On Wednesday, a host of musicians came together to honor late Irish legends Shane MacGowan and Sinead O’Connor with a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Most notably, O’Connor’s daughter, Roisin Waters, paid tribute to her mother with a stirring performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
The concert also saw Bettye LaVette sing “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” Cat Power put her spin on “The Body of an American,” and Resistance Revival Chorus cover “Thank You for Hearing Me,” among other performances of O’Connor’s music. Additionally, Glen Hansard and Imelda May teamed up to perform MacGowan and O’Connor’s duet “Haunted.”
Among the artists who covered songs by MacGowan and his band The Pogues were Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano (“A Pair of Brown Eyes”), Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz (“The Church of Holy Spook”), Billy Bragg (“A Rainy Night in Soho,” “If I Should Fall From Grace with God”), The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle (“Sally MacLennane”), and Dropkick Murphys (“The Old Main Drag”).
And as he did during MacGowan’s funeral, Hansard led a rousing performance of “Fairytale of New York” with former Pogues member Cait O’Riordan to close the concert.
Watch fan-captured footage, some of which comes from a Tuesday night rehearsal concert at NYC’s City Winery, below. Proceeds from the concert benefited PEN America.
Roisin Carter – “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Glen Hansard & Cait O’Riordan – “Fairytale of New York”
Craig Finn & John Darnielle -“Sally MacLennane”
Billy Bragg – “If I Should Fall From Grace with God”
Glen Hansard & Imelda May – “Hanted”
Eugene Hütz – “The Church of the Holy Spook”