Shane’s spirit and soul have stayed with Victoria

In his column, which he describes as a ‘stramash in the goalmouth of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ the celebrated songwriter, producer and manager, JOHN McLAUGHLIN, shares with us his insights into the music and entertainment world.

THIS month, I’ve speaking with my dear friend Victoria Mary Clarke, an incredibly successful author, artist and journalist and wife of the late Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

Tell me a little about yourself including growing up in Ireland and moving to London where you met Shane?

I grew up in West Cork in the Irish countryside, in a Gaeltacht so I did my schooling in Irish and one of my teachers was Peadar Ó Riada, the son of the composer Seán Ó Riada. Later on, when I met Shane, I would discover that he was heavily influenced by Ó Riada and his work with The Chieftains. Many of Shane’s songs including Fairytale Of New York have a strong flavour of Seán Ó Riada. I was lucky enough to hear a lot of traditional Irish music and to regularly get to do set dancing in the local pub. As a child I was interested in poetry, and I used to write poems in Irish, and later on I also discovered that my favourite book of Irish poems ‘An Duanaire’ was also Shane’s favourite.

I was ten in 1977, so I wasn’t old enough to be a proper punk, but I was quite obsessed with music, and I bought music magazines when I got the chance, which was not very often in West Cork. There was a really cool radio DJ called Dave Fanning who played The Sex Pistols and The Jam and I was very attracted to their energy and their anger. My parents were hippies, so anger wasn’t considered very acceptable in our house and I really loved that there were people out there expressing their anger in creative ways. There was a band called The Nips that featured in one of the music papers and I remember staring at this guy called Shane O’Hooligan who had an arrogance that I wanted to embody.

When I left school at 16, my only real interests were fashion and music, but I didn’t have the nerve to start a band, so I started a clothes shop selling vintage clothes and some records. I would go to London on the bus to get the clothes and pretty soon I decided to live there and just send the clothes back to the shop. In December of that same year, Shane and Spider came into my local pub in Temple Fortune. Shane came straight over to me and told me that it was Spider’s birthday and I should buy him a drink. I told him to f**k off. It was love at first insult!

A few weeks later, I saw Pogemahone play at the Wag Club and I was captivated by their attitude and their passion and energy, in particular Shane’s ability to deliver the songs with his unique mixture of nonchalance and emotional intensity. I started going to their gigs regularly and we became friends, but we didn’t get together until my 20th birthday in January 1986 when we kissed for the first time. I knew without any doubt that Shane was my soulmate and that we would be together.

What was it like in those early days of The Pogues?

Those early days of The Pogues were more fun than anyone could possibly imagine The gigs had an exuberant energy that is extremely rare, and the audience felt like one big happy gang. We were young enough to be able to drink and dance all night every night and to still get up for work the next morning. We travelled all over the world and met all kinds of interesting people and the band were making consistently amazing music. Shane was extraordinarily prolific, he would write and draw constantly, everywhere we went. In restaurants, in bars, in waiting rooms, on planes and buses, in taxis, he never seemed to stop.

Eventually, the constant touring and the pressure to always be on top became very hard for Shane. He was always extremely sensitive, and he was taking a lot of drugs and drinking heavily. He had been wanting to stop touring and he began to want to leave the band, and he was relieved when they sacked him. He immediately started a new band called The Popes.

You and Shane had a great friendship with Johnny Depp, which is a bit wild! How did you all become friends?

When Johnny Depp opened the Viper Room in LA, Shane played with Los Lobos and we got to spend a bit of time in LA watching old videos of Johnny’s TV series 21 Jump Street, and hanging out at the club with Johnny and his friends. Shane was always deeply fascinated by film and television and all of the creative processes involved, and his songs were often influenced by films.

Did Shane ever talk to you about his love for Celtic?

One of the most exciting moments for Shane came in 2001, when he was invited to Celtic Park to play with you and your band. He had been a lifelong Celtic supporter, and he had a deep connection with Scotland—the Barrowlands in Glasgow was always his favourite place to play. Shane was moved beyond words to see and hear the reaction and the welcome from the Celtic crowd. He was intensely proud to be part of the recordings The Celtic Song and The Best Day of Our Lives as well.

I loved the Crock of Gold documentary with Johnny Depp and Julian Temple, and also Shane’s book The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold is genius. What was it like putting all of that together?

Shane felt a huge weight off his shoulders when he was free to make the music that he wanted to make and he loved collaborating with artists that he liked. Johnny played guitar on That Woman’s Got Me Drinking and he also directed and starred in the video, and they got to appear on Top of the Pops together. Shane also loved working with Nick Cave and Sinead O’Connor and spending time with friends like Bobby Gillespie and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Much later, we worked with Johnny on the Crock of Gold film, which came out around the same time as Shane’s book which was also called the Crock of Gold. The book is a collection of Shane’s art and lyrics, which was collected over 50 years and includes some of his essays from school. It’s an incredible collection, and it gives a huge insight into his creative process and his bizarre and brilliant way of thinking. I was extremely grateful that Shane got to see the book being published and that he also got to experience having his work exhibited at the very prestigious Andipa Gallery in London, which was famous for exhibiting people like Banksy. He had never expected to be taken seriously as a visual artist and he actually cried when he read the introduction by Waldemar Janusczcak of the Sunday Times.

You are an artist and writer yourself Victoria. I have some of your prints and one of my favourite things is your Angels silk scarf. In terms of your own projects, what do you have in the pipeline?

Around the same time as Shane was doing the Crock of Gold film, I began painting angels. I had been communicating with angels and guides for about 25 years at this point, and getting messages from them, but this was new for me to be painting them. I began to turn the images into scarves and jewelry and it became a wonderful source of serenity for me. Later on, when Shane got ill and died, it was the angels that kept me sane. We had been together for most of my life and for me Shane was the centre of my world. His light and beauty shone brighter than anything or anyone and his love and his laugh lit up my life. So it was a very hard time for me when he died, and the grief felt unbearable at times and completely overwhelming. I took a great deal of comfort from the love and support that was shown to me and to his family at his funeral and I continue to feel blessed by the passion and enthusiasm for his songs that continue to be played.

Are there plans to do more with Shane’s legacy and keeping his work alive?

At this moment I am working on a tribute album for Shane and we have gathered some brilliant artists from all over the world to record their own versions of his songs. I feel as if Shane’s spirit and soul are still with me very strongly, and with everyone who loves his music.