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Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan were close friends – close enough to once cheer each other up with a duet of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” On Wednesday, Cave honored his late friend with a performance of “A Rainy Night in Soho,” a song by MacGowan’s band The Pogues, at a concert on MacGowan’s favorite island of Ireland. The concert took place at Malahide Castle & Gardens.
Cave, currently on tour with the Bad Seeds, played piano and sang MacGowan’s wistful lines about taking stock of a life (“I’ve cried for all your troubles/Smiled at your funny little ways”) with an audible tremble in his voice. Violinist Warren Ellis delivered an equally soulful solo during a break between verses. “Wow, all right,” Cave commented with a laugh when he was finished. It became a loving swan song for MacGowan, who died in 2023.
“A Rainy Night in Soho” has become one of the most played Pogues songs among artists since MacGowan’s death – because of the deep-rooted nostalgia of the lyrics. In December 2023, U2 performed the song during their residency at the Sphere. And Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band recently recorded a version of it for an upcoming MacGowan tribute album. “Shane was one of my favorite writers of all time,” Springsteen said after MacGowan’s death. “The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics are unparalleled – only the very best in the rock & roll canon can come close.”
Rarities and memories
Cave’s setlist on Wednesday included other notable moments, including the first performance of “Train Long-Suffering” from the album “The Firstborn Is Dead” since 1989, as well as a rendition of “Stranger Than Kindness” from “Your Funeral… My Trial,” written by former Bad Seeds members Blixa Cash and Anita Lane.
It was the first time the band played this song since 2015. Lane died in 2021; Cave then memorialized her with the song “O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)” on the latest Bad Seeds album “Wild God”.