{"id":15747,"date":"2023-12-03T18:14:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T18:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=15747"},"modified":"2023-12-03T18:14:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T18:14:45","slug":"shane-macgowans-madonna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2023\/12\/03\/shane-macgowans-madonna\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane MacGowan’s Madonna"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, it\u2019s Thursday night in Dublin, I\u2019ve found some Poitin, and am thinking of Shane MacGowan. How very sad it is that he\u2019s gone. \u2018A Rainy Night in Soho<\/span><\/a>\u2019 playing on the radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had a funny connection with Shane.<\/p>\n

His wife Victoria gave me a photo of her and Shane for an auction, to raise money for a battle against a semi-state body spraying pesticides.<\/p>\n

I had to get it signed. \u2018Come on over!\u2019 Victoria said. Next thing I\u2019m in their\u00a0 house, Victoria has scarpered, and I\u2019m alone with Shane.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the photo of them blown up and printed on canvas. Shane loves it,\u00a0 grabs it, asks me what it\u2019s for, takes a green marker and scrawls, \u2018Fuck Those F\u2014\u00a0 Hypocrites! Love Shaney XXX\u2019.<\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

Business completed, joints are rolled. Blue gin poured.<\/p>\n

My head is melting.<\/p>\n

My heart is too.<\/p>\n

Shane talks poetry. Seamus Heaney. James Clarence Mangan<\/a><\/span>. The Famine. The Rising. Have I ever been \u2018strung out\u2019?. Where do I live? With whom? I explain I\u2019m with my children and their partners. \u2018A commune!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Would I like some music? Absolutely I would. Shane leans over the arm of the sofa where he\u2019s sitting to rummage through a box of CD\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u2018I used to play with this band\u2019 he says, shyly, \u2018the Pogues\u2019.<\/p>\n

I want to jump up and hug him. I want to say everyone in the whole world knows the Pogues and your incredible music Shane!<\/p>\n

\u2018That would be lovely\u2019 I say. \u2018I\u2019d love to hear you and the Pogues\u2019.<\/p>\n

Shane slides in \u2018Rum, Sodomy and the Lash<\/a><\/span>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Victoria re-appears.<\/p>\n

Shane looks around. \u2018Hey Vic, give \u2018er that\u2019, he says, pointing to a floor tile on which he\u2019s drawn the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

In brightest greens and blues, Mary is standing, holding one arm up. \u2018What\u2019s she doing?\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Calming her people\u2019 says Shane. \u2018And the little guy with a Kalsnikov?\u2019. \u2018He\u2019s minding her\u2019.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m unsure if I should take it. Victoria, who\u2019s probably seen hundreds of items given away, is graciousness itself: \u2018He\u2019s delighted to give you something\u2019.<\/p>\n

I finally leave, my head ringing, thinking when I\u2019d asked Paul McCartney if he\u2019d sign a rare Beatles EP, a frosty PR company replied: \u2018Sir Paul does not sign memorabilia\u2019<\/p>\n

Thinking how CRAZY it is that notorious hellraiser Shane MacGowan has just given me a picture of the Virgin Mary. On a floor tile.<\/p>\n

And also, this thought: it\u2019s the middle of the recession. I can\u2019t keep asking artist friends for help. I\u2019ll collect Virgin Mary\u2019s instead. And sell them.<\/p>\n

The Irish Museum of Modern Art IMMA made a beautiful print of Shane\u2019s original, \u2018Gra agus Beannacht\u2019 added in Shane\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

I was on my way.<\/p>\n

I had to visit Shane and Victoria again to get the prints signed. Exhausted after a UK trip, Shane lined up something for himself and said: \u2018Okay give me those fukken things\u2019 then, gent that he is, signed them all.<\/p>\n

He and Victoria were guests of honour at our first exhibition of Virgins in the local Arts Centre. He the first to buy. A beautiful print of his beloved Sinead O\u2019Connor as Mary by Aga Szot (who previously featured as an artist on Cassandra Voices<\/a><\/span>). Nobody else moved. \u2018Fukken tight fist fukken cunts\u2019 Shane growled.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sinead O’Connor as Mary by Aga Szot<\/a><\/span>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O Lord.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, a Catholic boarding school girl, I\u2019d never much liked Mary. She seemed cold. Distant. Pastel. Shane turned me on to a different one. A powerful female icon. A warrior woman, \u2018Calming her people\u2019.<\/p>\n

With everything he cut to the chase.<\/p>\n

\u2018I just wanted to shove music that had roots, and is just generally stronger and has more real anger and emotion, down the throats of a completely pap-orientated pop audience.\u2019<\/p>\n

He sure succeeded. He sure was loved for it.<\/p>\n

He was beautiful. Impossible. Sensationally gifted. Honest. Punk. Sensationally sensitive. Spiritual. Political. Wild.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gra agus Beannacht\u2019 in the fullest measure.<\/p>\n

He will be sorely missed in this \u2018pap-orientated\u2019 world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, it\u2019s Thursday night in Dublin, I\u2019ve found some Poitin, and am thinking of Shane MacGowan. How very sad it is that he\u2019s gone. \u2018A Rainy Night in Soho\u2019 playing on the radio. I had a funny connection with Shane. His wife Victoria gave me a photo of her and Shane for an auction, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":15750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[695,5743,5757,7981,8305,8312,8314,8315,8323,8324],"class_list":["post-15747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-arts","tag-macgowans","tag-madonna","tag-rosita-sweetman-cassandra-voices","tag-shane","tag-shane-macgowan-art","tag-shane-macgowan-cassandra-voices","tag-shane-macgowan-character","tag-shane-macgowan-rosita-sweetman","tag-shane-macgowan-sinead-oconnor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}