ANDREW RANKEN

Best known as a member of The Pogues’, Andrew began playing drums at the tender age of 14.

Andrew’s neighbours in King’s Cross, Shane MacGowan and Jem Finer, asked him if he wanted to play drums in a band they were putting together. Due to his commitments as the lead singer in The Operation and his college studies, he decided he was too busy. A short time later he reconsidered and in March 1983 he became a permanent member of Pogue Mahone. Andrew appears on all of The Pogues’ official recordings.

While in Art College, he played drums in a band called Lola Cobra and hung out at Ronnie Scotts’s jazz club. When Lola Cobra split up, Andrew sold his drums to finance a hitch-hiking tour of Europe. When he came home he became the singer in the pub-rock band The Stickers. After three years they split up and Andrew went on to form The Operation. This R’N’B cajun band had a line-up of up to 13 people, with Andrew taking the role of lead vocal.

Andrew now heads The Mysterious Wheels, a Blues, Country, Rock and Roll, and all-around fantastic band.

The album “Reach Out Hold On” can be streamed and purchased here.