Shane MacGowan’s fellow Pogues stars are filled with regret they had lost touch with the singer before his death.
Shane MacGowan’s fellow Pogues stars are filled with regret they had lost touch with the singer before his death
The ‘Fairytale of New York’ rocker died aged 65 on 30 November after suffering a string of illnesses including pneumonia that left him hospitalised before he died, and his bandmates Spider Stacy and James Fearnley have now spoken about how they barely saw him before he passed away.
Tin whistle player Spider, 65, told Uncut magazine: “We’d see him when we’d go to Ireland, but it was difficult with him being immobile. I wish I’d seen more of him over the last few years.”
James, 69, added he “hadn’t been in touch with Shane since the last reunion gig in 2014” – but said he had made peace with him in the weeks before he died.
The accordion player told Uncut: “While he was in hospital in November, I wrote to him.
“It turned out to be a thank you letter. I thanked him for taking me on as a guitar player with The Nips in 1980, though I didn’t know that I was auditioning for The Nips (Shane’s first band.)
“The ad said, ‘Name band’ and that made me curious. I was a bit disappointed that he turned out to be Shane O’Hooligan, this idiot who was going around the clubs and getting famous for mucking about.
“I was ready to dismiss him as soon as I walked into the rehearsal room and realised who it was. I had no idea of his talent. That was put paid to pretty quickly!
“The experiences I had with him then were out-and-out fun... I was astonished at his alcohol intake. That was an eye-opener.”
Spider also told how Shane – who left The Pogues in 1991 before returning in 2001 – “never recovered” after breaking his pelvis in a fall in 2015, adding: “Shortly before that, his mum died. He loved his mum, she was fantastic, and it really hit him hard.
“Maybe it wouldn’t have knocked him for six quite so much if he hadn't been in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis.”
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