www.nch.ie

With Shane MacGowan, Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Glen Hansard, Camille O’Sullivan, Johnny Depp, Cerys Matthews, Carl Barat of The Libertines, Lisa O’Neill, Finbar Furey, whenyoung, Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols, Clem Burke of Blondie with Cáit O’Riordan, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, Terry Woods of The Pogues, and more.

Monday 15 January 2018, 8pm
National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Tickets: €85, €80, €75, €65. ON SALE FRIDAY 8 December 2017, 10am
Tel: 01 417 00 00 or www. nch.ie

From A Pair of Brown Eyes to Fairytale of New York, Shane MacGowan is widely recognised as a poet of modern music and one of the great international songwriters. On Monday 15th January the National Concert Hall plays host to this renowned artist on the occasion of his 60th birthday. This concert as part of the NCH Perspectives Series celebrates the power and poetry of Shane’s work and his singular contribution to Irish music.

The stellar line-up of guests features a who’s who of world leading musicians, singer/songwriters and performers, many of whom are influenced by, and have professed admiration for Shane’s musical output. They include Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Glen Hansard, Camille O’Sullivan, Johnny Depp, Cerys Matthews, Carl Barat of The Libertines, Lisa O’Neill, Finbar Furey, whenyoung, Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols, Clem Burke of Blondie with Cait O’Riordan, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, Terry Woods of The Pogues, and more.

Joining them are a newly created band featuring members of the Pogues led by Music Director Terry Edwards. The evening’s celebrations will be hosted by RTÉ broadcaster and presenter John Kelly.

Actor Johnny Depp and friend of MacGowan, described him as: ‘one of the most important poets of the 20th century’.

It was the early 1980s when Shane established himself as a song-writing force to be reckoned with much of his output drawing on his Irish heritage touching on themes of nationalism and immigrant life in London, but also his love of Irish writers and poets such as Brendan Behan and JP Dunleavy. It was through The Pogues (formed and founded by Shane 1982) with their unique blend of Irish traditional music with punk that Shane’s raw and poetic sensibility came to bear in his song-writing. After their debut album Red Roses For Me, they went on to release Rum, Sodomy & the Lash (produced by Elvis Costello) with classic songs that have become synonymous with MacGowan such as The Old Main Drag, A Pair of Brown Eyes and Sally MacLennane. With these and subsequent recordings such as The Poguetry in Motion, featuring songs such as A Rainy Night in Soho and The Body of an American and the band’s third album If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Shane wrote his own name into the song-writing history books.

The Shane MacGowan 60th Birthday Celebration at the National Concert Hall is produced and curated in collaboration with Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke, together with Gerry O’Boyle and the NCH.

This concert is part of the NCH Perspective Series.
Tickets on Sale Friday 8th December, 2017 at 10am Tel: 01 417 00 00 or www.nch.ie

ABOUT SHANE MACGOWAN
Born Christmas day, 1957 Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan spent some of his childhood years in Pembury, Kent, before he and the family moved to his mother’s home close to Nenagh, County Tipperary. Within a few years, the family returned to England, and by the mid-1970s, MacGowan had hitched a ride on the punk rock tour bus. After seeing The Clash, and being up close and personal with the Sex Pistols and The Jam, he formed The Nipple Erectors. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that he established himself as a song-writing force to be reckoned with a new band.

When it came to writing songs for The Pogues, it was a given that MacGowan would draw on not only his Irish heritage (Irish nationalism, history, immigrant life in London and beyond) but also his love of literature (poets and writers such as James Clarence Mangan, Brendan Behan, JP Donleavy).

Founded in 1982 by MacGowan, Peter ‘Spider’ Stacey and Jem Finer, The Pogues (or as they were initially named, Pogue Mahone, the Anglicisation of the Gaelic póg mo thóin – ‘kiss my arse’) invested a hefty level of realism and impertinence into a music form that was often seen as commercially sluggish. Blending Irish traditional music with punk, The Pogues quickly came to the attention of record companies and signed to the London-based independent label, Stiff Records. In 1984, the band’s debut album, Red Roses For Me (1984) introduced a major song writing talent in MacGowan, whose methodically arranged lyrics in songs such as Dark Streets Of London, Boys From County Hell, and Streams Of Whiskey combined the rawness of Brendan Behan (whose The Auld Triangle was included on the album) with a metropolitan poetic sensibility that too many people have since failed to emulate.

The following year’s Rum, Sodomy and The Lash (produced by Elvis Costello) was even better, featuring songs that would soon be termed ‘classic’: The Sick Bed Of Cúchulainn, The Old Main Drag, A Pair Of Brown Eyes, and Sally MacLennane. A year later, the Poguetry In Motion EP was released and featured equally significant, evocative songs such as A Rainy Night In Soho and The Body Of An American. Between these songs and the band’s 1988 (third) album, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, MacGowan wrote his own name into the history books.

Whether rugged ballads or raucous tunes, MacGowan had the measure of them, and as the years passed it seemed as if the force of the songs and the pleasures of the words increased in strength. Several years ago, his friend Johnny Depp described MacGowan as “one of the most important poets of the 20th century.”

MacGowan is that, for sure, yet he is also one of the very few singular, erudite pioneers whose personal vision of music provided successive generations with notions way beyond their awareness. The legacy of his genius song-writing has not only been sustained but also intensified. He is, as a particularly relevant song might observe, a man you don’t meet every day.