The Medusa Fora

Maybe I'd set my sights to high after last years great performance at Manchester Central. Lost count of the times Shane messed up and he fell over aswell, thought the band was going to walk off. Felt sorry for Ella Finer, waiting all that time for her one song and having to put up with that. The rest of the band were magnificent and handled the situations really good. But as Spider said at the end ' worse things happen at sea ' which they do. Oh, would have liked The Stranglers to have had a longer set.

Personally i thought it was a really tight set until the encor and then all of a sudden it went tits up as they say.

I really enjoyed it. Shane was all over the place at times including falling on his arse during sickbed. Sally Mac was a shambles....Spider standing, glaring at Shane while he repeated verse after verse at random and then finishing with a call of "That was the dance mix" was priceless. The horns were terrific, James and Spider were on top form, Mr C was greatly missed, tears were shed for the famine.

Cant really add much more to what's been said. 100% bob on for an hour then Shane just seemed to be all over the place. Terry nudging into him during the 5th chorus of Sally Mac and all but saying "for fucks sake, stop!" was quality.

Top night tho. Nice to meet up with a few medusans pre gig too.

Mark

The Bolton News review has been split to the Media.

Having been a follower of the group through all of the ups and downs over the years I thought the show at Manchester was one of the worst I have seen. That is not to knock any of the band who did their best in the circumstances but from a decent start with 'Streams of Whiskey' the show (in my opinion) deteriorated.
Having read this last weeks reviews of how 'on form' Shane has been, this was not the case last night. Dont get me wrong we expect the expected with Shane but to forget the lyrics to half of the songs! I would imagine everyone in the UK knows the words to 'Fairytale'..Shane??
It was good to see some of the old classics like 'Poor Paddy' 'Kitty' etc getting an airing but the concert somehow reminded me of the 'dark' days around about Hells Ditch when the group and Shane parted company. The band then had to put their foot down, and for the life of me I hope they are still going for the next 25 years, but it didnt seem a happy set up to me.
Long live The Pogues & Shane, lets hope last night was a one off!

smack389 wrote:Having been a follower of the group through all of the ups and downs over the years I thought the show at Manchester was one of the worst I have seen. That is not to knock any of the band who did their best in the circumstances but from a decent start with 'Streams of Whiskey' the show (in my opinion) deteriorated.
Having read this last weeks reviews of how 'on form' Shane has been, this was not the case last night. Dont get me wrong we expect the expected with Shane but to forget the lyrics to half of the songs! I would imagine everyone in the UK knows the words to 'Fairytale'..Shane??
It was good to see some of the old classics like 'Poor Paddy' 'Kitty' etc getting an airing but the concert somehow reminded me of the 'dark' days around about Hells Ditch when the group and Shane parted company. The band then had to put their foot down, and for the life of me I hope they are still going for the next 25 years, but it didnt seem a happy set up to me.
Long live The Pogues & Shane, lets hope last night was a one off!

Think that is slightly over the top. It was nowhere as near as bad as two years ago and as i said before all was going well until the encor. The hells ditch time gigs u mention was when due to well known reasons shane was almost incapable of performing. That was not the case last night. The major part of the gig was really good.

Oh stop moaning!! Before the gig I was ripped off by a ebay seller! However was put on the guest list by a kind pogue member! We turned up but the box office folk told us we were not on that list? after all......so we had to haggle with a tout.....We eventually got in (now £120 down for 2 people inc the e bay rip off price) only to lose a phone in the mosh pit...We went to cutomer service feeling sorry for ourselves (no phone handed in of course) but cheered up when we saw the fella behind us had lost his shoes!! He had to go outside in the rain in his socks?
Sure Shane messed up a few songs (Spider's face during sally mac was woth the admission price alone) Bottle of Smoke appeared rambling and Fairytale came to sudden a halt. Fiesta always seems to go wrong. At least it all had soul...The stranglers were O.K but they seemed a little pontins for me......That's the Pogues for you.....If we are lucky enough to get a gig next year.....will we be there?..........You bet we will.................The Pogues sometimes un predictable never dull.......Didnt manage to meet any pogues fans in sinclairs? it was packed!!

I think they should start the gigs at 8.30 like Sheffield, then Shane has had less Gin by the time we get to the encore

Yeah, what a difference a day makes!

Mark_Wafc wrote:I think they should start the gigs at 8.30 like Sheffield, then Shane has had less Gin by the time we get to the encore

Hope the Brum gig starts at 6 Each year it is the same, some excellent gigs and some not so good, i thought Nottingham was a bad one last year, but hey its The Pogues and with Shane there will always be some uncertainty. We all know what the man is like but i suppose it can still "piss off" the most ardent of fans.

Got back from Manchester about three and a half hours ago.

Must say I really did enjoy the gig, although not as much as previous years. It wasn't the best gig I've seen them do nor the worst.

The brass section was good and it was nice to hear Metropolis played live again. Jem and Terry did share the guitar playing, but I felt it lacked a bit of drive on the rhythm side even so, and at times there was no guitar at all. As said before Philip was very much missed.

James has so much energy, I don't know where he gets it from. His trousers were totally ripped to shreds by the end of it all. Yes Shane did forget the words to me that's secondary, Shane is Shane.

It was nice to meet Eckhard, Markwafc and his mate again, Mark sorry I had to rush off at the end when I met you on the way out, Jake just took off and I was afraid of losing him, I'd loved to have stayed for a chat.

Anyway I had a brilliant time, roll on Brixton next Saturday.

Brilliant show last night, shane was off it!! proper mad when he fell back after his famous scream on sick bed of cuchullain i had it recording on vid, as soon as he was helped up the thousands cheered, wot a guy

I've got mixed feelings about this one. Had a brilliant time and met some great people, but it was far from the best performance I've seen from them. The band looked a bit fed up at times I feel and it was sad to see a half full arena.
And where were the Christmas trees? Bring them back...

debaser wrote:I've got mixed feelings about this one. Had a brilliant time and met some great people, but it was far from the best performance I've seen from them. The band looked a bit fed up at times I feel and it was sad to see a half full arena.
And where were the Christmas trees? Bring them back...

I've said for a while now that the Arena is to big, play the Apollo!