The Pogues frontman on taking drugs in NZ, painting a hotel suite

Shane MacGowan, the hard-living lead singer of punk band The Pogues, has recounted in a new documentary how he painted a Wellington hotel suite blue while high on drugs 30 years ago.

In Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, which screens as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival in Christchurch as from tomorrow, he tells actor Johnny Depp about his wild times on tour.

MacGowan mentions using the drug speed while staying at a Wellington hotel, supposedly built on top of a graveyard. While hallucinating, he says he heard Ma¯ ori warriors calling out to him, asking him to take his clothes off and paint himself blue. MacGowan started doing that, then painted the whole suite. The 63-year-old’s battle with drink and drugs has been well documented.

The hotel in question is unknown, as is the year MacGowan supposedly painted the suite, and whether the claim is true.

The English/Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band, famous for the song Fairytale of New York, stayed at the capital’s St George Hotel, on the corners of Willis and Boulcott streets, in 1988 while the band was on tour around Aotearoa.

But the singer may have painted the hotel room in 1990 –

when the band returned to New Zealand and played in Wellington in February.

Dan Slevin, chief executive of Booksellers NZ, was at the Wellington concert in 1988 and said after the show, which was ‘‘disastrous’’ for MacGowan, he was invited back to the St George to have drinks with the other members of The Pogues. He had earlier interviewed the band for a summer radio programme at RadioActive.FM.

The band’s other members had allegedly beaten up MacGowan in a ‘‘meeting’’ after a poor performance.

A staff member at the St George Hotel had no immediate recollection of MacGowan’s stay, or of him painting a room blue. They referenced The Beatles’ June 1964 stay at the hotel, where they played on the balcony to large crowds. This led to The Pogues choosing the St George Hotel for their 1988 stay, Slevin said.

The film festival (https://www.nziff.co. nz/2021/) runs in Christchurch from tomorrow until November 14.