Venue:
City Folk Festival, Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, ON
Date: 14/09/2025
The Pogues without Shane MacGowan. Worthless surely? Not really.They were never all about Shane, there were other songwriters in the band (e.g. Jem Finer co-wrote Fairytale of New York amongst others), they did instrumental tracks sometimes and quite a few cover versions. The last 2 or 3 times I saw them Shane was “unwell” and either Joe Strummer or Spider Stacy was on vocals. And they made 2 albums without him after he was fired from the band.
They were the first band I became a bit obssessed about seeing live. First time was supporting their future producer Elvis Costello at Hammersmith Palais in 1983. Later in the decade I moved to Switzerland, I bought If I Should Fall From Grave with God on release and was so impressed I bought the rest of their back catalogue within days. I then saw them live for the second time in Zurich in May ’88 where despite the time of the year I memorably witnessed them performing Fairytale of New York together with Kirsty MacColl. Over the next half a decade or so I saw them many times either in Switzerland or Germany, always a riotous, thrilkling time even if Shane was often (always) clearly the worse for wear.
I never saw any reunion shows so it was over 30 years since I had last seen them live. This is a “Rum, Sodomy amd the Lash” tour and I think they played nothing released after that album came out. And it was a hell of a night, Spider is more or less the lead singer, but there were actually 5 lead vocalists on stage at one time or another among the total of 15 musicians (Jem Finer and James Fearnley presentto make up a trio of original members). They opened with a scintillating Sick Bed of Cúchulainn and the place (including me) went mad. We got most of the album, plus some songs from their debut, Poguetry in Motion EP and a few covers. Spider nailed it, of the other vocalists Lisa O’Neill was definitely a highlight doing Dirty Old Town amongst others and there was a magnificent performance of Poor Paddy Works on the Railway by Iona Zajac, a real highlight, only Jordan O’Leary slightly let the side down with a rather anemic performance of A Pair of Brown Eyes.
However overall it was completely magnificent, the whole thing taking me all the way back to my exuberant 20s. Proably the least I had ever drunk at a Pogues concert (1 beer beforehand), but I did get slightly emotional, not really about the loss of Shane, but also the loss of some friends along the way and the cruelty of the passing of time. I also saw James and Morrissey (and the Dropkick Murphys) at the festival, but this ended up easily being my highlight. What a night! Catch them if you can.
The audience:
Around 10,000
It made me think..
Rainy Night in Soho is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Setlist:
The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn
Wild Cats of Kilkenny
A Pair of Brown Eyes
Billy’s Bones
Navigator
I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Everyday
The Body of an American
The Old Main Drag
Sally MacLennane
The Parting Glass
Planxty Noel Hill
Dirty Old Town
A Rainy Night in Soho
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway
London Girl
Streams of Whiskey
Boys From the County Hell
The Irish Rover
Dark Streets of London
Apologies for typos in main review, I did this rather quickly and then had to run an errand during the editing time.
Wow, that’s almost the best set list you could wish for. Chuck in Waxies Dargle and a couple from If I Should Fall From Grace With God and it probably would be.
I was a big Pogues fan, lucky enough to see them at the Hammersmith Clarenden on St Patrick’s Night 1985 (I think.) Totally agree about them not just being all about the cult of Shane though, they had other terrific songwriters in the band too, and who could also turn a fairly straightforward Shane melody into an amazing one. Wish I’d been at this.
Shane the songwriter and lyricist I like, and the music and band I adore. But as I’ve aged, Shane the rock ‘n roll mess into his heroin and booze jakey-chic becomes increasingly sad. I also feel the same about other rock n’ roll messes (Keith Moon, JAMC, Lou before he cleaned up, etc).
Agreed. Particularly as he was just 40 when he released his last album, the not very good Crock of Gold. That’s a lot of wasted songwriting years.
Oh I completely agree, I find any rock and roll casualty stuff rather tedious, although in Shane’s defence it does seem there was some evidence of mental health issues in earlier life. Seeing how some of the crowd would cheer such sad drunken antics at late period gigs was pretty nauseating though and actually quite pathetic. An appearance at Reading Festival in 1989 particularly springs to mind.
Yes he was drinking from about the age of 8 or 10 I think, so a life casualty rather than a rock n roll one. It’s just the way he lived his life and who would have thought that he would live for another 30 plus years after he was kicked out of the band in the early 90s. He left us with about 3 albums worth of magnificent material which beats most.
Was Reading ’89 the one where they came on, played a long instrumental, Shane walked on in a brown mac, belched into the mic, fell over, passed out, and Spider did the rest of the vocals?
I was at that.
I’d already bought If I Should Fall… but went to a house party off-campus in my fresher week (Sep ’88) where the Irish hosts served Guinness and played nothing but the first two albums on a C90. I vaguely recall falling into a hedge on my way back to Halls. Guess what my next record purchases were?
It may well have been that one. Embarrassing, undignified and, it has to be said, contemptuous of band members and audience alike, however, the audience were stupid enough to repeatedly cheer the whole sorry spectacle.
I was at that too (my first festival). Fantastic line up, New Order, Sugarcubes, My Bloody Valentine, House of Love
It was the first time the festival went “indie” wasn’t it? New promoter Vince Power thought the grim heavy rock festival that Reading was needed an upgrade. I bet rock fans were pissed off but there was definitely a gap in the market for something like this.
Who else did you get singing? We got Lisa O’Neill and Iona Zajac in the UK leg, last December, too. But there was also the excellent John Joseph O’Neill and Nadia Shah. I know not this Jordan O’Leary.
https://atthebarrier.com/2025/05/05/40-years-of-rum-sodomy-the-lash-the-pogues-live-review/amp/
There was one other male singer who was very good, didn’t get his name. I may be mixed up though
John Joseph O’Neill??? I meant John Francis Flynn….
I see. This is from a few nights earlier in Toronto. A Pair of Brown Eyes starts around 11.40
Excellent review, Dai. A pretty remarkable evening.
Cheers kfd
I enjoyed your review @dai, The Pogues being a favourite band of mine especially live, I saw them several times in the 80’s
I remember seeing them at the Royal Court in Liverpool where Kirsty joined them on stage for ‘Fairytale’ a mate who was at the show with me was a friend of the band and we joined them in the bar at the Adelphi Hotel (this was before it turned into the dump it is today) and turned into a very memorable night
Another great night was in Manchester at the Apollo where they co-headlined with The Waterboys lots of beer had been consumed before the show adding to the festive atmosphere
I was at that Liverpool gig. The crowd was insane, in a good way.
Aye I remember seeing you 👍
I think you might have been the guy who pulled me back up after I stumbled and fell and seriously feared for my life…😉
Often was at the Royal Court! Bunnymen in 1981, a magnificent concert, but support act the Swans (?) were bottled off stage. That’s insane in a bad way I suppose
That support band wouldn’t have been the Wild Swans would it?
Maybe
@Nick-L
Probably weren’t wild about being bottled off stage, hence the name change
Wild? They’d have been absolutely livid.
Looks like it was the Wild Swans (I was close, it’s 44 years!) as they are listed in setlist.fm as having performed at other dates on the tour.
Was pretty ugly, the crowd were like an unruly football mob chanting “Bunnymen, Bunnymen” and then throwing dangerous thing. They lasted about 2 songs. Meant we all just had to wait longer for Mac and the boys to come on stage. I was 19, just assumed this sort of thing happened at gigs and thoroughly enjoyed the sensational Bunnymen set.
A friend of mine was at the notorious Beastie Boys gig a few years later at the same venue, that one lasted 10 minutes. Ah the 80s!
Yes I remember this sort of thing happening a fair bit in the 80s. Some bands of that ilk did attract a sort of football crowd types…New Order definitely did at times.
I think Oasis still do
I remember seeing R.E.M. at the Royal Court in the early 80’s the place was only half full and it was freezing
Micheal Stipe came on for the encore in a huge overcoat and sang ‘Moon River’
Or the Michael Gira ‘no wave’ noisemerchants, perhaps?