By David Hennessy
Sharon Shannon Big Band’s will be playing three concerts in the UK with special guests Imelda May,
Liam Ó Maonlaí, Mundy, Camille O’Sullivan and Cait O’Riordan all in tribute to the late Shane MacGowan.
Mundy, who is known for hits like July and his cover of Galway Girl which featured Sharon Shannon, chatted to us ahead of the shows.
Mundy told The Irish World: “I haven’t played in the UK in a while so I’m looking forward to singing his songs and in great company, with Sharon and all the rest of them.”
Mundy was inspired by Shane when he was very young.
“I had cousins in County Longford and they had a few of the Pogues albums on vinyl, I remember Rum, Sodomy and the Lash in particular was on high rotation in their house.
“I was fascinated by the lyrics. You could pick up the album, look at the artwork and lyrics and go, ‘Jesus, that’s some amount of bad language and poetry at the same time.
“I was just hooked.
“I think The Old Main Drag really was one of the first songs that drew me in.
“I suppose at the time a lot of Irish people would have been emigrating to London so you could really feel the sadness of what immigration was like.
“I was hooked straightaway.”
You later got to perform with him, what did that mean?
“That’s another thing as well.
“Sharon started doing all these Christmas concerts around 2006 or something, but to be standing there on the stage and playing guitar beside him on Fairytale of New York or something her band was like, ‘Oh my god, is this actually really happening?’
“Shane was singing this classic song I remember hearing at 13 or 14.
“It was huge, it was massive being in his company.
“I met him years ago in London.
“I met him up in Swiss Cottage one time and we had a great chat.
“I told him where I was from.
“Because I’m from a place called Burrow, County Offaly which is only a stone’s throw from where he’s from.
“I think that was kind of like my little passport into being a friend of his in a way.
“I think it was better that I was a country man than I was a city person.
“That was the first time that I met him.
“I met him on and off after that and just became friends.
“He was a very, very interesting person to be around.
“Some days he was in good form and some days he wouldn’t be.
“A very bright person though.
“He would always tell you if you were wrong.
“He was very quick to put you in your place.
“But he was great guy.
“I have nothing bad to say about Shane.
“He was very funny, hugely intelligent.
“He’d always have a book in his hand.
“Those words didn’t come from laziness.
“He was a hugely intelligent person.
“He studied, he did his research.”
Do you think there’s misconceptions about Shane because of the reputation he had?
“Yeah, I do.
“I think he was really, really bright.
“I think the legend of his partying and all that might overshadow his hard work a bit.
“There was no way that the man didn’t put in the elbow grease.
“And I think he created a lot of his own image, be it a good one or a bad one, but we wouldn’t be talking about him if he didn’t have that kind of image too.
“A legend is a legend and it can have us all wondering whether it happened or not, you know?”
You played at his funeral, was that very special?
“To be honest I really just wanted to attend the funeral.
“I didn’t assume or think I was going to be singing at it.
“Then I was asked would I sing, and then I was told, ‘Oh no, you can’t sing that one, you can do that one’. Then, ‘You can’t do that one’.
“Because the day before the funeral, there was more and more people wanting to sing or asked to sing.
“I didn’t take it for granted I was going to be part of the singing.
“I remember Glen Hansard calling me.
“He said to me, ‘Will you sing this one?’
“I said, ‘Listen, just tell I’m singing or I’m not singing. I just want to be going to the funeral and not be having a panic attack at it’.
“And then he eventually said, ‘Would you sing with Camille (O’Sullivan)?’
“I think our version of Haunted was pretty special
“Backstage it was unbelievable which was in the sacristy behind the altar.
“You have the President of Ireland and you have the head of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, you have all these people.
“It was like the weirdest horse fair in all the world.
“It was just full of crazy characters.
“And that’s what Shane drew to the table.
“He had this magic of bringing all the most unlikely people together.
“I think you could nearly make a movie about the funeral, just about the backstage part of it.”
When you play these shows in his memory, I’m sure there are some memories and stories about Shane being swapped..
“Oh, big time.
“We all have great stories about Shane.
“Some of them can’t be said!
“All slightly wild.
“He really was a special person.
“I think we all knew that.
“People have been talking about Shane MacGowan, whether he was going to stay alive, when he was in his late 20s and he kept going for another 30, 40 years.
“I think everybody appreciated his mortality when they were around him.
“The likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, they were all massive fans,
“They used to call in to see him when they were in Dublin
“He was a massive treasure.”
He may be gone but he’ll never be forgotten..
“That’s true and I always say he’s very near.
“Even when we’re doing the gigs, his presence is just phenomenal.
“He’s never too far away.
“There are loads of songs like Fiesta and The Irish Rover, really upbeat (but) it’s his love songs that really go into the heart, he really was a romantic person.
“You think of someone like van Morrison and Shane had that power as well of cutting you in two with his romantic statements.
“You can see the tears welling up in the crowd’s eyes during certain songs.”
The Irish World also spoke to Camille O’Sullivan back in August when she shared her memories of Shane MacGowan.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever have their like again,” she said also referring to the passing of Christy Dignam.
“I mean, Shane was a gent and he was shy.
“I mean, you’d never cross him because he’d tell you to f off, but I kind of enjoyed his madness.
“And I mean, he was so learned.
“You’d say something and he’d correct you and you’re going, ‘I thought he was sleeping in the corner but he was listening to what I was saying’.
“But Victoria and himself were just actually quite spiritual people and the same with Sinead, just really genuine, authentic.
“I don’t think those two could have been cancelled today, but they would have given it a good try.
“But when I met him I was just like an architect student up at a Christmas party eating pies, and next minute I get the call, ‘Do you want to come down and sing with Shane in the Olympia in 40 minutes?’
“And I’m like, ‘What?’
“It must have been like 25 years ago or something.
“Of course, I knew the chorus of Fairytale, but I never knew the verses, so I wrote it down.
“I was on my bicycle just reading it as I went down and met him on stage.
“He’d be- not brutal, but if he didn’t like you, didn’t like the way you sang, you wouldn’t be on again.
“So you were just happy that he invited you back.
“Anytime I sang a song of his, I used to run away in case he didn’t like it.
“But Victoria said, ‘He did, Camille’, and we did end up recording. We’ve recorded a song together: The last duet he’s ever done and that hopefully will come out at some stage.
“But those last few years hanging with them, and just even the last few days, he was in great form, still joking.
“He always just had a good little joke but he’d say it in a way you just weren’t sure.”
Of course you got to sing at his incredible funeral, did that feel special? Did you feel his presence even?
“Yeah, absolutely and still do.
“I’m not necessarily religious but I am spiritual, many Irish people have that thing in them.
“Singing his songs, I suppose that’s my way of keeping hold of him.
“You sing for yourself, you sing for people you love, you sing for your child, you sing for people you lost.
“And when you sing for somebody you were such a fan of, it’s very different how you sing it.
“You always sing it back to them like some prayer and some gift.
“It’s a way of holding on to them.
“When we were at his funeral, I got there early and I remember going down in the car with Feargal and I said, ‘I’m scared because I don’t want to mess it up’.
“You don’t think about cameras, it’s because it’s this momentous thing for this amazing person.
“And he said, ‘Just say goodbye to your friend. Just say goodbye’.
“And it was the loveliest thing because my shows are like therapy for me.
“Somebody said to me, ‘Only step up on stage if there’s a good reason to go’.
“The funeral was a catalyst because I went, ‘I never want to forget how beautiful that was. I never want to forget how much love was felt’.
“Being asked was a real honour.
“When I went out Finbar (Furey) said, ‘I know you’re scared’.
“He said, ‘Camille, heart, it’s all heart from here’.
“And I was like, ‘Finbar, I know, I know’, so to get people who you’re so in awe of and see that’s where their hearts come from.
“I think we were so lucky to have him (Shane).
“It was a voice that we needed, and what a voice.
“I didn’t realise how complicated the relationship with Ireland was because I think people thought at the start, ‘Oh, you’re drunks and you’re bastardising trad music’.
“But at his eulogy, his sister was saying that he cried when he got the award from the President. It was like the biggest thing.
“I remember we were all around him.
“He was really nervous to go on stage and it was actually Sinead who was the one putting her arms around him in the end, going, ‘Are you okay?’
“And it was the last time I saw her perform and the same night Dolores O’Riordan had passed away. It all happened on that night.
“Shane could sing any song, and when people were asked to sing his songs, it was a nightmare because you either sound like you’re copying him or faking it.
“I realized then, ‘That guy owned every song he ever did’.
“He said something actually in hospital.
“He said, ‘Look, I loved to singing with you but I must say, I felt like a traitor to a Kirsty McColl, any person I sang Fairytale with.
“And I said, ‘Don’t worry. I absolutely agree with you’.
“Because we were the generation that heard that song for the first time and it always was her.
“It was a really weird song to sing with him onstage because Kirsty always owned that song, so you sang it as well as you could.
“I thought that was a really beautiful thing to say.
“He said, ‘I loved her and I always missed that it wasn’t her’.
“And he was always sweet.
“He’d look at you, sometimes you’d be singing and then he would look at you and give you a cuddle so you knew you were doing well.
“He was kind about it.
“It was alchemy on stage.
“I remember crying.
“I was looking at him in Brixton Academy.
“He would always stand quite still in a show.
“Everybody else were the ones rotating around him, like planets around the earth and he’d stand still and he just sing it.
“And just the power emanating just from him, even if he’d had a drink or not had a drink.
“Sometimes he’d have no drink and he’d go on the stage and put a pint on his head.
“He knew that people went, ‘Oh, he likes his drink’.
“So even when he wasn’t drinking he’d be trying to whip the frenzy.
“I remember looking at their audience going, ‘I have never seen such a loving, fierce animal of an audience who are crying their eyes out and shouting back’.
“I’ve never seen that. I’ve not seen that at U2 concerts.
“But Shane McGowan, absolutely. It was a meaning of life and death, and you just looked out and went, ‘This is the most incredible audience to sing to’, because it really mattered and it was wild.
“I’ve never told this to somebody before: I was pregnant and I must have been about four, five months.
“I got the call and they said, ‘Look, we’re doing the London O2. Would you do it? My (Jem Finer’s) daughter can’t do because she’s pregnant’.
“I went, ‘Absolutely’.
“And I went, ‘I’m not going to tell them I’m bloody pregnant’.
“So he’s swinging me around and there’s snow.
“The other one that happened was I was asked that Christmas by David Letterman to do his show and I was advised by someone not to do it and to this day, I still wake up sometimes going, ‘You big eejit, you should have done it’.
“I can also tell Lila, ‘You danced on stage with Shane. You didn’t know it’.
“But it was quite amazing to have laughed, dance and sang with him, and to have been held by him.”
Is it poignant to pay tribute to Shane in your shows?
“It is special.
“I do have a cry because I did love him. I do love him. I love Victoria, I love his sister, I love the boys.
“I wouldn’t have come back if it hadn’t been for him. I didn’t really know if I wanted to, but it does give great comfort.”
The Irish World also spoke to Sharon Shannon back in October when she also spoke of Shane.
Tell us about the Shane MacGowan tributes shows you have been doing. I’d say they’re very emotional, are they?
“They’re amazing, absolutely fantastic. Really, really fantastic. But very emotional is the right word: People in the audience crying, people on stage crying.
“It’s something else alright.
“It’s a lovely thing to be involved in.”
It must be great to pay tribute to him. Shane is gone but he’ll never be forgotten..
“It’s very exciting, yeah.
“The show, I presume you know who’s in it: Imelda May, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Mundy, Camille O’Sullivan, Cait O’Riordan, and then in the band, we have the one and only Gerry O’Connor- ‘Gerry Banjo’, and I think Richie Buckley the sax player, is doing a lot of those gigs as well.
“It’s a great band and great guests.
“It’s really exciting.
“It’s 85% all Shane’s music and then the rest is lively tunes by the band, tunes by ourselves.”
Shane sang with you for many years, didn’t he?
“He did, we toured at Christmas time with Shane for about seven years in a row.”
What was he like?
“Lovely, really nice.
“He was partying a lot.
“We were all trying to keep up with him as well. That wasn’t easy.”
Sharon Shannon and her big band- with special guests Imelda May, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Mundy, Camille O’Sullivan and Cait O’Riordan- play Birmingham O2 Academy on 20 December, London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 21 December and Manchester Ritz on 22 December.
Mundy also plays Whelans in Dublin on 30 December.
