The Pogues bass player ran off with Elvis!
Formed in London as Pogues Mahone (Irish: póg mo thóin), meaning “kiss my arse”, The Pogues shared a similar fate with another Irish band, Aslan.
Both bands had a charismatic singer whom they fired and later rehired due to the frontman’s (Shane MacGowan and Christy Dignam, respectively) excessive indulgence in drugs and alcohol.
Formed in 1982, The Pogues released their debut album, Red Roses for Me, two years later, though it did not feature any major hits.
Their follow-up, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, performed slightly better, with Dirty Old Town standing out. This song, originally released by The Dubliners in 1968 to greater success, helped establish The Pogues as a crossover Irish traditional/punk band.
Next, The Pogues peaked with their iconic Christmas song, Fairytale of New York, a collaboration with Kirsty MacColl.
The song took two years to complete, with some lyrics written in Malmö, Sweden, during a Scandinavian tour. Shane MacGowan struck down with pneumonia at the time, reportedly experienced inspirational visions that contributed to the song’s creation.
Originally, the bass player Cait O’Riordan was the female voice of the smash hit but she and the band parted ways during this time as she would go on to play with the band’s producer, Elvis Costello, with whom she also had an affair resulting in the famed singers’ divorce from Mary Burgoyne.
Fairytale of New York was following the release as a single included on the band’s third album If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988).
Thanks to its enduring Christmas theme, Fairytale of New York became The Pogues’ defining song, eventually becoming the most-played Christmas tune in the U.K., with sales of an astonishing 3.6 million copies. By Christmas 2024, it had surpassed 400 million plays on Spotify.
The album it appeared on sold a modest 100,000 copies in the U.K.
Following this era, the band fired Shane MacGowan and released a string of less successful albums before eventually reuniting with him.
Even though they lost bassist Darryl Hunt and Shane MacGowan in 2022 and 2023 respectively, The Pogues continue to tour. One might wonder: do they still perform Fairytale of New York at gigs regardless of the season? And if so, who takes on the male and female vocals during a July performance?
The Pogues Tunes | Related Pages
Fairytale of New York
Learn to play Fairytale of New York by The Pogues using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| D5 | A/G G |
It was Christmas Eve, babe. In the drunk tank…
The Pogues on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about The Pogues tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.
