A far as soccer songs goes this ain’t too bad, kind of middle of the road (middle aged) rock with a big locker room chorus. Better then anything Man. U. or Liverpool or the Huns ever released.
The story of the Lisbon Lions is much better. It’s the story of 11 scrappy Glaswegians who had reached the final of the premier soccer club championship, “The European Cup”. The first “British” club ever to do so thirty five years ago now. Facing them on the football pitch was the Italian powerhouse Inter Milan, previous winners who were expected to destroy Celtic. Inter Milan’s tactics were to score quickly and then defend the remainder of the match. True to form Milan went one up in minuets and retreated into their defensive bunkers.
Celtic played a very different style of football to the Italians. Where the focus was on ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK for the full 90 minutes. Celtic manager Jock Stein believed that the only place Celtic should defend was the inside of the opposition’s penalty box. Celtic’s high pressure cracked the Milan defense once (Tommy Gemmell) then twice (Steve Chalmers) giving them a fantastic victory for Celtic, Scotland and Football.
The b-side will musically be of much more interest to S’n’O readers. Shane MacGowan joins the Celtic Chorus with the first original MacGowan release in a long time. True to form the music is a rip-off of the melody of “Kelly the Boy from Killane”, the style is still that Country’n’Irish sound of “Crock Of Gold” and Shane sounds positively blotto. Certainly not a classic MacGowan but still nice to hear something new(ish).
After a very long wait, we finally have an official live album to add to our collections. Shane MacGowan and The Popes have released “Across The Broad Atlantic” (at least in the U.S., Europe will have it in February I believe.) The album was recorded live on St. Paddy’s Day last year in New York AND Dublin! How the hell can that happen, you may be asking? Well, according to the liner notes in the album sleeve, Thanks to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, the official Paddy’s Day in Dublin had to be moved from March to May and Shane became the first ever Irish performer to be able to celebrate Paddy’s Day on stage in both New York and Dublin in the same year! Yeah, like Shane needs TWO Paddy’s Days in one year to celebrate! As many of you would expect, the album is sometimes spotty. The crowd sounds like it may have been diluted down in the studio a bit, but unlike a few bootlegs, you can actually hear the band in between tracks.(Too bad you can’t understand just what the hell Shane is saying on a few of ’em!) The Popes sound solid throughout the album, but Shane sounds like he may have been drinking warm whiskey out of a dirty ashtray on one or two tracks. He even sings “Fairytale of New York” with his mother, and let’s just say it’s …..a bit off key. Some of the standouts on the album are the eerie “Angel Of Death” the last song Hank Williams wrote, also “Body Of An American”, “More Pricks Than Kicks”, and “Streams of Whiskey” I especially enjoy the great echo effects from Shane when he gives his typical banshee howls during some of the songs. It is definitely about time we can own a “real” live album, although some bootlegs are a better quality show, just not a better quality recording. I also heard a rumor that another live album is in the works from The Pogues. I guess it’s a Show from 1991 in Switzerland, that will be released as another “official” live album. That’s great guys!! How ’bout an “official” album with some unreleased tracks on it?
I’m doing something really unethical with this review, I haven’t actually listened to the CD but that’s the problem – I don’t have to. ‘Rare Oul’ Stuff’ is a quick cash in from Shane’s old label ZTT who never really did too much for his career anyway (anyone remember trying to get a copy of “Crock of Gold” stateside). Basically it’s a mish mash of tracks from “The Snake” and “Crock of Gold” plus a couple of b-sides and EP tracks which most Shane fans will already own or at least have downloaded from Napster.
Track listing is: 1. You’re The One 2. The Song With No Name 3. Nancy Whiskey 4. Roddy McCorley 5. Rock N Roll Paddy 6. Christmas Lullaby 7. Danny Boy 8. Minstrel Boy 9. Rake At The Gates Of Hell 10. Victoria 11. Donegal Express 12. Ceildh Cowboy 13. Paddy Rolling Stone 14. Paddy Public Enemy 1 15. Back In The County Hell 16. The Snake With Eyes Of Garnet 17. Cracklin Rosie 18. Aisling 19. Spanish Lady 20. Come To The Bower 21. St John Of Gods
Nothing particularly rare or even oul’ about this and only recommended to the must have everything fan (the cover at least looks pretty neat).
Danny Pope is the former drummer for Shane MacGowan and the Popes and also a member of The Men They Couldn’t Hang. “The Acid Teeth E.P.” is Danny on an E-trip. “Acid Teeth” is all (just!!) tight as feck bass and drums in a reggae/dub groove with loads of samples and weird vocals.
“Rub a Dub in da Pub” is the track of most interest to anyone reading “Shite’n’Onions”. It’s a reworking of “B & I Ferry” from Shane’s “Crock of Gold”, just the bass and drums in a reggae groove. Shane on vocals with loads of rasta backing vocals – so cool it should have been sold with shades.
All right I admit it; I was a Heavy Metal fan back in the Eighties – so out the window goes any credibility I had! But at least I feel well qualified to review this disk. Cruachan mix Metallica pre-“Black” album riffing (not really Death Metal at all) with Tin Whistle, Irish Flute, Bódhran and Uilleann pipes along with a heavy dose of Celtic mythology.
Shane MacGowan does a nice job producing this 4 track CDEP ensuring the traditional instruments are not lost in the metal mix. Shane also lends some vocals to their cover of the song Christy Moore made famous ‘Ride On’ though this is a lot closer to Metallica’s ‘One’ with it’s slow gentle introduction that grow more and more powerful as the song progresses climaxing in some very intense riffing. Shane duets with vocalist Karen Gilligan at the song’s beginning, the Metal vocals of Keith Fay replacing Shane as the song progresses.
“Maeves March 2001” is a Chieftains gone Metal instrumental; “Sauron” is similar in style to the English Folk-Metal’s of Skyclad and “To Hell or to Connaught” just want’s to be Horselips “Trouble”
Shite'n'Onions 