Shane MacGowan Announces First Art Book

Shane MacGowan has laid out plans for new art book The Eternal Buzz and The Crock of Gold.

The book follows last year’s fantastic Julien Temple documentary Crock Of Gold, and features material gathered over six decades.

Moving from his childhood through to his punk indoctrination, Shane MacGowan then includes illustrations and photography from The Pogues’ helter-skelter run.

Passing through the decades until the present day, The Eternal Buzz and The Crock of Gold will be released in Spring 2022.

Fans who pre-order now, however, will gain a hand-written certificate of authenticity and a Christmas card from Shane.

Featuring forewords by Johnny Depp and Waldemar Januszczak, it’s a deluxe art book matching newly commissioned words and imagery.

“I was always into drawing and painting, and I used to do all sorts of things, hurlers, IRA men, teenage punks hanging around in cafes, you name it…” says Shane of his artwork.

He continues: “When I was about 11 or 12 I got heavily into studying history of art and looking at old paintings and modern paintings, I knew a lot about art. It’s one of the only O Levels I got, was in art. I did the album cover for The Pope’s album ‘Crock of Gold’ and I designed the Pogues first album cover, ‘Red Roses For Me’. And I more or less designed the second album ‘If I Should Fall From Grace With God’. In terms of my materials, I like pastels but I don’t really think about it. I’ll paint or draw on anything, with anything. I like more or less everyone from Fra Angelico and Giotto to the latest, like Caravaggio was the last of the Renaissance, before it went into Expressionism.”

“I love Cezanne, Gauguin, Monet, Manet. I love the Irish impressionists, Lavery, Jack B Yeats, Brendan Fitzpatrick. The 20th century impressionists who painted the period of Ireland fighting for its freedom. I like Max Ernst, the surrealists, Dali, Chagall… God there’s millions of them.”

Order the book HERE.