-Liverpool Daily Post: The Pogues/Echo Arena (July 15, 2009)

[Zuzana]

REVIEW: The Pogues/Echo Arena, Liverpool

Jul 16 2009
Emma Pinch
Liverpool Daily Post

Full URL

AN EVENING with Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan must generally have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Would he be propped up, throw up, or even turn up, as one woman anxiously enquired at the door of the Arena where he was performing last night. Fortunately only the latter, mostly, was a yes and he was in fine physical form. He’d lost the new set of teeth he’d been previously been seen sporting, but he was trim, with a fine mane of chestnut hair, and a voice as gloriously fierce and gravelly as ever. He was also sporting a piratical black eye patch, which he may or may not have attributed to a lost fight with a beer glass – his brief addresses to the audience were grumpy and quite impenetrable.

But here’s the thing with Shane MacGowan – he might be listing at 40 degrees to the horizontal but once he grabs that mike, music transforms him.

He started fast and furious with If I Should Fall From Grace and then a passionate Broad Majestic Shannon. After song four, A Pair of Brown Eyes, he ambled off stage, the first of five or six inexplicable absences throughout the night. But his talented eight, sometimes 10-strong band including brass, coped admirably with the tin whistle player taking centre stage. Oh Kitty My Darling was beautifully stirring and Shane spat out the words to the fierce Boys From the County Hell, making it a highlight.

Dirty Old Town and encore Irish Rover were huge hits, sung in the whisky-roughened voice of someone who’s lived. Rainy Night in Soho was heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Last night was probably the closest you get to an Irish pub sing song as you get in the Arena. The audience danced, sang, heckled – earning some expletives from Shane and a steady stream being thrown out – and in a half full venue which Shane commented we could burn down afterwards, you couldn’t help yearn to watch them in packed, sweaty spit and sawdust pub instead. Last night we were on the edge of our seats, mostly, for all the right reasons.

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© 2009 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited.

[philipchevron]

REVIEW: The Pogues/Echo Arena, Liverpool

Jul 16 2009
Emma Pinch
Liverpool Daily Post

Full URL

AN EVENING with Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan must generally have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Would he be propped up, throw up, or even turn up, as one woman anxiously enquired at the door of the Arena where he was performing last night. Fortunately only the latter, mostly, was a yes and he was in fine physical form. He’d lost the new set of teeth he’d been previously been seen sporting, but he was trim, with a fine mane of chestnut hair, and a voice as gloriously fierce and gravelly as ever. He was also sporting a piratical black eye patch, which he may or may not have attributed to a lost fight with a beer glass – his brief addresses to the audience were grumpy and quite impenetrable.

But here’s the thing with Shane MacGowan – he might be listing at 40 degrees to the horizontal but once he grabs that mike, music transforms him.

He started fast and furious with If I Should Fall From Grace and then a passionate Broad Majestic Shannon. After song four, A Pair of Brown Eyes, he ambled off stage, the first of five or six inexplicable absences throughout the night. But his talented eight, sometimes 10-strong band including brass, coped admirably with the tin whistle player taking centre stage. Oh Kitty My Darling was beautifully stirring and Shane spat out the words to the fierce Boys From the County Hell, making it a highlight.

Dirty Old Town and encore Irish Rover were huge hits, sung in the whisky-roughened voice of someone who’s lived. Rainy Night in Soho was heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Last night was probably the closest you get to an Irish pub sing song as you get in the Arena. The audience danced, sang, heckled – earning some expletives from Shane and a steady stream being thrown out – and in a half full venue which Shane commented we could burn down afterwards, you couldn’t help yearn to watch them in packed, sweaty spit and sawdust pub instead. Last night we were on the edge of our seats, mostly, for all the right reasons.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2009 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited.

I was impressed that this review made it into the Liverpool Daily Post so fast and assumed it must be just in the online edition at this early stage, so I was doubly impressed to find it in the print edition too, complete with front page picture of our singer and his eyepatch.

[MissWalshy]

What's with the eyepatch?

Although pirates are sexy.... hold on a minute, i better not say anything more

[philipchevron]

What's with the eyepatch?

Although pirates are sexy.... hold on a minute, i better not say anything more

The most reliable version so far appears to be "I've got conjunctivitis right, but I got it from accidentally stabbing myself in the eye with a table knife. I seem to do that kind of thing a lot."

[mats]

What's with the eyepatch?

Although pirates are sexy.... hold on a minute, i better not say anything more

The most reliable version so far appears to be "I've got conjunctivitis right, but I got it from accidentally stabbing myself in the eye with a table knife. I seem to do that kind of thing a lot."

You should give Shane a wine cork to protect himself....just like Steve Martin had in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

[Mark_Wafc]

REVIEW: The Pogues/Echo Arena, Liverpool

Jul 16 2009
Emma Pinch
Liverpool Daily Post

Full URL

AN EVENING with Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan must generally have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Would he be propped up, throw up, or even turn up, as one woman anxiously enquired at the door of the Arena where he was performing last night. Fortunately only the latter, mostly, was a yes and he was in fine physical form. He’d lost the new set of teeth he’d been previously been seen sporting, but he was trim, with a fine mane of chestnut hair, and a voice as gloriously fierce and gravelly as ever. He was also sporting a piratical black eye patch, which he may or may not have attributed to a lost fight with a beer glass – his brief addresses to the audience were grumpy and quite impenetrable.

But here’s the thing with Shane MacGowan – he might be listing at 40 degrees to the horizontal but once he grabs that mike, music transforms him.

He started fast and furious with If I Should Fall From Grace and then a passionate Broad Majestic Shannon. After song four, A Pair of Brown Eyes, he ambled off stage, the first of five or six inexplicable absences throughout the night. But his talented eight, sometimes 10-strong band including brass, coped admirably with the tin whistle player taking centre stage. Oh Kitty My Darling was beautifully stirring and Shane spat out the words to the fierce Boys From the County Hell, making it a highlight.

Dirty Old Town and encore Irish Rover were huge hits, sung in the whisky-roughened voice of someone who’s lived. Rainy Night in Soho was heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Last night was probably the closest you get to an Irish pub sing song as you get in the Arena. The audience danced, sang, heckled – earning some expletives from Shane and a steady stream being thrown out – and in a half full venue which Shane commented we could burn down afterwards, you couldn’t help yearn to watch them in packed, sweaty spit and sawdust pub instead. Last night we were on the edge of our seats, mostly, for all the right reasons.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2009 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited.

I was impressed that this review made it into the Liverpool Daily Post so fast and assumed it must be just in the online edition at this early stage, so I was doubly impressed to find it in the print edition too, complete with front page picture of our singer and his eyepatch.

In all fairness to Emma Pinch, she would only have had to cross the road from the Arena to get back to the papers office to the get the copy in!

[philipchevron]

REVIEW: The Pogues/Echo Arena, Liverpool

Jul 16 2009
Emma Pinch
Liverpool Daily Post

Full URL

AN EVENING with Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan must generally have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Would he be propped up, throw up, or even turn up, as one woman anxiously enquired at the door of the Arena where he was performing last night. Fortunately only the latter, mostly, was a yes and he was in fine physical form. He’d lost the new set of teeth he’d been previously been seen sporting, but he was trim, with a fine mane of chestnut hair, and a voice as gloriously fierce and gravelly as ever. He was also sporting a piratical black eye patch, which he may or may not have attributed to a lost fight with a beer glass – his brief addresses to the audience were grumpy and quite impenetrable.

But here’s the thing with Shane MacGowan – he might be listing at 40 degrees to the horizontal but once he grabs that mike, music transforms him.

He started fast and furious with If I Should Fall From Grace and then a passionate Broad Majestic Shannon. After song four, A Pair of Brown Eyes, he ambled off stage, the first of five or six inexplicable absences throughout the night. But his talented eight, sometimes 10-strong band including brass, coped admirably with the tin whistle player taking centre stage. Oh Kitty My Darling was beautifully stirring and Shane spat out the words to the fierce Boys From the County Hell, making it a highlight.

Dirty Old Town and encore Irish Rover were huge hits, sung in the whisky-roughened voice of someone who’s lived. Rainy Night in Soho was heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Last night was probably the closest you get to an Irish pub sing song as you get in the Arena. The audience danced, sang, heckled – earning some expletives from Shane and a steady stream being thrown out – and in a half full venue which Shane commented we could burn down afterwards, you couldn’t help yearn to watch them in packed, sweaty spit and sawdust pub instead. Last night we were on the edge of our seats, mostly, for all the right reasons.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2009 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited.

I was impressed that this review made it into the Liverpool Daily Post so fast and assumed it must be just in the online edition at this early stage, so I was doubly impressed to find it in the print edition too, complete with front page picture of our singer and his eyepatch.

In all fairness to Emma Pinch, she would only have had to cross the road from the Arena to get back to the papers office to the get the copy in!

Oh, indeed so. But given that all journalists are drunks, how noble of her not to get diverted by any hostelries on the way.

[Cornish Andy]

Why is it so hard for reviewers to grasp the idea that Shane disappears for "inexplicable absences" at various points in the set in order for the other talented musicians, singers and songwriters in the band to perform?

[philipchevron]

Why is it so hard for reviewers to grasp the idea that Shane disappears for "inexplicable absences" at various points in the set in order for the other talented musicians, singers and songwriters in the band to perform?

Well, it just doesn't suit their narrative of the singer as a wayward, unpredictable genius, does it? Besides, it gets to convey the suggestion that the singer depends on regular top-ups of drink and/or drugs without incurring the risk of saying so and receiving writs from our learned friends Murphy Kelly and MacGillacuddy.

[RICHB]

Why is it so hard for reviewers to grasp the idea that Shane disappears for "inexplicable absences" at various points in the set in order for the other talented musicians, singers and songwriters in the band to perform?

Well, it just doesn't suit their narrative of the singer as a wayward, unpredictable genius, does it? Besides, it gets to convey the suggestion that the singer depends on regular top-ups of drink and/or drugs without incurring the risk of saying so and receiving writs from our learned friends Murphy Kelly and MacGillacuddy.

Oh for fucks sake as if Shane would have to leave the stage to do any of that even if he watned to ha ha ha

[philipchevron]

Why is it so hard for reviewers to grasp the idea that Shane disappears for "inexplicable absences" at various points in the set in order for the other talented musicians, singers and songwriters in the band to perform?

Well, it just doesn't suit their narrative of the singer as a wayward, unpredictable genius, does it? Besides, it gets to convey the suggestion that the singer depends on regular top-ups of drink and/or drugs without incurring the risk of saying so and receiving writs from our learned friends Murphy Kelly and MacGillacuddy.

Oh for fucks sake as if Shane would have to leave the stage to do any of that even if he watned to ha ha ha

Spider and I were discussing this nonsense yesterday and Spider mentioned the other inevitable canard - Shane appears on stage "clutching a whiskey bottle". We had to conclude that rock "critics" are getting a raw deal from their local Off-licences and should start demanding refunds on the bottles of white wine being passed off to them as whiskey.

[RICHB]

You can imagine them typing up their stories pointing out the singer Macgowan drinking whilst at work whilst they gradually pass the label and head towards the bottom of the bottle. Jack Daniels dont do white wine but if they did it would ...........and so on