Pavlos Sidiropoulos

Pavlos Sidiropoulos (Template:Langx; 27 July 1948 – 6 December 1990) was a Greek musician noted for combining rock music with Greek music.<ref name=cgi/> He is considered one of the pillars of Greek rock due to his involvement so early in its foundation.<ref name=news247>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In particular, Flou (1976), an album produced with his band Spyridoula, had a major impact on the rock scene in Greece.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/>

Early life

Pavlos Sidiropoulos was born on 27 July 1948 in Athens, Greece to Konstantinos and Ioanna "Jenny" Sidiropoulos.<ref name=patris>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=bio>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father was born in Sokhumi, GSSR, USSR (present-day Georgia) into a wealthy Pontic family that cultivated and sold tobacco.<ref name=pontos>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He later established ELFOT, which at the time was the only company selling photography paper in Greece.<ref name=patris/><ref name=cgi/> Pavlos' mother Jenny was from Heraklion, Crete.<ref name=patris/> Through her, he was the great-grandson of George Zorbas, the inspiration for the 1946 novel Zorba the Greek and nephew of Elli Alexiou.<ref name=pontos/><ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His maternal aunt Galatea was an author and was married to Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, and later to poet Markos Avgeris.<ref name=patris/><ref name=pontos/>

Sidiropoulos lived with his family in the Kypseli and Patisia neighborhoods and in the suburb Galatsi of Athens.<ref name=patris/><ref name=culturenow>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He had a younger sister, Melina.<ref name=pontos/> He completed three years of mathematics studies at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki starting in 1967 but left to pursue music and because he felt his education was stymied by the strict censorship introduced by the Greek junta.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/><ref name=pontos/><ref name=patris/> While at university, he lived with songwriter Vangelis Germanos<ref name=pontos/> and played percussion in a band.Template:Citation needed

Career

Sidiropoulos' music career began in 1970 in Thessaloniki when he and Pantelis Delleyannidis formed Damon and Phintias, which took its name from the Greek legend exemplifying friendship.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/> They merged with the band Bourboulia in 1972 and it was here that Sidiropoulos began experimenting by combining rock and Greek music.<ref name=cgi/><ref name=bio/> Bourboulia disbanded in 1974 due to issues with censorship; Delleyannidis left for England afterwards, thus dissolving Damon and Phintias as well.<ref name=bio/><ref name=culturenow/><ref name=pontos/> Sidiropoulos worked at his dad's paper factory for a few years and variously studied solfeggio, counterpoint, and harmony.<ref name=patris/><ref name=pontos/> He also collaborated with Yannis Markopoulos on one of the three albums they worked on together throughout Sidiropoulos' career: Thessalikos Kyklos (Thessalian Circle), 1974; Oropedio (Plateau), 1976; and Tolmiri Epikinonia (Daring Communication), 1987.<ref name=bio/><ref name=patris/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/>

In 1976, he formed Spyridoula with brothers Vassilis and Niko Spyropoulos.<ref name=bio/> Though the band had dissolved by the end of the 1970s, they released the album Flou (1978), still considered a foundational work within Greek rock.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/><ref name=pontos/> In 1979, he and other Greek rock musicians established the Artist's Company but never released an album.<ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/> One of the songs produced during this time, Clown, Sidiropoulos' first song in English, later appeared on his 1985 album Zorba the Freak.<ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/><ref name=patris/> In 1982, he again ran into trouble with censorship, this time with his album En Lefko, in which three of his songs ("I", "Adergraoud Me Stras", and "Istati Stigmi") were heavily censored due to references to drug use and other behaviors Minos EMI deemed anti-social.<ref name=cgi/><ref name=bio/><ref name=news247/><ref name=patris/> In 1980, he helped establish Oi Aprosarmostoi, who he continued to play with until his death in 1990.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/>

Posthumous releases

In 1991, Oi Aprosarmostoi released Ante ke kali tichi maghes, an album with the same name as one of Sidiropoulos' earlier songs. It featured unreleased recordings of Sidiropoulos as well as tracks by other artists. The title could be interpreted as "so long, folks."Template:Citation needed The following year, Ta blues tou prigipa (The Blues of the Prince) was released, containing Sidiropoulos' experimental combinations of blues and rebetiko recorded between 1979 and 1981.<ref name=cgi/> En Archí in o Lógos (1994) had recordings from 1978 to 1989, spoken word, and fragments of an interview with ET2.<ref name=cgi/> The EP Day After Day (2001) was released by Minos EMI in collaboration with composer Michael Karras, who stumbled upon recordings of Sidiropoulos, Bourboulia, and bouzouki player Thanassis Polykandriotis from 1973.Template:Citation needed

Acting

Sidiropoulos had a brief acting career, with appearances including writer and director Andreas Thomopoulos' films Aldevaran (1975) and O Asymvivastos (1979); director Eugenia Fakinou's play In Kurdistan (1977) at Theatro Kava in Athens; and in the TV show Oikogeneia Zardi (The Zardis Family; 1983).<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=pontos/> Aldevaran was screened only at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/> He performed the songs in O Asymvivastos.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=pontos/>

Personal life and death

In 1990, Sidiropoulos began experiencing paralysis in his arm, which doctors diagnosed as left plexus arm paralysis.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=pontos/> He took a break from live performances after the diagnosis<ref name=pontos/> and the death of his mother.Template:Citation needed That summer, he went to rehab in Naxos for his prolonged heroin use, a topic he touched on many times in his music.<ref name=news247/><ref name=patris/> On 6 December, he fell into a heroin-induced coma at a friend's house in Neos Kosmos and died in transit to the hospital<ref name=cgi/><ref name=bio/><ref name=news247/> after suffering a heart attack caused by the overdose.Template:Citation needed He is buried in the Kokkinos Milos Cemetery in Nea Filadelfeia.<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/>

Sidiropoulos collaborated and was romantically involved with poet Giola Anagnostopoulou between 1977 and 1980.<ref name=news247/> As she was also a known heroin user, she was accused by tabloids after his death of introducing the drug to Sidiropoulos. His friends denied the claims, saying that he did heroin prior to meeting Anagnostopoulou.<ref name=news247/>

Sidiropoulos was openly leftist and habitually voted for the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).<ref name=culturenow/> Many of his songs criticize Greek politics.<ref name=patris/>

Discography

Year	Band	Album name	Notable songs	Label	Ref.
1971	Damon and Phintias	To Xespasma/O Kosmos Tous		Zodiac Records	<ref name=bio/>
		O Gero-Mathios			<ref name=bio/>
1972	Mpourmpoulia	Apogoitefsi/O Ntamis o Skliros			<ref name=bio/>
1978	Spiridoula	Flou	"O Babis o Flou", "I Ora tou Stuff", "To '69 me Kapoion Filo", "Stin K"	Minos EMI	<ref name=bio/><ref name=news247/>
1982	Oi Aprosarmostoi	En Lefko	"To Vivlio ton Iroon", "Horis Etia"		<ref name=cgi/><ref name=bio/><ref name=news247/>
1985		Zorba the Freak	"Clown", "Apogoitefsi"		<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/>
1989		Horis Makigiaz (Live at the Metro)	"Apokalypsi"	MLK	<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/>
1991		Ante... ke Kali Tichi Maghes	"Ante... ke Kali Tichi Maghes"	Minos EMI	<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/><ref name=culturenow/>
1992	Solo	Ta Blues tou Prighipa		MLK	<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/>
1994	Solo	En Archí in o Lógos		7th Dimension	<ref name=bio/><ref name=cgi/>
2001	Solo	Day After Day	"Day After Day"	Minos EMI	<ref name=bio/>

External links

• Template:MusicBrainz artist