Right on the back of the news of Geordie’s death, the punk fraternity were hit with another huge loss. Shane MacGowan, original punk ‘face’ (Shane’s ears graced quite a few early photos of The Jam and The Clash), singer with the Pogues and later The Popes. Shane had been hospitalized with encephalitis for some time and things were not looking too hopeful for any kind of recovery. Then, there was some on-line pre-Christmas cheer with the news that he was out of hospital and homeward bound. I cannot say what happened next, whether he suffered a relapse or in fact his doctors and family knew that the end was near and he was discharged to allow him to be at home in his final days. It does not matter of course because either way the voice of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s London Irish has left the bar for the last time.
At the same time that Shane was starting to make a name for himself, on stage rather than off, with his band The Nipple Erectors, The Specials were melding the music of an earlier generation of immigrants into England with punk. A couple of years later, Shane’s next band, The Pogues, were doing something very similar. For The Specials it was the Blue Beat rhythms that the Windrush generation brought with them from the Caribbean that they so brilliantly combined with a punk energy/attitude. For The Pogues it was traditional Irish folk music that they again stunningly warped with punk. For me, the comparisons of the two bands can be taken a step further. Both bands formed during dark times in England… individual members of The Specials and the band itself existed at a time when the far right had a following that had not been seen since the Blackshirts of the B.U.F.. Their gigs were dogged by the National Front and British Movement hell bent on disrupting their gigs. Similarly, The Pogues came to prominence at a time when the IRA were very active in England. I cannot speak from experience, but London Irish life in the early ‘80’s could be unpleasant at times.
I saw The Pogues several times in the mid to late 1980’s thankfully. How can you adequately describe a Pogues gig….. a drunken party executed with the intensity of a pitched battle. I have been to hundreds of punk gigs over the years but I have never witnessed drunkenness on such a magnificent scale! And on each occasion I too was one of those drunken good natured combatants.
Off stage, I used to see Shane occasionally in Camden where we decamped to every weekend from where we were living in Kilburn, but I never spoke with him unfortunately. As I write this, Shane’s funeral cortege has passed through Dublin. Photographs indicate a huge outpouring of love and emotion for the man and his music.
Many bands, especially Stateside have adopted the musical style of The Pogues, but not have managed to achieve poetry, passion and sheer fun of the original.
Thank you Shane MacGowan (& The Pogues).