Poll was a Greek pop group founded in 1971 by
Kostas Tournas
Kostas Tournas ( el, Κώστας Τουρνάς) (born 23 September 1949,) is one of the pioneers of modern Greek rock. He is a singer and composer of many hits in the '70s including ''Ti Na Mas Kanei I Nychta'' (''What Can The Night Do For Us'' ...
,
Robert Williams, Stavros Logaridis and Kostas Papaioannou. In Greece, it is considered a historic group of the 1970s with pioneering lyrics.
Poll is a legendary pop group which resonated with the Greek youth of the '70s, and its songs are viewed as "some of the best songs, which have remained in the history of
Greek music
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its History of Greece, history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek folk music, Greek traditional music and Byzantine music. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originat ...
".
Poll is the most commercially successful Greek band of all time.
History
Background
Kostas Tournas and Robert Williams were childhood friends who started their musical cooperation in 1964 when they formed the group Teenagers. As a group, the two recorded their first song "You don’t love me".
In 1967, they changed the name of the group to "Dinos and the X-Rays" but they separated soon after since Tournas had to go to the army and Williams went to
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
where he stayed for two years.
They eventually reunited and along with Stavros Logaridis, they formed another group which at first was not intended to be a professional group. Ultimately, they named their band "Poll", after first considering the names "Paul" (after
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
) and "Omega Limited".
Poll, along with
Nostradamos, was one of the first pop groups of Greece.
Poll
The motto of Poll was ''Poll is love'' and their logo was the stylised outline of a dove. Their first concert was at the
Pedion tou Areos
The Pedion tou Areos or Pedion Areos ( el, Πεδίον του Άρεως or Πεδίον Άρεως, , meaning ''Field of Ares'', corresponding to the French ''Champ de Mars'' and the ancient ''Campus Martius'') is one of the largest public parks ...
in Athens.
Poll also started appearing at the popular Athens music club ''Kyttaro'' presenting
folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...
songs influenced from the
hippie culture
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
which soon became very popular among the youth.
[ They also appeared at ''Elatirio'' presenting music influenced by ]Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, ...
and featuring two new members, vocalist Nasia Sandi, and drummer Kostas Papaionannou. At ''Elatirio'', they were also joined by vocalist Despina Glezou who later left the group to pursue a "more personalised role".
The group started recitals at a home which was owned by the grandmother of Kostas Charalambides, who was a salesman for the Greek record company Elladisk, a subsidiary of Dutch multinational Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
. Charalambides provided a demo of the band to Christos Fasolas, who was working for Elladisk in the area of copyright law, and they eventually got a record contract.
In April 1971, they released their first single which became a huge hit. On one side was the song "Anthrope Agapa"(Άνθρωπε Αγάπα, ''Mankind Love Each Other'') and on the B-side was "Ela Ilie Mou" (Έλα Ήλιε μου, ''Come My Sun''). The record was under the Polydor record label. Following a suggestion by Fasolas, Stavros Logaridis took part in the recording of the song, after which he decided to join the group.
First album
In September 1971, their first album ''Anthrope...'' (Άνθρωπε..., ''Humankind...'') was released, which (since the 1990s reissues) included the song "Anthrope Agapa", becoming a huge hit, selling 200,000 copies, a number unsurpassed before or since by any Greek group. The album was full of musical breakthroughs, and was packaged in a trendy gunny sack
A burlap sack or gunny sack, also known as a gunny shoe, hessian sack or tow sack, is an inexpensive bag, traditionally made of fibres which are also known as "tow," such as hessian fabric (burlap) formed from jute, hemp or other natural fibre ...
.[
''Anthrope Agapa, ti Fotia Stamata'' (Mankind Love Each Other, Stop the Gunfire), is considered the first anti-war protest song in the history of Greek rock and was released during the junta years in Greece.] The song has been called "perhaps the most hippie hymn for the Greeks". The song was echoing the hippie slogan Make love not war and was inspired directly by the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, becoming a "smash hit". With "Anthrope Agapa", Poll combined "political and countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
elements" in their songs. Other hits from the same album included "Poll Means Love", "Ela Ilie Mou" (this was added to the tracklist since the 1990s reissues), "Stin Pigi Mia Kopela" (Στην Πηγή μια Κοπέλα, ''A Girl At the Fountain''), and "I Genia Mas" (also added to the tracklist since the 1990s reissues).
In the spring of 1972 the band recorded a single featuring the songs "Aety" (Αετοι, ''Eagles'') and "I Genia Mas" which became huge hits. Later in 1972, they appeared at the Thessaloniki Song Festival
The Thessaloniki Song Festival ( el, Φεστιβάλ Τραγουδιού Θεσσαλονίκης, ), officially the Greek Song Festival ( el, Φεστιβάλ Ελληνικού Τραγουδιού, ) was a Greek song festival hosted between 1 ...
where they played "Molyvies Fotografies" (Μολυβιές φωτογραφίες, ''Sketches''), which they also released as a single with "Oses Fores" on the flip-side.
''Lefko'' and breakup
''Anthrope...'' was followed by their second album, simply titled ''Poll'', but nicknamed ''Lefko'' (Λευκό, ''White'') due to its white cover, which was influenced by the Beatles' ''White Album
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
''. ''Lefko'' was the last album of the group and included songs like "Ελένη" (Eleni), "Πες της μαϊμούς να μη με πειράζει με το δάχτυλό της" (''Les tis maimous na mi me pirazi me to dachtylo tis'', "Tell The Monkey Not To Disturb Me With Its Finger"), ""Ξημερώνει" (''Ximeroni'', "It's Dawn") and others. The album package also included a comic book which illustrated the history of the band.
By December 1972, near the time that the group broke up, Williams had become the main composer of the band, replacing in that role Tournas who until then had composed most of the band's songs. Their last performance was in January 1973 when they appeared at Nikos Mastorakis
Nico Mastorakis ( el, Νίκος Μαστοράκης; born 28 April 1941 in Athens, Greece) is a Greek filmmaker and radio producer. He is probably best known for his 1973 live interview of 17 arrested Greek students, which happened without thei ...
's New Year's special at YENED The Armed Forces Information Service ( el, Υπηρεσία Ενημερώσεως Ενόπλων Δυνάμεων, ΥΕΝΕΔ, ''Ypiresia Enimeroseos Enoplon Dynameon'', ''YENED'') was the television and radio station of the Greek Armed Forces, ope ...
TV "Na Ta Xanapoume?" (Should We Sing Them Again?). There, they performed their hit "Aety" ("Eagles").
Poll broke up soon after their second album, because Tournas wanted to pursue a solo career. When asked about the reasons for his decision, Tournas commented that "Perhaps, the decision for the break up is due to the need of a person to create work which cannot be covered by the group. Would he then have to "bury" his creative need for sentimental reasons?". Tournas has also described the breakup of the band as a "great loss" adding that while in the beginning the members of the band thought they would go on for a long time and it was not pleasant when they disbanded, he did not think that Poll could be kept going as a "business" by force.[
]
Reunions
On 24 September 1982 the band reunited for a concert at Lycabettus
Mount Lycabettus (), also known as Lycabettos, Lykabettos or Lykavittos ( el, Λυκαβηττός, ), is a Cretaceous limestone hill in the Greek capital Athens. At 277 meters (908 feet) above sea level, its summit is the highest point in Cen ...
which was recorded and released as an album. Following their 1982 reunion, their first two albums were also released again due to high popular demand which had caused the older album editions to become collector items. In September 1991 a repeat performance was given by the band, at the same location in Lycabettus, which led to rumours of a permanent reunion, although this did not pan out.
Message and impact
Unlike similar pop groups of the era, Poll did not confine themselves solely to erotic and love themes in their songs. Their hit "Anthrope Agapa" was an anti-war song and many of their other songs touched on various sociopolitical issues of the young of the era, such as long hair, which was viewed with suspicion by the junta and the older generation at the time. Their songs about love were different and featured groundbreaking rhythms which alternated within a composition. Their performances throughout Greece were considered important events and were attended by large audiences. Their 1972 appearances at ''Elatirio'' club on Heyden Street in Athens were attended by full house audiences every night.
References
{{reflist, 30em
Greek pop music groups
Musical groups established in 1971
Musical groups disestablished in 1973
Musical groups from Athens
Greek junta
Greek rock music groups
1971 establishments in Greece
1973 disestablishments in Greece