Fairytale of New York reaching Christmas No 1 ‘not important’ to Shane MacGowan, wife says

Fairytale of New York reaching Christmas No 1 was “not important” to Shane MacGowan, his wife has revealed.

The Pogues frontman died at 3am on Thursday 30 November, just weeks before he turned 66 on Christmas Day.

Now his song, Fairytale of New York, is in the race to top the music charts this Christmas, however, the Irish songwriter’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, says the song’s chart position was never important to him.

She said: “He just appreciated that so many people loved the song.

“It was not important to him to have a status in the world, he just liked people being uplifted by his work.”