Damien Dempsey recalls the best advice he received from Shane MacGowan

SINGER-songwriter Damien Dempsey has shared the best piece of advice he has ever received - from none other than Shane MacGowan.

Once upon a time, The Pogues' late singer gave him a piece of advice Damien never forgot.

"He was a good friend of mine. I supported him a few times,” he explained during a phone interview. “Some of the best advice I ever got was from Shane. He said ‘get off the brandy’. I was drinking a lot of brandy in my twenties. He said ‘The brown spirits, they’re very, very bad for your liver’, and he listed people that that drink had killed, you know? So I stopped drinking brandy.”

Damien also recalled the first time he met Ireland's favourite punk poet, who was late for their meeting - but definitely worth the wait. 

“I went to meet him at 4 o'clock in a hotel in Dublin and came to 5 o'clock, he wasn't there. 6, 7, 8, I was about to go, then I got a call, said he'd be there by 10, he wasn't there. He came in at about half 11, and by the time he came in, I was well jarred. We went to the studio and when I went to put down harmonies, he stopped me and he said ‘you're too drunk to sing’,” Damien laughed.