The Pogues, Shane MacGowan and an incredible Cork gig in Sir Henry's with Elvis Costello
The Pogues and Shane MacGowan in the mid-1980s.
God knows when Shane MacGowan first came to Cork. As a child, he may have taken a B&I boat through the city’s ferryport on one of his many visits to the family homestead in Tipperary, or perhaps had even come through the airport (Ryanair hadn’t made an impact yet, so only relatively well-heeled families like the MacGowans could afford air travel).
But we do know the fateful date that the late singer had made his first big impact on Leeside. On Sunday, January 5, 1986, the 25-year-old led an incredible gig at Sir Henry’s. It was in the wake of Rum Sodomy & the Lash, the classic album the band had released the previous August, and many of the approximately 550 people who packed the South Main Street venue would enjoy one of the finest nights of their gig-going lives.
As a live event, it had all the ideal ingredients. The Pogues were arguably at the peak of their powers, with a lineup that included Cait O’Riordan and Philip Chevron; and a repertoire that comprised a perfect mix of songs we knew but didn’t know we loved (‘Dirty Old Town’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, etc), as well as the equally majestic MacGowan originals such as ‘Sally MacLennane’ and ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’.
We even had a bona-fide superstar in the house in the shape of Elvis Costello. He had produced the album, and was presumably on the tour to accompany his girlfriend of the time, bass-player O’Riordan. He joined the band on stage at Sir Henrys for a tune in the latter stages of the gig. Not bad for £6.
But mostly what people remember of that night was the energy. A raucous mix of drunken hooley and gnarly punk gig, you could probably have warmed the entire city on that chilly winter’s night with the steam rising from the crowd. Popular music might have gone rather soft by the mid-80s – A-ha, Dire Straits and Dermot Morgan (‘Thank You Very Much Mr Eastwood’) topped the Irish charts in January 1986 – but a fair chunk of the Cork fans at the gig would’ve been from that blessed post-punk generation.
Just as many folk/trad fans had mistrusted The Pogues, much of the band’s younger audience had been wary of woolly standards until MacGowan came along and showed some of those songs were worth a pogo as much as a jig.
Fast forward to August 1987 and another momentous gig in Cork, as part of Siamsa Cois Laoi. After a mixed year in which The Pogues seemed to be failing to build on the momentum of their early breakthroughs, the band had scored a UK Top 10 hit in April with The Dubliners on ‘The Irish Rover’. These were glorious times for Irish music, with U2 releasing The Joshua Tree in the same month The Pogues and The Dubliners were on Top of the Pops.
When Bono and co booked a gig at Pairc Ui Chaoimh as part of their European tour, wily promoter Oliver Barry saw the opportunity to keep the crowds on Leeside for the weekend with one the Siamsa Cois Laoi events that had been so important in paying for the GAA stadium. Come for U2 and stay the following day for a Siamsa lineup of Status Quo, the Wolfe Tones, The Pogues and Christy Moore. Lock up your drinks-cabinets indeed.
MacGowan took to the stage with a straw hat on his head and a bottle of port in his hand, and of course ‘The Irish Rover’ was one of the highlights of the set.
As hangovers faded, and the cleanup began in Cork, The Pogues got back to work in the studio in London for much of August. MacGowan focused on a song he’d been working on for about two years with band member Jem Finer. Producer Steve Lillywhite suggested that his wife Kirsty MacColl might be suitable for the vocal. And the rest, as they say, is a little bit of a Christmas fairytale.
