Klaus Voormann

Klaus Voorman moved from Berlin to Hamburg in 1957 to study art and also worked as a commercial artist in various capacities before his studies were over.

After a minor argument with his girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr one day in 1960 he was wandering around the St. Pauli area of the city and was drawn into the Kaiserkeller by the rock and roll sound of Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. He was impressed but even more impressive was the band that followed – The Beatles.

After befriending the band and watching their rise to fame, Klaus was influenced by them to go into music himself and in the early part of the sixties played with a trio called Paddy, Klaus and Gibson who were briefly signed to the Brian Epstein stable of artist, before joining Manfred Mann for the latter half of the decade. In the recording studio Klaus played with such names as BB King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Harry Nilsson and Carly Simon as well as working with George Harrison and playing bass with The Plastic Ono Band for John Lennon.

In 1965 Klaus was asked by John Lennon to design the record sleeve for The Beatles’ “Revolver” album for which he was a awarded a Grammy. In the late eighties he worked on the sleeve design for the George Harrison single “When We Was Fab” which featured echoes of the “Revolver” album cover. By the early nineties Klaus was beginning to work on the illustrations for the Hamburg Days book for Genesis Publications at which time he also designed the cover artwork for The Beatles Anthologies.

Klaus Voormann in the studio.