Gama Bomb recruit The Pogues' Spider Stacey for If I Should Fall From Grace With God cover ahead of St. Patrick's Day

The Pogues Spider Stacey and Gama Bomb's Philly Byrne — (Image credit: Kiran Acharya)

Gama Bomb have released a cover of The Pogues' classic If I Should Fall From Grace With God, with guest vocals from The Pogues' own Spider Stacy.

Explaining how the collaboration came about, Gama Bomb vocalist Philly Byrne says: "The Pogues were my musical awakening. When I was a wee boy, I shared a bedroom with four of my brothers. I'd sit on the floor between the beds, staring at the sleeves for [The Pogues' 1988 album] If I Should Fall From Grace With God and [The Pogues' 1985 album] Rum, Sodomy And The Lash while my brother played them on vinyl.

"We don't really 'do' covers, but we always discussed If I Should Fall... as one to keep in the back pocket. When we finally made a demo, I took a punt and sent it to Spider, literally just slid into his DMs on Instagram.

I said 'Hey, we're this metal band from Ireland, we love The Pogues, we hate fascists, we did this - do you wanna get involved?' To his eternal credit, he listened to it right away and replied 'Absofuckinlutely!' It's been a huge privilege to work and hang out with him. The lesson here is, don't be afraid to DM your heroes - just be nice."

Spider Stacy adds: "So there I was, just scrolling the insta, as you do, when I see this DM. ‘What’s this’ I ask myself, ‘Why, it’s Gama Bomb from Newry, a city famed in song and story as the birthplace of the great Pat Jennings, with a thrash metal version of If I Should Fall From Grace With God. Do they want me to appear on it. They do? Praise Jesus! Maybe I’ll finally make it on to the pages of Kerrang! And just look at me now - made it, Ma. Top of the world!’ And that’s a true story, I swear down."

The video for the song, directed by former Louder contributor Kiran Acharya, was shot on location in Abney Park Cemetery, London and is a tribute to The Pogues' London-Irish roots. Watch it below:

Gama Bomb are currently working on their eighth album, due for release later in 2023.

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.