Posted on 26/02/202408/07/2024 by Buzz — 3 Comments

Santa Klaus Voormann is Coming to Town

Noted German collector Thorsten Knublauch and a collector named Richard Forrest who is the originator of the terrific blog at the link provided below in blue, gave me a wonderful education recently about Klaus Voormann record designs both in vinyl and on CD. Klaus of course, knew the Beatles back in Hamburg, and when the Beatles split up, he played on numerous solo recordings. Of course, he is best known as the designer of the Revolver album cover for the Beatles.

One of the most extraordinary summaries of Klaus’s work for other artists is located here: Klaus Voormann’s Record Cover Art | recordart. This is a superb blog designed and compiled by Richard Forrest dealing with Klaus Voormann’s artwork on both vinyl and CD. This guy’s personal collection is without peer and there are so many interesting stories that accompany this blog. I am so happy that I was alerted to this site by Thorsten. I have learned so much from Richard’s link and I have become much poorer by purchasing many of the items listed at Richard’s site for my own collection!

I found the following story to be fantastic and it provided so much new information. To be better informed access the link above. Klaus Voormann drew a sketch of the group “The Eyes” on the back of the “She/Peanut Butter” single cover pictured just below. Paddy Chambers who was in the group had been a member of the legendary Liverpool band, The Big Three. Gibson Kemp who was to later marry Astrid Kirchherr, was a former drummer for The Hurricanes. John Frankland, according to the blog, was a former member of Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes.

The Eyes She/ Peanut Butter — The Eyes – Peanut Butter

Here is the sketch that Klaus drew for The Eyes 45. Notice there are 4 people pictured, but not for long...

The Eyes by Klaus Voormann — The Eyes on Star Club Records

This EP was released many years later and was Paddy Chambers Klaus Voormann, Gibson Kemp. The 4th person who was in the Eyes and left, John Frankland, was conveniently removed from this collection of Paddy, Klaus and Gibson’s collection of 45s. I bought a copy of this collection from the great book publisher Apcor who is responsible for the fantastic “A is for Apple” book series.

Achim Schultz, a German musician friend of Klaus’s, was the beneficiary of several of Klaus’s cover designs for a few CDs. Here is Achim’s George tribute:

Achim did a tribute song for John and Yoko and Klaus did the sleeve for this work as well.

A third Klaus contribution to Achim:

Klaus’s unique style is certainly evident on this release by The Pleasure entitled “Travel Inside.”

No one can miss the not too subtle comparisons to Revolver with this release by Fool’s Garden entitled “Who is Jo King?”

A wonderful release of a Klaus demo recorded at George’s Friar Park entitled, “Lu La Le Lu.” This was released as a special 45 by the book company Apcor which has issued the fabulous “A is for Apple” series.

The link below was posted by someone on YouTube and features Klaus performing the song Lu La Le Lu with a band that has his son Max Voormann as a member.

Lu La Le Lu [Live Bayerische TV 24 June 2016] – YouTube

Here is a Christmas single cover designed by Klaus with the photo in a different color on the two 45s. One picture was cropped by the record company and the A-side was flipped on the singles.

Klaus does his version of “The Thing” from the Addams Family Meets Maxwell’s Silver Hammer with this design:

Wet Wet Wet with 2 different cd cover designs by Klaus

No mistaking Klaus’s input on this design:

Albert Lee with Klaus' Artwork — Albert Lee with Klaus’ Artwork

Two LP color cover variations for Klaus’s design of Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks LP iSPANGLED!

The rarest Klaus sleeve that he produced in the very early 60’s and he handed the sleeve to John Lennon as a means of introducing himself to the band. That is where John told him to “show it to Stuart, he is the artist in the group.” The sleeve was for the Typhoon’s version of “Walk Don’t Run.” Would love to be able to find a copy of this sleeve one day.

Walk Don't Run by Klaus — Walk Don’t Run by Klaus

If you would like to learn more please go to the source of much of this information with the link below: It appears I have a lot more collecting to do, after all! Klaus Voormann’s Record Cover Art | recordart–

Here are the two Bee Gees LP covers designed by Klaus:

This is a great book by Klaus Voormann and his son Max with sketches they did of the Beatles stomping grounds in Hamburg. Copies of this signed book were available for purchase at the Voormann website Klaus Voormann – The official shop and archive

There was a special collector’s edition of “It Started in Hamburg” to honor Klaus’s 80th birthday and only 80 copies were issued of the book. I requested copy #80 and Klaus and Christina Voormann graciously honored my request to be able to purchase that copy!!!

Klaus Voormann - It Started in Hamburg — Klaus Voormann – It Started in Hamburg

Thanks to Thorsten Knublauch for obtaining this inscribed German magazine for me of a Klaus magazine cover design:

Klaus did the cover design for this LP by Gary Wright. If you look at the musicians on this LP there are many familiar names from Beatles history. Hugh McCracken was a guitarist on Ram, Double Fantasy and Happy Xmas. Drummer Alan White and bass player Klaus also play on the album.

Gary Wright's Cover — Gary Wright’s Cover

Gary Wright's Extraction — Gary Wright’s Extraction

Klaus designed the cover of this LP as well:

The Genesis Revolver 50th Anniversary special edition by Klaus- I did purchase a copy of this book.

Klaus also signed a copy of this book which I purchased from his website

Richard Forrest has stated on his website that this may possibly be the rarest Klaus cover design of an obscure Jazz LP release in Germany. Richard has implied that this is the Golden Fleece for a Klaus collector to be able to find for their collection.

To end this post I will present Forrest’s listing of 20 Klaus-designed Pioneers of Jazz LPs and his cover design for Manfred Mann’s “As Is” album which I recently purchased on eBay. All of these designs appear on the Richard Forrest website and a great debt of gratitude is extended to him for his superb research. Also, special thanks to Thorsten Knublauch who informed me about Richard Forrest’s site. The link to his website is provided in this post.

The last pieces that will be shown in this post are the design that Klaus did for “I’m the Greatest” included in his booklet of sketches for the “Ringo” LP and a unique signature from Klaus that I recently acquired…..(see this at the end of the post)

Manfred Mann’s “As Is” LP with the Klaus-designed cover. Bought a copy of this recently on eBay.

Thanks to Alfred Ebeling who just informed me of this 2023 Klaus design of a collection of Manfred Mann hits from the Sixties!

Hits from the Sixties - Manfred Mann — Hits from the Sixties – Manfred Mann

The twenty covers for the Pioneers of Rock EP series:

Klaus Voormann’s “I’m The Greatest” sketch for the Ringo LP:

Klaus saying goodbye to us all with this unique signature!!!

What an artist Klaus is. Which is your favourite?

Posted on 24/02/202408/07/2024 by Buzz — 4 Comments

KEEP WARM UNDER ALL OF THE BEATLES COVERS

BEATLES COVERS

I thought a great subject for a post on the blog would be multiple covers for the same issue of a magazine that I have acquired. The Beatles in particular are the subject of a lot of these. Here we will cite a few examples

These postings indicate the obvious awareness that many publishers have that the continuing interest in the Beatles serves as a great marketing tool for the many multiple covers of the same magazine!

A rare set of Reader’s Digests Beatles Covers from Australia from Dec of 2005

My favorite set of TV Guide BEATLES covers. This is a rare set from Mexico of their equivalent of TV Guide Magazine manufactured in 1973 with the 1968 White album photos:

Four covers of TV Guide from the year 2000

The 4 individual Shea Stadium covers from 2005

Possibly my favorite 4 different cover collection of a single issue of a magazine issued in 4 different covers is this Richard Avedon photo set of covers of Rolling Stone issued only in Spain. The most difficult issue to find to complete this set is the Ringo issue. This set was issued in October of 2000:

The Four Beatles Covers on Rolling Stone

There are many more music magazines that have continued with this idea of generating multiple covers of a single issue. Here is an example of MOJO magazine from July of 2001. One could certainly argue it is a rip-off designed to get you to buy the same magazine four times and yet the collector would probably argue that it is nice to have the variance of having the choice of owning 4 different covers to the same magazine.

The final example I would like to cite here is the issues of the UK music magazine New Musical Express, more commonly known as NME, which featured all of the Beatles’ official UK LP releases as magazine covers from 2009. The rarest cover is the Magical Mystery Tour cover. Only 1000 copies were issued of MMT:

The Beatles Cover on New Musical Express

One person’s trash is often another person’s treasure!!!

As a collector I can see and understand the arguments to the variety and choice issues but also for the rip-off reasonings and description. As a collector, however, I lean to the “variance to satisfy the collector” mentality! The end result of thinking this way is that my wallet is separated from its contents very quickly!

Do you collect magazines? And what do you think of the same magazine with different covers? A collector’s dream or a fan’s frustration?

Let me know in the comments below.

Buzz

CHECK OUT THE BOOKS ABOUT THE BEATLES IN THE BOOKSTORE

The Beatles

Books about The Beatles as a group

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Posted on 22/02/202408/07/2024 by Buzz — 1 Comment

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – THE LOVE YOU MAKE!!!

Author Steven Gaines who co-wrote the book “The Love You Make” with Peter Brown, the longtime Beatles associate, has disclosed that he has numerous hours of unreleased interviews from his research conducted for the original best-selling book from the 1980’s. Steven has expressed the desire to be able to eventually leave the actual audio tapes to a research based institution like a university library or a museum.

This book seems to be a bonus release for Beatles historians to use as research source material. It also creates the unique opportunity for a book that deals with the creation of a best-seller which was also a biography that was tinged with controversy upon it’s release. Having the full transcribed interviews rather than an author’s editorial choice of what to print from the interviews can help to lend credibility to the conjectures presented by an author writing a biography. For researchers of the future having access to the actual audio interviews from these tapes would also be fascinating because one’s tone of voice often adds credibility to what one is saying, or often it strips that credibility away. History’s best-selling musical entertainers deserve the most accurate portrayal possible.

This is Steven’s partial list of the audio interviews that he has transcribed and will be publishing in the book. Perhaps the complete interviews with these individuals will help to shed some distinct credibility to those who criticized the authors for relying on controversy to sell the original book.

The tapes are approximately 80 hours of interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, and their families, friends and business associates. The tapes were recorded in 1980-1981 during the preparation of the international bestseller, “The Love You Make.”

The full transcription of these interviews have never been seen by the public.
Here is the partial list of the tape archive that the April 2024 release contains the transcribed interviews of the participants with:

Brian Epstein (from a tape discovered in the closet of Nat Weiss, it’s only one paragraph)

Paul McCartney

Alistair Taylor

Queenie Epstein

Nat Weiss

Alistair Taylor on Brian’s Death

Peter Brown on Brian’s Death

Allan Williams

Bob Wooler

Dick James

Geoffrey Ellis

Peter Brown on Manila

Vic Lewis

George Harrison

Alexis Mardas

Peter Brown on Maharishi

Pattie Boyd Harrison Clapton and Jenny Boyd Fleetwood

Neil Aspinall

David Puttnam

Martin Polden

Peter Brown on Apple

Alistair Taylor on Apple

Derek Taylor

Peter Brown on “Hey Jude”

Robert Fraser

Ray Connolly

John Dunbar

Cynthia Lennon Twist

Ron Kass on Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono

May Pang

Peter Brown on Allen Klein

Dick James II

Ron Kass

John Eastman

Alistair Taylor on Allen Klein Having Him Fired

Allen Klein

Maureen Starkey

Ringo Starr
US COVER TO THE APRIL 2024 RELEASE OF THE BOOK

All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circle Hardcover – April 9, 2024
by Peter Brown (Author) Steven Gaines (Author) Published by St. Martin’s Press

UK COVER TO THE BOOK

All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles – An Oral History by Those Who Were There Hardcover – 11 April 2024

Published by Monoray

You can pre-order the book at Amazon now! Click the link below:

All You Need Is Love

Did you read “The Love You Make”? What did you make of it? Let me know in the comments below.

Buzz

Posted on 20/02/202408/07/2024 by liddypool — Leave a comment

Beatlefan for a Beatles Fan

Six times per year I eagerly anticipate the new issue of Beatlefan magazine to appear in my mailbox. Even in the digital age in which we live, with information being conveyed instantly across the internet, it is Beatlefan magazine which I rely on for my major source of Beatles news. It is one of only a few print magazine sources about the Beatles that I own a copy of every issue since issue #1.

Bill King, the editor, and his excellent staff of writers, including Brad Hundt, Al Sussman, Kit O’Toole, and Bruce Spizer, among many others, make it an absolute pleasure when every issue arrives, as new and exciting Beatles-related information is always provided to the viewer. The editorials about new releases are wide-ranging in their perspectives and present new ways to perceive the merits (or lack thereof) of the respective releases!

New Beatles books are reviewed as well as dvd releases and underground recordings as well. Bill King, with his journalistic background, has found the perfect formula to satisfy the insatiable appetite of Beatles fans for new information about their idols. The news section not only reports the news but it often puts the information into the proper cultural context and meaning.

Shown below are a few sample issues of the magazine. Following the sample issues are the hard-to-find hardcover books of early Beatlefan issues published by Pierian Press many years ago. I sincerely hope that publisher and editor Bill King decides to publish the entire run of Beatlefan magazine in the hardcover format one day as they richly deserve to be permanently preserved for their quality and insight concerning the Beatles phenomenon. For informational or subscription inquiries, you can contact Beatlefan at beatlefanmagazine@gmail.com

Beatlefan with Paul McCartney on the Cover

Beatlefan about John Lennon's Last Sessions — Beatlefan about John Lennon’s Last Sessions

The two hardcover editions of Beatlefan magazine’s early issues, published by Pierian Press many years ago.

Posted on 18/02/202418/02/2024 by liddypool — Leave a comment

Happy Birthday, Yoko – But Who is the REAL Yoko Ono?

Is there a more divisive and controversial person in Beatles history than Yoko Ono? Why was she always at John’s side? What did the others think of her? Did Yoko split up The Beatles? The Get Back series proved that she and John were almost inseparable, but many more people were in the studio!

There is always a lot of negative press, but now there is a new book by Madeline Bocaro called In Your Mind – The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono. For a change, this is an objective look at Yoko and who the REAL Yoko Ono Lennon is, which will surprise you.

Ono’s fascinating life goes way beyond what most people know. We visit Yoko’s inner and outer worlds. You will be touched by her wit and wisdom, her spiritual nature, and her intent.

Although always associated with John, her life story spans thirty-three years before meeting John Lennon, twelve years with him, and over forty years of creativity since his death. Yoko breaks down the boundaries between art and life. Her enchanting philosophy and uplifting positivity are irresistible. She shows us the truth – with sincerity and humor, enlightening us to our own superpowers.

Ono’s work is unfinished – to be completed in your mind.

Her art is on the ceiling, on the floor, and in the sky. It is invisible – a wind, a whisper, a scream. It is imagining one thousand suns rising, a billion universes, stealing moonlight on the water… Ono’s music and films are an extension of her art. This book covers every aspect of her life and work.

Will you be bold enough to read this book with an open mind and discover the REAL Yoko?

Get your copy of Madeline’s great book on Yoko Ono.

In Your Mind – The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono (Signed Hardback)

Now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives
Acclaimed by MOJO & Goldmine
Recommended by Olivia Harrison
Spotlighted on The Beatles Channel, Sirius XM Radio

The true story of the woman John Lennon loved. Includes the work and music they made together, the love story of John & Yoko, and her relationship with the Beatles.

Ono’s incredible story goes way beyond what most people know.

There are astounding details about Yoko’s life (thirty-three years before meeting Lennon, twelve years with him, and over forty years of creativity since his death).

The author has followed Ono’s career since the mid-1960s, assembling a vast media archive on the artist. Yoko’s own voice, along with Lennon’s and others (in cited, published interviews) tell her undeniably true and complete story, disproving many myths. Bocaro has spent valuable time with Ono, gaining incredible insight.

Here is the ultimate exploration of Yoko’s childhood, her relationship with Lennon, her art, films, music and activism for peace and women’s rights.

£44.00

Shop now

Posted on 16/02/202428/06/2024 by liddypool — Leave a comment

THE BEATLES IN AUSTRALIA – TO THE TOPPERMOST OF THE POPPERMOST

The Beatles in Australia? Hamburg has often been credited as the birth of the Beatles as it was the place where they honed their musicianship there with long 7 or 8-hour sets. Fans in the UK and Liverpool specifically, would probably object to that description because the hysteria surrounding Beatlemania occurred when the Beatles returned to their native England after their Hamburg stint. It was after the Beatles had returned to the UK that their songwriting skills also began to flourish. Most Beatles scholars would state that once the Beatles came to America, they conquered the world.

However, the Australians will point out proudly that the largest Beatles crowd and reception to view them during 1964, was not in any of those countries. The biggest crowd to attempt to see the Beatles was in Australia and this book published in Australia is a historical photo essay of the Beatles’ 1964 trip to that country. It is estimated that more than 300,000 fans came to welcome the band In Adelaide, which was the largest crowd seeing them in their touring career.

The Beatles must have been in shock for such a large crowd to view them along a 10-mile route that day. Another reason the book holds a special place in my collection is that the drummer pictured on the cover is not Ringo Starr, it is Jimmie Nicol, who substituted for Ringo while he was ill for 13 days during the Beatles playing in the Netherlands and in Australia. Ringo was to rejoin the Beatles in Melbourne, Australia in June of 1964.

The book was put together by noted Beatles photo collector Mark Hayward and the photos in the book are fantastic. New Holland Publishers Pty, Limited-2005.

The book is occasionally featured on Ebay and on the book search service at Abe books.

A sad newspaper article which details what happened to Jimmie Nicol” a man that had seen the mountaintop but only for a very short time. “Fame” can certainly be fleeting. Author Jim Berkenstadt has written a superb book about the Jimmie Nicol story and that book is pictured below

Paul Harris wrote this story for the Daily Mail.