What is The Drifters?
'''The Drifters''' are a Japanese musical and comedy group. They were active as a music band until 1969. Afterward, they were mainly active as a comedy group. Their [[television program]] called ''Hachijidayo, Zen'inshugo'' was very popular and was watched by many people from a large [[Demography|demographic]]. == Members == === Current members === *Cha Kato: joined 1962, the fourth [[leader]], lead [[guitar]] *Koji Nakamoto: joined 1962, main vocals and guitar *Boo Takagi: joined 1964, [[drum]] and vocals ==== Past members ==== *Chosuke Ikariya: joined in 1962, the third leader, base, died due to [[lymph node]] [[cancer]] in 2004 *Chu Arai: joined in 1964, [[piano]], left the group in 1973, died due to [[liver failure]] in 2000 <ref>https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E8%8D%92%E4%BA%95%E6%B3%A8</ref> *Kyu Sakamoto: joined in 1958, vocals, left the group in 1958 *[[Ken Shimura]]: joined in 1974, guitar, died due to [[COVID-19]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200330/k10012357011000.html | title=コメディアンの志村けんさん死去 新型コロナ感染で肺炎発症 }}</ref> *Kiyoshi Kishibe: joined in 1956, the first leader, left the group in 1957 *Teruo Sakurai: joined in 1958, the second leader, left the group in 1965 == History == The Drifters are primarily known as a comedy group. Currently, the members of the group are Cha Kato, Koji Nakamoto, and Boo Takagi. However, it was originally a music band and far from owarai. It was formed as a band in 1956. The first leader was Kiyoshi Kishibe and the second leader was Teruo Sakurai. Teruo was active as a leader, but he wanted to change the band to a comic band that entertains the [[audience]] with funny [[lyrics]] and [[gesture]]s rather than playing music, therefore he recommended Ikariya who was active in the other band at that time and was also focusing on owarai as the third leader. The early band members had a lot of rapid changes because there was a band transfer [[culture]] at that time. Even Ikariya didn’t understand who the early members were. Since he became the third leader