Spider Stacy perfected his trade as a musician at the epicentre of punk rock London’s creative crucible in the 1980s as a founding member of The Pogues. Their frenetic, rousing anthems and bittersweet ballads propelled the band to international success, with a measure of noise and confusion along the way.
Led by occasionally wayward singer and warrior poet Shane MacGowan, the celtic collective tore up the rule book with a distinctively raucous approach to trad music, and more than a few other rules were broken along the way.
Stacy was one of the principle forces within the group, sometime front man and tin whistle player.
The Pogues have become an unlikely part of the British musical establishment with their song Fairytale of New York and their occasional Christmas tours becoming traditional elements of the festive season. There’s been notable summer festival appearances too, bringing their music to a new stage.
The band’s most recent collaboration has been a new Irish whiskey.
The Pogues have a particular affinity with Glasgow.
We caught up with Spider Stacy to talk about music, whiskey and the Barrowland Ballroom.
Glasgowist: Hi Spider, what are you up to?
Spider Stacy: I’m just sitting here in the local coffee shop, a couple of blocks away from where we live in New Orleans.
How did the New Orleans thing come about?
We played here with the band in 2009. I think there were a few times we played here before that in the early 90s and I’ve always really liked the city but I just sort of fell in love with it. We came back the following March and ended up just buying a house basically. It just seemed like a total no-brainer.
What’s the music scene like there?
I both am and am not tapped into what’s going on here. I play with a band called the Lost Bayou Ramblers. I play Pogues songs with them for a thing we call Poguetry in Motion. The Ramblers are a seriously good band. Strictly speaking they are not from around here, they are from the region around La Fayette.
Was that a chance to come at some of the songs from a different angle as they have different influences?
They are rooted in this Cajun stream of sound and it kind of fits with The Pogues stream [laughs].
I was thinking about Pogues shows. How would you describe a Pogues gig to someone who has never seen the band perform live?
Oh, Jesus. [Pauses] It’s a funny question to be asked now in 2016, to be honest. It’s mayhem really.
It’s all the best aspects of being behind the goal at a football match when your team just keeps on scoring, but with none of the aggro. Everyone’s kind of surfing along on this wave of exultation.
It’s a euphoric atmosphere.. with an element of organised chaos maybe..
Barely organised chaos. But with no ugliness.
You as a tin whistle player – I mean, it’s not really the weapon of choice for most musicians, how did you end up picking up a tin whistle and make that into a career?
When the band started the idea was me and Shane [MacGowan] would share singing duties. But I couldn’t really sing in those days. I just didn’t have the confidence or the knowledge, I suppose. Shane suggested the whistle and it seems like it would be easy, which actually just goes to show how easy it is to underestimate things.
Accidentally then, it did contribute to what gave The Pogues a distinctive sound.
It was a happy accident, certainly from my point of view yeah. Hopefully from The Pogues point of view as well.
I would suggest Glasgow is one of the cities that had a special relationship with The Pogues during their touring days. What are your memories of playing here?
The first time we went to Glasgow we played the Queen Margaret’s Union. It would have been 1985, I would say. We were pretty apprehensive. Glasgow audiences had a reputation. We knew they would let you know what they think about you. If they didn’t like you, you were going to know about that. What we hadn’t actually really prepared for is what happens when Glasgow audiences do like you. Which is what happened, they liked us from the off and it was brilliant, a really good night. People were running around with beer trays, whacking each other on the head, it sounds violent but it really wasn’t, they were just having a laugh and there was just this atmosphere of complete mayhem from the crowd. Then, that was almost lightweight compared to what happened the first time we played at The Barrowlands. It just set the tone, absolutely nailed it.
Spider Stacy at work on stage.
The Barrowlands is probably our favourite venue as music fans, what’s it like from a musician’s point of view?
It’s definitely the best venue I’ve ever played. The best audience. I don’t know why The Pogues never went back to it. I feel bad about that. That was our spiritual home really. I think more so than Brixton Academy which kind of became our spiritual home the more times we played there. But the Barrowlands is a very, very special place for us.
It’s interesting for a performer I suppose because when a Glasgow audience is in full voice it is almost like a collegial experience where you are basically backed-up by hundreds of Scottish folk whether you like it or not..
It’s extraordinary. That’s kind of what I was thinking about when you said earlier “what’s a Pogues gig like?”. The football analogy really holds, it was like that at the Barrowlands. It was like a Celtic match where the team kept scoring. I say that because there was always a Celtic element to the crowd and an Irish element to the music but overall it was about good humour and euphoria.
It’s probably not a great surprise that the music of The Pogues resonated with Glasgow audiences. One of the things I found really interesting in going to your gigs in other places is the full spectrum of people from all different backgrounds and age groups who could connect with the music.
That’s always been the case and we’ve seen that wherever we go. Specifically with Barrowlands audiences by the way, I would see people there that I know are Rangers fans or have all kinds of different interests. We’re a broad church.
Let’s talk whiskey. How did The Pogues end up with their own brand?
The distillery came to us a couple of years ago now and it seemed like such a startlingly obvious idea. A bit like The Pogues themselves in a way I suppose. The Pogues whiskey is a totally natural fit. Their credentials as a distillery are impeccable. Independent, from West Cork, stuck out there near Skibereen. I don’t think we could wish for a better match up really. I’m really pleased that they came up with the idea. I don’t think we would have, despite the fact it now seems so obvious.
Some of your better albums could probably be described as whiskey-soaked…
Whiskey-soaked in their feeling, in their ethos. Not necessarily in their creation… Although whiskey-soaked is a pretty good way of describing them.
Considering the day today, I was wondering if you have any particular memories of St. Patrick’s Day shows?
One of the first times the band left London, we played Wolverhampton Civic Hall and we got a bus up from London. We hired a coach and took a bunch of our fans, so we would have an audience but there was actually a decent crowd there. That was memorable. Actually ended up a bit of a shambles… [laughs]
Before I let you get on with your coffee, what would you recommend for a St. Patrick’s Day playlist? Irish bands you admire?
For me it would be solid Dubliners. The Dubliners I’d liked since I was about 15 or 16. There was a friend of mine who loved their music, he got me into them – he wasn’t Irish actually, he was half-English, half-Swiss. It was an unusual band for someone his age to like at that time. Then I met Shane who was a big fan again. It’s the voices I love. Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew with Barney McKenna on the banjo. Brilliant.
Buy The Pogues: In Paris – 30th Anniversary Concert at The Olympia. Follow @spiderstacy on Twitter.
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