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A Furious Devotion

The Life of Shane MacGowan

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A Furious Devotion

By: Richard Balls
Narrated by: Dan Calley
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Punk protagonist, legendary drinker, Irish musical icon. The complete and extraordinary journey of the Pogues' notorious front man from outcast to national treasure has never been told - until now.

A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan vividly recounts the experiences that shaped the greatest songwriter of his generation: the formative trips to his mother's homestead in Tipperary, the explosion of punk that changed his life, and the drink and drugs that nearly ended it.

As well as exclusive interviews with Shane himself, author Richard Balls has secured contributions from his wife and family and people who have never spoken publicly about Shane before: close associates, former girlfriends, and the English teacher who first spotted his literary gift. Nick Cave, Aidan Gillen, Cillian Murphy, Christy Moore, Sinead O'Connor, and Dermot O'Leary are on the rollcall of those paying tribute to the gifted songwriter and poet.

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A good book... Quite a lot of mispronounced names and Irish words, and a rather dodgy fake Irish accent in places, but as long as you're willing to let that slide this is a really enjoyable and generally well narrated look into the life of the great Shane MacGowan.

Leabhar maith, ach...

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Great book but the voiceover makes it a challenging listen. His poor pronunciation of names and place names is insulting.

Great book but the narration is an insult.

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I really wish someone else had narrated this book
It is a ridiculous , annoying and superbly condescending rendition
Ruined the book completely

Horrific Narration

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I absolutely loved the Pogues, the Popes and anything else Shane Macgowan was involved in. Chaotic, exhausting to read, but some absolute classics which will live on. Shame the narrator hadn’t researched a number of the pronunciations. Maybe give him a break on Maclennane, but Cillian and Cerys !! No excuse. I did wonder if I could hang in there until the end of the book, - and square away his support for the IRA - but this was no problem. And I’m happy this doesn’t include the last year or so. It helps his legacy e on. Stuart

The chaos behind the genius

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An interesting book but the choice of narrator makes listening to this a chore.
The women’s voices (amongst all the others) are particularly dreadful…Shane’s sister and cousin (based in Tunbridge Wells) do not have Irish accents, or what passes for an Irish accent in this context. Every female is made to sound like a simpering idiot…which they most definitely are not!

Awful narration

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