Pogues differ over 'Farewell' tour claim

Members of The Pogues have publicly differed over the billing of their upcoming live dates as a 'Farewell Christmas Tour'.

On the band's official forum, a fan asked guitarist Philip Chevron if the gigs did in fact mark the group's last seasonal dates.

Chevron said: "This claim does not come from me and I will neither be supporting it nor discussing it. You may consider it a marketing ploy if you wish."

However, bandmate Spider Stacey countered: "This is the last Christmas tour for the foreseeable future. That's not to say we won't be showing up at festivals here and there or maybe even the odd gig around the UK and Ireland and certainly in Europe.

"But we're tired of dragging our weary, freezing carcasses around these drowning islands every December, so we're going to give it a rest before you get tired of it too. Go and see The Libertines. They're the best."

Chevron replied: "As you can see, opinion is not uniform on the matter. Spider is using the royal 'we' here."

Whistle/harmonica player and vocalist Stacey quipped: "Using the royal We? God forbid a band member would come on these pages and do something like that! Right, I'm off to pay the plumber."

When questioned by another fan, Stacey added: "Does it say we're splitting up? No it doesn't. And sorry to disappoint but there's absolutely no internal arguments going on, spirits are high in the Pogues camp."