Forgotten Fretmasters #17 - Klaus Voormann

say one thing for the beatles they never forgot their friends despite planet-wide fame and jillions in record sales the beatles maintained a tight group of friends and management throughout their entire career the number of people who supported the band despite the massive machine that hummed along for eight years could really be counted on both hands neil aspinall brian epstein mal evans frida kelly george martin these folks were there every step of the way but there was another name that stepped in and out of the beatles lives at several points especially after their breakup and into their solo career he was a talented german artist who aside from designing some of the most iconic album covers in the history of rock and roll was also a pretty kick-ass bass player and that makes him worthy of inclusion in this series so the surprising and winding road of klaus vormin next on forgotten fretmasters [Music] hello friends and welcome once again to forgotten fretmasters the documentary series where we examine guitarists or musicians who for one reason or another might not have been as commercially successful as had the longevity of or just left us sooner than some of the other guys who often end up on all the top 10 lists today we're going to look at the first bass player in our series and it's a name you may not know klaus vorman is best known for his association with the beatles but he actually had a successful art and music career aside from them and his life is an interesting mixture of commercial and graphic art and a surprising list of albums that klaus lent his base to as you'll see later on in the video but remember if you like rock history content like this be sure to subscribe to the guitar historian channel and hit the like button below if you think rock history fans would like to see this content i would also like to take a moment to announce that a portion of my proceeds from youtube in 2022 will be going to an amazing charity called parent project muscular dystrophy my son was just diagnosed with duchenne muscular dystrophy and our fight is just beginning but the work that parent project md is doing runs the gamut between patient support and directly funding the research and development of exciting new drugs and treatments for this disease if you'd like to learn more about parent project muscular dystrophy i've left the link in the description below your viewing and sharing of this and any of my other videos will help this amazing charity do their tireless work and with that let's get on with the video klaus voorman was born on 29 april 1938 in berlin germany the son of a physician and a sibling's six other brothers class was raised in north berlin and has talked about his dyslexia growing up which naturally pushed klaus into a more artistic track in school interestingly despite growing up at a time of great upheaval in germany with the war ending when class was seven years old not much is available of the vormin family story in relation to world war ii vormin's story seems to start post-war and he was surrounded early by music and art with both of his parents being interested in the arts and fostering klaus's journey but despite his obvious talent for music his father felt it best that klaus studied commercial art and he was enrolled at the um okay i'm going to butcher this the meister school for graphic un booker werb sorry german fans um anyway klaus would eventually find himself in hamburg germany attending the meister school for gestaltong it would be in hamburg that vormin would strike up a friendship with two other art students fashion student jurgen vollmer and photographer astrid kercher vollmer and kercher would be responsible for some of the iconic early photographs of the savage young beatles during this time with jon even using one of vulmer's photographs of himself leaning up against a doorway for his 1975 album of early rock covers rock and roll but it wouldn't be long until vormin and kercher struck up a romantic relationship with vormin even moving into astra's family home where he enjoyed his own room the night of destiny occurred in 1960 when the trio had a petty argument and class wandered off into the night by himself walking into one of the most notorious and dangerous sections of the city the reaper bond in those days the reaper bond was known as a haven for drunks sailors prostitution drug use and crime not an area that klaus would have normally wandered alone into but it seemed that history had other plans for the young graphic artist and he was struck by the sound of loud music coming from one of the clubs on that fateful night the club was called the kaiserkeller and the sound was coming from a band called rory storm and the hurricanes featuring drummer ringo starr vorman a jazz man through and through up to that point was taken in by the brute force and energy of the music he'd heard that night and he was captivated by the new sound of rock and roll this feeling was only bolstered by the next band to take the stage after the hurricanes their fellow liverpool stablemates the beatles vormin said that he was left speechless by the performances and forgetting all about the argument from the previous night the next morning klaus urged astrid and jurgen to accompany him to the reaper bond the next night the trio became captivated by the music and especially the personal charm and charisma of the beatles and they began to visit the kaiser keller every night at 9 00 pm taking seats just by the stage in short order the band themselves began to take notice of the trio who let's be real stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the sailors drunks and pill addicts george harrison would say later quote he klaus went back and told astrid and brought her and some of their friends there were ballet dancers with them and they started coming in on a regular basis to see us astrid and klaus would come in most frequently they liked our band and she wanted to photograph us john lennon gave the trio their nickname the exes short for existentialists upon seeing the obvious difference in their attire and attitude indeed they would appear wearing suede coats woolen sweaters and jeans but the band member who'd been captivated even more by the standout artist was a kindred spirit in the beatles bass player stuart sutcliffe it would take a couple of days for sudcluff to pin the trio down but once they were able to properly speak the connection was clear all four attended art college and were talented in their fields it was a match made in heaven although initially the other beatles regarded the group as somewhat of an oddity it was clear that they had a hold over the group and were more influential than they cared to admit george again remembered quote astrid and klaus were very influential i remember we went to the swimming baths once and my hair was down from the water and they said no leave it it's good i didn't have my vaseline anyway and i was thinking well these people are cool if they think it's good i'll leave it like this they gave me that confidence and when it dried off it dried naturally down which later became the look the mutual admiration between the x's and the beatles saw the trio able to divorce themselves from being german when they were with them all three had expressed this taste and guilt about being german amidst the country's recent history but the fact that a group of german students and british musicians could get along and feed off of one another made the group hopeful that they could find a life outside of the shadow of the second world war of course jon had to get his digs in from the stage from time to time often saying in english you krauts we won the war knowing that the german-speaking patrons had no idea what he was saying but the english-speaking sailors in the audience would roar with laughter but it was sutcliffe and kercher who had maintained the closest relationship in those early days sorry klaus and their connection and kismet was the stuff of legend stewart and astrid would become engaged in 1960 with stewart remaining in hamburg to pursue his art career and settle down for a life with astrid who called stu the love of her life however we all know that tragically stu would pass away only a couple years later after battling intense headaches for years culminating in a final brain hemorrhage which took his life on 10 april 1962. he was only 21 years old the remaining beetles would play a huge part in helping the distraught astrid move on from stu's death with john telling her one day that she had to decide if she wanted to quote live or die there is no other question class ended up moving to london in the early 60s maintaining his relationship with the beatles and eventually moving in temporarily with george harrison and ringo starr in georgia's green street flat but it wouldn't be long until class would find work as a commercial artist considering his massive talent and he would find a place of his own klaus would continue to work as a graphic artist over the next few years but in 1963 he moved back to hamburg temporarily to start his first band an outfit called patty klaus and gibson interestingly klaus would play bass right-handed despite being left-handed the group was a technically a member of the merseyside invasion of acts that spread all over europe in the wake of the beatles success drummer gibson camp had replaced ringo and rory storming the hurricanes and guitarist paddy chambers had played in king-sized taylor and the dominus the trio was actually the first band to be managed by tony stratton smith who would go on to manage genesis for a time but were eventually picked up by brian epstein and split time between liverpool and hamburg and releasing several singles on pie records one of which was produced by paul mccartney by 1966 the band started to fall apart but class would make his most iconic contribution to the story of the beatles when john lennon asked klaus if he wanted to design the cover to the beatles next album in late 1965. voorman dusted off his art supplies and came up with a breathtaking design there was a combination of large exaggerated caricatures of the band coupled with scrapbook photos interspersed throughout the flowing beetle haircuts haircuts that should be noted that klaus had a hand in creating himself in those early days in hamburg paul mccartney was a fan of the finished product saying quote we knew he drew and he'd been involved in graphic design i must admit we didn't really know what he did but he'd been to college we knew he must be all right and so he said why don't you come up with something for the album cover he did and we were all very pleased with it we like the way there were little things coming out of people's ears and how he'd collage things on a small scale while the drawings were on a big scale he also knew us well enough to capture us rather beautifully in the drawings we were flattered brian epstein reportedly cried tears of joy after seeing it vormin was paid the princely sum of 40 pounds for his work but more importantly the album cover would go on to enter the conversation amongst the all-time greats winning the grammy award in 1966 for best album cover graphic arts this would bring demand for klaus's work and he would also design the bg's debut album cover as well called bg's first which featured the band above a psychedelic collage but klaus couldn't stay away from music and he would actually find himself in demand as a bass player following the breakup of paddy klaus and gibson voorman was actually offered the low end positions in the holly's and the moody blues but he turned down these offers to eventually join manfred mann in 1966 taking over for jack bruce who had gone on to form cream with eric clapton and ginger baker voorman's time in the group was known as the band's most successful period with future blues band guitarist tom mcguinness on singles like the dylan covered just like a woman and the mighty quinn and going until their final single ragamuffin man in 1969. the band would fold into man's next project a jazz fusion group known as manford man chapter 3 but it wasn't for klaus and he would make his exit it was during his time with man however that he would purchase the fender precision base that he would come to use for literally the rest of his career the base would undergo many finish changes over the years starting life as a sunburst but eventually sporting some of class's graphic art fan as we'd like to call it today naturally relict these days after his work in man for man class would go on to become a sought-after session musician and just listen to some of the credits that klaus has under his belt initially he would work on all four former beatles at different times there was even a rumor that john george and ringo were going to reform with vormin on base with a new band called the ladders but in the end this lineup only ended up playing on ringo's 1973 song i'm the greatest his first major session work was as a bass player on jackie lomax's 1969 album is this what you want which was produced by george klaus would then go on to work on georgia's massive 1970 triple album all things must pass around the same time class was helping jon on his first solo effort 1970s plastic ono band in contrast to george's revolving door of guest musicians voorman was part of a very small group on plastic ono bandas john wanted to keep it sparse and simple with contributions from ringo on drums and billy preston on keys standing out as well speaking of preston klaus ended up playing bass on his 1970 album encouraging words as well as appearing on leon russell's first album for a m records in 1971 klaus continued working with both former beatles and acts surrounding them playing bass on john's second album imagine and also helping out on bad fingers 1971 album straight up playing electric piano on the track suitcase he was a member of george's backing band at his concert for bangladesh and played bass in guitar on harry nilsson's smash 1971 effort nilsson schmilson he would also appear on bb king's 1971 album bb king in london class would continue throughout the 70s as one of the most sought after session players in the business eventually going on to work with axis peter frampton carly simon donovan an art garfunkel he would continue to contribute to george john and ringo's solo efforts all throughout the 70s and make sure you check out the killer video of a stripped down version of how do you sleep which features a throbbing baseline from klaus who looks half asleep during the session he sure slipped into that rock star role pretty effortlessly vormin even tried his hand at producing most notably for the german band trio which would have a worldwide hit with 1981's da da da which would be used in 1997 by german carmaker volkswagen to viral effect the song and the band who'd broken up in 1984 enjoyed a brief resurgence and would re-release some of their 80s material to capitalize on the newfound success by 1989 vormin had retired from the music business to spend more time with his family but this didn't stop vormin's artistic adventures and he would be tapped in 1995 to design the covers to the new beatles anthology releases these covers are also absolutely breathtaking you could just get lost to them with vormin employing the look of a wall covered in several generations of beetle posters and advertising torn away to reveal other posters and album covers beneath across the three cd releases putting them side by side gives you a look at the total picture a long wide screen look at the beatles entire career it's simply beautiful a great idea and my favorite work from vormin ever even more than a revolver cover glass would dust his precision base off to perform in 2002's concert for george after harrison's death from throat cancer in 2001. vormin called george a really great guitarist and quote the best friend i ever had voorman would return in 2009 with a solo album called sideman's journey which is a collection of cover songs that highlight his long and storied career the album features star-studded cast of characters including paul mccartney ringo starr youssef islam bonnie bramlett doris troy albert lee dr john tom mcginnis van dyke parks jim keltner and joe walsh among many others in the last 10 years or so class has been busy continuing to work in graphic design music and documentary films even at the age of 83 vormin hasn't slowed down he recently even designed the cover to former heartbreakers guitarist mike campbell's band the dirty knobs in 2020 on their album reckless abandon and guess what it's another awesome cover although vormin's role in the development of the early beatles was previously well known i think we should really give klaus some more love in the music department as this video clearly proves that the guy had the chops to stand side by side with some of the biggest acts of the 1960s and 70s and even turned down a couple of them that's why i'm confident that you will agree with klaus's inclusion in the series as more than worthy but that'll be another episode of forgotten fratmasters and looking back i think this will be one of my personal favorites thanks for joining us yet again and remember to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell icon to get notified whenever we post new content be sure to scroll down to the description and check out some curated videos of classes playing over the years and also remember to check out the great charitable work of the parent project muscular dystrophy organization and help out wherever you can and as always thanks so much for spending a little time with us and we will see you next time

Channel: The Guitar Historian

Views: 36,542

Keywords: Forgotten Fretmasters, Klaus Voormann, The Beatles, Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, Hamburg, Germany, Bass, Manfred Mann, Paddy Klaus and Gibson, guitar historian

Id: yguKF2cg3Ac

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 21 2022