The Pogues
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| The Pogues | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Origin |  Kings Cross, London, England Many prominent members are Irish, by birth or descent |
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| Genre(s) | Celtic Punk Celtic Fusion Folk Rock Punk Rock |
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| Years active | 1982-1994, 2001-present. | |
| Website | http://www.pogues.com/ | |
| Members | ||
| Shane MacGowan James Fearnley Spider Stacy Jeremy 'Jem' Finer Andrew Ranken Phil Chevron Terry Woods Darryl Hunt |
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| Former members | ||
| Cait O'Riordan Joe Strummer Jamie Clarke Dave Coulter James McNally |
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The Pogues are a popular band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish folk with influences from the English punk movement. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s before breaking up in 1996. The band began performing together again in 2001, though they have yet to record new music. They merged traditional Irish music with the energy of contemporary punk, essentially inventing Celtic Punk. They 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 their syle 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 band specialised in Irish folk music, often playing with the energy of the punk rock scene from which several of the members had their roots.
Their 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 band, 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 (later dubbed The Nips).
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[edit] Band history
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. They 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, 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 band 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 band 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.
Phil Chevron (guitar) joined the group 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 [1], 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 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 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", the latter of which has become more popular than the original recording.
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; 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, 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).
[edit] Success and breakup
The band 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 has recently been voted the best Christmas song ever in VH1 UK polls) and 1989's Peace and Love. The band 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 band parted company in 1991.
With his departure, the band 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 band's 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.
[edit] Post breakup
Shane MacGowan remains the sole member of the band in the spotlight, having founded Shane MacGowan and The Popes in 1993. His autobiography, A Drink With Shane MacGowan, co-written with his journalist girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke, appeared 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 America, 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 Online, detailing his thoughts on the current tour.
[edit] Re-union
The band, 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 band—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 they all played together before MacGowan was originally sacked in 1991, and they have a strong following there. They 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 band had played the song live on television. The following week they performed live on the popular music show CD:UK.
In March 2006, the band played their first U.S. dates with Shane in over 15 years. The band played a series of sold-out concerts in Washington D.C., Atlantic City, Boston, and New York. The band played a series of highly acclaimed and sold out gigs during mid-October 2006 in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, and the band plans to tour Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Dublin, and Nottingham in mid-December 2006. They have The Radiators as special guest in Dublin on 21 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.
[edit] Possible new album
It was rumoured that the band had been writing new music together though guitarist Phil Chevron stated that at that time there were no plans to record new music or an album. Chevron said that one way to keep enjoying what they were doing was to avoid making a new album, although he did say that there still is a possibility in the future for new music, but certainly not in the near future. Terry Woods has commented that MacGowan has been writing and most of it sounds good. The band was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the annual Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2006.
[edit] Current members
- Shane MacGowan: 1982–1991, 2001–
- Spider Stacy: 1982–1996, 2001–
- Philip Chevron: 1985–1994, 2001–
- James Fearnley: 1982–1993, 2001–
- Terry Woods: 1986–1994, 2001–
- Jem Finer: 1982–1996, 2001–
- Andrew Ranken: 1982–1996, 2001–
- Darryl Hunt: 1986–1996, 2001–
- Ella Finer (Semi–Official Member) 2005– (Vocals on Fairytale Of New York)
[edit] Former members
- Cait O'Riordan: 1982–1986, 2004
- Joe Strummer: 1991 (also replaced an ailing Phil Chevron for a US tour in 1987)
- Jamie Clarke: 1993–1996
- Dave Coulter: 1993–1996
- James McNally: 1993–1996
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Red Roses for Me 1984: #89 UK
- Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash 1985: #13 UK
- Poguetry in Motion (EP) 1986: #29 UK
- If I Should Fall from Grace with God 1988: #3 UK, #88 US
- Peace and Love 1989: #5 UK
- Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (EP) 1990: #43 UK
- Hell's Ditch 1990 #12 UK
- Waiting for Herb 1993: #20 UK
- Pogue Mahone 1996
- The Best of The Pogues 1991: #11 UK
- The Rest of The Best 1992
- The Very Best Of The Pogues 2001: #18 UK
- Streams of Whiskey: Live in Leysin, Switzerland 1991 2002
- The Ultimate Collection including Live at the Brixton Academy 2001 2005: #15 UK
- Dirty Old Town: The Platinum Collection (Budget CD) 2005
- Untitled Pogues Box Set 2007-2008
- Messages From Time Gone By (Set for release 2007)
[edit] DVDs
- The Pogues: Live at The Town & Country Club St Patricks Day 1988 2004
- Untitled Pogues Live Reunion Concert 2006–2007
- Untitled Pogues Film/Documentary" 2006–2007
