December 25, 1957 – November 30, 2023
Shane MacGowan of iconic punk group The Pogues has died at the age of 65. The singer had been admitted to hospital in December 2022 with viral encephalitis, where he remained, battling the condition, for much of 2023. He was discharged from hospital on November 22.
Born in Pembury, Kent on Christmas Day 1957, he is best known for his beloved and omnipresent 1987 Christmas single The Fairytale Of New York, recorded with Kirsty MacColl, which allegedly was the result of a bet with Elvis Costello, who had believed that MacGowan would never be able to write a Christmas hit. Costello roundly lost; Fairytale is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK, where it has now racked up combined sales of more than 2.4 million.
But there was far more to MacGowan’s career with The Pogues than that festive breakout single. Squatting in the King’s Cross area of London, the band began their wildly popular live career in 1982 by playing tiny venues around central London. By the end of the 80s they were headlining the Reading Festival and gave an utterly joyous albeit ramshackle Saturday-night performance – the perfectly analogous career summit.
It was clear from the very outset that The Pogues had serious intentions with 1988’s If I Should Fall From Grace With God – home to Fairytale. The US was the open goal, and even the iconic intrepid frontiers-destined cover photo suggested they were a band on the move.
However, the wheels started coming off when MacGowan was dismissed by the band in 1991 while on tour in Japan for unprofessionalism, stemming from his unquenchable thirst.
In 2018 MacGowan was awarded the Ivor Novello songwriting inspiration award, marking his five albums with The Pogues and various solo albums, including 1994’s The Snake, and collaborations with artists such as Nick Cave (a cover of Louis Armstrong’s What AWonderful World in 1992) and Sinéad O’Connor (Haunted in 1995).
As with many artists and their super-hit singles, MacGowan’s relationship with Fairytale
