Cait O’Riordan

Caitlín O’Riordan was born in Nigeria to Irish and Scottish parents, who moved to London when the Nigerian Civil War broke out in 1967.[2] She heard the Nips’ song “Gabrielle” on the radio in 1979, and subsequently met future Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan, who was working at Rocks Off Records, where she went to purchase the record.

In 1982, she was invited by MacGowan to join his newly forming band Pogue Mahone. She appeared on the group’s first two albums, Red Roses for Me and Rum Sodomy & the Lash, the EP Poguetry in Motion, and several early singles, before leaving in 1986. Besides playing bass, she provided vocals for “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day” on Rum Sodomy & the Lash,[4] and for “Haunted” on the soundtrack to Alex Cox’s film Sid and Nancy. The Pogues’ most commercially successful song, “Fairytale of New York” from If I Should Fall from Grace with God, was written as a duet for O’Riordan and MacGowan, but the band eventually recorded it with Kirsty MacColl singing the female part. O’Riordan and Costello are mentioned in the lyrics to “Fiesta” from If I Should Fall from Grace with God.