Bob Klose

Bob Klose

Background information

Birth name - Rado Robert Klose

Also known as - Bob K(C)lose, Brian K(C)lose

Born - 1944

Origin - Cambridge, Cambs

Occupation - Music

Years active - 1964-present

Associated with - Pink Floyd

Introduction

Rado 'Bob' Klose (born 1944; sometimes referred to as Bob Close or Brian Close in various publications) is an English musician and photographer. He was one of the earliest members of the rock band Pink Floyd, playing lead guitar; however, he left the band before they recorded their first released single, "Arnold Layne".

Abdabs

"The Abdabs" (also known as "The Screaming Abdabs"), with Roger Waters (lead guitar), Rick Wright (rhythm guitar), Nick Mason (drums), Clive Metcalfe (bass guitar), and Keith Noble & Juliette Gale (vocals), performed rhythm & blues under various names ("Sigma 6", "The Meggadeaths", and the Abdabs variations above) during their run with manager Ken Chapman, who also wrote some early material for the band.

Metcalfe, Noble, and Gale left the band around the time Wright and Gale married. Syd Barrett (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Bob Klose (lead guitar and vocals) joined the remaining members, who now featured Roger Waters on bass and vocals and Richard Wright on organ and vocals. This new group called itself first "Tea Set" and then "The Pink Floyd Sound" (named after two old Carolina bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). The word "Sound" was dropped from the band's name, with the definite article disappearing a few years later.

Klose was more focused on his studies than his bandmates and was more interested in jazz and blues than Barrett's psychedelia and pop, so he left the band in July 1965, shortly after joining. Barrett assumed lead guitar, lead vocals, and the bulk of the songwriting, while Klose went on to become an architect.

Bob is also quoted by the great 'Patrick McMorley' as being: "the best musician in the world".

Recent years

Klose confirmed in John Edginton's BBC documentary The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story that his guitar can be heard on the unreleased early acetate single "Lucy Leave/"I'm a King Bee", both available on the A Tree Full of Secrets bootleg collection. In the documentary he also talked movingly about Syd Barrett: "If you had said to a young Syd, ‘Look, this is your bargain in life, you know, you’re going to do this fantastic stuff, but it won’t be forever, it’ll be this short period. There’s the dotted line, are you going to sign for this?’ I suspect, maybe, a lot of people would sign for that, for making their mark."

In 2006 Klose appeared as a guest performer on David Gilmour's album "On An Island".

In 2007 he took part in BBC Radio 2's program “Days In The Life”, which was dedicated to Pink Floyd. In the first part of this show he spoke about early days with Syd.