The Pogues

The BBC Sessions 1984-1986 RHINO

Warning: may contain alcohol.

That Shane MacGowan still walks among us is a minor miracle. Few have drunk as much as the perpetually legless Pogues frontman and remained breathing, let alone upright. But the liquid muse that gave him his inspiration ultimately proved to be his creative downfall.

This 23-track compilation, taken from a series of sessions they recorded for the Beeb over the space of two and a half years, captures North London’s finest a few years before the booze started to addle their singer’s genius. Streams Of Whiskey, The Boys From The County Hell and Billy’s Bones are rough-arsed and wild, but it’s the solemn and stately Navigator, their version of Behan’s The Auld Triangle and the unbearably moving The Old Main Drag that truly capture the band’s greatness, even in these unvarnished incarnations.

There’s a little overlap with 2008’s brilliant Just Look Them Straight In The Eye And Say: Pogue Mahone! box set, although slower – and inferior – versions of songs that would later turn up on 1988’s career-capping If I Should Fall From Grace With God don’t add anything to the myth. But a half-cut Pogues are still way better than most other bands stone-cold sober. ■■■■■■■■■■