Pogues star Spider Stacy has told of how it was “utterly cathartic” to perform on an iconic New Year’s Eve show following the death of Shane MacGowan.
Peter ‘Spider’ Stacy took to the stage with Co Louth folk group The Mary Wallopers as part of the Jools Holland annual hootenanny celebrations on Sunday.
The English musician, who co-founded The Pogues along with MacGowan, Jem Finer and James Fearnley back in the 1980s, also revealed how he had received a hug from a musical icon following the show.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he spoke of his emotion after performing with The Mary Wallopers following the passing of his band mate and friend MacGowan last month.
The Pogues frontman MacGowan, who had been battling viral encephalitis, died aged 65.
Spider Stacy took to the stage with the Irish folk music group from Dundalk to perform ‘Streams of Whiskey’ for the annual hootenanny programme.
“The @marywallopers asked me to do Jools Holland’s #Hootenanny with them, utterly cathartic after Shane’s funeral,” he said.
“On my way backstage I met one of the icons of my youth.
“He just went ‘Oh mate, come here’ and gave me a massive hug.”
The @marywallopers asked me to do Jools Holland’s #Hootenanny with them, utterly cathartic after Shane’s funeral. On my way backstage I met one of the icons of my youth. He just went ‘Oh mate, come here’ and gave me a massive hug. #rodstewart #faces pic.twitter.com/qDlTfw0uEN
— Spider Stacy (@spiderstacy) December 31, 2023
The Mary Wallopers, who recently released they second album, Irish Rock N Roll, shot to fame during the Covid-19 pandemic when they began live-streaming gigs from a homemade bar in their Dundalk home.
The original line-up of brothers Charles and Andrew Hendry and Sean McKenna has been augmented by Róisín Barrett, Seamus Hyland, Finnian O’Connor and Ken Mooney.
Watch the whole of our @BBCLater Jools Holland Hootenanny performance on @bbciplayer now 📺 xoxo https://t.co/bnzwLqKgV1 pic.twitter.com/MZqEldVG9B
— The Mary Wallopers 🐖 (@marywallopers) January 1, 2024
