The Pogues
concert reviews and tour history

Shaun arrived on stage with a bottle of water. He was completly drunk and falled unable to sing. The guitarist replaced him. Big deception

I attended this show, the first time I’d seen The Pogues. I was twelve days off my twenty-first birthday and six months into my training as a mental health nurse. As I recall the ticket was a birthday present from my friends, who I went to the gig with.
What a riot! Everything I expected it to be and more. As I recall , I won a gallon of beer in a cat food eating competition, which supplemented our meagre spending money and enabled us to get pretty pissed. Spider gave me a swig from the half bottle he had… he’d given up playing and was sat on the edge of the stage.
I bought a copy of ‘Red Roses for Me’ ,at the show, autographed by the band, which I still have. It remains one of my most prized possessions.
Great to see the photos on your site.. brought back some memories. I saw the band a few more times, notably at Surrey Free Arts Festival, where they were joined by Joe Strummer (same year or’86) and Shane with The Popes at Leeds Heineken gig, Roundhay Park (possibly’92) singing ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ repeatedly until the plug was pulled!
RIP Shane McGowan. Thank you for the music.
George Atkinson, Leeds.

Joe Strummer was epic. Clash tunes played , with all the Irish Trad instruments. Brilliant 👌

Shane MacGowan was utterly brilliant that night.Greatest live performance I ever saw,kudos to the Pogues and Joe Strummer. The floor was a delirious mosh pit of frenzied bodies where pulsating Irish trad met Punk anarchy head on.Intoxicated brilliance was never more intoxicatingly brilliant!

I was there with my wife and some friends. It was a brilliant night with all the standard hits plus some lesser known ones. Shane was pretty drunk and often went off or sat down and his voice was all over the place but still somehow brilliant. Being in our twenties we were in the thick of the mosh pit and I broke my glasses when they fell off. Shane came back on for the encore - The band played waltzing Matilda - perhaps the most moving performance of any song I have ever heard. I cried, everyone cried, his voice sent shivers down your spine. At the end the cheers went on forever. We all thought that could be his last show but history says otherwise. I've never been to a more emotional gig

I was there by chance, my irish family living in scunthorpe told me of this charity concert for mo gale, before there uk tour,. What a great suprize to see kirsty macColl as a guest appearance. It' was a fantastic night, did not come on stage till 11pm probably having a few refreshments, Shane was spot on with his vocals, not a lot of people new about the gig because it wasn't a sell out. one of the best pogues gigs out of em all that I attended

I have never in my life been so anxious about attending a gig. Seeing The Pogues in my favourite venue on St Patrick’s Day would normally be a match made in heaven, but on this occasion there was a caveat. The ‘Old Firm’ as they were called then - Celtic & Rangers - had been drawn together in the Scottish Cup and they were playing earlier that day at Celtic Park. My mate - Brian - and I had tickets for both, but our team Celtic were going through a sticky patch at that time. A defeat in the Glasgow Derby on St Patrick’s day would have led to the gig being a wake. As it transpired the game will go down in history as one of the greatest ever Old Firm games as Celtic overturned the odds to record a memorable victory with four red cards issued on the day. The atmosphere when we eventually reached the Barras was electric. I have never been at a gig where so many of the audience were there so early and the party was in full swing an hour before the Pogues hit the stage. Shane McGowan was stone cold sober and revelled in the atmosphere; Spider had clearly over-indulged, but the gig was an absolute triumph. Chuck in appearances by both the recently released Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill of the Guildford Four on stage and you have the concert goers version of having all your ducks in a row. At times it felt like simultaneously the roof would come off and the floor give way, but had that happened such was the heaving mass of humanity on display I suspect we would have remained suspended in mid air, floating on the cloud of our collective elation. Today we mourn the loss of the ringmaster on that occasion - Shane McGowan - but there will be smiles to match the tears of mourning and gratitude for a life fully lived. 🙏

My first and one of the best gigs I've ever been to.

With the passing of Shane, I recall this concert as one of thee BEST I have ever witnessed. Shane went awol, found then plonked on stage some 90 mins after the scheduled start time. His eyes closed, griping the mic, he was out of it! But the music started and he was off, never missing a beat, screeching and hollering, feeding off the crowd. What a performance. What a gig. What a memory. Gartha Shane.

I was there, ages ago...it was a great show.