{"id":242637,"date":"2023-11-30T16:37:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=242637"},"modified":"2023-11-30T16:37:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T16:37:08","slug":"fairytale-brought-world-to-tears-but-there-was-much-more-to-wild-poet-shane-macgowan-than-his-christmas-masterpiece-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/tv-and-movies\/fairytale-brought-world-to-tears-but-there-was-much-more-to-wild-poet-shane-macgowan-than-his-christmas-masterpiece-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"'Fairytale' brought world to tears but there was much more to wild poet Shane MacGowan than his Christmas masterpiece | The Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHANE MACGOWAN was a punk with the soul of a poet, who fired up Irish music with manic London energy and gave Britain our most beloved Christmas song.<\/p>\n

The former Pogues frontman, who has died aged 65, once said his themes were: \u201cGod. The Devil. Drink. Life. Death. How funny it all is, and how sad.\u201d<\/p>\n


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His 1987 masterpiece Fairytale of New York embraced all those subjects at once.<\/p>\n

A track about that seems to be about drunks slinging insults at each other, with the least festive lyrics in history (\u201cYou scumbag, you maggot\u201d) somehow resolves itself into a Christmas love song that still makes people cry.<\/p>\n

It has rocketed back into the Top 20 every December since 2005, and in 2012 was voted the nation\u2019s favourite Christmas song of all time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Shane became one of our favourite characters.<\/p>\n

MORE ON MACGOWAN<\/h2>\n

<\/picture>FAMILY PAIN <\/span><\/p>\n

Shane MacGowan's wife &amp; family pay emotional tribute after star's death<\/h3>\n

<\/picture>FAIRYTALE OF SHANE <\/span><\/p>\n

A look at the life and sad passing of The Pogues star Shane<\/h3>\n

His teeth, which his dentist once described as \u201cthe stuff of legends\u201d,\u00a0 became a national obsession.<\/p>\n

When he finally got them fixed in 2015 they were the subject of an entire documentary on Sky Arts.<\/p>\n

Then there was his laugh, likened to \u201cthe flush of a portable toilet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Most of all, there was his incredible ability to stay alive, despite the obvious ravages of his alcohol and drugs, including heroin.<\/p>\n

Most read in Showbiz<\/h2>\n

<\/picture>ICON GONE <\/span><\/p>\n

Shane MacGowan dies aged 65 after music legend loses eight year health battle<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/picture>CELEBS BEHAVING BADLY <\/span><\/p>\n

Bizarre celeb love affairs you forgot (and they\u2019ll be glad you did)<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/picture>TV ICON GONE <\/span><\/p>\n

Sex and the City star Frances Sternhagen is dead at 93<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/picture>CRYPTIC CHLO <\/span><\/p>\n

Chloe Madeley takes cryptic swipe at ex James Haskell<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

His imminent death was first reported back in 1988, when he was 31.<\/p>\n

Once, in front of his landlady, he was so high on acid he started eating a copy of The Beach Boys\u2019 greatest hits album.<\/p>\n

On another occasion he told a young Kylie Minogue: \u201cF*** off!\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was wild, but somehow never frightening \u2013 there was always a vulnerability.<\/p>\n

And of course there were also those songs, of love, exile and yearning, like A Rainy Night In Soho or A Pair of Brown Eyes.<\/p>\n

There were also those of protest, like Streets of Sorrow\/Birmingham Six.<\/p>\n

'COMPLETELY IRISH'<\/h2>\n

Few songwriters of either rock or traditional Irish ballads have ever managed to merge so beautifully literature and music, the two great strands of Irish identity.<\/p>\n

And that was Shane\u2019s identity, although he was born and raised in England.<\/p>\n

His heart was in his parents\u2019 homeland, and in his London accent often insisted: \u201cI\u2019m completely Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland loved him too: there he was hailed as a literary giant as well as a musical one.<\/p>\n

Shane usually reacted in self-defence to this praise: \u201cI just feel awkward and embarrassed, so I have a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 in the village of Pembury, Kent.<\/p>\n

His parents had only recently emigrated, after his Dubliner father Maurice landed a management job at clothing chain C&A.<\/p>\n

His mother Therese grew up in a remote part of Tipperary, in a farmhouse where singing and dancing sessions often went on for entire weekends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young Shane spent all his holidays there:\u00a0 \u201cI did my first gig when I was three, on the kitchen table.\u201d<\/p>\n

His parents were also big readers, and he read whatever they were reading: by 12, he had polished off James Joyce\u2019s heavyweight Ulysses.<\/p>\n

Teachers at his posh prep school near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were wowed by his own writing. His English teacher called him \u201cbrilliant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then aged 13 he won a scholarship to the even posher Westminster School in London, when his family moved to a flat in the city\u2019s new Barbican complex.<\/p>\n

Shane later claimed the headmaster was \u201con my back from the start because I was Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n

After just a year, the long-haired teen was expelled for his part in a school drug-buying ring.<\/p>\n

It comes as…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n