Lavrentis Machairitsas ( el, Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας; 5 November 1956 – 9 September 2019) was a Greek rock musician from

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

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Biography

Early years

Machairitsas was born in Volos and began taking piano lessons at the age of six. These lessons lasted a year. At the age of nine he bought his first record, ''

Help! ''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles " Help!" and " Ticket to Ride", ...

'' by

the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

. Three years later, he discovered '' Revolver'' by the Beatles. His first job was at a record store, but because of his lack of punctuality he was fired. He disliked school, and after he started a fight with one of his teachers, he was expelled and excluded from all high schools. He went through countless jobs and served in the army for 14 months.

Termites

When he left the army, he started singing with Panos Tzabelas in Syntrofia. At the age of 20 he (as Larry), Pavlos Kirkilis (Paul), Takis Bassalakis (Jimmy), and Antonis Mitzelos formed a band called P.L.J. They moved to Paris, hoping for a musical career outside Greece. In 1982, their first album, ''Armageddon'', with English lyrics and long instrumental sections in an art rock or

prog rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

style, produced by Giannis Doulamis, was released by PolyGram. The album did not meet with much success. For their second album, they changed their name to Termites and started singing in Greek. In 1984, their third record had a positive reception, and they began gaining in popularity. Giorgos Ntalaras is also featured in this album on the track "Skoni" ("Dust", an elegiac song about cocaine addiction) which became a huge hit. In 1986 they released their fourth album. The last studio record from Termites was "Perimenontas Tin Vrochi" (Waiting For the Rain), released in 1988.

Solo career

Machairitsas began his solo career in 1989 as a writer and performer. His first album was ''O Magapas Kai I Sagapo'', released by Minos-EMI, which was not well received. However his follow-up ''Didymoteicho Blues'' in 1991, including the song of the same name featuring Ntalaras once again, was certified Gold. ''Rixe Kokkino Stin Nichta'' was released in 1993 and featured many other artists such as

Vasilis Papakonstantinou Vasilis Papakonstantinou (Βασίλης Παπακωνσταντίνου) (born 21 June 1950) is a Greek singer known mostly for his work in Greek rock. Most of his songs have gained considerable popularity, mainly in Greece and Cyprus. Early ...

. Since then he has been working closely with Dionysis Tsaknis, another well known Greek musician. After performing a large number of live appearances together, they released the live album H Nyhta Tha To Pei. In 1995, he released ''Parathyra Pou Kourase I Thea'', considered by many to be his best album yet. In 1996, he released ''Pafsilypon'' with many other artists. Three years later, he released ''Etsi Drapetevo Ap' Tis Parees'', again with many well-known musicians, especially in the song "Kai Ti Zitao". He then composed the music for the movie ''Enas Kai Enas''. In 2001 he released ''To Dialeimma Krataei Dyo Zoes'', which included songs such as "Matia Dihos Logiki", "Ela Psihoula Mou" and "O Egokentrikos". In 2002 he wrote the music for Giannis Kotsiras' album ''Xylino Alogaki''. His next release was the two-disk album ''Tosa Chronia Mia Anasa'' (2007). It included a new song (the title song) and 34 of his career's greatest hits, being his first "best of" album. Besides the many albums, Machairitsas and Tsaknis hold many concerts all over Greece during the summer. He has also held concerts with

Eleftheria Arvanitaki Eleftheria Arvanitaki (Greek: Ελευθερία Αρβανιτάκη) (born 17 October 1957 in Piraeus) is a Greek folk singer. She originates from the island of Icaria. Arvanitaki has worked with important musicians, such as Cesária Évora, Ar ...

Haris Alexiou Haris Alexiou ( el, Χάρις Αλεξίου, ; born 27 December 1950 in Thebes, Greece as Hariklia Roupaka, el, Χαρίκλεια Ρουπάκα, ) is a Greek singer. She is considered one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been co ...

Pyx Lax Pyx Lax (Πυξ Λαξ, meaning "punching and kicking") is a Greek rock band. Originally formed in 1989, they released their first recording in 1990, and had a critical and commercial success in the Greek music industry for fifteen years, before ...

, Christos Thivaios and many more Machairitsas continued to work in Greek rock music and to compose. In 2016, Machairitsas performed at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York during AKTINA's Greek Music Journey concert series.

Death

On 9 September 2019, Machairitsas suffered a heart attack during his sleep. He was transferred to the hospital of Volos (his birth town), where, at 06:30 the same day, he was pronounced dead at the age of 62.

Discography

References

Sources

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110106045532/http://www.machairitsas.gr/ * http://portal.kithara.gr/modules.php?name=kiSongdb&file=index&func=bio&who=maxairitsas+laurentgs * https://web.archive.org/web/20110305005330/http://vidq.gr/maxairitsas/viografiko.htm (Greek) {{DEFAULTSORT:Machairitsas, Lavrentis 1956 births 2019 deaths Eastern Orthodox Christians from Greece Greek entehno singers Greek rock singers People from Magnesia (regional unit)