Shane MacGowan
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (25 December 1957 – 30 November 2023) was a British and Irish singer-songwriter, musician and poet, best known as the original lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He won acclaim for his songwriting, which often focused on the Irish emigrant experience; he also received widespread media attention for his life, which included decades of heavy alcohol and drug abuse.
Born in Kent, England, MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary, Ireland, before moving back to England with his family at age six. He won a literary scholarship to Westminster School but was expelled in his second year for drug offences. In his later teens, he spent six months in psychiatric care at Bethlem Royal Hospital due to his drug and alcohol abuse. He became active on the London punk scene under the alias Shane O'Hooligan, and in 1977, with then-girlfriend Shanne Bradley, he co-founded his first band, the Nips.
In 1982, with Spider Stacy and Jem Finer, MacGowan co-founded the Pogues, who fused punk influences with traditional Irish music. After building a reputation with their live shows in London pubs and clubs, the band released their debut album, Red Roses for Me, in 1984. MacGowan was the principal songwriter and lead vocalist on the band's first five studio albums, including Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985) and the critically acclaimed and commercially successful If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988). MacGowan and Finer co-wrote the Christmas hit single "Fairytale of New York" (1987), which MacGowan recorded as a duet with Kirsty MacColl; the song remains a Christmas favourite in Ireland and Britain and was certified sextuple platinum in the UK in 2023.
The Pogues dismissed MacGowan during a 1991 tour of Japan, as his drug and alcohol dependency increasingly affected their live shows. He formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, with which he released two studio albums; he also collaborated with artists including Johnny Depp, Nick Cave, Sinéad O'Connor, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Dropkick Murphys and Cruachan. In 2001, he rejoined the Pogues for reunion shows and continued to tour with the group until it dissolved in 2014. In 2018, he received a lifetime achievement award presented by the president of Ireland; later that same year, he married his long-term partner, journalist and writer Victoria Mary Clarke. Following years of deteriorating health, he died from pneumonia in Dublin in November 2023, aged 65.
Haunted
- 1994-04-11T00:00:00.000000Z
Similar Artists