| From S Niall Dublin 04/03/2004 I have never posted before. I logged on originally to get the dates of the HFC gigs then read all this and saw the petition with the statement from Maurice. For god’s sake he should know, he is Shane’s dad so he cannot have an axe to grind except his love for Shane. The situation has made me really pissed of and very sad . I want to say that Ingred needs the support of all true friends of Shane. She is doing a great job and obviously really cares about him like we all do. I’ve been a fan of The Pogues and of Shane since the mid eighties and I actually liked the Popes for a while, around the time of their Holloway Boulevard CD launch gigs. That was when McGuiness seemed like a nice guy trying to go places. The trouble now is that it has all changed so badly. Shane is in his forties and he must take responsibility for who he hangs with and who works for him but he also needs really professional support and encouragement, not a spiders web of parasitic deceit. I was in London in the Boogaloo a few weeks ago having a drink and we heard Shane telling some guy that he was looking forward to the HFC dates and working with mad Eamon Campbell. As far as he was concerned the shows were definitely on and in his diary. Me and my mates were checking Ryan Air or Easy Jet to go over . Glad we have not wasted our money but it was close. Thanks a lot Joey for another fuck up. I think Ingrid has done right and Shane should cop on to himself and suss who are the people who really care about him. He should listen to his family and the people who actually tell him the truth, who know him and care about him rather than the creeps who live off him and seem to tell him what he wants to hear to keep him sweet for the next sting It really is not Rocket Science to suss what is going on. I’ve been watching and hearing things from guys who have played with Shane and people who know him well. Some cannot say things in public for various reasons. It is so obvious. Shane is an Irish National Treasure he needs protection. He should have proper management. Bono has the real first division, Paul McGuinness, clean, cool, well organised. Shane gets the seedy comedy crew. There is Cashman the weasel .A latter day Fagin. He’d lie and cheat and sell his sister to his dealer to get what he wants. I’ve watched the obnoxious shit in pubs and at gigs from the time before they lived in Gospel Oak. He has no respect for us fans. He has trapped his golden goose that he can live off, by doing as little as he can and caring even less, to keep Shane in his web and himself sorted. It is such a cosy little coven . Cashman and McGuinness and Sarge all mates from when they were in some crap band in Dublin, now morphed into Joey’s little team. McGuinness , who now seems out of it almost as much as Cashman and is obviously doing a lot more substance than a bit of weed to make him so aggressive. He is the enforcer. The bully boy to the band, if they moan about not getting paid. He will deck them or roar at them if they complain and he controls all their money. Sarge shits himself when Paul goes off on one. Paul is the worst guitarist this side of Bert Weedon, yet thinks he is the leader of the band. He now has delusions that he is some kind of rock hero, seeing himself as a Geldof or an Irish Springsteen, with his dreadful dirge like songs that he does at Popes gigs. It is just pathetic. He even fired Mick the last box player, when it is supposed to be Shane’s band and drove out Kieron the one before. Cashman of course did not object as he and McGuinness need each other for their little Tottenham side business, which unknown to Shane is financed with his money. Bugger the music and the sound of the band. Joey could not give a toss.McGuinness did care once and did seem to work hard to keep it together but not any more. Now he resents Shane and is jealous of him but stays for the money and like Joey could do nothing else without hanging on to Shane’s talent. To help Cashman, McGuinesss roped in his friend Liz Lenten to take messages for Joey again paid for by Shane. That way he knows all Shane’s business before Shane ever does and he can intercept anything that might do good for Shane that does not include the Popes. Then he gets the Pope’s agent Nigel, who could not get arrested with Popes gigs on their own, to book all Shane’s gigs. He is on the gravy train too. That man who posted earlier was right CASH MAN & MONEY PENNY, a pattern emerges. Wake up Shano ! I could not believe the two letters they posted asking Ingred for an apology. Liz sounded like she had a part time job working for Alaisdair Campbell, her letter was worthy of that spin woman, who wanted to release government bad news on Sept. 11, and Moreton’s was like something from Stephen Byers. Their combined stance in defending their position was a bigger whitewash than the Hutton crap. Think about it . Here you have it, two people working for Cashman, who have hardly ever even met Shane in their sad lives (if at all), caring about him less and knowing him not at all, have the smug effrontery to ask us, the loyal fans that buy the CDS and support the gigs, to believe that everything in their cosy team is wonderful. Ingred is interfering, sure . They are doing a great job ?. Yeah right. Fuck off .. dream on.! We are not complete eejits. Of course there have been no cancelled shows or late shows or crap shows, we know that. What planet are they on. Yes Shane goes Jogging before breakfast .Oh yes of course how silly of me not to know that too ! Ask any new band that reads Hot Press, NME or any daft pubescent girl trying to make it on Pop Idol, they’ll tell you and they are so right. All the big successful bands are managed properly, with respect and integrity out of London, Dublin or New York. But wait what does our special Irish Treasure , Shane MacGowan get ? Go on.... wait for it lads ! He gets a cheating junkie crack addict manager of no fixed abode, who lives entirely in hotel rooms paid for by Shane himself. He gets a half deaf sycophantic sound engineer. He gets a part time admin. office based in some cabbage patch in Lincolnshire, run by a failed rock singing housewife and to top it all an agent in frigging Yorkshire, called ‘NIGEL’ ( Nigel I ask you !!!) Say no more. Is this some bad hallucinogenic dream ? Did Steve Coogan put this team of jokers together ? Now you wonder why there is confusion. Oh give us a break. Then the fools talk about Joey consulting his diary and approving things. Has Liz ever spent more than five minutes with Joey. His diary ! Do me a favour. I’ve seen him in pubs. He was staying in one in Archway not long back. When he is not locked in a DVD for 24 hours a day he may temporarily emerge for business. Shane will have had a shout, so to try to impress, Joey will come out in daylight with a note book, that looks like the dug up dead sea scrolls and which you know will be left with the previous 400 versions of the same thing, in the back of the next taxi he rides in, paid for by Shane. (Like Taxi from Finsbury Park to Glasgow ..it is true). Most of the time he does not know where he is, so how the fuck can he know where Shane is supposed to be or keep his little ‘team’ informed. He can’t actually work a PC, only a video player, so how can he do e-mail or go on line. There is only one meaning of ‘on line’ in Joey’s world. As for an artiste career strategy, he is as likely to achieve that as brain surgery. ‘Oh no’ you say. This cannot be true but it is. This accurate little scenario (trust me) is why Ingred gets duff information if she gets any at all. That is why she is so right to pull the gigs from the site. Just who are Nigel and Liz trying to kid. It is so unfunny. They will do anything to hang on to their nice little income source and keep Shane on the treadmill. Career plan I don’t think so. Shane is a real and very special talent. He needs true professional help in all departments of his life, provided by people whom he can really trust and who care about him. He needs to be in an environment that is creatively conducive, secure in the knowledge that in future he will actually receive the full financial rewards from his endeavours. Right now he is being poisoned with lies and deceptions and is being robbed blind by a third rate team of losers and wankers. Attempts by professionals in the back ground, like respected accountants, or situations like HFC, that might provide a new creative stimulus are dissed, scuppered and sabotaged by Joey and his crew. Anything new and tight would threaten their little game. Shane is constantly fed with lies so he believes Joey when he tells him that this person or that is stealing the money. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, he stays where he is, afraid to know where to turn. Joey even sleeps in the same cess pit room as Shane so he can intercept all calls from anybody decent trying to help Shane. If you really care about Shane or the legend of the Pogues, support Ingred, Shane’s family and his close friends now, in their efforts to stop this rot before it really does end in tragedy. Fans posting support for Joey, stop being so naive. Just check the facts and realise what is going on. Shane needs all our encouragement and support and a clean sweep of the Cashman regime, so once again he can create great music and perform at great shows for us all. Shane needs to wake up and fuck them all out of it. Then he can find a new support team of professionals to help him get back up there where he belongs as a creative Irish legend. S Niall |
| Danny "POPE" Heatley SHEPHERDS BUSH, LONDON, dannyjheatley@hotmail.com 06/03/2004 As those of you who have followed Shane's career closely over the years know,I was associated with Shane as a musician from the latter days of the Pogues, when I stood in for the great drummer Andy Rankin on a tour of Europe, and I played on "the Snake" AND "Crock of Gold" albums.During that time, I found Cashman to be at best inept, and at worst a LIAR.If you were at the Liverpool gig or the Newcastle gig on the Crock of Gold tour,when he got Shane to those gigs 2 hours late on stage,you will understand where I'm coming from. Of all the cities in England,to be so dis-respectfull, the Liverpool show was the beginning of the end for me personally.WHY? Cashman had the audacity to come on stage and LIE to the audience, that the reason for their late arrival was that Virgin Trains had been badly delayed and there would be "a few quid off ticket prices next time round" What a joke...in fact they were seen in the Adelphi Hotel at around four- thirty that afternoon...I could not believe my ears...After the humiliation of bieng covered in beer, spit and christ knows what else,by the way, that is about the only time Cashkeeperman was NOT doing his utmost to get on the stage-you know-his pathetic lighting of Shanes cigarettes, we only had enough time to play a 35 minute set.To add insult to injury, Shane managed to whack some poor guy round the head with his mic stand,resulting in a serious head wound...he spent the night in the tank for that...after the "show" I confronted Cashman and his responce was such that I threw my sweaty drummers towel in his skinny face.He jumped up, grabbed a beer bottle, tried to break it and came at me. I was on him in a flash, raining blows from all angles,only for Bob Dowling and Tommy McMannamon to leap in and pull me off him.Shame. The following January,after performing on VH1, the Late Late Show, and shooting a video for a single, I was told by Cashman I would not be getting paid for that work."What!!!? Why?" I asked...His reply was that Shane had no money!!!What a joke!!! If it had been mentioned before, maybe I could have swallowed it, but to say nothing tasted highly suspect.I got straight on the blower to Shane and argued my point...nothing was said about a lack of money, and as an independant musician, not signed to Shanes record label, I expected payment.I had a hungry six month old son to feed,and as I had kept myself available to Shane as a drummer I took no other work. "Ok OK" said Shane, "come over now". I arrived at Shanes place in Gospel Oak within the hour, to be greetwd by one of the saddest sights I've ever seen.After about 20 minutes, Shane answered the door in a terrible state,& I've seen him in some bad states, believe me! There was food and puke all down his front, and his clothes were full of burn holes.Inside was a chair where had been for days -sitting,eating,sleeping,drinking,drugging,smoking and stinking.To say I was shocked would be an understatement. He invited me to sit down, I declined and asked for what I was owed."All right,all right, but don't tell the others!" he said.I thought, you crafty old bastard, and held out my blistered hand. He rummaged around the pile of empty and half full pill and Martini bottles & thrust £600 at me. " I'll send you a cheque to cover the rest" he spluttered and said AGAIN..."do NOT tell the others" I took what I was owed and left with a bad taste in my mouth. I heard nothing from anyone for weeks,untill my friend Laurence from Liverpool called me to say they had been using a different drummer. After seven years loyalty, I had been sacked without being told, and to make matters worse Shane told the other band members that I had said "fuck the band" when he had said he couldnt pay THEM!!!In spite of all this, I was still asked back to bail out the band when the 3rd drummer after me broke his arm trying to keep up with the "BEAST" Tommy, during a mammoth Jack Daniels session... I duly obliged and showed em all what they had been missing, but things were never quite the same.Sad. I went to see the guys play a xmas gig at the Astoria in London, where Cashman did his best to make me feel uncomfortable at every oppertunity. Well, fuck you Cashkeeperman, the tide is turning, and you've been sussed. I still have the greatest respect for Shane, he has a great family and is a TRULEY TALENTED song writer...its about time he woke up and smelled the coffee and got rid of that LEECH before he is dragged down to meet the "Rake at the gates of hell" feel free to mail me at dannyjheatley@hotmail.com if you want! cheers and thanx for all the GREAT times around the world.... |
| Mick O'Connell , London 18/03/2004 I was talking to Tommy the other day and he told me about this web site < Paddy Rolling Stone > so I have just checked it out. I think it is brilliant.Fair play to Ingrid and Maurice for doing it and to Danny for coming out and telling the truth as well as all the other stuff about Cashman that has be sent in. Jake asked for more ex band members to tell the fans what it was like so here is what I think . All that about the crap that is going on and the lies that Shane gets told well what they have said is all true. I should bloody know I was in the friggin band. I joined the Popes to play the box around the end of 1999 and was with them until I had a bust up with Paul, the summer before last because I refused to pay for an air ticket for Bob who had missed a flight to do a Popes only gig. I'd had enough. McGuinness threw the head and went fuckin crazy but it was his own fault for trying to organise a snide wedding gig in Scotland by himself. I respect Shane and like him and he knows that. I've talked to him since on the phone and I also know he liked the music Tommy and I were playing together with the band. We were the only ones playing any proper Irish music in the band and apart from Shane we were the only one's with any real clue about the tunes. Tommy and I can really play unlike some in the band. Shane did not even know I had gone or why I had gone. They told him I had left and let him down . That was not true. I never had any problem with Shane but that Cashman- McGuinness scene is crap. Paul runs that band for Joey like it is his own when it should be Shane who decides who is in or out. Cashman then tells shite to Shane who believes him. I have done tours of America as well as loads of Irish and European dates and I am still waiting to be paid, I am owed thousands. I have been trying to get hold of Joey for ages but he just disappears and wont ever call me back. I'd love to get my hands on the scheming bastard. When I joined it was just as they were finishin the Holloway Boulevard album. Tommy knew me and got me to rehearsals in his pub in Camden. Paul had been making their album before I was involved but he owed Liz money for her studio so Paul got Mick McDonagh in to sort it out. He got the record deal together with Snapper, with an advance to pay the studio and he got a publishing deal with and and money up front for all the Popes. It was going well .We had that great day to launch the album doing all the pubs in one day. We went to America as well. Paul was Ok then and we all seemed to be working well together, it was a laugh we were enjoying it and the Pope's side of things seemed to me well organsised when I started. Shane was doing fuck all around that time and he had hardly any gigs. They had no Paddy's day gig that year and no Fleadh or other festivals it was a waste of time as we kept holding dates for Shane then nothing would happen. Cashman was doing nothing at all and I think Shane was getting really pissed off so they asked Mick to get a record deal for Shane. He got Eagle involved and organised the American trip and the recordings in New York. As far as I was concerned he was doing all the work for both the Popes and Shane, he organised all the flights and gigs and our work permits. It was all sound and he always made sure we got paid and we had a printed sheet to tell us where we were going with hotels and stuff booked up front. I never knew him before but Tommy had worked with him with McNally and said if I needed to know antything to call him. It was always sound and I knew where I stood. The big fuck ups came in America when Cashman arrived and took all the money so apart from the money for the record we never did get paid properly. We got back and Joey stayed in America with the money. I know Mick did his best to put a plan together for Shane he set up Irish dates and some other gigs that year. We recorded the Olympia after Paddy's day got moved and then we all went down to a studio in Bantry, that Mick knew to fix and mix the Live Album. That was great and we were well looked after by Andy the engineer and his missus. Paul and Bob were giving Tom a bad time though for doing something with Shane on his own. We did the Christmas gigs in Dublin that year and the LATE LATE with Shane's ma. Mick organised all that as Joey had just disappeared for a while and he came in dead late from London that night of the Olympia. It was all OK , apart from Joey, but it seemed to be working and we all knew where we were going. We were supposed to tour to promote the live album in Ireland in the spring then in America for Paddy's day but Joey fucked all that up. Our Live album eventually came out really well but it got beaten to the shops by that bootleg Pogues album. I heard that the record company went mad. Joey had said he knew nothing about it but I found out that he had done his own deal for that album to get some money in on the side and he knew it was coming out. He ballsed up Shane's new record deal and could not give a shite. There was a good bloke called Mike from Eagle who nearly lost his job over it. We then missed going to America for Paddy's day as Joey had not made the calls to firm the dates that Mick had fixed for him with the American agent so the tour was put off till May. That meant that the American record company were fucked off as well. They had loads of promotion set up to promote the album around Paddy's Day in New York with a big gig. They had to cancel and it all and it meant that we had no real dates for Paddy's day and almost everything had gone when Paul scrabbled around to get some last minute stuff together to fill in. We were all really pissed off but Joey told Shane that we had not gone to America in March as our visa's had not come through. That was bollox I know for a fact Mick had collected my passport from me in Chiswick around Christmas well early but he could not put the visa stuff in until the dates had been signed by Joey. The dates were falling out in America as Joey did not get around to dealing with it. We eventually went to America in May as Mick had finally got all the visa's together and some of the dates re-scheduled. After Sept 11 it was really touch and go and I heard him on the mobile at one ogig in London talking to someone in America to try to get bloody Senator Kennedy involved to help sort out the mess Cashman had caused. When we did go to America that May it could still have been a good tour except Joey decided to stay in Boston and fly up with Shane instead of going on the tour bus with us. He just stayed in Boston so we had to face the fucking promoters in Toronto , Detroit and Chicago when he and Shane did not show up. It was a disaster especially as Joey was supposed to give us money in Toronto. I knew then that it was all going to shit and that it would never go anywhere with Joey around. All the band and Sarge were really pissed off. At the end of the tour as always Cashman snatched all cash again so we were treated like shit again. I don't think Shane knows we were not paid. After that it all started to fall apart .Paul got really shitty and full of himself and I know he had a go at Tommy and upset him after I had gone.I heard he whacked Bob on the plane back from Australia. Mick got Eagle to put up more money for studio album but that has been going on for ages with loads more crap from Joey .They were in a studio in Dublin and wrecked an apartment that had to be sorted out by the record company and we did some stuff in Wood Green that never came to anything and from what I hear they have been in other studios but it just ends up with Paul doing his stuff with Joey causing shit. The last few gigs I did were some Festivals in Europe it was just more trouble and shite with Joey missing planes and us all being stuck facing the promoters and getting the shit waiting for them to show up. It was so embarrasing facing decent people who had put a lot of work in. Joey would always snatch the money give a bit to Paul or Sarge to give some to us but he would always vanish with our full money so we never get paid. Tommy is owed money and I am sure the others are as well. I don't know about Paul he seems to have a special thing with Joey, if he was owed money he' rip his fuckin head off. I would have never have problems playing with Shane again but for only for him not the Popes with the set up as it is. That letter from Ingrid is dead on . Shane needs people around his business that don't do drugs and drink that just do a professional job and treat the band with respect and he needs good people backing his songs . I hate to say it but I think Shane's career is bollocked as long as Cashman is around. If I could get my hands round his throat I'd squeeze my money from the fucker and might do Shane a good turn. Where is my money Cashman if you read this? Mick O'Connell |
| Irish Daily Mirror (01/04/2004): FALL OF A LEGEND Out of control - Shane is surrounded by hard drugs - Family fear for his life - Pals want manager fired By DAMIEN LANE Hellraiser Shane MacGowan is on a downward spiral to a hard drugs hell, friends fear. They claim he is back on a slippery slope to self-destruction and his music career is in tatters. A close friend revealed: "Drugs are all around him. He is in a rut and needs to get out of it. If he is to survive he must rediscover his first love, music." Last night his dad Maurice, who lives in Tipperary, urged his son - once arrested for heroin possession - to turn his back on his seedy lifestyle. He begged Shane - famed as much for his hard-drinking lifestyle as his chart success - to dump his manager, Joey Cashman, who he believes is doing nothing for the career of the man considered by many to be Ireland's greatest ever songwriter. Heartbroken Maurice said: "Shane is stuck in an unsavoury circle. Music is not the main interest with that lot. "I can't hold anyone else responsible for his health. It's in his own hands. I would like to see him out of that circle. It would help Shane by giving him a fresh start. "It would be the best thing he could do. And good for the others too." The latest concerns for Shane's health come five years after Irish singer Sinead O'Connor contacted British police, fearing he was killing himself though heroin abuse. At the time, O'Connor said: "I love Shane and it makes me angry to see him destroying himself selfishly in front of those who love him. His illness has been a gimmick for too long. While he has every right to kill himself if he wishes, we that love him have every right to stop him. It wasn't about grassing. I went to the police out of concern for his life. Detectives later raided his home and allegedly found him slumped unconscious in a chair. Shane claims to have been an alcoholic since the age of 14, and once told a journalist that he took up to 50 tabs of acid a day. He joined the Popes in 1991 after being asked to leave the Pogues because of the amount of drink and drugs he was taking. Last week former Popes member, box player Mick O'Connell, further fuelled the controversy over Shane's lifestyle. He told the Shane MacGowan website: "I respect Shane and like him and he knows that. I never had any problem with Shane. "Shane needs people around his business that don't do drugs and drink, just do a professional job and treat the band with respect." Dad Maurice is spearheading a petition urging Shane to ditch manager Cashman so he can rebuild his career. So far more than 2,100 fans, including singers Damien Dempsey and Eamonn Campbell of the Dubliners, have signed up. MacGowan's sister Siobhan, also a singer, also approves. Dad Maurice said: "The numbers signing are increasing all the time. We are good mates, me and Shane. This petition has nothing to do with our personal relationship. This is a business matter. "Shane is now at best a middle-ranking artist, and declining all the time, when he should be up there with the majors. "He still has the huge talent that brought him fame. It just needs to be unlocked and a fresh start with a new set-up might be the key." The fans revolted against Shane's management following the last- minute cancellations of gigs last June in Holland and Belgium. Fans blamed Cashman for calling off the gigs, which would have included a collaboration between Shane, Ronnie Drew, Eamon Campbell and former Pogue Terry Woods. Maurice added: "The disastrous decision to cancel the dates, approximately two weeks after confirmation by Shane personally, is symptomatic of weaknesses in the current set-up, such as financial control and gig management. "The fans went mad. As long as Shane remains with his current management his career will continue to decline." Shane's fans are also unhappy at being kept waiting for up to two hours for him to come onstage at gigs. They also say there is insufficient information about his touring dates due to lack of communication between management and the official website. The petition - which is on the website www.shanemacgowan.com - says: "There are times when we have felt ripped off. Yet, we have continued to support you. We now feel that things have gone too far. "Many fans have stopped attending your shows. The pattern is destined to continue unless something changes. "It's up to you Shane. Please get the management your undoubted talent deserves." Other fans say Shane has only himself to blame for his current predicament and that blame should not be heaped on Cashman's shoulders. Some are also unhappy at the drunken state in which he appears for gigs. One fan wrote on the website: "Shane is very unprofessional, undependable. "It's not all down to Joey. People who say Shane's got what he deserves may not be too far off." Cashman has managed Shane since the early 80s. When he left the Pogues in 1991, he helped him launch a solo career. Yesterday, repeated efforts to contact Joey Cashman by telephone failed. We also tried to talk to Cashman and Shane at the Hilton Kensington Hotel on Holland Park Avenue in West London. Cashman is booked in there, but neither he nor Shane were available for comment when a reporter called around. The only response to the controversy from Shane's management came last week when his organisation issued a statement to Hotpress magazine. It read: "There has been some vindictive campaign circulating in the press and on the internet, from some misinformed and disgruntled people, calling themselves fans, trying to persuade Shane to sack his long-term manager and friend Joey Cashman. They have about as much chance of making this happen as they have of Shane replacing Bryan McFadden in Westlife! One of the reasons that Shane and Joey have worked together for so many years is that Shane can trust Joey implicitly to have his best interests at heart. Above all, they are lifelong friends. To put the record straight, there have been no cancellations whatsoever of live dates that have been arranged by Joey and his organisation. The 'fans', as they call themselves, who are trying to sabotage his shows are failing miserably. The last tour has been a sell-out! Shane's real fans are still right behind him and thrilled that he is doing so much at the moment. Shane will be talking to the press in person about this once he has completed his next batch of shows, and he is not happy about it!" |