Nick Cave pens heartfelt tribute to Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor

nme.com:

Nick Cave has written a tribute to Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor following their deaths.On November 30, it was announced that MacGowan, lead singer of The Pogues, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family and friends.

His death came five months after the news of Sinéad O’Connor’s passing. The two musicians had a long enduring friendship, even collaborating together on the 1995 single ‘Haunted’.Now, Nick Cave has responded to the two deaths in a lengthy essay written on his Red Hand Files website.

He previously reacted to the news of MacGowan’s passing by calling him “a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation,” adding that this marked “a very sad day”.In his letter, Cave reminisced on MacGowan’s 60th birthday gig in Dublin.

Cave and O’Connor performed at the gig, along with the likes of Bono, The Libertines’ Carl Barat and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.Cave began by remembering he felt “agitated and nervous about performing”. “I was surrounded by all of these artists doing beautiful versions of Shane’s songs and, I don’t know, I guess I was also feeling a bit out of sorts that evening,” he explained.He went on to spot O’Connor “standing slightly separate from everyone else, half hidden by the curtain, gazing at the floor, looking fierce and intense.”“I didn’t really know Sinéad,” wrote Cave. “I’d met her a few times here and there, and maybe chatted briefly with her, but I had always liked her uniqueness, her raging spirit, her disagreeableness, her beautifulness and, of course, her celestial voice.“Sinéad looked up and caught my eye, smiled, and walked over and hugged me,” he continued. “I’m not sure why, but I was terribly moved by her gesture.