Here Comes Everybody

The Story of the Pogues

By: James Fearnley

Narrated by: James Fearnley

October 1982: ABC, Culture Club, Shalamar and Survivor dominate the top twenty when the Pogues barrel out from the backstreets of King's Cross, a furious, pioneering mix of punk energy, traditional melodies and the powerfully poetic songwriting of Shane MacGowan.

Reviled by traditionalists for their frequently fast, often riotous interpretations of Irish folk songs, the Pogues rose from the sweaty chaos of backroom gigs in Camden pubs to world tours with the likes of Elvis Costello, U2 and Bob Dylan and had huge commercial success with everyone's favourite Christmas song, 'Fairytale of New York'.

Yet the exuberance of their live performances coupled with relentless touring spiralled into years of hard drinking and excess which eventually took their toll - most famously on Shane but also on the rest of the band - causing them to part ways seven years later.

Here their story is told with beauty, lyricism and great candour by James Fearnley, founding member and accordion player. He brings to life the youthful friendships, the bust-ups, the amazing gigs, the terrible gigs, the fantastic highs and the dramatic lows in a hugely compelling, humorous, moving and honest account of life in one of our most treasured and original bands.

©2012 James Fearnley (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Really?

The writer’s reading style was somewhat hard on the ears. Like walking over a rocky beach might feel on the feet. And he did come off as ungrateful for his experience as a musician in a wildly popular rock band of worldwide fame, playing the immortal songs of Shane MacGowan. And yes, we heard you: he was difficult. But why wouldn’t any of you give him a cigarette when he asked for one?

Excellent!

Wow! What a great book! Extremely well written. The narration (by the author) really makes it come to life. He changes his voice and accent for each character. I also enjoyed his use of unusually sophisticated adjectives. (I had to look up a couple:) highly recommended!

Good writing, great impersonations

This is a decent account of the band’s history, though possibly a little too kind in the scandalous details it omits? Highly recommend this in audio form so you can hear Fearnley’s impressions of his bandmates, Joe Strummer, et al

Great stories about the Pogues - told boorishly

I've been wanting to know more about the Pogues and Shane MacGowan for a while now. The websites and wiki just didnt cover the detail that I wanted to know. To start, I didn't realize they weren't a fully Irish band... Anyhoo, I never expected to read a good story about the band that didn't focus 90% on Shane... To my happiness, James Fearnley's book is exactly what I wanted to read - it covered everyone equally. It also included a musicians perspective from someone who was there... It got 4 stars from me for telling a story I wanted to hear.

Now for the bad part. I couldn't wait to be finished.. I had the misfortune of listening to this as an audiobook narrated by James Fearnley himself. His Manchester accent was REALLY hard to get used to. I honestly thought he was faking it and pretending to read the book in the style of the over-the-top tour manager in Waynes World 2...But thats the way he speaks... What made it worse is his overuse of a thesaurus and paragraph long descriptions of EVERYTHING - It made the book borderline unbearable to listen at times... I've yelled at my audible player numerous times for him to just say "pick" instead of "plectrum", or using "capitulate" instead of "surrender". The only saving grace is that I picture when his bandmates Shane, Spider or Kait read this, they would rail into him about his boorishness...

Before you decide to not read this book based on my review, just remember that I gave it 4 stars even tho I absolutely hated the pretentious way it was written and narrated. That is saying a lot... I am grateful to have read the book and heard the stories and history of the Pogues as a whole.

Fantastic rock and roll story

Written with a unique turn of phrase and a love for the English language. Well worth the read.

Well written, Funny, But definitely sad

Im glad i listened to this book...the Pogues are one of my favorite musical groups

The Pogues, For Real

As a huge Pogues (and Popes) fan, I’m surprised I hadn’t read this earlier. However, I know we experience certain things when the time is right; and this book is a grand journey.

I appreciate Fearnley’s complete involvement, and his straightforward story telling. In fact, it’s extremely refreshing to hear the story of the band (and James’ own story) from a needed voice…completely devoid of all the MacGowan idol-worship.

James writes (and speaks) from the heart, and it’s to be expected. Coming from one of the heaviest players in The Pogues story, everything is as you’d want it to be.

A pure delight to read, and certainly a triumph as a chronicle of Irish music’s finest. I loved every second.

Amazing band, great story, boring reading voice

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Everybody knows The Pogues are an amazingly interesting band, not only for their turbulent take on irish music but also for the charisma and drama of the members. It's probably very hard to write a bad book about a band like them. And indeed, James Fearnley wrote a very good book. However Fearnley's problem is not writing, but reading, which he doensn't do very well. As endearing as his Mancunian accent is, his voice would be a good treatment for insomnia if the random pauses in the middle of sentences weren't so incredibly annoying. Some chapters are better, but some feel like driving on a road full of potholes with the lights off. It's just (PAUSE) annoyng to listen to a (PAUSE) book where the narrator pauses randomly (PAUSE) in the middle of sentences for (PAUSE) no reason. You get the idea.

What other book might you compare Here Comes Everybody to and why?

Except for the problems with the reading voice however, this book ranks well among the current crop of rock memoirs, such as Crissie Hynde's, Kim Gordon's and Peter Hook's.

How could the performance have been better?

The performance could have been better if Fearnley had a more exciting voice and didn't pause all the time between words that shouldn't have a pause in between them.

Do you think Here Comes Everybody needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not really, except maybe for a Shane MacGowan memoir.