Happy St. Patrick's Day! The Pogues, live at the Town and Country Club
March 17, 2023 11:39 AM Subscribe
The Pogues – Live At The Town And Country Club London (1988)
I'm spending my day with live shows by The Pogues, how about you? Getting ready for a St. Paddy's Day party tomorrow.. How do you celebrate the day?
Here's another good show: (The Pogues, 1988 in Tokyo)
I'm spending my day with live shows by The Pogues, how about you? Getting ready for a St. Paddy's Day party tomorrow.. How do you celebrate the day?
Here's another good show: (The Pogues, 1988 in Tokyo)
Speaking of the guests, Kirsty McColl with the silly string is a delight.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:04 PM on March 17, 2023
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:04 PM on March 17, 2023
I saw them in NYC in November 1987.
It was an incredible concert.
Happy St Patrick's Day!
posted by chavenet at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2023
It was an incredible concert.
Happy St Patrick's Day!
posted by chavenet at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2023
This is wonderful, thank you! And we lost Kirsty way too early. She's sorely missed.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:09 PM on March 17, 2023
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:09 PM on March 17, 2023
The filmed Town & Country gig was one of six consecutive nights they played there (immediately followed by a seventh at Brixton Academy). I went along on the night before, along with a bunch of workmates I'd persuaded to attend on the strength of the band's unexpected chart success with Fairytale of New York (then just a couple of months old).
One of the people I'd talked into coming was a rather posh young woman whose normal idea of a night out was a civilised evening in the wine bar with her mates. Let's call her Hannah. I knew the whole of the Town & Country was going to be one huge, drunken moshpit at a Pogues gig - particularly one held in Kentish Town on the night before St Patrick's - and I did try to tell her what she was letting herself in for. She kept insisting she'd be fine.
The first thing we saw as we entered the Town & Country was a young lad passed out on the floor in a small pool of his own vomit. He still had a plastic pint glass clutched in one hand, but had allowed its contents to pour out and soak into his shirt. Hannah stepped over him gamely and headed for the bar.
The gig itself was terrific, though I got separated from everyone else and didn't see any of them till next day at work, when Hannah assured me she'd had an absolutely wonderful time. I think she was just being polite but who knows?
posted by Paul Slade at 1:32 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
One of the people I'd talked into coming was a rather posh young woman whose normal idea of a night out was a civilised evening in the wine bar with her mates. Let's call her Hannah. I knew the whole of the Town & Country was going to be one huge, drunken moshpit at a Pogues gig - particularly one held in Kentish Town on the night before St Patrick's - and I did try to tell her what she was letting herself in for. She kept insisting she'd be fine.
The first thing we saw as we entered the Town & Country was a young lad passed out on the floor in a small pool of his own vomit. He still had a plastic pint glass clutched in one hand, but had allowed its contents to pour out and soak into his shirt. Hannah stepped over him gamely and headed for the bar.
The gig itself was terrific, though I got separated from everyone else and didn't see any of them till next day at work, when Hannah assured me she'd had an absolutely wonderful time. I think she was just being polite but who knows?
posted by Paul Slade at 1:32 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I saw them in '87 in Vancouver. Joe Strummer was their guitar player and my god it's still on one the very best shows I have ever seen. Strummer belting out London Calling and Clampdown with The Pogues might be my favourite concert memory ever.
Also, the only concert I have ever seen that I regret being totally sober for.
Thank you for posting this; to be watched later.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 2:10 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
Also, the only concert I have ever seen that I regret being totally sober for.
Thank you for posting this; to be watched later.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 2:10 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
My parents went to see them in Seattle many years ago. The band started almost two hours late, and my parents left two songs in once it was obvious that Shane was too drunk to stand up and fully intended to lie on the stage on his back for the entire set. This seems like a much better set!
posted by skycrashesdown at 3:18 PM on March 17, 2023
posted by skycrashesdown at 3:18 PM on March 17, 2023
The band started almost two hours late, and my parents left two songs in once it was obvious that Shane was too drunk to stand up and fully intended to lie on the stage on his back for the entire set.
this is an accurate description of the Montreal show my brother attended, might've been '88 or a bit later
hard to believe Shane MacGowan still walks the earth.. watching him perform "If I Should Fall.." it's like, kind of a confessional or something
posted by elkevelvet at 3:56 PM on March 17, 2023
this is an accurate description of the Montreal show my brother attended, might've been '88 or a bit later
hard to believe Shane MacGowan still walks the earth.. watching him perform "If I Should Fall.." it's like, kind of a confessional or something
posted by elkevelvet at 3:56 PM on March 17, 2023
hard to believe Shane MacGowan still walks the earth
I've watched the T&C video many times, and the same thought always strikes me when we see Shane and Kirsty slow dancing together in Fairytale of New York: who on earth would have imagined she'd be the one to die first?
At the eve-of-St-Pat's gig I talked about above, Shane was a bit more pissed than he seems in the video, but had yet to begin his real slide downhill. Every now and again that night, he'd give a gormless stare across the stage which suggested he'd momentarily lost track of what was going on. No matter. His role on these occasions was to be the personification of drunkenness itself and the more wrecked he was, the more we loved him for it. If he really had died in his thirties - which was what everyone then expected to happen - we'd all have carried some of the blame for egging him on.
By the time The Pogues came to record Peace & Love in February 1989, both MacGowan's songwriting and his singing had sharply declined. By the band's own testimony, he seemed to be more and more fucked up more and more of the time. The other members stepped in manfully to try and fill the gap, but without MacGowan firing on all cylinders they'd never be quite the same band again.
Thankfully, Shane seems to be a calmer and a happier man today. And let's never forget that he wrote some truly immortal songs.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:44 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've watched the T&C video many times, and the same thought always strikes me when we see Shane and Kirsty slow dancing together in Fairytale of New York: who on earth would have imagined she'd be the one to die first?
At the eve-of-St-Pat's gig I talked about above, Shane was a bit more pissed than he seems in the video, but had yet to begin his real slide downhill. Every now and again that night, he'd give a gormless stare across the stage which suggested he'd momentarily lost track of what was going on. No matter. His role on these occasions was to be the personification of drunkenness itself and the more wrecked he was, the more we loved him for it. If he really had died in his thirties - which was what everyone then expected to happen - we'd all have carried some of the blame for egging him on.
By the time The Pogues came to record Peace & Love in February 1989, both MacGowan's songwriting and his singing had sharply declined. By the band's own testimony, he seemed to be more and more fucked up more and more of the time. The other members stepped in manfully to try and fill the gap, but without MacGowan firing on all cylinders they'd never be quite the same band again.
Thankfully, Shane seems to be a calmer and a happier man today. And let's never forget that he wrote some truly immortal songs.
posted by Paul Slade at 4:44 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I saw the Pogues almost 15 years ago at Brixton Academy around Christmastime. It was my first time abroad, a passport so new the ink was still drying and dirty cheap plane tickets to London for 9 days off-season - I soon figured out why no one likes visiting London in the Winter.
After a solid week of getting lost on Britain's rail system (a story in of itself) and dealing with a personal issue I was sure was gonorrhea, I found that I mistakenly bought a ticket for the night before by the person assisting me at Will Call. They made it happen for me for the night I did decide to show up (respect!) and with a raised eyebrow from security because of whatever markings they put on my new ticket, they let me in.
Brixton Academy! Guns of Brixon played in my head for the entire tube ride, I was beyond excited to be at this mythical venue. I planted myself front row center, after having eaten a suspect sandwhich from a small corner grocery while waiting in line.
Half of London seemed to be pushing towards the back of me and I into the metal barrier in front from the beginning of, If I Fall From the Grace of God, all the way to Fairytale of New York. Incredible show. God Shane was an absolute mess - he looked like a drownt fish.
The next day at the hostel I awoke in stomach pain and some green gills of my own from food poisoning from the damn sandwich, facing down a transatlantic flight back home to Denver. With barf bag at the ready, I sat down, hoping - pleading! that the world would stop spinning as I was about to take off for a cruising altitude of 30,000'.
By some sort of miracle, I had an isle seat in the center with no one on my other side, and slowly I nursed myself into a more reasonable state of being with copious amounts of black tea and a viewing of the original French Connection.
By the time we touched down, I was in high spirits, singing Pogues songs loud and boisterously - happy to have survived earning my first passport stamp. So much so, that migration security thought of me as odd, and my bag - a women's backpack I had bought from the thrift store, was fully searched. In there was 9 days worth of dirty clothes in disarray from tramping around London and Brighton, and a random bra that was sold to me along with the pack, left there - I would assume: by mistake from the former owner.
Life was good, and whatever that other thing was cleared up by itself. Denver was cold, but not as miserable as Londontown.
POGUE MAHONE!
posted by alex_skazat at 7:54 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
After a solid week of getting lost on Britain's rail system (a story in of itself) and dealing with a personal issue I was sure was gonorrhea, I found that I mistakenly bought a ticket for the night before by the person assisting me at Will Call. They made it happen for me for the night I did decide to show up (respect!) and with a raised eyebrow from security because of whatever markings they put on my new ticket, they let me in.
Brixton Academy! Guns of Brixon played in my head for the entire tube ride, I was beyond excited to be at this mythical venue. I planted myself front row center, after having eaten a suspect sandwhich from a small corner grocery while waiting in line.
Half of London seemed to be pushing towards the back of me and I into the metal barrier in front from the beginning of, If I Fall From the Grace of God, all the way to Fairytale of New York. Incredible show. God Shane was an absolute mess - he looked like a drownt fish.
The next day at the hostel I awoke in stomach pain and some green gills of my own from food poisoning from the damn sandwich, facing down a transatlantic flight back home to Denver. With barf bag at the ready, I sat down, hoping - pleading! that the world would stop spinning as I was about to take off for a cruising altitude of 30,000'.
By some sort of miracle, I had an isle seat in the center with no one on my other side, and slowly I nursed myself into a more reasonable state of being with copious amounts of black tea and a viewing of the original French Connection.
By the time we touched down, I was in high spirits, singing Pogues songs loud and boisterously - happy to have survived earning my first passport stamp. So much so, that migration security thought of me as odd, and my bag - a women's backpack I had bought from the thrift store, was fully searched. In there was 9 days worth of dirty clothes in disarray from tramping around London and Brighton, and a random bra that was sold to me along with the pack, left there - I would assume: by mistake from the former owner.
Life was good, and whatever that other thing was cleared up by itself. Denver was cold, but not as miserable as Londontown.
POGUE MAHONE!
posted by alex_skazat at 7:54 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted. Not cool to make fun of someone's looks.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:31 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 11:31 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
clavdivs, them’s four-leaf clovers, nothing to do with Ireland!
posted by Samarium at 5:49 PM on March 19, 2023
posted by Samarium at 5:49 PM on March 19, 2023
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