The funeral of Shane MacGowan, the lead singer of The Pogues, was such a fitting tribute. The streets of his beloved Ireland, lined with people spontaneously singing his Christmas masterpiece ‘Fairytale of New York’.
Inside the church, his friend Nick Cave sung ‘A Rainy Night in Soho.’
The song is such a mix of things – as MacGowan was himself – emotional without being sentimental, on the edge but somehow controlled.
And what a performance! All of those things too.