The agony in the garden

Having played a key role in several ground-breaking outfits including the legendary Sweeney’s Men, Steeleye Span and more recently The Pogues, Terry Woods hits the road for a short Irish tour this month with a new line-up of the long-defunct Woods Band. Fronted by 22 year old Shane Martin, formerly with Reel, and also featuring former Little Sister Sage guitarist Dave Browne, the outfit has already toured widely in Europe and heads off to Canada in the autumn.

“It’s just me back playing music again,” Woods says. “After I left the Pogues I stopped playing for the guts of seven years. I became involved in management, looking after The Marbles and I did a bit of consultancy work. Playing live again is like therapy after being involved in the business side of things.”

To coincide with the tour a new album, Music From The Four Corners Of Hell features a high octane blend of familiar and newer “electric-folk” based songs.

Meanwhile, having re-formed late last year with Shane MacGowan back at the helm, The Pogues remain a going concern for Woods

“We’re doing it now because we like to do it and the gigs are fun to do,” he says. “The pressure isn’t there like it used to be.”

As he describes it, The Pogues at their height had their shade of scrapes.

“For me the high point was playing Madison Square Garden with U2. But it was nearly a disaster for me. Normally, I’d walk onto the stage, pick up the cittern and gradually the rest of the band would come on. But when I went to pick it up in Madison Square Garden it had fallen out of the stand and all of the tuning heads were twisted. All I could think of doing was bending them back into shape. Somebody must have been looking after me because it was 95% in tune. After that it was a

doddle.”