RIP: Shane MacGowan, lead singer of the Pogues, 65

[thewayne]

*sigh*

He was diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year and went into hospital early November for help with an infection. Presumably this did him in.

He was lead singer with the Pogues until excessive drinking lead to them firing him. He did some indie projects, reunited with the Pogues, left them again, fell down some steps leaving a studio resulting in a pelvis fracture which led him to being wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/shane-macgowan-pogues-dead-obit-1234809695/

Comments

[silveradept]

I've seen a fair number of people reporting on the death and the way that the career went, almost all of them with the sadness of this being another casualty of people making it and then finding that there's not enough support in their lives to handle what life is like once you've made it.

[thewayne]

I can't comment in any detail, but UKM culture - all of the countries in the UK - are heavy-drinking, Ireland and Scotland especially.  And it's very hard to get help if you don't seek it out - help forced on people from the outside does not have a terribly high success rate.  He was quoted as that was the way he liked to be, seems to me that he either had some tremendous demons or couldn't see a better way of working that could be successful.  Sad business all around.