Original subtitles

he was an outsider who became an icon of

Irish ballads featuring Sinead O'Connor

and Nick Cave some strong language night

in the great hunger the life and songs

of Shane MacGowan

as I wandered down the long lonesome

highway I made other people away the

brokenhearted

living on

I don't think anyone writes better

lyrics and shame ago I think well he is

what Keith Richards would describe as a

specialist she none I mean and you know

the words or everything you know for him

that's that's where he lives

really the people love me as I go on my

way they all have a story to tell Holly

one left

on the bow the water

it's one of the few singers that we can

say of in 1997 main that in a hundred

years time people will still be singing

and still be playing the songs of Shane

MacGowan who else in Ireland even bottle

can we say that about

he's operating on two engines funny as

Ford he's genius plan he's completely

up imagine how much more genius

he would be if he wasn't illusion so

that's the main kind of feeling I left

with her if somebody said to me what

what would you say is that is that him

I hope he doesn't smash himself entirely

you know to me because because it is a

very incredible beauty that he does have

Oh

so

in the early 1980s Shane MacGowan and

his band the poll seemed to have come

from nowhere against the backdrop of the

Fae charms of the New Romantics McGowan

unleashed his anarchic drunken crew on a

British public at a time when it was

neither popular nor fashionable to be

Irish in Britain McGowan fed his

audience an uncompromising diet of Irish

pub and rebel songs but it was his

songwriting talent that made the Pokes

one of the most popular bands of the

1980s

at this time McGowan's drinking and

consumption of other chemicals with that

of legend and the line between his own

lifestyle and the drunks and

down-and-outs of his songs had become

blurred hero to the Irish in London

McGowan's pump freshen of Irish music

was way out of sync with the respectable

face of Ireland in the nineteen eighties

he was an embarrassment

the drunken paddy reincarnated

took a long time the respectable island

to accept him as one of their own

this is the extraordinary story of how a

North London Punk transformed himself

into one of Ireland's greatest living

balladeers while threatening to destroy

himself in the process

Shane MacGowan was born on Christmas Day

1957 on the banks of the river Shannon

in rural Ireland

is good

work at you

we spent the first six years of his life

in kearney Commons in County Tipperary

in this house

just like sure

Fotis house is a boys bein by singing

war regard is harmed

there was about soil people living here

like sleep in three to evade night I

usually used to sleep under thing over

there that counts which is thinking more

comfortable in sleeper and three no

abate and the radio is nice too as well

like when I was a kid there was no

television in here was there was no

running water there was electric light

and and hard for the coke on there was

no cooker I know the basic yeah I was

Boise and beautiful you know it was the

end of an era though I just happened to

cash I'm glad I caught it you know the

thing I remember most Botha family is

the music that they every every weekend

and sometimes in the middle of the week

I mean we had us for the you had music

you had dancing set dancing in the old

kitchen floor and you had songs so he

absorbed all that wonderful traditional

Irish music and singing and dancing

through his pores when he was at a very

formative age you know and just had a

tremendous influence on him you know and

on his love of Irish music and on his

desire really to do thing for Irish

music as well are you read sing here

you know and playing anything in dance

and Friday Saturday and Sunday the door

was up in Illinois and you know be a

place to go for a session you know I

mean it was a constant session was all

weekend you know and I'll be stuck up on

the table from the earliest I joke in

remember and childhood saying what songs

on you you know I I remember exactly my

repertoire graduating straight crazy you

know so long I didn't know first gig

when I was straight you know

I didn't have this sort of someone who's

dropping our until they're 20 or

something you know is always cursing

like the Church in the Christian

Brothers and and the small-mindedness

and then gossip being in the side is

Amanda brutai in and the OD odor bad

things you can say about Irish sorry you

know I write all I ever had was sir

happy times this song is called Aisling

Aisling is a woman's name but it's also

the Irish Irish word for a dream and I

was talking to Shane backstage in

Finsbury Park some years ago and he told

me about this lyric and he sent it over

to me and I just started singing her

look at how the bright new moon is

rising above the land a black-and-gray

listen to the rebel voice is called an

AI unit Aida uberrimae the ant upstairs

in the bed she's callin ye is he first

secondly

fed the pictures in the hallway but she

damn bro loss to see

let's the wooden the chicks the barley

course the spared and course the plow I

come to the years and new weeks and days

and I wish to God the livers but you

know

redneck fun dreams he you still hunt

make by Russ the Grendel see

and the wind blows north and south to

the east and to do less

I'll be like the wind my love I will no

no rest until I return today

1 2 3 4 telegraph poles burn under coal

black road the nauseous Boorstin in to

mourn and give visitor up a year sweet

pudgy

the rain was lation the sun was rising

the new wind was whipping through the

tree the madness from the mountains

crawl and when the tally first

me or nationally this stupid the chicks

the barrel the curse despair and cursed

cloud

I don't thirty years and weeks and days

and the wish to garland it wasn't you

know

ferdi well in the Black Cat Island very

well hi Ashley

unlike for dreams you used to hum it by

Russ tendency

yay McGraw who calling this old ma

moshling gal moshling gal mash them down

good night my sweet black-haired dream

woman I couldn't make a shrink

my darlin

unfair Plataea Shane MacGowan from pecan

and County Tipperary but you know how to

write them by Talia nice one in 1963

McGowan and his family became a

statistic in the massive wave of Irish

immigration to Britain his father worked

for the CNA department store and the

family moved around a lot mainly in the

Southeast of England it was very strange

you know very strange in like on every

sort of settle down felt it was anywhere

alone I think it was a very sure my

choice at first you know I mean but like

I got I got I didn't enjoy I didn't

enjoy my life which others you know I I

always felt in a constant state it's

Rama tell you the truth right because um

because I always felt I came back here I

let my breath out and over there was um

I felt lonely you know you yes really

really feel that it's a part of yourself

that is missing like and you must be

reunited with it that kind of thing

I think a lot of the people who

emigrated felt that it was a temporary

arrangement they were going to guess

something like say wealth jobs education

whatever else and then they were going

to come back there was very often no

integration into English life mainstream

English life from any of them they

didn't register to vote they didn't

participate in any sense

very often didn't even apply for say

council housing for which they would

have been or to which they would have

been entitled they were all the time in

their own minds going home and they

didn't want to take any further steps

into life in England now for children

growing up in that environment is

basically saying look your real life is

taking place elsewhere we move around a

lot you know and but wherever I know you

know I mean Jude Law said there was a

lot of relatives and stuff for that and

all living on hand but my parents were

really unhappy going you know I mean I

could tell my parents were really

unhappy I was very unsettled long

darling I never really settled in

England you know anything the English

people are great you know I love them

and but the general atmosphere is very

puritanical compared with our lenders

that's a bit of saying isn't as you know

it's a bit paradoxical really because

they have all the right laws I think

that you know the wrong application I

mean we're the oldest people aren't for

him in this that's her that's what makes

us free people are thinking the way nine

years ago I fell

in love with a lady proud and fair

they're so passionate were she and I we

made fire in the air I loved her more

than life itself she loved me just the

same and it broke my heart to think we'd

part if she ended the affair but I was

brutal I was ignorant I was cruel I was

brash I never gave a damn about the

beauty that I smashed no say this star

yet I found delight in making my love

cry now I'd pray for a single kiss from

her to be lashed and crucified and now I

fear this lady fair can never more be

mine long gone are nights in my

only bet Oh suffering and crying and

though I fear that through this life

she'll call me only friend till I'm dead

and buried in my grave my love will

ever end

Shane left school at 16 and spent most

of his time drifting around Soho and

Piccadilly he found casual work based

around the two enduring loves of his

life working as a barman and on a record

store

then in 1976 punk happened

it was quite a violent year 976 we've

been getting more violent since the

early seventies and life and it's a pate

in 1976 this fingers up tight music and

things outside actually they're not I

was at vacant nihilistic sort of thing

they put crosses the way to arms well

you know most people my age were feeling

you know I mean

I remember once he told me that he had

only really ever been happy jun-hyung

since his childhood and the happiness

was somehow linked to the sense of

energy and chaos and I think Punk give

him that sense of belonging there was a

saying you know no I mean there is like

about a hundred Punk's in London you

know I mean so I you know I you know if

he saw another Punk you know it was like

you know I immediately saw my contact

was that the front of yielding so

classic in the osci

with this girl called Jane who is

lighter in her mouth - and we were

biting each other and then it got more

outrageous and she brought the button

stored cold and me up and she got me in

here and your air blades a lot not only

son this photographer took these

father's you know I know you made the

term abandoned it looked as if my heir

had been he said in India it said my ear

had been paid enough you know me but I

had just been cut bait by the boat Shane

certainly was was photographed a lot you

had the front cover on signs and lying

on his back I mean I feel in many ways

that he was he became a victim of that

image because a lot of his almost like

you were only seen a very small

percentage of who he was and and I can't

help thinking that maybe he started to

pursue that small part and lost a lot of

the bigger parts

the ethos of punk was DIY and everyone

wants to start a band

Shane MacGowan was no exception forming

the nipple directors in 1978 he was

great he was he had a great stage

presence he was he did a lot of kind of

drops to his knees he just had charisma

he had a lot of star quality we went

along expecting it to be a lot of fun

you know Shane's band it didn't expect

it to be so good what knocked me out was

was the songs the songs were great

you know the most famous song gabrielle

was very melodic and I think he can

trace back you can trace a lineage from

gabrielle onwards of sort of bothered

writing where he became the master of

that really when no one else was doing

it near these so it wasn't really Punk

at all that sensibility was actually

very refined however all right you know

I've seen to write home about

we're a good live bones you know

when McGowan wound up the nips to think

about creating his new act the Pogues

the British charts were dominated by the

synthesizer sounds of the New Romantics

but that was a time where everything was

really boring again it was like the tie

line of New Romantics and all that night

it was one that it was the year of the

one and a guy on a synthesizer

bags you know I mean

you know having expected a clash to

change the world

and it all it only actually led to was

our chance those of us who've been for

the cleansing fire of punk-rock expected

a little bit more I think I think that's

what it seems to me that that's whether

we're the Pogues idea was come from the

only alternative was these world music

bones you know I mean as either world

music bones about plains South American

music and African music you know meaning

like the foot classes they ever been

Africa was nothing your gate you know I

mean like right I thought it says we've

got our own indigenous ethnic farm music

oh no oh

back on our doorstep I think the great

the great thing about the Pogues was

they instead of coming up folk music

like Steeleye span and purple convention

with respect they came at it got old a

bit by the lapels and threw it down the

stairs

nobody who never wouldn't never really

gone it like a bunch of navvies if we're

gonna use that price

you know we've sort of like messed it

around and put the put the put a power

drill on it and see what came out and

that's what the pokes did it was really

exciting when you saw them it was really

exciting it was like seeing the clash it

was like going to a punky

it was folk music she and particular was

drawing on an Irish music that was

populist and popular from a decade or so

before this from probably 50s early 60s

and and I am in town I'm killin a night

I could be a star called behind the

dollar why am I alone could be if you if

you take the The Dubliners as the

archetype with her they sang a lot of

body dirty songs and they sang songs

were drinking in excess hold behind the

door where my yellow coat should be

yeah

malaria real fight but my diets are oniy

true ones you know I mean the dirty so

everyone I'm a big influence on as a

kiddos minor when my own pipe could be

well I called me when I said to her will

you kindly tell to me who owned the pond

the chair I am gonna be there's a sense

of humor that runs through a very black

sense of humor that runs through Irish

music you know just anything bad that

happens it's funny and they'll find a

way to turn the phrase to make it funny

what Shane did that was different was he

didn't always do that he didn't always

sugarcoat it he's just like sort of put

it right in your face I was I know I

personally was suddenly I suddenly got

it I suddenly understood what that sense

of humor in most of the Irish songs that

I've heard was hiding and when he

connected to his heritage you know

something really really profound

happening Camden party

God a very rowdy kind of bosy life you

know my tribe ordiance they all came out

of the woodwork you know these people

who had been nuts about Irish music for

years some people from Irish families

who who listen isn't wholly rare lives

at home no I mean exact four on the

jukebox in I suppose you know the span

was a distinctively Aires band and

Avery's band which couldn't have emerged

in Ireland this was a London Irish pound

I mean this was the brashness the

aggression and the energy of muggle

paints Fusiliers and the Poblana fraidy

Nate

the London air is felt and rightly so

that they had been to some extent

second-class citizens in the country

that they lived in and also that they

were a source of embarrassment to people

in Ireland they were coated the the

labourer and Paddy working on the

railways and drunkenness and and others

and somewhere that's true of course

for people London Aries people she had

magome was the first voice the first

person that arose from with unknown to

give to give defiant and poetic

expression to a community which had

never really felt able to proclaim

itself over the next few years The

Pogues released three commercially and

critically successful albums the single

most important thing that catapulted

them out of a London Irish ghetto was

the sheer quality of Shane MacGowan

songwriting

oh and I am

I mean okay his voice is very Irish but

the emotion that comes out is

international

I mean people all over the world relate

to Shen stories

that was looking

when we go by label

there was no

I think the first one I learned was a

pair of brown eyes and I loved the

imagery of them it reminded me very much

of em a grand a great great granduncle

of mine who was blown up in the end of

first world war and a couple years ago I

was over in in Belgium and I found his

name on the wall and that night I was

playing at this big festival and I spoke

about to all these Belgian and French

people and German people and I signed

the pair of brown eyes and it was just I

felt the whole audience felt what I'd

felt that day through shinsung

oh I like to write about what's

happening around the cars and what's the

my own personal angst

when I win

for me what's happening around me

this book is it's affecting what's going

on inside me anyway you know this so

they're not separable you know

I love the time the actual songs are

structured like little narratives and if

you think of a great Pogues song like

the old me and drag being a trainer one

of the best songs he has ever written

it's it's romantic but it's unflinching

it's graphic it takes it doesn't it's

not a song about as some of the old W

songs would be like like I'll paint

Fusiliers what would be about you know

builders are people who built the roads

and it's about rentboys you know it's

about the flotsam and jetsam off of the

exiled experience is about people lying

and Soho and taking diners and getting

drunk to get him through their life

one evening as I was lying down in last

I was picked off by the covers and

kicked in the balls but suena metal

doors at vine say I was baton

and I ruin my good looks funny old

and I should say Simeon

what trouble

shouts Undercovers were come along

I'm about

I wish they can escape from me all mine

try and I am like

I've had too much booze I've been spat

on

I wish I could bike for some money to

take me from

mine's right

Shayne always gave money to beggars I

don't know he still does but he always

gave money to beggars whenever he saw

them and if drunks approached to me

always gave him some money and there was

a way that and he would talk about an

expectation that's where he was going to

be someday you know that and that he

didn't didn't sound like a fear to me

you know nothing else is working I can

always go any embankment with the butler

mouths you know and in strum a guitar

and enough money to drink I remember

meeting him once and I was coming from a

warehouse party of something in Kings

Cross and he was coming along the

pavement probably at 4:00 in the morning

on a December night freezing cold sleet

and just you know his shirt a shirt open

and he sort of like plimsolls and very

flimsy trousers you know and he was

scrambling around trying to find money

that he was he was given a diner night

some money and heat some of the rolled

off the pavement loose with this bottle

of wine so it was an extraordinary sight

for this was a guy who would you know

just had a top ten hit at you know the

celebrity never seemed to intervene at

all on the way he lived his life we were

thinking of doing a song together or

something like that and he said I you

know I've got tracking thousands of the

songs however I'm going although

you know

let's see someone he goes there over

there like that and this is sort of

garbage sort of pile of garbage over in

the corner and he and I kind of go over

there and sort of start pulling out

these pieces of paper and there's like

great songs on it and they just sort of

thrown over in her in a pile and you

know I mean so so I think he goes away

he goes around that the creative process

for him is very is in a very irreverent

one in a way but at the same time they

are very considered his songs as well

it's quite odd really he has a genuine

will to live he has a genuine desire to

be alive and to be in a human body

um he doesn't you know it doesn't appear

that way because

doctors tell him that he's got to stop

drinking and he doesn't stop drinking so

people think that he must have a death

wish but in actual fact that's not the

case he just doesn't enjoy life without

a drink I think I think it's the way it

is

every now and then he it screws up and

I'll do something like this you know I'm

breaking my hair you know I mean I get

or a taxi nuts me 18 feet across the

road or something you know I mean but

like I'm not out of control you know I

mean I have been out of control I would

use for long periods you know I mean but

but always nice to pull back from me

from the edge before going your best

like you know I

it's true though I'm out of it my stats

on right and all but I can write

songs that are out of it you know on the

fight it's easier for me to write so I'm

out

I've been loving you

long time

down only is down all the day

and I've cried for your troubles

smiled at your funny

watched our friends grow up together

and we sorrow as they fell

some

so

Oh

a hat took shelter from a shower

and I stepped into your

it is

when was whispered all it's Joan

you

now this song is nearly over we may

never find out what it means

there's a lighter

me

you're the measure of my dreams

better on

you

gentlemen the pole

when Shane first took the paint across

the Irish Sea the great and the hoods

reacted with first horror and villains I

think she ins real quality was entirely

missed by many people follow long time

necessarily became modern and urbanized

I mean the great social changes that

took place in Ireland in the 60s made

people sort of enthusiastic for putting

the cultural soyons and of the past

behind them

they resisted putting a high valuation

on the music of the post they didn't

want that trashy music tragedy played

brought back into this newly respectable

world your performances it says here

have been described a sordid rowdy and

vulgar what about big complaints and the

criticisms of you that you were thought

of bringing Irish music into distributor

and you're playing off the paddy and the

drunken patty images on well we started

out playing in bars it was a dynamic and

Ireland going on between people who

wanted to be to go forward into this

brave new world of you know

sophistication that people that were

very disturbed about this bunch of boys

coming from England and bringing back

this music that they thought they'd

banished forever you know somehow in

their head was you know it was Eva's

devil eras music you know we don't we

don't want to go back there

well it's Soros time Wow

by the end of the 80s The Pogues moment

in British pop history had passed a

combination of splits over musical

direction and chains increasing use of

drink and drugs led to their eventual

demise

since McGann split with the Pogues

interest has centered more on the state

of his health than on his musical output

he has however formed a new band called

the Popes releasing a critically

acclaimed album the snake in 1994

in the 1990s Shane's been recognized as

an icon in Ireland to rank alongside the

likes of Brendan being

McGowan's thrashing of the culture

revitalized it but like the in the

irreverence stemmed from his own

detailed knowledge in respective

Ireland's past I tell you story um a

sanguine one and there was a television

program in Ireland here a couple of

years ago

and it was I was singing with a lot of

different people on so Shane came over

from London to sing with me and he said

he'd love to sing spans Hill Hill so I

started off singer he said stop stop no

he pulled me up that's not no that's not

the way you're recorded that's not the

way I learned it and this is a recording

I made 25 years ago and he had it

word-for-word and he couldn't handle the

fact that it had changed a bit i reaiiy

loved that I thought that was great you

know and I changed it and I went back

and I sang it the way he wanted to sing

and was lonely neighbors see what

they are ones they like got a gun

the

quickly

laws

sherry bharata's

the flying visits to me first and only

low she's fair eyes on me

li and gentle

she kill her

to me century

the cha

he drove off this well and I

in California many miles from sponsor

there has been a certain mood of

celebration in Ireland in a way they

were celebrating liberation from the

past and liberation from having to be

defensive about being Irish and Jack

cartons football team epitomize that in

the sense that everybody from ray

Houghton to bono are going out into the

world to represent Ireland and that

condole and often does dull our critical

faculties but the worth of some of these

phenomena but of course I mean it didn't

have $2 our critical faculties in

relation to she and McGowan who remain

assess the perhaps the one authentic

genius who came out of that whole mood

of the celebration of Irish Sri and its

various manifestations in that period as

Ireland's come to terms with his own

past and looks afresh at its history so

Shane and his later work explores his

direct relationship with the Irish

tradition looking beyond his immediate

antecedents like The Dubliners and

Brendan bein to a doomed 19th century

romantic poet the Gothic figure of James

Clarence Mangum

my way oppressor see Jason again brought

me comfort with Lana my machine back

tonight to a public execution

Stephens dream yeah longest part

Cheyenne

annoy his Lord stone is over Marva the

way he lived his Lord you know I love

his videos

you know he's a Republican alcoholic

junkie you know something that I can

identify with

he didn't think about what he did when

his hosts are suffering so he died young

you know but you know I mean like I

always put myself first

you know I was all painful isn't my baby

where's the part I mean I hate the

mythology of self-destruction I really

hated it and so easy and so

consumer-friendly you know artists or

pop stars you know as fireworks you know

lighten up some people's duel skies I

don't know it's just I think Shane's

much smarter than all that and I don't

think he had only geese you know he'd

buy in he buys into Ola this how you

talk to people this potential addicts

and there's people who I've got a son

Connor winners strange which protects

them against sedation wears the pants

where's the punker where is it

a lot of teachers who are partners

without Kimora find themselves in a

situation where their life kind of

starts to revolve around the other

person's drinking the husband or wife of

the alcoholic makes their mission to

control the other person that's really

not being very practical because you

can't no matter how much you try you

know you can advise people and you can

like put up little signposts and but it

I don't think you can really tell

somebody else what to do you think

you've got to let them find out for

themselves I think once I realized that

life got a lot easier all around you

know only addictive personality I'm not

an alcoholic

I used to drink a lot more so it's hard

to friend to rush in their present away

his starfighters apart so it's hard to

turn to rush in their prison away so

softly then kisser powerless it was the

same story over

hovering the poly so watching and you

know that I must go ash door harsh

warnings of holies imitate I'll be awful

the mountains there'll be time enough

left for to cry so good night and God

guard you forever and write to me won't

you

goodbye so good night and God gonna do

forever I'm right to me wash you boy

what do you what do you say to people

like who say that you know you're

killing yourself you're drinking too

much you shouldn't drink and I'm not

drinking too much that's right yeah

that's a good enough well I'm drinking

enough

let's visit general you know I'm a

annoyed it's probably best to drink not

quite enough you know and does it piss

you off when people try and lecture

you're trying to out try and save your

try and say you drink - of course yeah

Oh big boy I know I'm doing

yeah how do you get that a lot

you got people Chinese yes yeah I know

yeah how'd you do it's not a off

you know couple years ago I was making a

red card and I asked Shane MacGowan for

a are the any Psalms that suit me so he

sent me this Psalm it's a song about the

famine the great famine in Ireland which

happened between 1845 and 1847 the one

stage people in a certain part of the

West of Ireland and country mail they

didn't have the strength or the ability

to the land to bury their dead properly

so they reduced to burying them and the

sand dunes by the seashore and he wrote

this song called the dunes I walk today

on the cold grey show where I watched

when I was much younger well the bills

Didion's upon the sand for the dead from

the great hunger for the dead from the

great hunger although I was a doctor's

son against in fear and wonder and they

perished from the raging plague to come

in with the great hunger that come in

with the great hunger when I watched at

the age of four in 1847 the mounds they

built upon the shore they seemed to

point to heaven they seemed to point to

heaven though wind and the rain who

worked away the dunes there all uneven

the children kicked the sand around and

the bones they are revealed then and the

bones they are Raviv then my brothers

and my sister died my mother only four

and twenty and I alone survived to seed

potatoes grow in plenty the potatoes

grow in plenty as we died in vain they

stole our grain to put upon their tables

dyeing covered the dead with sand and

danced whales they were able and danced

while they were able and a fiddle played

we drank poutine then ate the last of

the berries then knelt and said the

Rosary round the mounds of dead weed

buried round the mounds of dead weed

buried

I saw dark showers rise up from the sand

danced all around the dunes they danced

the rattling dance of the Dead to a set

of mournful tunes to a set of mournful

tunes a crack of a lightning split the

sky the rain undid Yoon's it poured

I left them lying where I shut them down

the bailiff and the landlord then I went

for a drink in Westport

I walked today on the cold gray shore

where I watched when I was much younger

well they built the dunes upon the sand

the dead from the great hunger for the

dead from the great hunger

Foca Bonilla next on bbc4

she's out on his own

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