Manchester Evening News - Another Christmas

[MacRua]

Another Christmas with The Pogues
Sarah Walters
Manchester Evening News
14 Dec 2006
Full URL<blockquote>
CELTIC punk stalwarts The Pogues might be a bit long in the tooth these days, but fans should be pre-warned that their shows are no less fast and furious than in the early days.

“You should see what James Fearnley can do with that accordion,” quips tin whistle player and Pogues founding father Peter ‘Spider’ Stacy.

“It’s risky for a man of his years, but impressive none the less. We really do enjoy playing live.

Advertisement your story continues below

“It’s taken on a new lease of life now and in many ways we’re probably better now than we ever were.”

The Pogues amassed a fearsome reputation during the 1980s for their raucous take on Irish rock – and an even more fearsome reputation for their often-sloshed frontman Shane MacGowan – before the rot set in during 1991, when Stacy and Co sacked MacGowan on a tour of Japan and took on the now sadly departed Joe Strummer as their lead man.

Stacy too served a stint on lead vocals, quite a promotion from his original job of banging his head with a beer tray as a crude percussion instrument.

The Vendettas

And he has paved himself a career with his own band, The Vendettas, and in acting since – a sideline he’d like to experiment with again in the future.

But, despite the public nature of the band’s rift, they survived with their reputation intact and soon recovered their original frontman.

It’s no less than they deserve. “We were a bloody good band back in the 1980s and we’re a bloody good band now,” says Spider.

“We’re back in business now, in the live sense, and we haven’t got any new material at the moment but all the signs are that there is new material in us. Let’s say the rumours that we potentially might be doing something may be true. That’s suitably vague.”</blockquote>