to celebrate at Christmas ...
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer
Katie Melua: Hi Shane! Your song 'Fairytale of New York' has become a Christmas staple. I've always wondered if the lyrics are in any way autobiographical.
Shane MacGowan: They're about any fucked up relationship based on a promise that nobody can keep. The song's not meant to be about just one person; it's about what people are doing at Christmas. They're dying or not dying or trying to patch up something or even marrying someone. Christmas is one of those times when you're forced together with other people you're supposed to love.
KM: You've kindly asked me to step into Kirsty MacColl's shoes for a couple of TV appearances to promote the song's reissue, which I have to say is quite daunting.
SM: Nobody's expecting you to fill Kirsty's shoes, although I'm sure you could if you hung around us long enough to get pissed off with me! Then you'd bring that out in the song. It doesn't matter if you don't sound like Kirsty on some bits because Kirsty's not here and she can't do it. I don't want people to try to be the same. I want people to bring their own meaning to it. It's amazing having a great girl singer calling you a scumbag and a maggot, but at the end the song turns into a high-stepping waltz. It's not happy, it's not sad, it's everything flipping out. But Kirsty did civilise us. If a beautiful, sexy woman tells you to chill out and stop being a wanker, you do it. We used to get in real scraps. We had a very friendly but extremely disrespectful, volatile relationship.
KM: Are you surprised that the song's such a favourite?
SM: No. What I like about it, and what I think people like about it, is that it's got a great character, but it's not depressing. It's just life at Christmas. I think the Pogues are far more unreasonable than Nick Cave and probably even more unreasonable than the Sex Pistols ever were. Certainly less commercial. And yet we've got this incredibly popular Christmas hit. But as long as people are pissed off there will always be an audience for that song.
KM: Johnny Depp recently said you've produced 'beautiful lyrics that are a great gift to the world.' What do you make of that? A fair summary?
SM: Ha! He is a great actor and a great guitar player too. We played together. He really heavied it up. His guitar playing releases all of his rage and frustration. We did one song together, but forgot to record it. But it sounded like an atom bomb going off!
KM: You took a small part in his recent film The Libertine, didn't you?
SM: Yeah, I enjoyed working with him, but they dumped the bit I was in. I was supposed to be a drunken minstrel so I put together a really offensive anti-Catholic, anti-Monarchist, anti-English song that would offend everyone in the crowd. They hadn't told the crowd of extras that they weren't meant to clap politely. But Johnny and I might work together again, on the story of Brendan Behan, who at the height of his fame managed to drink himself to death.
KM: What was the happiest moment of your life?
SM: There have been many happy days and many unhappy ones, but the most important was the day I met my missus, who is sometimes estranged and sometimes not. She got me off smack - although that's not the main reason it's the happiest moment.
KM: I started singing as a child growing up in Georgia and then as my family moved quite a bit, it kept me stable. How early on did you discover music? Was music in the family?
SM: My mother was a champion Irish dancer and singer and most of my family were musical, particularly in Irish dancing. Music is all about spewing out your emotions. A mixture of a good tune and a good beat and everyone playing their guts out and something that grabs people's attention.
KM: How do you feel about playing with the Pogues again?
SM: It's good. There's a lot of bitching going on and all of that, but then if there wasn't a lot of bitching going on it wouldn't be the Pogues! We don't have to work at rehearsals because we can just play the same old songs. We've done it so many times, we can't get it wrong. So you can concentrate on chatting up women in the audience or whatever.
KM: What are you doing for Christmas? Christmas Day is your birthday, isn't it?
SM: It's always my birthday! I'm getting drunk in Ireland. And then probably going on somewhere else to get more drunk!
KM: Finally Shane, how much would I have to be able to drink to join the band permanently?
SM: A sack full! But I reckon you could take it.
· 'Fairytale of New York' by the Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl (WEA) is re-released tomorrow. The Pogues are on tour now
- Pablo K
Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:38 pm
Hello lads !
Long time no see. Here is the article you're interested in :
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/qanda/story/0,,1667076,00.html
Long time no see. Here is the article you're interested in :
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/qanda/story/0,,1667076,00.html
- MacGee
- Eloi
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:49 am
- Location: France
Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:39 pm
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/qand ... 76,00.html
is the original link.
is the original link.
- Pablo K
And welcome back, MacGee.Have a word with yourself Shane.
Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:11 am
Doubtless everyone who paid £30 for a ticket will be delighted to read this:
"We don't have to work at rehearsals because we can just play the same old songs. We've done it so many times, we can't get it wrong. So you can concentrate on chatting up women in the audience or whatever"
"We don't have to work at rehearsals because we can just play the same old songs. We've done it so many times, we can't get it wrong. So you can concentrate on chatting up women in the audience or whatever"
I'd shoot back great belly crippling buckets of beer
- usualdog
- Il Capitano
- Posts: 185
- Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:10 pm
- Location: Kent
Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:42 am
well A life worth living is a life where everybody around you is having a good time and you're having a good time
to all appearances pogues gigs agree with this scheme perfectly, nothing to complain about...
to all appearances pogues gigs agree with this scheme perfectly, nothing to complain about...
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MacRua - Site Janitor
- Posts: 4468
- Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:40 am
- Location: A bog far, far away...
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