Shane MacGowan, singer of the Pogues, died this Thursday at the age of 65, after being hospitalized as a result of encephalitis. His wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, announced the news.
MacGowan, who had been using a wheelchair since suffering a fall in 2015, had been “not feeling well for some time,” the BBC reports.
Born in Kent, England, although his parents were Irish, MacGowan was the soul of the Pogues, a band that achieved great popularity by mixing punk and Celtic tradition. MacGowan’s decadent voice, storyteller skills, and charisma led the Pogues to international success during the 1980s and 1990s. Their 1985 single ‘A Fairytale in New York’ peaked at No. United Kingdom, and is a classic of the Christmas season even today.
The Pogues’ history was also full of bumps and curves. MacGowan’s drinking problems led the musician to leave the band in 1991, and the band, which continued on its own, announced its dissolution in 1996. This was the year in which the Pogues, who had released seven studio albums, left to release new music. In 2001, the Pogues returned and in 2014 they said goodbye definitively, but not before publishing several albums recorded live.
‘Dirty Old Town’, ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’ and ‘The Irish Rover’ are some of the hits that the Pogues signed during their career. Among their fundamental albums are ‘Rum, Sodomy & The Lash’, from 1985, and their most successful album in the United Kingdom, published in 1993, which reached the top 3 in sales, ‘If I Should Fall from Grace with God ‘.
