Billy Bryans was born as William Taylor Bryans in Montreal on September 15, 1948. Nicknamed "Beans" for his string-bean frame, Billy is best known as a Juno Award-winning drummer who co-founded iconic Canadian band The Parachute Club in 1982.



The Parachute Club released three top 40 hits in Canada between 1983 and 1987, including Rise Up, At the Feet of the Moon and Love is Fire.



With that success Billy Bryans realized his dream to make music. That dream began as a child, when he played drums along to discs borrowed from his father's store, Ted's Records and Hobbies, in Pointe-Claire, Que.



Billy Bryans moved to Toronto in 1970 after graduating with a degree in English literature from Sir George Williams University.



In the years that followed, Billy Bryans experimented with different sounds and artists, and was frequently spotted pushing his drum kit on a trolley on Toronto's Queen Street as he moved from club to club.



Billy Bryans' first Montreal group was M. G. & the Escorts, later called Theodore's Smokeshop and Horn.



In the late 1970s Billy joined the radical feminist rock band Mama Quilla II. As the only man in the group – and at most of its performances – he added his distinctive backbeat to Mama Quilla’s edgy, angry sound. His bandmates gave him a T-shirt that read 'Token Male'.



His first taste of commercial success came in 1973, when he co-produced the single, Flip, Flop and Fly, for the Downchild Blues Band. That success multiplied with The Parachute Club, which took Bryans and the band on tours throughout Canada, Germany and the United Stated during the 80s.



The band went on to win four Juno Awards, including group of the year in 1984, before breaking up in 1989.



Billy Bryans also worked as a producer and engineer for the Downchild Blues Band, Raffi and Dutch Mason over the years, and helped bring Cuban performers such as Los Van Van to Canada.



Billy Bryans announced that he had lung cancer in 2006. Later that year, Bryans defied the odds and recovered from the disease.



Early in 2012, the drummer announced that his cancer had returned.



Billy Bryans died on Monday, April 23, 2012 at Toronto's Kensington Hospice after losing a long battle with lung cancer. The Montreal native was 63.