Biography:

The Pogues are an English Celtic punk band[a] founded in King’s Cross, London, in 1982,[1] by Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacy and Jem Finer.[2] Originally named Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”—the band fused Irish traditional music with punk rock influences. After adding more members, including James Fearnley and Cait O’Riordan, the Pogues built a reputation with their live shows in London pubs and clubs.

In 1984, the Pogues released their debut studio album, Red Roses for Me, featuring a mix of traditional Irish songs and original compositions by MacGowan. It was followed by Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985), the four-track EP Poguetry in Motion (1986), and the critically acclaimed If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988). “Fairytale of New York“, recorded as a duet by MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl, reached number two in the UK charts at Christmas 1987 and remains a perennial seasonal favourite in Ireland and the UK. The Pogues recorded two more albums with MacGowan, Peace and Love (1989) and Hell’s Ditch (1990), before sacking him during a 1991 tour as his drug and alcohol dependency increasingly affected their live performances.

The Pogues continued with Joe Strummer and then Stacy as frontmen, releasing new material on Waiting for Herb (1993), but broke up following the critical and commercial failure of their seventh and last studio album, Pogue Mahone (1996).[3] The band re-formed in late 2001, again featuring MacGowan as frontman, and toured regularly in the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe, and the USA for over a decade. Following the death of longtime guitarist Philip Chevron, the Pogues dissolved again in 2014. Longtime bassist Darryl Hunt died in August 2022 and MacGowan died in November 2023. Stacy, Finer and Fearnley re-formed the Pogues in 2024 and toured the UK, Ireland, and North America in 2025.

Band history

Pre-Pogues years: 1977–1982

The future members of the Pogues first met when MacGowan (vocals), Peter “Spider” Stacy (tin whistle), and Jem Finer (banjo) were together in an occasional band called the Millwall Chainsaws in the late 1970s after MacGowan and Stacy met in the toilets at a Ramones gig at The Roundhouse in London in 1977.[4] MacGowan was already with the Nips, though when they broke up in 1980 he concentrated more on Stacy’s Millwall Chainsaws, who changed their name to The New Republicans.[citation needed] Shane and Stacy performed their first gig as The New Republicans at Richard Strange‘s Cabaret Futura in London‘s Rupert Street Soho in the early months of 1981. Also on the bill that night were Soft Cell.[citation needed]

Early years: 1982–1986

In 1982, MacGowan, Stacy and Finer formed the band, then known as Pogue Mahone. James Fearnley, who had been a guitarist with the Nips, joined shortly afterward. Fearnley has noted that Stacy suggested the band’s original name, taken from a sentence in James Joyce‘s Ulysses,[5] where the character Buck Mulligan exclaims: “Pogue mahone! Acushla machree! It’s destroyed we are from this day! It’s destroyed we are surely!”[6][7] “Pogue mahone” is an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”.[8] The new group played their first gig at The Pindar of Wakefield on 4 October 1982.[9]

By their show on Friday 29 October 1982 at 100 Club in London, Cait O’Riordan (bass)[10] and John Hasler (drums)[11] had joined the band,[12] with Andrew Ranken replacing Hasler on drums in March 1983.[13] Pogue Mahone appeared on Thursday 3 November 1983 at Gossips in Dean Street Soho with Trash Trash Trash and The Stingrays.[citation needed]

The band played London pubs and clubs, and released a single, “Dark Streets of London“, on their own, self-named label, gaining a small reputation – especially for their live performances, and national airplay on BBC Radio 1,[14] primarily on David Jensen‘s evening show. They came to the attention of the media and Stiff Records when they opened for the Clash on their 1984 tour.[3] Following complaints from a producer at BBC Radio Scotland about the band’s name, Jensen began referring to the band on air as “the Pogues”, which the band subsequently adopted as their name.[14] They released their first album, Red Roses for Me, on Stiff Records that October.

The band gained more attention when the UK Channel 4’s music show The Tube made a video of their version of “Waxie’s Dargle” for the show. The performance, featuring Spider Stacy repeatedly smashing himself over the head with a beer tray, became a favourite with the viewers, but Stiff Records refused to release it as a single, feeling it was too late for it to help Red Roses for Me. Nevertheless, it remained a favourite request for the show for many years.[citation needed]

With the aid of producer Elvis Costello, they recorded the follow-up, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, in 1985 during which time guitarist Philip Chevron joined. The album title is a famous comment falsely attributed to Winston Churchill who was supposedly describing the “true” traditions of the British Royal Navy.[15] The album cover featured The Raft of the Medusa, with the faces of the characters in Théodore Géricault‘s painting replaced with those of the band members. The album shows the band moving away from covers to original material. Shane MacGowan came into his own as a songwriter with this disc, offering up poetic storytelling, 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 Skids in 1981).

The band failed to take advantage of the momentum created by the strong artistic and commercial success of their second album. They first refused to record another album (offering up the four-track EP Poguetry in Motion instead); O’Riordan married Costello and left the band, to be replaced by bassist Darryl Hunt, formerly of Plummet Airlines and Pride of the Cross; and they added a multi-instrumentalist in Terry Woods, formerly of Steeleye Span. Looming over the band at this period (as throughout their entire career) was the increasingly erratic behaviour of their vocalist and principal songwriter, Shane MacGowan. Their record label, Stiff Records, went bankrupt soon after the 1987 release of the single “The Irish Rover” (with the Dubliners). Members of the band, including O’Riordan, acted in Alex Cox‘s Straight to Hell, and five songs by the band were included on the film’s soundtrack album.

The Pogues

• Shane MacGowan – vocals, guitar
• Spider Stacy – tin whistle, vocals
• James Fearnley – accordion, piano, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, cello, percussion, string arrangements
• Jem Finer – banjo, saxophone
• Andrew Ranken – drums, vocals
• Philip Chevron – guitar, mandolin, vocals
• Darryl Hunt – bass, percussion, vocals
• Terry Woods – cittern lute, concertina, strings, banjo, dulcimer, guitar, vocals

Credits:

Wikipedia