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

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

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 music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965 by Parlophone. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the sin ...

'' by

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

. Three years later, he discovered ''

Revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

'' 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 Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

prog rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

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. Many of his songs have gained considerable popularity, mainly in Greece and Cyprus. Early ...

. Since then he has been working closely with

Dionysis Tsaknis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

, another well known Greek musician. After performing a large number of live appearances together, they released the live album

H Nyhta Tha To Pei H, or h, is the eighth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, including the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English ...

. In 1995, he released ''Parathyra Pou Kourase I Thea''. This was followed by ''Pafsilypon'', which he released in 1996 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 musicians such as Cesária Évora, Arto Tunç ...

Haris Alexiou Haris Alexiou (, ; born 27 December 1950 in Thebes, Greece as Hariklia Roupaka, , ) is a Greek singer whose career has spanned over 5 decades. She is one of the most popular singers in Greece. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and c ...

, Pyx Lax, 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)