DM's Beatles forums

Solo forums => Fifth Beatles and the Merseybeat Scene => Topic started by: harihead on April 29, 2008, 06:30:00 PM

Title: Klaus Voormann
Post by: harihead on April 29, 2008, 06:30:00 PM
A friend of mine called attention to this wonderful article:


Author's note: Klaus Voormann will celebrate his 70th birthday next week. I found an interview with him in a german newspaper and translated it for all of you...


Original interview (german) can be found here: http://www.neue-oz.de/information/noz_print/medien/19327065.html



The "gunslinger" of the Beatles


Content, unexcited, mysterious: These are the first impressions of Klaus Voormann, the so-called " fifth Beatle ". In 1960 he discovered the boys from Liverpool in a club on the Reeperbahn and remained with John, Paul, George and Ringo life-long friend. He played the bass for their solo projects, sketched the Grammy-awarded a prize "Revolver" cover and was in the seventies the studio-bass player in demand.

Q: Mr. Voormann, next week you will become 70. In the review what are your individual highlights?

KV: There is a lot. Professionally certainly the shaping of the revolver cover to the Beatles LP of the same name and with it connected naturally the Grammy award.

Q: What you have experienced is enough for two lives...

KV: (laughs) Actually I am doing a life's work documentation for cinema and television where I visit all my phases, all colleagues of that time, play music, draw and meet old friends again. These are completed periods of life, in which I suddenly jump into again. Therefore, it insanely wears me down at the moment. emotionally and spiritually. Recently I was with Carly Simon whom I like very much when I had some flashbacks, and I noticed that many colleagues have already died.

Q: Your bass intro in Simon's song " You're so vain " is legendary. How did it come to this?

KV: We all were in the studio, and I tinkled on my bass when Carly suddenly shouted: " I want this as an Intro! " If you listen , she murmurs says in the background, while I play the Intro: " Son of a Gun! ", and it was a damned fantastic compliment.

Q: The list of the musicians for whom you played bass reads out like the Who's Who of the music scene in the 70s. You must have been constantly in the studio...

KV: I wasn't session-randy. But I can say with pride that I can count all these fantastic musicians to my circle of friends. Because it must go together not only on the musical level, but also humanly if you want to record a tape together. On one hand you behave like a chameleon because you must adapt yourself. But on the other hand you may not be soulless. In the studio you must have your own head, a personality which is capable however to communicate with the others, capable to listen, so that a symbiosis develops, just the magic of the record. This is the trick.

Q: Is there something which you would have wanted to correct in the review?

KV: Yes, I would love to change a thing. I know, I cannot write texts so well. I am not talented in language. But I should have written more than two songs because I had the talent to do so. Today this would be a beautiful old age pension for me.

Q: Which songs are these?

KV: That is the song " So Far ", produced by George Harrison and sung by Doris Troy. By chance Delaney and Boney came to the studio and were so inspired that they took part immediately. It was a great atmosphere. The second song, and even today I have goose-skin when I think of it, was 'Salmon Falls', a beautiful orchestral arrangement. Harry Nilsson sung the song with a very profound, beautiful text.

Q: As far as songwriting, did you have too much respect for the famous colleagues?

KV: Yes. I always thought: Let them do it. That was a mistake. However, this is also my mentality that I be scared stiff and wait first. I wish, I would have been a little bit bolder and more insisting.

Q: Your name, nevertheless, appears in all Rock Encyclopaedias. In 1967 you have got a Grammy for the Revolver cover, being the first German who was honoured this way. Your masterpiece?

KV: Definitely. I have created many beautiful things, have sketched more than hundred covers for records, DVDs and books. But I like "Revolver" best, graphically and from the idea behind. Naturally also from the importance which it had for the whole world. A big milestone in the history of music and cover Artwork history. Some people even state, that it is the most famous cover Artwork. I do not know, however, it could be.

Q: Have you anticipated at that time that something revolutionary happens with the Beatles?

KV: Naturally. This is my task to render such a thing. It has given me a lot of headaches to create something really equal to the music. I was glad that I had completely free hand and the boys were so enthusiastic. Up to three small photos, among others one with Paul on the loo, everything went smoothly by the Beatles censorship.

Q: Were the times more creative than today?

KV: No. Today there are so many new dimensions. For example, the computer is a blessing. Nevertheless: What happened at that time in art, literature, film and music in euphoric mood and experimental joy, will not come again so quickly.

Q: You got international acknowledgment as an artist in a time when the image of the Germans wasn't free from heavy burden. Did you feel as a kind of cultural ambassador?

KV: There were a few more jazz musicians and classics who were good. But in the matter of pop and rock I was probably the only one. Sure, being German was sometimes obstructive - a mentality which not always got on with the Anglo-American values. But I am not exactly a typical German. However, my punctuality and dependability has always helped me. I always was at the right time at the right place. There certainly were many German musicians who would have made it international, but they did not show the consequence which I had. I have had the will and could also take a lot with humor. Especially if it was about British irony.

Q: British irony is something the Beatles were also well known for: Which pictures are connected with them?

KV: The very early years in Hamburg when nobody knew the boys, when they had no money and played only cover versions. At that time they were still cheeky, raw and had real impudent manners. Particularly John who greeted the audience jokingly with " Heil Hitler ". This time is in my bones just like the later solo things.

Q: What was your first impression at that time when you descended from the Reeperbahn into the Kaiserkeller?

KV: I was sh*t scared and thought, I will immediately be bashed. This was a rocker's club of full people with rivet jackets. Stuart Sutcliffe was the first on the stage, with his sunglasses he looked cool, like the head of the band. But then he came into the corner and plugged in the bass. Then there came Paul and shouted: 'Hallo, wie gehts? ' And it went off. Their music carried me away immediately.

Q: Stuart fell in love with your girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. From this episode the film "Backbeat" was developed...

KV: He is also very authentic from the contents. The film does not show the conditions at that time over here: this mud, the aggressiveness, the pimp's scene with the tarts, the stench and the alcohol. Nobody can fancy this, not even an Englishman. The Beatles lived in two broom chambers without windows, musty, with bunks and a light bulb. Astrid took them under her wings, fed them at home, put them in the bath and scrubbed them. Stuart and Astrid were together up to his early death, they fitted well.

Q: With his bass you wanted to get into the Beatles?

KV: Yes. However, this was earlier, when he left the band. I knew, I can learn the bass quickly, it required only to look closely. When I asked John whether I could get, Paul had already bought his own bass because they had decided that he takes Stuarts part.

Q: What bad luck! Do you believe, this would have worked?

KV: Yes. But it would have been different. Paul noticed, what a great singer John is, and he also saw the potential of George. But the fact that this constellation was so important and was so astonishing, I could see better than the Beatles at that time.

Q: Is the title 'Fifth Beatle' alright with you?

KV: I can laugh at it. My wife Christina said recently: If you consider it sometimes properly, you are really the fifth Beatle. I have played after the Beatles era for the solo projects of George, John and Ringo the bass and could count myself always to their closest circle of friends. Anyway, it's not important for me to be the fifth Beatle.

Q: Do you miss George?

KV: Very much. I am happy that shortly before his death I could participate so much in his life. He asked me to be with him.

Q: How could you comfort him?

KV: Oddly enough he was more a support to me than me to him. He could handle his close death much better than me. We had a deep friendship because we smeared not mutually honey around the beard) to us, but talked straight away.

Q: With George you organized the Bangladesh concert 1971 in New York and received in return your second Grammy for it. A pioneer's action if one looks at the Live Aid concerts today?

KV: Yes. This was the first charity concert of the superlatives. We have done it at that time sincerely, for our friend Ravi Shankar. He collected donations for the starving people in Bangladesh. At that time in contrast to today nobody tried to get everything out of personally. So it is unique.

Q: Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll stamped the music life in the wild 60s and 70s years. With which strategy can you survive this?

KV: I have never come to the embarrassment to slip into a complex drug situation. I have drunk a lot in a certain phase, later I completely withdraw from alcohol. I could see how my colleagues functioned or why they did not function. At that moment I said to myself: I don't need this.

Q: Is this so easy? Nevertheless, the temptation at parties and with groupies must have been huge...

KV: You can even say that you have missed certain dimensions of this whole Rock-'n-Roll-Life, if you weren't in it. But this made no difference to me personally. There were things which I could not do because I was too respectable. I remember sessions where someone said to me: Come on, Klaus, you play fantastically, how do you this without drugs?

Q: You were a founding member of the Plastic Ono Band. Has Yoko contributed to the separation of the Beatles?

KV: Everybody has contributed to it. For me the band was at the end already years before. When it came to work it went well, and this wasn't made public. But the Beatles hardly spent time with each other and were really glad if they were in their own four walls. A constant strain.

Q: You have experienced so many great moments of the music in its origin. What are your feelings?

KV: I can consider it only personally. One morning my friend George sat one besides the swimming pool and played "Here comes the sun" to me. I thought it was great. But I cannot bring it in relation to what the song symbolizes worldwide. For me the music always deals with my friend and what he means to me.

Q: IN 1964 you lived in the Beatles flat they shared in London. Full of suspense or strenuous?

KV : Both. To me the flat seemed to be like a prison because the boys could not freely move in the city any more. Nobody of the management looked after the four. In the flat there was only tea, toast and marmalade. Today I can understand that even less than at that time, because they already earned a lot of money and were important for the record company. Every evening hundreds of fans shrieked outside and robbed the sleep of the four. The Beatlemania was difficult to endure.

Q: Today the band Tokyo Hotel experiences the same...

KV: Correct. But they deserve their success, too.

Q: Why?

KV: They write great songs, make good texts, look interesting, are gifted, have charisma and can handle the audience. Of course they look extreme on mummy and dad, but the kids love them for it.

Q: You come out as a fan...

KV: Yes, because I see that Tokyo Hotel are clever enough to carry out the step from the teenage band to the big pop group. According to the motto: Now we make another film. I believe in the boys.

Q: In the end of the 70s you came back from L.A. and worked here in times of the New German Wave as a talent scout and producer. Crass change?

KV: Interesting. However, you must make a clear distinction: Typically New German Wave for me were groups like Kraftwerk, Rheingold, Der Plan, Joachim Witt, Ideal. Nena does not belong to it definitively. I liked it very much that the Germans had suddenly found their own way in music to cultivate their stiff language.

Q: In 1983 you have produced Trio. Where is the common denominator between "Da Da Da" and "Let it be"?

KV: Well, first of all ' Da Da Da ' is a great piece of music. Also the text is good if one listens to it instead of complaining immediately that this is rubbish. Trio was witty. Peter Behrens is an endowed drummer, in addition Stephan Remmler and guitarist claw Krawinkel - a constellation, which without twitching with the eyelash I would compare to the Beatles. They brought a similar charisma on stage.

Q: How do your children actually react to your turbulent past?

KV: They are completely amused. For some time they haven't got this at all, and that was alright with me. Meanwhile they can well handle the fact that their dad was a real Rock'n Roller way back.

Q: Your wishes for your 70th birthday?

KV: Peace and quiet, deep inside and everywhere.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Hello Goodbye on April 30, 2008, 01:22:41 AM
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.



Happy Birthday, Klaus!



(http://www.beatles.com/hub/gfx/albums/front/Rev-A.jpg)




(http://www.iheartklaus.com/RevolverKlausBig.jpg)



(http://www.iheartklaus.com/Art-RevolverCloseUp.jpg)
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: BlueMeanie on April 30, 2008, 10:04:51 AM
Nice interview. Thanks Marie.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Klang on April 30, 2008, 02:12:40 PM

Yea, he's great.

 :)
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: alexis on April 30, 2008, 06:14:39 PM
Quote from: 551
A friend of mine called attention to this wonderful article:


Author's note: Klaus Voormann will celebrate his 70th birthday next week. I found an interview with him in a german newspaper and translated it for all of you...


Original interview (german) can be found here: [url]http://www.neue-oz.de/information/noz_print/medien/19327065.html[/url]


AWESOME post, harihead. What a great find, a great read, and what great insight into the early days!! Thank you :)  :)
The "gunslinger" of the Beatles


Content, unexcited, mysterious: These are the first impressions of Klaus Voormann, the so-called " fifth Beatle ". In 1960 he discovered the boys from Liverpool in a club on the Reeperbahn and remained with John, Paul, George and Ringo life-long friend. He played the bass for their solo projects, sketched the Grammy-awarded a prize "Revolver" cover and was in the seventies the studio-bass player in demand.

Q: Mr. Voormann, next week you will become 70. In the review what are your individual highlights?

KV: There is a lot. Professionally certainly the shaping of the revolver cover to the Beatles LP of the same name and with it connected naturally the Grammy award.

Q: What you have experienced is enough for two lives...

KV: (laughs) Actually I am doing a life's work documentation for cinema and television where I visit all my phases, all colleagues of that time, play music, draw and meet old friends again. These are completed periods of life, in which I suddenly jump into again. Therefore, it insanely wears me down at the moment. emotionally and spiritually. Recently I was with Carly Simon whom I like very much when I had some flashbacks, and I noticed that many colleagues have already died.

Q: Your bass intro in Simon's song " You're so vain " is legendary. How did it come to this?

KV: We all were in the studio, and I tinkled on my bass when Carly suddenly shouted: " I want this as an Intro! " If you listen , she murmurs says in the background, while I play the Intro: " Son of a Gun! ", and it was a damned fantastic compliment.

Q: The list of the musicians for whom you played bass reads out like the Who's Who of the music scene in the 70s. You must have been constantly in the studio...

KV: I wasn't session-randy. But I can say with pride that I can count all these fantastic musicians to my circle of friends. Because it must go together not only on the musical level, but also humanly if you want to record a tape together. On one hand you behave like a chameleon because you must adapt yourself. But on the other hand you may not be soulless. In the studio you must have your own head, a personality which is capable however to communicate with the others, capable to listen, so that a symbiosis develops, just the magic of the record. This is the trick.

Q: Is there something which you would have wanted to correct in the review?

KV: Yes, I would love to change a thing. I know, I cannot write texts so well. I am not talented in language. But I should have written more than two songs because I had the talent to do so. Today this would be a beautiful old age pension for me.

Q: Which songs are these?

KV: That is the song " So Far ", produced by George Harrison and sung by Doris Troy. By chance Delaney and Boney came to the studio and were so inspired that they took part immediately. It was a great atmosphere. The second song, and even today I have goose-skin when I think of it, was 'Salmon Falls', a beautiful orchestral arrangement. Harry Nilsson sung the song with a very profound, beautiful text.

Q: As far as songwriting, did you have too much respect for the famous colleagues?

KV: Yes. I always thought: Let them do it. That was a mistake. However, this is also my mentality that I be scared stiff and wait first. I wish, I would have been a little bit bolder and more insisting.

Q: Your name, nevertheless, appears in all Rock Encyclopaedias. In 1967 you have got a Grammy for the Revolver cover, being the first German who was honoured this way. Your masterpiece?

KV: Definitely. I have created many beautiful things, have sketched more than hundred covers for records, DVDs and books. But I like "Revolver" best, graphically and from the idea behind. Naturally also from the importance which it had for the whole world. A big milestone in the history of music and cover Artwork history. Some people even state, that it is the most famous cover Artwork. I do not know, however, it could be.

Q: Have you anticipated at that time that something revolutionary happens with the Beatles?

KV: Naturally. This is my task to render such a thing. It has given me a lot of headaches to create something really equal to the music. I was glad that I had completely free hand and the boys were so enthusiastic. Up to three small photos, among others one with Paul on the loo, everything went smoothly by the Beatles censorship.

Q: Were the times more creative than today?

KV: No. Today there are so many new dimensions. For example, the computer is a blessing. Nevertheless: What happened at that time in art, literature, film and music in euphoric mood and experimental joy, will not come again so quickly.

Q: You got international acknowledgment as an artist in a time when the image of the Germans wasn't free from heavy burden. Did you feel as a kind of cultural ambassador?

KV: There were a few more jazz musicians and classics who were good. But in the matter of pop and rock I was probably the only one. Sure, being German was sometimes obstructive - a mentality which not always got on with the Anglo-American values. But I am not exactly a typical German. However, my punctuality and dependability has always helped me. I always was at the right time at the right place. There certainly were many German musicians who would have made it international, but they did not show the consequence which I had. I have had the will and could also take a lot with humor. Especially if it was about British irony.

Q: British irony is something the Beatles were also well known for: Which pictures are connected with them?

KV: The very early years in Hamburg when nobody knew the boys, when they had no money and played only cover versions. At that time they were still cheeky, raw and had real impudent manners. Particularly John who greeted the audience jokingly with " Heil Hitler ". This time is in my bones just like the later solo things.

Q: What was your first impression at that time when you descended from the Reeperbahn into the Kaiserkeller?

KV: I was sh*t scared and thought, I will immediately be bashed. This was a rocker's club of full people with rivet jackets. Stuart Sutcliffe was the first on the stage, with his sunglasses he looked cool, like the head of the band. But then he came into the corner and plugged in the bass. Then there came Paul and shouted: 'Hallo, wie gehts? ' And it went off. Their music carried me away immediately.

Q: Stuart fell in love with your girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. From this episode the film "Backbeat" was developed...

KV: He is also very authentic from the contents. The film does not show the conditions at that time over here: this mud, the aggressiveness, the pimp's scene with the tarts, the stench and the alcohol. Nobody can fancy this, not even an Englishman. The Beatles lived in two broom chambers without windows, musty, with bunks and a light bulb. Astrid took them under her wings, fed them at home, put them in the bath and scrubbed them. Stuart and Astrid were together up to his early death, they fitted well.

Q: With his bass you wanted to get into the Beatles?

KV: Yes. However, this was earlier, when he left the band. I knew, I can learn the bass quickly, it required only to look closely. When I asked John whether I could get, Paul had already bought his own bass because they had decided that he takes Stuarts part.

Q: What bad luck! Do you believe, this would have worked?

KV: Yes. But it would have been different. Paul noticed, what a great singer John is, and he also saw the potential of George. But the fact that this constellation was so important and was so astonishing, I could see better than the Beatles at that time.

Q: Is the title 'Fifth Beatle' alright with you?

KV: I can laugh at it. My wife Christina said recently: If you consider it sometimes properly, you are really the fifth Beatle. I have played after the Beatles era for the solo projects of George, John and Ringo the bass and could count myself always to their closest circle of friends. Anyway, it's not important for me to be the fifth Beatle.

Q: Do you miss George?

KV: Very much. I am happy that shortly before his death I could participate so much in his life. He asked me to be with him.

Q: How could you comfort him?

KV: Oddly enough he was more a support to me than me to him. He could handle his close death much better than me. We had a deep friendship because we smeared not mutually honey around the beard) to us, but talked straight away.

Q: With George you organized the Bangladesh concert 1971 in New York and received in return your second Grammy for it. A pioneer's action if one looks at the Live Aid concerts today?

KV: Yes. This was the first charity concert of the superlatives. We have done it at that time sincerely, for our friend Ravi Shankar. He collected donations for the starving people in Bangladesh. At that time in contrast to today nobody tried to get everything out of personally. So it is unique.

Q: Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll stamped the music life in the wild 60s and 70s years. With which strategy can you survive this?

KV: I have never come to the embarrassment to slip into a complex drug situation. I have drunk a lot in a certain phase, later I completely withdraw from alcohol. I could see how my colleagues functioned or why they did not function. At that moment I said to myself: I don't need this.

Q: Is this so easy? Nevertheless, the temptation at parties and with groupies must have been huge...

KV: You can even say that you have missed certain dimensions of this whole Rock-'n-Roll-Life, if you weren't in it. But this made no difference to me personally. There were things which I could not do because I was too respectable. I remember sessions where someone said to me: Come on, Klaus, you play fantastically, how do you this without drugs?

Q: You were a founding member of the Plastic Ono Band. Has Yoko contributed to the separation of the Beatles?

KV: Everybody has contributed to it. For me the band was at the end already years before. When it came to work it went well, and this wasn't made public. But the Beatles hardly spent time with each other and were really glad if they were in their own four walls. A constant strain.

Q: You have experienced so many great moments of the music in its origin. What are your feelings?

KV: I can consider it only personally. One morning my friend George sat one besides the swimming pool and played "Here comes the sun" to me. I thought it was great. But I cannot bring it in relation to what the song symbolizes worldwide. For me the music always deals with my friend and what he means to me.

Q: IN 1964 you lived in the Beatles flat they shared in London. Full of suspense or strenuous?

KV : Both. To me the flat seemed to be like a prison because the boys could not freely move in the city any more. Nobody of the management looked after the four. In the flat there was only tea, toast and marmalade. Today I can understand that even less than at that time, because they already earned a lot of money and were important for the record company. Every evening hundreds of fans shrieked outside and robbed the sleep of the four. The Beatlemania was difficult to endure.

Q: Today the band Tokyo Hotel experiences the same...

KV: Correct. But they deserve their success, too.

Q: Why?

KV: They write great songs, make good texts, look interesting, are gifted, have charisma and can handle the audience. Of course they look extreme on mummy and dad, but the kids love them for it.

Q: You come out as a fan...

KV: Yes, because I see that Tokyo Hotel are clever enough to carry out the step from the teenage band to the big pop group. According to the motto: Now we make another film. I believe in the boys.

Q: In the end of the 70s you came back from L.A. and worked here in times of the New German Wave as a talent scout and producer. Crass change?

KV: Interesting. However, you must make a clear distinction: Typically New German Wave for me were groups like Kraftwerk, Rheingold, Der Plan, Joachim Witt, Ideal. Nena does not belong to it definitively. I liked it very much that the Germans had suddenly found their own way in music to cultivate their stiff language.

Q: In 1983 you have produced Trio. Where is the common denominator between "Da Da Da" and "Let it be"?

KV: Well, first of all ' Da Da Da ' is a great piece of music. Also the text is good if one listens to it instead of complaining immediately that this is rubbish. Trio was witty. Peter Behrens is an endowed drummer, in addition Stephan Remmler and guitarist claw Krawinkel - a constellation, which without twitching with the eyelash I would compare to the Beatles. They brought a similar charisma on stage.

Q: How do your children actually react to your turbulent past?

KV: They are completely amused. For some time they haven't got this at all, and that was alright with me. Meanwhile they can well handle the fact that their dad was a real Rock'n Roller way back.

Q: Your wishes for your 70th birthday?

KV: Peace and quiet, deep inside and everywhere.


Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: harihead on April 30, 2008, 08:58:24 PM
Thanks, guys! There's a German lady on LJ who very kindly translates posts some of these articles, beagle_agent . I thought this Klaus one was particularly revealing.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on May 01, 2008, 01:53:40 PM
It is just so amazing that Klaus almost replaced Stuart in early 1961.

That would have been something:

John, Paul, George, Klaus and Pete.



Happy Birthday, Mr. V.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on April 29, 2009, 08:36:54 AM
Quote from: 551
...Q: IN 1964 you lived in the Beatles flat they shared in London. Full of suspense or strenuous?

KV : Both. To me the flat seemed to be like a prison because the boys could not freely move in the city any more. Nobody of the management looked after the four. In the flat there was only tea, toast and marmalade. Today I can understand that even less than at that time, because they already earned a lot of money and were important for the record company. Every evening hundreds of fans shrieked outside and robbed the sleep of the four. The Beatlemania was difficult to endure...

But Klaus moved to George and Ringo's flat in 1963..., didn't he??

Best!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on May 05, 2009, 11:51:41 AM
BTW: does anybody know any picture of Klaus Voormann dated 1963?? PM, GH, RS and Astrid Kirchherr spent 10 days in Tenerife (=Canary Islands) at his family house from April 28 to May 10 in 1963. There are several photos from those days (=a few ones in this link (http://www.elforo.de/liverpool/viewtopic.php?t=2730&start=0). Even the car owned by Klaus family in the island, and used by them at those days, have surfaced recently), but curiously enough not one showing him...

Thank you in advance and best wishes!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: cubanheel on May 05, 2009, 10:50:45 PM
Wow, Xose, intriguing link! Does anyone know who the lovely ladies are? lovin' Paul's thing on his nose for sunburn!! ;D ;D
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: stevie on May 06, 2009, 03:21:52 AM
i think the blonde with Paul is Bettina? A barmaid or stripper from their Hamburg days. not sure...later she claimed to have a child to Paul around this time. but then so would about 10,000 other women!
Great article about Klaus. Wow, I never knew he played bass on 'You're So Vain'! That song is one of all time favorite non-Beatle songs.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on May 06, 2009, 03:50:28 AM
Xose, isn't that Astrid, herself, vacationing on Tenerife with Klaus, Paul, George and Ringo?

It's just about a year after Stuart's death and they have finally reached the top of the charts.

Maybe John was in Barcelona with Brian?

I've always wondered about those photos. So, thanks so much for the link, Xose.

Buena suerte.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on May 06, 2009, 06:45:26 AM
Quote from: 1389
Wow, Xose, intriguing link! Does anyone know who the lovely ladies are?...

Yes: the blonde girl is Astrid Kirchherr

Quote from: 1122
Xose, isn't that Astrid, herself, vacationing on Tenerife with Klaus, Paul, George and Ringo?...

Yes, it is...

Quote from: 1122
...It's just about a year after Stuart's death and they have finally reached the top of the charts...

Yes. But they weren't still known at Tenerife at those times...

Quote from: 1122
...Maybe John was in Barcelona with Brian?...

No. They were in Torremolinos (=Malaga, Andalucia, Southern Spain....)

Quote from: 1122
...I've always wondered about those photos. So, thanks so much for the link, Xose.

Buena suerte.

Thank you very much!! ;)

I'm trying to find photos of Klaus Voormann dating 1963...

Best!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: DoBotherMe on May 06, 2009, 08:16:08 PM
Quote from: 1785
I'm trying to find photos of Klaus Voormann dating 1963...Best!! ;) Xose


Here's one of Klaus and George at Tenerife. Dana ; )
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i244/frankcrisp/george2/george%203/1-8.jpg)
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on May 06, 2009, 08:55:40 PM
Quote from: 1380
...Here's one of Klaus and George at Tenerife...

Excellent!! ;) Thank you SO much!! ;)

That photo is taken at Teide Natural Park...

As I can see, it seems that Klaus didn't appear at many phtos during that Tenerife stay in April-May 1963...

PM, GH and RS should depart from Tenerife on May 9-10, as they had the following gig at the Imperial Ballroom in Nelson on May 11. But it's not known where did Astrid and/or Klaus leave..., is it??

Best!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on May 07, 2009, 06:19:14 AM
Has anyone seen this arty little 1991 film about John and Brian in Spain in May 1963?

fambSLxP0tg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fambSLxP0tg)

(Be warned, it's a five minute clip, and the first three minutes are a bit boring)

Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on May 07, 2009, 08:30:32 AM
Quote from: 1122
Has anyone seen this arty little 1991 film about John and Brian in Spain in May 1963?...

Not me, indeed... Thank you!! ;)

BTW: what they say about John and Brian?? My English is not good enough to find it...  :-/

Best wishes!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on May 07, 2009, 10:25:05 AM
She says that John torments Brian.

John (Ian Hart) responds that Brian torments himself.


GkRHZNvsWh0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRHZNvsWh0)



At Paul's 21st birthday party Bob Wooler simply asked, "How was the honeymoon, John?"
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Xose on May 07, 2009, 10:36:35 AM
Quote from: 1122
She says that John torments Brian.

John (Ian Hart) responds that Brian torments himself.

Aha.... Thanks A LOT!! ;)

Quote from: 1122
...At Paul's 21st birthday party Bob Wooler simply asked, "How was the honeymoon, John?"

Yes. And he received as answer a punch from John..., didn't he??

I'm trying to find when Astrid and/or Klaus leave Tenerife in 1963. Any hints??

Best wishes!! ;)

Xose
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Pegasus on May 09, 2009, 06:51:34 PM
What many seem to forget is Klaus other contributions to the sixties.....

He was a member of a trio "Paddy, Gibson & Klaus" early on....

Then helped out The Hollies in 1966 as Bass player after Eric Haydock left....standing in for some BBC Radio sessions & performing with The Hollies on ITV's "Sunday Night at The London Palladium"

Klaus then joined Manfred Mann as Bass guitarist / recorder player....in 1966 for the "Mike D'Abo years" 1966 to 1969...

klaus appeared on their hits "Just Like A Woman", "Semi Detached Surburban Mr.James" (which featured Manfred on one of the earliest uses of a Mellotron on a pop single in 1966 BEFORE even The Beatles & The Moody Blues  used one !), "Ha ! Ha! said The Clown", "Sweet Pea" ( - the latter a rare instrumental hit - recently used in a UK TV Commercial !) , "Fox on The Run", "The Mighty Quinn" ( a UK Number One in 1968), "My Name is Jack"  & "Mr.Ragamuffin Man"

Klaus was also on Manfred Mann's now rare albums of that era: "As Is", "What A Mann" ( -  A Budget album release), "Mighty Garvey !" , and the  Soundtrack to the Film "Up The Junction" - a critically lauded release...

There are a few "Best of..." albums for this Manfreds period 1966-1969 too...

These album recordings are some of their most adventurous and experimental /  psychedelic recordings of the sixties too : "You're My Girl",    "Funniest Gig" , "Sleepy Hollow" , "Cubist Town" ,"A 'B' Side" - used in the mannaken Cigar TV Commercial ! (1969) ...

....plus superb songs such as: "I Wanna Be Rich", "Morning After The Party", "Each Other's Company", "A Now and Then Thing" , "The Vicar's Daughter" , "Each and Every Day" , "It's So Easy Falling", "No Better, No Worse" , "Up The Junction"   etc...

Klaus even provides a "Funny Laugh" to intro "Feeling So Good" in 1967....which even features a rare lead vocal by Manfred Mann himself !

Klaus Voormann's superb powering Bass guitar was a vital part of these Manfred Mann tracks....he also played both pipe and recorder on songs such as:  "Ha! Ha! Said The Clown", "Mighty Quinn", "Sweet Pea" & "My Name is Jack" ....and a very accomplished classical guitar outro on: "Another Kind of Music" on the "As Is" album...

Klaus Voormann also designed the psychedelic cover art for the First Official album by the Bee Gees - "Bee Gees' First" on Polydor in 1967...

Later of course Klaus was in John's Plastic Ono Band....he is on "Live Peace in Toronto" album....

...and of course did the Magnificent cover art for the Beatles "Anthology" three album set...
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on May 14, 2009, 01:39:41 PM
All that wonderful stuff
might not have happened
if he hadn't had a quarrel with Astrid and Jurgen,
and then stormed off
to the sleazy St. Pauli, Reeperbahn, Grosse Freiheit area of Hamburg
where the fab five were cutting their teeth
alongside Alan Caldwell and his boys.

...or so the story goes.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: AngeloMysterioso on February 18, 2010, 02:58:03 PM
Just to revive this topic, a video interview of Klaus Voorman about the early Beatles, their hairstyle, and their Revolver LP http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/sep/04/the-beatles-klaus-voorman (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2009/sep/04/the-beatles-klaus-voorman)
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Ligger on February 19, 2010, 05:30:50 AM
Thanks for that Klaus interview. He still looks great and seems like a real gentleman.
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: sgt. peppie on February 19, 2010, 11:01:58 PM
He's a great artist. I just love the Revolver cover, there's so many tiny little details, including the picture of himself in George's hair!
Title: Gary James' Interview With Klaus Voormann
Post by: LennonStarrFan on May 04, 2010, 04:54:46 PM
Gary James' Interview With
Klaus Voormann

Talk about being in the right place at the right time - that describes Klaus Voormann.

He was walking down the street in Hamburg, Germany and heard music coming out of the Kaiserkeller Club. He heard and saw a group called Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, whose drummer was none other than Ringo Starr. The next group up was called The Beatles. To make a long story short, Klaus Voormann became friends with The Beatles. He went on to design the album cover of "Revolver". He played bass on the solo albums of John, George and Ringo. He also played bass on albums by Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon and Lou Reed to name just a few. He was a member of Manfred Mann.

What a story Klaus Voormann has to tell!

Q - Did you attend John and Yoko's This Is Not Here art exhibit at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York?

A - Yes.

Q - Did you go to John's birthday party at the Hotel Syracuse?

A - Yes. I wound up playing a conga or something. I saw a video somebody took of it...a black and white video.

Q - Did you like the exhibit?

A - It was a great exhibition. It was so fantastic because people could participate. That's what I like. You have an exhibition and people just stand at the picture and another picture and another picture. But that was great 'cause you actually went into a room that was dark. Then you had another room where you couldn't see anything. Yoko and John had gas masks somewhere with prism glass that you couldn't orientate yourself at all or they were completely black. People were just walking around touching each other. You could climb up some ladders or a wall. It was great. It was really good.

Q - What do you do these days?

A - Well, I have this "Sideman's Journey", a box set. I got Paul McCartney playing on it. Ringo is playing drums. I got Jim Keltner. I got Don Preston. David Hood is playing some bass. I've got some great people together. Bonnie Bramlett is singing. I got lots of stuff on it. You can order it on Amazon, or if you go on the internet to Sideman's Journey - Voormann And Friends , then you will see it. You'll see kind of a teaser too, how the whole thing happened. That's my latest thing.

Q - How are you promoting this box set of yours? Do you play select days with some of the people on the CDs?

A - We have done promotion in Germany, but not with a band or concerts. We just did one thing in Munich and we did lots of TV and it's selling very, very well. If you take the business the way it is today, it's really selling well. I don't know what's gonna happen promotion wise in America, but we definitely want to promote it wherever we can.

Q - When you first saw The Beatles, did you go on your own or were you with Astrid?

A - I went on my own. Then I convinced all the other people and said "You have to come and see this band." Everyone came after me, I would say. I was the first of the bunch and then I got all these art people coming in and seeing the band.

Q - This happened by chance, didn't it? You got into a fight with Astrid, walked down the street, heard a band playing an walked in the club. Is that how it happened?

A - I would call it more of an argument. (laughs) It was in Hamburg at the Reeperbahn. There was a window and I heard the 'live' Rock 'n' Roll music.

Q - Why did you think that this band was so special?

A - It was the first Rock 'n' Roll band I ever heard in my life.

Q - That would make it special.

A - On its own, oddly enough. (laughs) But the band was just so great. They played only cover versions. They did not have any songs they wrote themselves. They just played all of the American things like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino...maybe some Gene Vincent. They all were singing. George was singing. John was singing great. It was just amazing, these people to see them. It was really special.

Q - Did they charge admission at the door to get in?

A - Yeah.

Q - Were The Beatles moving around onstage?

A - Well, you see, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes, that was the band Ringo was playing in, they were making sort of like a show band thing where they did move steps to the side and all that, but not wild acts. People always think it was a concert. Those are not concerts. It's a dance hall, where people wanted to dance. They didn't want to dance just to records in those days. They wanted to actually have a band. So the band was mainly just standing there, like The Beatles were later standing there onstage singing. Of course the announcements were much more provoking and dirty, because in those days they didn't have to check every word they were saying.

Q - I ask because in his book Lennon Remembers, John Lennon stated that after Hamburg, they had to clean up their act. I guess John would come onstage with a toilet seat around his neck.

A - Yeah. They were crazy. In general they were just excited about the music. George was 17, so...

Q - On that same day, you heard Rory Storm and The Hurricanes with Ringo.

A - The first band I heard was The Beatles, through the window. And since I got my guts together to go in there, that's when Rory Storm and The Hurricanes were onstage. So, I saw Ringo first, with Rory Storm and The Hurricanes and then I was The Beatles.

Q - Did Ringo stand out in that band?

A - Very much so. He was a fantastic drummer. Really incredible.

Q - Some contemporaries of Ringo have said he wasn't that good of a drummer.

A - They're just jealous. (laughs) Ringo was always great. You see, Rock 'n' Roll drumming is not necessarily very difficult. He always had that feel on the very first day I saw him. He stuck out immediately. On the very first day, I may not have realized that it was the drummer who was holding that band together, but the band was just solid. Even thought his playing wasn't that "hot", Ringo was just incredible. He was really, really good.

Q - Pete Best was the drummer in The Beatles when you first heard them. How would you rate his drumming?

A - He was doing OK, but if you compare it to Ringo, he just did not have that swing. He just did not have that rock. He just didn't.

 


Full Interview: http://www.classicbands.com/KlausVoormannInterview.html (http://www.classicbands.com/KlausVoormannInterview.html)
Title: Re: Klaus Voormann
Post by: Bobber on February 17, 2015, 09:10:10 AM
Picked this up from peregrine9's news.

Beatles fan Dr. Dieter Hoffmann has fulfllled a labor of love and produced an official limited edition 10-inch colored vinyl EP with all six tracks released by the Beatles-connected group Paddy (Chambers), Klaus (Voormann) and Gibson (Kemp), Beatles author Thorsten Knublauch told Beatles Examiner. Voormann, of course, has multiple connections to the Beatles, beginning with their days in Hamburg and his involvement with Astrid Kirchherr before Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe.

In the fall of 1963, Voormann moved from Hamburg to London, where he lived with Ringo Starr at Whaddon House in Williams Mews. Prior to that, he lived on Green Street, where all four Beatles had lived at one point, though John Lennon and Paul McCartney had since moved out and George Harrison had his own apartment there.

Shortly after Voormann found a job in the advertising agency Smith & Warden and moved into his own apartment. He got a call from his friend Gibson Kemp from Hamburg asking him to join his band The Eyes as bass player. Gibson had replaced Ringo in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and later joined King Taylor and the Dominoes in 1963. Voormann, using Sutcliffe's Höfner bass which he had bought from him in 1961, played bass in the band along with Gibson on drums, Chambers on guitar and John Frankland on vocals and guitar. Frankland had previously also been with the Dominoes. Chambers had been in the Big Three.

One of the first gigs the band played with Voormann was at the Star-Club in Bielefeld, which also featured Pete Best's band in October 1964. During his stint with The Eyes, they released a total of four songs, including the rare Star Club single "She"/"Peanut Butter" (Star-Club 148519). Voormann even painted the group picture for the back cover, which Dieter Hoffmann used as a cover of the new 10-inch record. The Eyes' titles "Baby Baby" and "Another Saturday Night" only appeared on a sampler in the Sixties.

At the end of 1964, they also accompanied Tony Sheridan at the Star-Club in Hamburg. Reduced to a trio, they traveled to England in 1965 under the new name Paddy, Klaus & Gibson. Knublauch says Voormann's age was changed to five years younger. “Even today one finds the wrong year of birth 1943 in biographies of Manfred Mann,” he says.

Brian Epstein became manager of the band. According to a report by the Bravo Magazine Epstein bought out the band for DM 56,000 from the previous management by Tony Stratton-Smith. But Epstein didn't help the band. "We got £50 a week from NEMS as a retainer whether we worked or not,” said Chambers. “And that's all we ever got because we never worked. It was a joke as far as the business was concerned."

They released three singles, but only in England: "I Wanna Know" / "I Tried" (Pye 7N 15906) was released in 1965 and "No Good Without You Baby" / "Rejected" (Pye 7N 17060) and "Teresa / Quick Before They Catch Us" (Pye 7N 17112) in 1966. Unfortunately, the records were not very successful and are now hard to find today. However, the song "Quick Before They Catch Us" became the theme music for a British television series and can be found today on the various Soundtrack samplers.

Paddy, Klaus and Gibson appeared in the show “Thank Your Lucky Stars” on British television. The band broke up after a tour with the Everly Brothers and Cilla Black in 1966 soon and the split was announced on June 13, 1966. Recent accounts have reported that Voormann was released on July 15, 1966 from the contract with Epstein, so that he could join Manfred Mann. Chambers went to join The Escorts and died in 2000.

Voormann played for a short time with the Hollies as a session musician. In the meantime, he designed the cover for the Beatles' "Revolver." He then got the offer from Manfred Mann to join his band as successor to Jack Bruce, who had left to join Cream with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. In his biography, Voormann said that Paddy, Klaus & Gibson were probably the inspiration for Clapton to form a trio.

Voorman told Knublauch in an email that "The band (Paddy, Klaus & Gibson) was a good live band, but had no good songwriter. It lacked many things that you need to be a successful band. Only playing well is not enough!”

The EP produced by Dieter Hoffmann is a great memory of this episode from Klaus` life. It features these tracks: Side 1, “I Wanna Know,” “I Tried,” “”No Good Without You Baby.” Side 2: “Rejected,” “Quick Before They Catch Us,” “Teresa.” The disc is limited to 300 copies, is available in three colors and can be purchased for €27 ($30.76 USD) including shipping by emailing him.