By Alex Cooper, Happy Mag | Andrew Ranken, the steadfast drummer whose rhythms anchored the Celtic punk pioneers across all seven studio albums, has died at 72. No cause was confirmed, though the musician had battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in recent years.
His passing was announced by surviving founding members Jem Finer, James Fearnley, and Spider Stacy, who called Ranken “the heartbeat of The Pogues.”
He joined in 1983, replacing original drummer John Hasler, and remained until the band’s 2014 hiatus, returning for their 2001 reunion. Beyond drums, he played harmonica and occasionally sang lead.
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https://happymag.tv/andrew-ranken-passes-away/
OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or if you want to discuss, call the old numbers at 800-273-TALK or 800-273-8255 for English and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.
Posting for my Veteran/singer/songwriter/musician friend Troy Hoss: Heavy on my heart so here goes: This is a very real problem … 22 Veterans a day surrender to their demons. #SuicideAwareness | Call Veteran’s Hotline: 988 #1 or 844-647-1354
From Care2 via Jock Bartley on Facebook: Trump shut down our LGBTQ+ suicide and mental health hotline, but CANADA opened a US toll-free number to theirs… so our citizens can get help anytime, at no cost: 1-877-330-6366
Kindness & empathy have no borders.
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
February 2026
25: Roman Kofman, 89, Ukrainian conductor and composer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Kofman
24: Rostislav Gepp, 74, Russian musician (Ariel); Héctor Zamorano, 47, Mexican singer (La Academia).
23: Oliver “Power” Grant, 52, American clothing manufacturer and executive producer (Wu-Tang Clan); Sondra Lee, 97, American actress (Hello, Dolly!, Peter Pan, Sunday in New York) and singer; Éliane Radigue, 94, French composer; Monti Rock III, 86, American singer (Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes), complications from COPD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_“Power”_Grant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sondra_Lee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monti_Rock_III
22: Luci4 (James Dear), 23, American rapper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luci4
21: John Bertalot, 94, English organist; Willie Colón, 75, American salsa musician (“Pedro Navaja”) and actor (Vigilante, The Last Fight), respiratory failure; Pete Dello, 83, English singer (Honeybus) and songwriter; Mark Kennedy, 74, Australian drummer (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines) and record producer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Colon
20: Zoya Dorodova, 85, Russian singer (Buranovskiye Babushki), cancer; Angela Luce, 87, Italian actress (The Stranger, The Specialists, The Decameron) and singer, heart failure.
19: Nikolai Komyagin, 39, Russian singer (Shortparis).
18: Béatrice Ardisson, 62, French composer, cancer; Lil Poppa, 25, American rapper, suicide by gunshot.