I owe my career entirely to my family and to the way I was brought up. I am very grateful to them and to Christ and His Holy Mother and all the saints. And, of course, I am grateful to Victoria, my muse. Without whom I might well be dead by now.

Shane MacGowan, The Guardian

And in a week when we have lost David Bowie, I am glad that Shane MacGowan is not dead. It truly is a great memory, me and my mate Stephen locked arm in arm in the moshpit at The Hordern Pavillion several decades ago, when The Pogues kicked off with ‘The Turkish Song of the Damned’, and without any effort of our own we were flung from one side of the hall to the other. And not only he is Shane MacGowan not dead, he has teeth! God bless him.