48 Facts About Shane MacGowan

Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was a British-born Irish singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues.

Shane MacGowan won acclaim for his lyrics, which often focused on the Irish emigrant experience; he received widespread media attention for his lifestyle, which included decades of heavy alcohol and drug abuse.

Shane MacGowan became active on the London punk scene under the alias Shane O'Hooligan, attending gigs, working in the Rocks Off record shop, and writing a punk fanzine.

Shane MacGowan formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, with which he released two further studio albums, including the singles "The Church of the Holy Spook" and "That Woman's Got Me Drinking".

Shane MacGowan was born on 25 December 1957 in Pembury, Kent, the son of Irish parents who were visiting relatives in England at the time of his birth.

Shane MacGowan's younger sister, Siobhan MacGowan, was born in 1963; she later became a journalist, writer, and songwriter.

Shane MacGowan lived in many parts of southeast England such as Brighton, London, and the home counties, and attended an English public school.

Shane MacGowan's father encouraged his precocious interest in literature; by age 11, MacGowan was reading authors including Fyodor Dostoyevsky, John Steinbeck, and James Joyce.

Shane MacGowan was first publicly noted in 1976 at a concert by London punk rock band the Clash, where his earlobe was damaged by future Mo-dettes bassist Jane Crockford.

Shane MacGowan drew upon his Irish heritage when founding the Pogues and changed his early punk style for a more traditional sound with tutoring from his extended family.

Shane MacGowan often cited the 19th-century Irish poet James Clarence Mangan and playwright Brendan Behan as influences.

Between 1985 and 1987, Shane MacGowan co-wrote "Fairytale of New York", which he performed with Kirsty MacColl, and remains a perennial Christmas favourite; in 2004,2005 and 2006, it was voted favourite Christmas song in a poll by music video channel VH1.

In 1997, Shane MacGowan appeared on Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", covered by numerous artists in aid of Children in Need.

The Pogues and Shane MacGowan reformed for a sell-out tour in 2001 and each year from 2004 to 2009 for further tours, including headline slots at Guilfest in England and the Azkena Rock Festival in the Basque Country.

In 2006, he was seen many times with the Libertines and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty; on occasions Shane MacGowan joined Babyshambles on stage.

Shane MacGowan worked with Nick Cave and joined him on stage.

In 2010, MacGowan played impromptu shows in Dublin with a new five-piece backing band, the Shane Gang, including In Tua Nua rhythm section Paul Byrne and Jack Dublin, with manager Joey Cashman on whistle.

MacGowan and the Shane Gang performed at the Red Hand Rocks music festival in the Patrician Hall, Carrickmore County Tyrone in June 2011.

Shane MacGowan made a return to the stage on 13 June 2019 at the RDS Arena in Dublin as a guest of Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders.

In 2020, Shane MacGowan reportedly returned to the studio to record several new songs with the Irish indie band Cronin.

Shane MacGowan appeared in an episode of Fair City, shown on 28 December 2008.

In 2009, he starred in the RTE reality show Victoria and Shane MacGowan Grow Their Own, as he and his future wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, endeavoured to grow their food in their own garden.

In 2010, Shane MacGowan offered a piece of unusual art to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to auction off to support their services to children: a drawing on a living room door.

On 26 November 2018, after a decades-long relationship and subsequent 11-year engagement, Shane MacGowan married Irish journalist Victoria Mary Clarke in Copenhagen.

Shane MacGowan was a Roman Catholic, calling himself "a free-thinking religious fanatic" who prayed to the Buddha.

In 2015, Shane MacGowan stated that he had grown up in an Irish republican family and that he regretted not joining the IRA.

Shane MacGowan counted former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams as a friend, according to his most recent biography.

Shane MacGowan added that he wished for a quicker resolution that led to "the English" giving up all control of Irish lands, and that Ireland be made into a "socialist republic".

Shane MacGowan "battled longstanding health issues, compounded by well-documented struggles with substance abuse".

Shane MacGowan was "a famously voracious consumer of drugs and prone to physical trauma".

Shane MacGowan began drinking alcohol at age five, when his family gave him Guinness to help him sleep.

Shane MacGowan used LSD, and he developed a heroin addiction during his tenure with the Pogues.

In November 1999, Shane MacGowan was arrested in London after Sinead O'Connor found him passed out on his floor, and called emergency services.

When police formally cautioned Shane MacGowan, Shane MacGowan accepted the caution and the criminal case against him was terminated in March 2000.

Shane MacGowan experienced years of ill health toward the end of his life.

Shane MacGowan continued to use a wheelchair until his death in 2023.

In 2016, Clarke told the press that Shane MacGowan was sober "for the first time in years".

Shane MacGowan indicated that MacGowan's drinking had "not just been a recreational activity", but that "his whole career has revolved around it and, indeed, been both enhanced and simultaneously inhibited by it".

Shane MacGowan said that his drinking problem was made much worse by the introduction of hard drugs such as heroin.

The hospital stay required a total detox, and Shane MacGowan's sobriety continued after he returned home.

Shane MacGowan lost the last of his natural teeth around 2008.

In early February 2021, Shane MacGowan broke his knee in a fall at his home.

Shane MacGowan was hospitalised for an infection on 6 December 2022.

Shane MacGowan was discharged from St Vincent's University Hospital on 23 November 2023 after four months of treatment, but was shortly thereafter re-admitted with another infection.

Shane MacGowan was the subject of several books and paintings.

Shaman Shane MacGowan: The Wounded Healer by Stephan Martin brands Shane MacGowan as a latter-day London-Irish spirit-raiser and exorcist.

In 2006, Shane MacGowan was voted 50th in the NME Rock Heroes List.

In January 2018, MacGowan was honoured with a concert gala to celebrate his 60th birthday at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, where Irish president Michael D Higgins presented him with a lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to Irish life, music and culture.