Markos first record

[Mr. Narghile]

I'm wondering if anyone has read about the circumstances in which
Markos made his first record....was it the idea if Peristeris or was
Peristeris simply assigned to the project by Odeon? Or had Markos or
someone else been advocating for a recording session?
Maybe some of you who have read the Markos autobiography can
comment...

thanks,
Dave

[Nikos A. Politis]

In his Autobiography, Markos does not remember well any more, he is
much too confused. According to Kounadis, things happened like that:
following Jack Gregory’s success (Columbia USA, 56294 F, repressed in
Greece), the Greek Columbia people started searching for “Markos from
Syra”, apparently the only local guy featuring proper bouzouki playing
and singing. Indeed, Markos has been found and recorded four songs:
efoumernam’ ena vrady, Taxim serf, Mastouras, mortissa hasiklou and
Batis a further four. But the recordings have not been released for
the trade, from fear of the instruments (connection with jailhouse),
the players (both appeared stoned to be able to cope with the stress),
the lyrics. Almost one year later, Markos in disappointment goes to
Minos Matsas (the Odeon Parlophone guy) advocating for himself and
pursuades him. So the first Markos record to appear in the market was
not his chronologically first recording but Karadouzeni / arap
zeibekiko. Columbia followed immediately with the two first Markos
records and with Batis, too. I have no better information than
Kounadis does. On the Columbia first recordings Peristeris plays the
guitar, on Parlophone probably Skarvelis.

[Mr. Narghile]

Thanks Nikos,
It's interesting that Peristeris played on the Columbia recordings...I
thought he was working for Odeon at the time...
dave

[Nikos A. Politis]

That's what Kounadis says.