Klaus Heuser

Klaus "Major“ Heuser (born 27 January 1957 in Leverkusen-) is a German musician, composer and producer. He found international fame as the lead guitarist of the Cologne rock band BAP.

His musical influences are the Rolling Stones, especially Keith Richards, Rory Gallagher, as well as Eric Clapton, the Dutch band Golden Earring and Gary Moore.

Career

Heuser gained major popularity as the guitarist of the rock band BAP, of which he was a member from 1980 to 1999. He was mainly responsible for BAP's musical style and wrote music to many hit songs including ' amn long time ago ' oman, I'm glad ' est regards ' /nowiki>Crystal night">Crystal_night.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Crystal night">/nowiki>Crystal night/nowiki>, ' [Everything's alright] and ' [Nothing as before].

In parallel to his BAP efforts, Heuser in 1981 also teamed up with (from ), Didi Maaz and Rich Schwab (both from ) to form (as ''Klaus Steine'') and record a cover version of Heintje's ' (1968) in the style of the Neue Deutsche Welle. However, neither Maahn nor Heuser were interested in continuing this project, so that the band later became the support band of Purple Schulz.

When BAP paused for a while in the late 1980s, Heuser spent some time in Los Angeles, USA, where he lived in Roger Taylor's (from Queen) house for some while. This is also when he learnt to produce music. Once back in Germany, among other production activities, Heuser produced the three Brings albums ' (1991), ' (1992) and ' (1997), as well as Martin Schenkel's album ''My own way'' (2000).

On 17 February 2006, he released ''Major & Suzan'', a collaborative album, which was recorded with Berlin singer Susanne Werth (from ).

Meeting German blues guitarist during a show of "Harmonie talk" moderated by in the , Bonn, on 10 December 2008 resulted in an ad hoc jam session and the birth of the band project ''Men in Blues''. The first concert happened on the 12 Dezember 2009. Since 2010, both musicians toured regularly, later supported by (bass) and (drums). The critically acclaimed live album ' was nominated for the "". Matthias Krauss (keyboards) and (percussion) joined the band on the first studio album ''Men in Blues'', which was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 3 February 2012. On 1 September 2012, Bargel suffered a sudden hearing loss during a concert, forcing the shared activities to come to an end.

In 2013, Heuser then formed the "Klaus Major Heuser Band", which released their first album ''Men in Trouble''. Based around the members of the former "Men in Blues" band Krauss, Delbrouck and Rieck, the new band now includes Cologne vocalist, texter and guitarist (from Bosstime and Pirate Radio). The second studio album named ''57'' was released in September 2014, the corresponding tour ended in 2015, followed by a live double-album named ''57 Live''. In April 2016, the studio album ''What's up?'' was released, the tour ended in 2017. In August 2018, the new album ''And Now?!'' was released, the corresponding tour lasted until mid 2019.

Notable information

Klaus Heuser got his nickname Major from '' Major Healey'' from the TV series I Dream of Jeannie.

Following medical advice after a skin cancer incident Heuser wears a leather hat which has become a signature feature over the decades.

Heuser lives in Cologne-Rodenkirchen and is married to Marion Heuser, a member of Cologne's city council for the Green party and former archeologist, since 1986. The couple has a son named Philipp.

Together with classical guitarist Hubert Käppel, Heuser also worked on a concert and information series on guitar music. The plans had to be cancelled in 2013 when Heuser suffered a nerve illness in the middle finger of his right hand, so he could no longer perform at the necessary level of accuracy.

References

External links

* Official website o
Klaus "Major" Heuser
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Klaus Major Heuser Band
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concert
of BAP with Heuser on lead guitar, Rockpalast, Markthalle, Hamburg, 1981-11-28 :27:41* etween pretzels and beertou
concert
of BAP with Heuser on lead guitar, Festhalle, Frankfurt am Main, 1984-11-23 :13:39
''Clubtour''
concert of BAP with Heuser on lead guitar, Batschkapp, Frankfurt am Main, 1991-02-21 :57:00* Las
''What's up?''
tour concert of Klaus Major Heuser Band, Zeche Carl, Essen, 2017-06-23 :49:00
''And now?!''
tour concert of Klaus Major Heuser Band, Jubez, Karlsruhe, 2018-12-01 :36:30

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heuser, Klaus
1957 births
Living people
German rock guitarists
German male guitarists
People from Leverkusen