'When we do Fairytale of New York live, people in and around the Pogues nominate guests for the Kirsty MacColl part. I leave it to them to argue it out. To say I have any favourites for that role other than Kirsty is to sully her name. I'm old-fashioned like that.
The role (and it is a role) often goes to Ella Finer, daughter of Jem, who co-wrote the song with me. It works fine, partly because it keeps it in the family, and partly because Fairytale is meant to be a song from an older man to a younger woman. And I knew her before she was born.
Monday was the anniversary of Kirsty's passing. Six years after her death in a boating accident in Mexico, her killers still haven't been brought to justice. Her mother Jean is keeping up the Justice for Kirsty campaign, so check out her website for the latest news.
In Irish pubs where they still sing, Fairytale has become as much a standard as Danny Boy or The Fields of Athenry. So I'm like the writers of all those traditional standards, except I'm not anonymous. Or dead."
Shane MacGowan
The scumbag line in Fairytale always makes me smile. I have happy memories of screaming it down the high street with mates, under-aged and loaded on cider, at the crappy end of a Christmas Eve. The lyrics have a rare honesty. The experience of being a migrant - with the lethal mixture of being drunk, in love and Irish - is described beautifully.
bluelou
The writer of The Fields of Athenry [Pete St John] is neither anonymous nor dead.
hardatwork
Not everyone has fun at Christmas and not everyone wants it every day. So this is still the best Christmas song. It doesn't generalise and it's rousing and engaging. When it came out, I saw the Pogues just before Christmas. Kirsty was on stage for Fairytale. Joe Strummer joined them for I Fought the Law. We drank a lot of cheap Paddy, so I may have imagined how damn brilliant it was! I lost my specs in the mosh. Somehow I managed to retrieve them undamaged.
ScottBeveridge
Fifteen minutes ago, I wished a friend Happy Christmas with the usual: "You scumbag, you maggot . . ." Then I found this piece from Shane. Thanks for bringing us a Christmas song Disney are unlikely to steal.
ElmerPhudd
I am a Brit living in Kuala Lumpur and a friend gave me a CD of Christmas music. It closed with Fairytale. I was very teary and homesick.
Applebadger
Kirsty's forced leaving does indeed muffle the bell, but I doubt she'd want us to swill in a dirge. "Go have a drink and a laugh!" she'd say. God bless Kirsty and the lot of yers - and enjoy the bells ringing out on Christmas day.
RickNToronto
I don't get angry about rubbish covers, but Ronan Keating and Maire Brennan's sanitised version of Fairytale is the exception. The rewrite is far more offensive than the original. Apparently Ronan was surprised to hear people hate his version, he just wanted to make it suitable for all the family or some such nonsense.
KillerJoe
For a decent cover listen to Razorlight's CD single for Rip It Up, which features Lisa Moorish on guest vocals. A stripped down acoustic version, it's a fair attempt - not as good as the original, of course. RIP Kirsty: thank you for the music.
Alfod
· Read the final instalment of Shane MacGowan's Christmas diary tomorrow at blogs.theguardian.com
