The Pogues

The Pogues bring their blend of Irish traditional music and punk bite to Portsmouth Guildhall on 28 November 2026. Formed in early-80s London within the punk scene and the Irish diaspora, the band fused tin whistle, banjo and accordion with rock rhythm and plainspoken storytelling. After a first chapter under the name Pogue Mahone, they defined their sound on Red Roses for Me and Rum Sodomy & the Lash, then widened the scope with If I Should Fall from Grace with God, mixing rugged ballads, reworked traditionals and sharp originals, including collaborations with Kirsty MacColl.

Line-ups have shifted across the years, but the repertoire still stretches from folk standards to their own catalog, spanning Peace and Love, Hell’s Ditch, Waiting for Herb and Pogue Mahone. On stage, The Pogues keep that tension between reel and rock, acoustic textures and street-poetry lyrics, the pulse of sessions meeting the drive of electric bands. In Portsmouth, they draw on decades of songs that stitched Irish folk into the fabric of British rock, carried by melodies built to be sung back and arrangements where grit meets finesse.