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I was talking to Tommy the other day and he told me about this web site 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