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Brian Wilson founded the Beach Boys in 1961 and was the bands leader, main composer and producer. The other founding members were: Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine. In early 1962, Al Jardine left the Beach Boys and was replaced by David Marks. Al Jardine returned to the band in August 1963 and David Marks left around the same time. In late 1964, Brian Wilson quit touring and after a short touring stint by Glen Campbell, Bruce Johnston joined the band and would stay until 1972 when he quit. In 1971 The Beach Boys was augmented with the addition of Blondie Chaplin and Rick Fataar. Chaplin left The Beach Boys in 1973 and this was soon followed by the departure of Ricky Fataar in the spring of 1975. 1978 saw the return of Bruce Johnston for the completion of the L.A.(Light album) and in 1983, Dennis Wilson tragically drowned.
In 1988 Brian Wilson released his first solo album, and was effectively no longer a member of the band. In 1998 Carl Wilson died of cancer. In 1997, David Marks made a brief return as a member of The Beach Boys touring band, but left again in 1999. Today, the surviving members of the founding Beach Boys are doing there own thing: Brian Wilson (with his band) has pursued a successful solo career since 1998. Al Jardine tours and performs with his son and Brian Wilson’s daughters and has recently toured with Brian Wilson, while Mike Love still tours extensively with The Beach Boys touring band (along with Bruce Johnston)

Profile:

His elder brothers had formed a band called The Flames, and despite his tender age of 9 years, his natural skill and prodigious talent earned him the role of drummer in the group. ‘The Best Drummer in South Africa’ in fact, - but then he WAS 12 years old by then…
The Flames were the most successful band in Durban and now include another exceptionally talented teenage musician called Blondie Chaplin. Although they recorded two number 1 hits, the apartheid social system in the country at the time severely restricted their ability to play to all of the people. It was clear to them that their futures lay outside South Africa, and their first move was to the UK.
Ricky and the rest of The Flames settled in north London and survived by playing a number of small clubs. It is in one of those clubs (Blaise’s) that, in a recent interview, Al Jardine of the Beach Boys claims to have first spotted their talent. Al told Carl Wilson, who on checking them out himself the next night, invited them to move to Los Angeles to record an album for the Beach Boys’ Brother label. Carl rented a home for them just off Sunset Strip and they were given unlimited access to the Beach Boys state-of-the-art recording equipment and their genius sound engineer Steve Desper. Now called The Flame, they released their first album entitled ‘The Flame’ which was also reputedly the first ‘Quadrophonic’ album. A second album was produced by Carl Wilson, but sadly remains unreleased to this day. They were also a popular live attraction in the area, playing clubs such as the Whiskey A Go Go but unfortunately, tensions within the band caused it to break up and they returned to South Africa. However, Ricky and Blondie were persuaded by Carl Wilson to return to tour with the group in 1971 and write and record for the Carl & The Passions album - the following year, they joined the Beach Boys as full members. Ricky remained with the Beach Boys until 1974 and long-time fans judge the live shows of that period as the pinnacle of the group’s career. This was due in no small part, to the talents of Ricky and Blondie. Ricky’s songs, drumming, vocals and production skills are featured strongly in the Beach Boys albums ‘Carl & The Passions’, ‘Holland’ and ‘In Concert’. The reason Ricky left the Beach Boys was that he had been invited to tour with Joe Walsh and had felt it was a good time to move on.
Bizarrely, in 1978 he was asked by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) to play the role of Stig O’Hara - the quiet guitarist in his spoof film about the Beatles called The Ruttles – ‘All You Need Is Cash’. In 1979 he met Bonnie Raitt and started a long association with her band. He emigrated to Australia and played on or co- produced records for a number of artists including Tim Finn, Crowded House, Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews and Renee Geyer. He produced music for the films ‘The Coca-Cola Kid’. ‘High Tide’ and ‘Les Patterson Saves the World’ staring Barry Humphries. He composed the score for an Australian film, "Spotswood."

Highlights:

Here She Comes, Leaving This Town, In Concert (every drumbeat), The Ruttles and Spotswood.

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