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Artist
Jem Finer
12+ albums
noiseAllinstrumentalelectronicdark ambient
about
Jem Finer (born 20 July 1955) is an English musician, artist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Pogues. Finer was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. He took a joint degree in computing and sociology at Keele University. After college he traveled Europe and spent some time working on a barge in France. He settled in London, where he met Shane MacGowan and Spider Stacy, 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, he also plays other instruments, including mandola, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy and the guitar. Apart from Shane MacGowan (with whom he co-wrote several songs, including "Fairytale of New York"), Finer was the most prolific composer for the band. 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. 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. Fi
