Philip Chevron, the guitarist for the Pogues and Radiators From Space, announced his medical condition on the Pogues website with the headline “This time the cancer is lethal.”
Philip Chevron of The Pogues
Chevron first said he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June of 2007 but announced he had beaten it in early-2008, although it took him another year to recover from the treatments. That cancer has returned in his neck and head and, according to the recent statement, is not operable.
Pogues and Radiators from Space guitarist Philip Chevron has revealed that the head & neck cancer for which he received treatment in 2007 and a clean bill of health in April 2012 has in fact returned. In August 2012, Chevron and his doctors noticed a new tumour and this one is in a position whereby treatment is seriously ill-advised and would almost certainly cause Stroke or worse. The cancer is, in short, inoperable and will prove fatal in time, though it is at present impossible to measure life expectancy.
Chevron, who was last year part of the releases The Pogues In Paris on Polydor and the Radiators’ Sound City Beat on Chiswick, is currently taking a break from both bands. The Pogues are on a prolonged time out, emerging only in support of matters relating to their 30th anniversary this year, while the Radiators from Space have formed a splinter group, The Trouble Pilgrims, in which Chevron plays no part. In recent times Chevron has accepted several theatre music commissions, including the Old Vic Theatre in London and Galway’s Druid Theatre.
Philip thanks his friends, colleagues, family and management team for their enduring support and hopes to make some notable musical contributions before, as he puts it, the cancer becomes “lethal”.
Chevron was a founding member in the late-70’s of the punk rock band Radiators From Space. While the group was taking a break in 1981, he became friends with Shane McGowan who asked him to join the Pogues, who had just released their first album, first as a temporary banjo player and finally as guitarist so that McGowan could concentrate on singing.
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