Klaus Beyer was born in Berlin as a simple and charming boy. He worked as a candle-drawer in a factory until he was fired after 25 years of work in 1997. Since than he takes full advantage of his artistic work.
In the early 80’s he used to sing the songs of the Beatles to his Mom. Unfortunately she doesn’t understand that foreign language. So Klaus Beyer starts what he is mostly know for now: to sing those songs in his mother’s language.
His work process is unique. On an old reel to reel tape recorder he edites passages of songs together where the Beatles are not singing. After that he sings his own poetic translations on top of it. And: they’re always in rhyme ! Cut-up Beatles songs in German.
But the hidden talent of the factory worker is larger than that. He also write own songs, starts filming them and the Beatles songs on Super 8 at weekends in front of a curtain. All by himself. Klaus Beyer is an one man show. Magazines call him the “van Gogh of Home Movies”. And if he needs a female character for his films, he buys a wig.
Since the 80’s he’s performing live and presents his films in small clubs. 1994 his friend and manager, the film director Frank Behnke did a documentary on him which was shown in Europe and overseas in the USA. Beyer won prices and underground fame.
He has become part of the outsider artistic landscape now, was invited to TV Talk shows and subject of two books. Likewise his films has been shown at the Art show ‘Documenta’ in Kassel and his famous short film “Die Glatze” (The baldhead) became a mainstay on MTV’s Alternative Nation.
In 1999 Beyer met his ‘US-brother’ Daniel Johnston on the same Berlin stage they performed. There it was that theatre director and enfant terrible, the late Christoph Schlingensief discovered him and worked with Beyer as an actor for ten years. That has brought Beyer to Africa, Island and Brazil. He even plays the shadow of Parsifal on Richard Wagner’s holy Opera stage at Bayreuth.
Recently he did a clip with director Jörg Buttgereit for the New York all star punk band ‘Osaka Popstar’ (Marky Ramone a.o.). Beyer sings their songs in German too.
2010 the Belgian label Sub Rosa releases a CD of outsider artists including Beyer.
An art-brut kind of guy, who can’t sing properly finishes his life’s work: to release all 13 LPs of the Beatles. In German. That happens now, in Summer of 2011 with the White album.Klaus Beyer will became 60 next year and has worked longer on Beatles songs than John and Paul and he deserves the title of the real “fifth Beatle”.
Giving the people back the songs they own. Home baked, authentic and with naturalistic love.Klaus Beyer stays an unique working class hero as a Berlin Original.
