Shane Marries His Angel
Sky News
Saturday April 14, 2007
John Kelly
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After 20 years of living in sin, notorious Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan is finally getting married - to an angel.
Journalist Victoria Mary Clarke has stuck by MacGowan's side for over two decades.
But before she ties the knot with the singer, she's releasing a tell-all book about their tempestuous relationship.
Sky News' John Kelly went to meet the couple in a Dublin boozer to get the low down:
He shambles in, stooped, limping and relying heavily on the blackthorn stick clutched in his right hand to stay upright.
Ordinarily, such an entrance would have caught the eye for no more than a nanosecond. It is only when the flashbulbs start popping that you realise the shambling figure in the long coat and cap is none other than Shane MacGowan.
His down-at-heel appearance is contrasted by Victoria, who is wearing a black PVC mini-dress, vertigo-inducing high heels and wings. Yes, wings. Of the sort that a child in a nativity play might wear if they were cast in the role of an angel.
Despite the fact that her new book is called Angel In Disguise? Victoria is quick to dismiss the notion that she is MacGowan's guardian angel.
"No, he's my guardian angel, aren't you Shane?"
MacGowan, still in pain after a recent fall off a stage in Boston during yet another Pogues reunion tour, mumbles in agreement and nods his head. Like any couple who have been together for over 20 years, they have developed the ability to communicate without words.
Which is just as well, because Shane is in a taciturn mood this evening.
On the subject of his impending nuptials, he would only confirm that they are getting married and that there will be a party, but he's not sure where or when.
Victoria, in a much chattier mood, confirms that it will be a summer wedding, although she has abandoned plans to sell the pictures of their big day to OK! or Hello magazine: "I'm having second thoughts on that, I'm not sure it's worth the money."
MacGowan will be able to swap his cap for a top hat given to him by Kate Moss when he waltzes Victoria up the aisle.
It is even rumoured that rock's current leading wild man, Pete Doherty, is going to play at the wedding with his band Babyshambles.
No sign of Kate or Pete on a Wednesday evening in Dublin, but some of Ireland's leading lights have turned out to lend their support.
Folk legend Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners, who recorded The Wild Rover with the Pogues, has dragged himself from his sick bed, on crutches, to be at the book launch.
Film director Jim Sheridan mixes happily with guests; while author JP Donleavy - the man who inspired MacGowan to write A Fairytale of New York - stands quietly at the bar, looking every inch a country gent.
A Fairytale of New York was recently voted the best Christmas song ever written, but MacGowan is quick to deflect the credit away from himself.
"That was co-written with Country Jem Finer," he explains. "He's not here tonight, but another Pogue is, Spider Stacey is here."
MacGowan claims he's equally proud of all the songs he has written, and when asked if he has a favourite he quickly replies: "Well, I've never purposely released a bad one."
U2 singer Bono is a mutual friend to both Shane and Victoria, but MacGowan has no desire to emulate his contemporary, who was recently given an honorary knighthood.
Would MacGowan accept a similar gong? "No . . . because I'm Irish.
"But I understand why he took it, and good luck to him. Bono's a good mate."
And while Bono is the very epitome of a squeaky-clean rocker, MacGowan is the polar opposite.
Drink, drugs, fights - been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.
Throughout the evening he swigs from a glass of what looks like water. Only the slice of lemon betrays that it is, in fact, a very large gin and tonic - the drinker's drink, precisely because it does look like water.
MacGowan spends most of his time living at the family farm in County Tipperary these days. So what does he make of the Celtic Tiger economy?
"Well it is good that half the people ain't starving any more, but it has made people greedy. But it is not just about Dublin you know, out in the country people are still much the same."
And it seems that MacGowan will be much the same even after he is married.
Somehow, I cannot see him being tamed by a wedding ring.
"My wild days? I don't remember them. "It's like Keith Richards said - your wild days are the ones you don't remember!"
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© 2007 BSkyB
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