UKH

RIP Shane MacGowan.

A fine talent...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67546785

youtube.com/watch?v=vJvSFbyeYMQ&

Very sad but I am kind of surprised that he lasted this long. One of my all time best song writers

I saw the Pogues in Wollaton Park Nottingham in the 90s. Ironically Joe Strummer stepped in for an unwell Shane.

He brought a whole new angle to Irish music and a fun one at that.

I saw The Pogues a few times at Brixton Academy Christmas gigs in the early 2000s. They were by a country mile, the best gigs I've ever been to - the scenes with all the drunken fans on the Victoria Line back past  the Christmas shoppers were something else.

Irreplaceable

"Count the days slowly passing by
Step on a plane and fly away
I'll see you then as the dawnbirds sing
On a cold and misty morning by the Albert bridge"

A man may drink and not be drunk
A man may fight and not be slain
A man may court a pretty girl
And perhaps be welcomed back again
But since it has so ought to be
By a time to rise and a time to fall
Come fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all
Good night and joy be with you all

So fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate’er befall,
And gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all

I am going, I am going
Any which way the wind may be blowing
I am going, I am going
Where streams of whiskey are flowing
 

Kinda hope he is. 

Used to drink to the Pogues a lot, especially on climbing trips. 

Oh my. 
So many mad parties and climbing trips fuelled by the Pogues.

’So goodnight and God guard you forever’

I didn't realise he was still alive!

I worked on a Pogues gig, Christmas time at Brixton Academy, sometime in the 90s. Around midday some really ropey looking guys staggered in through the loading door, and I mentioned to a colleague that we should get security. "Shush" he said, "that's the band".

Shane didn't look that much better when he came on stage, holding a pint of whiskey. Banging gig though. If there was ever an artist whose work could not be separated from their substance use, Shane was it.

Sure it wasn’t the Popes? I went to a Sawdoctors all dayer  there then and Shane and the Popes were on. Unfortunately Shane was, ahem, ill and it was just the Popes