January 1951: Family moves to Monterey because of Frank's asthma.

Summer 1953: Has first drum lessons at school.

1954: Moves to San Diego and joins first band at school.

1955: Moves to the Californian desert town of Lancaster.

1956: Meets up with Don Van Vliet (later Captain Beefheart) in the band, The Blackouts.

1957: Gets first guitar.

13 June 1958: Graduates from school.

1959: Moves away from home to Los Angeles. Writes music to Run Home Slow, a low budget Western released in 1963, and The World's Greatest Sineer. Marries Kay, his first wife. The marriage only lasts a couple of years.

1962: Appears on TV playing a bicycle.

1963: Begins playing professionally and spends ten days in Jail on pornography charges.

1964: Joins The Soul Giants as guitarist, takes over the group and renames them as The Muthers (later The Mothers). They start to get noticed in LA's Freak Scene.

1965: The Mothers are spotted by Tom Wilson and sign record contract with Verve and changed name to Mothers of Invention. Meets Herb Cohen, their long time manager.

1966: Records and releases first album Freak Out, the first rock double album. Meets Gail Sloatman (who becomes his wife for the rest of his life).

1967: Mothers spend several months in New York. Releases second album Absolutely Free. The track Plastic People becomes an anthem for the Czech and Slovak anti-Communist resistance. First European tour.

1968: Releases three albums containing widely varying styles of music. Satirises hippy culture. Tour covers 100 cities in USA and Europe. Makes cameo appearance in the film Head with The Monkeys.

1969: Releases four albums including Hot Rats. Original Mothers broken up. Produces Captain Beefhear album Trout Mask Replica.

1970: Releases two albums, Weesils Ripped My Flesh (containing old Mother material) and Chunga's Revenge (a preview of the film and album 200 Motels). Plays Bath Festival in England. This is the first time I saw Frank Zappa.

1971: Moves to London (UK) to film 200 Motels. Concert banned from Royal Albert Hall. Film and double album of music released. Live album Filmore East June 1971 relased from New York concert attended by John Lenon and Yoko Ono. Fire during Swiss concert destroys band's equipment. In a concert in London during December (I was there) Frank is pushed off the stage by a member of the audience. Injuries keep him in a wheelchair for a year.

1972: Releases live album from previous band and two jazzy albums recorded with mainly session musicians.

1973: Third band formed. Overnite Sensation album released. Most commercially successful album to date.

1974: Two more commercially successful albums released (one enters Top Ten). Tours with new set of musicians in USA and Europe. US TV show banned.

1975: Zappa fights court case in England over Alber Hall ban in 1971. Releases One Size Fits All and Bongo Fury (both featuring Captain Beefheart).

1976: Disbands The Mothers. Gets a new group together. Transitional album, Zoot Allures released. Problems with record company and management.

1978 - 1979: New band tours and releases live albums with new record company under the name of Zappa. Old record company releases badly packaged jazz / orchestral albums.

1980: Cuts hair short.

1982: Has hit single (Valley Girl from album Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch) with daughter, Moon Unit.

1983: Begins to wind down touring activities concentrating more on writing and solo recording. Records concert with London Symphony Orchestra.

1984: Tours with new band and releases four albums. Produces Them Or Us book which summarises 20 years of work.

1985: Fights against censorship of records in USA.

1988: Writes autobiography and performs last tour.

1988 - 1992: Remixes and releases many of his older albums plus lots of live material on six double CD (You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volumes 1 to 6).

1991: Zappa diagnosed with cancer. Releases double CD The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, from his final 1988 tour.

1992: Honoured at the New Music Festival in Frankfurt along with John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

4 December 1993: Zappa dies aged 52.

FZ Highway 57
A superb Frank Zappa search engine. Highly recommended.

Discography
Discography of Frank Zappa in text format.

Copenhagen
Frank Zappa in Copenhagan (unpublished photos).

Project / Object
A celebration of the music of Frank Zappa.

Jimmy Carl Black
A site about "the Indian of the group".

Don Preston
Keyboard and moog player.