A journey down Vatican Row

Padraig Reidy talks to Popes' frontman Paul McGuinness about their new album, how the Popes are perceived and their attitude to Irish music.

Paul McGuinness likes to talk. He talks like he sings, and like his band, The Popes play; rough, raw, and passionate. Raw is a word that means a lot to the Popes.

"I think Irish music, or any roots music, sounds best when played raw," explains McGuinness. "What disgusts me when I go to Ireland these days is that a lot of the bands you hear (no names of course) are so polished, and I don't think that suits Irish music at all."

One listen to the Popes new album, Holloway Boulevard, emphatically confirms this belief. The album rattles along at a startling pace, rarely pausing for reflection as it describes a life of pills, thrills and enough alcohol for the entire world's millennium parties. But there is method in the apparent madness. The Popes are keen to stress the authenticity of their gutter glamour image.

"The music we play comes out of oppression. It's hard to create because there isn't the same kind of hardship there once was. But I think we keep that edge because the people in the band are people who rake up the ground behind them as they go forward. We're not the settle down type of people."

The music of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, and The Popes provides a unique soundtrack to the Irish emigrant experience, and this aspect is still very important to Paul McGuiness, despite the fact that emigration plays less and less of a part in Celtic Tiger culture.

"There are still more Irish people outside Ireland than in it," says McGuiness. "I worked with The Pogues for a while and I was knocked out by how big they were in Germany and places like that. It seemed Ireland was the last place to catch on."

But despite The Popes obvious reflection of the Irish experience, McGuiness is scathing of what he sees as 'plastic Paddies', the morphing of Irishness into a brand identity.

"I fuckin' hate all that thing," he says, clearly irritated by the subject. "I'd definitely see it as a hindrance to us. We've even had accusations of plastic paddiedom levelled at us, which is bollocks. We're all Irish, and we have every right to play Irish music."

The Popes have admirably stepped out of the shadow of Shane MacGowan, with whom they are currently working on a new album. There's a uniqueness to their music that mirrors the uniqueness of the Irish abroad. Whether you like it or not, and I suspect you will, The Popes provide the soundtrack to a lot of London Irish life.