Shane MacGowan dead - latest: Pogues singer known for Fairytale of New York dies as tributes paid
His death comes one week after he was discharged from hospital
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Your support makes all the difference.The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has died at the age of 65, just a week after he was discharged from hospital.
The news of his death was confirmed by his wife, Irish journalist and author Victoria Mary Clarke, who said in a statement: “Shane will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life”.
Tributes have since flooded in, with Irish premier Leo Varadkar writing he had “beautifully captured the Irish experience”, while his former bandmate shared a black and white image of MacGowan smiling on stage.
Last week, it was announced he was being discharged from hospital ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day. In a post last Wednesday evening, his wife tweeted an image of him wearing a scarf and bobble hat, thanking the nursing staff for their support.
MacGowan revealed he was diagnosed with encephalitis last year in a video posted to social media on New Year’s Eve.
It is an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed, according to the NHS website.
From the 1980s, he lead the Irish punk band The Pogues. The band are best known for their 1987 hit, the festive song “Fairytale Of New York”.
BBC Archive shares 1997 documentary where MacGowan and his parents reflect on his childhood
Comedian Mark Steel says he listened to ‘Rum Sodomy & the Lash’ hours before news was announced
Steel, who revealed his throat cancer diagnosis last month, said he listened to The Pogues while undergoing radiotherapy this morning.
“Each morning I’m bolted into a mask for radiotherapy and choose music to listen to as it’s on,” he wrote. “This morning I asked for Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, a record of pure perfection. An hour later I saw Shane Macgowan has left us. I think this is the most spiritual I’ve ever felt.”
Rick Astley pays tribute
“There will only ever be one Shane MacGowan. Rest in peace,” wrote the “Never Gonna Give You Up” singer.
‘Fairytale of New York’ producer Steve Lillywhite says he’s glad song was censored for today’s ‘woke’ audiences
In an interview with Hot Press magazine conducted days before MacGowan’s death, Lillywhite was asked whether he was conscious that the language in “Fairytale of New York” could offend listeners. The song famously contained the gay slur, “f*****”.
Lillywhite, 68 – who was married to the late Kirsty MacColl who duets with MacGowan on “Fairytale” – said: “No, these were more innocent times. It didn’t seem so politically charged as it is now.”
“But the human race has changed. If some people are offended by that, then we have an alternative. I don’t think one should be banned, because I do believe that it’s art.
“But luckily – the story is quite amazing because obviously Kirsty was killed before all the controversy – about 10 years after it was a hit, they didn’t want The Pogues to do a Christmas Top Of The Pops, but they wanted Shane and Kirsty.
“And at that point there was talk that she could change the lyric and so she just did. It was literally the live vocal on Top Of The Pops where she sang, ‘You’re cheap and you’re haggard.’
“And the BBC went to their archives and took the track off the Top Of The Pops – where she sang it one time only in her life – they took it and cut it into the single.
“But we came from a different generation. And there is a generation of kids who are a lot more sensitive. Radio One had the, ‘You’re cheap and you’re haggard’ version. And Radio Two played the original. Which was very different from my idea of cutting-edge Radio One and mums and dads Radio Two.
“When she changed it to, ‘You’re cheap and you’re haggard’ there wasn’t any outcry from the band or from Shane. It was like, ‘Sure, if that’s what you want.’ Now, you have the choice of either one.
MacColl was killed in a freak boating accident aged 41 in 2000. She changed the line “You cheap lousy f*****” to “You’re cheap and you’re haggard” – an alteration also used by Ronan Keating in his widely mocked version of the track.
Shane MacGowan discusses his song ‘Fairytale of New York’ in old clip
Carl Barât says MacGowan’s ‘storytelling enriched our worlds’ in moving tribute
The Libertines’ co-frontman Carl Barât has paid tribute to MacGowan after his death, aged 65.
In a post on X/Twitter, he wrote: “So saddened to hear about Shane’s passing today. His storytelling enriched our worlds no end as did the nights we spent with him.
“As an artist he was untouchable and will always be with us. Our hearts go out to all who knew him.”
Watch: The Pogue’s Shane MacGowan’s last performance before his death
Billy Bragg has paid tribute to MacGowan, calling him “one of the greatest songwriters of my generation” in a post X/Twitter,
The “Between the War” hitmaker wrote: “Sorry to hear of the demise, after a long illness, of one of the greatest songwriters of my generation, Shane MacGowan.
“The Pogues reinvigorated folk music in the early 80s and his songs put the focus onto lyric writing, opening doors for the likes of myself and others.”
Songwriter Steev Burgess recalls first meeting with ‘fantastic storyteller’ MacGowan
Steev Burgess, a songwriter who wrote songs with The Libertines bassist John Hassell’s side project Yeti, said it was a great honour to have seen Shane sing with the band.
Arriving to find The Boogaloo closed, he told The Independent: “Shane had his regular barstool here. I remember the first time I met him he was just staring at my Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds shirt and I thought he was trying to start something but he just wanted to tell me how he was friends with Nick.”
On his death, he said: “It’s been on the cards for about twenty years but he loved proving people wrong about that. He wanted to come home [from hospital] for Christmas and he got home at the end.
“When people really look at his songs they will see he is a fantastic storyteller.
“He was super clever he knew his history inside out. He also saw life as a bit of a joke amd made a party of it.”
The Boogaloo patrons raise a toast to ‘Irish icon’ MacGowan
The Boogaloo, which Shane MacGowan famously lived upstairs of for a number of years, remains closed until Friday for “a private event”.
The Highgate pub, in which MacGowan was seen regularly drinking with Liam Gallagher and other British rockstars over the years, posted a tribute online: “Goodbye my friend, go with God” in Spanish.
The advertising hoarding above the pub proudly displays The Pogues brand of Irish whisky which was launched at the venue in 2015.
Local cafes are blasting The Pogues as a sign of respect to the late singer.
One Boogaloo patron said: “It is so sad. I drank with him a couple of times here. He is an Irish icon for sure, one of our greats. The music he left behind is just incredible.
“He didn’t have the pretensions of a rockstar, here he was just Shane.”
Boogaloo Radio, based in the pub garden and where Shane hosted a DJ slot, posted the lyrics to The Pogues’ 1990 hit “Summer of Siam” on Facebook, adding: “Thank you for everything Shane MacGowan, sure heaven will not know what’s hit it.”
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