A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan

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Talented people who don’t develop their own talents, man, they should be ashamed of themselves. And I’m speaking as someone who, between 1975 and 1985, was exactly that person. That’s something I feel ashamed about. I don’t feel ashamed about being a junkie. I don’t feel ashamed about the moral aspects of my behaviour during those years so much. I’m not happy about it, but... I was always into drawing and painting, and I used to do all sorts of things,” he says, “hurlers, IRA men, teenage punks hanging around in cafes, you name it…when I was about 11 or 12 I got heavily into studying history of art and looking at old paintings and modern paintings, I knew a lot about art. It’s one of the only O Levels I got, was in art. Johnny Depp writes in his 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 whereby his talent might infiltrate the atmosphere and change the climate as we know it. And so, revealed here, is Shane’s propensity for the wild, for the absurd, for the political, for the beautiful, all funnelled and threaded through the needle of his pen. I Don't Like Christmas, It's Gross': An Interview with Shane MacGowan (by Leonie Cooper)". Vice Magazine. 24 December 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 5 March 2016. Shane MacGowan and Ed Sheeran win Ivor Novello awards". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020 . Retrieved 10 May 2020.

She described herself as “a bit of a hoarder” who collected bits of paper for years “not knowing if they had any value”. She added: “I love the way that the drawings and notes and scraps of stories provide an insight into Shane’s songs, it is like walking into his studio and seeing everything that was happening in his mind. The illustrations are like a visual tapestry of the inner workings of his creative process. I feel very privileged and very excited to be able to share them with the world in a book, especially for people who love the songs.” I've never been a big fan of The Pogues or indeed bothered to find out much about their front man, the larger than life Shane MacGowan. However, living in the UK in the 90s it was hard not to see him occasionally and he is definitely a commanding presence when he does appear on TV for example. Whenever I have seen him performing or interviewed he seems to have been virtually paralytic with booze or some other substance and indeed, that does seem to have been the story of his life pretty much. Cooper, Leonie (24 December 2015). " "I Don't Like Christmas, It's Gross": An Interview With Shane MacGowan". Vice Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 December 2016 . Retrieved 24 December 2015. After If I Should Fall From Grace With God, MacGowan would stay with the Pogues for two more albums, but he had wanted out after that tour ended. He was not in his right mind, gobbling insane amounts of LSD and having conversations with a dead Jimi Hendrix, among other pastimes. When the Pogues were invited to open six shows for Bob Dylan in 1989, MacGowan failed to show because he was holed up in a friend’s apartment in London, strung out like a kite. The band played the shows without him, though it’s not clear if Dylan even noticed.The end of the book is quite poignant and hopeful -- especially as the author details the dedication of his friends and fans, and the impact he's had on them and on music and art in general. I so wish I could have been in Dublin a couple of years ago when Shane received the Lifetime Achievement Award given to him by the Irish president, his peers, and his fans; that seemed like quite a powerful event whose emotion came through performances of his music that he got to take in first-hand. Top 50 Heroes poll in today's NME". morrissey-solo.com. 10 May 2006. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015 . Retrieved 24 August 2015. The natural reaction for most of us when we are in a scary situation and a loved one is in danger of dying is to totally freak out and imagine the worst," she shared. It's amazing MacGowan is still alive. He has seen many of his friends and peers succumb to the drink and drugs lifestyle he has somehow survived, albeit in a state of greatly diminished health. When one sees him performing on videos from the Pogues heyday, drunk, almost slurring his words, rotting teeth in his mouth and cigarette in hand he doesn't look long for this world yet he is still here. I am not really qualified to rank him in a pantheon of songwriters but he was undoubtedly very gifted in this area, his classic, unorthodox Christmas "Fairly Tale of New York" being deservedly his best known and evocative work. By this time, the relentless touring schedule was leaving its mark, and MacGowan was hospitalized (the first of many hospitalizations) with pneumonia. The band closed the year 1985 as darlings of the U.K. music press and embarked on their first tour of America the following year, where they played to raucous, sold-out crowds. For the band’s third and arguably best album, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, manager Frank Murray enlisted Steve Lillywhite to produce.

Soon, the Pogues — at that time called Pogue Mahone (the Anglicized version of the Irish phrase for “kiss my arse”) — started gigging regularly around London. Ball describes in detail how they took the scene by storm with a novel mix of tradition and ferocious energy that was unlike anything else going on at the time, anywhere. As the band’s popularity grew, some began to question the authenticity of their Irishness, but “Pogue Mahone didn’t set out to be part of any scene,” Balls writes. “Beyond Dexys [Midnight Runners], no one else was playing Irish music and the patent on hot-wiring traditional songs with punk’s raw power rested firmly with Shane.” Disalvo, Tom (6 December 2022). "Shane MacGowan of The Pogues admitted to hospital". NME . Retrieved 12 December 2022. He may have drawn compulsively once but it is music that hounds him now, with tunes forming constantly in his head: “I am always writing songs. It is far more effort to draw. I am in the later stages now of recording the album with a new band and we have amazing chemistry.” Chef Richard Corrigan, who hosted the launch in his new restaurant, The Park Café, in Ballsbridge, said MacGowan was “the London Irish we always wanted”. But if you’re gonna stand there drunk and big up Donald Trump after four years, and put it on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, then you’ve descended to a level of self-loathing. At the same time you just can’t get enough of the public staring at you.”

Balls will spend a great deal of time with Shane over a two-year period, but the subject is not always game to talk. “Day blurs into night and night into day,” Balls writes of a 2018 episode in MacGowan’s Dublin flat. “He will only talk when he is in the mood …” and spends most of his time watching television (gangster films and Westerns are particular favorites). His glass is never far out of sight. I enjoyed this telling of MacGowan's life; it is well written and easy to consume. It is clear that Balls has set out to provide a "warts and all" narrative and there is plenty of material here, that's for sure. I do think that it must be a particular challenge to write a bio of a subject still alive since it necessitates spending time getting material not only from those that know him, but also from the horses mouth so to speak. What often happened is that the author and the subject become friends and therefore I wonder if objectivity suffers. We are told, time and again, how shy Shane is and what a overall "good guy" he is whilst at the same time, being informed about his claims to violence, temper and general proclivity for being obnoxious. Now, it is not up to me to judge any one's lifestyle and I have absolutely no problem with hedonism, in fact I often wish I had lived a life more along those lines. However, it does seem to have been so central to his life that the negatives, although mentioned frequently, seem a little understated to me, at least until the final chapter.

The Nips 'n' Nipple Erectors - Bops, Babes, Booze & Bovver". Discogs.com. 26 October 1987 . Retrieved 10 May 2020. Wilkes, Emma (23 July 2023). "Shane MacGowan recovering after stay in intensive care". NME . Retrieved 10 September 2023. As this engrossing book details, Shane was a fairly broken man by this stage. He’d wanted to quit the band for some time, but as he didn't like confrontation or responsibility, he couldn’t do it himself. He needed someone to do it for him, he didn’t enjoy the fame and the gruelling touring schedule had nearly killed him. His legendary consumption of drink and drugs was out of control. This book is the story of one of Ireland’s most favourite sons, from his early days in England to the husk of a man he has now become. It was reported in July 2023 that MacGowan was hospitalised in the intensive care unit. [42] Following treatment for a lingering infection, he was discharged in November. [43] Honours and awards [ edit ]

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Fairytale of New York: Shane MacGowan in 1977, when he was 19, and editing the punk magazine Bondage in London. Photograph: Sydney O’Meara/Getty A deep dive into the legacy of an Irish icon. Richard Balls serves up the most thorough account of the man — and myth — to date.' Rolling Stone Though this was a remarkably hard book to read, I couldn't put it down. It details the life and music of one of my heroes, Shane MacGowan, the singer of the Irish punk band The Pogues. Years ago I'd read his wife Victoria Mary Clarke's "A Drink with Shane MacGowan," which was rough, but this "Furious Devotion" goes much deeper and with more analysis. I knew that Shane's addictions were brutal, I just didn't know how brutal. This is a portrait of self-destruction, yet conducted by someone who, in the midst of pain and darkness, can also see the profound beauty around him, especially in the people he loves. This is a helpful book to read for anyone who has a person in their life who is self-destructive, addicted, and yet who is a person you love and want to help. He would draw anywhere then,” says Clarke. “On a restaurant menu, a hotel room-service card, or my receipts and bank statements. Even the walls, but not once on a canvas.”

Clarke advised finding compassion, crying when needed, and opening up to possibilities even in hard moments. Punk protagonist, legendary drinker, Irish musical icon. The complete and extraordinary journey of the Pogues’ notorious frontman from outcast to national treasure has never been told – until now. I have noticed that if you allow yourself to cry and to feel all of the fear and even to collapse, and you don’t judge yourself for your feelings and you have compassion for yourself and everyone else around you even in the really dark moments, it’s like that is the real meaning of going with the flow.In 2016, Clarke revealed to the press that MacGowan was sober "for the first time in years." She explained that the origins of MacGowan's drinking problem stemmed from several years of "singing in bars and clubs and other venues where people go to drink and have fun" and that "his whole career has revolved around it and, indeed, been both enhanced and simultaneously inhibited by it". She said that his drinking was not a problem for many years but "went from being just a normal part of life" to becoming very unhealthy, a circumstance made much worse due to the introduction of hard drugs such as heroin. She explained that a serious bout with pneumonia, compounded by an excruciatingly painful hip injury which required a long stay in the hospital, was ultimately responsible for his sobriety. The lengthy hospital stay required a total detox, and MacGowan's sobriety continued after he got home. [38] President Higgins presents Shane MacGowan with lifetime achievement award". The Irish Times. 16 January 2018. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019 . Retrieved 6 May 2020. Shepard, Gabriel (24 December 2017). "How Shane MacGowan came to be born in Tunbridge Wells". KentLive. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018 . Retrieved 14 January 2018. The real strength of A Furious Devotion is the author doesn’t try to sugar-coat any of the stories. He lets MacGowan and the interviewees speak, it’s warts and all. A Furious Devotion does a brilliant job capturing the ‘colourful life’ the singer has led, highlighting his thirst for knowledge from an early age, reading DH Lawrence and Dostoyevsky before he was 12 and his lifelong acute shyness. Initially disowned by much of the Irish Music community he’s now rightly lauded, both ends of this are covered in great detail. The latter especially with an event to celebrate his 60th birthday at Dublin’s National Concert Hall. The night featuring a stunning line up of musicians and actors he’s influenced and wanting to pay tribute, was topped by Irish President Michael D. Higgins presenting Shane with a special NCH Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the power and poetry of his work, and his singular contribution to Irish music. When reading that section it feels like the climax of a film, the long-awaited triumph of the outsider who we’ve been cheering on from the start.