If you ever have the chance, read Shane's bio book, "A Drink with Shane MacGowan". It's fascinating and occasionally hilarious, with stories like the time his manager got called to his hotel room at Obscene-O-Clock to find that Shane had torn out the walls, stripped naked, painted himself bright blue from head to foot, and was going on in great detail about how the ghosts of the Maori tribesmen had told him to do all this. Also, this was a guy who would drink an entire bottle of whiskey every afternoon. 8O
For my money, the Pogues are still unrivaled. I like a lot of similar bands (The Tossers, Flogging Molly, etc), but none of the others seem to have the sheer range that the Pogues had on albums like "If I should fall from grace with God".
If anyone is looking for something more unusual, I can recommend the Breton Celtic band Tri Yann. People always forget that Brittany was a Celtic country too, and they have their own home-grown bands that turn out some pretty cool tunes, with a slightly different flavor that the usual Irish/Scottish stuff. Here's a YouTube link of a typical Tri Yann tune:
Tri Yann - Je m'en vas
For my money, the Pogues are still unrivaled. I like a lot of similar bands (The Tossers, Flogging Molly, etc), but none of the others seem to have the sheer range that the Pogues had on albums like "If I should fall from grace with God".
If anyone is looking for something more unusual, I can recommend the Breton Celtic band Tri Yann. People always forget that Brittany was a Celtic country too, and they have their own home-grown bands that turn out some pretty cool tunes, with a slightly different flavor that the usual Irish/Scottish stuff. Here's a YouTube link of a typical Tri Yann tune:
Tri Yann - Je m'en vas
