Watch Bob Dylan cover The Pogues’ ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ and play ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ for the first time in 15 years

Bob Dylan has covered The Pogues’ ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ for the first time, and broke out the first live rendition of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ in 15 years. Check out footage below.

• READ MORE: ‘A Complete Unknown’ review: don’t think twice about seeing this brilliant Bob Dylan biopic

The performance took place on Tuesday (May 13), as the iconic singer, songwriter and guitarist took to the stage in Phoenix for Willie Nelson’s ‘Outlaw Music Festival Tour’.

Performing as a co-headliner with Nelson, the folk legend made his set at the tour’s opening night a memorable one, ending the set with a cover of The Pogue’s track ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’. It marked the first time Dylan has put his own spin on the Shane McGowan song, and the moving cover rounded off his 13-song set.

Other highlights included the first live performance of his hit song ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ in 15 years. He broke out the 1965 classic towards the end of the set, introducing it after a rendition of ‘It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry’, and it marked his first time playing the song since 2010.

It comes as there has been a new wave of popularity for the single in recent months, sparked by it being prominently featured in the hit Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, which starred Timothée Chalamet in the lead role and garnered huge critical acclaim.

Elsewhere in his performance at the ‘Outlaw Music Festival Tour’, Dylan performed ‘Forgetful Heart’ for the first time since 2015, ‘To Ramona’ for the first time since 2017, and his cover of Bobby Troup’s ‘(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66’ for the first time since 1986.

As well as classics like ‘All Along the Watchtower’, Dylan also broke out more covers, including his first performance of George “Wild Child” Butler’s ‘Axe And The Wind’ and the first cover of Charlie Rich’s ‘I’ll Make It All Up To You’.

Find more footage from the show below, alongside the full setlist.

Bob Dylan’s ‘Outlaws Music Festival Tour’ setlist was:

‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’
‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’
‘Forgetful Heart’ (First time since 2015)
‘Axe And The Wind’ (George “Wild Child” Butler cover, live debut)
‘To Ramona’ (First time since 2017)
‘(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66’ (Bobby Troup cover, first time since 1986)
‘All Along the Watchtower’
‘I’ll Make It All Up To You’ (Charlie Rich cover, live debut)
‘It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry’
‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ (First time since 2010)
‘Under the Red Sky’
‘Scarlet Town’
‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ (The Pogues cover, live debut)

Willie Nelson’s ‘Outlaw Music Festival Tour’ is set to run for 36 dates and will include performances from the likes of Billy Strings, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and The Avett Brothers. Visit here for remaining tickets.

In other Bob Dylan news, there are rumours that Timothée Chalamet – who played the songwriter in A Complete Unknown – may be planning to break out some of the artist’s classic tracks alongside a cover band at Glastonbury 2025.

Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, however, some tabloids including The Sun have claimed that the actor is planning on performing a brief set with the Bob Dylan tribute group Not Completely Unknown on Saturday June 28. They are allegedly going to be performing on the Acoustic Stage, which only has space for a few thousand people compared to the 200,000-capacity Pyramid Stage.

If the appearance at Glasto 2025 were to materialise, it would follow on from Chalamet delivering a live performance on Saturday Night Live earlier this year, which saw him play a trio of the singer’s tracks.

NME gave the biopic a four-star review, with Alex Flood writing: “The most important (and often trickiest) job of any music movie is to get the music right. And this nails that. If you’re a Bob newbie, you’ll leave the cinema ready to dive into his back catalogue. If you’re already a fan, the next few weeks will be spent making playlists of lesser-known B-sides or reading the lore around a scene you weren’t familiar with. And that’s why it was a good idea to make this film – a mad idea, but a good one.”

Speaking about the importance of committing himself to the character, Chalamet then told NME in January that he was willing to work as long as possible to get the character and musical performances right in the biopic.

“I had the time to put the 10,000 hours in, which in a three-month, four-month period you really can’t… There wasn’t a deadline on it,” he said. “I wasn’t learning for anyone else. I was learning for myself.”

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