Nick Cave has performed an emotional version of The Pogues‘ ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’ at Shane MacGowan‘s funeral.
READ MORE: Shane MacGowan, 1957-2023: an uncompromising, chaotic one of a kind
The Pogues frontman passed away “peacefully” on December 30, having died from pneumonia aged 65. His funeral occurred today in Tipperary, close to where MacGowan grew up in his childhood. Aidan Gillen and Johnny Depp were amongst the attendees who paid tribute to MacGowan – you can watch the livestream here.
Footage of Cave’s cover has now been shared on social media, in which the Australian musician is visibly moved during his performance. Cave can also be heard changing the lyrics to ‘A Rainy Night’; in the video, he sings: “Now this song is over / We’ll never find out what it means.” Cave sings this modified version instead of the original: “Now this song is nearly over / We many never find out what it means.”
Nick Cave performs ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ at the funeral of Shane MacGowan in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, this afternoon. @virginmedianews pic.twitter.com/G17PmNYi1l
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) December 8, 2023
Cave has paid tribute to MacGowan several times since his death, praising him as “the greatest songwriter of his generation” and reminiscing on his memories performing at MacGowan’s 60th birthday party with Sinéad O’Connor.
“Shane was not revered just for his manifold talents but also loved for himself alone,” he wrote on his website, Red Hand Files. “A beautiful and damaged man, who embodied a kind of purity and innocence and generosity and spiritual intelligence unlike any other.
“Sinéad once said of Shane, ‘He is an angel. An actual angel’. Whether or not this is the case, who’s to say? But Shane was blessed with an uncommon spirit of goodness and a deep sense of what is true, which was strangely amplified in his brokenness, his humanness.
“We can say of him most certainly, ‘he was beloved on the earth,’ and Sinéad too — truly beloved and greatly missed, both,” he concluded.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds performing on stage with Shane MacGowan at Town & Country Club, Kentish Town, London 01 September 1992. (Photo by Ian Dickson/Redferns)
Since the news of MacGowan and O’Connor’s death, an old interview clip of the duo has resurfaced, in which they discuss life and death.
Elsewhere, MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, has shared her tribute of her husband ahead of the funeral today. “Tomorrow is Shane’s funeral which is hard to believe and probably I won’t believe it for a while,” she began the post last night (December 7).
“Shane hated funerals and he refused to go to them with a few rare exceptions. So it’s incredible to think that so many people want to come to his and that so many beautiful people are pouring their hearts and souls into making it magnificent and magical and memorable for him and for us who are left behind.
She ended her tribute by joking: “To anyone who is in fear of losing someone, just know that millions of angels are watching you and supporting you. And if you don’t want to come to the funeral Shane would definitely understand, he wouldn’t want to go either!”
Other tributes have come flooding in after the news of his death – read a full list here.
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