Nick Cave has penned a poignant tribute to the late Shane MacGowan and Sinead O’Connor.
The 66-year-old singer described the Pogues frontman as a “true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation” when his death was announced on Thursday (30Nov12), and he’s now reflected on the singer’s 60th birthday concert, when he performed on a bill that included the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ hitmaker, who died five months ago.
Asked about his memories of the stars on his Red Hand Files website, Nick revealed he felt “flustered and nervous” about performing alongside the likes of Bono, Carl Barat and Bobby Gillespie, but Sinead made him feel reassured.
He wrote: “I saw Sinéad O’Connor standing slightly apart from everyone else, half hidden by the curtain, looking down, looking fierce and intense.
“I didn’t really know Sinéad, I’d met her a few times here and there and maybe talked to her briefly, but I’d always liked her uniqueness, her fierce spirit, her unpleasantness, her beauty and, of course, her heavenly voice.
“Sinéad looked up and caught my eye, smiled, and came over and hugged me. I’m not sure why, but her gesture moved me deeply. She was so warm and giving and kind at that moment. I had no idea how precious that moment would be.
Nick didn’t have a chance to speak to Sinead as he was “led” on stage to play “Summer in Siam” with Shane and the thing that impressed him most at that moment was the love between the “Dirty Old Town” singer and his wife, Victoria Mary Clarke.
He concluded: “Sinéad once said of Shane, ‘He is an angel. An actual angel’. Whether or not this is the case, who’s to say?
” But Shane was blessed with an uncommon spirit of goodness and a deep sense of what is true, which was strangely amplified in his brokenness, his humanness. We can say of him most certainly, ‘he was beloved on the earth,’ and Sinéad too — truly beloved and greatly missed, both.”
