Alfons Joseph "Alf" Klimek (born 3 February 1956) is an Australian musician. During the 1980s he was based in Berlin as a singer-songwriter for

Spliff A joint (), also commonly referred to as a "doobie" or "doob", is a rolled cannabis cigarette. Unlike commercial tobacco cigarettes, the user ordinarily hand-rolls joints with rolling papers, though in some cases they are machine-rolled ...

(as Alf Klimax, 1980–83) and

The Other Ones The Other Ones was an American rock band formed in 1998 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, along with part-time Grateful Dead collaborator Bruce Hornsby. In 2000, Bill Kreutzmann, another Grateful Dead alumnus ...

(1984–90). That group included his younger twin siblings,

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...

and Jayney. In 1987, they had two hit singles, "Holiday" and "We Are What We Are", which charted in both Germany and the United States.

Biography

Alfons Joseph Klimek was born on 3 February 1956 and grew up in Melbourne. His father, Alfons Klimek snr (died 1998), and mother, Luisa née Cester (born January 1916) had eight children: Eugenia, Lydia, Naomi (born 1953), Greta, Alfons jnr, Robert, and the twins

and Jayney (born August 1962). The Klimek family had lived in various Melbourne suburbs including Kew, Oakleigh and, from 1969, Clayton. Klimek's younger cousins, Nic and

Chris Cester Christopher James Cester (born 16 September 1981) is an Australian musician, songwriter, producer and founding mainstay drummer and backing vocalist of rock band Jet. As a member of Jet, Cester has won awards as a songwriter from the Australas ...

, were founding mainstays of Australian hard rockers, Jet (2001–12). In June 1977, Klimek joined the Stuffed Puppets under the guidance of Neville Tranter as a puppeteer and comedy script writer. The group flew to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

to take part in the Festival of Fools. In 1979 he left the puppeteers and joined a cabaret group, The Busby Berkeleys, writing shows and performing in Europe and in New York City. A year later he joined the ex-

Nina Hagen Band Spliff was a Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) rock band, active in the 1980s. Three of the members were already playing together in the political rock cabaret ''Lokomotive Kreuzberg'' (founded 1972 in Berlin) before they were 'adopted' by N ...

in Berlin, Germany, which was renamed as

. He was the group's front-man and co-writer for their debut album, ''Spliff Radio Show'' (1980). Klimek returned to Australia and joined his youngest brother, Johnny. Together they returned to Berlin in 1983 and, when joined by their sister Jayney, started a pop group,

, with three local musicians. In 1987, they had two hit singles, "Holiday" and "We Are What We Are", which charted in Germany and the United States. Note: user may have to click on 'Awards' to access charting information. Note: user may have to click on individual track titles to access international charting. "Holiday" peaked at number 29 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It reached number four in Germany, number 10 in New Zealand, number 13 in Austria and number 22 in Switzerland. Klimek left The Other Ones in 1990, he moved his home base several times between Berlin and Melbourne. He co-owned a studio, Birdland, with producer Lindsay Gravina and worked in event musicals. In 1998 he was asked by Klaus Baumgart to create a series of musical and audio-book productions for the ''

Laura's Star ''Laura's Star'' (german: Lauras Stern) is a 2004 German animated feature film produced and directed by . It is based on the children's book ''Lauras Stern'' by Klaus Baumgart. It was released by the German distribution unit of Warner Bros. Pi ...

'' series for Bauhaus Verlag in Germany and later Lübbe Verlag also in Germany. 2011... He wrote the theatre play "Lauras Sternreise das Musikal" for Meistersinger Productions which played for two years to an average audience of 1200 per show. 2015 ... He wrote and produced the "Dream Baby Dreams" album. Music for newborn babies using White and Pink noise, heartbeats, natural sounds and Isochronic Tones to help re-create the feeling of a baby being in the womb whilst putting it all to classical music. 2016 ... saw the release of Tai Chi Dreams, based upon the Dream Baby Dreams music but suitable for Tai Chi routines under the guidance of Tai Chi master Tara Brayshaw.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klimek, Alf 1956 births Living people Musicians from Melbourne Australian musicians