Shane MacGowan is an Irish musician. He is best known as the original singer and songwriter with The Pogues, and is considered one of the most important and poetic songwriters of the last thirty years, often echoing his influences such as Brendan Behan in his writing style.
MacGowan was born on Christmas Day, 1957 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent while his Irish parents were visiting relatives. His parents were working in England at the time and were unhappy there, so when Shane was three months old, they sent him back to Ireland, where he lived with his mother's family in Puckane, near Nenagh, County Tipperary. While there, he was completely immersed in the traditional music of Irish culture. When he was six, and it was time for him to start school, his parents brought him to London. His mother was a great singer and traditional dancer and had worked as a model in Dublin. His father was very interested in literature and writing. In 1971 he got a musical scholarship and was accepted into Westminster School. Shane was found in possession of drugs and was expelled in his second year. MacGowan got his first taste of fame when in 1976 at a Clash concert his earlobe was bitten off by a girl he had previously been kissing. A photographer snapped a picture of him covered in blood and it made the papers, with the headline "Cannibalism At Clash Gig", turning him into a local punk legend. Shortly after this, he formed his own punk rock band, The Nipple Erectors, later renamed to the "The Nips". He tried busking at Covent Garden but failed miserably.
MacGowan drew on his Irish heritage to create The Pogues, a band that he founded, but was away from during a long hiatus during the 1990s. He has written songs that many consider of astonishing beauty, though their lyricism is sometimes obscured by the quick, rough performance and folk-punk sound of the band, as well as his slurred voice. Many of his songs are influenced by Irish nationalism, Irish history, the experiences of the Irish in London and in London life in general. MacGowan has often cited the 19th century Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan, as well as author/poet/playwright (and IRA member), Brendan Behan, as influences.
Since leaving The Pogues, he formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes. He no longer plays with them and has recently had numerous successful reunion tours through 2006 with The Pogues.
In 1997, MacGowan appeared on Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", covered by numerous artists in aid of children in need. The single went straight to number one.
The Pogues and MacGowan re-formed for a sold out tour in 2001 and re-formed again in 2004, 2005, 2006 for two further sold out tours, including headline slots at Guilfest (UK) and Azkena Rock Fesitval (Spain). In 2005, The Pogues re-released "Fairytale of New York," one of their signature songs, to raise funds for the Justice for Kirsty Campaign and Crisis at Christmas. The single was the best selling festive-themed single of 2005, reaching #3 in the UK Singles Charts. The newly reformed Pogues are embarking on their first U.S. tour in over a decade, which has also completely sold out.
In 2006, he was voted 50th in the NME Rock Heroes List.
His sister is Siobhan MacGowan, a songwriter and painter.
MacGowan is an avid proponent of recreational drugs including alcohol but is strongly critical of heroin, which he says is the only drug with which he ever had "a problem". Another Irish singer, Sinéad O'Connor, reported him to the police in London for possession of the drug in an attempt to discourage him from it. He occasionally qualifies his endorsement of over-indulgence by claiming that he "has the constitution for it" where others might not. He was introduced to alcohol at the age of five by his aunt on the promise he would not worship the devil; she also introduced him to cigarettes at the same time. MacGowan first tried whiskey when he was 10 and continued to drink heavily from that point on.
He is widely considered to be severely alcoholic, and has suffered physically from his years of excess; he is notorious for performing while drunk, and for years it was impossible to find an interview with him in which he was not impaired. An example of this was on the BBC TV political magazine programme, This Week. While being interviewed by Janet Street-Porter about the public smoking ban in Ireland, MacGowan gave incoherent and slurred answers to fairly straightforward questions, much to the embarrassment of the politicians present, Diane Abbott and Michael Portillo. He has very few teeth (his dental situation has been part of his "reputation" for years) and is now bloated and pale, and speaks slowly and indistinctly, though he still demonstrates a sharp, and surprisingly lucid wit from time to time.
Shane MacGowan is somewhat famous for his teeth, or lack thereof. Many of his teeth are missing; the remainder are rotten and/or crooked.
In his autobiography, A Drink With Shane MacGowan, MacGowan comments that the poor state of his oral health is due to several contributing factors:
Lack of brushing
Drunken fights in which he has been on the losing side
Alleged police brutality in the late 1970s
The use of heavy drugs such as crack and crystal meth
MacGowan's former girlfriend Victoria Clarke (see [1]), once claimed that he had further damaged his teeth by eating a copy of the Beach Boys Greatest Hits vol. 3 LP whilst under the influence of LSD.
Pictures of MacGowan taken following an alleged homophobic attack in 2004 — during which he was beaten about the head and face with an iron bar in an alleyway behind a London pub — show that he has very few front teeth remaining. The attacker was sentenced to two years imprisonment and had numerous prior and pending assault charges
In December 2004, MacGowan inserted a pair of upper-jaw dentures during a TV interview with Frank Skinner — commenting to the amused studio audience that the false teeth made him look "fucking stupid."
It was reported in 2005 that MacGowan was considering using some of the money earned from the 2004 Pogues reunion tour to purchase a new set of teeth, due to concern that his rapidly-deteriorating dental situation is adversely affecting his singing voice.
