Scotsman Obituaries: Shane MacGowan, Pogues frontman of Fairytale of New York fame

Following years of alcohol abuse, mental health struggles, a recent diagnosis of encephalitis, several months in a Dublin hospital and a bout of pneumonia, Shane MacGowan finally ran out of road, aged 65, but he leaves a distinct and beloved legacy as an eloquent chronicler of the Irish expat condition, a man with one foot in urban Celtdom and another in the old country, a true folk punk doyen feted by musicians and politicians alike who will forever have his moment in the mainstream, thanks to his best-loved song – The Pogues’ festive gem, Fairytale of New York, which is strongly tipped to finally hit the UK Christmas Number One spot a mere 36 years since its initial release.

Originally peaking at Number Two in the 1987 festive charts, Fairytale is every inch a Christmas classic, with its evocative storytelling, characterful dialogue between MacGowan and co-vocalist Kirsty MacColl and beautifully rendered blend of reality and romanticism.

But MacGowan was already well practised in the art of balancing grit and sentiment in Pogues ballads such as A Rainy Night In Soho and A Pair of Brown Eyes. He was equally at home whipping up an Irish hoolie on the likes of Sally MacLennane.

Little wonder that he found fans, friends and collaborators in Nick Cave, Joe Strummer, Johnny Depp and Sinead O’Connor – who once shopped him to the police out of concern for his drug use and helped save his life. When The Pogues joined forces with The Dubliners on a hit version of The Irish Rover, they became the most motley collection of musicians to grace the Top of the Pops studio in the glossy Eighties.

The son of Irish immigrants, his Celtic heritage was core to his identity and the formation of his band. MacGowan first met Spider Stacey at a Ramones gig in 1977 and, following diverse musical misadventures, they formed The Pogues with Jem Finer and James Fearnley in 1982, releasing seven albums in a turbulent career, including Rum Sodomy & the Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace with God.

There could potentially have been many more but MacGowan was an unrepentant drinker, once commenting: “I haven’t joined a band to drink milk.”

His propensity to miss or be banned from flights made international touring a tad tricky and ultimately led to his ejection from The Pogues in 1991.

He promptly formed Shane MacGowan and the Popes but was back in the fold a decade later and remained Pogues frontman until the band split in 2014, later remarking, “we're friends as long as we don't tour together”.

Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was a Christmas baby, born to singer, Irish dancer and model Therese and retail manager and literary maven Maurice. His town mouse/country mouse childhood was divided between suburban Kent and Therese’s family home in Tipperary, where he soaked up Irish music and culture, sampled Guinness and attended Mass on his extended stays.

Maurice would read Dostoyevsky and James Joyce’s infamously abstruse Finnegan’s Wake with his son, a lifelong fan of Flann O’Brien, Yeats, Beckett and Brendan Behan, whose literary proclivities were recognised at his fee-paying primary school, where he had stories published in the school magazine.

He won a literature scholarship to Westminster School, an unhappy tenure which ended in expulsion when he was found in possession of drugs, aged 15. Two years later he received six months of psychiatric treatment at Bethlem Royal Hospital but salvation came in the form of a punk epiphany at a Sex Pistols gig.

Now based in London, MacGowan worked in record shops and became a face and a name – Shane O’Hooligan – on the city’s burgeoning punk scene, producing his own fanzine, Bondage, then forming his first band The Nipple Erectors, later shortened to The Nips, in 1977.

A subsequent band, Pogue Mahone, also shortened their name – an Anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic for “kiss my arse” – to the more delicate Pogues, signed to Stiff Records and were off to the races, touring with Elvis Costello and releasing debut album Red Roses For Me, named after a Sean O’Casey play, in 1984.

Their gigs were riotous affairs – none more so than their legendary concerts at Glasgow’s Barrowland ballroom where they once led a singalong to the memory of the recently departed Scottish football manager Jock Stein – but always founded on an appreciation of MacGowan’s poetic lyrics and socio-political observations.

When the band finally split up in 2014, MacGowan and partner Victoria Mary Clarke opted for the quiet life – or as quiet as MacGowan’s health and celebrity would allow.

He was hospitalised for some time in 2015 after falling and breaking his pelvis, necessitating an enforced dry spell and the use of a wheelchair. On the plus side, he gained a new set of teeth that same year, as documented in the TV series Shane MacGowan: A Wreck Reborn.

As a mark of the affection and respect he commanded, MacGowan was treated to a star-studded concert celebration for his 60th birthday in Dublin’s National Concert Hall, where Irish president Michael D Higgins presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is survived by Clarke, his partner of over 40 years, with whom he celebrated his wedding anniversary a few days before his death.

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