Shane's gnashers get TV special

Movies, books, music, and all the arts go here.
Give us your recommendations and reviews.
Post Reply
User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Gob »

An hour-long documentary about a person getting dental work might seem an odd idea for a Christmas TV special, but then these aren’t just anyone’s teeth: they’re the infamous gnashers of Pogues singer Shane MacGowan.


Image

The 57-year-old is the star of Shane MacGowan: A Wreck Reborn, which chronicles the transformation of the singer’s mouth from a graveyard of long-departed fangs to a showcase for 28 gleaming new dentures on a titanium frame.

The documentary will air on Sunday night on Sky Arts. Starring alongside the Fairytale of New York singer is Darragh Mulrooney, an Irish dental surgeon who gamely took on a job he described as being as big as it gets.

Interviewed by the Independent in advance of the programme, Mulrooney agreed that the task was “the Everest of dentistry”, adding: “There was a whole team required to get to the summit.”

Even as a young man, MacGowan first gained renown with the Pogues in the 1980s, his teeth were the source of considerable awe and concern, his open singing mouth revealing an incomplete and irregular set.

Years of alcohol and drug abuse took a further toll and MacGowan’s last natural tooth disappeared about seven years ago. In 2009 he had a set of dentures made, but described them as “a botch”.

Advance photos of the new work show a row of even white teeth broken up only by a single gold tooth the singer insisted on getting.

The nine-hour procedure took place at the instigation of MacGowan’s girlfriend, Victoria Clarke. Mulrooney said he had to consider not just appearance but the potential effect on MacGowan’s distinctive rasping singing voice.

“Shane recorded most of his great works when he had some teeth to work with,” he said. “The question on everyone’s lips is how it will affect his voice. The tongue is a finely attuned muscle and it makes precise movements. We’ve effectively retuned his instrument and that will be an ongoing process.”

The new teeth have, however, already expanded his diet. The dentist added: “There was a moving moment when someone gave Shane an apple to eat … something he hadn’t done in 20 years.”
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20706
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Who?
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Lord Jim
Posts: 29716
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:44 pm
Location: TCTUTKHBDTMDITSAF

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Lord Jim »

Sounds like something to watch while listening to Leonard Cohen....
ImageImageImage

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20706
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

No, it sounds like something to avoid while listening to LC (a true talent and not some nobody with poor dental hygiene)
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Lord Jim
Posts: 29716
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:44 pm
Location: TCTUTKHBDTMDITSAF

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Lord Jim »

I can think of a few things that Lenny would make appropriate background sound for...

The Yule Log, that Danish knitting show, Andy Warhol's movie, Sleep....
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Gob »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Who?
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) is an English-born Irish musician and singer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic trad punk band the Pogues. He was also a member of the Nipple Erectors and Shane MacGowan and the Popes, as well as producing his own solo material and working on collaborations with artists such as Kirsty MacColl, Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, and Sinéad O'Connor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_MacGowan
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
Bicycle Bill
Posts: 9015
Joined: Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Surrounded by Trumptards in Rockland, WI – a small rural village in La Crosse County

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Bicycle Bill »

When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse.  I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you.  Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off.  I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons.  And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending.  And most of all, boredom.  True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy.  But they will be very, very few.  And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.
.....Newton Minow, who was chairman of the FCC at the time, in a speech delivered 9 May 1961 to the National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, DC
When you're right, you're right ... even a half-century later.
Image
-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

User avatar
Lord Jim
Posts: 29716
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:44 pm
Location: TCTUTKHBDTMDITSAF

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Lord Jim »

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Who?
What's the matter Meade, not a big follower of Celtic trad punk bands? :)
He was also a member of the Nipple Erectors
Of course, who could forget a classic group like that? 8-)
Sinéad O'Connor.
Finally a name I recognize...

The bald-headed chick who ripped up a picture of John Paul II on SNL...

Which earned her a threat of physical violence from Frank Sinatra...

There were quite a few folks who earned that threat...
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Econoline
Posts: 9555
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:25 pm
Location: DeKalb, Illinois...out amidst the corn, soybeans, and Republicans

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Econoline »

Lord Jim wrote:Finally a name I recognize...
Oh come on, Jim...I'll admit I didn't recognize the name of Kirsty MacColl without looking it up (though as an old folkie* I did immediately recognize her father's name), but surely you, like me, should find the names Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, and Steve Earle just as familiar as Sinéad O'Connor... 8-)






* PLEASE NOTE: I said "folkie", not "fogie" there.
(I may be that too, but I'm NOT admitting it at this time...) :fu
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
God @The Tweet of God

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20706
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic trad punk band the Pogues
Another violation of the English language - "best known". Oh well...
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

oldr_n_wsr
Posts: 10838
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:59 am

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by oldr_n_wsr »

The Yule Log,
Don't knock the Yule Log. Better TV has never been made. :ok

And I am with LJ on name recognition of people brought up in this thread. Skinhead Oconner is all I know.

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Gob »

Best Xmas song EVER!!!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
Long Run
Posts: 6717
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:47 pm

Re: Shane's gnashers get TV special

Post by Long Run »

Yea, no one ever said "come back, Shane" to him

except his dentist

Post Reply