TRANSPARENT LILY–Losing has become our habit March 22, 2024 – Posted in: Books – Tags: , , , ,

Exclusive pre-release of the first chapter.

The book of Thanos Sarris tells the story of the creation of Translucent Lilies, through the eyes of those who experienced from very close the creation of a separate chapter for Greek-speaking rock, which met poetry and changed forever. Exclusive pre-release of the first chapter.

Spinning an album on a turntable at constant speed 33 1/3 revolutions per minute, is a move that marked pop culture. 

Oxy Publications, in collaboration with Avopolis, presents with great joy to the Greek public the internationally loved music "33 ⅓" book series, which focuses on landmark records of rock music - and beyond - from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis to Joy Division, Public Enemy, Metallica , Tom Waits, Brian Eno and many more. Through interviews with creators and contributors, personal narratives and thorough musical analyses, writers and critics contribute to the ''33 ⅓'' series, illuminating the historical and artistic context of each record, as well as unknown aspects of the composition, recording and impact of the albums that marked the world music scene, sparked artistic and social movements, catalyzed modern music history and forever adorn the vinyl records of millions of music lovers around the world.

In addition to the "33 1/3" series, Oxy publications continue to create a series of music monographs of Greek albums who wrote their own, great history. Circulating: George I. Allamani's book on the emblematic Flow of Pavlos Sidiropoulos and the Spyridoula group, of Christoforos Kasdaglis for The Dirty Bread of Dionysis Savvopoulos and Alexis Vakis for him Great Erotic of Manos Hadjidakis, while on March 18, 2024 his book is also published Thanos Sarris for Losing has become our habit, their first album Translucent Lilies.

Here is, in exclusive pre-publication, the first chapter of the book:

1 – The first responses

About seven years had passed since those days Loss, when the fourth album of Translucent Lilies was released. In his second song, Pantelis Rodostoglou it captured in turns the journey of a group. "They moved years ago like the trains, which were blazing through their dreams", the lyrics began and ended with the phrase "...loneliness, their only truth». That group never stopped chasing their dreams. And if she felt loneliness as her only truth, every time she boarded the musical train she managed to exorcise it away. Because this band had at its core the company, the fellowship.

O Thanos Anestopoulos, The Tasos Mahas and Kyriakos Tsoukalas, that is, the people who were in Diaphana Krina from the first day to the last, lived the crucial years of the formation of their character in the same neighborhood. In Nea Zoi Peristeri, which for many was exactly what its name describes. THE Kyriakos Tsoukalas he grew up in a group that listened more to hard bands, with the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple waking up in his memories. He, however, was more fascinated by the sound of psychedelia. The squares were then filled with musical groups and, influenced by what he heard, he decided to play himself. He picked up the guitar around the same time he started seafaring, when he was 14. A book of music, along with the six-string, kept him company when he was locked in the cabin.

THE Tasos Mahas, since elementary school, he stood in front of the radio trying to copy music shows to an old cassette player. Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Doors, the Police, passed through the magnetic tape into the neurons of his brain. Later, in high school, he was introduced to the "harder" ones. Deep Purple, Motörhead and Black Sabbath became his new listening and the taps of the boot built a rhythm in his mind that was repeated everywhere. With the fingers on the desk, with the foot on the floor, with the invisible baguettes on the mattress. Without, yet, even having in his mind that he will actually pick up drumsticks.

THE Thanos Anestopoulos was born in Alexandroupolis, the fruit of an internal immigrant father and a mother who gave up her dream of law to follow him. He was the older of his two brothers. They looked for a better life in the capital and found themselves in the west, where, as he said in an interview with Lifo and Fotis Vallatos, the streets were full of dreams and hopes for new beginnings: "There you constantly received the daily reminder that the neighborhoods were built by the internally displaced, giving them names that had hidden their deepest dreams and hopes for new beginnings. Of course, many of them became alienated over the years, no longer being able to distinguish and identify their own history with the miserable fate of today's refugees.». He always remembered the sound of his own alarm clock, coming from the ribbon of the neighboring carpentry shop, as well as Themis, the neighborhood entertainer. He made the kids believe in magic with his magic tricks and won their hearts when he freed the stray from his paint truck. He was introduced to Dostoyevsky, Marx, Jules Verne, but also Varnali and Ritso by his parents, with street vendors supplying the house and him looking forward to the next ringing of the bell.

Another child who found his way to meet with that group was Sotiris Stamboulidis. He lived the first years of his life in Australia, repatriated to his mother's village near Monemvasia for a school year in fifth grade and then entered the urban fabric of Athens in the '80s. He was a classmate of Tasos Maha and in high school he met Kyriakos Tsoukala's brother, Nikos, who gave him the first idea to form a band. "High school bands had a great passion for music. Thus, the thought of forming a band came naturally, spontaneously, like a necessity. Music defined our social behavior, dress, appearance in general", emphasizes Mahas.

Sotiris liked the idea very much. Pitsirikas, in Australia, used to jump in bed with a belt tied to a tennis racket and imagine he was sunbathing with AC/DC. In the mental band of Nikos Tsoukalas, he got the role of bassist. On the other hand, Tasos Maha's school group was planning something similar, with him taking the role of the singer, since the rest of the positions had been taken without even having the instruments. Eventually, the kid intended for the drums dropped out, causing Tasos to declare himself "present" for the drummer position. "Everyone wanted to make a group then. So we did one too. Except he had no instruments, he had nothing. We just made a band, which didn't play. Eventually, we got a guitar and I got my drums. But we didn't get to play together,” recalls the self-taught drummer, who acquired a Remo kit from Spyro Harisi, who was beating her drums White Symphony. The ideas remained on paper, but music was everywhere in the lives of the students, who by then had already taken the path of rock n' roll. They were looking for her and she was looking for them. In groups, in hangouts, in lonely evenings next to the cassette player. And of course, at rainbow club.

"I experienced it in such a way that I thought at the time that everyone was like that, like us. It wasn't just the rockers-chairs-benches division, but that it all had to do with the music. We were characterized by music. And I remember cases of people whose dream was to go to America, to travel Route 66. Some did. Mainly because of musical backgrounds, but also because of movies. Some of us got involved in music, but most of us had in our minds that we were living something semi-illegal, something underground that escaped from the established. There was a lot of politicization at the time and we were generally a generation that realized that things were not quite as they are presented, but there is something else. We felt a challenge, which was healthier, in my view, than embracing that "this is it and nothing else, there is no other way"", says Tasos Mahas.

Rainbow was the haunt of all the rockabilly of Peristeri, but also other areas, such as Colonos. Pinball machines, billiards, frappes, beer and endless listening, conversations, musical dreams. On the one hand, the traditional rockabilly, on the other hand, the saikobilades with the skins, chains, machines. There they more or less got to know each other. THE Thanos Anestopoulos, who appeared in fingerless gloves, a trench coat and a guitar in his hands, the Nikos Tsoukalas who already had his own band, the Taratita brothers who became close with the later Children of the Lilies. Anestopoulos then usually played alone, in squares, parks and schools. "Thanos and the others were a bit older. I remember them at a school concert, when 14 people were on stage. It was something like a stand-up comedy of the time. They did havale. Later he decided to leave this phase and do something more rock", says Mahas.

Sometimes the situation got away. Once, the owner of the club was gone on a business, leaving the patrons to mind the shop. When he returned, he found pinball machines on the sidewalk and people playing while enjoying the sun. Another time, on New Year's Eve, a patron had opened his head from too much drink. Frozen, those around him feared the worst. He stood up, wiped away the blood, and gave the go-ahead with two words: "Put on Bowie».
THE David Bowie it also affected Thanos a lot. The first record he bought with his own money was the Space Oddity. New sounds, new influences were spreading, setting the stage for musical expression that would take the great loves and turn them into its own distinct style. Along with the club, they all started hanging out in bars of Peristeri and the surrounding areas, where small live shows were set up on every occasion, which gathered quite a few people. There they often met Kyriakos Tsoukalas, who played in a band called Labyrinth. They moved on more melodic paths, a hip-rock shape that held onto the romanticism of flower children.

In 1984, Mr Sotiris Stamboulidis bought his first Echo, while at that time he also met Thanos Anestopoulos' brother, Vassilis. He knew Thanos from the neighborhood and from the club, but he was two classes older than him, since he was "gaining" time. Accordingly, Tasos Mahas also met the man with whom he was to share his musical life through his brother. The three of them were in Vassilis Anestopoulos' room, with a banjo, Maha trying to find a rhythm by hitting pillows, and Country Joe and the Fish playing on the cassette player, when Thanos opened the door to the room. "Tall, Tasso, come, we're making a band». "What a band, now we learn", they answered him. "No, I said we're making a band».

Source: avopolis.gr (https://www.avopolis.gr/articles/vivlio/82247-diaphana-krina-egine-e-apoleia-synetheia-mas)