The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan Is Dead at 65

Shane MacGowan, the legendary singer/songwriter best known for his time fronting the Pogues, died this morning at home after a long bout with an infection that first hospitalized him in July.

A statement on behalf of his wife Victoria Mary Clarke, his sister Siobhan and father Maurice read: “It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling and dearly beloved SHANE MACGOWAN. Shane died peacefully at 3:30am this morning (30 November, 2023) with his wife and sister by his side. Prayers and last rites were read during his passing.”

The son of Irish immigrants, Shane MacGowan grew up in southeast England, but his Irish heritage would shape his musical career, particularly after he left punk band the Nipple Erectors and founded the Pogues alongside Peter “Spider” Stacy, Jem Finer and James Fearnley, with Cait O’Riordan and Andrew Ranken joining soon after. The songs he wrote for the band, which blended MacGowan’s punk roots with traditional Irish folk, were full of distinctly Irish stories, often focused on Irish nationalism and the experiences of Irish immigrants around the world.

The band was initially known for their rousing live performances, something that remained a constant throughout the years, but found bigger success with their sophomore album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, produced by Elvis Costello. One of the band’s biggest hits, co-written by MacGowen and released on their 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God, was their now-classic Chirstmas song, “Fairytale of New York,” a duet with singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl.

MacGowen’s alcohol and drug problems contributed to his ouster from the Pogues in 1991 mid-tour and led to Sinead O’Connor reporting him to the police to try and help him stop his heroin use. MacGowen would form a new band, Shane MacGowan and the Popes and, in 2001, the Pogues reformed with him and continued to play live shows off and on through 2015.

MacGowan married his longtime partner Clarke, an Irish journalist, in 2018, and she was home with him when he died.

One of his final public posts was a tweet responding to Travis Kelce’s cover of “Fairytale of New York” with a Philadelphia spin for the Eagles.

Tell them I am knocked out 👍Travis Kelce Shows Off His Singing Skills! https://t.co/j2r8oaQrWD via @YouTube

— Shane MacGowan (@ShaneMacGowan) November 16, 2023

The tributes to the iconic musician have been myriad today, with Ireland’s president Michael D. Higgins saying, “”Shane will be remembered as one of music’s greatest lyricists. So many of his songs would be perfectly crafted poems, if that would not have deprived us of the opportunity to hear him sing them. The genius of Shane’s contribution includes the fact that his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams—of so many worlds, and particularly those of love, of the emigrant experience and of facing the challenges of that experience with authenticity and courage, and of living and seeing the sides of life that so many turn away from.”

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.

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) November 30, 2023

Farewell Shane MacGowan. A life lived to the full. A lyrical genius. An inspiration to so many of us who wanted to be in bands. I followed The Pogues to far flung places, met Shane a few times and watched some of the most exhilarating shows I’ve ever witnessed

📷 Steve Pyke pic.twitter.com/gHrtDNwVDW

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) November 30, 2023