Release / Published 2026-10-31

Glen Hansard’s Posthumous Pogues Cover for Shane MacGowan Is Released

A 2024 recording of Glen Hansard singing the Pogues’ Bottle of Smoke with James Fearnley is out as a single from a Shane MacGowan tribute album due 13 November, three months after Hansard died.

A flat conceptual editorial illustration: a vintage ribbon microphone on a straight stand against a warm cream studio wall, the grille drawn as clean horizontal lines, a soft rust floor shadow; a quiet studio corner with nobody in it. No people, no faces, no record sleeves, no logos and no readable
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a photograph of the people or event described.

THE SHORT VERSION

  • A recording of Glen Hansard and Pogues accordion player James Fearnley playing Bottle of Smoke at The Wiltern in October 2024 was released as a single on 30 October.
  • The track comes from 20th Century Paddy: The Songs of Shane MacGowan, due 13 November, with Bruce Springsteen, U2, Tom Waits and Hozier among the contributors.
  • Hansard died in July at 56; Consequence reports that at least half of the album’s artist royalties go to the Dublin Simon Community.

The recording is out

A recording of Glen Hansard singing the Pogues’ “Bottle of Smoke” with accordion player James Fearnley was released on 30 October as a single. Rolling Stone reports that the performance came near the end of an October 2024 concert at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, where Hansard brought Fearnley out for a few songs. Consequence reports the same release and dates the recording to October 2024. Neither report says which night of the Wiltern run the tape comes from.

The track is taken from 20th Century Paddy: The Songs of Shane MacGowan, a tribute album due on 13 November. Rolling Stone calls the original a 1988 Pogues classic, and Consequence places it on the band’s 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. Neither report says how long the Hansard recording runs, or whether a video accompanies it. Both treat it as a live recording rather than a studio outtake.

Hansard died in July, at 56

Both reports tie the release to Hansard’s death. Rolling Stone writes that the recording came out in the wake of his death in July. Consequence reports that he was 56, and describes him as an Irish singer-songwriter whose rendition takes on serious weight after the loss. Rolling Stone puts the release in the same sentence as the death, and Consequence opens its account with the weight the recording now carries.

Consequence also reports what happened at the funeral in August. Lisa O’Neill, who sang “Fairytale of New York” with Hansard at MacGowan’s funeral in 2023, performed “Old Note” at Hansard’s funeral. Neither report names a cause of death. The two funerals hold the story together: she sang with Hansard at MacGowan’s in 2023, and at Hansard’s own three years later.

The MacGowan friendship

Hansard and MacGowan were close for years. Rolling Stone reports that Hansard was musical director for MacGowan’s funeral and performed the Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in SoHo” at the ceremony. Consequence describes the two as having shared a close friendship, and both reports note that MacGowan died in 2023. MacGowan fronted the Pogues, and the tribute album is built from his songs rather than Hansard’s.

Hansard described the relationship on Ireland’s Late Late Show, in an answer Rolling Stone carries. He said MacGowan would tell him to “find the truth in that lyric,” and that “He would push you … and he had that honesty and a kind of fearlessness about the work.” The same answer has MacGowan telling him to eff off about a hundred times, and still sending Christmas cards, birthday cards and a painting. Rolling Stone places the remark around the time of the funeral, without giving the date of the interview.

Victoria Mary Clarke’s statement

MacGowan’s widow, Victoria Mary Clarke, gave a statement that both outlets quote. She said she was “eternally grateful to Glen for being such an incredible friend to both myself and Shane,” and called his version of the song magnificent. In the same statement she said he infused the song with all of the soul, spirit and passion he was famous for. The two printings of the statement overlap almost word for word, with Rolling Stone carrying the longer passage.

In it Clarke says MacGowan adored Hansard and hoped Hansard would produce an album for him, and that Hansard’s death is a profound loss to the music world and to humanity in general. She adds that it is some comfort to have his voice and presence and beauty on an album that would not have been made without him. That passage is the only place either report says what MacGowan thought of Hansard’s work.

The album, and where the money goes

The tribute record is a various-artists project. Rolling Stone names Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Dropkick Murphys among the contributors, and Consequence adds Tom Waits and Hozier. Springsteen’s cover of the same Pogues song is already out, and Rolling Stone carries his statement that “an artist comes along whose voice seems to speak to history itself,” before naming Woody Guthrie, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Miles Davis and Aretha Franklin among the artists he sets beside MacGowan. Springsteen calls them geniuses who were both timeless and the embodiment of their moment.

Consequence reports where the royalties go. At least half of the artist royalties from the album will benefit the Dublin Simon Community, an organisation both musicians supported throughout their lives. Hansard was also a driving force behind the annual Christmas Eve busking on Grafton Street that the organisation runs. Neither report lists the running order or the number of tracks. Neither report says whether the royalties come from streams, sales or both. Rolling Stone does not mention the charity at all.

What is not in either report

The two reports agree on the release, the venue, the album date and the charity. They differ in one point of wording: Rolling Stone’s standfirst calls the song Smoke in a Bottle, while its own text and Consequence both call it “Bottle of Smoke.” Neither outlet reports a tracklist, a physical release or a second single. The standfirst is the only factual disagreement between the two pieces.

Neither piece says whether the Wiltern performance was filmed in full, or how the Hansard recording was mixed. Consequence closes by pointing readers to a stream of the song, and Rolling Stone closes with Springsteen’s statement. Both also leave out the album’s full tracklist, which would show where the Hansard track sits. Related coverage on this site includes Bobby Wright’s death at 84, Powderfinger’s 2027 reunion tour and Florence and the Machine’s Everybody Scream live album.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Hear Glen Hansard’s Posthumously Released Pogues Cover Honoring Shane MacGowan — Rolling Stone
  2. Glen Hansard’s Posthumous Shane MacGowan Cover “Bottle of Smoke” Released — Consequence
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