The poet of punk

Shane MacGowan will forever be remembered for his charisma, his chaos.. and, of course, Christmas 2015

- MATT ROPER

TREES are going up, the first snow of the year has fallen, the festive season has arrived...and we have lost a legend whose slurring, sandpapery voice will forever remind us of Christmas.

Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, who died yesterday aged 65, could not help that he was born on Christmas Day. And, according to him, he never intended to write one of the greatest ever Christmas songs.

Now the singer, songwriter and hellraiser - as famous for his years of excess as for his raw, punky, poetic genius will always be associated with the booziest time of the year.

The Pogues' Fairytale of New York, in which a duelling Shane and Kirsty MacColl play the parts of a couple drunkenly tearing themselves and each other apart on Christmas Eve, has become a festive staple alongside Slade, Wizzard and Shakin' Stevens.

It was last thing anyone expected of the Celtic folk-punk band, with its poetic, political lyrics and traditional Irish instruments. Elvis Costello, the Pogues' producer at the time, challenged Shane to write a yuletide hit without selling out. So he did.

Released in 1987, it was kept off Nol by the Pet Shop Boys. But Christmas airplay ensured it remained in fashion long enough to benefit from the streaming age, and it topped three million sales last year.

Kirsty herself died just before Christmas in 2000-a campaign to get Fairytale to number one in her memory failed that year, but this time will surely be different.

Shane's wife, Victoria, had become his carer in recent years after Shane was confined to a wheelchair and plagued by ill-health linked to his years of alcohol and substance abuse. A week ago, she shared a touching picture of the pair to mark their fifth anniversary, just days after he was released from hospital.