If I Should Fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story

and when I hear the cannons roar

and the the bloody shites of war...???

well my old man was uhh in charge

was uhh in apartment

around to see about a job in Dublin

because they don't even

have a store in Dublin... yeah?

right and what... I don't even

they was doing some kind of

no he was in the same old

no but it's the same kind of

f***ing... nowhere... f***ing

I'm nowhere now and I will

be nowhere when I die

it's a joke... you know what I mean?

it's like they said... it's a ??? you know?

but I mean like I'm clinically insane

Shane's decided that he's

clinically insane because he has...

I haven't decided... I remembered

you know what I mean?

you remembered you were?

and I'll be... like it's not that...

that's just the first time they did it

yeah?

'bout seven countries now... you know?

you're clinically insane in 7 countries?

yeah

like doing... doing you know like... tests

you know... psychological tests on ???

he had a brilliant brain I mean

that's all I know

just didn't have it a few...

a few billion cells later ehh?

I started off as a healthy, f***ing

Tipperary farm boy you know what I mean?

I came over here and degenerated

into a... into a... into a...???

and a drunkard and drug user and thief

it was very very difficult

to get employment in Ireland

in the 60's you know... it

was very difficult indeed

uhh... there was very

little employment really

many many people had to go abroad

to either England or somewhere else

America or somewhere else

to actually earn a living

and... uhh... Maurice was one of those

really so we uhh we had to go to London

we started off in Ealing

which I hated with a great hatred

having... coming from Dublin

it was a real dreary London suburb

we tried to leave Shane in Ireland

as much as possible when he was young

during his holidays

he always returned to Ireland

the house my mother was brought up in

and I was brought up in

for a large part of my life

is a very remote townland

yeah... called Carney Commons

like... which is in the parish of Finnoe

it's near the town of Borrisokane

that's my home

my official home

that's where I live when I'm not

staying in London because of business

and the band being based in London

although they're all Irish... yeah?

and. . . uhh. . . when I'm

not touring. . . you know...

his heart and soul always lay

in Ireland in Tipperary

that's where his spiritual home was

it's where... you know... the whole

his heart was there really

I came from a musical family

we always sang and... and

most people played an instrument

and my mother was... uhh... you

know... one of those ???

for singing and dancing and

singing in Irish as well

my memory from the earliest days is a

house of music and song and story-telling

they all... practically all played

instruments. . . you know... concertina

mellodion, piano... what you

you know... name it they played it

and... and so therefore it was also

what I would call an open house

I suppose really it was a house

that everybody gravitated to

he was singing from a very early age

and acting as he was singing songs

do you know... do you remember

the Hole In The Bucket?

remember that song?

Oh Lord!

and he was only two-and-a-half

he was that fast

and it was a scream to look at him

yeah... he's amazing

okay when I started going to school

in England like... you know

like... uhh... that was back in '87

right... you know... like

that was a horrific

f***ing change of. . . uhh. . . life

we moved down to Tunbridge Wells

we had quite a nice little place there

and after a while there

we... we decided to go to London

to the famous Barbican

where all the trouble

broke loose... you know because

Therese wasn't able to handle

the built up aspects of London you know

it's on a huge scale

and the Barbican was a

massive sort of fortress

the family all became

very emotionally disturbed

it was a situational

disturbance basically

we had loads of good times

don't get me wrong... right? yeah?

but at a certain stage of

the game... right? yeah?

like uhh... yeah... I mean I... I started

doing the normal teenage

things... you know

and I got knicked... you know?

he was getting into trouble

at his school... you know?

he was getting into trouble there

for various things and then he...

I think he was doing a bit of

drug-taking at that stage

the doctor had put me on Valium

because I had a nervous breakdown

after my mum had one... yeah?

that's a heavy dosage

it's not as heavy as what he had her on

she was on real zombie stuff... yeah?

I used to go out every morning

and kick her to see if she was alive

you know what I mean... right?

I had to go into the drug

ward of a mental hospital and

uhh... I stayed in the hospital

called Bethelehem... like

the main... one of the big ones

it's the main one in London

he overdid the drugs

no two ways about that

I mean that was the case... I mean

so he rebelled... really...

at that stage... you know?

perhaps he did it a bit earlier

than people used to rebel

at that time in those days. . . you know?

Shane gave up the formal education system

at the invitation of the establishment

at around twelve or so

he'd been caught with cannabis

or some nonsense like that

and... umm... we were invited around

to the... uhh... headmaster's study

a fellow called Ray... a right wanker

and... uhh... we went down there

anyway... the two of us

and... uhh... he talked about you know

the terrible crime that

Shane had committed

I listened to all this... and... uhh

and I said, "What do you

want to do about it?"

and he said, "Well, I'd prefer if

Shane didn't come back next term."

I said, "Fine, you know,

I don't want him to come back

to this stupid, f***ing

c*nt of a place, anyway. " you know?

that was more or less how it ended

and I went off

do you want to go back and

see your old teacher?

what do I want to... Spellman?

no I don't think I have to

my dad did a pretty good job in there

I think he's probably exiled himself

to somewhere far away... you know?

well I think he had him up...

up on the... f***ing thrown against

the wall... you know?

you know shouting and cursing

and being a racist prick you know

I mean he had a happy childhood

I mean uhh... the education

didn't spoil that in any way

he just didn't contribute to his

development in any way

we got on basically that

I got kicked out of school

because I was such an outrageous

little turd in England... right?

I was obviously turning into

a complete scumbag

right... you know what I mean?

the more time I spent

in England right... yeah?

right... yeah... you know what I mean?

yeah? like... from being a decent person

yeah... like uhh... you'd notice it

tell us about uhh... falling in love...

where'd you meet?

in a pub

why did I ask that question. . .

why did I ask that question

his best friend was a friend of mine

- Spider the tin whistle player

- oh I tell ya

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