Shane MacGowan’s widow Victoria shares plans to release book of his “unpublished” songs
Shane MacGowan‘s widow Victoria Mary Clarke has shared plans to one day release a book of “unpublished” songs by the late Pogues musician.
The journalist and author opened up about the passing of her husband in a new interview with The Guardian, after the Irish artist was laid to rest on December 8 following his death, aged 65, on November 30.
MacGowan died from pneumonia “peacefully” in hospital. Clarke recently paid tribute by remembering “the blessings that he brought me”.
Clarke spoke about her grief since MacGowan’s passing, telling The Guardian: “I’ve actually been doing fine, because I feel like he’s still here.”
She also reflected on the numerous songs her late husband wrote that were about her, revealing that there were some that went unrecorded that she may one day share. “I guess at some point we will be doing a book of his unpublished stuff because there are quite a lot of unpublished songs,” she shared.
Elsewhere in the interview, Clarke reflected on MacGowan’s addiction struggles with drugs and alcohol. “He would do crazy things like take 100 tabs of acid in a day then jump out of the window of a moving taxi, or paint himself blue,” Clarke shared. “And he would quite often set fire to things. He set fire to hotel rooms that we stayed in – while we were in them – because of the acid. We were living very much on the edge of some kind of actual destruction.”
She recalled another instance when MacGowan had taken heroin, crack and crystal meth in Los Angeles, before jumping on an exercise bike: “I thought: ‘He’s going to have a heart attack on an exercise bike!’”
Clarke, who also had her own struggles with drugs and alcohol, also revealed that someone once overdosed and died on their living room floor. “Oh, there’s been plenty of that kind of stuff – that wouldn’t have been the only one,” she said. “Plenty of people dying all the time. There seemed to be a bit of an inevitability about that. And Shane always seemed to be the only one who was destined to survive. We all thought: ‘Well, Shane will outlive everybody.’”
Clarke recently shared her gratitude to Johnny Depp following her husband’s funeral, describing him as a “tower of strength”.
Fans lined the streets of Dublin for MacGowan’s funeral earlier this month, which took place in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, and was also attended by Nick Cave, Glen Hansard and Irish President Michael D. Higgins.
It was recently revealed that MacGowan’s “last request” was to have €10,000 left behind the bar at a VIP wake after his funeral.
Elsewhere, The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of New York’ is set to be released on 7-inch vinyl for charity.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
