The Pogues were one of the finest bands of the 1980s, infusing Irish traditional music with punk to give new voice to a young Irish diaspora. This owed very much to the poetic songwriting of Shane MacGowan.
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A potentially surprising detail of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan s funeral was the involvement of Johnny Depp. Read more about their loyal and loving friendship here.
The singer brought a sound and instrumentation that borrowed heavily from Irish traditional music, but played with a thoroughly modern punk-rock fury. It was a genre that really didn’t exist until MacGowan landed there, writes Jim Sullivan.