-WARNERS/RHINO POGUES BOX SET DUE June, 2008

[nboldock]

The box set was reviewed in today's "Observer Music Monthly" (free - damn good - mag with the Observer newspaper) and garnered 4 out of 5 and a fairly glowing (albeit short) review.

They did refer to 111 tracks though, which we now know should have said 109!

[Zuzana]

The Observer
Stephanie Merritt
Sunday April 20, 2008
Full URL

The Pogues, Just Look Them In The Eye and Say...Pogue Mahone! (Warners)
4 stars

It's Christmas and St Paddy's Day all at once for Pogues fans - a five-disc set of rarities and unreleased material, a 111-track treasure trove covering the best part of the band's 25-year history.

Its title refers to Pogue Mahone! - the band's original name, which they were obliged to shorten when the BBC learned that it's a phonetic translation of the Gaelic for kiss my arse - but then if you don't know trivia like that, you are probably not the target audience for this obsessively thorough anthology.

The real gems are the live recordings, some dug up from as far back as the early Eighties. Disc Five features a trio of songs from a 1991 set at London's Forum with Joe Strummer - a furious 'Turkish Song of the Damned', followed by Pogue-flavoured covers of 'London Calling' and 'I Fought the Law'. Equally poignant are the collaborations with Kirsty MacColl, including a bittersweet 'Miss Otis Regrets' that segues joyfully into a howling, growling duet of 'Just One of Those Things' with Shane MacGowan.

All the rehearsal versions and live recordings add to a rough and ready feel, and there's a sense that they've scraped up every last bit of tape from the archive. No one strictly needs three demos of 'Fairytale of New York' (happily, none bowdlerised) but this set should satisfy anyone in need of a Pogues binge.

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guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

[mats]

I wonder if they got a promo box set including the tracks with The Chieftains
Guess we´ll see one on eBay soon.

[philipchevron]

I wonder if they got a promo box set including the tracks with The Chieftains
Guess we´ll see one on eBay soon.

I think it's likely that most, if not all, the promo copies of the boxset, on a small run of CDRs, include the Chieftains/Pogues tracks, making it an instant collector's item.

[johnfoyle]

Uncut, June '08

Hilariously erratic five-disc trove of rarities.

At the very least, The Pogues are to be commended for unusual candour: more than a few of the 111 assorted out-takes, live recordiogs, radio sessions, floor-sweepings and barrel scrapings contained on these five discs are less than altogether flattering to their creators. Or, as guitarist Philip Chevron rhetorically admits at the outset of his sleevenotes, “So what’s all this then? A bunch of dodgy Pogues tracks...”

However, it’s just as inevitably true that much of the stuff collected here is utterly magnificent - so much so, indeed, that the moments which might really have been better left in the cupboard radiate, in context, an endearingly fallibility. And even the most unrealised, hastily recorded stuff pokes holes in the unhelpful (if somewhat self-created) myth of The Pogues as a bunch of incapably sloshed, ragamuffin chancers. The attitude the band brought to their take on Irish folk was certainly pure punk, but that didn’t alter the fact that Irish folk is a genre unforgiving of ham-fisted players— and there’s much here to prove The Pogues were nobody’s inferiors (two 1991 live recordings of The Pogues sharing a stage with The Chieftains are highlights). The three included demos of “Fairytale Of New York”, with then-producer Elvis Costello providing piano on one and bass on another, reveal how a good idea was honed to imperishable greatness.

The only major disappointment of the enterprise is the iffy sound of some of the live tracks, which may not have been recorded with a view to posterity. The excerpts from a rousing 1987 show at Glasgow’s Barrowlands capture something of the glorious swagger of The Pogues at their best — at least when the band can be heard — but the early ‘90s incarnation of the group featuring Joe Strummer on lead vocals deserves a better memorial than the muddy cuts dredged up here. Mostly, though, this is a fabulous trove of feral joys.
ANDREW MUELLER

UNCUT: What was the thlnking behind including those sketches towards “Fairytale Of New York”?
CHEVRON: There is always a danger that shedding daylight on something will take away the magic, but I think “Fairytale...” has been around long enough to take care of itself. Elvis Costello’s contribution especially I thought was worth drawing attention to.

There are a few radio sessions where you’ve had to tidy the language...
It started Out even with the band’s name. The first single was released as Pogue Mahone, and producer at BBC Scotland who was hip to the gaelic said they couldn’t play it, and Dave Robinson at Stiff said we’d have to change it. And everyone called us The Pogues anyway.

How important was it to get the collaborations with Steve Earle and Kirsty MacColl on there?
Despite the appearance of being falling down Irish guys, we were good enough to be Kirsty or Steve’s backing band, and that’s worth celebrating...

INTERVIEW:ANDREW MUELLER

[philipchevron]

"Why does it take nearly six hours of rarities to remind us how truly great The Pogues were?.........Our preoccupation with MacGowan as a figure of talent gone the way of the sauce has stolen too much attention away from the fact that The Pogues were simply a great band. Passionate, bawdy, daring, literate and epic, their alluring combination of poetic insight and streetwise toughness commanded the kind of idolatry that only The Smiths could rival at that time. Just Look Them Straight In the Eye.... goes very far in reminding us of their power and glory......What you hear isn't the sound of a barrel being scraped. Nor is it the swish of a broom pushing a pile of insignificant off-cuts along the studio floor. The quality is high. Astonishingly so. " (The Word, June 2008)

"An unprecedented glimpse into the creative working processes of this unique band" (Classic Rock, June 2008)

"embarrassment of riches" (Mojo, June 2008)

"Awesome" (Maverick, June 2008)

"much of the stuff collected here is utterly magnificent................a fabulous trove of feral joys" (Uncut, June 2008)

"It's Christmas and St Paddy's Day all at once for Pogues fans" (Observer Music Monthly, April 2008)

"MacGowan's lyrics have rightly been praised in serious academic studies and on countless "worthy" TV documentaries, but it's the extraordinary musicianship of all the players that provide the richest pickings. Hear how they take the songs of Rod Stewart, Elvis Presley, The Lovin' Spoonful, Cole Porter and others and inject them with a vitality and charisma that leaves most of their contemporaries gaping in awe." (Record Collector, June 2008)

[mcguck]

Congrats Philip, you put it together and you deserve all of the accolades. What a year, bouncing back from the big C, touring again to the usual acclaim and compiling a gem of a box set. I know I speak for everyone when I say how happy we are that things are going well for you.

[DzM]

"embarrassment of riches..............fan-orientated box set" (Mojo, June 2008)

I find that each time I read this, I get annoyed by it. "Fan-oriented?" That seems to me to imply that nobody other than fans will enjoy it; that it's for snobbish devotees and that no others need bother with it. "Listen not between these covers, for only the sycophants can do so without suffering bleeding ears."

*grumble grumble*

[KathleenwithaK]

Well, I fancy myself a snobbish devotee, yet will encourage the unenlightened (relentlessly) to make the purchase as well. I am known far and wide for my powers of persuasion.

[CraigBatty]

Well, I fancy myself a snobbish devotee, yet will encourage the unenlightened (relentlessly) to make the purchase as well. I am known far and wide for my powers of persuasion.

You've convinced me. I'll buy it ASAHP. Cheers for the endorsement, KwaK.

[philipchevron]

"embarrassment of riches..............fan-orientated box set" (Mojo, June 2008)

I find that each time I read this, I get annoyed by it. "Fan-oriented?" That seems to me to imply that nobody other than fans will enjoy it; that it's for snobbish devotees and that no others need bother with it. "Listen not between these covers, for only the sycophants can do so without suffering bleeding ears."

*grumble grumble*

It irritated the hell out of Ingrid too. Maybe it's a janitor thing. But anyway, I agree and have edited the quotes accordingly.

[DzM]

"embarrassment of riches..............fan-orientated box set" (Mojo, June 2008)

I find that each time I read this, I get annoyed by it. "Fan-oriented?" That seems to me to imply that nobody other than fans will enjoy it; that it's for snobbish devotees and that no others need bother with it. "Listen not between these covers, for only the sycophants can do so without suffering bleeding ears."

*grumble grumble*

It irritated the hell out of Ingrid too. Maybe it's a janitor thing. But anyway, I agree and have edited the quotes accordingly.

We are an easily irritated lot.

[MacRua]

The Pogues – Just Look Them Straight In The Eye and Say… Pogue Mahone (Rhino)
Manchester Evening news
Lawrence Poole
6/ 6/2008
Full URL
Four stars ( of five)
DO you remember those audio books you used to get as a kid? You’d listen to a tape while flicking through the pictures and reading the accompanying passages as your parents hoped in vein it would send you off into a dreamy sleep.

Well, The Pogues’ new all-encompassing boxset is a hark back to childhood days gone by, except instead of Hans Christian Anderson make believe, the London-Irish collective proffer a far more caustic, boozy, woozy, re-telling of Irish myths, legends and general working folk with the seemingly indefeatable Shane MacGowan orchestrating his rabble of multi-instrumentalists as only he can.

Of course, with any comprehensive collection, there is miscellaneous material, which no Pogues fan would lose sleep over if they didn’t get to hear.

Cherished

But loving pieced together by lead guitarist Phil Chevron, it is a collection to be cherished.

From punk pioneer and late Clash man Joe Strummer’s time in the band to blustering cover versions (Maggie May) and nostalgic Peel sessions to spine-tingling early demos of the ultimate Christmas number Fairytale In New York.

And if anything, it’s a great reminder, in a time where the band tend to stick to their annual December arena jaunts these days – just how important The Pogues were in catapulting little heard traditional Irish music into the mainstream in a way, which oozed vitality and freshness.

Finally, the additions of the much-missed Kirsty MacColl’s All The Tears That I Cried and The One And Only are a fitting tribute too.

Released on June 2

[Mike from Boston]

The Boston Globe Sidekick Section featured the BoxSet Monday June 30 when featuring the new releases.

"The quintessential Irish, punk and bar band has released a five-disc compilation of rarities, radio sessions, demos, movie music and live recordings from 1983 to 2001. Playing traditional Irish instruments at punk-rock speed, the rowdy Pogues have won raves
on both sides of the Pond despite often rocky personal problems that have frequently broken up the band. The new album has
unreleased covers (like "Maggie May" and "Eve of Destruction" and alternative versions of favorites like "Fairy Tale of New York".

Since it took me a while to post this, just realized after reading this that the band "frequently broke up". Jeez, I always thought
it was one, albeit long breakup, with Shane leaving, then Terry, Philip and James also going.

[firehazard]

There's an excellent review in the current (July/August 2008) issue of Rock'n'Reel magazine. There's not an online edition, as far as I know.