Customer Rating:  
Summary: For Fans Only
Comment: I love the Pogues but there's a reason most of this stuff was never released. There's a few great tracks on here but I doubt I'll listen to most of it ever again. This is certainly for fans only.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must!
Comment: This was orginally concieved as a teasure chest by Phil Chevon! And thats exactly what it is!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Very Good, The Very Bad and The Very Ugly.
Comment: Their is a time in the career of most bands whom started playing over twenty five years ago when a desire for product means that the archive is dusted down for a set of demos and outtakes which generally detract from rather than add to the majesty of the band. Not so here, this is no Curates Egg but rather a Treasure Trove of material.
Neither `Red Roses for Me' nor `Rum, Sodomy and the Lash' yielded any outtakes but most of the vocal tracks are represented here with either demo, radio session or live versions. The `Pogetry in Motion' e.p. had had a further song, `Do you Believe in Magic?' which although you can see why it wouldn't displace any of the songs that made the final cut is still a great addition to any Pogues album. Also from these early sessions are three demos for `Fairytale of New York' which shows us it in various stages of its ragged glory before the final classic was to emerge.
The full Pogues contribution to the `Sid and Nancy' soundtrack is contained here and although most of it is score both the single and demo versions of `Haunted' and songs, `Glued Up and Speeding' and `Hot Dogs', neither of which made the soundtrack album, make this collection a must have for all Pogues fans. The `Straight to Hell' soundtrack is left to the recent expanded re-issue (except for the un-used version of `The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' which is marred by what appears to be a drum machine and some samples from the Sergio Leone classic) but other soundtrack contributions `Garbo', the un-used `Something Wild' and the Pogues backing Joe Strummer on `Afro-Cuban Be-Bop' are again must have recordings.
That the Pogues recording of `Maggie May' is included here justifies the price of admission alone and the other outtakes from `If I should Fall from Grace with God', `The Kerry Polka', `NW3', `Driving Through the City', `The Balinalee' and `Nicaragua Libre' although not good enough to grace that album could have replaced the bulk of `Peace and Love' which never made the grade.
The return to form album `Hell's Ditch' had so many great outtakes it beggars belief that the band sacked Shane when they could have made him a Dennis Wilson figure whom didn't tour with them. The original demos for `The Donegal Express', `Victoria' and `Aisling' which eventually appeared on Shane's solo LP `The Snake' are here but also other gems such as `Eve of Destruction', `The Travelling People', `The Last of McGee', `The Black Dogs Ditch', `Murder' and `Pinned Down' are so good you can't believe anyone would want to change this set up.
Other pieces of note are the band backing Steve Earle and Kirsty MacColl on their records and the band touring with Joe Strummer and playing The Clash classics `London Calling' and `I Fought the Law' as well as their own `Turkish Song of the Damned'. The demo's for the two albums and a projected third they made after the departure of Shane MacGowan are as bad as you probably imagine but at least 4/5th's of this collection is fantastic.
So should anyone tell you this collection isn't worth listening to just look them in the eye and say ... Pogue Mahone.
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