During the last weekend I saw a documentary about the life of Shane MacGowan with The Pogues. Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan, singer-songwriter and frontman of the legendary Irish-British band The Pogues. Born on 25 December 1957 to Irish parents in England, he grew up in Tipperary, Ireland. In his youth, he moves back to England with his family at a time when the Northern Ireland conflict has torn a deep rift in British society. In London, Shane is admitted to the venerable Westminster School at 14 thanks to his literary talent. But the Irish boy with the crooked teeth and the strong accent remains an outsider there. After attending a Sex Pistols concert in 1976, Shane knows what he wants: to become a musician!
"I was always at the right place at the right time": From the niche of punk, Shane managed to give his compatriots a widely audible voice in the heated atmosphere of the Northern Ireland conflict, with a force and lack of inhibition they never had before.
Now documentary filmmaker and punk companion Julien Temple has created a memorial to Shane: a firework of intimate footage of British punk culture from Temple's own archives and previously unreleased material. In his film, Temple evokes the rise and fall of a snotty genius who catapulted himself out of his own band with his excesses and ended up in a wheelchair, only to finally celebrate his 60th birthday as a lavish party on stage with new teeth, old humour and greats like Nick Cave and Johnny Depp.
I saw him several times from his first tour with Pogues until he couldn't stand and sing because he was drunk as hell and Joe Strummer had to replace him on stage but I always liked him and his music. There could be many songs that should be featured but I decided for a song he recorded with a Sinnead O'Conner and maybe the best duet ever. Two beautiful Irish voice together in a great song.
