'Shane will always be the light I hold before me': Victoria Mary Clarke on her husband's romantic soul
Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane McGowan in 2012 Picture: Marc O'Sullivan
Shane MacGowan's death on Thursday was announced on Instagram by his wife Victoria Mary Clarke, his soulmate, spokesperson, confidante and carer since they first met in a North London pub in 1984.
"I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese," she wrote.
"I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.
"There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presence in this world you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music. You will live in my heart forever. Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much. You meant the world to me."
The couple first met in a North London pub in 1984, when Clarke was just 16 years old.
“I thought he was beautiful,” she said in a previous interview. “He was just so striking, but I didn’t fall in love there and then.
“He was with Spider from the Pogues and I knew him through friends. The Irish in London back then, all knew each other or went out of their way to meet each other.
“Shane was very charismatic.
“He was very cheeky and came over and said, ‘it’s Spider’s birthday buy him and me a drink’. I just told him to F off and he did F off.
“But he caught me off guard I suppose and maybe we were just meant to meet, I do believe that. I was watching him for the rest of the night. I was taken in.
“He was just so arrogant but also very eye catching.”
She followed him to some of his gigs and soon fell for him.
“It was the voice, and the performance that grabbed me”, she said.
They finally got together and went on a date to the 100 Club on Oxford Street where they danced together for most of the night.
“But Shane being Shane, he had an argument with the bouncer on the door, so we had to go.
“We drank all night and listened to music, but it was simple and very romantic”.
The couple began dating seriously and Victoria said they were both romantics — making sure to tell each other that they loved each other several times a day.
“Shane loves flowers and I love working in the garden, so we have given each other flowers over the years and we love music and we laugh all the time. We care very much for each other,” she said.
For many years, Victoria was in the background of Shane’s career, and despite the pair breaking up and getting back together regularly in the early days, they were always drawn to each other.
She said, "I remember the first time he said, ‘I love you,’ he was leaving for a Pogues trip to Spain the following morning and we had just had sex on the roof of my flat.
“I was blown away when he said it. I said: ‘I love you too,’ and he said: ‘I know, you said it in your sleep’."
The couple whose friends included Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, and Nick Cave, eventually tied the knot after 32 years together.
They married in Copenhagen Town Hall in 2018, with Depp in attendance.
Shane's illness for the last few years meant the pair put their wild partying days behind them, and spent most of their married life watching TV in front of the fire.
Victoria was by Shane’s hospital bed in recent weeks after his health deteriorated and she fought to get him home to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.
She, along with Shane’s sister Siobhan and his father Maurice, were with him when he died at home on Thursday.
