Remembering Shane MacGowan: The Mary Wallopers' Andrew Hendy on the influence of The Pogues

Originally published in Hot Press in 2023

Andrew Hendy, The Mary Wallopers:

In my head when I was growing up, The Pogues, The Dubliners, Christy Moore and The Clancy Brothers were all like superheroes. They were these legendary characters.

The first time I saw The Pogues was probably a re-broadcast of them and The Dubliners doing ‘The Irish Rover’ on The Late Late Show. I remember being a child watching that – the wildness, and the excitement of all of them singing on stage together. I was like, ‘Who are these?’ And I became obsessed with them from there.

When I was 12 or 13, I was playing the five-string banjo, and learning ballads. I remember learning ‘A Pair Of Brown Eyes’ and some of the other songs that Shane wrote. The lyrics are so amazing – but I didn’t understand them then as deeply as I would now. So before I even thought about the lyrics, it was all about the attitude of rebellion. And it was all coming from Shane.

I started diving into listening to The Pogues at the same time that I was getting mad into punk music. They had the ‘fuck you’ mentality of punk music that I loved, and they also had this deep love for Ireland, and Irish songs.

Traditional music and folk music can be such a precious, safe thing. Someone like Shane MacGowan coming along was so exciting. Irish music was being sold as this elegant, conservative scene. It really needed an injection of energy, so The Pogues came along and fucking blasted it out of the park. It was just such a breath of fresh air – even Spider Stacy banging a tray off his head during gigs!

Shane was also putting it into a space where it wasn’t just appreciated as traditional music – it was appreciated as music. It was in the global eye.

What’s interesting about Shane is that he was kind of plucked out of Ireland, and put into England – when the Irish in England were seen as these second-class citizens, in many ways. So he was writing really colourfully about life in London, but he was also linking back to this magical idea he had of Ireland.

His writing could be very supernatural. Like in ‘Streams Of Whiskey’, when he’s like: “I dreamt I met with Behan, I shook him by the hand.” He’s constantly linking back to the magic of Irish culture. Same with ‘The Sick Bed Of Cúchulainn’. One minute he’s talking about getting fucked out of a pub, and then he’s talking about going back to the sick bed of Cúchulainn, and praying.

That’s what makes his writing really interesting. He’s writing about really detailed, gritty things, about the reality of life in pubs in other countries – and then he’s going back to this almost spiritual connection with Irish culture.

He was a major influence on me, thinking about how you approach songs. When we started The Mary Wallopers, my idea of singing was just belting it out as much as possible, with as much energy as I had – and that’s what Shane and The Pogues did as well. It’s all this raw energy, going straight into the song. There’s something that feels way more honest about it. There’s not really room for fakeness there.

Spider Stacy played with us at our gig in London recently, and back in May as well. When we started sound-checking with him the first time, I nearly teared up. I was like, ‘This is fucking amazing – having one of The Pogues playing with us…’

It’s a surreal thing, to meet someone you’ve spent your whole life looking up to. But it’s good to meet your heroes, if your heroes are your heroes for the right reasons.

It’s weird – I don’t really care about fame or celebrities, but meeting someone like Shane… That’s one of my biggest idols. So I was nervous to meet him.

But I felt very comfortable very quickly, just talking to him, and having the craic. We went over to his house, and we were watching television with him. He’s extremely down-to-earth, and genuine. He’s not afraid to tell you to ‘fuck off’ as well, which is refreshing. And likewise, we wouldn’t be afraid to tell him to ‘fuck off’.

It was great to play music with him as well – we played a bit of a session. In a way, it was just like any session we’d do, because the best thing about the likes of Shane MacGowan is that he just loves Irish music. And if he doesn’t like it, he’ll tell you he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t seem to like slow songs that much at sessions!

I feel there was a period of time where people were getting distracted by Shane’s lifestyle – and constantly talking about that. But it seems that he’s finally being respected now for his amazing songwriting, and the impact it’s had on the world.

You’d struggle to find another songwriter who’s written as many songs that will still be getting played in hundreds of years to come. It’s one thing to write songs that are popular. But to write songs that are immortalised, by being sung by ordinary people all the time – that’s amazing.