The legendary Shane MacGowan, the former singer and leader of the Anglo-Irish group The Pogues, has died at the age of 65, after dealing with health problems in the last years of a life affected by the excesses of youth. Especially shocking is the photograph that his wife, Victoria Clark, uploaded to her official Platform But the viral encephalitis he suffered from finally ended his life on Thursday. Recently, his physical deterioration could be seen when he was seen online in an emotional photo taken during Bruce Springsteen’s visit to him during his time in Ireland on his last tour.
Even the Boss pays homage to a character who could be considered a bard of pop, the leading voice of a group that made history, The Pogues who burst in like a hurricane with their Celtic punk. But before that MacGowan – born in Kent, to Irish parents – had already had time to cut his teeth in the late seventies in close company with Peter Spider Stacy, trying to inject punk mentality into a music that used traditional Irish instruments such as flutes, banjo or mandolin. His time in The Nips has gone down in history, originally founded in 1976 as the Nipple Erectors.
MacGowan’s folk-punk journey would take on a new dimension when he came into contact in 1982 with James Fearnley (accordionist), who pushed him to found the group Pogue Mahone. Then, in a performance at the legendary London venue 100 Club, the band is joined by Cait O’Riordan on bass and Andrew Ranken on drums. Shortly after, The Pogues were born. Their first single, Dark streets of London, released in 1984, was signed by MacGowan and is the introduction to Red roses for me – released by the legendary Stiff label – an album full of traditional Irish music with a punk mentality that talks about getting drunk. , fighting and having sex in titles as significant as The battle of Brisbane or Streams of whiskey, whose lyrics refer to a poet who was a member of the IRA. With their second album, Rum, sodomy
Despite having great success, The Pogues are reluctant to publish a new album and only release the brief four-track EP Poguetry in Motion (1986). They were days of wine and roses and letting go. Thus we find MacGowan acting in the film Straight to Hell (1987) by Alex Cox, a parody of spaghetti westerns that brought together a constellation of stars of the time; from Joe Strummer to Courtney Love and from Dennis Hooper to Jim Jarmush.
With their third album, If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988), a remodeled The Pogues achieved their greatest success in the form of the single Fairytale of New York, which helped make the album the best-selling album of their career, incorporating its Celtic punk other elements taken from Turkish or Spanish music. It is not in vain that the title Fiesta refers to a party that lasted several days in Andalusia. Although they also look at alcohol from the problematic side in the stark Lullaby of London, in which a drunk father talks to his son. His lyrics have been compared to the poems of Charles Bukowsky.
The boxer on the cover of Peace and Love (1989) illustrates the group’s most London album, with love postcards like White City, Misty Morning or London You Are a Lady. MacGowan also composed for the album Cotton Fields, inspired by bluesman Lead Belly. The singer would leave the group, after releasing the fifth album Hell’s Ditch (1990), due to his problems with alcohol and drugs. After the breakup, he resurfaced with the song Paddy public enemy number 1, credited to Shane MacGowan and The Popes, a group with which he recorded two albums: The snake (1994) and The crock of gold (1997), with decreasing success.
The Pogues reunited for a series of concerts at the beginning of the new millennium. Meanwhile, the charismatic MacGowan had time to write a blog for The Guardian in 2006. Among his most famous friends is Johnny Depp, who produced the film Crock of gold: drinking with Shane MacGowan (2020), an excellent tribute to his life and work directed by Julien Temple. He was also closely linked with Joe Strummer, who said that he considered him “one of the best writers of the century.” A lover of partying, he had a good relationship with Pete Doherty and sometimes went on stage to perform with Babyshambles. His hunger for the stage led him to perform in 2010 in Dublin in front of the Shane Gang. In 2018 he had the honor of receiving, from the President of Ireland, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, an award for his entire career. He co-authored an autobiography with the explicit title: A drink with Shane MacGowan.
