Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (25 December 1957 – 30 November 2023) was a British-born Irish[a] singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of Celtic punk band the Pogues.

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

A New York Times obituary noted his "twin reputations as a titanically destructive personality and a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life.

He was the principal songwriter and lead vocalist on the band's first five studio albums, including Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985) and the critically acclaimed and commercially successful If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988).

During a 1991 tour of Japan, the Pogues dismissed MacGowan due to the impact of his drug and alcohol dependency on their live shows.

He 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" (1994) and "That Woman's Got Me Drinking" (featuring Johnny Depp, 1994).

At a January 2018 gala concert to celebrate MacGowan's 60th birthday, the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, presented him with a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contributions to Irish life, music and culture.

MacGowan was born on 25 December 1957 in Pembury, Kent,[2][3] the son of Irish parents who were visiting relatives in England at the time of his birth.

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

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

[9] At age 17, he spent six months in a psychiatric hospital due to drug addiction; while there, he was also diagnosed with acute situational anxiety.

[10] Briefly enrolled at St Martin's School of Art, he worked at the Rocks Off record shop in central London,[11] and started a punk fanzine under the pseudonym Shane O'Hooligan.

[12] He 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.

[17] 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.

[18] The Pogues' most critically acclaimed album was If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988), which also marked the high point of the band's commercial success.

[19] Other notable songs he performed with The Pogues include "Dirty Old Town", "Sally MacLennane" and "The Irish Rover" (featuring the Dubliners).

[22] The band's performances had been affected by MacGowan's drug and alcohol problems, and his bandmates parted ways with him following "a string of no-shows, including when The Pogues were opening for Dylan".

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

Other famous friends included Johnny Depp, who appeared in the video for "That Woman's Got Me Drinking",[29] and Joe Strummer, who referred to MacGowan as "one of the best writers of the century" in an interview featured on the videogram release "Live at the Town and Country Club" from 1988.

[34][35] MacGowan and the Shane Gang performed at the Red Hand Rocks music festival in the Patrician Hall, Carrickmore County Tyrone in June 2011.

[36] 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.

[44][non-primary source needed] On 26 November 2018, after a decades-long relationship and subsequent 11-year engagement, MacGowan married Irish journalist Victoria Mary Clarke in Copenhagen.

He 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".

[57] While in New Zealand during a 1988 Pogues tour, MacGowan "painted his hotel room, face and chest blue, apparently because 'the Maoris were talking to me'".

In 2004, on the BBC TV political magazine programme This Week, he gave incoherent and slurred answers to questions from Janet Street-Porter about the public smoking ban in Ireland.

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

Later, hundreds gathered inside and outside Saint Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, County Tipperary, including celebrities Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, BP Fallon, Bob Geldof, Aidan Gillen, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.

There was dancing inside the church as "Fairytale of New York" was performed by the Pogues with Glen Hansard, Lisa O'Neill and John Sheahan from the Dubliners.

"[87][88] The New York Times described MacGowan as "a master songsmith whose lyrics painted vivid portraits of the underbelly of Irish immigrant life.

"[91] When Bob Dylan performed a concert in Dublin in 2022, he paid tribute to MacGowan while onstage, describing the former Pogues frontman as one of his "favourite artists".