Western Mail

[MacRua]

We love... The Pogues
Dec 23 2005
Gareth Morgan,
Western Mail
Full URL
<blockquote>IT was Christmas Eve, baaaaabe ... in the drunk tank ... an old man said to me, we won't see another one...

Not quite the stuff of merry Christmas hopes and dreams, but the unforgettable opening lines to arguably the greatest seasonal song ever penned.

At a time when our ears are filled with oral cotton candy about Santa hurrying down the chimney and love and understanding, Shane MacGowan and the Pogues offer the perfect antidote.

Their Christmas classic, Fairytale of New York, was an unlikely hit for the bunch of London-Irish folk-punks in the mid-1980s.

And ever since it has been a guaranteed tear-jerker for Irish emigrants, or indeed anyone who does not quite feel filled with festive joy at this time of year.

It reached number two in the charts in 1987, beaten only by what one member of the band described as "two queens and a drum machine" - The Pet Shop Boys and their cover of Always On My Mind.

The song has an almost symphonic quality, from the delicate opening piano bars to the reeling Irish-style passage that forms the bulk of the tune.

Add in the late Kirsty McColl's stunning duet with MacGowan, and you have the perfect antidote to Christmas sentimentality.

Although the song is not devoid of romanticism, drawing literally on fairytale images of an imagined Ireland and an imagined New York as its inspiration.

But the Pogues were more than one-hit wonders and although Fairytale of New York is being re-released this week, they should be remembered for more than just this one song.

Emerging from the tail end of the London punk scene, they produced a genuinely fresh sound by merging the speed and delivery of punk with the lilt of Irish folk groups like the Dubliners and the Fureys.

Whereas many rock groups have used Black American blues as their source of inspiration, The Pogues looked to a lesser-mined vein of rock heritage in the tunes of historic Ireland.

MacGowan's slurred delivery and wild-man antics only added to the group's reputation as they played London clubs in a time haunted by IRA bombings, when it definitely was not considered cool to be Irish.

"For every club that we got barred from, we seemed to get a bit more famous," remembered the singer.

In August 1984 Stiff Records released their debut single, Dark Streets Of London; two months later, came their debut album Red Roses For Me. But it was the band's striking second album, Rum, Sodomy and The Lash, that really stood out. It featured a jawdropping rendition of Eric Bogle's The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, still the Pogues' most poignant moment.

Suddenly folk-rock was back in the limelight and the Pogues were leading the charge, but by the tail end of the decade MacGowan's wayward habits were becoming insurmountable.

To fulfil live commitments Clash front man Joe Strummer was brought in to substitute, and in 1991, MacGowan finally quit. The band persevered with 1993's under-rated Waiting For Herb, but subsequently split.

But this Christmas, the line-up have been back together for a series of live shows across Britain and Ireland, including stopping off at the CIA.

As was to be expected, their offerings were never polished gems and MacGowan's on-stage antics remained unpredictable.

Yet when the band clicks, as they first did more than 20 years ago, the Pogues remain the only outfit that can make you tap your feet and shed a tear at exactly the same time.

Essential Pogues listening:
Sally MacLenane
Half love song, half story about trying to make your way in the world, and a pinch of old folks shuffling off this mortal coil. Features the singalong, "Buy me beer and whiskey cos I'm going far away"

If I Should Fall From Grace With God
The classic, rollicking Pogues sound epitomised. And it's basically about dying and being buried, which is typical MacGowan material

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Penned by the peerless Eric Bogle this banjo-led track tells the horrific story of an amputee returning, disillusioned, from the front lines at Gallipoli


Fairytale of New York
The seasonal classic tells the story of two down-on-their-luck Irish emigrants having a right old barney on Christmas Eve. But like all good fairytales it means so much more...


Streams of Whiskey
One of MacGowan's most unapologetic drinking songs ever, including the line "When the world seems too dark and I need a light inside of me, I walk into a bar and drink 15 pints of beer"</blockquote>

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owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc 2005

[welsh rover]

cheers MacRua - I'd read the paper version (on the way over from Cardiff to the Point ) and was going to post it - but you beat me to it. Quite a good article by WM standards...

[Paddy Rolling Clone]

Yeah really good piece that, one of the better ones. Cheers Mac.