The Irish Post

[St.Peter]

There is an interesting article about The Pogues in this weeks Irish Post,penned by Ronan McGreevy.www.irishpost.co.uk

[Paddy Rolling Clone]

Cheers St. Pete.

[Celtic.Dave]

The last 3weeks theres been bits and bobs about the Pogues in the Irish Post.
Last week in the "You Say" Some person wrote in bout the Paddy Punk article which was printer the week before.Here is what they had to say.

"PADDY PUNK BANDS NO MATCH FOR FOLK LEGENDS"
With reference to the punk-trad music band Neck-what a lot of dross.
Where do they get these people from? Paddy punk power-the bloke who wrote this must be daft.Celtic-infused punk rock psycho ceili?
These are terms made up by bands themselves.What is paddy punk?
It's a good job we have got groups like the Chieftains,the Dubliners,Danu and Dervish.That's what i call talent.
Why sell yourself to the devil to make a few quid?
The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan tries to copy Luke Kelly of the Dubliners,one of the greatest folk singers the world has ever seen,but the musical ability of the Pogues is zero.How man All-Ireland medals have they won?

M.Moriarty
London N7.

[philipchevron]

How many All-Ireland medals have they won?

None, it must be said. Nor Fáinne either. I have a medal for Irish dancing and another one from the Feis Cheoil for choral singing (adjudicator Sean O'Riada). Do these count or should I just resume feeling blissfully excluded from Official Ireland???

[Celtic.Dave]

By the sounds of it Mr C.You good for nothing then.
You cant even play music. For shame on you!

[Celtic.Dave]

Am trying to find the write up in this weeks paper.Cant seem to see it online.MacRua is the man for this job!
If not i might just type the whole thing out.

[Irish Rover]

but the musical ability of the Pogues is zero.

What ??

Have they never heard any of the Pogues music ??

[Termon Fecken]

I have a medal for Irish dancing and another one from the Feis Cheoil for choral singing (adjudicator Sean O'Riada)

Seán O Riada watched the boy Chevron sing? I call that COOL.

[DzM]

Celtic-infused punk rock psycho ceili?
These are terms made up by bands themselves.

Who of The Pogues (or anyone 'round these parts) ever called them this?

It's long been a pet peeve of mine when people randomly string together "cool sounding" words to describe something they're doing. "I'm a neo post industrial tribal agro rock pagan performance artist."

[MissWalshy]

Now thats what I call sexy!

[MacRua]

Celtic-infused punk rock psycho ceili?
These are terms made up by bands themselves.

Who of The Pogues (or anyone 'round these parts) ever called them this?

The author meant Neck, i think. They do call themselves <i>the psycho ceilidh band</i>

PS I can't find the above piece online, sorry, Celtic.Dave. Looks like you will have to type it...

[Mick Molloy]

The author meant Neck, i think. They do call themselves <i>the psycho ceilidh band</i>

Psycho Ceilidh Mayhem band. One good band everyone should check out

[DzM]

Psycho Ceilidh Mayhem band.

Only very distantly related to this - When I was 19 or so I had a friend that made a daughter and decided to name her Ceilidh. I recall at the time thinking "a name like that will do two things for/to this kid: 1) Make the first grade a living hell as she tries to learn how to spell her name, and 2) make her a very popular drunken teenager when she's sixteen."

(And it occurs to me now that she would, in fact, be right around sixteen these days. I wonder if she's a very popular drunken teenage girl?)

[Celtic.Dave]

Cheers MacRua.Here i go.

Award shows Pogues’ glory days are gone
"As the Pogues prepare to accept a prestigious music award Ronan McGreevy salutes the genius of the band who celebrated all things Irish"
The Irish Post
1 Feb 2006
<blockquote>It seems extraordinary given their impact but the Lifetiem Achievement Award that The Pogues will receive at the Meteor Irish Music Awards in Dublin this week is the first such award of their career.

The Pogues do not need the validation of the Irish music establishment to acknowledge the brilliant band they once were. They know what they've done.

To many people on this side of the Irish Sea, The Pogues are more than just a band. They are as much a part of the ethnic identity of the second generation as the Irish football team and school summers spent in Ireland. They showed that not only could the Irish Diaspora match the cultural achievements of their counterparts at home, it could surpass them.
No Irish group before or afterwards has created the same impact or the excitement that this band did in their pomp.

There is a special kind of alchemy which distinguishes ordinary bands from the great ones. In the case of The Pogues it was happy coincidence that an emerging genius songwriter like Shane MacGowan met with a number of battle-hardened musicians like Jem Finer, Phil Chevron and Cait O'Riordan.
Their music was of their time,brilliantly marrying Irish folk with the very English tradition of punk.

As Bono once said, it will be their songs and not those of U2 which will still be around in 100 years time. Their place in the pantheon of great Irish bands is secure with or without the Meteor Award they will receive this week.
Recognition is deserved for what they have done in the past,but a lifetime achievement award is a backhand compliment. Robert Redford was given such an award at the Oscars in 2002 and has been regretting it ever since. He said it was like Hollywood patting him on the back and telling him to trot off to his Colorado ranch and go quietly into obscurity. Instead, it only spurred him on to be relevant and active.What will this award mean for The Pogues?

Just as the Meteor award reflects how much they tower over their present contemporaries, it also reminds us how much The Pogues are a poor reflection of what they once were. Why give a lifetime achievement award to a band that has been creatively redundant for a decade and whose creative peak, If I Should Fall From Grace With God was released in 1996.
Since then, all the fans have had to contend with has been a series of "Best Of" collections,a sure sign of a band and a record label flogging a dead horse if ever there was once.

Fans might have expected that, when the band went to the trouble of reforming for a series of concerts, they might also endeavour to release some new material.But,in the pages of this newspaper before Christmas, Jem Finer said "There are no plans for that,not from my point of view. I'm not interested in doing that, in terms of the commitment, the time, the can of worms that would open up"

Right now The Pogues are their own best tribute band, which is far removed from what they were when they started out. Then they were fresh and original and destined for greatness.

Part of the blame for the band's death of creativity must lie with MacGowan,who has become a major disappointment to his fans-that is those people who have more regard for his songwriting talent than the cartoon drunk that inhabits the pages of the tabloid newspapers. In the summer of 2004 MacGowan released The Road To Paradise, his first original song for seven years. There was talk then of a new album.A year and a half on, where is it?

A newspaper story about the Meteor awards began last week: "The Pogues, famed for controversial frontman Shane MacGowan's antics..." There is a whole generation of music fans in Ireland for whom The Pogues only means Fairytale In New York and the increasingly tiresome travails of their lead singer.

The best riposte to those who maintain that drink and drugs have finally addled his brain is to prove that he can still do it, that he still has the desire and the ability to write great songs.

Until he does, we can only assume that he has nothing to say anymore or cannot be bothered to say it.

MacGowan is the George Best of Irish songwriting. Like Best, MacGowan was touched by genius. When his star burnt, it burnt brighter than all his contemporaries until the distractions got the better of him. MacGowan has left a suite of great songs which will endure long after all the tales of excess are forgotten about, and yet we will always wonder if he capable of more.

Compare the attitude of The Pogues with U2. U2 are one of the few Irish bands whose achievements surpass that of The Pogues,and yet they have never lost the desire to go on creating great music. They could have trade on past glories as so many bands do. Instead, their last album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is as good as anything they have ever released.

They are not the only ones. Artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young have continued to release brilliant new material though their reputations were secured decades ago.

The Pogues achieved a lot,but it was far from lasting a lifetime. Their creative zenith was all too short and sadly this award reflects the reality-their best days are a long time behind them.</blockquote>

[St.Peter]

Sorry friends-I assumed the whole newspaper was available online.I have since thrown away the paper-if the article makes it onto this forum you will understand why. OHHH-welldone Dave!Thank You!