05-05-2025
The Pogues review — no Shane MacGowan but plenty of memories
When you lose a frontman who fully embodied your music, it's time to let the music slur for itself. The death of Shane MacGowan in 2023 paradoxically revived the decade-dormant Pogues — as part tribute, part open-invite wake and part one-more-for-the-road. The surviving members — Spider Stacy, Jem Finer and James Fearnley — reunited to briefly mark the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Red Roses for Me, last year, an array of guest vocalists joining Stacy to fill the gaping, drawling void centre stage. Now they returned to the Brixton Academy in London to honour its acclaimed follow-up, Rum Sodomy and the Lash in full, plus associated songs of the era.
This was the album where the traditional Irish folk idyll had ten
