SHANE MACGOWAN: CROCK OF GOLD

Portrait of punk’s poet laureate

It was recently announced that director Julien Temple was adding subtitles to

MacGowan’s interviews during this documentary because, despite the fact he’s speaking English, his accent is hard to understand for the untrained ear. It’s a wise move because nobody would want to miss what the man nicknamed the ‘Poet Laureate of Punk’ has to say. As he’s been in the news again over the controversy surrounding some of the lyrics in Fairytale Of New York, the film is somewhat timely. It’s full of anecdotes, the most intriguing of which come from his sister Siobhan, who had him committed to a psychiatric clinic in the 1980s, and his father Maurice, who was aghast at his son’s early musical taste – apparently MacGowan developed a surprising penchant for Creedence Clearwater Revival in his youth. Amazon, iTunes & Google Play, available now