Shane MacGowan, lead singer and songwriter for the band The Pogues, dies aged 65

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Information was confirmed by the musician’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, on her social networks. Artist is known for reinvigorating Irish folk music and for the Christmas classic ‘Fairytale of New York’. Shane MacGowan during a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in 1995, with his second band, The Popes Archive/Reuters Shane MacGowan, legendary lead singer and composer of the band The Pogues, has died at the age of 65. The information was released by the musician’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, on her social networks, this Thursday (30). “Shane will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life,” says Victoria. “Thank you for his presence in this world, you made it so bright and gave so many people so much joy with your heart, soul and your music.” According to The Guardian newspaper website, in December 2022, MacGowan was hospitalized with viral encephalitis and, as a result, spent several months of 2023 in intensive care. Shane MacGowan at the wake of his mother, Therese MacGowan, in Ireland in 2017 Archive/Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters The artist was responsible for transforming traditional Irish music and including it in the rock scene with the band The Pogues, in the 1980s. He broke into the mainstream with the expletive-filled Christmas song “Fairytale of New York” in 1987. He also became a caricatured figure for his appearance and behavior: missing teeth, on-stage meltdowns and drug and alcohol abuse. He was fired from The Pogues at the height of the group’s success in 1991. In his compositions, he was inspired by literature, mythology and the Bible. “It became obvious that everything that could be done with a standard rock format had already been done, usually very badly,” he said in an interview with NME magazine in 1983, when the Pogues were emerging. “We just wanted to push music that was rootsy, tougher, and had more real anger and emotion down the throats of a completely paparazzi-oriented pop audience.” Who was Shane MacGowan Born in the English county of Kent to Irish parents on Christmas Day 1957, MacGowan, in his autobiography, described early childhood summers spent in an Irish farmhouse with his family, drinking, smoking and singing traditional songs. “It was like living in a pub,” he told the Guardian in 2013. After winning a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London, MacGowan struggled to adapt and was expelled two years later for drug use and began going to London bars with other musicians. Shane MacGowan, lead singer of the band The Pogues, dies at age 65 Reproduction/Instagram/Shane MacGowan At age 17, the use of alcohol and drugs helped trigger a mental breakdown and he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for six months. After recovering, he embraced the punk explosion in London in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Following a vogue for fusions of traditional music from around the world, MacGowan began shouting Irish ballads over distorted guitars, forming the band The Pogue Mahone. The group, who later shortened their name to The Pogues, released their debut album in 1984, and caught the attention of the British music press with their lyrics about drinking and fighting with penniless Irish immigrants on the streets of London. It was with “A Pair of Brown Eyes”, from the 1985 follow-up album, “Rum Sodomy & the Lash”, produced by Elvis Costello, that MacGowan demonstrated his talent as a songwriter. The song paved the way for later classics like “A Rainy Night in Soho” and “Summer in Siam.” Joe Strummer of The Clash, who later played with the Pogues and briefly replaced MacGowan as lead singer, described the artist at the time as a visionary, a poet and “one of the best writers of the century”. The Pogues’ peak of success came in 1987 with “Fairytale of New York”, which MacGowan sang as a duet with Kirsty MacColl to create an instant Christmas classic, despite the hostile radio lyrics in which the estranged couple exchange insults. After a series of hallucinogenic binges, including a night in New Zealand when he stripped naked and painted himself blue, the Pogues fired MacGowan during a tour of Japan in 1991. After a decade with a new band, the Popes, MacGowan and the Pogues reunited and toured until 2014. VIDEOS Personalities who died in 2023

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