Complex sentence: The Bombers'original drummer was Lancaster's ex-Status Quo band mate John Coghlan, but, ironically, Lancaster had been complicit in engineering Coghlan's departure from the band four years prior to his own.
Split into simpler sentences: The Bombers'original drummer was Lancaster's ex-Status Quo band mate John Coghlan. Ironically, Lancaster had been complicit in engineering Coghlan's departure from that band four years prior to his own.