The Pogues, John Francis Flynn @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 27/3/2026
Fourteen years since their last Australian visit, The Pogues return to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their landmark 1985 album release, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. At a sold-out Hindley Street Music Hall, the crowd packed in tightly, with punters claiming every available centimetre of space in anticipation of the band’s long-awaited comeback.
John Francis Flynn is an Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist and as such made the perfect support for The Pogues. He is also part of the touring band that is, The Pogues, pulling off a marathon evening. Taking the stage with a lone sax player, Flynn immediately showed this wouldn’t be the standard folk set. Eerie backing tracks and haunting vocals on the opening two mournful songs, created a noisescape of sound. Sorry, but with my untrained ears to Irish accent, added to a rowdy crowd, I didn’t get any of the song titles. By song three, the sound widened with a sweeping instrumental of guitar and sax. After a brief “Hullo, how are we?’, song four was announced as “a song”. With the energy increasing, with audience clapping and stamping, song five was exciting, with only John on a flute. A low key, but deeply pleasing, start to the evening, leaving plenty of room for the high-energy chaos that was to follow.
The “touring beast” that is The Pogues stormed the stage to a raucous welcome, proving that even without legendary frontman, Shane MacGowan, the band is durable. Walking on stage, original member Spider Stacey gave us a heartfelt, Welcome to Country, before firing into a ferocious The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn from the album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. It set the tone for the evening, in which the album would be celebrated in full, albeit not in running order. The band also played the 1986 Poguetry in Motion E.P. with the rest of the set being filled with a generous helping of tradition songs and a few from the debut Red Roses for Me album.
The last time I saw this many instruments on stage was in February, when I saw The Victorian Orchestra, playing with The Tea Party – but this was no orchestra, just a continuous run of changing players, coming and going for various songs. I think the number of participants was fourteen. Bathed in red, bassist Holly Mullineaux drove Wild Cats of Kilkenny before A Pair of Brown Eyes bought a brief reprise to the fury. Support singer, John Francis Flynn beautifully sang Navigator, one of the nights highlights.
The three-piece brass section, tucked away at the back of the stage, made its presence felt with a force that couldn’t be ignored, when it fired up for certain songs during the evening. The machine gun drum roll announced The Gentleman Soldier, complete with eight microphone stands stretched across the front of the stage, ready for revolving vocals. A harp was wheeled centre stage for a tender I’m a Man You Don’t Want to Meet before a halt in proceedings, as a medical issue near the front of the stage came to the notice of the band. “Just talk amongst yourselves” he told us, “Or read the program. Oh, that’s right, we don’t have programs”. Crisis over, some wonderful acoustic guitar, being played with a violin bow lifted My Old Main Drag to the top of the highlights.
Calls from the crowd for Shane MacGowan—who passed away in 2023—were largely ignored until a moving tribute before The Parting Glass. “Without Shane, none of us would be here now,” Stacy acknowledged, dedicating the song to the late frontman. It was a poignant reminder of MacGowan’s irreplaceable presence, made even more apparent when Dirty Old Town rang out, his unmistakable vocal absence keenly felt.
Spider told us “This is the last song for the evening” before looking at the set list and correcting with “no there are two more songs, maybe. Or maybe I will play all night”. While this bought a loud cheer, there were actually three songs left. Poor Paddy Works on the Railway was almost punk Irish folk. It was fast and had the crowd moving in circles on the floor. John Francis Flynn gave us a moving version of Eric Bogle’s And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda before London Girl bought the main set to a close.
Remaining on stage for a bow, original members Stacy, Jem Finer and James Fearnley hinted there may be more—and there was. Five fast and breakneck songs started with The Irish Rover, quickly followed by Streams of Whiskey. When announcing Sally MacLennane as the final song, Spider cheekily said “maybe” once again.
The final encore was only one song, Greenland Whale Fisheries, before the final “Thank you very much Adelaide”. This time, after two hours on stage, it was over.
The night was loud, boisterous and gloriously disorderly—and that was just the audience. The Pogues themselves were even wilder, proving that their legacy remains as untamed as ever. Let’s hope it’s not another fourteen years before they return.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke