A collaborator of the late Shane MacGowan has revealed the former frontman of The Pogues recorded a new album before his death.
MacGowan, who passed away on November 30th, aged 65, had been in hospital with brain inflammation encephalitis. His wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, has since revealed that the musician caught pneumonia, which caused his death. She told RTE: “He wasn’t ready to give up. He wasn’t ready to stop fighting — but his body did it for him.”
The Pogues singer had struggled with health problems since 2015 and spent a large part of the last year in hospital. However, despite issues with his wellbeing, MacGowan remained committed to his craft and successfully completed a new album before his passing.
In an interview with The Irish Sun, Johnny Cronin, who fronts Cronin, claimed MacGowan had “a fine voice right to the end”. He continued: “Shane was ill but he wanted to keep working. I was driving up to Dublin to record his vocals at his house.”
According to Cronin, MacGowan spent his final seven years on the project, noting, “We are beyond devastated to lose our friend, the only consolation we have is that Shane had finished all his vocals for this record.”
Cronin added: “Shane was always in charge when we went into the studio, he was telling us what to play and where to play it. If I was going to try and describe it, it’s like the recordings Johnny Cash did with producer Rick Rubin at the end of his career.”
“Shane came up with some beautiful songs as well as (recording) some cover versions. We spent seven years working on this with Shane, and he brought in people like Spider Stacey and Jem Finer to play on some of the songs as well as Waterboys fiddle player Steve Wickham and musical duo Foster and Allen,” he added.
As of yet, there is no timeline for a release of the album and no label is attached to the record, but Cronin promises it will see the light of day, adding: “Shane wanted this record out, so it will come out, but it’s not something we are thinking about right now.”
MacGowan’s funeral is set to be held in County Tipperary on December 8th, which is where he spent the early years of his life before moving to Kent. The public are free to attend a mass in his honour in Nenagh.
Speaking to RTE News, local councillor Seamus Morris said: “It will be a big funeral in Nenagh. It is an open funeral. It is open to everyone and we have a very big church in Nenagh. People will be very welcome.”
