Rum, Sodomy & "The WAAAAAAAIIIIT": Shane MacGowan Checks Out Killing Joke in London, `79
A slightly surreal, bittersweet image to end an awful week on ….
While widely perceived as Irish to the core, Shane MacGowan was actually born in England to Irish immigrant parents and spent most of his life there (which is why such a wide swathe of Pogues’ songs invoke life in London). A fervent and volatile member of early British Punk, MacGowan was as much a face on the scene as folks like Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol et al. A testament to how small and incestuous (terrible word, I know) the British Punk scene was, here he is (above) in the attending crowd at an early Killing Joke show in 1979, spotted by my friend Neil Perry from my other friend Frank Jenkinson’s magisterial photo collection, "Killing Joke Picture Book." According to Mike Coles, this venue was called The Moonlight, located in the West Hampstead section of London. Prior to that, it was a venue called Klooks Kleek, which was "a haven for all the early British blues and jazz bands in the 60s."
The late Geordie Walker is the shock of white hair behind the cymbal. Surely, these two have been in rooms together since this photo, right? Michael Coles is in there, as well, just four faces to the left of Shane.
I normally hate all that “rock n’ roll heaven” bullshit (i.e. paintings of Last Supper-style congregations of dead rockers like Freddie Mercury, Hendrix and Jim Morrisson, etc.), but I would be not at all surprised if Shane and Geordie were knocking back a few pints together in the afterworld somewhere as I type this.
Pogue Mahone & Killing Joke Forever!
Here are other shots from that gig, also by the great Frank Jenkinson. Buy his books here.
Today, that place is called The Rail Way, and looks like this...
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Rum, Sodomy & "The WAAAAAAAIIIIT": Shane MacGowan Checks Out Killing Joke in London, `79
A slightly surreal, bittersweet image to end an awful week on ….
While widely perceived as Irish to the core, Shane MacGowan was actually born in England to Irish immigrant parents and spent most of his life there (which is why such a wide swathe of Pogues’ songs invoke life in London). A fervent and volatile member of early British Punk, MacGowan was as much a face on the scene as folks like Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol et al. A testament to how small and incestuous (terrible word, I know) the British Punk scene was, here he is (above) in the attending crowd at an early Killing Joke show in 1979, spotted by my friend Neil Perry from my other friend Frank Jenkinson’s magisterial photo collection, "Killing Joke Picture Book." According to Mike Coles, this venue was called The Moonlight, located in the West Hampstead section of London. Prior to that, it was a venue called Klooks Kleek, which was "a haven for all the early British blues and jazz bands in the 60s."
The late Geordie Walker is the shock of white hair behind the cymbal. Surely, these two have been in rooms together since this photo, right? Michael Coles is in there, as well, just four faces to the left of Shane.
I normally hate all that “rock n’ roll heaven” bullshit (i.e. paintings of Last Supper-style congregations of dead rockers like Freddie Mercury, Hendrix and Jim Morrisson, etc.), but I would be not at all surprised if Shane and Geordie were knocking back a few pints together in the afterworld somewhere as I type this.
Pogue Mahone & Killing Joke Forever!
Here are other shots from that gig, also by the great Frank Jenkinson. Buy his books here.
Today, that place is called The Rail Way, and looks like this...
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