TV APPEARANCES

The Beat ~
BBC 1985

This clip contains 4 songs recorded live on The Beat TV show:Boys from the County Hell, Waxie's Dargle, Sally MacLenanne, Whiskey You're the Devil. The quality is not the best, a few generations, but the performance is very cool! Shane's wearing a top hat and playing an acoustic guitar as he struggles through the "clean" version of County Hell , trying to fit in words that won't offend the public in place of the tune's real lyrics (have you heard the single version?). The band is fresh, energetic, and full of fire - highly recommended!

Rock Arena ~
'85

A 30 minute or s segment including interviews with Shane and Elvis Costello, and live performances of Sally MacLenanne, Dirty Old Town & Paddy on the Railway (filmed at The Mean Fiddler - in France I assume)as well as some cool studio footage of the recording and listening to the Poguetry in Motion ep. As if that alone doesn't make for some great viewing, the promo video of Waxie's Dargle is also included! My copy is a few generations old but this is a great look into the early days.

Alabamahalle ~
Munich, Germany
April 15, '85

This is a great bunch of songs taped off German TV in 1985 Songs are:Greenland Whale Fisheries, Repeal of the Licensing Laws, Boys from the County Hell, A Pair of Brown Eyes, Sally MacLenanne, Battle of Brisbane, Transmetropolitan. The quality is not the best, but better than The Beat. The performance is as good or better, with more songs! Shane's playing the acoustic guitar again. The first 2 songs have some audio issues, fading in and out, but it clears up and this is quite a gig!

I now have a copy of this same special that also includes Dingle Regatta, Poor Paddy, Waxie's Dargle, Dark Streets of London, Murshin Durkin, Whiskey You're the Devil, Battle of Brisbane (again - only this time its labeled Sally Maclenanne Instrumental!), and And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. The quality is little bit better but the complete set makes it a must have. This is possibly the most complete and best quality video and performance of The Pogues pre If I Should Fall From Grace With God.

I.R.S. The Cutting Edge ~
Profile

I.R.S'. The Cutting Edge was a TV show that used to air on MTV on Sunday nights before 120 Minutes in the mid to late 80's. It profiled many cool underground bands of the day and was hosted by Peter Zeremba - the front man for the Fleshtones, . In 1986, they profiled The Pogues, who were promoting their new album, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. It's about 10 minutes long and includes some interviews with Shane & Philip and some rehearsal footage and most of a live, rehearsal version of Body of an American from the Poguetry in Motion e.p.

The Old Grey Whistle Test ~
'85/6

Songs are Body of an American, Streams of Whiskey & Dirty Old Town. The picture is pretty grainy here, but the performance is great. A live in the studio show.

Christmas Records ~
Christmas '87, I think

Fairytale of New York here, live in the studio. Kirsty MacColl looks great but c'mon Shane, work on the lip sync a bit. Not a live version at all, but it's still the Pogues on tv.

Halfway To Paradise ~
87(?)

Here they do A Rainy Night in Soho live in the studio, horns and all. My copy is decent.

Saturday Night Live ~
'87 (?)

They Play Fiesta & Birmingham Six here. My copy isn't that great of quality, but Terry Woods sounds great and Shane enters wearing the white Telecaster during the second tune.

Wired ~
'87 (?)

This is an interview segment with Philip Cevron, Jem Finer & Darryl Hunt in New York City around 1987. Drinking pints and talking about the city, it's people and The Pogues. Also shown is most of the Fairytale of New York video. The picture and sound are good and they have some cool things to say...

Friday Night Live ~
'87/8(?)

Together with The Dubliners doing The Irish Rover live in the studio. Pretty awesome.

Tom O'Connor Roadshow ~
'87/8(?)

Again, together with The Dubliners, this time doing The Rare Old Mountain Dew live in the studio. Shane & Ronnie sanding there with their hands in their pockets belting out the lyrics. Again, pretty awesome.

Top of the Pops ~
'87/8(?)

Once again with The Dubliners doing The Irish Rover live in the studio. not quite as cool as the couple above, but only because my copy has some glitches and other flaws in the video.

Night Beat ~
'87/8(?)

Again with The Dubliners doing The Irish Rover live in the studio. This time there's a really cool interview with Dubliners' singer Ronnie Drew - what a gent!

The Late Show ~
'88

This version of The Broad Majestic Shannon is in black & white and several generations old, but still pretty cool.

South Bank Show ~
'88

A cool clip mostly consisting of interviews with Shane as well as some great footage of Joe Strummer behind the mixing board producing Hell's Ditch while Shane records the lyric track to Sayonara.

The Session ~
'88

Here they do Streams of Whiskey, Balinalee, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, I Fought the Law & London Calling (both with Joe Strummer), Lullaby of London, South Australia, Repeal of the Licensing Laws, Turkish Song of the Damned & Irish Rover(with The Dubliners). Quality of video & sound is cool, but honestly the performance is lackluster. Shane seems tired and rather uninspired and even the band seems to drag a bit. It's always great to see Joe Strummer, especially doing a true-to-the-original (Bobby Fuller Four) version of I Fought the Law, but even that is a bit subdued and London Calling doesn't hold a candle to the incredible version from the Live at the Town & Country video.

Late Late Show ~
'87(?)

I'm not sure about the date here, but this is pretty cool. Here you have not only The Pogues and The Dubliners, but Christy Moore, U2 and others singing a Ronnie Drew lead version of The Auld Triangle, a Brendan Behan song you've heard from Red Roses For Me. Very cool, even though Shane is all but lost behind The Edge's colossal cowboy hat.

Bizarre! ~
'88

A Rainy Night in Soho, live at an outdoor gig in front of a huge audience, probably at a festival. Shane's wearing a beret and it's pretty good quality.

Late Late Show ~
'91(?)

Together with The Dubliners doing Jack's Heroes live in the studio. Shane's struggling through the song with a sorry, torn & wrinkled excuse for a lyric sheet in his hand.

MTV ~
'91

This is an outdoor performance of Dirty Old Town & The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn and I'm not positive, but that doesn't seem to be Andrew Ranken behind the drums. The first song is missing the beginning and the quality is just ok at best.

Sayonara ~

Taken from a German TV show, this brief interview and song are entertaining, although Shane's not in the best of shape. The quality is fair.

Saturday Night Live ~
March 17, '91

Here they do White City, & Body of an American.. The picture and sound are pretty good and Shane dances around a bit for some pretty good entertainment, But the band seems a bit uninspired. I think there might have been some controversy about them playing New York instead of the UK on Saint Patrick's Day, a possible motivation for playing Body of an American. Anyone know anything about this?

The Late Show ~
'91

Here they do White City, & London You're a Lady. Decent live in the studio performance, especially for Shane in '91.

Top of the Pops ~
'93(?)

Post Shane, doing Tuesday Morning. Spider once again gives it his all and does a great job filling in for the recently departed Shane.

New Year's Eve ~
'94/5

This seems to have been aired live on MTVEurope. I'm not positive on the date, so please let me know if you do! They play:That Woman's Got Me Drinkin(with Jonny Depp on guitar), Nancy Whiskey, Aisling, then there's some all-star jam with the host of the show, Steve Winwood, and others. This is pretty cool, but the quality of my copy isn't that great. I doubt we'd ever see anything like this in the states.

Pink Pop Fest ~
'95

I popped this in moments after it fell through my mail slot. What I saw surprised me - fantastic quality video of the Popes and Shane at a huge festival. First off, there is a 5 minute or so segment about Shane and the Pogues including a brief clip of an interview with Shane & Terry Woods and a bit of a live performance of Fiesta from the same festival in 87 and parts of That Woman's Got me Drinkin' and Haunted videos. Then it cuts to the show.
    Looks like late afternoon and they cut in during the beginning of Cracklin' Rosie. The band sounds great and Shane is holding it together pretty well - not his best, mind you, but not his worst. Well, they proceed through I'll Be Your Handbag but as they start Greenland Whale Fisheries, something is terribly wrong. By mid song, Shane is mumbling incoherently into the mic, spewing barely audible syllables that in no way resemble the lyrics of the song. The Popes carry him through Broad Majestic Shannon, but half way into Dark Streets of London, Shane is standing at the mic grasping the stand for dear life with his eyes closed and his mouth barely open. Someone comes out and begs him to come backstage while the Popes play on. Shane is finally convinced to let go of the stand and takes baby steps off stage right.
    The Popes play on doing If I Should Fall From Grace With God with Paul MacGuinness on vocals and Sally MacLenanne with Berni France on vocals. Turns out these are the 2 best tunes of the broadcast! As the Popes leave the stage, whistle player Colm O'Maonlai is cornered for an interview. He says it's just a normal show and he doesn't know what happened to Shane, but he's obviously a bit frustrated. The interviewer also mentions something about Shane falling down, but Colm does not comment. This is Shane at his worse, at least that I've seen.

The Old Main Drag ~
From the movie
I'm A Man You Don't Meet Everyday

This is the extent of what I've seen of this movie. There's a bar scene where The Popes are playing The Old Main Drag, which is cool because I've not seen them do that. However, they keep cutting away while the characters in the movie talk(it is a movie, after all!). Worth having, I guess, but nothing too great.

You're The One ~
Circle of Friends (credits)

Merely the credits from a movie I've yet to see. A bunch of text rolling up the screen while Shane's duet with Marie Brennan You're the One,plays.

Live on MTVEurope ~

Very similar to the New Year's Eve show listed above, except they play 2 songs:Snake with Eyes of Garnet and That Womans got Me Drinkin'

Spancil Hill ~
Shane MacGowan & Christy Moore

Recorded from a BBC TV show, this is awesome. Christy Moore introduces Shane for a haunting Traditional, Spancil Hill, a great tune. Shane & Christy trade verses while Shane enjoys a beverage. He looks pretty wrecked, but they manage to pull off a great version. The quality is a few generations, but not too bad.

Fairytale of New York, Haunted,
& That Woman's Got Me Drinkin'Videos~

The Fairytale...video is weird because it seems to be the Pogues version from...Grace with God, but Shane's looking like he did around 94-95. Definitely not the version from Poguevision with Matt Dillon. If you know anything about this, please fill me in! Haunted is cool because Shane pretends to play Piano AND guitar! Seriously, it's ok - Sinead looks beautiful and Shane's dapper as ever. That Woman's Got Me Drinkin' features Shane on the other side of the bar serving an inebriated Jonny Depp drinks. Washing out pint glasses in an apron with a cigarette dangling, Shane looks pretty smart!

Lou Reed's Perfect Day ~

This is a charity based, celebrity filled, We Are The World, Sun City, Band Aid, Hear'N Aid, etc...video with Shane, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Bono, Bowie, et. al. It's for a great cause, children's charities, but the tune does nothing for me. Shane appears for a brief moment.

Aisling & Haunted(with Sinead O'Connor) live ~

These 2 songs were taken from a BBC show, I think, Obviously before Shane & Sinead were never friends...

Dutch TV interview ~

This might be from 95. Shane wearing sunglasses and looking fairly wasted drinks, chain smokes and slurs his way through a series of questions about The Popes and what he's been up to since the Pogues. Pretty sad, really. The highlight (or lowlight) for me was watching him attempt to light the wrong end of a cigarette from another cigarette while the interviewer is waiting for the answer to his last question. Interspersed between questions is live footage of Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway and Aisling which are very cool, though not complete songs.

Conan O'Brien '95 & '97 ~

In '95 Shane & The Popes played Nancy Whiskey and in '97 they played Streams of Whiskey. These are great, but Shane's a bit docile in '98.

Lola Da Musica ~

This clip is from a Dutch TV show. This is some cool footage of Shane in a very good talkative mood. He answers many great questions about the breakup of The Pogues, the Popes formation, the albums, songwriting etc... At the beginning there are comments by Bono, Sinead, and Christy Moore that might be from The Great Hunger. He seems to be in a bar for most of the interview until the end of the segment where he is in the back of a limo with manager Joey Cashman. Between questions are excellent live clips of Paddy Rolling Stone, Boys From the County Hell, Rock 'N' Roll Paddy, Lonesome Highway, and Dirty Old Town. Rock 'N' Roll Paddy includes some classically hilarious shots of Shane dancing around and wiggling his butt with a really funny look on his face. The songs are not complete and have talking over them, but are very cool. There are also partial videos for A Rainy Night in Soho and Summer in Siam. Just as the Pink Pop video is Shane at his worse, this is Shane at his best (post-Pogues, anyway...). Funny and loveable!

Live in Poland ~
October 17, '98

Songs on this Polish TV special are If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Donegal Express, Paddy Rolling Stone, Paddy Public Enemy No. 1, Boys From the County Hell, Lonesome Highway, Popes Instrumental, Dirty Old Town, Skipping Rhymes, Broad Majestic Shannon, Body of an American, Streams of Whiskey, Sally Maclenanne, Sick Bed of Cuchulainn, Irish Rover, Rock 'N' Roll Paddy, Bottle of Smoke,and Greenland Whale Fisheries. This may be the highest quality, full length set by Shane & The Popes available (that I've seen). However, Shane is hardly there for pretty much the entire set. Sure, he's standing at the mic, but many of the songs are mumbled rather than sung, and like a statue he holds the mic stand for support. His eyes are closed and his lips barely move. At one point he slowly looks at Colm O'Maonlai, the accordion player, and cracks a quarter-grin, and as a viewer you are elated to see such animation! The video is pro shot for TV with lots of panning shots of the outdoor venue and multiple camera angles capturing the band. If Shane were in better form this would be priceless...

Late Late Show ~
RTE TV
February 18, '00

This is a cool interview with Shane where he discusses a variety of subjects including the Sinead incident, Drinking, and growing up Irish in London. His parents sit in the audience and answer a few questions themselves which is pretty entertaining. The clip, which runs about 22 minutes, opens with an acoustic (bass, banjo & vocals) version of Hank William's Angel of Death. The performance is pretty good and this is a most enjoyable clip.