by Pat Matthews
Most Beatle fans know the story. Klaus Voorman, a young artist/musician from Germany, “discovers” a brash group of rock and rollers from Liverpool in a seedy Hamburg night club. He brought along his roommate, Astrid Kircherr, one night to see and hear The Beatles play…and the rest, as they say, is history. Astrid is known for giving them their “mop top” hair style…and Klaus etched his name in Beatle lore by designing the famous “Revolver” album cover (if you look closely, you can see a small pic of him amongst the drawings and black and white photos of the Fab Four).
His musical career was one of legend. Klaus Voorman was a member of John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band when they played Live Peace in Toronto in 1969. It was Klaus who played on and designed the cover for Ringo’s solo album of the same name. He went on to play on “Instant Karma”, and Lennon’s Imagine and Walls and Bridges, and Rock ‘n’ Roll albums, and was on George’s All Things Must Pass, Material World, Bangladesh, and Dark Horse albums.
He was also a member of Manfred Mann from’66-‘69 and played bass and flute on their hit,”The Mighty Quinn.” He was also a session musician for Carly Simon, James Taylor, Harry Nilsson and Lou Reed. In 1979, he turned producer for the German band, Trio, who had a hit with “Da Da Da.” And in the 90s, he was asked by the remaining Beatles to design the covers for the 3 Anthologies covers.
In 2008, Klaus Voorman brought along his acoustic bass and joined Paul McCartney for some good ol’ Fats Domino rock and roll at the Beatle’s home recording studio. Check it out!
Comments