If I Should Fall from Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story Page #4

and to just build confidence

in what the band were doing

there was... uhh... energy in

in the way that the way that he wrote

uhh from my point of view

i was... i was writing very different

sorts of lyrics I think

and for a lot of different reasons

from... from as early on as I

can remember actually

umm I was trying to make an effort

in some way... to show that I could write

and that was the difference

between I think me and Shane

and that's what made

Shane such a great writer

was his complete effortlessness

umm... it just looked like it

just sort of dropped out of him

and uhh... and there wasn't

a bad line amongst it

it's just... just beautiful stuff

what? has Mickey gone home?

this is where Francis Bacon used to drink

he was Irish and queer

and a right wanker I think

hello there!

Pascal

C'mere you bastard

[speaking Greek?]

this is Michael this is the

uhh... proprietor and

and this is Pascal...

the beautiful proprietoress

hostess from... uhh... from Greece

what do you want?

I should never stop telling you

the drinks are incredibly

wonderful... sorrowful

- shut up you a**hole

- uhh

like singing acting... like they invented

tragedy they invented comedy

and tonight's tragi-comedy

is just about to commence

when I was a sponge-diver

I dived 14 million feet into

the sea to pick up a sponge

and did you use it?

I sold it to an American

his music is very spontaneous

and it comes... it seems

to just flow through him

when he's writing music

it seems that he has music in his head

and it sort of comes through...

and I think that the state of mind

he's in when hes when he's writing

is quite detached from

what we would think of as

a normal day-to-day way of functioning

he's not logical... he doesn't umm

he doesn't try to write music

he allows music to be...

to come through him

I mean I think... I think Shane is a

kind of master at... uhh

the opening lines of songs... are

always you know uhh... unbelievably good

you know Christmas eve babe

in the drunk tank

every piece got completely erased

beginning to end by the media

every note okay? like I mean apart

from a few notes by Jim

I mean a little riff

by Jim you know... okay?

but I'm saying like the orchestral

arrangement was by me... yeah? you know?

Steve Lilywhite was talking about using us

uhh... a machine could do it

you know what I mean?

I said, "No way!"

it's gotta be the real thing yeah

we almost had a number one single with

Fairytale of New York... yeah

but the Pet Shop Boys had other ideas

with their Elvis Presley cover

uhh... but even they would

have to have conceded I think

that morally we were the

number one record that week

uhh... it's the greatest Christmas

song since White Christmas you know uhh

and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

those three... they're the alltime greats

I still think it's an extraordinary record

coming as it did out of nothing

and even though the first two

albums had primed people for kind of

what to expect with the Pogues

I don't think anyone for a second

expected the riches of

Fairytale of New York

I loved the boat... yeah?

you don't get treated like a piece of sh*t

like you do on an airplane

unless you're a f***ing executive

you know? like... yeah?

I liked that boat quite a lot... yeah?

there or there or over there?

no... how about there or there?

double gin and tonic

lots of ice slice of lemon

glad to meet you

I'm so glad you made it

how you doing? how you doing man?

you got your hair... your beard cut off

aye... sort of... yeah

the impression I think a lot of people get

is that... you know...

it's Shane MacGowan... crazy guy

there were fifteen crazy guys

the crew as well

we fell around the world

I don't know how we got from A to B

we were all piss drunk

all of the time

I never envied uhh... Joey

Cashman's job as tour manager

I thought that was...

that must be...

what's the worst job you ever had?

I was the Pogues tour manager

yeah... great

there's no such thing as the good old days

oh no... that's not true... Joey no

that's not true

as tour manager I would be...

I would organize the

rooms and that at reception

and uhh guys who were particularly drunk

so I asked them to stay outside

so that the hotel people wouldn't see them

before we could at least get

our keys and get into the hotel

so... I was in the middle of doing that

and there were quite a few bands staying

there and I heard a bit of a commotion

I turned around and... uhh

Shane was being umm... helped in

by Big Charlie and somebody else

they had an arm each over their shoulders

and he had uhh... his leather

trousers were down around his knees

he had no underpants on

and they were dragging him along

his feet were just going like that

and uhh... I just said to

the receptionist you know

"What kind of a hotel is this?"

you know... what are these people

as if I had nothing to do with them

do you want to hear what it says?

Shane MacGowan and the Pogues

and the Pogues is in the same size

letters as my name for some reason... right?

you know Shane MacGowan's influence on

Irish music cannot be overestimated

I don't think it's true to say

that all of us were drinking too much

but certainly for some people in the band

alcohol had become a major problem

MacGowan's deceptively simple songs

I'd like to know what's

so bloody simple about them

try and play them... c*nt

contain worldly words of life

and lifetimes of experience

and he compresses all manner

of human passion into his work

desperate DESPERATE to communicate

everything he has lived and found

down to the last ounce of

commitment and urgency

if you had issues with alcohol

there was no better... trust me

there was no better place in the world

to bury them and hide them

than in the Pogues you know?

because the whole culture

that built around the band

uhh... positively you know... demanded it

a couple of nice ones

when you're that age

that's what you want to do

you want to um...

you want to drink too much

and take too many drugs

and stay up all night

and behave badly

and of course you... know they

were just having a good time

I knew he drank alot

but it wasn't so much that he drank alot

but that he seemed to be doing it

more out of desperaton at that point

more as a way of avoiding people

than as a way of joining in

whereas when I first met him

he was a very sociable sort of person

and he would drink umm... with people

you know with me or with whoever

when it got really bad

I could see him like...

put down a bottle of gin

before he went on stage just to umm

just to make himself feel

able to get on stage I think

I love Them

I love the dance stuff

I love the dance stuff... Astral Weeks

- I like all the albums

- I love Them stuff

- I like all his music

- Astral Weeks

I think it was a pivotal moment

because they made that

move from being in control

to being a part of somebody else's agenda

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