A transcendent singer/songwriter who fused British punk with traditional Irish music, Shane MacGowan is best remembered as the leader of the Pogues. As their frontman and chief songwriter, he sang with a shambling mix of ferocity and tenderness, spinning tales of the drunk and downtrodden like a modern-day James Joyce or Brendan Behan, two of his literary heroes. A generational talent, he is known for writing songs like "The Old Main Drag," "A Pair of Brown Eyes," and "Fairytale of New York," the group's enduring 1987 collaboration with Kirsty MacColl. In the late '80s, at the peak of the Pogues' success, MacGowan's excessive drunkenness and substance abuse had become untenable, and in 1991 he was fired from the band. After a pair of albums with follow-up group the Popes, he and the Pogues reunited, touring sporadically into the 2010s. Following a period of poor health, MacGowan died in 2023.