Sad News
Today, we say goodbye to Shane MacGowan and Alistair Darling. The former, a giant of folk music, the latter a unique Scottish politician.
I’m sure you all remember Shane MacGowan as the singer in The Pogues, pretty much the inventors of punk-folk. If, like me, you have seen them perform live, you will also know that he was a world champion bevvy-merchant. You are probably also aware that because of his impressive and assiduous devotion to alcohol consumption, he has been in the bed next to the door for more than three decades. It is amazing that he lasted as long as he did.
He had a terrific tenor voice, and great presence as a stage performer. Friends who saw The Pogues with Joe Strummer standing in for him all say that the experience was a lesser one. Shane really made the event, despite the fact that with him as the singer, the band sometimes had to do the last half hour or so without him as his legitimate libations had had the effect of a general anaesthetic. This happened when we saw the Pogues at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge in the late 1980’s.
You may be less aware that a lot of the deeply poetic lyrics in the Pogues’ songs were written by MacGowan. Everyone remembers A Fairy Tale of New York, both a Christmas song and an anthem of the Irish diaspora. We are perhaps less aware of the other songs, such as A Pair of Brown Eyes, which includes the lines:
In blood and death neath a screaming skyI lay down on the groundAnd the arms and legs of other menWere scattered all aroundSome cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursedThen prayed and bled some more…
When I first heard this, I thought it was about a pub bombing, but on doing some research, I found that it was inspired by the horrific events in the trenches in the first world war.
Another lovely song is Lullaby of London, with the refrain:
May the ghosts that howl ‘round the house at night
Never keep you from your sleep
May they all sleep tight down in Hell tonight
Or wherever they may be
The focus on the Irish diaspora resonates with me because my family is a part of it. If an aristocrat can boast that his family came over with William the Conqueror, we can respond that our families came over with the potato famine.
After Shane and the Pogues had gone their separate ways, he had a band called Shane MacGowan and The Popes. Among other things they recorded pretty much the best version of Nancy Whiskey I have ever heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCszuTKRRI
For a brief period, the Popes included Whiskey Mick Rowan, an amazing mandolin player. Here he is, not with the Popes but with Roy Howard, playing Hava Nagila. It hurts your fingers just listening to them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SPXDAX4Ci8
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Alistair Darling was a Labour MP and chancellor of exchequer in Gordon Brown’s cabinet. Between 1979 and 1981, Alistair and I were young left-wing firebrands in Edinburgh North Constituency Labour Party. I think it is fair to say that we were pals. I suppose now, many of our former comrades would regard us as champagne socialists.
When I first went out canvassing for the Labour Party in the City Council elections in 1980, Alistair gave me a lot of useful advice. Always start with an apology for bothering the person answering the door, he told me. That defuses a lot of anger at being disturbed. And of course it is true that you are sorry to bother them. You don’t want to be spending your evenings tramping the streets asking people if they are going to vote for you, at a time of day when the pubs are open.
I recall us both having an enormous cargo of drink at a republican social event on the evening before the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981, numerous meetings and demonstrations at which we were both present, and some very pleasant snatched moments of peace in the pub after these.
For many Scots in favour of independence, it was unforgiveable that he was a leading figure in the campaign to retain the union, necessarily implying common cause with conservatives and others generally shunned in Scottish politics. But he was that rare figure, a straight up politician. You may not have agreed with the answers he gave to questions, but they were at least straight answers. I am glad that I knew him.
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Alistair and Shane had a couple of things in common. First, they both went to posh schools, Shane to Westminster School in London, Alistair to Loretto in Edinburgh. As regards the latter, from the deeply disturbing stories I have heard about abuse and violence in various private schools in Edinburgh, Alistair was pretty well-adjusted. The second thing they had in common was that in their individual ways, each was a fighter in some sense. They were tenacious and determined. That is why this piece is headed with a picture of Dave ‘Boy’ Green, European Light-Welterweight boxing champion, from Chatteris, in my beloved adopted country of East Anglia.
RIP Shane and Alistair.
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