“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”: Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken has died, aged 72

Andrew Ranken of The Pogues plays drums during a gig in Reading, UK, 1985.

Sad news reaches us that Andrew Ranken, drummer with The Pogues, has died, aged 72.

Ranken joined the band in 1983 and played on all seven of the band’s studio albums, from 1984’s Red Roses For Me through to their final recordings on 1996’s Pogue Mahone. A cause of death has yet to be announced, but it is thought that he had been in ill health in recent years and had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.