End of The Ramones Era as Tommy Ramone Dies

The death has taken place of Tommy Ramone. He was the last man standing of the original line-up of The Ramones, definitively one of the great bands of the punk era.

Tommy died as a result of bile duct cancer, at the age of 62.

Tommy Erdelyi was born of Jewish parents in Budapest in Hungary. His family moved to the United States when he was a child and he grew up in Forest Hills, in New York State. He was originally intended to be the manager of The Ramones, with Joey Ramone slotted to play drums, in what would have been a three-piece punk outfit. However, the extraordinary speed and aggression with which they played proved too much for Joey as a sticksman and so Tommy took over the role, becoming the fourth, mythical Ramone brother. The change paved the way for the iconic Ramones look, with the gangling, leather-jacketed Joey out front, leading a bunch of self-consciously misfit mop tops in amped-up, compulsively amphetamined, sonic assaults. The band were central to the success of punk as they blasted out of New York's CBGBs to achieve worldwide recognition, in turn inspiring the British punk scene that produced The Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash, among others.

Tommy was the band's drummer for four years and played on their first three albums, Ramones, Leave Home and Rocket To Russia – which he also co-produced. He also played lead guitar on some of the tracks. The band reached the apex of their commercial success after Tommy's departure, with End of the Century, in 1980, which peaked at No.14 in the UK charts and No.44 in the notoriously more conservative US market. Its highest chart placing globally was in Sweden, where it reached the top 10.

Tommy shared some of the band's early songwriting credits, writing 'I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend' and the majority of 'Blitzkreig Bop' – the powerful opening track on their extraordinary debut album. That record also included Dee Dee's 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue': the band were never afraid to court controversy with overt drug references.

Highlights of their second album Leave Home included 'Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment', 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' and 'Pinhead' – an anthem for self-styled nihilistic losers which wallowed in affected stupidity with wonderful abasement – an attitude that was an essential part of The Ramones fundamentalist rock 'n' roll schtick. The song contained the nonsense catchphrase "Gabba Gabba Hey", purloined from a 1932 art house movie, Freaks. It was the inspiration for the single released by Hot Press & The Silent Knights, in 1978, 'Gobble Gobble, Hey' – a seasonal celebration of the succulence of turkeys – which breached the Top 20 in Ireland.

The Ramones played a legendary gig in the State Theatre in Dublin, in 1978 – following which Bill Graham interviewed Dee Dee in his hotel room for Hot Press.

"I went back to the hotel with Bill and met Dee Dee. I'll tell the story of what was a hilarious occasion again – but looking back from a vantage point of over 30 years on, we have to acknowledge that The Ramones were an astonishing phenomenon," Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said today. "They were the complete antithesis of the excesses of the prog rock era, ploughing through their songs in a couple of minutes and racing through their sets in extraordinary, devil may care style. But their affectation of dumbness masked both street smarts and a fine pop sensibility. Some of their songs were gloriously catchy and there was no greater buzz at the time than seeing them live. Their Dublin show in The State Theatre was an outstanding occasion. When it all comes down, they were capable of creating genuinely brilliant, unforgettable music, and the rock canon would be a whole lot poorer without songs like 'Gimme Shock Treatment', 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker', 'Blitzkreig Bop' – and a whole lot more. Marky Ramone is still alive, but the final passing of the fourth original member crystallises a huge sense of loss. But The Ramones were enormously influential and their music – and that of the bands that followed in their wake – lives on."

Tommy Ramone was replaced by Marky Ramone in 1978. Having claimed their place at the top table with their unique and deliberately simplistic brand of rock, the band ran out of creative steam and commercial cache as the 1980s unfolded. They played as a band until 1996 before deciding to call it a day – though doubtless if mortality had not stolen Joey (lymphoma), De Dee (drug overdose) and Johnny (prostate cancer) from us, they'd have revived well in recent years as many of the early punk outfits received a new lease of life.

In later years, Tommy played in a bluegrass folk duo, alongside Claudia Tienan, trading under the Uncle Monk moniker. "There are a lot of similarities between punk and old-time music," he told interviewer Jari-Pekka Laitio. "Both are home-brewed music as opposed to schooled, and both have an earthy energy. And anybody can pick up an instrument and start playing."

Amen to that.

The Ramones were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and were given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011