Bob Klose
| Bob Klose | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rado Robert Garcia Klose |
| Also known as | Bob Klose |
| Origin | Cambridge, England |
| Genres | Rock, blues, R&B, jazz, psychedelic, electronic |
| Occupation(s) | Photographer, Printmaker |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1964–present |
| Associated acts | Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Smith & Mudd |
Rado Robert Garcia Klose (professionally known as Bob Klose in the 1960s and Rado Klose more recently) is an English musician and photographer. Between 1964 and July 1965, he was the lead guitarist of a rock band that would later morph into Pink Floyd. Although he recorded a few songs with that band, he left before their transformation into Pink Floyd. However, on the band's official Facebook page, he is given status as an official former member.
Klose was born in Cambridge. His father was a refugee from Nazi Germany and a veteran of the Spanish civil war, and his mother was an English Land Girl. Due to financial situation, the family lived in a field tent on a farm where Klose's father worked for a couple of years until moving to a small Cambridgeshire village.
After several village schools, Klose attended school in Cambridge, where he met Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. He later moved to London to study architecture and then science at the Regent Street Polytechnic, before abandoning studies to completely devote himself to photography in the late 1960s.
Klose's full birth name is most often cited as Rado Robert Klose or Rado Robert Garcia Klose, with some authors citing Radovan as his full given name. During the 1960s he was commonly known as Bob Klose, which was often misspelled Bob Close or occasionally even Brian Close. On the official Pink Floyd website, he is listed as Klose, Radovan 'Bob'.
During his architecture studies, Klose started playing lead guitar in a band with Roger Waters (guitar), Richard Wright (rhythm guitar), Nick Mason (drums), Clive Metcalfe (bass guitar), and Keith Noble and Juliette Gale (vocals). The band performed rhythm & blues under various names ("Sigma 6", "The Meggadeaths", "The Abdabs" and "The Screaming Abdabs"), during their run with manager Ken Chapman, who also wrote some early material for the band.
Metcalfe, Noble and Gale left the band (though Gale would go on to marry Richard Wright). By the time they left, the line-up included Syd Barrett (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Bob Klose (lead guitar and vocals), with Roger Waters on bass and vocals, Richard Wright on organ and vocals and Nick Mason on drums. This new group used various names, often fluctuating between "Tea Set" and "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.
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