2023-11-30 12:23:00
Brian Rasic/Getty Images
Shane MacGowan, The Pogues founder who sang Christmas classic Fairytale of New York with Kirsty MacColl, has died aged 65.
MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke shared the news in a post on Instagram, saying: “Shane will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life.”
“There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world,” added Clarke. “You will live in my heart forever. Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much.”
A spokesman for MacGowan told the BBC he “died peacefully at 3.30am this morning (30 November) with his wife and and sister by his side.”
MacGowan had suffered from health issues over the past few years and was reportedly released from hospital last week after spending time in intensive care.
Born in Kent in 1957, he founded Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band The Pogues in 1982, which released seven albums and achieved much mainstream success before breaking up in the mid-1990s. The Pogues re-formed in late 2001 and played regularly across the UK and Ireland and on the U.S. East Coast, until dissolving again in 2014. Major hits included If I Should Fall From Grace With God and Dirty Old Town.
In 1988, MacGowan’s Pogues and singer Kirsty MacColl released Fairytale of New York, which went on to be a huge hit and is still played at Christmas every year. The song has been voted best Christmas classic of all time by numerous polls. MacColl tragically died in 2000 following a freak boating accident.
In 2018, MacGowan was honored with a lifetime achievement award at a 60th birthday party in Dublin’s National Concert Hall.
Johnny Depp was subsequently a producer on a documentary about his life – Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan – which was released in 2020. The pair had performed together in the past and MacGowan called Depp a “wonderful friend” on his birthday last year.
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