Shane’s most powerful song was Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six. I recall when the Pogues performed it on Channel 4’s ‘Friday Night Live’; the producer panicked and cut to the adverts before they got to the key verses, which prompted the IBA to ban the song under the same legislation used to ban Gerry Adam’s voice. The Pogues continued to perform at every protest and benefit gig for the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six until they were freed.
“There were six men in Birmingham
In Guildford there’s four
That were picked up and tortured
And framed by the law
And the filth got promotion
But they’re still doing time
For being Irish in the wrong place
And at the wrong time
In Ireland they’ll put you away in the maze
In England they’ll keep you for seven long days
God help you if ever you’re caught on these shores
The coppers need someone
And they walk through that door
You’ll be counting years
First five, then ten
Growing old in a lonely hell
Round the yard and the stinking cell
From wall to wall, and back again
A curse on the judges, the coppers and screws
Who tortured the innocent, wrongly accused
For the price of promotion
And justice to sell
May the judged by their judges when they rot down in hell
May the whores of the empire lie awake in their beds
And sweat as they count out the sins on their heads
While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead
Kicked down and shot in the back of the head.”
Paul Field
Oh and this:
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