When a band splits up, the first thing that the fans want is for them to reunite. Countless times we hear rumours about the Gallagher brothers reforming Oasis. Over the last couple of months, Blink 182 reformed at Coachella as a last-minute replacement with their classic line-up of Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker. There also has been a reuniting of Britpop bands Blur and Pulp over the summer.
The band with the most rumours of reuniting, while their members were alive, was The Beatles. Throughout the 1970s there was a countless number of rumours, offers and false sightings of the Fab Four.
One such instance mistakes a debut album for a reformation of The Beatles. At the peak of the rumour mill of the band reforming, an album by an unknown band sent a storm of professionals and fans hoping it was them. This week the Beat Marches On to 11th August 1976 when Klaatu released their debut album, 3.47EST.
There was little attention when Klaatu released their debut album. Adored by the critics, one even described it as ‘an impressive sci-fi answer to David Bowie’ but the praise didn’t equate to record sales and the first six months were quiet. That was until a journalist from Rhode Island, USA discovered them.
Steve Smith a journalist for the Providence Journal, reviewed the album for his newspaper and posed a question to the readers: Is this The Beatles reincarnated?
When the band’s US record label, Capitol Records, note that it is the same distributor as The Beatles in America, saw the review by Smith they decided to send it out across the country for the PR. The reaction from fans and DJs spurred record sales for the album which peaked at around one million sales.
The conspiracy theorists went wild for the album. Relating each song and clues towards how this could be the Fab Four. Ringo dressed as Klaatu from Sci-Fi film ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, for his ‘Goodbye Vienna’ album cover. The 3:47 EST album cover had a sun on it, linking them to Abbey Road songs ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘Sun King’ The band’s manager/producer Frank Davis worked at EMI studios during the time the Fab Four was recording there. The engineer recorded at another studio used by the band. One Australian fan produced a 34-page booklet on how the two bands were the same.
Klaatu in agreement with the label didn’t want to do any interviews or public appearances. They wanted the music to do all the talking on their behalf. They didn’t even want to play live. They couldn’t with the special studio effects used on the album and live music was still quite restricted in comparison. Just like the Beatles too almost a decade earlier. What helps the mystery of the band is that Capitol Records hadn’t met them. They agreed to sign them just on what they heard. When the reporters phoned the label, they couldn’t confirm or deny it was the Fab Four. Davies played on it too, when he was contacted just for the PR.
Of course, it wasn’t the Beatles. The band wasn’t even from England. They were a Canadian three-piece and recorded the debut album over three years in their spare time over evenings and weekends. The three members multi-instrumentalists John Woloschuck and Dee Long along with drummer Terry Draper, did release a couple of singles before 3:47 EST but they didn’t have any effect on the charts.
When the debut blew up, the band didn’t even know for a while as they were recording the follow-up in London with the London Symphony Orchestra. The hysteria hadn’t reached the British capital yet.
Eventually, the news hit the people who knew the Beatles. The reporters and DJs were starting to contact them. A childhood friend of the Fab Four and one-time press officer for the band Tony Bramble confirmed it wasn’t them as he was in close contact with each member. The news did reach Paul McCartney who did see the funny side of it. The bass player sent Davies a postcard telling him so.
When the hysteria died down and it was proved that they were two different bands, the fans took a turn onto Klaatu. They blamed the band for sounding too much like the Beatles. Even some media outlets blamed the band with headlines that said ‘Scam’ or ‘Hoax’.
Despite the treachery of recording music similar to the world’s most famous band, Klaatu did record a further four albums with Capitol Records albeit nothing ever reached the heights of the debut. They split in 1982 after their final album failed to chart in the US. The fans were loyal to them though and never forgot them. At the 2005 Klaatu Convention (or should that be Konvention) the trio reformed and did something they said they would never do: Perform live. They played a six-track acoustic set.
After listening to the album some instances sound very Beatle-esque (Sub-Rosa Subway and Doctor Marvello) and wouldn’t be displaced on the White Album or Abbey Road. To prove the point that it’s not, the track Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III sounds like it’s sung by Dr. Teeth of the Electric Mayhem. That’s the lead singer of the Muppets house band. You can tell the band is influenced by the Fab Four by their style but wasn’t everyone influenced since 1962?
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for five years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Klaatu: The Fake Beatles, History And Facts Of The Canadian Un-Fab Three (groovyhistory.com)
The Band Everyone Thought Was The Beatles: Revisit the Klaatu Conspiracy of 1976 | Open Culture
Aliens, Carpenters and The Beatles: The curious case of Klaatu | Louder (loudersound.com)
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