Irish Independent: Hellraiser Shane is back with Pogues

[MacRua]

Hellraiser Shane is back with Pogues for tour
and reveals that Fairytale of New York is not his favourite festive song
Irish Independent
27 November 2007
Full URL

Hellraising Pogues star Shane MacGowan has admitted that the group's huge Christmas hit Fairytale Of New York is not in fact his favourite seasonal song.

With the group celebrating the 20th anniversary of its release this Christmas, the gap-toothed singer said he prefers to listen to the much more mellow strains of Nat King Cole over his Christmas dinner.

"My favourite number is The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, you know, the one about chestnuts roasting on an open fire," he declared.

MacGowan, who now lives in Dublin with fiancee Victoria Mary Clarke, is lining up ex-Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan to sing the song with him when the Pogues perform in the RDS Main Hall on December 23.

Ironically, Cait, who also now lives in Dublin, was supposed to sing the original duet with him 20 years ago, but quit the band not long before the recording.

In the end producer Steve Lillywhite recruited his then wife, the late Kirsty MacColl, to sing it instead.

The Pogues now reform every December for a Christmas tour of the UK and Ireland, but it is not yet known if Irish guitarist Phil Chevron will be with them this time around.

Chevron was diagnosed as suffering from throat cancer last summer and has been undergoing treatment ever since.

And while Fairytale Of New York is one of the top Christmas songs of all time -- it never actually made number one in the charts when it was first released back in 1987.

It only reached number two --with The Pet Shop Boys taking the top slot with their version of the Elvis Presley classic Always On My Mind.

At the time MacGowan declared: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine!"

It also took MacGowan and Jem Finer nearly two years to pen the song, eventually fusing two numbers together.

The black and white video was shot in a New York precinct house -- and during it MacGowan nearly got himself arrested for drunkenness.

[Mark_Wafc]

Man Walks on Moon!
Irish Independent
27 November 2007

[pogues24]

I think it's fantastic that Shane wants Cait back to sing along and waltz with him during Fairytale of New York. Maybe they will play I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday again (who doesn't love that song).

Iain

[Clash Cadillac]

I think it's fantastic that Shane wants Cait back to sing along and waltz with him during Fairytale of New York. Maybe they will play I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday again (who doesn't love that song).

Iain

Love that song.

Also found it interesting how the lyrics were changed while reading about it on The Parting Glass site. In the traditional, Jock takes his dog shooting with him along the river Spey; in the Pogues version, the pooch is shot.

[Cornish Andy]

So does this mean no Ella Finer this year? Shame...I thought she was great. I did enjoy Cait's return a few years back though, so that would be good too.

[moose]

Does it mean that Cait is singing FONY with him or Nat King Coles the Xmas song

[JamesFearnley]

"MacGowan . . .is lining up ex-Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan to sing the song with him when the Pogues perform in the RDS Main Hall on December 23."

David St Hubbins said:

'I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what
makes me more of a selective human, than someone who doesn't
believe anything.'

[rumsodomyandthelash]

"MacGowan . . .is lining up ex-Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan to sing the song with him when the Pogues perform in the RDS Main Hall on December 23."

David St Hubbins said:

'I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what
makes me more of a selective human, than someone who doesn't
believe anything.'

now i don't know what to believe

[fluke]

It only reached number two --with The Pet Shop Boys taking the top slot with their version of the Elvis Presley classic Always On My Mind.

At the time MacGowan declared: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine!"

fuck the pet shop boys!

[usualdog]

I think it's fantastic that Shane wants Cait back to sing along and waltz with him during Fairytale of New York. Maybe they will play I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday again (who doesn't love that song).

Iain

Love that song.

Also found it interesting how the lyrics were changed while reading about it on The Parting Glass site. In the traditional, Jock takes his dog shooting with him along the river Spey; in the Pogues version, the pooch is shot.

"and him I did shoot"

I assumed it meant she took the dog shooting, not that she shot the dog!!

[Simon Maguire]

I never saw Cait in 2004, shame. Would have liked to have seen her sing with The Pogues this year.

[Eric V]

I think it's fantastic that Shane wants Cait back to sing along and waltz with him during Fairytale of New York. Maybe they will play I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday again (who doesn't love that song).

Iain

Love that song.

Also found it interesting how the lyrics were changed while reading about it on The Parting Glass site. In the traditional, Jock takes his dog shooting with him along the river Spey; in the Pogues version, the pooch is shot.

"and him I did shoot"

I assumed it meant she took the dog shooting, not that she shot the dog!!

That man from the song is a badass...... he's telling everyone "I'm a badass, I gots a posse, an I got the finest bling, and I see to it that so do my homies, yo." And then he says "I'm so bad....I took my dog out to the river and shot it dead....how's that for tough, bitch?!"

At least that's my impression. I like the trad version better.... but you take what you can get.

[The Duke of Ingmar]

I like the trad version better.... but you take what you can get.

I prefer the traditional one, too. Barney McKenna sang a nice version on The Dubliners` "30 years a-greying" album.

But hey, The Pogues even changed Eric Bogle´s "...knocked me arse over head..." into "...knocked me arse over tit..." .

[John C]

But hey, The Pogues even changed Eric Bogle´s "...knocked me arse over head..." into "...knocked me arse over tit..." .

The "correct" expression would be "arse over tit" anyway. "Arse over head" is just a polite BBC-radio version.

[Johan From Sweden]

But hey, The Pogues even changed Eric Bogle´s "...knocked me arse over head..." into "...knocked me arse over tit..." .

The "correct" expression would be "arse over tit" anyway. "Arse over head" is just a polite BBC-radio version.

So arse is ok but not tit, according to BBC then?