The Pogues at Nottingham Arena

I went to see the Pogues at Nottingham Arena on Thursday night. A trip down memory lane, I had not seen them play live since they had Joe Strummer temporarily up front. On Thursday we had the treat of Shane himself, and he stayed the course (with a few staggering trips off stage) to the end of the gig!

Here is the Nottingham Evening Post Review.

Carol Clerk has a book out about the Pogues - Kiss My Arse-The Story of The Pogues

This is what she has to say in her introduction -

Few would have predicted the spectacular popularity of their mission to pump some fresh new blood into traditional Irish folk music, a genre that was unfashionable and widely unloved, to revitalise it and to make it relevant and exciting even to people who had possibly never heard of a jig, a reel or an air, a cittern or a bodhran.

It all caught on very quickly, at a time when Eighties audiences were tiring of the electronic precision of the new romantics. There was something irresistibly wild about The Pogues’ reckless dash, something daring about their tales of drinking and brawling and sex, and something achingly romantic in their stories of love, loss, life and death. Importantly, though, the traditions that they rescued from the past, and the musical and literary influences of Ireland, the country across the sea, were counterbalanced by a realism set in the harsh streets of London. It wasn’t always pretty, but the young especially understood it; they related.

Thinking of their early days, there is a very good quality clip of them playing in 1985 on You Tube here

The Nottingham gig also included the legendary Fairytale of New York - a clip of which is recorded here from someone's mobile at their Osaka gig.