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Boozy singer Shane MacGowan is back on the straight and narrow .. with a lottle help from his friend Bono. The U2 star came to MacGowan's rescue by lending him his Martello Tower in Dublin to live in for a few months.
Two years ago MacGowan was fired from The Pogues when the band realised his drinking was affecting their performance. Now he's formed a new band called The Popes, who will play their first gig at the Fleadh in Tramore on July 4. The London-Irish rebel singer has cut down on the booze - but admits he still has a problem with the hard stuff. "I am an alcoholic," he admits. "I have had warnings from doctors who said if I didn't seriously cut down my drinking I would be dead within five, 20 or 15 years. But I have cut down my drinking. I'm very serious about that since I got warnings. In the last couple of years I've cleaned up my act a bit. I just drink wine and beer mostly, hardly any spirits."
Shane was first sent to a detox clinic when he was 17, and he spent six months in it. He was also a valium addict at the age of 16. "My longest spell off drink was for those six months. They let me out, I was cured. So what do I do but walk into a pub and start drinking again. I've been arrested several times for a variety of things. I've been arrested once in Ireland. That was for disturbing the peace at the airport. I was given the choice between a night in Mountjoy and a night in St John of Gods, so I took a night, well a few nights, in St John of Gods. I once tried to get on a plane to New York and I was refused three times on three planes because I was so drunk."
In Japan two years ago the rest of the Pogues decided to fire Shane because he had missed several gigs through drink. "Touring was getting to me", he recalls. "In Japan we went on a train from Tokyo to Osako and I drank Saki all the way and when I got off the train I fell and broke my head open and was unable to do the gig that night. Two days later they said to me it's be better if we didn't play together anymore and I agreed with them."
Shane was born in Tipperary but his parents moved to London when he was a few months old. His girlfriend of eight years, Victoria, has written a biography of US grunge rockers Nirvana. He decided to move back to Ireland earlier this year and commutes between his original homestead near Borrisocane, Tipperary and his new flat on Dublin's northside. He's signed a deal with ZTT records and his new band is a collection of musicians from Armagh and London Irish. "The new album should be out in the Winter. Our stuff is very like the early Pogues," said MacGowan