Ramone for life

Tom Erdelyi hadn't planned to become Tommy Ramone, but circumstances forced him into a new identity as the drummer and driving force behind one of the most unforgettable rock'n'roll bands of the 1970s.

He was the last surviving member of the Ramones, the seminal New York punk group whose buzzsaw music and don't-give-a-damn attitude have been a lasting influence for more than a generation. Erdelyi, who was 65 years old, died on July 11 at his home in Queens. The band's Facebook and Twitter accounts confirmed his death, from bile-duct cancer.

The Ramones grew out of the 1970s new wave scene in New York that also produced Blondie, Television and Talking Heads, and they played regularly at the CBGB club in the Bowery neighbourhood. There had been other stripped-down groups before the Ramones, but the four leather-clad youths from Queens created a distinctive no-frills identity, with their torn jeans and style-free haircuts, as they pounded out songs that had the speed and subtlety of a machine gun.

Erdelyi played on and co-produced the band's first three studio albums - Ramones (1976), Leave Home (1977) and Rocket to Russia (1977) - and was sole producer on the 1979 live album It's Alive. These were the discs that created the imperishable Ramones sound, with their frantic pace and skilful deployment of the band's simple guitar-bass-drums format in tracks that sometimes lasted barely a minute and a half.

It didn't matter that they could barely play their instruments: the Ramones were a rock'n'roll primal scream, an expression of rebellion, loneliness, spite and raw, unfiltered fun. As a show of brotherly solidarity, the four members adopted the last name Ramone. The band had read that Paul McCartney had checked into hotels as Paul Ramon, derived from the name of pop-music producer Phil Ramone.

The other original Ramones included Joey (Jeffrey Hyman) on vocals; Johnny (John Cummings) on guitar; and Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin) on bass.