The Pogues singer and songwriter has died at 65 after a self-destructive life. An obituary.
The way he sits there on his stool in front of a glittery curtain, a bit awkwardly, and next to him is Nick Cave, and how the two of them perform this optimistic, life-affirming song that was a global hit for Louis Armstrong in 1967. As if two lost souls were taking a short break from a life that one (Cave) was systematically destroying with heroin and the other (MacGowan) with heroin and alcohol. And they sing of a wonderful world with blue skies and blooming roses and little babies that represent the future of this wonderful world, a world that can only be a utopia for MacGowan and Cave at this moment. The video clip for the duet “What A Wonderful World” from 1992 visualizes the entire tragedy of Shane MacGowan, the singer and songwriter of the Pogues.
Shane MacGowan, the prime example
The greatest myth of rock’n’roll is the seemingly inescapable link between rebellious genius and self-destruction. Or as Neil Young put it: “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.” Shane MacGowan is a prime example of this rock myth. He first drank alcohol as a child and was an excessive drinker throughout his life. He came into contact with drugs at an early age, was expelled from school and soon developed a heroin addiction.
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was born on December 25, 1957 in Pembury, Kent, England, the son of Irish emigrants. He lived with his parents in Ireland until he was six, when the family moved back to the southeast of England. His music career began indirectly in October 1976 at a concert by The Clash at the Institute Of Contemporary Art in London. He was injured in the ear by Jane Crockford, the later bassist of the punk band Mo-dettes. The photo of the perpetrator and the bleeding victim, in which the band can be seen on stage in the background, was printed in the concert report in the trade journal New Musical Express.
Shortly after this incident, MacGowan founded the punk band Nipple Erectors with bassist Shanne Bradley, which changed its name to The Nips in 1978. In 1981, after leaving The Nips, he founded the band The New Republicans with Jem Finer (banjo) and Peter Stacy (tin whistle), which was renamed Pogue Mahone in 1982 after accordion player James Fearnley joined – the name is the anglicization a Gaelic phrase and means “kiss my ass”. The band became successful a little later under the name The Pogues.
The Pogues brought together the best of Shane MacGowan’s (musical) worlds. His punk past and his Irish roots, which he now returned to. In his songs he poetically addressed Irish culture, nationalism and the fate of Irish emigrants in the diaspora, but especially in the United States. The single “Fairytale Of New York”, which the Pogues recorded together with the English folk singer Kirsty MacColl, became the Christmas hit of 1987 and is considered the most played Christmas song of the 21st century in Great Britain.
The invention of folk punk
The Pogues’ main achievement, however, is the invention of folk punk. At the beginning of the 80s, the band contributed to a stylistic opening of the musical underground with their innovative fusion music, which they played with traditional instruments such as banjo, treble, mandolin and accordion. At that time it was dominated by authoritarian hardcore punk. Suddenly everything was possible and early musical connoisseurs were able to appreciate absurd genres such as folk music – a development from which the indie world still benefits today. The Pogues’ debut album RED ROSES FOR ME was released in 1984, and three years later the band achieved their greatest commercial success with their third album IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD.
In 1991, MacGowan had to leave the Pogues due to his alcohol problem. He founded the new band Shane MacGowan And The Popes, whose name, not coincidentally, was reminiscent of that of his old band. From 2001 MacGowan played irregularly with the Pogues and from 2005 again as a regular member.
MacGowan struggled with health problems for half his life. He was notorious for his gapped teeth, which he only had extensive treatment restored in 2015. In the same year, he fractured his pelvis in a fall while leaving a recording studio, and from then on he was dependent on a wheelchair. In December 2022, he was hospitalized with life-threatening encephalitis. The next hospitalization took place in July of this year. MacGowan had contracted an infection that required months of intensive care. He was released from St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin just last week.
Shane MacGowan died in Dublin today (November 30) aged 65. The exact cause of death is not yet known.