Spider Stacy on resurrecting The Pogues, Working with Joe Strummer, and the Spectre of Shane MacGowan

When Shane MacGowan passed in 2023, it seemed as if he was finally in a good place after a life at the other end of the spectrum. The revered frontman for the Celtic punk outfit The Pogues often had his talents overshadowed by drunken antics, with his hard partying ways and drug abuse the stuff of legend. During one 2007 show at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre, sloshed and unsteady on his feet, he took a nasty tumble and destroyed the ligaments in his knee. Yet – and maybe it was the alcohol numbing the pain – he limped out for two encores and did the remaining dates from a wheelchair.

Underneath all that, though, was a sensitive poet, admired greatly by such Irish notables as U2’s Bono and the late Sinéad O’Connor. Unfortunately, when MacGowan died, it looked like that was it for The Pogues, who had gone through their ups and downs since the singer founded the group along with vocalist/tin whistle player Spider Stacy and multi-instrumentalist Jem Finer in the early ‘80s. “Ups and downs” might be putting it politely; at one point, MacGowan was kicked out, with Joe Strummer from The Clash briefly recruited as his replacement.

Having been on indefinite hiatus since 2014, with the nail in the proverbial coffin being MacGowan’s death, it was quite the surprise when the surviving members of The Pogues reconvened in the spring of 2024 in London with a handful of guest vocalists to perform the band’s debut, Red Roses for Me, in its entirety for the record’s 40th anniversary. It was so well-received that Stacy, now viewed as the de facto leader of the unit, commiserated with the others and decided to move forward in a move that feels less like a cash grab and more a celebration of songs that people want to hear again in a live setting…

Head over to Vanyaland to read my interview with Stacy, where we talked about the surprisingly natural trajectory of relaunching The Pogues, what it was like to have The Clash icon Joe Strummer fronting the group for a spell, and Shane MacGowan’s lasting legacy. Meanwhile, here’s some classic Pogues from the mid-’80s, featuring Spider’s killer tin whistle work.

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