The rogue from The Pogues

AT MY first, brief, meeting with Shane MacGowan I found him sitting forlornly in a Dublin bar, his songwriting partner Phil having disappeared, leaving him without a penny. Making our way to a city centre nightclub, the former Pogues frontman ordered the taxi driver to stop at a cash machine and tapped me for my last 100 euros.

As we arrived at the club, Phil called my mobile to say: "Whatever you do, don’t give Shane any money - we need him back early so he can record tomorrow." This vital information arrived as MacGowan, looking like a cross between a wild Irish Teddy boy and Brendan Behan, hopped from the taxi to have a word with the club bouncers. Soon he was sitting at a VIP table in rock star sunglasses, signing autographs for fans, drinking cocktails and smoking endlessly.

I fell asleep almost as soon as I sat down in the club, the travelling having caught up with me. When I woke, Shane was explaining to a bouncer that I was with him. He then suddenly got up, hobbled to the exit and disappeared into the cold Dublin morning.

About a week later, Phil calls, saying Shane wants to talk; I seem to have passed the initiation ceremony. Eventually I get through to him, in the middle of a European tour, at about half past 12 on a Friday night. He’s in a far better mood than at our first encounter: lucid, at ease and enthusiastic about his new album.

There is also the release of a feature-length DVD of his life story. If I Should Fall From Grace gives a rare insight into the workings of MacGowan, from his childhood through to present day. Often uncompromising, the film captures the fundamental nature of this complex personality. His idyllic childhood in Ireland obviously jarred with teenage life in London, but both places are essential to his writing and his nature.

MacGowan is content with the film’s representation.

"It’s probably the best documentary about The Pogues, the music and the way things came about. It was done casually, nothing was set up. It was just Sarah Share, who directed it, a cameraman and a sound man. We all forgot they were there very quickly. The interviews are very frank - no one is being stitched up or anything."

What is obvious from the film is that the Irishness of Johnny Rotten (Rotten came from an Irish family) was as much of an influence to MacGowan as traditional Irish music. There is some fantastic raw footage of him as a teenager attending a Sex Pistols gig and performing with The Nips, who in many ways were a forerunner for The Pogues.

"I was playing with The Pogues before The Nips broke up officially. We [The Pogues] started out doing what is on the first album [Red Roses For Me]. We spent two or three years playing that first album round rock gigs, Irish centres and Irish bars until we built up a huge following. There was a huge buzz from the word go."

Although accounts differ on the break-up of The Pogues, MacGowan maintains their split was down to the musical output and especially the direction of the band’s final album, Hell’s Ditch. The band reformed for a Christmas tour of the UK and Ireland in 2001 and headlined last year’s London Fleadh.

"The reunion gigs with The Pogues - it’s nice to see old faces behind the stage and in the crowd. You get to do songs you haven’t done for a long time and it brings back a lot of memories. We sounded pretty good for a bunch of doddery old men. It was just to get it done and give people a chance to see us that never saw us.