Rewind: In 1818, Henry Francis Fynn comes to the Cape where his father in an innkeeper. He is 15 and has a basic education in medicine, which he received at Christ’s Hospital in England. He turns 21 and goes on an expedition to Natal in the hope of trading in ivory with the Zulu. He makes contact and forms a friendship with the King of the Zulu – Shaka Zulu and becomes fluet in Zulu. During this friendship Henry battles alongside the Zulu, tends to wounds after the King is hurt in an assassination attempt, is made an honorary chief, marries 5 woman, fathers 20 children and all this he documents. This documentation is the earliest record we have of the formation of Port Natal, making Henry a historical icon. Recognised as a founder of the Durban we know, Henry’s friendship with the King was of great consequence as it gave the Zulu a tolerance for early incoming European settlers.
Blondie Chaplin, grandson of Eva Fynn of the Fynn dynasty joins the Flames and the final cast is set. This is the configuration that takes the Flames through South Africa, England and America. Above left - Blondie Chaplin age 15, right - The Flames left to right: Ricky, Blondie, Steve and Brother. Bottom Left - The Flames in the USA.
| In 1828 King Shaka dies. The King’s successor, Dingane does not have the same feelings toward Henry, which Shaka did. Their relationship is hostile and Henry flees Natal, abandoning his wives and children. In the years that follow, Henry is interpreter to Benjamin D’urban in the Cape, magistrate in Pietermaritzburg and magistrate of Umkhomazi. Henry’s last years are carried out in Durban at his home on the Bluff. He reconciles with his children who have succeeded him in the tribe, before he dies in 1861. Back to the future: In 1993, Durban, Eva Fynn of the English-Zulu Fynn dynasty makes the news with her death at the age of 118, at the time the oldest person in the world. She is the beloved granny of the fourth Flame – Blondie Chaplin. |
In 1968 The Flames record the album Soulfire featuring 15-year old Blondie singing For Your Precious Love with Steve narrating a lovers story as the opening. This rendition of the Jerry Butler song goes straight to number 1 on “white” radio and there it stays for 13 weeks. The critical mass of young South Africans at the Flames shows, albeit through front doors or bedroom windows to get there, has such an effect on the bands success and often outsmarts the authorities. Steve and his bride Mary's first child is a girl whom they name Zanine. The Flames go on touring while Mary is pregnant with their 2nd child, and are on the road when she gives birth to a son. Out on the road, Steve gets news from Mary, just newborn, their son has died of Pneumonia. The couple’s marriage is over. Zanine has scarcely seen her father, Mary is more or less a single mother and Steve’s world is so different and so far from the one he could have imagined just years before. | South Africa has proven to be great to the Flames. It is time to leave these colonial backwaters and where better to go than the land of the colonisers, rich with third world wealth. 23-year-old Steve signs guardianship for Ricky and Blondie at the time just 14 and 15. British General and colonial administrator Benjamin D’urban sailed England for South Africa, and now, the Flames and their manager leave from D’urban’s namesake in South Africa and set sail for England in a musical age of exploration. They wave their families’ goodbye as the ship sails. The band, their manager and all their equipment are for the first time leaving Apartheid. The long intro to this utube video, featured left has to be gotten through before the actual flames song starts. The wait is worth one's while. |
As the ship docks, all but the Flames get off. It is evident from their sound systems, VOX amplifiers, guitars and drumkit that they aren't holiday makers, yet they have no idea about work permits. After 2 weeks aboard the docked ship, the band is shown political sympathy due to England’s historical exploitation of South Africa, the English musicians union has them released onto dry land. England. The music scene at this stage is far more oriented on the music, and less on the media. The band gets gigs around the London club scene, including a residency at a club called Blaises. Its here that word gets around about them. Paul McCartney see them here and so do The Beach Boys Al Jardine and Carl Wilson. It’s the Beach Boy sighting that sets them sailing again.
Performing around London, The Flames get a residency at Blaises club. clockwise from top left: Blondie and Ricky; Brother and Steve; Brother and Steve; Brother; Blondie and Ricky; Steve and Caril Wilson (Beach Boys) as they meet for the first time; Blondie; Blondie and Brother; Brother. |
 In California the concerts get bigger, these audiences dwarf the fullest SA concerts the band has seen. Then they get in the studio. They stay at the studio. Recording becomes less about time constraints and rather about recording the music as they write it, actually using the recording as a musical tool – capturing a historical movement as its being made and then remaking and capturing that. The Flames progression from covers to originals is epic. Their songs are accessible and genius both musically and lyrically. They work together instinctively and their sound is like a warm melding of extreme soul and progressive rock. Their songs have incredible structure, they tell of the life changing catharsis they are experiencing, with movements that build like lava before the ocean. They experiment with massive harmonies and intricate overdubs. On one song, Ricky, Steve and Blondie sit facing each other so close their heads almost touch, each with a guitar. Each of the 3 is so distinctive that you can see their playing almost a rendition of a conversation they would have anyway if they were talking. They strike violin bows to guitar strings in symphonic rock movements that can make you cry with the feeling of just being alive. The album See the Light is released on Brother Records, the first quadrophonic album ever. They go to recording a 2nd album and during this time are also writing parts for songs for the Beach Boys who enjoy the benefit of their artistic merit. Over this time the Flames musical and emotional connection peaks. Unbeknown to the Beach Boys the distribution company they deal with is in the process of liquidation. See The Light strikes number 27 on the American Billboard charts, yet the album is nowhere to be bought. And with no one buying the album, 27 cant be bettered and is the only return. This comes at a point where the Flames connection falls out of its peak, and troughs.  He sets up nest in the outbuilding at the Mayflower house he grew up in, and starts playing music with youngest brother Issy and a friend Buccai. Just a baby when the Flames were taking off, Issy is a prodigy guitarist. After a former guitar teacher has been battling to get him to understand a technique and tries a different explanation, Issy gets it and plays it skillfully back to the teacher. The teacher quits saying he can only learn from this man. Steve, Issy and Buccai play around town and hold concerts at the student hall at Durban’s University, where Steve spends some of his days hanging out with art and law students. He starts dating a girl who goes by the name Breezy, a young girl with honey blonde hair and surfer brown skin. Bernadette, a serious kind-of-a-former girlfriend of Steve's is in England, however, she and he still talk about getting together again, maybe marrying. | The Beach Boys have just started their own label but are legally bound to their current label for some time. They are looking for the right band to launch “Brother Records” and they realize this is the band. For the Beach Boys, The Flames have the right sound. 3 of the Beach Boys are Wilsons and 3 of the Flames are Fataars, one also goes by the name Brother. Of all the continents seized by England, one could say America is the most successful. Together with the Beach Boys, the Flames head for the new world.  Now 18 and 19 Ricky and Blondie are composing songs for the Beach Boys and easily get subsumed into that band. Brother leaves for the Netherlands where the band has spent considerable time. He gets married and has a son who to this day does not know he is his father. After starting the band that went from lounge to stadium, from Durban to California, from Apartheid to Freedom and then the deflation of all that work simply bending out of shape, Steve moves back to jungle-Durban.  |
