The Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken dies aged 72 as band pays tribute to ‘a true friend and brother’
The Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken has died aged 72 – with his bandmates today paying tribute to ‘a true friend and brother’.
The drummer performed with the group between 1983 and 1996 and returned between 2001 and 2014.
The news comes just over two years after the death of the band’s legendary frontman Shane MacGowan, aged 65, in November 2023.
Ranken played on the Pogues’ most famous song, Christmas classic Fairytale Of New York, on which MacGowan duetted with the late Kirsty MacColl.
She was killed at the age of 41 when hit by a speedboat while swimming off the coast of Mexico in December.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Pogues said: ‘It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andrew Ranken, drummer, founding member, and heartbeat of The Pogues.
‘Andrew, thank you for everything, for your friendship, your wit and your generosity of spirit, and of course for the music, forever a true friend and brother. Our thoughts and love are with his family at this sad and difficult time.’
Ranken, from London, known by the fond nickname of ‘The Clobberer’, not only played drums but also provided harmonica and vocals for the Pogues.
Tributes have been paid to Andrew Ranken, drummmer with the Pogues, after his death aged 72 – he is pictured here performing at the Apollo in Manchester in December 2013
Pictured left to right at Brixton Academy in London in December 2010 are the Pogues’ Philip Chevron, Andrew Ranken, Shane MacGowan and James Fearnley
Among other tracks on which he played were Dirty Old Town and the Pogues’ rendition of The Irish Rover, featuring The Dubliners, while Ranken sang lead on the band’s song Worms, the final track on 1988’s If I Should Fall From Grace With God.
Online posts in tribute from fans have included the comment, ‘He was such a musical force, and from what I’ve read, quite the stand-up guy’, while another admirer wrote: ‘The world is running out of Pogues, and that’s very sad. RIP.’
And author Siobhan MacGowan, sister of ex-Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, posted on X: ‘Andrew was such an important part of the story. A band brother and unbelievably talented and unique drummer. May he rest in peace.’
Shane died aged 65 in November 2023, after suffering from viral encephalitis – a life-threatening condition that leads to brain swelling – and having been in and out of Dublin’s St Vincent’s Hospital for months.
MacGowan was known for his hard-partying lifestyle slurred speech, missing teeth and on-stage meltdowns during his 1980s heyday.
Ranken released his own charity single in aid of St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, east London, in 2013.
The track called Take Me Down To St Joe’s featured Ranken on lead vocals, backed by his rhythm and blues band called the Mysterious Wheels – along with guests, singer Nikki Akinjinmi and trumpet player Dan Gale-Hayes.
Talking about the release at the time, Ranken told of his suffering with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – and how he had attended a rehabilitation class at nearby Homerton Hospital.
Andrew Ranken is pictured playing drums for the Pogues at a concert in Reading in 1985
The Pogues are pictured in the 1980s – with Ranken left of centre in the front row
Tributes to Andrew Ranken have been shared on X, including from the Pogues and Siobhan MacGowan, sister of the group’s former frontman Shane MacGowan
A nurse from St Joseph’s also attended that day – and Ranken and his band offered the song to help raise money and awareness for the hospice’s services.
Ranken also played with other bands, including the hKippers – alongside EastEnders star Paul Bradley, who plays Nigel Bates in the BBC soap opera – and the Municipal Waterboard.
The changing Pogues line-up has consisted over the years of the likes of Ranken, MacGowan, Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, James Fearnley, Terry Woods, Darryl Hunt and other musicians.
MacGowan had become involved with the burgeoning punk movement in 1970s England, and played occasionally with future bandmates Stacy and Finer in a band called the Millwall Chainsaws after MacGowan and Stacy met in the toilets at a Ramones gig at in 1977.
Fearnley, who had been a guitarist with MacGowan’s band The Nips, joined the trio and the band Pogue Mahone was formed, thanks to a name suggestion from Stacy.
The new group played their first gig at in 1982. The band reached their critical peak with the 1985 album Rum, Sodomy And The Lash, and their commercial peak with If I Should Fall From Grace With God three years later.
The Pogues sacked MacGowan in 1991 for his increasingly unreliable behaviour.
After the Pogues’ break-up in 1996, the three remaining long-term members – Stacy, Ranken and Hunt – played together briefly as The Vendettas.
The band’s lead guitarist Philip Chevron (second from left) died in 2013 at the age of 56 after a battle with cancer
The Pogues received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards in 2006 – pictured left to right: Darryl Hunt, Spider Stacy, Terry Woods and Andrew Ranken
Shane MacGowan is seen singing again with the Pogues at the Rock In Idro event in Bologna, Italy, in May 2014 – with Andrew Ranken on drums and Darryl Hunt on guitar
The band has performed with a line-up of Stacy, Finer and Fearnley since 2024, performing Red Roses For Me and Rum, Sodomy And The Lash in full to celebrate their 40th anniversaries.
MacGowan formed his own band The Popes and toured extensively before performing with The Pogues again in 2001 and continued to tour with the band for several years, although no new music was recorded.
The band’s lead guitarist Philip Chevron, who joined in 1984, died in 2013 at the age of 56 after a battle with cancer.
He was treated for head and neck cancer in 2007 and was later given a clean bill of health.
The following year he embarked on a tour of the US with The Pogues and managed to sing Thousands Are Sailing, which he wrote, during every show.
In May 2013 it was announced that the cancer had returned and that it was ‘lethal’ after he had been told that operating on the tumour carried too great a risk.
His last public appearance was at the Olympia Theatre for a fundraiser in August of the same year.
Another key member of the band has been Caitlin O’Riordan, who played bass guitar and provided backing vocals for the Pogues from 1983 to 1986.
Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken, who has died aged 72, is seen performing at Terminal 5 in New York City on March 17 2011
She was invited by MacGowan to join his newly forming band Pogue Mahone in 1982 and went on to feature on the group’s first two albums, Red Roses for Me and Rum, Sodomy And The Lash before leaving in 1986.
Fairytale Of New York was written as a duet for O’Riordan and MacGowan, but the band eventually recorded it instead with MacColl, who died aged 41 in December 2000 when struck by a powerboat off the coast of Cozumel in Mexico.
Steve Lilywhite, MacColl’s ex-husband and father of her two sons, told on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy last December of his belief there had been a ‘cover-up’.
He claimed the tragedy could directly be traced back to billionaire Guillermo González Nova, once one of Mexico’s richest men, who owned the 31ft speedboat.
González Nova was on board and was the only person with a licence to drive it.
The Mexican supermarket tycoon, a billionaire who died in 2009, was accused of paying deckhand José Cen Yam, then 26, to be the ‘fall guy’ for the crash.
There were claims Cen Yam had later drunkenly told friends he took the blame on the promise of cash and a house on Cozumel, where his boss had a holiday home.
Cen Yam avoided jail for culpable homicide by paying a $90 (£61) fine, despite being held responsible for Kirsty’s death.
Shane MacGowan of the Pogues is seen performing with Kirsty MacColl in 1987, the year they first released their Christmas classic single Fairytale Of New York
Mr Lillywhite said that ‘no one believes’ that he was driving the boat and that Guillermo González Nova orchestrated a cover-up to prevent himself facing an expensive lawsuit from Kirsty’s bereaved family.
He said: ‘They said that it was a young kid driving, but no one believes that.
‘I think they just didn’t want to have an enormous lawsuit because he was one of the richest guys in Mexico.’
When tracked down by the Mail On Sunday last December, Cen Yam insisted he had been the one driving the boat.
He insisted that González Nova’s family ‘never put pressure on me to admit to anything I didn’t do’.
He said: ‘No, it was me. I have always told the truth about this.’
On whether Gonzalez Nova was really at the helm, he shook his head and declared: ‘Absolutely not.’
He tearfully added when questioned: ‘I don’t feel shame over this. It was an accident. I don’t feel it was my fault.’
