Todays Tune: The Pogues - Rainy Night In Soho

The Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s 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 band performed together again in 2001, though they have yet to record any new music on a major album.

Their politically-tinged music was influenced by The Clash, yet used traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, cittern, mandolin, accordion, and others. In the later incarnations of the band, after the departure of Shane MacGowan, rock instruments such as the electric guitar would become more prominent. The first of The Pogues' albums, Red Roses for Me, borrows much from the punk tradition of MacGowan's previous band The Nipple Erectors (later dubbed "The Nips").

The Pogues were founded in King's Cross, a district of North London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone—pogue mahone being the Anglicisation of the Gaelic póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse".