Klaatu (band)

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Klaatu
Origin Toronto area, Ontario, Canada.
Genre(s) Progressive Rock, Powerpop
Years active 1973–1982
Label(s) Daffodil
Bullseye Records of Canada
Capitol Records (US)
Website Official website
Members
John Woloschuk
Dee Long
Terry Draper

Klaatu was a Canadian progressive rock group formed in 1973 by the duo of John Woloschuk and Dee Long. They named themselves after the extraterrestrial by the same name portrayed by Michael Rennie in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. The band released the singles Hanus Of Uranus/Sub-Rosa Subway and Dr. Marvello/For You Girl on GRT Records before being taken under the wing of Daffodil Records and its president Frank Davies.

Drummer Terry Draper was signed soon thereafter and the singles California Jam and True Life Hero followed. The band struggled to get radio recognition. By 1975 Davies, along with producer Terry Brown, managed to land the band a deal with Capitol Records in the US.

Contents

[edit] First album release

Their first album, 3:47 EST (named Klaatu in the US due to a misunderstanding), had a Beatlesque sound, particularly in the song "Sub-Rosa Subway", but contained no biographical details, thus inspiring a rumour that the album was an anonymous project by The Beatles. This rumour was wide-spread, and was taken seriously by many people.

Their most famous song, "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", was covered by The Carpenters in 1977.

Their second album Hope included orchestral contributions by the London Symphony Orchestra, and is considered by most fans to be an equal, if not superior effort, compared to the first album. Sir Army Suit, their third album, is notable for the track "Silly Boys", which contains the entire lyrical portion of "Anus of Uranus" – a song from their first album – backwards-masked and interspersed between the song's normal lyrics.

[edit] Animated film project

In 1978 the group embarked on an ambitious but uncompleted animated film project entitled Happy New Year, Planet Earth. The project, had it been finished, would have been about 30 minutes long and would have contained six Klaatu songs. The only example of the project that has ever seen the light of day is the video for "A Routine Day", which consisted of footage filmed for the project. However, in 2005 the group permitted the film to be screened in its uncompleted state at the KlaatuKon convention in Toronto.

[edit] Later years

Upon the release of their fourth studio album, 1980's Endangered Species, the band was eventually revealed to consist of drummer Terry Draper, keyboardist/bassist John Woloschuk and guitarist Dee Long, with no musical connection to any former Beatle. Although forced by Capitol to record Endangered Species in Los Angeles using established studio musicians to shore up the group's commercial chances, the album was a critical and commercial disaster. The album's poor showing resulted in Capitol Records dropping the group.

Now lacking a record label, Long and Draper temporarily formed a top 40 cover band, called FUNN, as a way to make ends meet. Eventually signed by Capitol's Canadian division, Klaatu released their final album, Magentalane, in Canada only in 1981. A considerably better effort than Endangered Species, the album saw the group returning to their brand of Beatles-influenced pop/rock.

As a contractual obligation to Capitol-EMI in Canada, the band were forced to tour from November 1981 and expanded to a sextet (using members of Max Webster and Nightwind) for live performances. However, in April 1982 Dee Long - never all that fond of performing live in the first place by most accounts - quit the group. Although Woloschuk and Draper carried on performing for a few more months, the group officially disbanded in August of the same year.

[edit] Reunion

The trio very briefly reunited in 1988 at George Martin's Air Studios in London to record a single, "Woman," though no one was particularly happy with the results since the song was written by someone outside of the band (Paul Vincent Gunia) for the German TV series Tatort. The single was only released in West Germany, and did not chart, making it an extremely rare item in the Klaatu catalogue; particularly since it wasn't included on the two later rarities collections.

The three former members of Klaatu reunited on May 7, 2005 for a brief - and mostly acoustic - performance at Toronto's KlaatuKon. The set list consisted of "At the End of the Rainbow," "I Don't Wanna Go Home," "Cherie," "Magentalane," "Little Neutrino," and "All Good Things."

A full-blown Klaatu reunion - apart from occasional fan club performances such as those in 2005 - is extremely unlikely at this point due to Woloschuk's work commitments. However, Woloschuk has also been quoted as regarding the idea of a Klaatu reunion with orchestral backing as "tantalizing."

[edit] Post-Klaatu

Klaatu's albums were released on CD format rather late, and up until the 2000s several companies including Capitol Records released the albums, in some cases with incorrect track orders. Finally, [[Bullseye Records of Canada|Bullseye Records], with the help of the band itself, released the albums in their original track listings. Bullseye also released a tribute album to Klaatu, Around the Universe In Eighty Minutes.

In 2005 Bullseye Records released a 2-CD collection entitled Sun Set: 1973-1981, which compiled a number of rarities, demos, rare early singles, and other odds and ends recorded during the group's career. Perhaps most interesting was the original version of Hope which had been delivered to Capitol Records, including the complete contributions made by the London Symphony Orchestra, which had largely been removed from the version which was eventually released. The set also included a 40-page booklet including interviews with all of the former members of the band.

2005 also saw Raarities, also from Bullseye Records Of Canada. Oddly enough, this collection has only been released in a vinyl LP format so far. Raarities probably appeals more to the group's hardcore fans since most of the material on the record consists of alternate mixes and single versions, as opposed to Sun Set, which focused on unreleased material and the alternate version of Hope. A CD version titled "Sology" will include the "Raarities" LP as well as concert recordings.

Today Dee Long is a producer who has also written a drum loop program called the DeeSampler. He has released several solo albums and has recently begun performing live again. Terry Draper worked in Toronto as a roofer for a number of years following Klaatu's breakup, and now owns a bar. He has also worked as a producer (often with Dee Long), and has also released two solo albums, as well as a live album with his current band Twilight Zone. Following Klaatu's breakup John Woloschuk recorded a now-rare children's album called Robotman, but soon afterwards retired from music altogether and is today a music industry accountant in Toronto. Though Woloschuk was the group's primary songwriter, he has sometimes been regarded by fans as something of an enigma and a recluse. However, interviews with Woloschuk have shown him to be quite affable and perfectly willing to discuss Klaatu, stating that the only reason he retired from music was because he felt he could be a good musician, or a good accountant, but not both at the same time. Woloschuk has said he gets together with friends occasionally to play for the fun of it, but that's the extent of his interest in playing music at this point.

[edit] Discography

World Kontact Day CD/DVD (est 2007)

[edit] External links