The Pogues

The Pogues are a Celtic punk band from London fronted by Shane MacGowan. Their politically tinged music was informed by MacGowan and Spider Stacy's punk backgrounds, but they also used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, cittern, mandolin and accordion.

The band reached peaked in popularity in the late 80s 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 Pogues were founded in Kings Cross, a district of North London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone. Pogue mahone is the Anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse (ass)".

The band reformed in 2001, and has been playing fairly regularly since, particularly U.S. East Coast around St Patrick's Day, and across the UK and Ireland every December, though they have not released any other records.




Pogue Mahone is also the name of the seventh and last studio album by the band which was released in 1996.

Despite their limited output, Amazon.com lists 69 albums under The Pogues