His wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, has since posted a heartfelt statement on Instagram, writing, “I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it. 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. 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.”

An ever-charismatic and endearing figure, MacGowan and his renowned snarl came to represent many things during his 65 years on Earth; the nonchalant fusion of punk and poetry, Irish nationalism and pride, and, to a great many, Christmas music. “Fairytale Of New York“, indeed, remains a true December classic; will we see it take number one spot this Christmas? Above all though, MacGowan always remained true to himself, his culture, heritage and nation, and his nonconforming spirit.

Listen to “Fairytale Of New York” below:

Born in Kent to Irish immigrant parents in 1957 and growing up in various cities in the Southeast of England, MacGowan’s punk nature was evident from the start. He was allegedly expelled from secondary school for possession of narcotics and soon became enamoured with the early punk scene, experiencing his first bout of fame as he was pictured in a newspaper after being injured at a Clash gig. So inspired was MacGowan by the Pistols and the Clash he decided to join Shanne Bradley’s punk band, the Nipple Erectors.

Come 1982 and he had formed his own band, initially named Pogue Mahone (an anglicisation of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning ‘kiss my arse’). Shortened later to the Pogues, MacGowan employed his Irish identity to explore in his lyrics Irish nationalism, Irish history and the Irish diaspora in England. The Pogues’ first album, Red Roses for Me, came in 1984, followed by Rum, Sodomy & the Lash in 1985 and their most commercially successful record If I Should Fall from Grace with God in 1988.

Listen to “Dirty Old Town” below:

Notable singles from his time with the Pogues include covers of traditional Irish folk songs “Dirty Old Town” and “Irish Rover“, along with “Fairytale of New York” featuring Kirsty MacColl and “Dark Streets of London“. After leaving the band in 1991 he formed another group, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, releasing two full length LPs before re-joining the Pogues in 2001.

Listen to “Irish Rover” below:

The book will also have a foreword by American actor Johnny Depp, as well as art critic Waldemar Januszczak. Depp, a collector of MacGowan’s artwork, had this to say in the foreword: “It’s rare for a creative genius like Shane to have one avenue of output. Such an incendiary talent is likely to have a multitude of facilities …. And so, revealed here, is Shane’s propensity for the wild, for the absurd, for the political, for the beautiful …. but, regardless of medium, his work will always be full of poetry – a bit like the great man, and my great friend, himself; the artist, Shane MacGowan.”

Fans will also get to see pictures of MacGowan’s notorious nightlife. Nights out with, among many, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and fashion model Kate Moss will apparently be on display, along with a number of MacGowan’s sketches, character studies, paintings, self-portraits, stories and “abstract snippets”. However, it’s a marvel in the first place that such a wealth of material has become available in the first place.

MacGowan’s wife (and collaborator on the book), Victoria Mary Clarke, has said that they only found the drawings during the making of last year’s documentary on MacGowan – Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan – when her mother found thousands of the drawings, which she delivered in a bin bag. She said “we didn’t even know it existed, it was miraculous, like finding a crock of gold!“

It seems an important venture for the famous musician, for whom art has been a life-long passion. He said in a statement that art was “one of the only O levels I got”. The singer has had a history of designing his own album covers, such as The Pogues’ Red Roses For Me and If I Should Fall From Grace With God. He also noted some of his favourite artists and stylistic periods, ranging from the renaissance (such as Caravaggio) to the impressionists (Lavery, Brendan Fitzpatrick) and the surrealists (Dali, Chagall), opining that “there’s millions of them”.

The collection is set to be released next April, but it will be limited to only 1,000 copies, so it’s best for fans to get in quick. If you want to pre-order now, you can look here. If you want to read more about the upcoming release, you can look here. If you want some Christmas cheer, you can look below, and reminisce with this Pogues classic.

The lineup includes; Glen Hansard, Bono, The Edge, Imelda May, Hozier, John Sheahan, Finbar Furey, Shane MacGowan, Danny O’Reilly, Roisin O, Declan O’Rourke, Lisa O’Neill and Kodaline’s Steve Garrigan.

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Glen Hansard is no stranger to busking of course. Ten years ago Glen Hansard started the tradition of taking to Dublin’s Grafton Street with a collection of musicians in order to raise money for the homeless. The usual tradition can’t take place in person this year because of the ongoing global health crisis so RTÉ will be taking on the show and broadcasting it to the world.

The show will have many special performances along with stories about memories of the busk over the years and lots of information about the wonderful work The Simon Community does, especially at this time of year. John Sheahan, Finbar Furey, Lisa O’Neill, Glen Hansard, and Shane MacGowan will be making appearances in The Late Late Show studio. Bono and The Edge will perform an acoustic version of U2’s Walk On, as well as lead a special Christmas number. Artists like Imelda May will be performing virtually from London, where she will be performing On Raglan Road. 

Presenter of The Late Late Show, Ryan Tubridy spoke about the event, saying; “This will certainly be a night to remember with the best of Irish talent in one room coming together for some incredible performances. In return, our friends here are asking viewers to dig deep to donate to the Simon Community and to help our brothers and our sisters who are currently homeless to get off the streets, to be safe, to be warm, to be treated with dignity and decency and ultimately to get the type of secure housing that everyone deserves.”

If you are looking for a gift that delivers hope in a meaningful way, why not buy a Dublin Simon Christmas Star The beautiful gold stars can be hung from a tree and represent the real difference you can make to a person’s future. #SimonStars

https://t.co/1DdpTRMoar pic.twitter.com/QqAsfi57c1

— Dublin Simon (@Dublin_Simon) December 12, 2020

Ryan will also be interviewing, Philip Powell, who was staying in a hostel when he struck up a friendship with Glen Hansard, and became a staple performer of the Grafton Street busk. Philip will speak of his experiences of being homeless on and off for two decades.

If you would like to donate to The Simon Community, who work to help the homeless in Ireland, you can do so here. You can watch The Late Late Show Busk for Simon on RTÉ One, Friday, December 18, at 9.35pm or online on the RTÉ player in the UK.