Shane MacGowan, the boozy, rabble-rousing singer and chief songwriter of The Pogues, who infused traditional Irish music with the energy and spirit of punk, died Thursday, his family said. He was 65.
MacGowan鈥檚 songwriting and persona made him an iconic figure in contemporary Irish culture, and some of his compositions have become classics 鈥� most notably the bittersweet Christmas ballad 鈥淔airytale of New York,鈥� which Irish President Michael D. Higgins said 鈥渨ill be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.鈥�
鈥淚t is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling and dearly beloved Shane MacGowan,鈥� his wife Victoria Clarke, his sister Siobhan and father Maurice said in a statement.
The singer died peacefully with his family by his side, the statement added.
The musician had been hospitalized in Dublin for several months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022. He was discharged last week, ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day.
The Pogues melded Irish folk and rock 鈥檔鈥� roll into a unique, intoxicating blend, though MacGowan became as famous for his sozzled, slurred performances as for his powerful songwriting.
His songs blended the scabrous and the sentimental, ranging from carousing anthems to snapshots of life in the gutter to unexpectedly tender love songs. The Pogues鈥� most famous song, 鈥淔airytale of New York鈥� is a tale of down-on-their-luck immigrant lovers that opens with the decidedly unfestive words: 鈥淚t was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank.鈥� The duet between the raspy-voiced MacGowan and the velvet tones of the late Kirsty MacColl is by far the most beloved Pogues song in both Ireland and the U.K.
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave called Shane MacGowan 鈥渁 true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation.鈥�
Higgins, the Irish president, said 鈥渉is songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams.鈥�
鈥淗is 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,鈥� Higgins said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said MacGowan鈥檚 songs 鈥渂eautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.鈥�
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said: 鈥淣obody told the Irish story like Shane 鈥� stories of emigration, heartache, dislocation, redemption, love and joy.鈥�
Born on Christmas Day 1957 in England to Irish parents, MacGowan spent his early years in rural Ireland before the family moved back to London. Ireland remained the lifelong center of his imagination and his yearning. He grew up steeped in Irish music absorbed from family and neighbors, along with the sounds of rock, Motown, reggae and jazz.
He attended the elite Westminster School in London, from which he was expelled, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown in his teens.
MacGowan embraced the punk scene that exploded in Britain in the mid-1970s. He joined a band called the Nipple Erectors, performing under the name Shane O鈥橦ooligan, before forming The Pogues alongside musicians including Jem Finer and Spider Stacey.
The Pogues 鈥� shortened from the original name Pogue Mahone, a rude Irish phrase 鈥� fused punk鈥檚 furious energy with traditional Irish melodies and instruments including banjo, tin whistle and accordion.
鈥淚t never occurred to me that you could play Irish music to a rock audience,鈥� MacGowan recalled in 鈥淎 Drink with Shane MacGowan,鈥� a 2001 memoir co-authored with Clarke. 鈥淭hen it finally clicked. Start a London Irish band playing Irish music with a rock and roll beat. The original idea was just to rock up old ones but then I started writing.鈥�
The band鈥檚 first album, 鈥淩ed Roses for Me,鈥� was released in 1984 and featured raucous versions of Irish folk songs alongside originals including 鈥淏oys from the County Hell,鈥� 鈥淒ark Streets of London鈥� and 鈥淪treams of Whisky.鈥�
Playing pubs and clubs in London and beyond, the band earned a loyal following and praise from music critics and fellow musicians from Bono to Bob Dylan.
MacGowan wrote many of the songs on the next two albums, 鈥淩um, Sodomy and the Lash鈥� (1985) and 鈥淚f I Should Fall from Grace with God鈥� (1988), ranging from rollicking rousers like the latter album鈥檚 title track to ballads like 鈥淎 Pair of Brown Eyes鈥� and 鈥淭he Broad Majestic Shannon.鈥�
The band also released a 1986 EP, 鈥淧oguetry in Motion,鈥� which contained two of MacGowan鈥檚 finest songs, 鈥淎 Rainy Night in Soho鈥� and 鈥淭he Body of an American.鈥� The latter featured prominently in early-2000s TV series 鈥淭he Wire,鈥� sung at the wakes of Baltimore police officers.
鈥淚 wanted to make pure music that could be from any time, to make time irrelevant, to make generations and decades irrelevant,鈥� he recalled in his memoir.
The Pogues were briefly on top of the world, with sold-out tours and appearances on U.S. television, but the band鈥檚 output and appearances grew more erratic, due in part to MacGowan鈥檚 struggles with alcohol and drugs. He was fired by the other band members in 1991 after they became fed up with a string of no-shows, including when The Pogues were opening for Dylan. The band briefly replaced MacGowan with Clash frontman Joe Strummer before breaking up.
MacGowan performed with a new band, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, with whom he put out two albums: 鈥淭he Snake鈥� in 1995 and 鈥淭he Crock Of Gold鈥� in 1997. He reunited with The Pogues in 2001 for a series of concerts and tours, despite his well-documented problems with drinking and performances that regularly included slurred lyrics and at least one fall on stage.
MacGowan had years of health problems and used a wheelchair after breaking his pelvis a decade ago. He was long famous for his broken, rotten teeth until receiving a full set of implants in 2015 from a dental surgeon who described the procedure as 鈥渢he Everest of dentistry.鈥�
MacGowan received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish president on his 60th birthday. The occasion was marked with a celebratory concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin with performers including Bono, Nick Cave, Sinead O鈥機onnor and Johnny Depp.
Clarke wrote on Instagram that 鈥渢here鈥檚 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.鈥�
鈥淚 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,鈥� she wrote.
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