Klaus Nomi
b. 1945, Berlin, Germany, d. 6 August 1983, New York, USA. Famed for his Mephistophelean make up and piercing tenor voice, Nomi claimed erroneously to have worked in the '70s as both a professional opera singer and as David Bowie's dresser. By 1979 he was touring in Europe and the USA as a highly idiosyncratic cabaret act, performing barely recognisable, electronic reworkings of everything from Saint Saens' Samson And Delilah and Donna Summer's I Feel Love to Chubby Checker's The Twist. In 1980 he signed to RCA and released a version of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love as a single. He worked with Man Parrish, the New York electro and hi-NRG producer, on his self-titled debut album. Nomi was well received in the US, which precipitated a move to New York. He became a regular guest on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and starred in the film URGH! A MUSIC WAR. In England his openness about his own homosexuality and outrageous dress sense alligned him with the New Romantic movement. He seemed to be playing upon his goofball appeal with American audiences on his second album, SIMPLE MAN, which included a version of Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead from the musical THE WIZARD OF OZ. The record closed with Purcell's Death leading into an arrangement of John Dowland's If My Complaints—an oblique and moving eulogy to the first victims of Aids. The disease took his own life the following year, Nomi was one of the first celebrity victims of the disease. Two posthumous compilation albums have been released, and a recording of one of his early concert performances appeared in the USA.