Sy Klopps Blues Band
Sy Klopps - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
Norton Buffalo - Har… Read Full Bio ↴Sy Klopps - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
Norton Buffalo - Harmonica
David Denny - Rhythm Guitar
Kee Marcello - Lead Guitar
Prairie Prince - Drums
Gregg Rolie - Piano
Neal Schon - Lead Guitar
Bobby Scott - Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Ross Valory - Bass Guitar
Donnie Vie - Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
Chip Znuff - 4-String & 12-String Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
The Artist known as Sy Klopps started out as a fictional "recluse prodigy" musician. A fabrication, a trick, played on booking agents by Herbie Herbert, the successful rock and roll "Personal Manager" responsible for crafting Journey’s success. During phone conversations with fellow music business people, when poking fun and gaming was always expected, Sy Klopps was invented.
Eventually, Herbie decided to become Sy Klopps himself. He brought Klopps to life. Became the man. But, it could not have happened without his many famous musician friends who came to jam, gig and record, showing interest and offering their talents and friendship. Sy thrived on this and gave back just as much and even more.
Herbie retired from managment at the tail end of 1993 and jumped headlong into becoming Sy Klopps the artist. It became his passion. He built his own state of the art commercially competitive recording studio and recorded his first album, "Walter Ego", released in 1993 on Guitar Recordings Classic Cuts label. Gigs around the Bay Area and eventually at the Fillmore in San Francisco soon followed and Sy Klopps Studio became well known to musicians in San Francisco and even globally.
After his first CD, Sy recorded several more: "Old Blue Eye Is Back", "Berkeley Soul", an EP called "High Five" and a Live Video recorded in concert at the Fillmore. Sy has played live gigs with Etta James at the House Of Blues, with Tower of Power and The Doobie Brothers. Joel Selvin of the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed Sy Klopps "The Paul Bunyan of the blues". In 2001, Sy teamed up with Billy Kreutzmann, Neal Schon and some of his other band mates to create a new group called the Trichromes. They realeased a CD called "Dice With The Universe.”
Sy Klopps was born Walter James Herbert II on Feb. 5th, 1948, at Alta Bates Hospital, in Berkeley, California. His mother was a bank teller, first with Wells Fargo and then Bank of America. She also moonlighted as the accountant and bookeeper for Herbie's father's business, Vulcan Engineering, at 2850 Broadway on Oakland's fabled Auto Row. Dad was an expert machinist and engine builder, providing record-breaking, custom-built racing engines for the drag strip and auto racing circuits. The family lived at 1393 Virginia St., near Acton St. As a boy Herbie attended Jefferson Elementary and Garfield Junior High (later changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High).
Herbie had some managing experience with a band called Frumious Bandersnatch, in the East Bay. Though they were known to be famous music critic Ralph Gleason's favorite band, Herbie thought they were just trying to be another Moby Grape. Members of Frumious Bandersnatch (including Ross Valory, David Denny, Bobby Winkleman, and Jack King) went on to become members of the Steve Miller Band. Ross Valory then became a charter member of Journey.
His trips away from the staid society of Orinda took him for longer and longer periods of time and finally found him loitering around the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, looking to do something, anything, in the new and exciting realm of rock and roll. When Bill Graham took over the Fillmore West from The Grateful Dead, Herbie was there, doing whatever was called for. He routinely found himself sitting outside Graham's little office listening to one side of the promoter's predatory monolog, taking mental notes. Everybody knew Graham was an uptight square at heart, surrounded by freaks. Herbie, in tie-dye coveralls and hair with its own micro-climate, was no exception. But Herbie paid attention. He stayed close, and listened closer.
At the Santana rehearsal studio later that year Herbie was poking around inside a broken amplifier when shouts erupted nearby. It seems that Bill Graham was both booking and managing Santana (a no-no in California law) and the band felt too much of their revenue was being lost by this arrangement. The band had decided to fire Graham, but Santana's personal manager Stan Markum hadn't been able to muster the courage to do the deed.
After Stan left the office Graham's secretary gave the secret away. Graham flew into a rage and raced to Santana's rehearsal studio. The sharp-tongued promoter shouted at the band members: "How could you do this to me after all I've done for you?" Gregg Rolie, the keyboard player, took Herbie aside and demanded he do what their manager had been unable to. Herbie told Gregg:"I couldn't do that! He got me my job!" Rolie replied: "We sign your paychecks. If you want to keep getting them you gotta go in there and take care of this problem." Herbie coaxed Graham outside and explained how the band's reasons were fair ones and that the promoter should "take it like a mensch." Miraculously, Graham acquiesced, and showed Herbie a new respect. Herbie remained a roadie with Santana for several more years but Gregg Rolie asserts that was the defining moment when Herbie Herbert became a manager. Herbie was one of two people to ever fire Bill Graham.
In 1972 the original Santana group disbanded and Herbie left as well. Under an agreement with Santana Herbie took control of the sound gear, lighting system, power distribution equipment and even the big White Freightliner tractor-trailer rig for hauling it all. With these assets he started his first production company, "Primo Productions", with partners John and Jack Villanueva. Herbie left the Santana camp with a contract for Primo to provide live production for all Santana shows as well as the freedom to contract out Primo's services to the likes of Graham Central Station, Tower Of Power and Jeff Beck. Herbie stayed busy
In 1979, as manager of Journey, Herbie invented efficient logistical systems and profitable business arrangements out of whole cloth, out of his own head, and many of these ideas became standards for the industry. By early 1979 Journey's fourth album "Infinity" had gone triple platinum without a charting single. Herbie's dream of success had worked beyond his most fantastical imaginings. The industry woke up one morning and realized that Herbie Herbert was: "Da Man."
Herbie clearly saw the need to control all aspects of his business and, by doing so, save money, build equity and share wealth for himself and his company. Using this new business model the band carried everything to a show. All risers, platforms, lighting, sound, consoles, barricades, the entire stage, all rigging motors and a complete office, with cases full of typewriters, walkie-talkies, etc., traveled with the band. A crew of 30 people traveled with 6 tractor-trailers, putting up the show in four hours and taking it down in two, night after night. Herbie's businesses handled every aspect of lights, sound, trucking, promotion, travel arrangements, rigging and stage costs, recording, video costs, equipment, supplies and repairs.
1982 brought Herbie's logistical genius and technological prowess together in an awe-inspring piece of stagecraft that instantly became the event production benchmark for the entire concert industry. The whole center field wall of a baseball stadium was taken up by a gigantic five panel structure combining a huge stage, two enormous speaker stacks covered by colorful painted scrims and two giant TV screens each about half the size of the stage itself. No one had ever seen a rock and roll show like this before. By using new video image magnification technologies at a live concert every seat in the arena was now a front row seat. Herbie had raised the bar on production quality again.
Herbie set about teaching the music business how to really make money. He would tenaciously negotiate for the highest yield per unit sold per dollar grossed, whether songs, t-shirts, tickets or CDs. Under Herbie Herbert's business model all royalties - publishing, licensing, merchandise sales or mail order - were paid directly to the band with no deductions. And all the separate entities of the business were required to be run from the tour profits. Touring was the largest source of income for the band, with Herbie routinely netting 70% of every dollar grossed. Between 1978 and 1988 the members of Journey pocketed over 65% of the gross receipts.
By 1986 Herbie Herbert had become a full time empresario in rock and roll. During the golden years of Journey he sheparded the band through a startlingly long string of record-breaking successes. The accomplishments of Journey are well documented: consistent sellouts, ground-breaking stagecraft technologies, endless touring and record breaking sales statistics. Journey has sold well over 50,000,000 albums worldwide and continues to sell to this day.
In 1987 it was decided that Journey would take a long hiatus. They had been steadily liquidating assets since 1984 and now wanted to sell Nocturne. Herbie and Journey guitarist Neal Schon bought 100% of Nocturne Productions from the remaining members of the band. Herbie continued to have tremendous management success, guiding the careers of Europe, Roxette and Mr. Big. Those three acts sold another 50,000,000 albums worldwide.
Herbie stopped being Journey's manager on January 1st, 1993. He spent one more year managing various acts, including Roxette and the Steve Miller Band before hanging up the jersey of band manager. The personality of Herbie Herbert as big name band manager was now totally historical. It was buried. What does a successful man do when he reaches the top of his game? He evolves.
Now the man who bet everything on the audience's love of "showtime," the man whose serious love of major league sports gave him so much pleasure, the man described by the legendary Bill Graham as: "...fully capturing the necessities of what managing should entail and exemplary of what the term manager means" faced a new chapter in a magical life. Walter James Herbert II would reinvent himself again. But this time, he would be in the spotlight, as Sy Klopps.
2009: Sy is retired and living in Mendocino County, California, overlooking Sy Klopps Cove.
Norton Buffalo - Har… Read Full Bio ↴Sy Klopps - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
Norton Buffalo - Harmonica
David Denny - Rhythm Guitar
Kee Marcello - Lead Guitar
Prairie Prince - Drums
Gregg Rolie - Piano
Neal Schon - Lead Guitar
Bobby Scott - Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Ross Valory - Bass Guitar
Donnie Vie - Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
Chip Znuff - 4-String & 12-String Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
The Artist known as Sy Klopps started out as a fictional "recluse prodigy" musician. A fabrication, a trick, played on booking agents by Herbie Herbert, the successful rock and roll "Personal Manager" responsible for crafting Journey’s success. During phone conversations with fellow music business people, when poking fun and gaming was always expected, Sy Klopps was invented.
Eventually, Herbie decided to become Sy Klopps himself. He brought Klopps to life. Became the man. But, it could not have happened without his many famous musician friends who came to jam, gig and record, showing interest and offering their talents and friendship. Sy thrived on this and gave back just as much and even more.
Herbie retired from managment at the tail end of 1993 and jumped headlong into becoming Sy Klopps the artist. It became his passion. He built his own state of the art commercially competitive recording studio and recorded his first album, "Walter Ego", released in 1993 on Guitar Recordings Classic Cuts label. Gigs around the Bay Area and eventually at the Fillmore in San Francisco soon followed and Sy Klopps Studio became well known to musicians in San Francisco and even globally.
After his first CD, Sy recorded several more: "Old Blue Eye Is Back", "Berkeley Soul", an EP called "High Five" and a Live Video recorded in concert at the Fillmore. Sy has played live gigs with Etta James at the House Of Blues, with Tower of Power and The Doobie Brothers. Joel Selvin of the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed Sy Klopps "The Paul Bunyan of the blues". In 2001, Sy teamed up with Billy Kreutzmann, Neal Schon and some of his other band mates to create a new group called the Trichromes. They realeased a CD called "Dice With The Universe.”
Sy Klopps was born Walter James Herbert II on Feb. 5th, 1948, at Alta Bates Hospital, in Berkeley, California. His mother was a bank teller, first with Wells Fargo and then Bank of America. She also moonlighted as the accountant and bookeeper for Herbie's father's business, Vulcan Engineering, at 2850 Broadway on Oakland's fabled Auto Row. Dad was an expert machinist and engine builder, providing record-breaking, custom-built racing engines for the drag strip and auto racing circuits. The family lived at 1393 Virginia St., near Acton St. As a boy Herbie attended Jefferson Elementary and Garfield Junior High (later changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High).
Herbie had some managing experience with a band called Frumious Bandersnatch, in the East Bay. Though they were known to be famous music critic Ralph Gleason's favorite band, Herbie thought they were just trying to be another Moby Grape. Members of Frumious Bandersnatch (including Ross Valory, David Denny, Bobby Winkleman, and Jack King) went on to become members of the Steve Miller Band. Ross Valory then became a charter member of Journey.
His trips away from the staid society of Orinda took him for longer and longer periods of time and finally found him loitering around the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, looking to do something, anything, in the new and exciting realm of rock and roll. When Bill Graham took over the Fillmore West from The Grateful Dead, Herbie was there, doing whatever was called for. He routinely found himself sitting outside Graham's little office listening to one side of the promoter's predatory monolog, taking mental notes. Everybody knew Graham was an uptight square at heart, surrounded by freaks. Herbie, in tie-dye coveralls and hair with its own micro-climate, was no exception. But Herbie paid attention. He stayed close, and listened closer.
At the Santana rehearsal studio later that year Herbie was poking around inside a broken amplifier when shouts erupted nearby. It seems that Bill Graham was both booking and managing Santana (a no-no in California law) and the band felt too much of their revenue was being lost by this arrangement. The band had decided to fire Graham, but Santana's personal manager Stan Markum hadn't been able to muster the courage to do the deed.
After Stan left the office Graham's secretary gave the secret away. Graham flew into a rage and raced to Santana's rehearsal studio. The sharp-tongued promoter shouted at the band members: "How could you do this to me after all I've done for you?" Gregg Rolie, the keyboard player, took Herbie aside and demanded he do what their manager had been unable to. Herbie told Gregg:"I couldn't do that! He got me my job!" Rolie replied: "We sign your paychecks. If you want to keep getting them you gotta go in there and take care of this problem." Herbie coaxed Graham outside and explained how the band's reasons were fair ones and that the promoter should "take it like a mensch." Miraculously, Graham acquiesced, and showed Herbie a new respect. Herbie remained a roadie with Santana for several more years but Gregg Rolie asserts that was the defining moment when Herbie Herbert became a manager. Herbie was one of two people to ever fire Bill Graham.
In 1972 the original Santana group disbanded and Herbie left as well. Under an agreement with Santana Herbie took control of the sound gear, lighting system, power distribution equipment and even the big White Freightliner tractor-trailer rig for hauling it all. With these assets he started his first production company, "Primo Productions", with partners John and Jack Villanueva. Herbie left the Santana camp with a contract for Primo to provide live production for all Santana shows as well as the freedom to contract out Primo's services to the likes of Graham Central Station, Tower Of Power and Jeff Beck. Herbie stayed busy
In 1979, as manager of Journey, Herbie invented efficient logistical systems and profitable business arrangements out of whole cloth, out of his own head, and many of these ideas became standards for the industry. By early 1979 Journey's fourth album "Infinity" had gone triple platinum without a charting single. Herbie's dream of success had worked beyond his most fantastical imaginings. The industry woke up one morning and realized that Herbie Herbert was: "Da Man."
Herbie clearly saw the need to control all aspects of his business and, by doing so, save money, build equity and share wealth for himself and his company. Using this new business model the band carried everything to a show. All risers, platforms, lighting, sound, consoles, barricades, the entire stage, all rigging motors and a complete office, with cases full of typewriters, walkie-talkies, etc., traveled with the band. A crew of 30 people traveled with 6 tractor-trailers, putting up the show in four hours and taking it down in two, night after night. Herbie's businesses handled every aspect of lights, sound, trucking, promotion, travel arrangements, rigging and stage costs, recording, video costs, equipment, supplies and repairs.
1982 brought Herbie's logistical genius and technological prowess together in an awe-inspring piece of stagecraft that instantly became the event production benchmark for the entire concert industry. The whole center field wall of a baseball stadium was taken up by a gigantic five panel structure combining a huge stage, two enormous speaker stacks covered by colorful painted scrims and two giant TV screens each about half the size of the stage itself. No one had ever seen a rock and roll show like this before. By using new video image magnification technologies at a live concert every seat in the arena was now a front row seat. Herbie had raised the bar on production quality again.
Herbie set about teaching the music business how to really make money. He would tenaciously negotiate for the highest yield per unit sold per dollar grossed, whether songs, t-shirts, tickets or CDs. Under Herbie Herbert's business model all royalties - publishing, licensing, merchandise sales or mail order - were paid directly to the band with no deductions. And all the separate entities of the business were required to be run from the tour profits. Touring was the largest source of income for the band, with Herbie routinely netting 70% of every dollar grossed. Between 1978 and 1988 the members of Journey pocketed over 65% of the gross receipts.
By 1986 Herbie Herbert had become a full time empresario in rock and roll. During the golden years of Journey he sheparded the band through a startlingly long string of record-breaking successes. The accomplishments of Journey are well documented: consistent sellouts, ground-breaking stagecraft technologies, endless touring and record breaking sales statistics. Journey has sold well over 50,000,000 albums worldwide and continues to sell to this day.
In 1987 it was decided that Journey would take a long hiatus. They had been steadily liquidating assets since 1984 and now wanted to sell Nocturne. Herbie and Journey guitarist Neal Schon bought 100% of Nocturne Productions from the remaining members of the band. Herbie continued to have tremendous management success, guiding the careers of Europe, Roxette and Mr. Big. Those three acts sold another 50,000,000 albums worldwide.
Herbie stopped being Journey's manager on January 1st, 1993. He spent one more year managing various acts, including Roxette and the Steve Miller Band before hanging up the jersey of band manager. The personality of Herbie Herbert as big name band manager was now totally historical. It was buried. What does a successful man do when he reaches the top of his game? He evolves.
Now the man who bet everything on the audience's love of "showtime," the man whose serious love of major league sports gave him so much pleasure, the man described by the legendary Bill Graham as: "...fully capturing the necessities of what managing should entail and exemplary of what the term manager means" faced a new chapter in a magical life. Walter James Herbert II would reinvent himself again. But this time, he would be in the spotlight, as Sy Klopps.
2009: Sy is retired and living in Mendocino County, California, overlooking Sy Klopps Cove.
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