Bright side of the Pogues

“It just happened to be the right time. We were all available. Somebody asked if we fancied doing it and we all said ‘Yes’.”
Terry Woods is describing the reasons behind the Pogues reunion, which sees arguably the band’s finest line-up ever taking to the stage for a Christmas tour, which includes a Dublin date on December 23rd.

So what can we expect?
“Hopefully, good Pogues gigs,” Woods says.
“Mad audiences,” Shane MacGowan agrees with a grin. “Everybody having a good time. That’s what we’re about.”
“The last time we toured together was good fun. It was great to play the songs again,” Woods continues. “If you don’t have that in a band, it’s going to be very obvious from an audience point of view. The Pogues were never like that.”
This writer doubles as a club DJ in Whelan’s, and more often than not finishes his set with a classic Pogues tune, which sets the dancefloor ablaze. Nothing unusual about that, until you realise that most of the punters were in nappies when Shane, Terry & Co. were still releasing Pogues albums.
“That surprised me the last time we toured,” Woods says, “looking out and seeing all these young kids who couldn’t have been more than babes when we were in our heyday and they were just as into it as the older fans. It’s a fairly privileged position to be in as a band.”
“Their parents might have our records,” MacGowan laughs. “I’ve been asked to sign autographs for kids’ grandparents.”
Those kids will be able to get their mitts on The Pogues’ albums for themselves soon, as their entire back catalogue is being reissued, with bonus tracks and sleeve notes from the likes of Tom Waits, Steve Earle and Pat McCabe.
“These are friends of ours and people who share the same musical reference points as us,” Shane smiles. “No bullshit. A good sense of humour. The Pogues are part of a tradition, an Irish tradition and a rock ‘n’ roll tradition. I’m delighted that the albums are being reissued.“
The last time Shane spoke to hotpress, he was hopeful of having a new record out this year, which obviously hasn’t happened.
“I’m not weeping bitter tears about it,” he chortles. “I don’t care really. I’m looking forward to these Pogues gigs and I’m glad about the reissues of the Pogues albums, especially with the extra tracks, and there’s a live Pogues album coming out as well.”
But is there any danger of The Pogues releasing another album of new material together?
“Yeah, there’s every danger,” Woods admits. “We haven’t actually talked about it much. Shane has his own thing going with The Popes and I’ve my own thing going with The Woods Band. If it’s right with The Pogues, it’ll happen, and if it’s not right, it won’t.
“On a personal level, I’d like to see The Pogues do other things. I don’t want it to get back to what it was, I don’t want to go there, but there are things that The Pogues could and should do. But that’s just my opinion and I’m only one of The Pogues. That’s as much as I can say without having a general meeting and working out what we are going to do, and it doesn’t even work like that with us: it’s all little hints.”
They’re admittedly still getting the buzz from stepping on stage together, and the tour should be a corker, complete with probably the greatest Christmas song ever written. I wondered what Shane thought of Ronan Keating’s version of that song, ‘Fairytale Of New York’?
“I didn’t think it was at all bad,” Shane admits. “He also picked a really good singer to do it with, Maire Ni Bhraonain. I’m not going to pretend I’m not flattered when people cover my songs. After Boyzone, I was surprised by how good it was, but most of the stuff he’s done since Boyzone, when he started writing songs, like the song he did with Elton John, was pretty good. Ronan is one of these guys who has come out of a boy band and done well. I think the Irish boy bands and girl bands have been much better than the English or American ones anyway.”
Lastly, then, how do they plan on spending Christmas?
“I’m going to spend Christmas in Meath, quietly with my family,” Terry says.
Shane laughs, “I’m going to spend it in Tipperary, very loudly with my family”.

The Pogues play The Point on December 23