The Pogues earned a reputation early on as a ferocious live band. What does it feel like to be in the middle of that whirlwind? VerulamiumParkRangerSpider Stacy [co-founder, tin whistle, vocals]: Last Christmas, we did a secret gig in a pub in Nunhead [in London] and it reminded me of those early days when we were so close to the audience, who were practically on top of each other.
The venue that most sticks in my mind is the Hope & Anchor [in Islington, London]. We played there to about 35 people [in 1983], but when we went back a month later the match had been struck and it was absolutely roaring. After that, at gigs, there were clothes landing on stage … James Fearnley [co-founder, accordion]: Medical equipment, crutches … Stacy: On the reunion tour, someone in Sydney threw a prosthetic leg.
On the first single [1984’s Dark Streets of London], Shane MacGowan talks about his experience of electroconvulsive therapy. Did he ever talk about what effect it had on him? Benko Stacy: He didn’t go into detail.
As a teenager, it was probably enormously distressing, but Shane had a mordant humour about it. That single drew on personal experience, but an aspect of his genius was to see the unseen and what goes on in people’s hearts. Walking down the street with Shane, he’d be dishing out pocketfuls of change – banknotes if he had them – to homeless people.
He was always aware that “there but for the grace of God go I”. A lot of Irish people had come over to London as builders, or whatever, and fallen into the abyss of drink and chronic unemployment, and there was a lot of anti-Irish prejudice. Then attitudes became less hostile.
I don’t know how much that had to do with us, but I’ve a feeling that we played a part. My favourite Pogues’ song is Summer in Siam. Do you each have your own?
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