Victoria Mary Clarke has said that that Shane MacGowan was never overly “fussed” about Christmas, and found his success regarding his Christmas single ‘Fairytale of New York’ to be “amusing”.
Pogues music legend MacGowan is perhaps best known for the Christmas hit, which was released in 1988, featuring the late singer Kirsty McColl.
Despite being born on Christmas Day 1957 to Irish parents, Victoria Mary Clarke has said that her late husband was not overly fussed about the festive season.
“Shane wasn’t fussed about Christmas at all. Like he always said, ‘It’s Jesus’s birthday’”, she said.
Clarke continued: “He never thought it was about presents or turkeys or any of that stuff. He indulged me because I always insisted on having a tree, and he would think that was cute with the decorations”.
“But he wasn’t fussed about presents unless they were things he really wanted. The last Christmas he was here, I got him some albums that he absolutely loved, and he was really excited about them. He wasn’t a materialistic person”.
In fact, Clarke revealed that Shane preferred “quiet” Christmases.
“He loved to go to his family in Tipperary, that was his favourite thing to do”, she added.
Fairytale of New York Success Left MacGowan ‘amused’
Victoria Mary Clarke then claimed that the popularity her husband gained from Fairytale of New York, a track which re-enters the charts in December worldwide, had always left him feeling “amused”.
“I think he was genuinely pleased that people wanted to play it and that it was recognised, and he did definitely appreciate what a brilliant piece of songwriting it was”, Clarke explained. “At the same time, he had other songs he was fond of that he might have liked people to know about”.
Victoria Mary Clarke also said that tracks White City, Victoria, and Christmas Lullaby were particular favourites of hers from the Pogues’.
“Not many people know about it, but it’s quite profound, especially now because there’s a line about Christmas in Palestine”, Clarke said.
“let yourself feel it”
Clarke also hinted that she may get round to compiling the ‘realms’ of prose that MacGowan wrote about characters who appeared in his tracks.
“He wrote a lot of stories about rehab,” she said. “He first went in there when he was 18, and he wrote very funny, dark and perceptive stories about the conversations he heard in there, and the interactions with his psychiatrist and the other patients. There’s masses of work that no one’s ever seen”.
Shane MacGowan died last November aged 65, and Victoria recently thanked her friends for supporting her as she grieves for Shane.
“You just have to let yourself feel it. So there was a lot of howling and crying and feeling shit – the symptoms are very physical, like a pain in your ribs – and you don’t want to get out of bed,” she said.
“My world was me and Shane most of the time,” she said. “He looked after me, we looked after each other. We were complete”.
Last month, The Pogues announced plans to perform several shows to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their album, ‘Rum, Sodomy & The Lash’ next year.
Announcing these shows, the band said that the spirit of their late singer Shane MacGowan “lives on”. More on this from Nova here.
