In his songs, he drew on literature, mythology and the Bible. Irish singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan, leader of the band The Pogues, who combined traditional Irish music with sharp punk rock, has died at the age of 65. The frontman paved the way for groups like Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys, but he was also known for his alcoholic excesses.
MacGowan was hospitalized last December and spent several months in intensive care this year. He died with reference to the family on Thursday confirmed British newspaper Guardian. It also reminds of the musician’s interview for NME magazine from 1983. That’s when the Pogues became famous about a year after their formation. “Everything that could be done with the traditional rock band format has already been done. We make music from the roots, stronger, angrier, more emotional,” he said.
Born in Kent, England, the son of Irish immigrants, he has written frequently about Irish culture, nationalism and the experience of being a member of the Irish diaspora. “He has a rare talent for combining Byron with an imbecile,” noted the British critic Nick Kent in the book The Heavy Shot about MacGowan.
Shane MacGowan at his mother’s funeral in 2017. | Photo: Reuters
In addition to his original singing, the singer attracted attention for the fact that he had no teeth, often stumbled on stage drunk and forgot the lyrics. He led the Pogues until 2001, when his bandmates fired him mid-tour due to unreliability and alcohol addiction. He was briefly replaced in the line-up by Joe Strummer from the more famous The Clash.
MacGowan subsequently founded a new band, The Popes, with whom he recorded several albums. In 1997, he performed in the popular song Perfect Day by Lou Reed, after which he returned to the Pogues again in 2001 and completed several more tours with them.
As part of his solo career, the musician visited the Czech Republic several times. In 1996, he participated in the Jam ’96 festival at Prague’s Džbán swimming pool, where he kept the audience waiting for a long time. “Show yourself, you drunkard,” fans shouted at him, according to a report in Lidové noviny. The singer “stumbled onto the stage ‘stylishly’ drunk, with a cup of beer, almost incapable of articulate speech”, but when he began to sing Irish pub music played with a punk-folk charge with The Popes, his tongue gradually loosened, Lidové noviny reported.
In 2004, MacGowan again played with the band The Popes at the Respect festival, then held at Prague’s Štvanice. “Surprisingly, he not only failed to attract a mass audience, but also his performance was by far the biggest flop of an otherwise very interesting program,” stated Mladý svět magazine in a review.
The musician told about his life in 2001 in a book called A Drink with Shane MacGowan, which he wrote with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke. According to her, a documentary titled Pot of Gold: A Few Drinks with Shane MacGowan was later created, which was presented by the popular Hollywood actor Johnny Depp at the Karlovy Vary festival the year before. He was friends with MacGowan, he produced the film and he himself appears in it.
During the screening in Vary, the packed large hall of the Thermal Hotel applauded the Irish singer and waved at mobile phones from a distance. “Don’t ever try to keep up with Shane MacGowan,” Depp told the audience, referring to MacGowan’s weakness for alcohol. “When I saw him for the first time, I said to myself: oh my God, that person won’t live for 14 days, he won’t make it. And that was 30 years ago,” he added.
MacGowan’s wife said in Vary that her husband was happy about the release of the film. “He likes this country, he likes Prague, he likes Czech beer. We told him that we were going to a beer spa, which we were going to do, and that also pleased him,” she said.
Video: Fairytale Of New York od The Pogues
Fairytale Of New York, sung by Kirsty MacColl with Shane MacGowan, is one of The Pogues’ biggest hits. | Video: Pogue Mahone
