Shane MacGowan has used a wheelchair since breaking his pelvis in 2015
(Picture: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)Shane MacGowan, 64, is a singer famed for the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York recorded by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl.
The singer is in hospital, according to his wife, who later confirmed in a new update that her husband was suffering from an infection.
“He is being treated for an infection and the doctors are confident that he will be ok. I am just incredibly grateful to them and to all of you,” she wrote.
🔔 | The Pogues' Shane MacGowan has been taken to hospital and his wife is asking for prayers
— LADbible (@ladbible) December 6, 2022
More below: pic.twitter.com/hsRgiAGJAZ
Shane MacGowan’s early life
MacGowan was born on Christmas Day in 1957 in Pembury, Kent to parents who were Irish immigrants. He lived in various parts of south-east England including Brighton, London and the home counties. As a young boy, MacGowan was an avid reader and he won a literary prize from the Daily Mirror when only 13. This enabled him to get a scholarship to Westminster School but he was asked to leave after being caught with drugs.
He then went on to to study at art college but music was always his passion and when the punk scene erupted in 1976 the stage was set for MacGowan as a musician.
The Pogues and Fairytale of New York success
MacGowan was first noted at a concert with punk legend the Clash after having his earlobe damaged by future Mo-dettes bassist Jane Crockford. MacGowan was covered in blood and had his picture taken, which appeared in the local papers with a headline reading Cannibalism at Clash Gig.
Shortly after this incident he joined punk band the Nipple Erectors, who played their first gig at the Roxy in 1976 but he quickly changed his style of music, drawing influence from his Irish heritage, and founded the Pogues.
MacGowan co-wrote one of the most famous Christmas songs, Fairytale of New York, between 1985 and 1987, performing with Kirsty MacColl.
After several gigs with the Nipple Erectors, when they opened for the Clash and the Jam, MacGowan felt a hankering to get back to his Irish roots. He formed the band the New Republicans later known as the Pogue Mahone and then simply the Pogues.
The band’s success quickly grew but it was the Fairytale of New York written in 1987 that cemented their popularity. The song was written after Elvis Costello bet MacGowan that he couldn’t write a Christmas song.
The yuletide hit is an Irish folk-style ballad that went through many rewrites, aborted attempts at recording, and even lost its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed with MacColl as the female lead vocalist alongside MacGowan.
In December 2020, the song was a certified quadruple platinum in the UK and is frequently cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine-related polls in the UK and Ireland.
Shane MacGowan’s injuries and health issues
MacGowan broke his pelvis in 2015 doing a complicated dance move and has since had to use a wheelchair.
His wife, Victoria May Clarke, posted on Twitter on Monday December 5 sharing a picture of the singer and asking fans to “send prayers” and “healing vibes”.
MacGowan had also broken his knee last year after falling in his home, which left him bedridden. He has since been in and out of hospital in the past few years after not fully recovering from his injuries, confirming in April that he was unable to walk.
