Raise a farewell toast for Shane MacGowan, one of rock’s most fiendishly brilliant growlers, snarlers, songwriters, storytellers, and blackguards. Shane was the resident Celt-punk genius of The Pogues, one of the great Irish bards of his or any other era, which is why the world is mourning his death on Thursday. But Shane’s demise has been predicted so many times, over 65 years of hard living, it’s bizarrely shocking that the end has finally come. Hell, in one of his best-loved songs, “The Sick Bed of Cuchulain,” he interrupts his own funeral,...
- 12/1/2023
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
Penn said “We’d have been better served talking to a wall” than talking to Russia.
Sean Penn launched a scathing critique of Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Berlin today (Saturday 18), calling him a “creepy little bully” and a “war criminal”.
Speaking at the press conference for his documentary Superpower, which debuted as a Berlinale Special Gala last night, Penn was asked what he likes and does not like about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is a major subject of the film.
“I don’t like a creepy little bully threatening him [Zelensky] and his country,” said Penn. “I do like...
Sean Penn launched a scathing critique of Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Berlin today (Saturday 18), calling him a “creepy little bully” and a “war criminal”.
Speaking at the press conference for his documentary Superpower, which debuted as a Berlinale Special Gala last night, Penn was asked what he likes and does not like about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is a major subject of the film.
“I don’t like a creepy little bully threatening him [Zelensky] and his country,” said Penn. “I do like...
- 2/18/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Writing the biography of the man best known for marrying traditional Irish music with British punk — a sound once described by concertina player Noel Hill of the band Planxty as a “terrible abortion” of Irish music — was never going to be easy. To further complicate the matter, Shane MacGowan’s hatred of interviews is almost as notorious as his long and sophisticated affair with drugs and alcohol. Such is punk.
When it comes to the story of MacGowan’s life, it has never been about “just the facts.” However, an attempt has now been made.
When it comes to the story of MacGowan’s life, it has never been about “just the facts.” However, an attempt has now been made.
- 11/15/2021
- by Caine O'Rear
- Rollingstone.com
One of the most memorable and disturbing evenings in my extensive concert-going career came in the early 2000s at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles when The Pogues came to L.A. on a reunion tour with Shane MacGowan, the lead singer they’d fired more than a decade earlier for his unreliability and substance abuse. MacGowan was a mess, leaving the stage for stretches of the concert and barely able to croak his way through the songs in what seemed to be an alcohol- or drug-induced haze — and yet the audience responded deliriously to every slurred word and cheered even louder for every stumble and slur.
Was it a concert or a sideshow? Was the audience so besotted with the beautiful-loser myth that it gloried in the damage MacGowan had done to himself and loved him more because he was such a disaster? Or were they on his side,...
Was it a concert or a sideshow? Was the audience so besotted with the beautiful-loser myth that it gloried in the damage MacGowan had done to himself and loved him more because he was such a disaster? Or were they on his side,...
- 12/1/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, let us raise a dirty glass to the spirit of Irish music, wherever in the world it shows up. And like the Irish people themselves, Irish music shows up everywhere, usually a few moments after the bottles get opened. There’s always been plenty of great music on the island, but the really staggering part (apart from all the staggering) is how far that music travels, following the immigrant experience.
You can hear the Celtic heartbeat all over Europe and America, from Bing Crosby to Jack White,...
You can hear the Celtic heartbeat all over Europe and America, from Bing Crosby to Jack White,...
- 3/17/2020
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
Niall Toibin, the Irish veteran of stage and screen who appeared in films directed by David Lean, Ron Howard and Joel Schumacher, died Wednesday in Dublin. He was 89.
Toibin starred as famed Irish writer Brendan Behan in a 1967 stage version of Behan's Borstal Boy at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and shared a Drama Desk Award for his performance after it moved to Broadway in 1970 and won the Tony for best play. It was a role he returned to in seven other productions during his long career.
Toibin also appeared for Lean in Ryan's Daughter ...
Toibin starred as famed Irish writer Brendan Behan in a 1967 stage version of Behan's Borstal Boy at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and shared a Drama Desk Award for his performance after it moved to Broadway in 1970 and won the Tony for best play. It was a role he returned to in seven other productions during his long career.
Toibin also appeared for Lean in Ryan's Daughter ...
- 11/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Niall Toibin, the Irish veteran of stage and screen who appeared in films directed by David Lean, Ron Howard and Joel Schumacher, died Wednesday in Dublin. He was 89.
Toibin starred as famed Irish writer Brendan Behan in a 1967 stage version of Behan's Borstal Boy at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and shared a Drama Desk Award for his performance after it moved to Broadway in 1970 and won the Tony for best play. It was a role he returned to in seven other productions during his long career.
Toibin also appeared for Lean in Ryan's Daughter ...
Toibin starred as famed Irish writer Brendan Behan in a 1967 stage version of Behan's Borstal Boy at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and shared a Drama Desk Award for his performance after it moved to Broadway in 1970 and won the Tony for best play. It was a role he returned to in seven other productions during his long career.
Toibin also appeared for Lean in Ryan's Daughter ...
- 11/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Thin Lizzy’s songs typically addressed badass rock & roll topics like bar fights, jailbreaks and medieval battles. But on Black Rose: A Rock Legend — their ninth LP, released 40 years ago today — the band paid tribute to their Irish homeland with a highly unusual and weirdly touching album-closing epic.
“Tell me the legends of long ago,” Phil Lynott sings over a rolling, waltz-time riff at the beginning of “Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend,” named for an old Irish song that addresses the country as though it were a lover.
“Tell me the legends of long ago,” Phil Lynott sings over a rolling, waltz-time riff at the beginning of “Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend,” named for an old Irish song that addresses the country as though it were a lover.
- 4/13/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Can a music festival have a mid-life crisis? In its 33rd year, over two weeks in Austin, Texas, SXSW made its biggest headlines in the opening interactive phase, hosting a widely reported forum of prospective Democratic candidates for president. The SXSW film festival featured major premieres and director Q&As, like a spring-break Sundance with a Texas drawl. And a new SXSW sideline – gaming – drew huge lines at the Austin Convention Center. The original founding energy of SXSW, the music festival, was spread out over an entire week, but big...
- 3/18/2019
- by David Fricke
- Rollingstone.com
The latest trailer for "Inside Llewyn Davis" offers fans a first listen at Marcus Mumford's cover of "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)."
Co-sung by Mumford and "Inside Llewyn Davis" star Oscar Isaac, the track, a traditional folk favorite, was arranged by Mumford, Isaac and T Bone Burnett.
Beyond that tease, the new trailer for "Inside Llewyn Davis" provides more information about the film, which Joel and Ethan Coen co-wrote and co-directed. CBS Films will release "Inside Llewyn Davis" on Dec. 6 and it's expected to be a major player at the 2014 Oscars.
Check out the soundtrack listing below, via Rolling Stone.
"Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" (Traditional; arranged by Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett) – Oscar Isaac "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" (Traditional; arranged by Marcus Mumford, Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett) – Marcus Mumford and Oscar Isaac "The Last Thing on My Mind" (Tom Paxton) – Stark Sands with Punch Brothers...
Co-sung by Mumford and "Inside Llewyn Davis" star Oscar Isaac, the track, a traditional folk favorite, was arranged by Mumford, Isaac and T Bone Burnett.
Beyond that tease, the new trailer for "Inside Llewyn Davis" provides more information about the film, which Joel and Ethan Coen co-wrote and co-directed. CBS Films will release "Inside Llewyn Davis" on Dec. 6 and it's expected to be a major player at the 2014 Oscars.
Check out the soundtrack listing below, via Rolling Stone.
"Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" (Traditional; arranged by Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett) – Oscar Isaac "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" (Traditional; arranged by Marcus Mumford, Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett) – Marcus Mumford and Oscar Isaac "The Last Thing on My Mind" (Tom Paxton) – Stark Sands with Punch Brothers...
- 7/1/2013
- by Christopher Rosen
- Huffington Post
Irish stage and screen character actor who appeared in Barbarella, The Verdict and the BBC's 1969 sitcom Me Mammy
For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.
His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.
He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...
For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.
His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.
He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...
- 4/3/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor who made his name at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and appeared in the Beatles films, making firm friends with the Fab Four
Victor Spinetti, who has died of cancer aged 82, was an outrageously talented Welsh actor and raconteur who made his name with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and found fame and fortune as a friend and colleague of the Beatles, appearing in three of their five films, and with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967).
It was while he was giving his brilliantly articulated and hilarious "turn" as the gobbledegook-shouting drill sergeant in Oh, What a Lovely War! in the West End in 1963 – he won a Tony for the performance when the show went to Broadway – that the Beatles visited him backstage and invited him to appear in A Hard Day's Night (1964).
George Harrison later said that his mother would...
Victor Spinetti, who has died of cancer aged 82, was an outrageously talented Welsh actor and raconteur who made his name with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and found fame and fortune as a friend and colleague of the Beatles, appearing in three of their five films, and with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967).
It was while he was giving his brilliantly articulated and hilarious "turn" as the gobbledegook-shouting drill sergeant in Oh, What a Lovely War! in the West End in 1963 – he won a Tony for the performance when the show went to Broadway – that the Beatles visited him backstage and invited him to appear in A Hard Day's Night (1964).
George Harrison later said that his mother would...
- 6/20/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently streaming on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to Being Flynn, The Snowtown Murders, and Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.
This Friday theaters will be filled with pairs of men, from a couple of kooky comedians, to an estranged father-son team, and a duo of deadly Aussies. But if these new releases aren’t enough to satisfy your craving for chills, laughs and heartwarming moments, we’ve got you covered with some of the best selections Now Streaming.
Based on Nick Flynn’s poignant memoir, this drama centers on his time volunteering at a homeless shelter, and how it led to an unexpected reunion with his estranged father. Paul Dano and Robert De Niro co-star; Paul Weitz directs.
Want more memoir-based dramas?
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) Dito Montiel...
This Friday theaters will be filled with pairs of men, from a couple of kooky comedians, to an estranged father-son team, and a duo of deadly Aussies. But if these new releases aren’t enough to satisfy your craving for chills, laughs and heartwarming moments, we’ve got you covered with some of the best selections Now Streaming.
Based on Nick Flynn’s poignant memoir, this drama centers on his time volunteering at a homeless shelter, and how it led to an unexpected reunion with his estranged father. Paul Dano and Robert De Niro co-star; Paul Weitz directs.
Want more memoir-based dramas?
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) Dito Montiel...
- 3/1/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
'Someone once said to me: "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like Kathy Burke."'
Kathy Burke, 46, was born in London. Her mother died when she was two, and she was raised by neighbours until the age of six, when she was returned to her alcoholic father. At 16, she began to act at the Anna Scher theatre school in Islington and, a year later, got her first role, in the film Scrubbers. She appeared in Harry Enfield's Television Programme, playing characters such as Waynetta Slob, and in the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. Her film roles include Nil By Mouth, for which she won the Cannes Palme D'Or. In recent years she has directed plays, and her latest, The Stock Da'wa, is at Hampstead Theatre until 14 May.
What is your earliest memory?
Sausage and chips at Auntie Joan's.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
In my 20s, walking...
Kathy Burke, 46, was born in London. Her mother died when she was two, and she was raised by neighbours until the age of six, when she was returned to her alcoholic father. At 16, she began to act at the Anna Scher theatre school in Islington and, a year later, got her first role, in the film Scrubbers. She appeared in Harry Enfield's Television Programme, playing characters such as Waynetta Slob, and in the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. Her film roles include Nil By Mouth, for which she won the Cannes Palme D'Or. In recent years she has directed plays, and her latest, The Stock Da'wa, is at Hampstead Theatre until 14 May.
What is your earliest memory?
Sausage and chips at Auntie Joan's.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
In my 20s, walking...
- 4/15/2011
- by Rosanna Greenstreet
- The Guardian - Film News
Read more: Holt McCallany to play Irish-American heavyweight boxing champ on FX Having played the role of legendary trainer Teddy Atlas in the 1995 TV movie, “Tyson” Holt McCallany has been fighting to get back in the ring. This Tuesday, on FX, his dream will come true as he steps in the right playing burn-out boxer Patrick “Lights” Leary on “Lights Out”. His character, Leary, is an aging former heavyweight Irish American boxer who is struggling to come to terms with his life after his career. His financial difficulties mean he is toying with a life in the ring or working as a debt collector. His Irish-born father, Michael McAloney won a Tony Award for his production of Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy on Broadway. McCallany had a wealth of experience as a boxer. In his youth he boxed with his brother a Golden Gloves champion boxer. Then in 1995 he stared...
- 1/11/2011
- IrishCentral
A Rocky Road to Independence Ireland in the 1960s was a nation frozen in time. While Beatlemania, Vietnam, hippies and free love gripped the west, we had Father Michael Cleary (the singing priest) and the Irish Censorship Board. Our church-controlled educational system produced young students who fretted about original sin years before they were capable of conceiving one. Our government acted as if church and state were indistinguishable. We were shut-in’s, defiantly turning our backs against the 20th century and the modern tide. In Rocky Road to Dublin, Peter Lennon’s recently restored and re-released 1968 documentary about the state of Ireland in that transformative decade, Lennon captures a nation teetering on the cusp of enormous social change. It makes for startling viewing, and the Irish Film Institute is to be commended for placing this groundbreaking film before the public again. It’s a true saying -- prophets are never recognized in their own land.
- 6/30/2010
- IrishCentral
By Harris Lentz, III
Shay Duffin was a leading Irish character actor who worked in Hollywood from the late 1970s. He was featured as Dan O’Grady in the 1993 horror filmsLeprechaun (1993), and was Ned Quint in the 1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Sub Rosa.
Duffin was born in Dublin, Ireland, on February 26, 1931. He began performing while in his teens, singing in a local dance hall. He moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1960, where he sang with the Irish Players. Duffin also wrote and starred in the one-man play Confessions of an Irish Rebel, about acclaimed Irish poet and drunkard Brendan Behan, in the late 1960s.
He made his film debut in 1977’s The White Buffalo, and was seen in such features as 10 to Midnight (1983), Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Precious Find(1996), Titanic (1997), and Beowulf (2007). He was also featured in the tele-film The Other Side of Hell (1978).
Duffin died of complications...
Shay Duffin was a leading Irish character actor who worked in Hollywood from the late 1970s. He was featured as Dan O’Grady in the 1993 horror filmsLeprechaun (1993), and was Ned Quint in the 1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Sub Rosa.
Duffin was born in Dublin, Ireland, on February 26, 1931. He began performing while in his teens, singing in a local dance hall. He moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1960, where he sang with the Irish Players. Duffin also wrote and starred in the one-man play Confessions of an Irish Rebel, about acclaimed Irish poet and drunkard Brendan Behan, in the late 1960s.
He made his film debut in 1977’s The White Buffalo, and was seen in such features as 10 to Midnight (1983), Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Precious Find(1996), Titanic (1997), and Beowulf (2007). He was also featured in the tele-film The Other Side of Hell (1978).
Duffin died of complications...
- 5/20/2010
- by Harris Lentz
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Titanic and Seabiscuit actor Shay Duffin has died in Los Angeles, aged 79.
The revered thespian died last week at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from recent heart surgery.
Born in Ireland, Duffin was a regular on stages across America, starring in productions of works by countrymen Brendan Behan and James Joyce.
He also wrote and starred in the show The Importance of Being Irish.
As well as Titanic and Seabiscuit, the actor also appeared in Raging Bull and The Departed.
The revered thespian died last week at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from recent heart surgery.
Born in Ireland, Duffin was a regular on stages across America, starring in productions of works by countrymen Brendan Behan and James Joyce.
He also wrote and starred in the show The Importance of Being Irish.
As well as Titanic and Seabiscuit, the actor also appeared in Raging Bull and The Departed.
- 4/29/2010
- WENN
By Frankie Stone
The quote that “There is no such thing as bad publicity” didn’t come from Groucho. Or David Geffen. It was Irish playwright Brendan Behan, who actually said, “There is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary.”
But then there’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”
The Tlc series is starting its fifth season with a PR mess that only the most naïve will consider beneficial. And it’s putting the first nails in the coffin of a peculiar reality TV genre: the feel-good supersized family show.
“J&K”...
The quote that “There is no such thing as bad publicity” didn’t come from Groucho. Or David Geffen. It was Irish playwright Brendan Behan, who actually said, “There is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary.”
But then there’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”
The Tlc series is starting its fifth season with a PR mess that only the most naïve will consider beneficial. And it’s putting the first nails in the coffin of a peculiar reality TV genre: the feel-good supersized family show.
“J&K”...
- 5/19/2009
- by Lew Harris
- The Wrap
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.
I don't expect to die anytime soon. But it could happen this moment, while I am writing. I was talking the other day with Jim Toback, a friend of 35 years, and the conversation turned to our deaths, as it always does.
I don't expect to die anytime soon. But it could happen this moment, while I am writing. I was talking the other day with Jim Toback, a friend of 35 years, and the conversation turned to our deaths, as it always does.
- 5/8/2009
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
A critic at a performance is like a eunuch at a harem. He sees it done nightly, but is unable to perform it himself.
--Brendan Behan
A lot of people don't know what "critic" means. They think it means, "a person who criticizes." They don't like people who do that. It seems an impotent profession. Critics are nasty, jealous, jaded and bitter. They think it's all about them. They're know-it-alls. They want to appear superior to everyone else. They're impossible to please. They don't understand the tastes of ordinary people. They love to tear down other people's hard work. Those who can do it, do it. Those who can't do it, criticize. What gives them the right to have an opinion? We'd be better off without them.
Criticism is a destructive activity. If I like something and the critics didn't, they can't see what's right there before their eyes...
--Brendan Behan
A lot of people don't know what "critic" means. They think it means, "a person who criticizes." They don't like people who do that. It seems an impotent profession. Critics are nasty, jealous, jaded and bitter. They think it's all about them. They're know-it-alls. They want to appear superior to everyone else. They're impossible to please. They don't understand the tastes of ordinary people. They love to tear down other people's hard work. Those who can do it, do it. Those who can't do it, criticize. What gives them the right to have an opinion? We'd be better off without them.
Criticism is a destructive activity. If I like something and the critics didn't, they can't see what's right there before their eyes...
- 9/19/2008
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
British actor Michael York loved filming his new movie Borstal Boy (2000) in Ireland - because of the country's traditional big breakfasts. York plays a prison governor in the film, which is based on writer Brendan Behan's book of the same name. He says, "When I first arrived they were doing a traditional Irish breakfast on the set. All those incredible puddings and things - it was a calorific holocaust" York also admits to regularly appearing in French movies, just to sample the cuisine. He adds, "You could be out in the middle of the desert and still have a fantastic meal. It's incredible."...
- 12/5/2000
- WENN
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