R.I.P. Shane MacGowan, Pogues frontman and “Fairytale Of New York” singer

Shane MacGowanPhoto: Gie Knaeps (Getty Images)

Shane MacGowan, famed frontman of Anglo-Irish punk band The Pogues, died on Thursday, according to a social media statement from the band and confirmed by his wife Victoria Mary Clarke. MacGowan had been diagnosed last year with encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. He was 65 years old.

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“Shane died peacefully at 3am this morning (30 November) with his wife Victoria and and family by his side,” read the statement posted by the band on Twitter/X. “Prayers and the last rites were read during his passing.”

The son of Irish immigrants, MacGowan was born in Kent, England in 1957. As a young man he became entrenched in London’s punk scene, starting off as part of the band The Nips before forming Pogue Mahone (an anglicized version of the Gaelic phrase “kiss my arse”)—later shortened to The Pogues—in 1984. MacGowan’s songwriting fused the spirit of the punk movement with the Irish diaspora; the band’s notable hits include “Streams Of Whiskey,” “A Rainy Night In Soho,” and “Fairytale Of New York,” an enduring Christmas song that reached number two on the UK charts (per the BBC).

However, MacGowan struggled with addiction and was an infamously heavy drinker, leading him to be fired from the band in 1991. He formed a new group, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, before eventually re-joining The Pogues in 2001. He continued to work on various musical projects, including fronting the group The Shane Gang, even through the decline of his health and mobility issues in the late 2010s.

“Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese,” his wife wrote in her own statement. “I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures. 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. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presence in this world you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music. You will live in my heart forever. Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much. You meant the world to me.”

Per the band’s statement, MacGowan “is survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan and his father, Maurice, family and a large circle of friends.” R.I.P.