oe McCabe, during his time as proprietor of the Phoenix Landing bar in Central Square, has had the chance to hang out with musicians and others of all levels of fame—Bono, Shane McGowan, Colin Farrell. McCabe, however, is unswayed by the cult of celebrity. Artists stopping by the bar on the way to their next shows are likely to be treated to a pint and a bit of conversation but never fawning adoration. It's a rare glimpse into the secret celebrity scene—where you might not expect to find it.

“I could sit with Bono from U2—I actually did at the Druid one day, him and Larry Mullen—but it never dawned on me that it was a huge, big deal. For weeks after people said, ‘You spent the afternoon fuckin’ drinking with them two?’ But they’re from where I come from anyway, and we’re the same age. Not that we had a lot in [common]—I wish I had his money—but we had enough to keep us going for three or four pints, you know?”

The Pogues’ Shane McGowan, known for his hard drinking and self-destructive lifestyle, visited the Phoenix a few years ago and “drank about a hundred people out of the bar,” according to McCabe. “It was a real encounter.” After spending 14 hours drinking with him, McCabe sent McGowan off to the airport to play a show in Chicago the following day. The singer was so sauced the airline deemed him unfit to fly, and McGowan, turned away from his flight, made a beeline back to the bar.

When McCabe’s children discovered the disheveled singer on their couch that night they ran, frightened, to their mother, and told her there was a monster downstairs in the living room. “People thought he was a bum. The guy was in bits. I mean, he was fuckin’ in bits. I was gonna bring him into the Goodwill to see if he wanted to change his clothes. Filthy!”

Instead McGowan spent another long day drinking, until his minder tracked him down and took him away. McCabe assumed he'd seen the end of him. Not so. An hour later the singer showed up at the bar again, ready for more.

Despite the copious amounts of alcohol consumed, McGowan caused no problems. “When I met him and we got talking and he realized he was in a safe environment. There were no barriers, no boundaries, he was hanging out with us until it was time for us to go, you know? He might be one of them characters, if he feels uncomfortable at all he probably shuts down or walks away, but because he didn’t feel uncomfortable we couldn’t get rid of him.”

McCabe got a chance to witness the artist’s creative process during their time together. “Well the funny thing was, in his drunkenness, his pure drunkenness, he’d stop for a minute and he’d write a small poem, you know, and he’d just hand it to you. The drunker he was getting, the more artistic he was becoming. It was starting to come out of him then, he was telling stories and poems and singing songs. We actually had a great time with him. We still talk about him.”

Other celebrity encounters didn't end quite so well. When Colin Farrell was in Cambridge filming The Recruit, he stopped by the Phoenix the night a well-known DJ from New York was spinning. Soon Farrell, unsatisfied with being a mere spectator, wanted to DJ too. “Colin Farrell, he knew he was famous and a rock star,” McCabe says. Farrell, he says, got into a fist fight with another Irish patron. “He wasn’t a good drunk, you know what I mean? He actually had a fight with another Irish guy here. They actually physically went at it.”

McCabe has become friends with Canada’s the Tragically Hip, who meet him for dinner and drinks whenever they’re in town. The band was hanging out at Phoenix Landing one leisurely Sunday morning when they were recognized by one of the bar’s Canadian customers. Within a half hour the bar was packed with Canadians wanting to get a piece of the action. “The kids just piled in ‘cause these guys are huge. … They’re like U2 in Canada. I mean, these guys are gods.”

To Joe McCabe, however, they’re just drinking buddies.

Cambridge Historical Society volunteer Katrina Morse is exploring the history of music venues in Cambridge by conducting interviews with owners, booking agents, and long-term employees. The transcripts of these interviews and parts of the audio recordings will eventually be available online at the historical society’s website. This week's blog was written by Morse and is based on her research and interviews.

Heading to the Cape or Vineyard? Check out Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard history secrets at the new MySecretCapeCod.com. and MySecretMarthasVineyard.com.

Gavin Kleespies is executive director of the Cambridge Historical Society.