LONDON, England – Shane MacGowan, The Pogues’ boisterous, rabble-rousing singer and lead composer who combined traditional Irish music with the intensity and spirit of punk, died Thursday, according to his family. He was 65.
MacGowan’s songwriting and persona established him as an iconic figure in contemporary Irish culture, and some of his compositions have become classics, most notably the bittersweet Christmas ballad “Fairytale of New York,” of which Irish President Michael D. Higgins stated that it “will be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.”
“It is with deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling, and dearly beloved Shane MacGowan,” his wife Victoria Clarke, sister Siobhan, and father Maurice said in a statement.
According to the statement, the musician died peacefully with his family by his side.
After being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022, the musician was hospitalized in Dublin for several months. He was released last week, just in time for his forthcoming birthday on Christmas Day.
The Pogues fused Irish folk and rock ‘n’ roll into a unique, irresistible blend, though MacGowan became known for his slurred performances as much as his passionate compositions.
Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65
His lyrics mixed scabrous and romantic elements, ranging from carousing anthems to pictures of life in the gutter to sweet love songs. “Fairytale of New York,” The Pogues’ most famous song, is a tale about down-on-their-luck immigrant lovers that begins with the rather unfestive words: “It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank.” The duet between MacGowan’s scratchy voice and the silky tones of the late Kirsty MacColl is by far the most popular Pogues song in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Nick Cave, a singer-songwriter, described Shane MacGowan as “a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation.”
The Irish president, Michael D. Higgins, stated that “his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams.”
“His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways,” added Higgins.
According to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, MacGowan’s compositions “beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.”
According to Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, “nobody told the Irish story like Shane — stories of emigration, heartache, dislocation, redemption, love, and joy.”
MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 in England to Irish parents and spent his childhood in rural Ireland before returning to London. Ireland remained the everlasting focus of his imagination and longing. He grew up listening to Irish music from family and neighbors and rock, Motown, reggae, and jazz.
He was expelled from London’s renowned Westminster School and spent time in a psychiatric facility following a breakdown in his teens.
MacGowan welcomed the punk scene that erupted in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s. He played in a band called the Nipple Erectors as Shane O’Hooligan before forming The Pogues with musicians including Jem Finer and Spider Stacey.
Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65
The Pogues blended punk’s ferocious energy with traditional Irish tunes and instruments such as banjo, tin whistle, and accordion.
“It never occurred to me that you could play Irish music to a rock audience,” MacGowan said in his 2001 biography “A Drink with Shane MacGowan,” co-written with Clarke. “And then it clicked. Start an Irish band in London that plays Irish music with a rock and roll beat. The original plan was to simply blast out classic songs, but then I started writing.”
“Red Roses for Me,” the band’s first album, was released in 1984 and contained boisterous interpretations of Irish folk tunes among originals such as “Boys from County Hell,” “Dark Streets of London,” and “Streams of Whisky.”
The band gained a loyal following and accolades from music journalists and fellow performers ranging from Bono to Bob Dylan while performing in pubs and clubs throughout London and beyond.
The songs on the following two albums, “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” (1985) and “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” (1988), by MacGowan, ranged from raucous rousers like the latter album’s title track to ballads like “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and “The Broad Majestic Shannon.”
The band also published an EP in 1986 called “Poguetry in Motion,” which included two of MacGowan’s best tunes, “A Rainy Night in Soho” and “The Body of an American.” The latter was featured frequently in the early-2000s TV show “The Wire,” when it was performed at the funerals of Baltimore police officers.
“I wanted to make pure music that could be from any time, to make time irrelevant, to make generations and decades irrelevant,” he wrote in his autobiographical book.
The Pogues momentarily ruled the world, with sold-out tours and appearances on American television, but the band’s output and appearances became more unpredictable, owing in part to MacGowan’s troubles with drink and narcotics. He was fired by the other band members in 1991 after a spate of no-shows, notably while The Pogues were opening for Dylan. Before disbanding, the band momentarily replaced MacGowan with Clash frontman Joe Strummer.
Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65
MacGowan joined a new band, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, and released two albums: “The Snake” in 1995 and “The Crock Of Gold” in 1997. Despite his well-documented drinking problems and performances that frequently included slurred lyrics and at least one stage collapse, he reconnected with The Pogues in 2001 for a series of concerts and tours.
MacGowan struggled with health issues for years and relied on a wheelchair after breaking his pelvis a decade ago. He was well-known for his damaged, decaying teeth until he received a full set of implants in 2015 from a dental specialist who referred to the treatment as “the Everest of dentistry.”
On his 60th birthday, MacGowan got a lifetime achievement award from Ireland’s president. A celebratory concert featuring Bono, Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor, and Johnny Depp took place at Dublin’s National Concert Hall to mark the occasion.
In an Instagram post, Clarke said, “There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.”
“I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures,” she wrote in an email.
SOURCE – (AP)
