Shane MacGowan, the frontman and songwriter of the Irish punk band the Pogues, died this morning (November 30), BBC Information stories, citing an Instagram submit by his spouse, Victoria Mary Clarke. A spokesperson confirmed the information to the BBC, saying the musician died peacefully along with his spouse and and sister by his aspect. MacGowan was 65 years previous.

MacGowan was greatest identified for his tongue-in-cheek, cranky supply because the frontman of the Pogues, chronicling the misadventures of Eire’s residents and diaspora in raspy, whiskey-ravaged tones. Arising within the early Nineteen Eighties, he and the Pogues welded Irish pleasure with the risky, rebellious vitality of punk, typically incorporating the nation’s classics and pop tunes into their repertoire. Their legendary bacchanalian antics, on and off stage, had been as a lot part of the band’s philosophy because the music. As MacGowan informed Melody Maker in 1991, “Crucial factor to recollect about drunks is that drunks are way more clever than non-drunks. They spend a variety of time speaking in pubs, in contrast to workaholics who consider their careers and ambitions, who by no means develop their increased non secular values, who by no means discover the insides of their head like a drunk does.”

Born on Christmas Day, 1957, within the English county of Kent, Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was raised by his mom and father, each of whom had been Irish immigrants at a time of extreme pressure between the 2 nations. He graduated with a literature scholarship from a Kent preparatory college, enjoying music and speaking up his Irish heritage from an early age. Aged 18, he graced the quilt of the native papers after his ear was bloodied throughout a live performance by the Conflict. The identical 12 months, he fashioned his first band, the punk rock group the Nipple Erectors—later renamed the Nips—with Shanne Bradley.

MacGowan met his future bandmate Peter “Spider” Stacy within the rest room at a 1977 Ramones present in London, and the 2 fashioned an off-the-cuff group known as the Millwall Chainsaws with Jem Finer. The boys welcomed former Nips accordionist James Fearnley into the fold in 1982, naming themselves Pogue Mahone (an anglicized translation of which implies “kiss my arse”) and finally including Cait O’Riordan on bass and Andrew Ranken on drums. In 1984, opening for the Conflict, they caught the eye of Stiff Data, which launched their debut album, Purple Roses for Me, beneath their new identify: the Pogues.