Vangelis'  real name is Evangelos Oddysey Papathanasiou. He was born in Agria, 8 kilometer from Volos, Greece, March 29th 1943. Volos is a harbour-town, the capital of Magnesia, 325 kilometer North West of Athens.

Map of Greece

At an early age, young Vangelis and his family moved to Athens, where Evangelos grew up. He has one brother, Niko, who works as a musical engineer in Italy. Their father named Ulysses (1900-1982), was a painter and their mother was a singer. An aunt was a pianist. Vangelis’ musical talent most likely came:

“…from my mothers side. (…) But not in a professional way. They never performed. I saw music as an science, rather as an artform."

He used to try everything he could find to hear what sound it could make. In the house there was a grandpiano. He did like to try all the sounds it could make, not only in the usual way. Another toy was the radio.

“I drove that piano crazy but I never smashed the strings or broke anything. It was all for the sound. (…) At night I used to lie awake adjusting it to the interferences and those sounds drove me crazy. My mother wasn’t so happy though I was only four years old. It’s a strange feeling I get with radios…"

In 1949, he gave his very first concert in front of 2.000 spectators. His parents tried to make him take music lessons. But he ended-up completely self-taught.

“I have always felt that you should not borrow knowledge from others because personal experience and development are of utmost significance".

In 2002 he says about composing:

"I compose from nothing. (...) I am trying to be as much objective as a human being can be. Maybe that sounds a bit odd, but when I'm composing I see nothing. (...) As long as I remember my contact of the understanding of the world was sound. I couldn't say what kind of object it is if I couldn't touch it and hit it the hear the sound. Human beings are always trying to produce instruments and call it instruments in order to produce a sound, that is allready in nature."  

In late 1963 it all started: Tassos Papastamatis, Vangelis Papathanasiou, Vasilis Bakopoulos, Sortiris Arnis and Kostas Skokos formed The Forminx. They were all in school. It was a great time, with growing success. In 1964 The Forminx became very popular nationwide. The recordcompany tried to promote the band internationally, which was possible due to the fact that they recorded their lyrics in English. Outside Greece promos and singles were released in the USA, UK and Australia. In 1966 the group was asked to make the soundtrack to a Greek movie, "My Brother The Traffic Policeman". (See also Vangelis and the screen) Another film was made, this time a movie about the group itself, but this film never came to a release. This film, called "Troubles", told the story about a group of young musicians and their uprising success. The Forminx split up at the end of 1966. In those years The Forminx released nine singles and one EP with Christmas songs.

Screenshot of "Troubles", the movie about the Forminx

 While playing with The Forminx, George Theodosiadis, a famous Greek jazzband leader at the time, asked Vangelis to join his group in 1964 for one time. Vangelis played vibraphone.

The Forminx were very popular. Vangelis was seen as a big star. At this time, Vangelis was the first person in Greece who had a Hammond organ and he adjusted the settings to get strange sounds. Just like he did with the piano in his youth. At the end of summer 1966 Vangelis met Demis Roussos. They got to know eachother when Lucas Sideras took Demis, aged 22, to his youthfriend Vangelis who lived with his parents in Athens. Lucas, Demis and Anarchyris Koulouris made music together since 1963. The four boys rehearsed some time and they decided that they should leave the country to try their succes outside Greece. To earn money they gave small concerts sometimes at the Hilton hotel. On 21st April 1967 general Papadopoulos took over power in Greece. It became nearly impossible to work as an artist. Many painters, musicians, sculpters and other artists left their country to build up a new life elsewhere. The Forminx was no band anymore but the name was still used. There is a demotrack on vinyl called “Plastics Nevermore”, the first track of Aphrodite’s Child, but they were still called “The Forminx". Sometimes Vangelis used an other name like “The Papathanassiou Set” or “Mr. Papathanassiou and his orchestra”. In this time he recorded music with many different Greek artists, while travelling around. Artists as Aleka Kanelidou, Maria, Zoitsa Kouroukli, The Minis, Ricardo Credi and Vilma Ladopoulos, known as Vilma Lado. It is known that Vangelis had a relationship with Vilma. He recorded “Une Etoile / Le Vent” some days before Vangelis and Vilma left Greece for London. With George Romanos he recorded five songs, four of them were released on Romanos’ LP “In concert and in the studio”. The missing one is “The Clock”, which was released with and without Romanos singing. The one without his lyrics and “Our love sleeps on the water” is a single made by “Vangelis and his group.” The members of this band were the same boys who later became known as Aphrodite’s Child: Evangelos Papathanasiou (leader/piano/organ, Loukas Sideras (drums) and Anarchyros Koulouris (guitars). Early 1967 Vangelis asked Demis Roussos (singer) to join them. But the boys came to the conclusion that if they wanted to have a succesful career, they couldn’t stay in Greece. They decided to leave the country, heading for London. At the time, the UK was seen as the place to be for pop musicians. Once he left school, Vangelis had the idea to leave the country. Now, the time had come to do so. Loukas, Demis and Anarchyros were the group leaving Greece. Vangelis and his girlfriend Vilma would leave some days later. In 1991, Vangelis said about this:

"Ooh, I think it was a mixture of reasons and I think it was a time that I had to leave my country then. But we have the tendency all the time to turn it to political. Because it’s better for… it creates more interest. Well, I cannot say it was a very nice period, but then I was very very young, after school, I felt that I had to leave, so I left. Mainly for technological things, because I think the technological was much more developed in other countries. But I wonder if I’ve ever left Greece. In my heart."

   


Four rare pictures: all four members together...

...and two pics of the three men as we know Aphrodite's Child

Leaving Greece wasn’t easy. First of all, Anarchyros received his military call-up papers and he was forced to go back to Greece to undertake military service. The target of their journey was London via France. But at the port of Dover, Loukas and Demis were refused to enter the UK due to problems with their work permits. They were forced to go back to France where a nationwide transport strike was going on, the first signs of the French unrest of 1968. The album Fais Que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit tells the story of this unrest. Demis heard that Vangelis had arrived in Paris, March 26th. For him, it was a big surprise Vangelis would meet his friends here, as he assumed that they were in London. So, the boys were struck in Paris. Without money, without work, sleeping in cheap hotels. There was nothing else to do but to try to earn some money. Because they were not able to speak French properly and because of the political unrest, it was impossible to arrange concerts. Loukas and Vangelis spent hours and hours at the postoffice trying to get a telephoneconnection with their parents in Athens. Maybe they could help the boys out with wired money. When he left his homecountry, Vangelis had a contract with Phonogram Greece. They came across a meeting of international Phonogram officials. Pierre Seberro, an executive of Philips Records France, signed them to Philips’ label Mercury. This contract was worth nothing. The band would receive a very little money, but finally there was a chance to record music. The company introduced Boris Bergman to the band, who wrote the lyrics for the first big international succes of Aphrodite's Child: Rain and Tears. In 1999 Demis Roussos said about Rain and Tears:

"The idea of Rain and Tears came from the gasbombs the police used at the studentupheavals. The bombs produced some 'rain', which made your eyes wet. The tears".

Paris, 1968

Aphrodite’s Child was a big success. Throughout Europe many singles were released. Next to that, the band released LP’s and 7” in Brazil and Chile, USA, Lebanon, Singapore, Israël, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Venezuela, Angola, Iran, Argentina and Peru. It could be that this list is even not complete! No lists of discography are complete as it comes to Vangelis. In 1969 the second LP “It’s five o’clock” came out. By this time it was possible to come to London and they recorded their LP in Soho, at the Trident Studios. That is the same studio where e.g. “Hey Jude” of the Beatles (1968) was recorded. Anarchyros returned to the boys and joined the band for the recordings of it. In 1969 some irritation about the musical direction of the group showed up. Vangelis wanted to go 'deeper' with his own style and his wish to make more sophisticated music came across resistance. The recordlabel didn't want to take the risk of releasing the next album, 666, for it was too experimental in their eyes and could probably be seen as blasphemy. Moreover, Vangelis wanted to stop touring to take more time and realize this new style of music. Demis couldn't afford stop touring, for it was the only income he had. Vangelis recieved more money because he was the owner of the musical copyright as composer. While Vangelis finished 666, Demis and Anarchyris toured on. Just before 666 came out, the band was disbanded. The double album 666 was the last LP and became another big hit. This album has been pressed in several countries like USA, Japan, Germany and Greece.

Three pictures of Aphrodite's Child. Pictures provided by Chris Walter

In Greece, some copies of 666 LP were pressed without any info at the label. Here you have an example. Next to that, the rare Japanese carsleeve

There are some trivia to tell regarding the famous 666 LP. All over the world all the pressings are the same, exept for the Greece ones. They have some dfferent cuts in the music. In Japan, there is an extraordinary pressing with a different sleeve. Here you can see a drawing of a Citroën 2CV crashing into a brickwall. A very rare pressing.  A proof that Aphrodite's Child was such a succes, is the numerous covers band made worldwide of A.C.'s hits. Listen here to a fragment of Rain and Tears, performed by Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra. 

Vangelis: “Right from the start I was only interested in playing my own music, not other peoples. When I moved to Paris I worked my way up through the music industry to make enough money to build up a studio of my own. We had a milion-seller and then another. I hate it when a project I’m involved in, but don’t particularly like, becomes succesful. I found myself doing things that I couldn’t bear at the time, but I don’t have any regrets as they were the means to an end.”

In 1975 Vangelis looked back:

Vangelis: "I like the whole spectrum of music. Jazz, pop, rock, the classics. I have no taboos, any kind of music is great, so long as it is honest. So I'm glad to help any artist whom I like. You see, I don't regard myself primarily as a producer. It's just that I have so many ideas, I can't put them all on my own records. Production allows me more flexability, more outlets. I was a prisoner of Aprodite's Child for three years, in the end I was desperate. I was forced in to the position of turning out music that didn't interest me because of our own success. When I first went to Paris, I had lots of ideas that I wanted the group to be. But I realised that, as a new and foreign act, we had to create confidence in ourselves from the record company. And that confidence comes only from proving that you can earn money for them. What I didn't realised is, that having created a precedent, it's very difficult to diverge from it. It takes years to change your product. I have no regrets about that period, but it did waste a lot of time."      

The time of Aphrodite’s Child was a period where he had to work through. To make music that would sell, in order to make money to fulfill his dreams of his “ own” music and studio. When the riots in Paris and later the whole of France were going on, the first steps were taken to make “Fais Que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit” (May your dreams last longer than the night) On this album a newsreporter is talking about the clearance of Sorbonne University by the police. This news is recorded off radio in 1968 by Luc Perini. The rest of the album is made in 1972. In this year, Vilma Ladopoulous and Vangelis stopped their relationship. She lives in Athens now (2007).  In 1969, somehow in Paris, Vangelis and Henry Chapier got together. Henry is a French actor, director, writer, radio- and televisionjournalist and programmehost. He was born November 14th, 1933 in Bucarest. He played several small roles in films like "Les Idoles" (1964) "Erotissimo" (1968) "Un Homme Et Une Femme: Vingt Ans Deja" (1986) and "Comme Des Rois" (1987). Chapier and Vangelis agreed to co-operate and Vangelis received commission to make the score for “Sex Power”. This movie, featuring Jane Birkin, Alain Moury and Bernadette Lafont was part of the 18th Filmfestival of San Sebastien. It received a Silver Shell. The festival was held 5 – 14 July 1970. Sex Power, Chapier’s second movie (his first is “Un été Américain”) is a soft porn movie, unfortunately never released on video or DVD for public. After the fall-apart of Aphrodite’s Child, Demis Roussos and Vangelis remained good friends and Vangelis made the score, Demis sung some parts on it. The press wasn’t too enthousiastic about the film. Guy Hennebelle, a French filmjournalist, wrote in 1970:

“Nobody would doubt, if one would, that the 1960 generation gave a lot of not to neglect creators to French cinema. (...) Robert Benayoun, Cournot, Yves Boisset, Maurice Labro, Pierre Philippe and Gilson let us wait impatiently for their next films. Henry Chapier’s Sex Power would really not disturb that situation. This pretentious and overestimated film shows a fundamental inaptness and goes beyond the theory of filmmaking. It is not the intentions of Henry Chapier that are dishourable and would be made really perceptible by one or another collegue. It is especially the bathing in boredom what is most regrettable and his avowed workout in a much too mannered style. And he loves bric-a-brac, an extraordinary way of makebelieve of intelligence and sensibillity, to show but not to appear what makes it irritant.”

An eyewitness wrote about the reaction of the audience at the film festival:

“Nods to other entries, such as Henri Chapier’s Sex Power were met with philosophical indulgence and polite applause".

Henry Chapier around 1970                                     The poster of Sex Power