When Shane MacGowan, the Pogues’ notoriously hard-living frontman, sat down for a recording session with the boyband producer behind a string of hits for Busted, Westlife, Blue and 5ive, it was always likely to have been a impromptu late-night affair fuelled by drink.
Harmonised by a two-day bender at the Alpen Lodge in Glasgow, MacGowan and John McLaughlin, the Scottish songwriter, jammed together in the basement of the music producer Ian Morrow’s home recording studio, previously graced by the likes of Rod Stewart, Seal and Wet Wet Wet.
The result was the song Tomorrow Belongs to Me, which forms the centrepiece of a new Edinburgh Fringe about MacGowan’s life and the unlikely bond forged by the two musicians.
For the Love of Shane MacGowan will run for five days in August at the capital’s Voodoo Rooms. “I first met Shane in 2010 when I made a record for Celtic’s Lisbon Lions called Best Days of Our Lives,” said McLaughlin, lead singer of the band Johnny Mac and the Faithful.
“I reached out to people like Billy Connolly and Ian McCulloch [of Echo and the Bunnymen] and I decided to take a chance and asked Shane MacGowan. He said yes right away, which was a huge deal for me. I’d been a huge fan of his for years. We got him over for the single, got on fabulously and he said we should write some songs together.”
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At the Alpen Lodge, MacGowan, best remembered for Pogues hits including Fairytale of New York and A Rainy Night in Soho, interrogated McLaughlin about his life growing up in Glasgow. “I told him about my first girlfriends, Milton, Possil, the gangs in the area like the Tongs and the Fleeto. He loved all that and eventually came out with this lyric all about it. We’d been steaming drunk but the information went in. It was mind-blowing.”
The pair connected over a love of Irish folk music, literary greats Brendan Behan and James Joyce and Irish history. “He had all this credibility and is rightly regarded as one of the best songwriters in the world. I’m a boy from Milton writing pop songs, but he was impressed that I knew all the traditional Irish tunes,” said McLaughlin.
In the early hours, the pair had managed to assemble a band of banjo players and fiddlers and ended up in Ian Morrow’s recording studio in Glasgow. The song was initially released on a compilation album and is to be re-recorded with a new vocal accompaniment by McLaughlin to coincide with the Fringe show.
“I contacted Shane’s wife Victoria [Mary Clarke] when I had the idea for the show and she agreed it was a great way to commemorate him and celebrate our friendship on a personal level,” he said. “We are hoping to show some of Shane’s artwork and some unseen lyrics too. I want to make it an all-round celebration as opposed to just a gig. All my times with him were a celebration. There are lots of stories from our friendship, some of them are funny, some sad.”
McLaughlin, who also performs with the Bay City Rollers, added: “I was on tour when he was in hospital and had spoken to Victoria about going over to see him. But I never got the chance. He was an absolute hero of mine and was so good to me. I think the show will be emotional but I want to make it a party, too.
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“Shane was one of the most intelligent, funny, kind and charismatic people to be around. Every night with him was always something to be remembered. The hard part was trying to remember the next day. He wrote some of the most romantic heartfelt songs you’ll ever get, yet was portrayed as a punk drunk. He was a genius and my main task is to do him proud.”
For the Love of Shane MacGowan is at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh from August 20 to 25
