On September 10, 2025, The Pogues brought their 40th anniversary tour of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash to History in Toronto, Ontario. This was their first show in the city in over 20 years as well as their first Toronto show since the passing of Shane MacGowan.
I love the Pogues and was very excited to have a chance to see them live. After heading through security at the venue (they are very nice people to deal with), I found my spot on the floor in front of the stage. Soon, the floor was filling up with people, and it was time for the opening band.
Cardinals from Cork City took to the stage to cheers. There were a few people near me wearing the band’s shirts and they were very excited. I was unfamiliar with the band, but was looking forward to hearing something new. Along with guitars, bass, and drums, the band also had an accordion player and quickly introduced the room to their grunge-meets-traditional Irish music-meets-goth-meets punk-meets-pop sound. The band played a handful of tracks from their self-titled EP including “Twist and Turn” (probably my favourite song of theirs) and “If I Could Make You Care” (which they closed out their set with), along with, “St. Agnes” (another really good one), “Big Empty Heart”, and their new song “Masquerade”. They have a lot of talent and were overall pretty well-received by the crowd, with some people dancing (especially to the faster songs) and singing along.
After Cardinals had finished their set, the crew came out and got the stage ready for the Pogues. Soon, the notes of “To War” filled the air and the band came on stage to thunderous cheers.
For this tour, surviving Pogues members James Fearnley, Spider Stacy, and Jem Finer were joined by bassist Holly Mullineaux (who also plays Goat Girl), guitarist Daragh Lynch (who also plays in Lankum), banjoist Jordan O’Leary, player of pipes and whistles Fiachra Meek (who also plays in Alfi), drummer Jim Sclavunos (who also plays in The Bad Seeds), vocalist and harpist Iona Zajac, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist John Francis Flynn, vocalist Lisa O’Neill, guitarist James Walbourne (who also plays in The Pretenders), and a horn section made up of Pete Fraser, Daniel Hayes, and Ian Williamson.
Every member of the band radiated joy as they picked up their instruments and launched into the opening track of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, “The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn”. From the first word, people were singing along with Spider Stacy and moving to the beat. When James Fearnley put down his mandolin and picked up his accordion, everyone knew what was about to happen and when the song exploded, so too did the crowd. The energy was electric and would continue to grow as the night went on.
After Spider introduced bassist Holly Mullineaux, she leaned into the microphone and unleashed an amazing, guttural scream to open “The Wild Cats of Kilkenny”. The dancing kicked up a notch, both in the pit and on stage, as the band kicked out the lively tune. Pretty much the entire band was on stage during this song. Everyone was playing their instruments expertly and the layers of sound gave the song that much more depth. The music jumped off the stage and into the hearts of the crowd, something that would continue throughout the night. Once the song had finished, someone from the crowd yelled out, “We love you, Spider!” This was met with loud cheers from the audience and Spider responded by saying, “Yeah, but I love you!” surely making that person’s night.
Banjoist Jordan O’Leary took up lead vocals for the next song, “A Pair of Brown Eyes”. His voice was strong, clear, and full of longing, complementing the song perfectly. People were singing along to the chorus at the top of their lungs, filling the room with a loud and spirited rendition of, “And a rovin’, a rovin’, a rovin’, I’ll go / For a pair of brown eyes.”
Spider then proceeded to introduce more of the band, including Jem Finer (“On hurdy-gurdy, on banjo, on mandolin, and everything else you can even think of”) and James (“On the box of heaven”), and vocalist and harpist Iona Zajac, who would be joining him for the next song. Before launching into the song, Spider reminded the crowd of the importance of hydration, saluting us with a water bottle while Iona addressed the crowd, saying, “In this song, Spider shouts ‘Scotland’ very loudly. Any Scotland fans in here?” There were lots of Scotland fans as the question was met with cheers. The band then launched into “Billy’s Bones”, which did indeed see both Spider and Iona each yelling, “Scotland!” The song slowed down and after “And there’s mothers crying all over this world”, Spider threw in a “Jesus Christ fucking hell” before, “For their poor dead darling boys and girls”. The song picked back up and the band jumped back to life, kicking the song into high gear for the rest of it.
Spider continued member introductions as multi-instrumentalist and vocalist John Francis Flynn came to the front of the stage, adjusting his mic. Spider also introduced player of pipes and whistles, Fiachra Meek, who played a ditty which Spider sang along with (“We are the boys from the border / Fuck the queen and the Orange order”) before the accordion opened “Navigator”. John Francis Flynn took over lead vocals; he sounded strong and clear and was joined by Iona on the choruses, their voices mixing together in powerful harmony. Everyone was swaying along to the song and three people in the pit were lifted up by the people around them. As the song wound down, Iona and John Francis Flynn waltzed together.
The crew were extremely fast throughout the night, coming on stage to add and remove mics as needed. They were extraordinary and kept the show moving very smoothly. After “Navigator”, Spider shouted out Marissa, who was removing the two mic stands that John Francis and Iona had recently vacated. Marissa got some extremely well-deserved cheers from the crowd.
James counted in the next song and started up the rousing accordion part that begins “Planxty Noel Hill”. Holly led the crowd in clapping along to the beat. People were going wild, dancing along to the upbeat song. They did a couple of fakeout endings, coming back each time with a jump and even more energy than before. At the (real) end of the song, James dropped down to the stage. He wasn’t down for long, getting up and wiping sweat off his brow.
Another mic was brought out and vocalist Lisa O’Neill soon followed. Lisa and Spider started talking about a butterfly they’d seen earlier in the day. Then they started up “The Gentleman Soldier”. Lisa’s voice sounded incredible, especially during the rapid-fire “rat-a-tat-tats.” The trade-off between Lisa and Spider was seamless and added to the storytelling of the song. Near the end, they both started marching - Spider in place behind his mic and Lisa to the drums and back - before ending the song on a high.
Iona came back out for the next song, “Jesse James”. Spider started the song off with tin whistle before launching into the first verse. Once again, the mix of his and Iona’s voices sounded great. After the song, Spider introduced the brass section - Pete Fraser on saxophone, Daniel Hayes on the trumpet, and Ian Williamson on the trombone - ending the introduction by saying, “No sexually coded references. They’ll come later.” He also introduced guitarist James Walbourne as “the best fucking guitar player in the world” and was met with a quick riff.
James put down his accordion, picked up an acoustic guitar, and the band began “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day” with Iona taking lead vocals. She did the song justice and then some, her voice soaring and she even did a harp solo. The accordion was picked back up, Spider was back on lead vocals, and next was “The Body of an American”. People in the pit promptly lost their fucking minds. There was a lot of pushing and screaming and some crowd surfing/lifting during this song. One person who was lifted up held their arms out to the band, doing spirit fingers with their hands. I was impressed that their hat stayed on their head the entire time. “The Old Main Drag” came next, which saw guitarist Daragh Lynch playing an acoustic guitar with a bow.
More mic stands were placed on stage and Iona and John Francis, who was carrying a flute, came out. Spider took to the mic and introduced “The Parting Glass” by saying, “Back in November of 2023, the world lost a titan. The world lost a man who wrote songs that will live on forever and ever. This song is for Shane MacGowan.” Iona took over main vocals as Spider returned to the tin whistle. The instrumentation sounded huge and reverberated deep within my bones. Iona’s voice suited the song very well and added more emotion to the lyrics. It was an incredibly fitting tribute.
Lisa came back on stage and the band started up their version of Ewan MacColl’s “Dirty Old Town”. The crowd was singing along to every word and Lisa’s vocals were wonderful, really bringing you into the story of the song. When she wasn’t singing, she was dancing. Lisa stayed on stage to sing “A Rainy Night in Soho”, her voice continuing to transport everyone into the world of the song. Soon after the song was done, the band launched into “A Pistol for Paddy Garcia” which saw James stepping up to the mic and whistling before the song built back up. Iona put in some rad harp parts and Jem was rocking the concertina. At the end, Spider said, “Sorry about all the fuck-ups” and someone in the crowd yelled, “We don’t care!” in response. Those so-called fuck-ups (I didn’t notice many at all, just a few notes which didn’t really change the song) are an honest representation of the song at that point in time because no matter how many times you play a track, it will always be a little bit different. It's part of the magic of live music.
Iona came back to the mic for the next song, “Poor Paddy”. The crowd fucking roared. When she raised her arms and sang, “In 1842, from Hartlepool I moved to Crewe”, the pit went hard. People pushed in from all angles and didn’t let up until the end of the song. This was more intense than during “The Body of an American” and it was like being caught up in a tornado. Thankfully, my glasses stayed on my face and my feet stayed on the ground. When Iona sang, “In 1847, Poor Paddy was thinking of going to Heaven,” the band all went down to the floor of the stage, effectively dying before being brought back to life during “Poor Paddy works on the railway”, bringing the song to a close in a flurry of energy.
Near the end of the song, the very sweaty person behind me decided to needlessly plaster themselves to my back, so I quickly exited the central pit area and headed over to Jem’s side of the stage for the next song, their cover of Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”. John Francis was back on lead vocals and the band did a very poignant rendition of the song.
With another quick stage changeover thanks to Marissa and the crew, two more mics were brought on stage. Someone from the crowd heckled Spider (I think they were yelling out either the wrong name of a song or saying that was the last song), who then pointed to the floor of the stage saying, “But it’s not actually that one. There’s a setlist there, right? It’s there for a reason!” Iona and Lisa came on stage and the band began “London Girl”, dancing while Spider sang the first verse. When they came in on the chorus, they were wearing matching black sunglasses. Everyone in the venue was dancing and the band on stage looked like they were having an absolute blast. Even though the end of the night was nearing, the energy just kept going up.
The band walked off stage to cheers and thunderous applause. After a few minutes of the crowd doing football chants and cheering (“For iambic pentameter and all that”), James, Jem, and Spider came back onstage. James took up the mic saying, “Thank you, we’re glad to be back in Canada after all these years!” This was met with cheers. After a shoutout to Geraldine and a conversation between James and Spider about when a show they had to cancel in the past was (“We weren’t together in ’98, James, that would’ve been the Popes” - Spider), the three of them flung their arms around each other’s shoulders and took a group bow before the rest of the band came back on stage. “These are our children!” Spider said before thanking them and James called them “the true stars of the night.” Holly chimed in with, “Thanks, Dad.” James then introduced Spider saying, “He’s the one that brought us together, really, so thank you.”
Someone came out with a Canadian flag and draped Fiachra with it. He kissed the flag before Spider brought it over to centre stage, holding it up high and yelling, “Not for sale, Mr. President!” James added, “51st state, you can fuck off!” Needless to say, this was met with roaring cheers and thundering applause from the crowd. After returning the flag to Fiachra, the band launched into the first song of their encore, their boisterous cover of J. M. Crofts’ “The Irish Rover”. Everyone was clapping along and jumping around. James went to the front of the stage, running from side to side before lifting his accordion above his head, dropping to the ground, and lying down at the end of the song, playing all the while. Spider ended the song with a cry of, “Free, free Palestine.”
Spider reintroduced Daragh, who took up lead vocals for “Streams of Whiskey”. He was jumping around and really giving it all to the song, leaning back several times to unleash maximum power. The energy for this song was through the roof, both on and off stage. “This is fucking brilliant! It’s so good to be back here! It’s been too, too long. Really sorry we never came back during the reunions. BUT we’ll come back again, of course we will! How could we not?” Spider said to massive cheers. The band then started up “Boys from the County Hell”. Spider leaned on James during the intro before launching into the vocals. Everyone was jumping around, dancing, and singing like there was no tomorrow.
Lisa was back on vocals and John Francis was back on flute for “Dark Streets of London”. Lisa didn’t stay still during the song, dancing and keeping time with her leg. About halfway through, Spider got down on his hands and knees and speed crawled over to Lisa, circling her legs before she crouched down and they danced together. They both got back to their mics in time for the next verse.
After “Dark Streets of London” ended, some of the band towelled off their faces and got ready for the last song of the night. Spider said, “Before we start this, what a fucking band! The three of us are so lucky to have these mad, brilliant fuckers around us.” Everyone cheered for the band and then they started up “Sally MacLennane”. It was a great song to close out the night, the energy was still very high and everyone was bouncing around.
When the last note of the song rang out, the band (except for drummer Jim Sclavunos, who stood on the drum riser and participated from there) all came to the front of the stage (they were nearly as long as the stage), threw their arms around each other and bowed deeply three times before clapping, thanking the crowd again, and walking off.
It was a joyously raucous show and felt like a real celebration not only of Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, but of the band as a whole. It definitely felt like there was an otherworldly presence in the room that night, adding a little something extra into the air. The time went so fast and by the time the band hit the encore, I was shocked that we were that far into the show. The exchange of energy between the audience and the band was incredible and only gained strength as the night went on. I can honestly say that this was one of the most energetic shows I’ve ever been to.
Every single person on stage was at the top of their game and played spectacularly, doing these songs justice and then some. The crew were also excellent and this was one of the smoothest shows I’ve ever seen, thanks to their hard work. The band had a palpable sense of love and care for each other and the songs, which made the night what it was. I’m so glad I was finally able to see the Pogues, and I hope they don’t wait another 20 years to come to Toronto.