Pogues

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The Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish folk with influences from the English punk rock movement. The Pogues reached international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s before breaking up in 1996. The Pogues began performing together again in 2001, though they have yet to record new music. The Pogues merged traditional Irish music with the energy of contemporary punk, essentially inventing Celtic punk. The Pogues were also highly influential on the larger Celtic Fusion scene. Frontman Shane MacGowan described their style as "playing Irish music to a young rock audience". The music press at the time dubbed The Pogues style as "Punk Céilidh" due to the energy of the frontman and the prevalence of pogo dancing at their earlier gigs.

The Pogues were founded in King's Cross, a district of North London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone—"pogue mahone" being the Anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". The Pogues specialised in Irish folk music, often playing with the energy of the punk rock scene from which several of the members had their roots.

The Pogues politically-tinged music was reminiscent of The Clash, with whom they played (Joe Strummer produced one of their albums and even joined the group briefly), and used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, cittern, mandolin, accordion, and more. In the later incarnations of The Pogues, after the departure of Shane MacGowan, rock instruments such as the electric guitar would become more prominent. The first of The Pogues' albums, Red Roses for Me, borrows much from the punk tradition of MacGowan's previous band The Nipple Erectors 

Shane MacGowan (vocals), James Fearnley (accordion) and Spider Stacy (tin whistle) were the original members of The Pogues, in the days when they busked on the streets of London. The Pogues were originally formed when Shane MacGowan, influenced by the Hounslow band JEEP's version of the "Wild Rover" when he saw them at the "Anglers Retreat"—a pub in West Drayton—and in the presence of Spider Stacy, began to play a breakneck version of an Irish ballad, Waxie's Dargle, at around twice the speed of the original. Stacy believed this to be a wonderful idea—although he has since admitted that he suspects MacGowan came up with it on the spot—and The Pogues began.

Before the rest of the group formed, MacGowan and Stacy were rumored to have played impromptu performances on street corners and city buses which attracted local interest to their talent. They later added Jeremy "Jem" Finer (guitar, banjo), Cait O'Riordan (bass) and Andrew Ranken (drums). The Pogues rapidly developed a reputation, started releasing independent work, and ended up opening for The Clash on tour in 1984. Shortening their name to "The Pogues" due to lack of radio play for the curse in their name, they released their first album Red Roses for Me that October.

The Pogues gained invaluable publicity when the UK Channel 4's pop show The Tube - at that time the most influential music show on British television - offered to make a video of their version of Waxie's Dargle for the show (something the show was noted for doing, for bands that might otherwise not have been able to afford to make a video). The hilarious performance - featuring Spider Stacy repeatedly smashing himself over the head with a beer tray (in the manner of Bob Blackman's infamous "Mule Train/Mule Tray") - became a favourite with the viewers, but Stiff refused to release it as a single, feeling it was too late for it to help Red Roses for Me (in fact their record label, Stiff, was by then in deep financial trouble). Nevertheless, it remained a favourite request for the show for many years.

Phil Chevron (guitar) joined The Pogues soon after, then with the aid of punk and new wave forefather Elvis Costello they recorded the follow up, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, in 1985 (the album title is a famous comment attributed, probably falsely, to Winston Churchill and others in describing the traditions of the British Royal Navy). The album cover featured The Raft of the Medusa, though the faces on the characters in Géricault's painting have been replaced with those of The Pogues. The album shows The Pogues moving away from covers to original material. Shane MacGowan came into his own as a songwriter with this disc, offering up poetic story-telling, such as "The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn" and "The Old Main Drag", as well as definitive interpretations of Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" and Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (this had previously been covered by Shane's fellow punk contemporaries The Skids in 1981).

The Pogues failed to take advantage of the momentum created by the strong artistic and commercial success of their second album. The Pogues first refused to record another album (offering up the four-track EP Poguetry in Motion instead); O'Riordan married Costello and left The Pogues, to be replaced by bassist Darryl Hunt; and they added a multi-instrumentalist in Terry Woods, formerly of Steeleye Span. Looming over The Pogues at this period (as throughout their entire career) was the increasingly erratic behaviour of their vocalist, principal songwriter and creative visionary, Shane MacGowan. Their record label, Stiff Records, went bankrupt soon after the 1987 release of the single "The Irish Rover" (with the Dubliners).


The Pogues remained stable enough to record If I Should Fall from Grace with God in 1988 (with its Christmas hit duet with Kirsty MacColl "Fairytale of New York", which was voted "the best Christmas song ever" in VH1 UK polls in 2004) and 1989's Peace and Love. The Pogues was at the peak of its commercial success, with both albums making the top 5 in the UK (numbers 3 and 5 respectively), but MacGowan was spiralling out of control. Following their next album, Hell's Ditch, MacGowan and The Pogues parted company in 1991. With his departure, The Pogues was thrown into a state of flux. Without their singer, vocal duties were for a time handled by Joe Strummer, before Stacy finally took over permanently. Two politely received albums followed, the first of which, Waiting for Herb, contained The Pogues' third and final top twenty single, "Tuesday Morning" which became their best-selling single internationally. In 1996, The Pogues disbanded with just three original members remaining.


Shane MacGowan founded Shane MacGowan and The Popes in 1993. His autobiography, A Drink With Shane MacGowan, co-written with his journalist girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke, was released in 2001. Spider Stacy continued to write and record music with various bands, including a short stint with "Spider Stacy's Pogue Mahone", with Stacy fronting Pogues tribute band, Boys from the County Hell. Jem Finer went into experimental music, playing a big part in a project known as "Longplayer", a piece of music designed to play continuously for 1,000 years without repeating itself. James Fearnley, after leaving The Pogues, moved to the United States. Andrew Ranken briefly joined Spider Stacy's project The Vendettas. Philip Chevron reformed with former band, The Radiators, Terry Woods formed Woodsband, and Darryl Hunt formed indie project Bish.

Shane MacGowan is currently writing a blog for The Guardian website, detailing his thoughts on the current tour.

The Pogues, including MacGowan, re-formed for a Christmas tour in 2001 and performed nine shows in the UK in December 2004. In 2002 Q magazine named The Pogues as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". In July 2005, The Pogues —again including MacGowan—played at the annual Guilfest festival in Guildford before flying out to Japan where they played three dates. Japan is the last place The Pogues all played together before MacGowan was originally sacked in 1991, and they have a strong following there. The Pogues played a date in Spain in early September. The reunited Pogues played dates in the UK with support from the Dropkick Murphys in late 2005, and re-released their 1987 Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York" on 19 December, which went straight in at #3 in the UK Singles charts on Christmas Day 2005, showing the song's enduring popularity. On December 22, 2005 the BBC broadcast a live performance (recorded the previous week) on the Jonathan Ross Christmas show with Katie Melua filling in for the late Kirsty MacColl, the first time The Pogues had played the song live on television. The following week The Pogues performed live on the popular music show CD:UK.

The Pogues was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the annual Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2006. In March 2006, The Pogues played their first U.S. dates with Shane in over 15 years. The Pogues played a series of sold-out concerts in Washington D.C., Atlantic City, Boston, and New York. The Pogues played a series of highly acclaimed and sold out gigs during mid-October 2006 in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, and The Pogues toured Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Dublin, and Nottingham in mid-December 2006. The Pogues began a second US tour in March of 2007, once again to coincide (and conclude) with a Roseland Ballroom New York City show on Saint Patrick's Day.

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