1973 жылы құрылған канадтық рок тобы "Klaatu"

Canadian rock band formed 1973

Klaatu ('/k//l//ɑː//t//uː/) was a Canadian rock group formed in 1973 by the duo of John Woloschuk and Dee Long. They named themselves after an ambassador, Klaatu, from an extraterrestrial confederation who visits Earth with his companion robot Gort in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. After recording two non charting singles, the band added drummer Terry Draper to the line up; this trio constituted Klaatu throughout the rest of the band's recording career. In Canada, the band is remembered for several hits, including "California Jam" (1974), "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (1976) and "Knee Deep in Love" (1980). In the U. S. "Calling Occupants" backed with "Sub Rosa Subway" was a minor double sided hit and their only chart entry, peaking at No. 62 in 1977. Internationally, the group's pop influenced style of progressive rock has led to them being known as the "Canadian Beatles".

Klaatu has variously been described by critics and journalists as progressive rock, psychedelic pop, pop rock, and progressive pop. British music magazine Shindig! praised the band's "otherworldly brand of progressive pop". Publications such as Pitchfork have described the group as the "Canadian Beatles". In addition, Ringo Starr's 1974 album Goodnight Vienna had featured cover art with Starr appearing in place of the character Klaatu from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. The album as a whole had a Beatlesque sound, particularly in the song "Sub Rosa Subway." Subsequent to the Beatles rumour, the songs "Sub Rosa Subway" and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" became minor hits for Klaatu in 1977. "Calling Occupants" was covered by the Carpenters that same year, becoming a Top 40 hit worldwide. While all this was happening, Klaatu were in England, recording their second album. They were somewhat aware of the situation with regard to the rumours, but did not take them entirely seriously – possibly because the UK's New Musical Express famously published an article on the Beatles as Klaatu theory under the title "Deaf Idiot Journalist Starts Beatle Rumour." Meanwhile, Capitol Records tried to make as much of the rumours as possible, by issuing ambiguously worded statements that failed to make the band's identity entirely clear. The rumour was disproved when Dwight Douglas, program director at WWDC in Washington, D. C., checked the records at the U. S. Copyright Office and uncovered the band members' real names. The band's second album Hope, released in 1977, included orchestral contributions by the London Symphony Orchestra. Sir Army Suit, their third album, is notable for the track "Silly Boys", which contains the entire lyrical portion of their single "Hanus of Uranus" – a song later re recorded as "Anus of Uranus" for their first album – backwards masked interspersed between the "Silly Boys" lyrics. For both these releases, the band continued their policy of not including any individual names of band members in the credits, nor did they play any live shows or make any public appearances to promote these albums.

In 1977, Al Guest and Jean Mathieson of Rainbow Animation were commissioned by Capitol Records to create an animated music video of the song "A Routine Day". This video ran on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and subsequently played as a short in Los Angeles on the same bill as Animal House. Following that, Guest and Mathieson got permission from Capitol Records to create a vehicle for Klaatu's songs. They wrote and directed a half hour television special they titled Happy New Year Planet Earth, hoping that it would get yearly broadcasts as an alternative to Christmas specials. New Year's Eve was Mathieson's birthday. Again the group Klaatu was photographed and rotoscoped, with an astronaut wraparound created to connect the six Klaatu songs. Although the project was completed, Guest and Mathieson were dropped by their Canadian film investment group and wound up financing it themselves. They never released it. The unfinished animations were later released as part of the 2013 Sir Army Suit bonus disc.

Upon the release of their fourth studio album, Endangered Species, in 1980, the band for the first time included their individual names in the album package, and the songs were now credited to their individual writers. (Subsequent re issues of earlier Klaatu material, as well as newly published Klaatu sheet music, also gave credit to the actual songwriters of each track, rather than a collective credit.) 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 flop. The album's poor showing resulted in Capitol Records dropping the group. Now lacking a record label, Long and Draper temporarily formed a classic rock cover band with Freddy Coutts, John Jones, and John Bojicic, called FUNN, who played extensively around Toronto. Klaatu was eventually signed by Capitol's Canadian division, EMI Canada, and released their final album, Magentalane, in 1981. This album saw the group returning to their brand of Beatles influenced pop/rock. As a contractual obligation to Capitol EMI in Canada, the band was forced to play their first ever live dates and tour most of Canada to promote Magentalane. From November 1981, the group expanded to a sextet, enlisting Gary McCracken (drums), Mike Gingrich (bass) and Gerald O'Brien (keyboards) for live performances. However, in April 1982 Dee Long – never fond of performing live, by most accounts – quit the group. Although Woloschuk and Draper carried on performing for a few more months with Terry Watkinson replacing a departing O'Brien and Marty Morin taking McCracken's chair Klaatu officially disbanded in August of the same year.

The trio very briefly reunited in 1988 at George Martin's AIR Studios in London with John Jones to record a single, "Woman", though no one was particularly happy with the results as the song was written by someone outside of the band (Paul Vincent Gunia) for the German TV series Tatort. Initially Long had wanted to merely use the Klaatu name, but could not get the rest of the band's approval without their involvement. The single was released only in West Germany and did not chart, making it an extremely rare item in the Klaatu catalogue; Draper confirmed that the song was considered for a few rarities compilations, but all three band members had agreed to not include the track. A second reunion had been attempted in 1991 to tie together with a proposed compilation release, but plans fell through after a disagreement with their distributor, BEI. 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," "All Good Things", and "Little Neutrino".