The Pogues formed in 1982 and split up as a band in 1996 with the departure of Shane MacGowan, Shane says
about the split that the band were going down a different route musically that he wanted to go, they were drifting away
from the Irish style of playing music and doing more pop stuff, Shane had already done the pop stuff with The Nips and went
as far as they could go. The Pogues reformed a few years ago and mostly do Christmas gigs in Ireland and Britain and
the occasional festival, when asked why the band reformed Shane said it was for the money. I doubt if that was the real reason
as Shane would sing at the drop of a hat, as Christy Moore says, 'When You Get The Ballad Bug It Never Leaves You'.
Bono from U2 said that Shane MacGowan was one of the best songwriters in the last 100 years, very high praise
from the front man of the greatest rock band in the world.
