Looking for the "Pot of Gold" with Shane MacGowan
There is something of sticky decadence in the view of those who watch, a certain voluptuousness for the decomposition of the punk folklorist, but also the almost naive image of the popular figure who remains mysteriously clinging to life. As if the bottle dance were at the same time a deadly poison and an elixir of eternity, fuel for a game with fire that is as dangerous as it is essential to tell the story and preserve the legend.
The torso prostrate in the chair is that of Shane MacGowan (1957-2023), with his head hanging, threatening to detach from his neck, his vitality disintegrating with each pause in his speech, his hand trembling with a pint (yet another one) in his hand, his vacant gaze and the mocking laugh of a young boy that would rival Muttley's style. We can say that his 65 years have been a crazy race. Only God knows if the lead singer and figurehead of the Irish band The Pogues saw the rainbow at the end of the sprint, but with him we know that we have found the “Pot of Gold”.
[The trailer for “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan”, in the original version:]
British film director Julian Temple writes, directs and serves up “Drinks with Shane MacGowan”, which opens in cinemas this Thursday, for two hours of intimate coverage of his life, work and, well, hardly about his hangover, because the musician who started drinking at the age of 6 made a point of keeping up the pace of his drinking at full throttle, without any major breaks for painful regrets — instead, he had some bad trips, depressions, leaving the band due to his unfit state for consumption, and attending a Sex Pistols concert fresh from yet another failed detox treatment.
The feature film is produced by Johnny Depp, a long-time friend of MacGowan, who joins the cast of partners and illustrious figures who parade across the screen, leaning against counters, between yet another round with the partner in adventures, such as Bobbie Gilespie, Nick Cave and Gerry Adams , former leader of the Irish republican nationalist party, Sinn Féin. It was thanks to them that Temple, a pioneer of music videos and author of documentaries such as “The Filth & The Fury” or “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten”, managed to overcome the biographee's reservations and the first unsuccessful incursions into Ireland in 2019. “Making a film about Shane MacGowan is no easy task. The closest I can think of is one of those David Attenborough films. You set the traps with the camera, you wait and wait, in the hope that one day the snow leopard will spring them,” admitted the filmmaker in the promotion of the documentary, a project launched after the success of the concert that celebrated Shane’s 60th birthday, on January 15, 2018, at the National Concert Hall, in Dublin.
Shane at the tribute concert for his 60th birthday
“Pote de Ouro – Mais Uma Rodada com Shane MacGowan” follows the man in his kaleidoscope and paints a portrait of a time and a way marked by conflict and escape, religion and rebellion, grief and redemption. First, in an Ireland marked by famine, emigration, and childhood memories in Tipperary. Then, through the early years in London, the punk explosion in Camden, the origins of the group, the engineering of the cult and the impact of the songs on British culture — “God looked at that little Irish boy and thought 'I'm going to use him to save Irish music' ”, shares the anointed one. It's all engraved in the Celtic soul and in the words of the profane leader, who doesn't get lost in terrible details. “The lyrics are always about fighting, drinking, dying, living, the things that everyone does.”
“Irascible, intractable, infuriating, fascinating, shocking, exasperating, bellicose, comatose, cantankerous, cadaverous, impossible, unstoppable.” An assortment of adjectives used by Temple, who managed to complete the documentary before Shane’s death
The documentary, which won the special jury prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival, also relied on the cooperation and subtlety of the methods used by family members to facilitate access to the protagonist, access previously unreleased material, unravel memories and numb verdicts. It’s not that Shane is a heavy drinker, assures his sister Siobhan, it’s just that for him life without alcohol isn’t as fun. “We play better when we’re sober, but it’s not as much fun”, he sums it up bluntly. And, for the record, not even a drunk would be able to make him swallow “Fairytale of New York” today, probably the most commercially successful hit by the band founded in 1982 by MacGowan, Spider Stacyand and Jem Finer. Nothing that would force us to abstain, even though there are still six months to go until Christmas .
Tetris on a Blackberry to the sound of the Pogues — Suggestions
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