The frontman Shane McGowan has died aged 65.

Frontman Shane McGowan has died aged 65.

Shane McGowan, the hard-drinking frontman of the Irish punk band The Pogues, has died. He was 65 years old.

His wife, Victoria Marie Clark, announced his death on Thursday morning. No official cause of death was provided, but McGowan had recently left a hospital in Dublin, Ireland, after being diagnosed with encephalitis.

“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Shane McGowan,” his family said in a statement. “Shane passed away peacefully at 3 am this morning (30 November 2023) with his wife Victoria and family by his side.”

Shane McGowan was an Irish kid who grew up in England, and the songs he wrote and sang were a great mix of folk and punk.

“God said I was the little boy that He was going to use to save Irish music and take it to greater heights,” McGown said in the documentary Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan.

His band, the Pogues, was once described as a barroom brawler with instruments. McGowan was his fiery champion. His drinking and drugs would destroy his body, but McGowan catapulted the Pogues to international fame.

“People have given Shane six months to live every year since he was 19,” Pogues guitarist Philip Chevron told NPR in 2006.

McGowan left the world with one of the darkest and most moving Christmas songs ever released in 1987, “Fairytale of New York.”