| Sundance's Fall From Grace stumbles through singer-songwriter's mad tale 16 March 2003 By JOHN WIRT jwirt@theadvocate.com Entertainment writer If I Should Fall From Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story airs at 8 p.m. Monday, March 17, on the Sundance Channel. (Cox Communications digital cable channel 202) The Sundance Channel is marking St. Patrick's Day with a severely boozy but deeply musical documentary. MTV's The Osbournes has nothing on If I Should Fall From Grace, a film that lurches through the alcohol-soaked life and career of singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan, former front man for the punk-traditional Irish music band, The Pogues. MacGowan's perhaps more famous for his drinking, drugging and horrendously decayed teeth than his music, which includes such memorable recordings as the working-class anthem "Dirty Old Town," drunk-tank romp "Fairytale of New York" and "If I Should Fall From Grace with God." Watching MacGowan is similar to viewing a never-ending train wreck in sloppy, slow motion. Director Sarah Share cuts back and forth between MacGowan's history and a rambling look at more recent activities. Along the stumbling way, the film examines his break with The Pogues and very public row with Sinéad O'Connor. "She'll do anything for publicity," he says. Sometimes the now nearly toothless MacGowan is relatively coherent; other times drink and/or drugs blend into his Irish accent to the point subtitles are needed. He emerges as a mess of a man who nevertheless is a genuine artist. The son of poor Irish parents who immigrated to England in search of work, MacGowan was destined for an unconventional life. He got in trouble at school and both he and his mother, Therese, suffered nervous breakdowns. "Shane," explains the songwriter's fireside-seated father, Maurice, "gave up the formal education system at the invitation of the establishment around 12 or so. I mean he had a happy childhood. The education didn't spoil that in any way." The son is more critical of himself as a lad than the father. "I was obviously turning into a complete scum bag," MacGowan says matter of factly. If I Should Fall From Grace contains further observations from longtime girlfriend Victoria Clarke, Pogues member Philip Chevron, fellow singer-songwriter Nick Cave and Pogues tour manager Joey Cashman. "The impression a lot of people have," Cashman says, "is Shane MacGowan, crazy guy. We were 15 crazy guys. The crew as well. We fell around the world. I don't know how we got from A to B. We were all p- drunk all of the time." In his often incomprehensible way, MacGowan himself does much of the talking. Remarkably, he's still alive to tell his own mad tale of art and excess |