Shane Mc Gowan and The Pogues - Drop Kick Murphys

 How good was it to see Shane MacGowan and the Pogues playing in Manchester at the M.E.N on the 17th of December?
For me it was excellent, a great gig, amazing to see them live, so good to see Shane and the band.

SHANE turned 48 on Christmas Day, he looked well and gave a fantastic performance, his songs will live on for hundreds of years, and if Saturday night’s show was anything to go by, Shane MacGowan should be putting in performances to haunt his critics for a long time to come.

Shane MacGowan has the music and musicians to paper over any deficiencies of his voice, each member proved to be a vital cog in an impressively well-oiled machine, With Spider Stacey’s lightning quick tin whistle playing to Darryl Hunt’s incessant bass lines, the group soon had the crowd,and in particularly the mosh pit, loving their every move.
Streams of Whiskey and The Sickbed of Cuchuliann buzzed along merrily, while a sublime rendition of Body Of An American attracted the first real sing along of the night.

It was on ramshackle versions of Ewan MacColl’s Salford-based tale Dirty Old Town and then Irish Rover that MacGowan really shone, bristling with passion and punk aggression.He has lost none of the wit that has infused his lyrics down the years either, cheekily thanking his personal hairdresser for his unkempt locks.

As expected it was a heartfelt airing of the song recently voted the finest festive effort of all time that proved the night’s outstanding highlight.
Fairytale of New York has been re-released to raise money for the Justice For Kirsty MacColl campaign and thanks to Shane MacGowan’s surprisingly coherent delivery under a shower of fake snowflakes, it sounded as majestic as ever.

The only complaint I have would be the sound, when the support band (Dropkick Murphys) were playing, the energy they gave was just amazing, but the sound was poor, for a venue of the size of the M.E.N. it certainly needed more 0oomph, okay they turned the volume up for the Pogues but it was a struggle to make out the lyrics on some of the songs, it just didn't have the clarity to do them justice, Shane was on great form and gave a great performance.
 
I've spoken with friends who had travelled to the gig, all thoroughly enjoyed it, saying it was one of the best gigs they had seen, all agree the gig was great, the bands amazing, but the sound left room for improvement.
I found myself struggling to hear all the words to the songs, instead of losing myself in the music, not a venue I would look forward to going back to too see my favourite bands.

First time I have seen them, the Pogues were better than I expected.
Shane was more coherent than I expected, and the rest of the band were as tight as ever.
 
Can there be any better song to end a show than Fairy Tale of New York.
You can't help but walk out smiling, and feeling better at the end of the show

Shane MacGowan was excellent even though i have heard so much about him being really drunk at previous concerts but when he did pop off for a break(3 songs), the vibrant sound still came from the Pogues.
It was great to see the craic on stage and the fairytale of new york which was performed at the end, was just the icing on the cake!

Long live Shane and long live the Pogues.