KLAUS VOORMANN - A RARE BOOK AND A VERY RARE ALBUM COVER

ONLY 80 COPIES OF THE LIMITED-EDITION OF THIS KLAUS VOORMANN BOOK:

In 2018, Klaus Voormann, longtime friend of the Beatles since the Hamburg days of the very early ’60s, celebrated his 80th birthday! Klaus was born in Berlin, Germany, on the 29th of April 1938! We are now in 2026 and we are approaching Klaus’s 90th birthday in 2028. We wish him good health and happiness!

When he turned 80, he celebrated that milestone by issuing a limited edition of his book entitled It Started in Hamburg. The limited-edition was restricted to only 80 copies, each signed and numbered by Klaus. The 80 copies were suitably issued to celebrate each year of Klaus’s life on planet Earth!

When I learned of the limited-edition, I requested to purchase the last numbered and signed copy by Klaus. I made the request as my collecting interest to limited-edition books is often based on acquiring the very last copy of the special book. Needless to say, I was overjoyed and happy to learn from Klaus’s wife that my request for that copy would be granted!

I would like to share a few sample pages of my copy of this special book with you! I hope you will enjoy them very much.

The book is written in both the English and German languages!

THE SLIPCASE FOR THE BOOK:

The English slipcase cover:

On the other side is the German slipcase cover:

The book within the slipcase:

The English side of the cover of the book:

The German side of the cover of the book:

The signature page: The last signed and numbered copy of the set!

The tote bag that was included in the box that the slipcased book came in:

Inside the tote bag was an envelope containing a message from Klaus about the Beatles Anthology:

Here was the surprise inside the card: A Klaus USB…

The Table of Contents:

Page 2 of the TOC:

A few sample pages from the book which were precious to me. In this section of the book Klaus talks about growing up in Germany in the war years and how difficult it was. Klaus is from a very artistic family, and he shares memories of that early in the book. Klaus holds great affection and respect for his mom who instilled in him the inspiration for creativity!

Precious photos from the book of Klaus as a young boy with his mom and an example of his mother Ruth’s wonderful sketching artistic ability:

I have the sheet music for the cover of Yellow Submarine that was designed by Klaus for this commission from Brian Epstein: The photo of that sheet music is not on the provided page!

Klaus highlighted his participation in the Starart book featuring the artwork of other celebrities as well! I was fortunate to be able to obtain the limited-edition version of the book shown below the black and white Revolver-style photograph as well, which was signed by all of the artists with the exception of Cat Stevens who was in the process of changing his name! The limited-edition book had escaped my awareness as I learned about its release long after it being issued and by then the 300 copies had been sold-out. Years later, I was fortunate to be able to find one and placed a bid on it that was accepted by the owner at the time. I had experienced a lot of frustration in finding a copy of this book as they are very difficult to track down in the limited-edition format. Not only that, but they are also very expensive!

This is the regular edition of Starart:

The special limited-edition of the Starart book: Limited to 300 copies!

The book was signed by all of the artists with the exception of Cat Stevens:

The album cover below was part of a blog post that appeared before on the blog, and I am presenting it again because of its rarity and how it a little-known element in the catalog of Klaus’s work. This particular item that is shown below is a very rare album record cover designed by Klaus Voormann in the early 60s. I obtained this very rare album cover designed by Klaus from noted German collector and author, Thorsten Knublauch!

Part 2 – The very rare album cover designed by Klaus Voormann

A VERY SPECIAL KLAUS VOORMANN RARITY:

THE STORY BEHIND THE KLAUS RARITY ACQUIRED:

Thorsten Knublauch is the person that I turn to for information about the Beatles in Germany. I also depend upon his expertise when learning about some of the prominent Germans who played a significant role in the Beatles history. Through Thorsten’s efforts, he was able to secure a German Klaus Voormann rarity for me which I thought I would never see and I am extremely grateful for his kindness.

Richard Forrest has stated on his website Klaus Voormann’s Early Record Covers. | recordart that the record cover that I obtained from Thorsten (shown above) is one of the rarest Klaus cover designs. It is not a jazz album like many other Klaus album covers of the time, it is a kind of radio air play, released in Germany. Richard has implied that the album described below by Thorsten may be the Golden Fleece for a Klaus Voormann designed LP cover collector to be able to find for their collections

Only a handful were made and Thorsten assumes that it was an in-house product for the Deutsche Grammophon record company in Germany.

Klaus and many of his existential German colleagues were big fans of jazz music prior to the explosion of beat music which was spearheaded by the Beatles after they had served their training period in Hamburg!

According to Thorsten, Klaus Voormann got a commission from Reinhart Wolf in 1960/1 to illustrate the covers for a series of jazz re-issue EPs called Pioneers of Jazz. These archival recordings were released on the German Coral label, another Deutsche Grammophon imprint at the time. Klaus illustrated all twenty covers. This photograph is from Richard Forrest’s excellent website at the link provided above:

Klaus had designed multiple jazz record album covers in the early 60s and the photos of these albums can be accessed at the link provided above:

Thorsten’s Description

Thorsten’s description to me of what he believes the release was and why? I trust this man’s judgement completely regarding anything that has to do with German based recordings. He is clearly the best!!!

Thorsten Knublauch’s analysis and conjecture regarding the origin of the LP:

“Ok – as far as I found out and theorized – according to the content of the album – I assume this was an in-house product for the Deutsche Grammophon record company in Germany that was located in Hamburg. There were quite a few jokes that relate to other music business companies, radio stations or papers or records mainly in North Germany.

The album itself has no catalogue number – perhaps the stamped number 004169 was it. What is more important is the M1 stamp. As you might know, this is a system on records from the company that means M=12th letter of the alphabet = December (they counted I and J as one as it looks the same in large letters.) 1 means first year of the decade. So the record was pressed December 1961. And guess what – this is the same stamp that you find on the second “My Bonnie” pressing with the English intro – this had been pressed in December 1961, too, but was released late January early February 62.

So my fair guess is: this was a Christmas gift for staff or customers of the company in 1961…”

Thorsten Knublauch

It is the cover that is interesting for the collector, states Thorsten, as the content of the record was not very impressive according to him!

The back cover of the LP:

COMING IN THE FUTURE: HAMBURG DAYS A 6-Part BBC series- with Klaus Voormann as consultant

Our blog administrator, David Bedford, is part of the creative team on this series!

Beatles biopic series Hamburg Days acquired for BBC iPlayer and BBC One

Klaus is involved with the production as a consultant of the 6-part BBC series based on Klaus Voormann’s German biography, which has yet to be issued in the English language! I have personally lobbied with Klaus to ensure that an English edition be printed, but Klaus was skeptical about his choice in his search for the proper translator for the project! Hoping that issue will be eventually resolved!

Hope you enjoyed this post of a couple of limited-edition books marking Klaus Voormann’s involvement and a very rare Klaus Voormann cover design for a German LP.

Klaus as both a musician and as an artist has been very prolific over the years and has brought much happiness to the world in doing so! What a beautiful legacy that is! Thank you, Klaus!

Be healthy and be happy!

Buzz