Shane MacGowan completed work on a final album before his death last week, it has been revealed. Recorded with Irish band Cronin, the fifteen track LP was seven years in the making and also features Pogues members Spider Stacey and Jem Finer.
“We are beyond devastated to lose our friend, the only consolation we have is that Shane had finished all his vocals for this record”, the band’s Johnny Cronin tells The Irish Sun, adding that MacGowan was in “fine voice right to the end”.
“Shane was always in charge when we went into the studio, he was telling us what to play and where to play it”, he goes on. “If I was going to try and describe it, it’s like the recordings Johnny Cash did with producer Rick Rubin at the end of his career”.
Plans for releasing the record are yet to be decided. Cronin said that MacGowan “wanted this record out, so it will come out”, but added that it is “not something we are thinking about right now”.
Following a lengthy period of ill health, MacGowan died last week, aged 65, after contracting pneumonia. His funeral is set to take place in Nenagh, County Tipperary in Ireland on Friday. His coffin will be taken on a procession through Dublin earlier in the day.