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Battle of Inkermann Part of the Crimean War The 20th Foot at the Battle of Inkerman, by David Rowlands Date November 5, 1854 Location Inkerman, Russia (present day Inkerman, Ukraine) Result Allied victory. Belligerents British Empire French Empire Russian Empire Commanders and leaders General Canrobert General Lord Raglan General-Adjutant Prince Menshikov Strength Total: 15,700 soldiers and 56 guns 8,200 soldiers and 18 guns 7,500 soldiers and 38 guns 42,000 soldiers and approximately 134 guns Casualties and losses 597 killed and 2,163 wounded 229 killed and 1,551 wounded Total: 4676 killed end wounded 3,288 killed and 6,928 wounded. Total: 10,216 killed end wounded

v t e Crimean War Oltenitza Cetate Silistra Sinop Kurekdere Bomarsund Petropavlovsk Alma Sevastopol Balaclava Inkerman Eupatoria Taganrog Chernaya Kars Malakhoff Kinburn

The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on November 5, 1854 between the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, and was followed by the Siege of Sevastopol. The role of troops fighting mostly on their own initiative due to the foggy conditions during the battle has earned the engagement the name "The Soldier's Battle".^[1]

Prelude[link]

The allied armies of Britain, France, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire had landed in the Crimea on September 14, 1854, intending to capture the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. The allied armies fought off and defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Alma, forcing them to retreat in some confusion toward the city. While the allies could have taken this opportunity to attack Sevastopol before it could be put into a proper state of defence, the allied commanders, British general Lord Raglan and the French commander Canrobert could not agree on a plan of attack.

Instead, they resolved to march around the city, and put it under siege. Before the siege began, the Russian commander Prince Menshikov had evacuated Sevastopol with his field army and left a garrison to defend the city. On October 25 a Russian force attacked the British base at Balaclava, and although the Russian attack was foiled before it could reach the base, the Russians were left holding a strong position north of the British line. Balaclava revealed the allied weakness; their siege lines were so thin they did not have sufficient troops to man them. Realising this, Menshikov launched an attack across the Tchernaya River.

Battle[link]

Assault[link]

On November 5 the Russians launched a heavy attack on the allied right flank east of the city. The assault was made by two columns, which when combined would form a formidable army of some 42,000 men. The initial Russian assault was to be received by the British Second Division, 2,700 men and 12 guns. With both Russian columns moving in a flanking fashion, they hoped to overwhelm this portion of the Allied army before reinforcements could arrive. The Russian general, Soymonov followed Menshikov's directive and deployed his force around the Careenage Ravine, where he could not effectively employ all of his troops in combat.

Soymonov deployed his troops and when dawn broke, attacked the British positions on Home Hill with 6,300 men and a further 9,000 in reserve. The British had strong pickets and had ample warning of the Russian attack. The British pickets, some of them at company strength, engaged the Russians as they moved to attack Home Hill. The firing in the valley also gave warning to the rest of the Second Division, who rushed to their defensive positions. The Second Division's commander, Pennefather, a highly aggressive officer, ordered his 2,700 strong division to attack some 15,300 Russian soldiers. Russian guns bombarded Home Hill, but there were no troops on the crest at this point.

The Second Division in action; the Russians in the valley[link]

The Russian infantry, advancing through the fog were met by the advancing Second Division, who opened fire with their Pattern 1853 Enfield rifles, whereas the Russians were still armed with smoothbore muskets.^[2] The Russians were forced into a bottleneck due to the shape of the valley, and came out on the Second Division's left flank. There they were shot and driven back at bayonet point to the Russian artillery positions. The Russians launched a second attack, also on the Second Division's left flank, but this time in much larger numbers and led by Soymonov himself. The British Light Division came up, launching a counterattack along the Russian front and left flank, forcing it back. Soymonov was killed during the fighting.

The rest of the Russian column proceeded down to the valley where they were attacked by British artillery and pickets, eventually being driven off. The resistance of the British troops here had blunted all of the initial Russian attacks. General Paulov, leading the Russian second column of some 15,000 attacked the British positions on Sandbag Battery. As they approached, the 300 British defenders vaulted the wall and charged with the bayonet, driving off the leading Russian battalions. Five Russian battalions were assailed in the flanks by the British 41st Regiment, who drove them back to the river.

Home Hill[link]

General Peter A Dannenberg took command of the Russian Army, and together with the uncommitted 9,000 men from the initial attacks, launched an assault on the British positions on Home Hill, held by the Second Division. The Guards Brigade and the Fourth Division were already marching to support the Second Division, but the British troops holding the Barrier withdrew, before it was re-taken by men from the 21st, 63rd and Rifle regiments. This position remained in British hands for the rest of the battle, despite determined attempts to take it back. The Russians launched 7,000 men against the Sandbag Battery, which was defended by 2,000 British soldiers. So began a ferocious struggle which saw the battery change hands repeatedly during the attack.

Fourth Division in action[link]

When the British Fourth Division arrived under General George Cathcart, they were finally able to go on the offensive. They launched a renewed attack against the Russians and on their flanks. However, the flanking troops were caught in the rear by an unexpected Russian counter-attack and Cathcart was shot from his horse and killed, leaving his troops disorganised and the attack broken up. The courage of Cathcart and his men had the unexpected effect of encouraging other British units to charge the Russians. This gave the Russian army an opportunity to gain a crest on the ridge. However, as the Russian troops were coming up, they were attacked and driven off by newly arrived soldiers from the French camps. The French poured reinforcements into the entire line, reducing the Russians' advantage in numbers.

Defence of Home Hill by the British and French forces[link]

At this point in the battle the Russians launched another assault on the Second Division's positions on Home Hill, but the timely arrival of the French Army and further reinforcements from the British Army repelled the Russians attacks. The Russians had now committed all of their troops, and had no fresh reserves with which to act. Two British 18-pounder guns along with field artillery bombarded the 100-gun strong Russian positions on Shell Hill in counter-battery fire. With their batteries on Shell Hill taking withering fire from the British guns, their attacks rebuffed at all points, and lacking fresh infantry, the Russians began to withdraw. The allies made no attempt to pursue them. Following the battle, the allied regiments stood down and returned to their siege positions.

Aftermath[link]

Despite being severely outnumbered, the allied troops held their ground, becoming a marvel of each regiment's tradition and tenacity. The amount of fog during the battle led to many of the troops on both sides being cut off, in battalion-sized groups or less. Thus, the battle became known as "The Soldier's Battle". The Russian attack, although unsuccessful, had denied the allies any attempt at gaining a quick victory in the Siege of Sevastopol and condemned the allied armies to two terrible winters on the heights. Following this battle, the Russians made no further large-scale attempts to defeat the allies in the field.

Alexander Kinglake obtained the official casualty returns for the battle. By his account allied casualties were: 2573 British, of whom 635 killed, and 1800 French, of whom 175 killed. Russia lost 3286 killed within a total (including men taken prisoner) of 11,959 casualties.^[3]

See also[link]

• John Prettyjohns

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Kinglake, A. W. (1863) Invasion of the Crimea. 8 vols. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1863–1887

External links[link]

• The Battle of Inkerman
• The Battle of Inkerman
• Report in the Times of 1 Feb 1875
• Report in the Times of 4 Feb 1875

Coordinates: 44°35′06″N 33°35′31″E / 44.585°N 33.592°E / 44.585; 33.592

Inkerman Інкерман Инкерман İnkerman
Inkerman Cave Monastery around 1910
Flag Coat of arms
Inkerman Location of Inkerman within the Crimea, Ukraine
Coordinates: 44°36′0″N 33°36′0″E / 44.6°N 33.6°E / 44.6; 33.6Coordinates: 44°36′0″N 33°36′0″E / 44.6°N 33.6°E / 44.6; 33.6
Country	Ukraine
Territory	Crimea
Region	Sevastopol
Elevation	50 m (160 ft)
Population
• Total	10,452
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	99703 — 99709
Area code(s)	+380-692
Former names	Kalamita (until 1475), Belokamensk (1976 — 1991)

Inkerman (Ukrainian: Інкерман, Russian: Инкерман, Crimean Tatar: İnkerman) is a town in Crimea, Ukraine. It is situated 5 kilometres east of Sevastopol, at the mouth of the Chernaya River that flows into Sevastopol Inlet (aka the North Inlet). Administratively, Inkerman is subordinate to the municipality of Sevastopol which does not constitute part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Inkerman orthodox men's cave monastery of St.Clement in 2009

Inkerman is said to mean a "cave fortress" in Turkish. During the Soviet era (in 1976-1991) it was known as Bilokamiansk (Ukrainian: Білокам'янськ) or Belokamensk (Russian: Белокаменск), which literally means "White Stone City", as a reference to soft white stone quarried in the area and commonly used for construction, but has since been returned its pre-Soviet name.

History[link]

The area has been inhabited since ancient times. A cave monastery of St. Clement was founded near Inkerman in the 8th century by Byzantine icon-worshippers fleeing persecution in their homeland. The monastery was closed during the Soviet era but has now been restored and brought back into use.

Kalamita, a medieval century fortress expanded in the 14th century, now lying in ruins, was built at a strategic clifftop overlooking Inkerman and the Inlet. It was abandoned by a Turkish garrison in the 18th century after the raids by the Cossacks ended but a small settlement at the base of the cliff remained.

The town became the centre of worldwide attention in 1854 during the Crimean War, when Inkerman was the scene of the Battle of Inkerman and the Battle of Chernaya River, both victorious for the French and the British troops.

During the Soviet times, a large underground ammunition warehouse of the Black Sea Fleet was situated under rocky cliffs in the Inkerman area. The storage was abandoned in 1970s after an explosion that damaged the facility but did not detonate all its stockpiles. However, no efforts to secure the site have been made until 1990s when local residents began salvaging explosives for sale which led to a number of deaths. Ukrainian Army engineer corps started extracting and demolishing outdated ammunitions in 2000 under a special government program.

Inkerman has since largely returned to its pre-war obscurity, serving as a suburb of Sevastopol linked to the downtown core by commuter ferries. One of the major Crimean wineries featuring the Inkerman label is located in the adjacent area. A popular hiking trail leading into Crimean Mountains begins just east of the town.

See also[link]

• Hicks Withers-Lancashire
• Little Inkerman

External links[link]

• (English) (Russian) (Ukrainian) Official Sevastopol city website
• (Russian) Inkerman
• (Russian) Panorams of Inkerman

v t e Administrative divisions of Sevastopol Raions Balaklava Raion Gagarin Raion Lenin Raion Nakhimov Raion Cities Inkerman Sevastopol (unofficially Balaklava) Towns Kacha Villages Andriivka Dalnie Frontove Fruktove Honcharne Kamyshly Kolkhozne Kyzylove Novobobrivske Orlivka, Sevastopol Orlyne Osypenko Ozerne Pavlivka, Sevastopol Peredove Pidhirne Poliushko Povorotne Pyrohovka Rezervne Ridne Rodnykivske Rozsoshanka Shyroke Soniachnyi Ternivka Tylove Verkhnosadove Vyshneve

William Bond Warren (born April 26, 1943), better known as Bill Warren, is an American film historian and critic generally regarded as one of the leading authorities on science fiction, horror and fantasy films.

Warren was born in North Bend, Oregon, and grew up in Gardiner, on the Umpqua River. He became interested in science fiction films during their boom years in the mid-1950s. Discovering Famous Monsters of Filmland with its first issues, he received regular acknowledgments and thanks as a contributor throughout the early years of the magazine, along with Don Glut, Eric Hoffman and Mark Thomas McGee. After attending Reedsport High School, he graduated from the University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon.

Off to LA[link]

Warren and his wife Beverly moved in 1966 to Los Angeles. As an assistant to Forrest J Ackerman, Warren came into contact with many major filmmakers-in-waiting who were also inspired by Ackerman, and he developed independent friendships with several of them.

He and Beverly became very active in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, as well as being involved in many of the Los Angeles-centric science fiction conventions up to the 1980s. He and his friend Allan Rothstein were on the committee of the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention ([Worldcon]). Taking advantage of their knowledge of who was attending and the programming schedule, they wrote a murder mystery, "Fandom Is a Way of Death," that was set at the convention. Everyone in the story, except the detective Johnny Atlantis, were real people, including all the victims and the murderer. This was sold as a publication at the convention, with the soloution to the case in a separate envelope. On the last day of the convention, the murderer was revealed, and took a bow.

His 1968 short story "Death Is a Lonely Place" appeared in the first issue of Worlds of Fantasy, and he also scripted for the Warren comic book publications Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella.

Books[link]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Warren made contributions to Walt Lee's Reference Guide to Fantastic Films (Chelsea-Lee Books, 1972). He did the final research, helped plan the project and typed it. He is a regular contributor to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, a book series of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969 and was updated annually beginning in 1978.

The first volume of Warren's authoritative and exhaustive Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties was published by McFarland in 1982, and he followed with the second volume in 1986. This massive survey of science fiction films released from 1950 to 1962 was reprinted in 1997. A completely revised edition was released in 2009.^[1][2]

Film critic[link]

Warren was the film critic for a newspaper in Simi Valley, California during the 1980s. In 1989, he created the ShowBiz Roundtable for the online service GEnie to generate discussions about films and other aspects of show business. Following the traditions of newspapers, he only posted his GEnie film reviews online the day a film opened. After these reviews were posted, they were archived in a GEnie Library. With weekly postings during the early 1990s, this became the first large film review database available online. Warren also conducted live online interviews with film personalities on GEnie. He eventually left the ShowBiz Roundtable, which continues today at Delphi's online service.

At the request of film director Sam Raimi, Warren wrote The Evil Dead Companion in 1994, but six years passed before the book was published in the UK by Titan Books (2000), followed by an American edition from St. Martin's in 2001. Warren found his friendship with Raimi a life-altering experience:

I started with Sam on Darkman. He did something that actually changed my life. At the time, he was living not far from where I do, in Silver Lake; this was before he was married, and he lived in a little cabin. I went over to interview him and Scott Spiegel, and they were blown away when I said that I used to know Fritz Lang. They said, "OK, who else did you know?" I said Boris Karloff, and they just went out of their minds. At that time, I had been feeling very sorry for myself, and Sam said, "Gee, you must've met everybody you've ever wanted to meet." When I went home I started thinking about it. And I realized I indeed had met everybody I ever really wanted to meet, with the exception of three people; one of those, Vincent Price, I met later that year, and the other two, one of whom was Peter Cushing, never had a chance to meet. But I suddenly realized my life wasn't as bad as I thought it was, and it was because of Sam's remarks. He changed my way of thinking at that point, and it's never changed back, and I have Sam to thank for that. I was going to put that in the book, but someone said it's too personal, so it's not in the book. Sam has read the book and he likes it.^[3]

Television[link]

Warren occasionally contributes to supplemental material for DVDs. During the 1990s, he teamed with film director William Rotsler to produce segments surveying American television for the French TV series Destination séries.^[4]

References[link]

The Pogues
Background information
Also known as	Pogue Mahone
Origin	Kings Cross, London, England
Genres	Celtic punk, folk punk
Years active	1982–1996, 2001–present
Website	Pogues.com
Members
Spider Stacy Jem Finer Shane MacGowan James Fearnley Andrew Ranken Phil Chevron Darryl Hunt Terry Woods
Past members
Cait O'Riordan Joe Strummer Dave Coulter James McNally Jamie Clarke

The Pogues are an Irish rock band from 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.^[1] 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,^[2] yet used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, cittern, mandolin and accordion.

The Pogues were founded in Kings Cross,^[3] 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".^[4]

Band history[link]

The roots of The Pogues were formed 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 1977.^[5] MacGowan was already with The Nips, though when they broke up in 1980 he concentrated a bit more on Stacy's Millwall Chainsaws who changed their name to The New Republicans. During this period MacGowan and Finer auditioned unsuccessfully for a licence to busk at Covent Garden.^[6] In 1982 James Fearnley (accordion) joined MacGowan, Stacy, and Finer, calling the band Pogue Mahone. The new group played their first gig at The Pindar of Wakefield on 4 October 1982.^[7]

	"Haunted" noicon Sample of Caitlín O'Riordan singing "Haunted" with the Pogues.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

They then appeared at Gossips in Dean Street Soho on Thursday November 3rd with Trash Trash Trash and The Stingrays.

They later added Cait O'Riordan (bass) and Andrew Ranken (drums). The band played London pubs and clubs,^[8] and released a single, "Dark Streets of London",^[9] 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.^[1] 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.

With the aid of punk and New Wave forefather 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.^[10] 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.

Success and breakup[link]

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 was voted "the best Christmas song ever" in VH1 UK polls in 2004) and 1989's Peace and Love.^[11] 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 increasingly unreliable. He failed to turn up for the opening dates of their 1988 tour of America, and prevented the band from promoting their next album, Hell's Ditch, so in 1991 the band sacked him.^[2] Vocal duties were for a time handled by Joe Strummer, before Stacy finally took over permanently. After Strummer's departure, the remaining seven Pogues recorded Waiting for Herb, which contained the band's third and final top twenty single, "Tuesday Morning", which became their best-selling single internationally. Terry Woods and James Fearnley then left the band and were replaced by David Coulter and James McNally respectively. Within months of their departures, ill health forced Phil Chevron to leave the band; he was replaced by his former guitar technician, Jamie Clarke. This lineup recorded the band's seventh (and final) studio album, Pogue Mahone. The album was a commercial failure, and, following Jem Finer's decision to leave the band in 1996, the remaining members decided it was time to call it quits. According to Shane MacGowan, amongst the reasons of the breakup was disagreement concerning the political orientation of his songs, the band not wanting to sing too obvious pro-republican songs^[12] — though some of their previous songs were already politically engaged : for instance, Streams of Whiskey is about the poet and IRA member Brendan Behan. Soon after the breakup Shane MacGowan recorded a song called Paddy Public Enemy Number One as a tribute to the Republican leader Dominic McGlinchey, a former leader of the INLA killed a few years before.

Post-breakup[link]

After the Pogues' break-up, the three remaining long-term members (Spider Stacy, Andrew Ranken and Darryl Hunt) played together briefly as the Vendettas. They played mainly new Stacy-penned tracks, though Darryl Hunt also contributed songs, and the band's live set included a few Pogues songs. First Ranken then Hunt left the band, the latter going on to become singer/songwriter in an indie band called Bish, whose self-titled debut album was released in 2001. Ranken has gone on to play with a number of other bands, including hKippers, The Municipal Waterboard and, most recently, The Mysterious Wheels. In addition to The Vendettas who Stacy freely admits lost all attraction when the Pogues reformed, Spider continued to write and record music with various bands, including the James Walbourne, Filthy Thieving Bastards, Dropkick Murphys and Astral Social Club. Shane MacGowan founded Shane MacGowan and The Popes in 1992. They only managed two studio albums but struggled on until 2002. His autobiography A Drink With Shane MacGowan, co-written with his journalist girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke, was released in 2001. 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. In 2005, Finer released the album Bum Steer with DB Bob (as DM Bob and Country Jem). James Fearnley moved to the United States shortly before leaving the Pogues. He was a member of The Low And Sweet Orchestra and later the Cranky George Trio. Philip Chevron reformed his former band The Radiators, which briefly included former Pogue Cait O'Riordan. Terry Woods formed The Bucks with Ron Kavana, releasing the album Dancin' To The Ceili Band in 1994. Later, he formed The Woods Band, releasing the album Music From The Four Corners of Hell in 2002.

Reunion[link]

The Pogues in Brixton, 2004

The band, including MacGowan, re-formed for a Christmas tour in 2001 and performed nine shows in the UK and Ireland 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 22 December 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.

Shane MacGowan wrote a blog for The Guardian website in 2006, detailing his thoughts on the current tour.^[13]

The Pogues with Shane MacGowan, October 11, 2006 in San Diego

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.

The Pogues on August 1, 2010 in Amsterdam

The Pogues 2011 in Munich, Philip Chevron, James Fearnley, Andrew Ranken, Shane MacGowan, Darryl Hunt, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer not on photo Terry Woods

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.^[14]

The band has received mixed reviews of some recent performances though they continue to pull the crowds. 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".^[15] In December 2010 the Pogues (with support from Crowns) played what was billed as a farewell UK Christmas tour.

In March 2011, the Pogues played a six-city/ten-show sold out 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.”^[16]

Members[link]

Current

• Shane MacGowan - vocals, guitar, banjo, bodhrán (1982–1991, 2001–present)
• Spider Stacy - vocals, tin whistle (1982–1996, 2001–present)
• Jem Finer - banjo, mandola, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, guitar, vocals (1982–1996, 2001–present)
• Andrew Ranken - drums, percussion, harmonica, vocals (1982–1996, 2001–present)
• James Fearnley - accordion, mandolin, piano, guitar (1982–1993, 2001–present)
• Philip Chevron - guitar, vocals (1985–1994, 2001–present)
• Darryl Hunt - bass guitar (1986–1996, 2001–present)
• Terry Woods - mandolin, cittern, concertina, guitar, vocals (1986–1993, 2001–present)

Former members

• Cait O'Riordan - bass, vocals (1982–1986, 2004)
• Joe Strummer - vocals, guitar (1991–1992; also replaced an ailing Phil Chevron for a U.S. tour in 1987; died 2002)
• Dave Coulter - mandolin, violin, ukulele, percussion (1993–1996)
• James McNally - accordion, whistles, percussion (1993–1996)
• Jamie Clarke - guitar, vocals (1995–1996)

Discography[link]

Hit-song 'Fairytale of New York'[link]

"Fairytale of New York" was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts over Christmas (the time of peak sales). The song has become a festive classic in the UK and Ireland over the years, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running in 2004,^[17] 2005,^[18] and 2006 in polls by music channel VH1 UK, despite not achieving Christmas Number One when it was released. It was also voted as the 27th greatest song never to reach UK#1 in another VH1 poll, and also voted as the 84th greatest song of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in their "Sold on Song" top 100 poll. In 2007 the record was briefly censored by the BBC because of the word "faggot" being deemed potentially offensive to gay people. Following protests from listeners, including the mother of Kirsty MacColl, the censorship was lifted.

Albums[link]

• Red Roses for Me (1984): #89 UK
• Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985): #13 UK
• If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988): #3 UK, #88 US, #15 NO
• Peace and Love (1989): #5 UK, #118 US, #13 NO
• Hell's Ditch (1990) #12 UK, #187 US
• Waiting for Herb (1993): #20 UK
• Pogue Mahone (1996)^[19][20]

Live albums[link]

• Streams of Whiskey: Live in Leysin, Switzerland 1991 (2002)
• The Ultimate Collection including Live at the Brixton Academy 2001 (2005): #15 UK

Compilation albums[link]

• The Best of The Pogues (1991): #11 UK
• Essential Pogues (1991)
• The Rest of The Best (1992)
• The Very Best of The Pogues (2001): #18 UK
• The Ultimate Collection (2005): #15 UK
• Dirty Old Town: The Platinum Collection (Budget CD) (2005)
• Just Look Them Straight in the Eye and Say....POGUE MAHONE!! (Anthology/Box Set of rare and unreleased tracks) (2008)

Video[link]

• The Pogues: Live at The Town & Country Club St Patricks Day 1988 VHS 1988
• POGUEVISION" Music Video Collection – VHS 1991

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Pogues site
• Official Shane MacGowan site
• The Guardian article
• "dirty old town"