-Brixton 18 & 19 Dec reviews

[MacRua]

I am throwing another journo to you, guys. Tear him apart, have fun

The Pogues live last night
The Pogues at Brixton Academy
- David Hellqvist
The London Paper
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With Christmas only a few days away, what could be more appropriate then a night of festive Irish folk music and a Fairytale of New York?

The Pogues yesterday brought out the yuletide cavalry for their annual two day holiday celebration at Brixton Academy, as well-crafted flute melodies coloured a set impressively crowned by raw accordion solos.

Despite sombre sunglasses and a black leather coat, Shane McGowan and his eight-piece band earned two encores and the audience both clapped and sang along to Dirty Old Town. Late on stage, McGowan - toothless but not tuneless – whipped up the mood with his dark voice and confident swagger.

As the band launched into their famous Christmas single, which is currently number eight the charts, falling snow covered the stage and the band wished everyone a Happy Christmas.T-shirts with the slogan “Lend me 10 pounds and I’ll buy you a drink” perfectly summed up the evening of Celtic punk, both on stage and all around the venue.

You had to be Irish or drunk to understand a word McGowan said or sang, but no one seemed to care – a cheerful Christmas atmosphere was in the air.

****

[DownInTheGround]

I always say the flute player never got the credit he deserved. Inspired.

[Simon Maguire]

Decent review, although the last paragraph ruined it.

[Mark_Wafc]

Decent review, although the last paragraph ruined it.

i thought it was quite poetic

[Guest]

I am not Irish, was not drunk, and yet understood almost all of what was said and sung last night. Shane MacGowan was on excellent form, as were the rest of the band. Why do reviewers always assume Pogues fans are Irish drunks? Whilst I have no problem at all with Irish drunks - there are many English sober (and drunk) folk out there that appreciate the music of this great band - half of whom are neither Irish nor drunk.

[jennylois]

What an insipid load of tripe.

[BillysBones]

Utter nonsense. Well f**ck me but Shane wore a t-shirt with a track title on it!

Maybe one dau a journo will write a proper review. This isn't it.

[jennylois]

I think this old journo got his review mixed up with the Senior Citizens Christmas Party.

[Jon]

As a fairly sober 'englishman' who understood and heard everything last night, I'd have to say the journ's an utter cock!

Was he even there?

[strummercalling]

The reference to Shane "McGowan" just spoils the whole review for me.

Ok, so it wasn't too bad until the last sentence, but still.

[DrugProwlingWolf]

Hey, at least it's media, even if it's full of lies. Plenty of awesome bands never had the fortune of even getting reviewed in the first place.

Okay, seriously though, flute? Where the hell did that come from? Do these people even go to the damn concerts?

[firehazard]

...well-crafted flute melodies ...

Damn, you mean they had that twinkle-bearded Irishman James Galway onstage? Sorry I missed seeing that.

[MacRua]

Caught Live: The Pogues
The Sun
21 Dec 2007
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Yet he managed to put on a Christmas tour that puts most sprightly young rock scamps to shame.

THE POGUES played the last English date of their festive sing-song on Wednesday - and it felt like St Patrick’s Day.

Boozed spilled all over the London venue as fans waved their pints in the air. If you didn’t leave soaked in Guinness you should have got more involved.

You had to be drunk or Irish - or preferably both - to understand most of the lyrics.

But booze-addled MacGowan still pulls it off far better than his intake should allow. He is an iconic figure fronting a brilliant band.

When fake snow burst from the ceiling during Fairytale Of New York, everyone grinned.

Throughout the gig a wind machine was aimed at MacGowan.

This and a huge overcoat made him look like a drunk singing on the way home on a blustery winter evening. And that’s why his fans relate with him - they cut a similar figure on the way home.

But I’m told the device is actually there to keep him awake.

The band have been supported fantastically on the tour by THE HOLLOWAYS but that has seemed to pass by MacGowan.

Frontman ALFIE JACKSON walked into MacGowan’s dressing room and got a book thrown at him for stepping too close to his glass of gin.

Alfie then had to explain he sings in the Pogues’ personally-requested support act - and they’ve spent several nights together in the local boozer they share in North London.

It’s no surprise Shane’s memory isn’t the best. If his brain is in a similar state to his teeth, it can’t be pretty.

[MacRua]

The Pogues: Booze, cheers and an irresistible racket
Michael Deacon reviews The Pogues at the Carling Academy, Brixton
The Telegraph
21 Dec 2007

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No other form of public entertainment could make a popular hero out of a man like this. Nobody would call for an encore from an opera singer who slurred. Nobody would cheer an actor who had to clutch laminated cheat-sheets to remind him of his lines. The booziest stand-up has to stay straight on stage. We celebrate sport's drunks, but only after they retire.

This, though, is rock and roll, and tonight, the seemingly immortal alcoholic Shane MacGowan is the toast of Brixton Academy. During the gig he frequently shambles off stage. Each time he reappears, it's to roaring approval. It's hard to be certain whether the crowd is applauding him for his performance, or simply for managing to perform at all.

In fact, MacGowan and his band of Celtic folk-punks the Pogues are a reliable booking: they've played more gigs in 2007 than in any other year since their 2001 reunion. (MacGowan had quit the band 10 years previously because of his drink problem.)

But the popularity of their gigs isn't the reason they've been in the news this week. On Tuesday, Radio 1 censored the word "faggot" in the Pogues' raggedly beautiful Christmas ballad Fairytale of New York; after a public outcry, they reinstated it. Naturally, the word isn't censored at this gig; indeed it's met with a small cheer. (Which is a bit pathetic: what sort of triumph for free speech was "Faggot-gate"? Just how highly should we prize the right to broadcast rude words on a station listened to largely by children?) Actually, MacGowan has written many songs containing words just as bad.

Not that you'd know it from this gig - he sounds as if he's singing exclusively consonants. He's one of the most vivid lyricists in pop (see Rain Street and A Pair of Brown Eyes as well as Fairytale), but tonight, his words couldn't be any less intelligible if he had a dentist's drill pressed against his vocal cords.

And yet, charm just wafts from him. No matter that he looks like a scarecrow with a beergut, or that the way he clings to his microphone stand suggests it's holding him upright, rather than the other way round. MacGowan's awesome powers of endurance have given him an immutable air of dignity, even when, during the jubilant last song Fiesta, he's bashing himself in the face with a tin tray, not quite in time to the music.

[jennylois]

Jesus.