KLAUS NOMI - SIMPLE MAN, 1982

Born Klaus Sperber in Immenstadt, Germany in 1944, Klaus Nomi was a counter-tenor singer who began his career as an usher at the Deutsche Oper and performing operatic arias at a gay discotheque in Berlin before moving to New York in 1972. After debuting his stunningly unusual act at the New Wave Vaudeville in 1978 featuring an otherworldly mix of synth-laden classical operas and 60’s pop tunes, futuristic imagery, electronic sound effects, smoke bombs and strobe lights, Nomi soon became regarded as a freak among freaks in the highly charged avant-garde art scene of the post-punk era East Village. He died on 6 August, 1983, one of the first celebrities to die of an illness complicated by AIDS. His ashes were scattered over New York City.