Bono’s house and the days Shane MacGowan would expose himself to trains
The legendary frontman of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, once revealed one of the most maniacal anecdotes from his richly coloured life.
When living at U2 frontman Bono’s house, he used to “wave his willy” at passing trains in the glim hope that passengers might think it was the ‘With or Without You’ singer waggling his winston at the speeding carriages.
Of course, the obvious issue was that they would have to be aware that they were passing Bono’s house at that very moment, but MacGowan was not a man to get hung up on such frivolous details.
The house in question was on the South Coast of the Irish capital Dublin, overlooking the railway line and bay. “Bono put in a glass roof and wall,” MacGowan explained in an interview with The Times not long before he passed away in 2023. “I used to wave my willy at the train as it passed and hope that they thought it was Bono’s.”
The Pogues frontman appeared in the interview alongside his partner Victoria Mary Clarke, who also gave a hand in recalling the whole todger-train debacle and wider details of his stay in the coastal abode. “Bono was very patient,” she said. “We had the police round all the time because Shane kept setting off the alarm. Eventually, he asked us to move out.”
Nevertheless, the pair remained close friends. Given the nudity and constant police visits, MacGowan and Clarke were well aware that the U2 singer’s eviction notice was hardly a harsh demand.
Elsewhere, MacGowan looked back on the early days of The Pogues and how they adapted the formula of traditional Irish music for the modern era. He said: “Everything was exciting. The first time we stayed in a hotel and discovered room service – that was exciting.”
He continued, “We took Irish music and speeded it up a bit, which you can hear in ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’ – exciting. It changed our lives. But going around America got to be a real drag.” So, he sought solace in the first-class coastal comforts of the Emerald Isle where train routes offered a wealth of penis-based prank potential, although it’s not really known why he had to decamp at Bono’s house in the first place.
Maybe it is just down to their friendship and outlook. As Bono proclaimed, “Shane MacGowan’s songs were perfect so he or we his fans didn’t have to be.”
