Jem Finer | |
|---|---|
 Jem Finer performing as part of The Pogues in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jeremy Max Finer |
| Born | 20 July 1955 Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instrument(s) | Banjo, mandola, guitar, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy |
| Years active | 1977–present |
Jeremy Max Finer (born 25 July 1955) [1] is an English musician, artist and composer. He was one of the founding members of the Pogues. [2]
Finer was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, the son of political scientist Samuel Finer. He took a joint degree in computing and sociology at Keele University. After college, he travelled around Europe and spent some time working on a barge in France.[ citation needed ] He settled in London, where he met Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacy, and James Fearnley with whom he founded The Pogues. He has worked in a variety of fields, including photography, film, experimental and popular music and installation.
Primarily a banjoist with the Pogues, he occasionally played other instruments including mandola, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy and the guitar. Apart from MacGowan (with whom he co-wrote several songs, including "Fairytale of New York"), Finer was the most prolific composer for the band. [ citation needed ]
He appeared on all the band's albums until their breakup in 1996; he was one of only three original members. During that time he also appeared on MacGowan's solo album The Snake and The Levellers' self-titled release; he continued working as a musician and composer after leaving The Pogues.
On 1 January 2000, the Finer-composed Longplayer piece of music was started; this is designed to last 1000 years without ever repeating itself, and as currently implemented exists in both computer-generated and live versions. [3] Longplayer represents a convergence of many of his concerns, particularly those relating to systems, long-durational processes and extremes of scale in both time and space.
Finer was "Artist in Residence" at the Astrophysics Sub-department of the University of Oxford between October 2003 and June 2005, making a number of works including two sculptural observatories, Landscope and The Centre of the Universe. Finer and Hamburg-based swamp pop legend DM Bob have recorded and performed together since 2005, releasing their album Bum Steer in August of that year and co-producing the debut album by the experimental pop band Marseille Figs. He has written articles on copyright and the Creative Commons License. [4] In July 2005, Finer won the PRS Foundation New Music Award [5] on the basis of his proposal to build a device that will automatically "compose" a song of indeterminate length by harnessing the creative force of the weather. His proposal read:
In March 2012, Mobile Sinfonia, a global composition for ringtones was launched, developed during a year spent as a non-resident artist at the University of Bath. This piece concerns mutual invasion of soundscape via ringtones. He later received an honorary doctorate from Bath. [7]
He is working on a number of new projects continuing his interest in long-term sustainability and the reconfiguring of older technologies, including a series of hurdy-gurdy recordings, Spiegelei, a spherical camera obscura featuring Finer's innovative 360-degree projection system [8] and Supercomputer, a 5 bit mechanical sculpture which computes minimal musical scores. [9]
The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, as Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". Fusing punk influences with instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, Irish bouzouki, cittern, mandolin and accordion, the Pogues were initially poorly received in traditional Irish music circles—the noted musician Tommy Makem called them "the greatest disaster ever to hit Irish music"—but were subsequently credited with reinvigorating the genre. The band later incorporated influences from other musical traditions, including jazz, flamenco, and Middle Eastern music.
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was a British-born Irish singer-songwriter, musician and poet best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He also produced solo material and collaborated with artists including Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Sinéad O'Connor, and Cruachan. Known for his exceptional songwriting ability and his heavy alcohol and drug use, MacGowan was described by The New York Times as "a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life".
If I Should Fall from Grace with God is the third studio album by Celtic folk-punk band the Pogues, released on 18 January 1988. Released in the wake of their biggest hit single, "Fairytale of New York", If I Should Fall from Grace with God also became the band's best-selling album, peaking at number three on the UK Albums Chart and reaching the top ten in several other countries.
Red Roses for Me is the debut studio album by the London-based band the Pogues, released on 15 October 1984. It was produced by Stan Brennan, who had managed the Nipple Erectors/The Nips and Rocks Off Records shop in London.
"Fairytale of New York" is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and recorded by their London-based band the Pogues, featuring English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song is an Irish folk-style ballad and was written as a duet, with the Pogues' singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl playing the female character. It was originally released as a single on 23 November 1987 and later featured on the Pogues' 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Hell's Ditch is the fifth studio album by The Pogues, released on 1 October 1990, and the last to feature frontman Shane MacGowan as a member.
Waiting for Herb is the sixth studio album by the Pogues, released in 1993, and their first without lead singer Shane MacGowan.
Peace and Love is the fourth studio album by the Pogues, released in July 1989.
Longplayer is a long-durational piece of music by British composer and musician Jem Finer which is composed to loop every 1000 years. It started to play at midnight on 1 January 2000, and if all goes as planned, it will continue without repetition until 31 December 2999.
Peter Richard "Spider" Stacy is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is best known for playing tin whistle and sometimes singing for the Pogues.
James Fearnley is an English musician. He played accordion in the Pogues.
"Haunted" is a 1986 single by The Pogues. It was featured on the Sid and Nancy Soundtrack, the original soundtrack for the movie Sid and Nancy. It reached chart position #42 in the UK. Originally sung by Cait O'Riordan, in 1995 the song was re-recorded as a duet between former Pogues vocalist Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O'Connor for the Two If by Sea/Stolen Hearts soundtrack, this time reaching #30 in the UK. The original version was included on disc 1 of the 2008 compilation "Just Look Them In The Eye And Say... POGUE MAHONE!!"
Pogue Mahone is the seventh and final studio album by The Pogues, released in February 1996. The title is a variant of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse", from which the band's name is derived. It was the band's second studio album recorded after the departure of Shane MacGowan, and features Spider Stacy in the role of lead singer.
"Fiesta" is a single by The Pogues, featured on their album of 1988, If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
"Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" is a 1989 single by the British-Irish folk rock band The Pogues. It was composed by banjo player Jem Finer and featured on the band's fourth album, Peace and Love. It was the Pogues' last single to chart in the UK Top 50 before frontman Shane MacGowan left the group in 1991, stalling just outside the top 40 at number 41. It was the only single from the album to chart. The song is about the famous Albert Bridge, London. The accompanying video was directed by Peter Dougherty and was produced by Nick Verden for Radar Films.
"Once Upon a Time" is a song by The Pogues released as a single in 1993 from their sixth album, Waiting for Herb. The song was the band's last single to chart in the UK, making number 66, before the band broke up in 1996 following the release of their seventh and final album, Pogue Mahone. The song was composed by Banjo player Jem Finer.
The Best of the Pogues is a greatest hits album by the Pogues, released in September 1991. The album was dedicated to the memory of Deborah Korner.
Poguetry in Motion is an EP by The Pogues, released on Stiff Records in the UK on 24 February 1986, and in the US & Canada on MCA Records. It was the band's first single to make the UK Top 40, peaking at number 29 and the first Pogues recording to feature Philip Chevron and Terry Woods.
The Very Best of the Pogues is a greatest hits album by The Pogues, released in April 2001.
Essential Pogues is a greatest hits album by The Pogues, released in November 1991.
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