Ricky Fataar
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Ricky Fataar (born 5 September 1952 in Durban, South Africa) is a South African musician who is primarily a drummer. He is famed as a member of The Rutles and for his brief tenure in The Beach Boys.
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[edit] Music career
[edit] The Flames
He was originally part of The Flames, a band from his birthplace of Durban, South Africa that began in 1963. He joined the band at the age of nine years old. The band made several recordings as well as touring all over Southern Africa and before long they became quite popular in South Africa. By the time he was twelve years old he had already won the honour of being voted as the "Best Rock Drummer in South Africa."
In 1968 the band moved to London and began touring England. On one of their tours, they were spotted by a member of The Beach Boys, Carl Wilson. He was impressed by their talent and offered to sign them to the Beach Boys new record label Brother Records. The band moved to Los Angeles and they recorded and released their 1970 album The Flame with Carl Wilson producing the album.
[edit] Beach Boys
The Flame dissolved in late 1970. Fataar and his fellow former Flame bandmate Blondie Chaplin were then recruited by the Beach Boys, in 1971. Fataar was asked to play drums for the band after drummer Dennis Wilson suffered a debilitating hand accident. The duo recorded two albums with the Beach Boys. The 1972 Beach Boys album Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" featured musical and vocal contributions from Chaplin and Fataar. It also included two songs written by the duo, "Here She Comes" and "Hold On Dear Brother". The band's next album, Holland, which was released a year later, also featured vocal and musical contributions from Chaplin and Fataar, including the hit single "Sail On, Sailor", on which Blondie Chaplin sang the lead vocal. On the Holland album, the pair also collaborated with Carl Wilson and Mike Love on the song "Leaving This Town". Fataar and Chaplion became part of the band's tours in the early 1970, and featured on the 1973 live album The Beach Boys In Concert. This included a live version of the previously unreleased Chaplin/Fataar/Love collaboration "We Got Love", which was originally intended to be released on the Holland album, but was considered too weak a song to be included.
[edit] Rutles
In 1978, Fataar starred in All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary film about The Rutles, a spoof of The Beatles. His character was Stig O'Hara, the band's guitarist (analogous to George Harrison). He has no speaking part in the film, and indeed he is sent up as "the quiet one" in it.
[edit] Other work
In recent years Fataar has been a member of Bonnie Raitt's band. Fataar has also been a session musician for many artists, usually as a drummer.
Fataar has also been involved in film and television scoring. Fataar emigrated to Australia where he played on and co-produced albums for Tim Finn, Crowded House, Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews as well as various other artists.[1] He also produced the music for various films including The Coca-Cola Kid (in which he also appeared as a member of a band recording a commercial jingle), High Tide and Les Patterson Saves the World. He also composed the score for an Australian film Spotswood.
[edit] Personal info
He was married to the fashion model Penelope Tree with whom he had one child, Paloma Fataar. In later years, and still to date, Ricky dated former dancer and ex wife of Robin Williams, Valerie Velardi. She gave birth to his daughter, Francesca Fataar, in 1992.
