name | The Pogues |
---|---|
alias | Pogue Mahone |
background | group_or_band |
origin | Kings Cross, London, England |
genre | Celtic punk, folk punk |
years active | 1982–1996, 2001–present |
website | Pogues.com |
current members | Spider StacyJem FinerAndrew RankenJames FearnleyShane MacGowanPhil ChevronDarryl HuntTerry Woods |
past members | Cait O'RiordanJoe StrummerDave CoulterJames McNallyJamie Clarke }} |
The Pogues are a band from Kings Cross, London, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996. The band reformed in 2001, and has been playing regularly ever since, most notably on the US East Coast around St Patrick's Day and across the UK and Ireland every December. The group has yet to record any new music and, according to Spider Stacy on Pogues.com, has no inclination to do so.
Their politically-tinged music was informed by MacGowan and Stacy's punk backgrounds, yet used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, cittern, mandolin and accordion.
The Pogues were founded in Kings 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".
They later added Cait O'Riordan (bass) and Andrew Ranken (drums). 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. They came to the attention of the media and Stiff Records when they opened for The Clash on their 1984 tour. Shortening their name to "The Pogues" (partly due to BBC censorship following complaints from Gaelic speakers in Scotland) they released their first album Red Roses for Me on Stiff that October.
The band gained more attention when the UK Channel 4's influential 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 (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 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 group soon after, then with the aid of punk and New Wave forefather Elvis Costello they recorded the follow-up, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, in 1985. The album title is a famous comment falsely attributed to Winston Churchill who was supposedly describing the "true" traditions of the British Royal Navy. 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 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 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'Riordian, acted in Alex Cox's Straight to Hell, and five songs by the band were included on the film's soundtrack album.
Shane MacGowan wrote a blog for The Guardian website in 2006, detailing his thoughts on the current tour. The band was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the annual Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2006. 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. Later they played a series of highly acclaimed and sold-out gigs during mid-October 2006 in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, and toured Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Dublin, and Nottingham in mid-December 2006. They began a second U.S. tour in March 2007, once again to coincide (and conclude) with a Roseland Ballroom New York City show on Saint Patrick's Day. 2007 has proved to be the most prolific year of touring since the reunion. A tour of the west coast of America and eleven dates in the UK in December complement the headlining festival appearances made in the summer across Europe (Sweden, Belgium and Spain). They continue to be in huge demand, often selling out very large venues, despite criticism of selling out, and claims that arenas and festivals do not suit the band's sound. Guitarist Phil Chevron has stated there were no plans to record new music or release a new 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. In 2008 the band released a box set Just Look Them Straight in the Eye and Say....POGUE MAHONE!!, which included rare studio out-takes and previously unreleased material.
The band has received mixed reviews of its recent performances. Reviewing a March 2008 concert, The Washington Post described MacGowan as "puffy and paunchy," but said the singer "still has a banshee wail to beat Howard Dean's, and the singer's abrasive growl is all a band this marvelous needs to give its amphetamine-spiked take on Irish folk a focal point." The reviewer continued: "The set started off shaky, MacGowan singing of `goin' where streams of whiskey are flowin,' and looking like he'd arrived there already. He grew more lucid and powerful as the evening gathered steam, through two hours and 26 songs, mostly from the Pogues' first three (and best) albums". In December 2010 the Pogues played their farewell UK Christmas tour.
In March 2011, the Pogues played a six-city/ten-show US tour titled "A Parting Glass with The Pogues" visiting Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Boston, and New York (in that order), with only the last three cities getting more than one show. It may, or may not, be the last time they tour the States. Stacy said “I think we are basically pretty certain this is the last tour of this type we’ll be doing in the States. There might be the odd sort of one-off here and there. We’re not saying this is absolutely, definitely the end.”
According to Phillip Chevron: “Shane sings no more or no less than has been set by prior agreement.”
Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
! style="width:35px; text-align:center;" | ! style="width:35px; text-align:center;" | ! style="width:35px; text-align:center;" | ! style="width:35px; text-align:center;" | |||
"Dark Streets of London" | ||||||
"Boys from the County Hell" | ||||||
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" | ||||||
"Sally MacLennane" | ||||||
"Dirty Old Town" | ||||||
- | ||||||
"Irish Rover" (featuring The Dubliners) | - | |||||
"Fairytale of New York" (featuring Kirsty MacColl) | ||||||
"Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" | Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah | |||||
"Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" | Peace and Love | |||||
"Summer in Siam" | Hell's Ditch | |||||
"Jack's Heroes" (featuring The Dubliners) | Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah | |||||
"Miss Otis Regrets / Just One of Those Things" (with Kirsty MacColl) | Red Hot + Blue (Produced by the Red Hot Organization) | |||||
Hell's Ditch | ||||||
"Rainy Night in Soho (remix)" | Poguetry in Motion | |||||
"Fairytale of New York" (re-issue) | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | |||||
1992 | "Honky Tonk Women" | Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah | ||||
2005 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-release) | |||||
2006 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-entry of re-release) | |||||
2007 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-entry on downloads alone) | |||||
2008 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-entry on downloads alone) | |||||
2009 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-entry on downloads alone) | |||||
2010 | "Fairytale of New York" (re-entry on downloads alone) |
Category:Musical groups established in 1982 Category:Buskers Category:Celtic punk groups Category:British punk rock groups Category:People from Kings Cross, London
br:The Pogues ca:The Pogues cs:The Pogues da:The Pogues de:The Pogues es:The Pogues eu:The Pogues fr:The Pogues gl:The Pogues hr:The Pogues it:The Pogues nl:The Pogues ja:ザ・ポーグス no:The Pogues nds:The Pogues pl:The Pogues pt:The Pogues ro:The Pogues ru:The Pogues fi:The Pogues sv:The Pogues ta:போகுசுThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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