 After being promoted to principal tenor at the Savoy Theatre, he created the principal tenor roles in "The Yeomen of the Guard" (1888), "The Gondoliers" (1889), "The Nautch Girl" (1891) and "Haddon Hall" (1892), and played other principal roles.After leaving D'Oyly Carte in 1895, Pounds became a prominent performer during the transition of musical theatre from comic opera to musical comedy, creating roles in the West End in both genres from the late 1890s to the 1920s.The operettas and musical comedies in which he starred included "La poupée", "The Duchess of Dantzic", "The Belle of Mayfair", "Princess Caprice", and the long-running hits "Chu Chin Chow" and "Lilac Time".