Review: The Pogues at Newcastle O2 Academy

Dec 12 2009 by Matt McKenzie, The Journal

A Pair of Brown Eyes was magical. The laughing wind, screaming sky, hungry sound coming across the breeze. A rolling and roving it went, wonderfully.

Then his best song: A Rainy Night In Soho. You’d have thought I’d be ready for the emotional resonance of these four minutes, but maybe I’d forgotten.

It wooed me all over again; it was here to remind me how beautiful it was. “Some of them fell into heaven, some of them fell into hell,” Shane sang, and it’s remarkable how a man so full of whiskey is capable of this. A sober reflection: few songs can match up.

They finished, of course they did, with A Fairytale Of New York. It snowed on stage again and drew gasps from the crowd. Forgive the odd shambles, The Pogues made Christmas again.