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The Radio X Indie Night with Rich Wolfenden 7pm - 11pm
26 February 2023, 12:00
We celebrate the California punk rockers by looking back at their early beginnings with these throwback photos.
36 years since Red Hot Chili Peppers released their first ever studio album The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The eponymous debut - which was released on 10 August 1984 - featured the likes of Get Up and Jump, True Men Don't Kill Coyotes, Police Helicopter and a cover of Hank Williams' Why Don't You Love Me.
However, there's much more to RHCP's album and their early days than you might think. Find out more about them with the help of these nostalgic photos.
Neither Hillel Slovak or Jack Irons featured on the album. Guitarist Jack Sherman stood in for Slovak and Cliff Martinez replaced Irons on the drums.
Hillel rejoined the band in 1985 and Jack Irons returned in 1986 after Cliff Martinez resigned.
Flea and Anthony Kiedis are in fact the band's only original or current members to feature on the first album.
Cliff Martinez played with the Chili Peppers off and from 1983-1986. He featured on The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984), Freaky Stylee (1985) and The Abbey Road E.P. (1988).
He also has songwriting credits on the band's 1987 album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.
Flea has had a life-long obsession with the LA Lakers and has performed at their of games. Here he is with a positively cherubic appearance posing with a Lakers shirt back in '86.
The band didn't actually release their first two albums The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Freaky Stylee in the UK, so when they came to tour this side of the pond in 1988, they released a taste of their previous music in The Abbey Road E.P.
The only new song on this was a cover of Jimi Hendrix's Fire.
Hillel Slovak's tenure in the band sadly wasn't to last, as he tragically died due to a heroin overdose on 25 June 1988.
Hugely affected by the shock of his death, Jack Irons then left the band soon after.
He was replaced by D. H Peligro, who was then replaced by long-standing classic drummer Chad Smith.
PHOTOS: Awesome photos of Red Hot Chili Peppers through the years
QUIZ: How well do you know the lyrics to Under The Bridge?