The Pogues have addressed the culture wars surrounding their song ‘Fairytale Of New York’ in a new interview with NME.
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The 1987 Christmas track, which is performed by Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues frontman Shane McGowan, has been at the centre of debate in recent years due to its use of a homophobic slur f****t in its lyrics.
In 2018 McGowan defended the word, saying that it was never intended to be homophobic, though two years later BBC Radio 1 announced they would be playing a censored version in the run-up to Christmas – a move followed by BBC Radio 2 in 2022.
The decision prompted criticism from some, including Nick Cave who said that removing the word “destroys the song by deflating it right at its essential and most reckless moment, stripping it of its value.”
In 2019, actress and screenwriter Ruth Jones also faced backlash after Gavin & Stacey included the lyric in that year’s Christmas TV special. The slur occurred when Nessa (played by Jones) and Bryn performed a version of the 1987 hit.
Upon the BBC’s initial announcement that they would censor the lyric, Laurence Fox took to Twitter to criticise the broadcaster, prompting the band’s official account to hit back at him, writing: “Fuck off you little herrenvolk shite.” Herrenvolk was a concept in Nazi ideology which referred to the German people as the ‘master race’.
Now, in an interview with NME, surviving members of The Pogues, James Fearnley, Jem Finer and Spider Stacy, have weighed in on the annual debate.
When asked what the band thinks of the culture wars surrounding the track, Stacy referenced the public spat with Fox, saying: “We don’t want to be dragged into anything on behalf of people like Laurence Fox.”
He went on to say: “When the BBC announced they were censoring that lyric, I was looking at Twitter where a guy said that he loved The Pogues but every Christmas when he hears drunk blokes shouting that word in the street – when they’re singing along to ‘Fairytale of New York’ – he’s reminded of the number of times he heard it when having the shit kicked out of him at school for being gay.
“My personal point of view is that people shouldn’t have to put up with that, so I took it upon myself to say we were in agreement with the BBC’s decision. Times change and you to be more mindful of what you’re saying and when you’re saying it.”
Finer then added: “If those lines were delivered in a play, it would be different, but a song puts words into people’s mouths to drunkenly sing and they might not even realise what they’re singing, but suddenly it’s in the tube station.
“So although Shane wasn’t writing a homophobic ditty and he wasn’t homophobic in any way – he was writing a character who would have spoken like that – if it’s being played in a setting where it might be taken out of context and harm people in any way, then it’s fair enough that the word’s substituted or bleeped. We don’t have a problem with that.”
When asked if they would be singing the original lyric live, Stacy said that the band would “leave it up to the singer to make their own choice,” before adding: “Because there’s been a substitute available and I don’t know why Shane didn’t do it in the first place – which is blaggard. If he’d done that originally, we would have had a hit in America.”
They also spoke about the fan-led campaign to get the track to Number 1 for the first time, after the death of Shane MacGowan last November. Finer told us the band “weren’t bothered” about achieving the accolade, adding: “That was more of a record company thing. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Stacy went on to say: “It doesn’t need it. ‘Fairytale of New York’ not being Number One is a bit like how neither [acclaimed footballers] Johan Cruyff nor George Best won a World Cup!”
The Celtic icons recently announced their first headline tour in 13 years – and first since the passing of Shane MacGowan – which will feature the original members Fearnley, Finer and Stacy, alongside a cast of guests standing in for the late frontman.
You can read the full conversation here.
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