The Pogues say Shane MacGowan’s ‘spirit lives on’ in album anniversary gigs

The Pogues have paid tribute to late frontman Shane MacGowan saying his “spirit lives on” as they prepare to perform second album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash in full for its 40th anniversary next year.

The new run of gigs come after the group marked the 40th anniversary of their debut album Red Roses For Me with a series of UK shows earlier this year, with six performances now planned to honour their second LP in May 2025.

Banjo player Jem Finer told the PA news agency MacGowan was “irreplaceable” but said his essence had been “flowing through” guest singers in recent concerts.

The British-born Irish singer died in November 2023 aged 65.

Speaking about his influence on their return, the 69-year-old, who co-wrote the band’s Christmas number two Fairytale Of New York, told PA: “A lot of the music he wrote, and most of it he sang, even if he didn’t write it.

“He’s an irreplaceable person, but somehow his spirit lives on in these people, in working with these other singers, it’s kind of like flowing through them, so he’s very much there, very celebratory and beautifully respectful.

“It’s a spiritual thing without being contrived at all, which if it hadn’t worked like that, we wouldn’t be doing this amazing thing that blossomed into one concert and another and has led to that uncontrivable thing.”

One final performance of the first record is planned for Dublin next month with the help of guests including Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten and singer Nadine Shah, before the band prepare to take on the second album.

Speaking about reuniting for the special gigs, vocalist and tin whistle player Spider Stacy said Fontaines DC drummer Tom Coll had initially suggested the trio should do something to mark the Red Roses for Me milestone.

He explained: “Well, it started when, back in May, we did a show at Hackney Empire in London, 40 years of Red Roses For Me, and it very quickly became apparent that we were going to have to do something to mark 40 years of Rum Sodomy & The Lash, because the Hackney show was so popular and went so well, and hopefully the Dublin show is going to be the same.

“Rum Sodomy & the Lash was kind of always on the cards, this was always going to happen.”

The 65-year-old said special guests for next year’s shows were yet to be decided and explained that they “suggest themselves almost”.

Stacy continued: “It was only ever meant to be a little thing (but) became something much, much bigger than it was intended to be.

“I asked Nadine Shah, I’ve always loved her voice, and when Shane died, she just did a really very cool post, just marking his death, which I liked the tone of, I really like what she wrote, I’d never met her.

“So I just thought, she would be great doing The Auld Triangle, and as it turned out Tom Coll knows her and had her phone number, from Fontaines DC, who was actually the person who had the idea in the first place of doing something to mark Red Roses for Me so credit where credit’s due.

“So that’s how Nadine Shah became involved, I asked her if she’d fancy doing it, and she came straight back and said she’d love to, and then other people, it kind of all falls into place.”

Rum, Sodomy & the Lash is one of the Celtic punk band’s most critically acclaimed albums, and features some of the group’s best-known songs such as Dirty Old Town, A Pair Of Brown Eyes and Sally MacLennane.

The album is known for its striking cover, which features the Theodore Gericault painting The Raft of the Medusa, altered to include band members’ faces.

Finer said the painting’s use was the idea of his wife Marcia, who is an art historian and artist, and thought it was “in keeping with The Pogues and the kind of things we sing about”.

When asked how the band look back on the album and its recording, accordion player James Fearnley said: “We look back on it fondly, it was nice to do Red Roses For Me, and then go back to the same studio and do Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, and then to find somebody like Elvis Costello in the room to work with.

“It was really exciting to have something familiar in the studio itself, and then for Elvis to be working with us too.

“And then with this bunch of songs, which we’d obviously been rehearsing, we were talking earlier about A Pair Of Brown Eyes, for instance, The Old Main Drag was a great song that had gone back to my first few days rehearsing and getting to know Shane’s songs.”

The gigs, which will also see the band play the Poguetry in Motion EP that followed the album and features A Rainy Night In Soho, will begin in Leeds on May 1 and finish in Newcastle on May 8.

Tickets for the concerts will go on sale on Friday at 9.30am from Ticketmaster and Gigs and Tours.