“There certainly was a fair amount of hard drinking. But there was a degree of professionalism, if hard to recognise at times”: How The Pogues made a folk-punk classic in Rum, Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues posing for a photograph in 1985.

Banjo player, folk music aficionado and actor/comedian Billy Connolly once described The Dubliners as “folk music’s Rolling Stones”. If that’s the case, then The Pogues were its Sex Pistols: controversial, outspoken, unapologetic, but ultimately revered and respected for breaking the mould, and evolving the Celtic folk sound. Released towards the end of summer 40 years ago, The Pogues’ classic second album, Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, was a remarkable progression from the previous year’s debut Red Roses For Me – in terms of lead vocalist Shane MacGowan’s songwriting as well as the band’s rapidly accelerating popularity and notoriety.

Formed in London’s King’s Cross in 1982, The Pogues were originally named Pogue Mahone – an Anglicisation of the Irish phrase ‘póg mo thóin’, meaning ‘kiss my arse’. (Shane’s previous band, punk rock upstarts The Nipple Erectors, similarly abbreviated their name to the slightly less puerile The Nips).