Pavlos Sidiropoulos
Pavlos Sidiropoulos (Greek: Παύλος Σιδηρόπουλος) (Athens, July 20th, 1948 – Athens, 6 December 1990) was a Rock musician, noted for supporting the use of Greek lyrics in rock music, at a time when most Greek rock groups were using English lyrics.
Sidiropoulos began his career in 1970 in Thessaloniki, where he was studing maths. Together with Pantelis Delleyannidis he founded the rock group “Damon and Phidias”A song of that era (“Clown”) later came out in the album “Zorba the Freak”. After he finished his studies, he returned to Athens, where he worked to his father's factory. They soon met, at "Kittaro" the Greek musician Dionysis Savvopoulos and his group “Bourboulia”. They joined that group and participated in the album “Damis the tough” (Greek: Ντάμης ο σκληρός). They stayed in this group for two years until 1974. It was through this group that Sidiropoulos first experimented with combining Greek and Rock music.
Afterwards, Sidiropoulos collaborated with the Greek composer Yannis Markopoulos: he sang in his compositions “Oropedio”, “Thessalikos Kiklos” and "Electric Theseus" on lyrics by the poet Dimitris Varos. In 1976, together with Spiropoulos brothers, he founded the music group “Spiridoula”. They created the album "Flou".
It was during this period that Sidiropoulos made his two film appearances. He had the leading role in the film “O Asymvivastos”, directed by Andreas Thomopoulos. He also sang all of the songs of the soundtrack, written mostly by Thomopoulos, including 'Na m' Agapas'. At the same time, he starred (together with Dimitris Poulikakos) in another movie by Thomopoulos, “Aldevaran”. Sidiropoulos also made one appearance on TV in a series called “Oikogeneia Zarnti”, directed by Kostas Ferris.
In 1980, Sidiropoulos joined the band “Oi Aprosarmostoi”, where he remained until his death. They released several albums and made numerous live performances. In 1982, the album “En Leyko” was published, of which many of the songs were censored. In 1985, the LP “Zorba the Freak” was released, and in 1989 they released “Without Make-up” (in Greek), which was recorded live at Metro club in Athens.
In the summer of 1990, and after his mother's death he received a daughter, his left hand started getting paralyzed, as a result of his long term drug use that he was trying to overcome for many years. He continued his live performances but the deterioration of his health had serious psychological implications. On December 6, 1990 he died from heart attack, caused by heroin overdose.
In 1991, his band “Oi Aprosarmostoi” released the album “Ante... ke Kali Tichi Maghes”, named after one of his songs (realised in 1985), the title of which can be interpreted as “So long folks”. Some of the songs were sung by Sidiropoulos in earlier recordings; others by various artists. In 1992, the album “The Blues of the Prince” (in Greek) was released. It contained experimental recordings from 1979 to 1981. In this disc, Sidiropoulos combined the blues with the Greek musical style rebetiko. In 1994, the album “En Archi In o Logos” came out; it contained recordings from the years 1978-1989 and fragments of an interview of his on the Greek channel ET2. In 2001, the EP "Day after Day" came out; composed by the rocker's friend, Michael Karras, the songs were recorded in 1973 with Sidiropoulos, the band "Bourboulia" and bouzouki player Thanassis Polykandriotis. After Sidiropoulos's death, Karras discovered the lost recording and orchestrated the release of "Day after Day" through Minos-EMI in 2001. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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