Paid Members Jazzy G Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 49 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: You aren't thinking like those LadBaby grifters Keith. What's the betting that as a tribute to Shane they release A Sausage Roll Of New York with 10p going to the Trussell Trust. "the boys from the NYPD Choir still singing Galway Bay, and the bells are ringing out for sausage rolls." Also, I see Alistair Darling has tapped out at 70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 Does someone else want to post that Alistair Darling has gone? He's died at least 3 times in the last 2 pages ffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 We'll have to wait for confirmation from Pete, although the delay hopefully doesn't mean he's got others on his list today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Some Guy Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 (edited) Sticky Vicky the ping pong ball bothering Spanish tourist attraction / dancer has died aged 80. Oh, Alistair Darling too. Edited November 30, 2023 by Just Some Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpiritOfTheForest Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 6 hours ago, SuperBacon said: The king never misses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 (edited) Hang on, lads. Maybe Pete has died? EDIT - One for politics nerds but Alistair Darling, former chancellor, has died. Edited November 30, 2023 by Keith Houchen Added death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 Double post but this is fucking ace. There’s a clip in the comments of the announcement being made. I haven’t seen the clip for when they announced Alistair Darlings death. Maybe they don’t know yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 I absolutely adored Shane MacGowan, that one's been a tough blow to take, even knowing how unwell he had been. Still, as he always said, he outlived hundreds of people who told him he had months left to live thirty years ago. He was someone I was aware of for a long time, between various TV appearances, and obviously Fairytale of New York, and as some of the first music I really got into was punk, The Pogues were always a band on the fringes of that, particularly knowing that Joe Strummer played with them for a time. I didn't get seriously into them until I was around 20, though, and I fell completely in love. By then, my musical tastes had expanded quite a lot, I was into a lot of English folk music, but Irish folk was a whole new world opening up to me; I'd started DJing and playing in bands, and went to a lot of open mics and so on, and there was a big Irish contingent involved in a lot of that scene at the time, so it was music that was around me a lot. I was also a bit of a prick that was too into the Beat generation stuff, and into ideas about how drink and drugs were consciousness expanding, and how there was wisdom to be found at the bottom of a bottle, or great poetry in some old pisshead at the pub; that played into a lot of what I was reading and listening to at the time, and obviously Shane MacGowan seemed to fit the bill. But when I listen to the Pogues now (less so his solo stuff), I don't really see that romanticism or glorification, I see a pretty earthy, filthy, rough-around-the-edges approach to drinking and drunkenness, and nothing that makes me think it sounds like a good time at all, just a matter-of-fact sense that this is the world as he knew it. He didn't help himself on all this, but it does frustrate me when he gets summed up as just a drunken singer, because his lyrics were so much richer than that, and his voice had so much depth and texture and versatility, for all that it was objectively not a "good" singing voice - I'd still rather listen to him than the majority of technically superior singers. I don't have the connections to him or his music that a lot of my Irish friends did, and can't speak for that side of his importance, but I fucking loved his music all the same. Even if the only thing he'd ever written was Rainy Night In Soho, I'd be holding him up as one of the greatest songwriters of his day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 12 minutes ago, BomberPat said: I see a pretty earthy, filthy, rough-around-the-edges approach to drinking and drunkenness, and nothing that makes me think it sounds like a good time at all, just a matter-of-fact sense that this is the world as he knew it. Yeah this all day. There’s no glory in being an alcoholic, it’s no fun. Sure there are fun times but it’s the times when you’re on your own or not doing well is what Shane captured with zero self pity. My friend once said that Shane’s genius lay in basking the ordinary in a golden light. My favourite Pogues song is Bottle Of Smoke and that captures the essence. Having one good day at the races sounding like a significant victory in a brutal war where what isn’t mentioned is always there too, in this case all the bad days gambling. Plus there is an absolute poetry in describing the horse giving it all for victory “Like a drunken fuck on a Saturday night”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 (edited) Just to confirm Sticky Vicky (whoever she is) Shane MacGowen Henry Kissinger Jimmy Corkhill And I think I got Alistair Darling today as well, but can't be sure. Anyone able to confirm? Back to my day job soon, ironically in a care home Edited November 30, 2023 by Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 In amongst that, and the bleakness of something like The Old Man Drag, I don't think anyone ever captured the sheer mundanity of spending day in and day out in the pub (though by this point in the song it's as a barman) as well as; I played the pump and took the hump and watered whiskey down I talked of whores and horses to the men who drank the brown I heard them say that Jimmy's making money far away And some people left for heaven without warning Even the last line "and some people left for heaven without warning" is just another thing that happened, and then you get back on it. Back to talking "whores and horses" every fucking day. But basking the ordinary in golden light is a really good way of putting it, he's made something poet and musical out of what, in reality, is just fucking drudgery. A mate of mine used to say that he thought one of the signs of a good song was if, on hearing it for the first time, you think that you must have heard it before. Because either, once you have heard it, you can't imagine having not heard it, or because it's just so good that it's difficult to believe that it took this long for somebody to get around to writing it. I think one of the wonderful things about The Pogues - and this may be a result of not having grown up with Irish music, admittedly - is that, at their best, their original songs can sit aside old folk songs and traditional music, or more recent cover versions, and you can't always pick them apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 5 minutes ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said: Back to my day job soon, ironically in a care home I'm ringing CQC right now 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 Get Panorama in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted November 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2023 This was something that made me think about just how good MacGowan's lyrics were (although some people will hate this) - this charity spoken word cover from 2000 hit the Irish Top 10 over Christmas. And despite being such famous lyrics, they convince well as actual spoken dialogue. You really can't do this (at least not this well) with many songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 4 minutes ago, Chris B said: This was something that made me think about just how good MacGowan's lyrics were (although some people will hate this) - this charity spoken word cover from 2000 hit the Irish Top 10 over Christmas. And despite being such famous lyrics, they convince well as actual spoken dialogue. You really can't do this (at least not this well) with many songs. Well, that's the bleakest thing I've ever heard. Fucking hell. Without the optimism of the music it's just black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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