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Alekos Gulag. One One One.
In Greece, punk was a brand new concept in the beginning of the ‘80s.
If you can imagine, I did not do anything very outrageous,
but I would go to school wearing a necklace of safety pins,
a cockade " *** off and die" and a necktie on top of my shirt.
I have no idea what they all thought of me.
The King Of Fools
A movie about the Greek Punk scene.
Look, it’s not exactly like that.
We don't rebel towards everything and everyone,
and we do not see enemies everywhere.
there are enemies and there are friends.
initially , we see everyone as friend.
Simply put, the way we see things, is the way we feel about them,
and the way we transfer them to the people.
This is crystal clear to me.
It’s pretty common for rock groups to be enraged.
Don’t you agree with that ?
Yes, I agree with that.
Some things absolutely infuriate you.
Though still, you try to channel this feeling, in any possible way.
Chapter 1: The king is dead, long live the the king.
During the ‘60s, Greece lived under a dictatorship.
Between 67 to 72, the Greek scene was pop
Bands like Olympians and Idols.
with romantic, mainstream lyrics.
We missed out on the hippie explosion.
1972-1977 is when the first rock bands emerged in the city.
Few records came out at that time.
(Pavlos) Sidiropoulos and (Dimitris) Poulikakos
were the most popular at that time, and some other unknown bands
that I had heard of before and would go to their concerts,
but there wasn’t much.
You had to move on from Sidiropoulos.
Not composition or lyric-wise
You had to think differently.
Knowing more than three chords is practically useless.
They’re more likely to ruin the song, the more you try to “gild the lily.”
The essence is more important.
And in rock ‘n’ roll the essence is always 2-3 chords,
maybe 4 to create a bridge.
OK…Rock is nice…
but something has to change.
There had been rock bands since the 80’s.. sorry the ‘70s,
from Poulikakos’s work to Spiridoula, to name a few
They were good but they were not enough.
Society was changing.
Back then there was this annual concert at the sporting arena.
The old time rockers would show up,
and all of a sudden, in the middle of that clusterfuck, Parthenogenesis played a show
and showed up at the stage with white armbands.
It was like they were waiting for a signal from us
to show them that this is the road we’re showing you.
This is the new way of rock music.
Parthenogenesis paved the new direction that rock music would go into.
In the beginning the (rockers) started their revolution, but it was nebulous
and often with a lot of drugs involved
But here, there was a more specific individual philosophy
for the dignity and pride of each person,
at least that’s how I interpreted it.
When that scene reached its limit, Punk exploded.
Chapter 2 : *** ART
Every change, as Aristotle, or was it Plato,
Every change in music announces social change
I remember the decade of the ‘80s as a violently conservative time period,
without direction.
You had to deal with this animosity of unknown origin
you had the contrast between the law 4000 that was coming from the previous decades,
and the Stalinist paranoia that said that rock ‘n’ roll was a foreign influence
on the Greek youth and had no place in Greek society, and it shouldn’t exist.
That was their mentality.
That’s the best reason to exist
It gives you the motivation to just start your band and play,
I have an opinion and can make a statement and take and stand against that.
and that’s how I can help form the environment.
And since I am able to make my statement with my beliefs,
the scene changes. It’s not the same anymore.
In the ‘80s, anything happened in Europe
we would immediately hear about in Greece,
with punk, post punk, new wave.
Everything would come from abroad during the same time period.
You would practice at the studio, directly book shows,
everyone would come out to see you,often out of curiosity to see what you’re playing
There was a scene.
It was a free form of expression.
We had to find a way to express what we felt ,
and the only way musically to do this was through punk
Because rock had been overexposed.
and had fallen to *** and any other situation that the establishment
creates to destroy anything else that might seem to oppose the system.
Hence, the only movement and music you could express yourself with was punk.
When punk exploded in England,
it was revolutionary musically and after a while, slowly arrived in Greece.
At that time, whatever social issues concerned us,
it was much easier for us to express ourselves through music,
than going out onto the streets and voicing our thoughts.
The easiest method of expression was through music,
and because –indeed- the problems of the youth are always seen very passionately,
with passionate music their strong feelings could be expressed.
There was also an anarchist aspect to the movement,which included us.
but we, however, did not include ourselves in that.
In the begging the freaks would see us with a different view
freaks/weirdos had adopted a hippy-like anarchism
and wanted to change the world with “peace.”
yet the truth is we added some violence to the equation.
Punk in those days had a much stronger nucleus than it has now.
Its image and stance wasn’t mainstream.
It had socio economic characteristics and the lyrics where always in Greek.
You were never considered punk if you sang in English.
When you’re a Greek band and you sing in Greek,
I believe you can communicate directly as opposed to singing in English.
That’s why I chose to sing in Greek. Also, I express myself more easily in Greek
At that time there were no equipment, no spaces and no real freedom of expression.
There would still be people pointing at you, out on the streets,
especially in small communities, like our town.
If they saw you with earrings and spiky belts you were questionable.
You had to face that war. They wouldn’t even let us into arcades.
It was significant that the Punk movement arose after the fall of the Junta,
because people hadn’t recovered from that.
We outlived terms like “yeye” and “long-hair.”
When we started to play punk it was taboo.
They would still satirise long-haired musicians negatively in movies.
And not just that. Schools would expel kids for showing up with strange hairdos.
imagine a kid going to school with a mohawk.
I got a five-day suspension by doing this haircut
Difficult, difficult.
We would get beaten up on the streets.
I’m not bullshiting you. I have been bashed and harassed for my appearance.
In ‘81, I would walk around with a mohawk.
I tolerated that for it for a year,
then I would wear a hat,
or would go out with a group of 5 or 6 friends at a time.
There was no other way.
They got used to it. Or it could have been fear.
Back in the days, if you would see someone, with a mohawk, they would yell at him,
Today he wouldn’t be. Not because they don’t want to,
but they became cautious, and chose not to get in trouble
because they didn’t know who that ‘crazy’ guy might be.
Slowly the situation started to normalise,
considering that Greece is basically a conservative country
where you really weren’t completely accepted by the public.
Before it wasn’t like that.
Society was more “innocent.”
It’s a similar phase that Greece is going through now.
The difference then, was that things were a lot more innocent.
Basically Greece at that point had just started
to kick out the last remains from the dictatorship.
The socialist party PASOK shows up
and were trying to be the country’s first “saviours.”
they are elected in ’81,
and in ’82 we find Greece in a new state of harmony.
Some people were hopeful.
Some people thought communists would materialise and take their houses away.
Of course that wasn’t the case
the banks come and take your house away.
Capitalism in itself comes and takes your house away.
But there was this feeling of change.
A big part of the world and the youth, knew we were going through a change.
It didn’t mean that we were with PASOK, or with anyone else.
We wanted a new world,
one that would show in our expression and in our way of life
what we wanted to do from now on.
We were of course adolescents then,
but we knew we needed to do something new to reshape our society.
In ’81, when PASOK came into power,
The first two years, 82-83
because of their leftist orientations
they were more cautious about using riot police at demonstrations
It wasn’t till ‘84 when they started to use the riot squads head-on.
We can’t say that the situation was the same as it was in the early 70’s.
But from 85’ and after, the attitude, or should I say the suppression, was unchanged
If you don’t destroy yourself you will be indoctrinated.
The cops were always right there next to us
or whenever they wanted, they could easily barge in on us.
Of course we were under pressure, living under a police state,
which still exists.
All the politician’s and cop’s mind frames were still influenced by the Junta,
trained by it, impacted by the Junta’s attitude on the streets.
The punks could be pointed out and counted on someone’s fingers.
Imagine being 18 year old kids and stopped and frisked,embarrassed on the street
just because you’re wearing different clothes.
And there they are frisking you like you’re some kind of criminal.
Just thinking about dealing with an 18 year old kid like that,
just because his hair might be spiky or he might have some earrings,
it makes me feel like we must have done something substantial.
They would send guards outside of Paranoid club
who would ask the young 15-17 year olds for identification.
The kids would see this and of course would leave.
That’s the same things that happened with the rockers with their long hair.
Yeah, but I remember being arrested and taken to the police station in Nea Smyrni.
The chief of police asked me, “why don’t you have long hair like the guys outside,
why are you wearing spikes and pins,
and have piercings on your face?”
Long-hairs were now part of the establishment.
Let’s say they were on their way.
There would be really good shows happening at Villa Amalias
or other venues like An Club
but during the summer there would be shows at Pedion Tou Areos.
You can imagine what kind of equipment we had back then in the ‘80s.
We would set up shows at schools, halls, social centers, gymnasiums,
Hraklis Triantafilidis’s loft, demonstrations,
and in any random places we could find since there weren’t too many clubs.
And that’s because someone would want to organize a “political” event
and we would ask to play so we could communicate our message.
The promotion was done through some broshures, other print media...
internet of course did not exist back then,so we would find out about music
through zines, concerts, small radio stations that would help us with promotion.
Those were the only ways to promote.
Of course there were posters on the street and just plain word of mouth.
I think posters are dead now, or the wheatpasting/fliering movement died down.
Most of the promotion is done online now.
Look, most shows would happen in Athens and Thessaloniki,
and every once in a while in the suburbs of Greece,
but it wouldn’t be 10 shows a year. More like once a year.
It was tough. We all tried but…
We begged for shows, they were no shows apart from maybe some local demonstration,
or a political demo in the summer,
which usually would end in chaos.
That was it.
It's not like now where there're places,
where the university organize shows every weekend
or venues that tolerate punk.
There was no such thing.
And even at bars, they would put up with us but we were still outsiders.
They weren’t too fond of us.
When we were young and we would be waiting for the bus trying to get to Kore
It wouldn’t be rare to see a couple of fights break out on the streets,
just because of the way we dressed.
It was on a daily basis.
Now things are way more relaxed, you can do whatever you want,
and there’s finally women at shows.
We would set up our own DIY space, that was what made punk different.
You wouldn’t wait for specific clubs to contact you to play at their clubs.
We would do our own shows not only for ourselves,
but for anything we believed in
like anti-fascism or anything anti-society, we were there.
There were never places for bands to perform.
There were a few squats like ASOEE, or Propylaea
providing a chance for bands to play.
After that we would use a squat on Amalias Avenue for shows.
Once they kicked them out of that building, another squat appeared
as a tribute to the first punk squat in Athens
They named it Villa Amalias and it still exists today.
There weren’t too many people buying our things.
We were more of an annoyance to them.
The scene never really flourished.
I can probably name all the records that came out in the ‘80s.
It wasn’t a big scene. Just like most music scenes in Greece are non-existent.
Whether that’s punk, hip-hop or New York Hardcore,
there are not enough people to support it
there was nowhere to play way out in suburbia or in the country.
The country was like Libya
there were like only two T.V. stations.
Any information you wanted to get would be by word of mouth
We would hear things about this and that person, and those little things would astonish us.
I’m talking about a time were there Only three channels on T.V.
but now there’s internet and a whole media industry,
a whole industry for promoting and selling products.
That’s way different than it was back then.
We couldn't keep in touch with everything. Now you can go on Youtube and things
You learn about things faster, they're in front of you
Everything seemed out of reach.
It was hard for bands that came out before ‘89 to put a record out,
especially for those that played that kind of music.
After that it was easier.
Some things changed and people were more open minded.
It was a good time to express yourself strongly and extremely.
What difference did punk really have from other kinds of music,
apart from its lyrics?
It was pretty much talentless when it comes to the music.
Well played, but the lyrics is what made it special.
It was more political than the rest.
We even heard public rehearsals, before the concerts.
It was never the perfectly set up
or amazing song , with a beginning or an end.
We would sometimes look at each other
and try to figure out how we would end the song.
It’s so much easy for a band to play A 4/4 beat nowadays
Our beat was never tight,and that shocked a lot of people.
There was a slogan I remember from back then
that I saw it on a t-shirt the line was “*** Art, Let’s Pogo.”
LEAVE ME ALONE, there is so much hypocrisy in the world.
The truth can be found in the Word of God
No, father. You’re wrong.
The truth lies in the Sex Pistols
got it?
Oh God,
what sins are we paying for?
Chapter 3 : LET'S POGO
We had little girls wearing white clothes in the beginning.
We placed flowers onstage, and there was a white piano too.
Then all hell broke lose.
And then we started to play.
The minute we struck the first notes and people started pogo dancing underneath,
the lights went out,
and they thought people were getting into fights,
they started telling them to stop fighting
And we would tell them that they’re not fighting they’re just dancing.
“Are you guys sure?” Yes we’re sure we would confirm,
and then again they started pogoing Stage diving,
water fights.
It wasn’t dark, they had actually now turned all the lights on
because they were scared that people were getting into major fist fights
Even some parents were there.
But they still thought they were fighting,
so they turned off the electricity again
That’s when Mitsos got this great idea and went and started playing the piano,
even though we were barely able to play our own instruments well,
let alone the piano.
There’s Mitsos on this fancy white piano, and he started to play with his feet.
And I think they just let us play after that.
And then one of the organizers came up on stage and told something to Mitsos
who then told him, “If you don’t turn the electricity I'm going to stand
on the piano and play my guitar.”
That’s what convinced them.
Ok so now we’re going to perform a little song, once upon a time there was TV
Everyone was shocked, All the neo-Greeks would see punks and say,
“Who are those guys. They look like aliens." Everyone was freaking out.
I remember when I was in middle school, our supposedly educated literature teacher,
would come out and say,
“What is this punk attitude all about? Is it proper?
they just taking the streets and with their disgusting view, they are causing a scene?”
people were just freaking out.
We would hang out at this sweet shop down the block called “Fuji.”
Do you remember it?
And we would all go there and eat profiterols and meanwhile everyone thought
we were some kind of alcoholic drug addicts.
They kicked us out at some point if you remember.
And all we would do was sit there and eat our creamy chocolate sweets.
The first show we ever did, was this venue in Chalkida,
with a pool and a garden,
probably even ducks inside.
It was really random. The first time we played we *** *** up.
The next day Last Drive were playing a show, on the beach
and they had told us to go play the day before, at their venue.
We did it as a reaction towards others,
trying to say that we can do something too.
We would do shows, and it would be packed with kids in our age,
and they would throw beers, or spit at us.
But we were just trying to have fun.
A reaction to everything ugly around us,
to the bad things of our system, to the establishment.
Punk was essentially a subversion of an already subversive form.
It was an extreme version of rock in general, raw or violent with a direct way.
It’s more controversial, it has a specific attitude,
it’s fake if someone feels punk for no reason.
It’s the best means of expression
if you’re questioning everything and anything else that society feeds you.
Rebeliousness.
Not in a bad way but
in more like “I don’t give a *** about you.
I don’t like your system.
*** the police.
I’m not going to turn out to be who you want me to be.
I’m not going to follow your rules of conduct,
and I love it.”
We were going against the establishment.
It was that simple,
against the fairy tale they’re trying to sell us, and everything that exists.
Punk is getting in a van with 3 or 4 people and touring around Greece, Europe,
or the whole world or anywhere you can,
or using the photocopy machine at your work to print out your first zine.
Punk is making a mixtape.
We never complain that there aren’t enough people at our shows.
We always just have fun even if it just for ourselves,
or just in honor of the people that came out to see us.
And that we’re going to do whatever possible to make them have fun.
Hard times, hard music
and hard art.
Art becomes political, it becomes social it doesn’t stay on the outskirts.
Anyone who had a free spirit,
or who did not fit in to the establishment,
they felt safe and could escape through punk.
We did what we felt and what we knew how to do.
It’s good for everyone to do what they feel and know is best,
according to their generation.
We play what we know.
If that’s what you grew up with, that’s how you express yourself.
We are the punks,
with or without a cover charge,
in the morning or at night.
We are the punks even when we sleep.
We’re not punk because it’s free or easy,
We’re punk because if we don’t do this it’s just not worth it.
All told punk is a type of rock music.
It’s the type of rock that evolves,
the difference is there’s more of a necessity for it.
It's more structured.
Punks were nothing more than kids that loved rock ‘n’ roll,
and were rebelling against it,
or at least rebelling against the way rock ‘n’ roll turned out to be:
a myth that was imposed onto Greek reality,
even though it had nothing to do with that reality.
We didn’t really have big bands.
We didn’t fill up stadiums,
or have punk venues.
If we see punk individually, we would be making a big mistake.
There were people in the past that would see it just as a social
or political ideology or strictly as music.
Punk, is something very strong on all levels.
Musically, lyrically and through what it expresses.
Even though there are a lot of people that don’t like that kind of music,
I feel that it expresses everyone’s social and political issues,
past and present.
That was the main reason why I started listening to and playing punk.
It expressed what we were feeling from the first time we heard it.
Punk just encapsulated what we were thinking.
I remember I would read theoretical books on Anarchism,
like Proudhon or Bakunin.
I saw punk as a music
that could incorporate anything revolutionary.
I found a way to express myself through the music.
I was excited of course.
I didn’t fit into the strictest confines of anarchism, socialism or communism.
I wanted to incorporate an artistic side to the mixture.
I did that through the band I started.
We never thought, “Oh let’s try and say something important"
we just did whatever came naturally.
How old were we? 18?
We came out and cried out against whatever.
Musically Punk did a lot for me.
If we take out the social and political aspects of it,
and just look at it musically,
it was the style of music that fulfilled me, and made me feel different,
which is why I can’t see it as a just a movement.
It’s a continuation of rock ‘n’ roll.
For me, firstly is the music, because it’s the first thing you hear.
Then you read lyrics and try to understand what they’re trying to convey
and it’s definitely a way of life.
For starters when you talk about punk,
you never really talk about the kind of music it is.
Punk means rebelliousness.
Rebelliousness can mean anything.
It’s a culture. Punk rock is a way of life.
You already live that lifestyle, it just so happens that you can play an instrument,
and just so happens that this other guy has an OK voice,
some other guy can keep a beat, and you say to yourself
There’s no specific way to do it, you can do it any way
Punk doesn’t only express itself through music, it’s exclusively a way of life
Following bands like the Sex Pistols back then
was something new for a 14-15 year old kid.
It was extraordinary.
We listened to Motor Head or Iron Maiden,
and the classic stuff they try to promote in the press like Metal Hammer
It hasn’t changed.
We wanted something different than Metallica, Slayer, Motorhead.
We were sick of those big bands and of rock music, in general.
We were disgusted by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
We found them stupid and sickening.
OK, anyone could play it if they wanted to,
it was part of each individual’s philosophy.
It wasn’t necessary that all those bands had to play as well as the foreign bands.
We would see bands who knew how to play three chords,
and we thought to ourselves, “Why don’t we try and play it?”
As long as it took most bands to play their intro,
the punks had already finished their set. 4-5 songs
They never gave too much detail to the music,
not that they weren’t good musicians, like The Stranglers, let’s say.
But they would say let’s play punk music, simple songs full of substance.
Back then I thought it was music,
but after a couple of years
I realized it was the essence of how your’re going to play music
what the English call “attitude” and what we call “ifos.”
So let’s say some bands came out and started playing with that attitude.
It came out that anyone could play.
We listened to new things, that our predecessors
had probably already heard of before, like garage punk,
but had never really made its way to Greece, if at all.
We learned how to play our instruments on our own,
and it was hard for us to try and play anything else.
I mean, I used to listen to hard rock
and I would have liked to be able to play some crazy solo, but I couldn’t.
not only by necessity but sometimes by necessity.
Check out this strange dissonant instrument…. Tune in.
It might have that dissonant sound, but that’s punk.
It might have a specific style or be abstract
but I think whoever feels or behaves unconventionally,
or whoever tries to laugh at the situation is punk.
That’s all well and good, but we were looking for something that would be new
more simple, and more comprehensive. What would that be?
And OK, we would hear what was happening
around Europe and America and that was punk.
We had a chance to play every summer at those kind of shows,
with Gulag, Grover, Nautia, Last drive and Deus Ex Machina.
After 1997, there were like 10 punk bands in Thessaloniki,
but we pretty much all knew each other.
We would try and help each other when it came to organizing shows.
Between 3-5000 people showed up, depending on the event.
Everyone was just hanging out outside.
There was no cover charge: anyone who wanted to could chip in.
Plus there was a variety of info-booths
There were benefit shows, but you wouldn’t get paid for them
Even playing in venues like AN, you wouldn’t even get paid a living wage.
You’d probably just get some free beers, but that’s it.
It’s a way of life, in the end we’re a group of friends,
not a band that’s trying to make a living.
We’re just friends who like to have fun with it.
The reason that shows happen is for you to play the music you’re creating,
and to share with your friends and family.
It’s for us to have fun, for the crowd to have fun.
Shows are like a party, its not…
Party exactly.
It’s not just music.
You can give me ten reasons to get drunk,
and I can give you just as many reasons not to
It’s that confluence. Mainly political right?
People have misconceptions about punk,
like that you have to be dirty, a drug addict, and a drunk crawling on the floor.
But it’s not like that at all, nor is it only about destructiveness.
Punk is about attitude and convictions,
that’s why I prefer the word “attitude,”
because it refers to a wide variety of situations.
You can’t really put restrictions on it.
Not with uniforms and not with standards.
That’s why it was born, to challenge principles.
All in all that’s what we want punk to be,
but now unfortunately it’s gone through a thousand different waves,
and has lost its fundamental values.
We believe it’s something more than just music,
it deals with social and political issues.
For me that’s basically the difference between punk and other kinds of music.
They might be similar, like hardcore punk has some similarities with metal.
Like when I was a kid, and grew out of metal and started listening to punk,
because the lyrics spoke to me directly. They had a message.
It wasn’t about demons and castles anymore,
it was a message that could actually make my life better.
We backed up what we talked about, and not in a stupid way.
I believe that all punk music and lyrics were written with heart and soul.
When you live just for yourself it’s a waste,
but when you live for everybody else,
then that’s worth everything and that’s what lingers.
That’s what we need to keep alive.
The music is intense because only with something very powerful
can you describe a distressed state.
That was the beauty of that movement.
When it comes to punk the lyrics are what is most important, not the music.
You don’t write a punk song if you don’t have something specific to say
about an issue that you’re interested in or that’s bothering you.
No love songs, or blah blah blah.
The people that started punk bands and wrote punk songs
did it not just to have fun, but because they had something to say.
It was the only way. We were part of that movement.
We were those kids sitting in the town squares trying to play drums on our knees,
and we finally managed to create a basement studio space.
I remember our first band practice, where it was obvious that we could play together.
Then the first show we ever did at Cheimiou Square,
we would sing our songs at Navarinou Square,
and we would call out to our friend's balconies,
who were enclosed in exile in their apartments.
It had to do with social and political lyrics.
Simply put, we will give it to you straight, shove it down your throat.
Yeah, it was a reaction to the establishment, like everyone says.
But that’s ***!
Everything that’s happening around us is ***.
It has to be against any form of power, anti-authority.
It has to stand up for minorities, and to be with the working class.
Don’t look down on those below you and don’t bow down to those above you.
If we say the definition of punk is people dressing in a particular way
or styling their hair in a specific way, then that’s silly.
When we say punk, we mean a more extreme reaction.
That’s always going to exist,
and there will always be the need for that reaction to happen.
Don’t hide behind anyone, have your own opinions about everything.
Do not follow political parties or soccer teams not that im against the teams.
Ideologically, you need to have your own opinion about everything.
That’s what I think.
And punk is the best way for that,
to have your own opinions uninfluenced by others.
You have to be an antisocial person,
but in reality what good does society really has to offer?
And secondly, I wouldn’t change anything about what I experienced
through this scene.
Not that it was something vital, but what can I say?
I have fun with the punks, that’s just the way it is, and I don’t know why.
The people that get involved usually have
some sincere elements to their personalities.
The people who ruined it were the ones that were slaves to ideology
or had no idea about the music and just wanted to cruise the scene.
Destroy any idol that exists, whether political, social, or musical.
We want to be simple, not trademarked,
to simply play our music, to say what we want to say to simple people.
No autographs, no rock star behavior.
We didn’t like to pretend we were philosophers,
or geniuses or anything of the sort.
We were just the young generation and that’s what we wanted to convey.
Playing a different kind of music, that might have sounded unfamiliar,
like it had blasting, screaming vocals and piercing lyrics.
The music was staccato and it was like a music wall.
The Greek independent music scene had all the elements of rock, literally.
We really did live through a rock era. It incorporated everything.
It was great period.
But it also had the self-destruction vibe .
You seemed strange if you were playing that kind of music,
especially if you had the nerve to sit down and write lyrics and create your own song.
It was unbelievable.
Now that being apolitical or not giving a *** is cool, and just letting them roam
I believe punk shouldn’t be something that’s IN or be up to date.
It should be what it used to be, adapting to changes, but it has to be “Dangerous”
It was full of rage, and violence, but it’s also ironic.
It did not cease to be a threat.
The younger you are the more undiluted you see things in the scene.
For me, it had more to do with punk expressing my political distress,
which it still does.
We believed in that, we were like commandos.
When you’re faced with difficulties, and you’re against all odds,
you take a defensive position but then it turns extremely more violent,
so it's hard to be self-consuming, you have a lot at stake,
as a dynamic it was clearly underground.
What is punk, ultimately?
MC5? Patti Smith? Disorder?
For me they all are, and so are countless artists who aren’t typically called punk.
Punk today is for us to be able to express what we like and feel.
Going in for practice and playing with the same intensity
that we would if we were playing for 500 or 1000 people.
I’ll grab my drum sticks, and the other kid his microphone,
and the other his guitar, and go out there and *** *** up.
When I first got started, punk wasn’t about politics, or anarchism.
It wasn’t really anything.
It wasn’t poser-like.
Punk is getting out there and saying “I can play too.”
Apart from the Beatles or the Stones,
punk was like “come on, pick up aguitar and bass, and a microphone,and go play.”
It was about saying “let’s go *** *** up!”
The music that gave a solid jab
to all the “prehistoric” bands of that time, who all had rich managers.
Big bands like Queen, or Genesis, who were always signing autographs.
Punk was music from the neighborhood.
Look, I think punk takes place in an organized society
i.e. wherever there’s a big population.
Punk is the sound of the city, the urban center, or metropolis.
It's your experience in the big city.
In reality it was a big shock as far as the technical aspect.
Anything that came out after punk was influenced by it,
it had a little bit of it more or less.
Punk rock stained the carpet of art.
Punk broke out, breathed life into a variety of forms.
It became a mother, but died in childbirth.
CHAPTER 4 : Do It Yourself
Playing music right now, you have to understand
that you’re playing for yourself to enjoy it.
You’re not playing music for anything else.
You can’t really make money with it, because there are like 10,000,000 people
of which a very small amount listens to your music.
And it’s better that way, cause there’s more quality, and it doesn’t become dull,
so you’re playing for them and maybe others outside of Greece if you want.
Most bands in Greece only put out like one or two records.
They did not go further than that.
In order to make money you have to chase after it.
I think anyone that talks about making money is just fooling himself.
There’s no point in thinking about money. It’s not worth it.
If you do you need to move fast, to get to where the money’s at,
like what they show on T.V. playing at ridiculous venues,
with lame people showing up, and super expensive tickets and drinks
just to give you even more money. It’s not possible.
Thank God that punks don’t make money.
It would disappoint me
to see a rich punk rocker.
There are some movements in music that only have value
as long as they stay underground.
Once they stop being underground they lose their ethos.
I don’t think that’s happened to punk, but definitely to rock.
I once talked to one of the guys from Trypes,
and he told me that they don’t make a living off their music.
So if a band like Trypes can’t live off their music,
who are one of the most successful rock bands here, how can punks live like that?
We live in a country of bouzoukia, of processed folk music and dance clubs.
In England, France, and Germany, there was a big market for it.
Here it was limited, and since you’re even more specialized,
the market becomes even smaller, so trying to live off something like
just becomes harder.
We don’t make a living off it.
We live for it. We don’t live off it.
And we actually have to fund it ourselves.
And whatever little money we might get, what do you think we do with it?
Maybe not pay for practice, but save up to buy an instrument
that one of us might need, what do they think we’re going to do with it?
Chill next to a pool surrounded by “babes”?
What do they think that we do?
When we used to put out demos in 1982, or 83,
was D.I.Y. but we wouldn’t call it that.
It was implied or obvious.
Once the D.I.Y. label started coming out, it was like you were doing
something special or taking a stand.
It was obvious though.
I think most Greek bands are D.I.Y.
From the moment we put out a CD and we do it ourselves, that for me is D.I.Y.
And as long as we don’t pay our rent or cars or gas from playing music.
If we focus on the Greek punk bands, there was no way
that they could make a living from playing punk music in Greece.
From its foundation, there was never money involved.
I think about it all the time, how did we get by?
With odd jobs here and there, with no money.
We would never get paid, the band never made any money.
We didn’t even think about it back then.
That’s because most of the places where bands played were free,
or had super cheap tickets.
With some very rare exceptions where they got to play at some big festivals.
But how can you live off that?
The way we would get by was working as delivery boys on scooters.
We did anything we could.
Everyone had random jobs. Pertsinos worked for a manufacturer,
the rest of the band members played with bigger named musicians
to make some money.
All the bands that do this, is not to make money, but to get their kicks.
It wasn’t possible.
At the end of the day, only a few bands made money off it
and they didn’t even become rich,
they were just able to live off their music completely for a long time.
Some people say you’re a sell out because you’re making money by playing the guitar.
I don’t agree with that at all.
The obsessive notion that if you scratch on a guitar and can make a living from it,
or even just some money, you’re a sell out.
Maybe because I don’t have a mommy and daddy to feed me and my band.
I prefer to be able to make a living by playing the guitar
than working 8 hours a day on a construction site.
That doesn’t exist in Greece. It’s prohibited.
That’s our one complaint
It’s forbidden in Greece, to want to survive through your punk or hardcore band.
We’re not talking about metal.
You wouldn’t even dare, that’s the biggest load of ***.
You do what you want to do.
Some people will like it, others will not.
It was a big deal at that time even for groups like us that could find a label
It was like one guy, Theodoris Kritharis
Don’t imagine some kind of Multinational Corporation backing us up.
He was our friend, we had a great relationship,
and he helped a lot of bands.
He was one of the few that would dare to put that kind of music out.
I remember heading alone to Athens and finding WIPE OUT’s number.
I talked to Theodoris. We didn’t have cell phones back then
so I told him the name of my demo cassette and he told me he would listen to it.
We met up at a café somewhere in Exarchia, and he told me how much he liked our demo
and that he wanted to put it out. I told him all I want is to pay off
the recording sessions, and asked if we could get that covered.
He agreed and everything happened fast. That’s kind of how the record came out.
Till then all we had was demos until we could put out a record.
We recorded two demos with Xaotiko Telos.
We did the recording all ourselves one cassette at a time
and then would pass them around at our shows.
In Greece, there isn’t even one punk record that came out on a big label.
As hard as someone might want to look, it doesn’t exist. That’s for sure.
Outside of Greece, there have been tons of punk records
that have come out on big multinational record labels.
It has yet to happen here, but I guess it’s because we are still “pure.”
On the other hand we did not have like a Record company
that will take you, consume you up, and then spit you out.
And will implore you to do things.
And when you don’t have anything left to give you’re just going to fade away,
or stop being who you are. I think at that point if you still love playing
whether people want you to or not, you should still keep playing.
No one’s telling you to stop.
Especially in Greece it’s not a positive thing.
Sooner or later you will fall into the big record label’s trap.
They’re not going to let you do certain kinds of interviews.
You’re going to have to ask if you can play certain places.
There’s no way a big multinational label will let you play a show for free.
They can’t forcefully make you do things. You are who you are.
You’re going to promote yourself, who you are and your soul
It’s not going to make you wear a specific coat or pair of shoes.
You are who you are , and that’s the truth it is what it is.
When we feel we need to stop, we stop.
When we feel that we should be playing, we play.
All those commercial bands that are on one of those big labels get told
“You need to play for another 10 years so you can make us money.”
You think Sony is going to come and pay attention to kids with tattoos and Mohawks?
Don’t even think about it.
It was like being a streetwalking *** in the middle of the desert.
We had no chance of turning a trick.
So why compromise with someone, and have to deal with middle men, pimps,
companies that tell you what to do, bouncers or whoever
for something that doesn’t even help you live,
just so you can become a little more famous? What’s the point?
All those bands that we are talking about
from the ‘80s like Genia tou Xaous and Ex-Humans
A little later there was Antidrasi,
Arnitiki Stasi who came out toward the end of the ‘80s.
I don’t think you can say that any of them were playing music to make money, no way.
But even if some of them did want to make music just to sell it, they weren’t able to
The few that I know that managed to “sell” anything were really wholesome.
That's for sure.
Do it yourself.
We do everything on our own, everybody together, regardless of the music.
We’re running around, we dedicate a lot of time and effort.
We had to run around, get a hold of sound equipment, find the spaces,
then had to deal with permits from the police and tax offices.
Also set up the equipment.
Do all the advertising, put up posters around town
and then we had to go take them down.
We didn’t want to have the need for help, we wanted to do everything for ourselves,
the way we wanted it, and not submit to any label’s or venue’s terms and conditions.
When this first started it was something spontaneous.
Yeah, with no restrictions and terms that we agreed on.
And of course with no commercial success or profit.
The truth is, in youth culture, even though D.I.Y. had existed before,
it tied into punk.
We’re talking about first wave of 1976.
We don’t need too many instruments, or 20 years of music studies.
Whether a label wants to sign you or not,
or if the magazines are not writing about you, you make your own fanzine.
So in one way or another, D.I.Y. had something to do with punk,
but it was widely applied to all of us.
We don’t have a label to support us financially,
or a manager to book us shows.
We are all in the same boat,
Some come out and say that they are D.I.Y., others just don’t say anything.
We would never be able to do that because we never make money,
so it’s not a big deal.
We’re more romantics in that sense.
You want to play music, and you will find one way or another to do that,
whether that’s by borrowing a guitar and an amp, or working really hard
to buy your first cheap guitar just so you can practice.
So wether you like it or not a band usually starts off as D.I.Y.
From there it’s in the hands of each band
if they’re going to stay on that road,
or take a detour, even though that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
I don’t think there’s a record company that really gives full support,
the band will usually have to take care of everything,
fronting money for studio time, cover art, and anything else.
And most largely the record companies now, are in charge only for distributing the music.
We would see English punk bands here.
They would play with amazing guitars and amps.
We would ask ourselves, “How is this possible?”
It was like a dream . In Greece we didn’t have guitars or amps, or anything else.
All it took was a guitar and a cable, and someone would go out
and would rely on “unity” like we say in the punk community,
and would go for example to the city of Alexandroupoli and meet someone
he’s never meet before who’s similar to him.
And all of a sudden they end up spending a couple days together
trying to set up a show, and to play and then put them up in their house.
That’s how relationships are formed.
I think money is something that can make a band stop, but I don’t think it’s a motive.
I think it has to do more with the person than the money involved.
Let’s say that the way we experienced punk
was way more authentic than some other countries.
Punks in other countries had money.
How much money did we have to spend to buy pedals and electric guitars?
I didn’t have an amp for my bass till recently. I never had a bass amp.
We had to find our own instruments, whether we had to steal them or...
Yeah I have to admit, we would play with stolen instruments.
I am not going to tell you from where of course.
Yeah, so we had to find our own instruments, make our own studio,
write all our own music and set up our own concerts.
We had to make sure to protect the rest of the audience
when the cops would come around and get people to leave,we had to do everything.
So in a broader sense there wasn’t that political framework
as far as what was D.I.Y.
Personal intervention, as much as you can.
The more things you can get your hands on the better. That’s D.I.Y.
It has to do with music, how you live, what you eat, and everything.
I think everybody, in every style of music they might be into, takes their own road.
Now where you might be headed depends on what you have in your mind, and soul.
Like if you want to do a show with George Michael at some point, you will.
Anyone that does something that involves the masses, wants their work,
or even if it’s not work, just their way of entertaining, maybe that’s drawing,
I am sure they would want more people than just their good friends to see their work,
which they probably have already seen.
The issue is how you personal handle getting into that kind of world.
If there were more spaces, were things could happen, I do not mean at any price
But you can somehow compromise, you don’t have to hold everyone accountable
or owe something to the government.
You can have a space like the kids did here on Filis street, called Katarameno Syndromo
where they would rent the space, but would put on great events and shows.
Why can’t you do and see those things, and give more bands the opportunity
to have the space to do what they love to do.
I think the movement was distorted at some point.
We played in 2 or 3 pubs in our career,
and even then we were accused of going mainstream.
I think if you play at a venue with anti- mainstream conditions it’s not mainstream.
We put out one record that we went on to release in Belgium, and America.
Of course none of us bought limousines.
But what John said, the criticizing of the commercialization in punk is inept.
Because in reality, there was no money to be made,
none of us made any money from all of this, and no one was going to.
You’ll be playing for so many years, trying to find anywhere to play.
And you don’t really care about making money in the beginning,
but then you start thinking, “Some *** is making money off us,”
and you don’t make enough to cover the bare necessities.
Like being able to get new strings to put on your guitar.
So after some time it just becomes hard to play and you’re forced to have a cover
so that next time you can play somewhere for free, and the cycle goes on and on.
It’s really hard.
We’re putting up posters and these guys at the square are like,
“A punk show with a cover?”
We tell them, “You’re 10 people, the bands are another 10 people.
What if we put in 5000 drachmas each and rent the equipment
and have the show out here in the square?”
And of course there reply is always the same:
“Where am I supposed to find that money now?”
and “What do they think? That we have a money tree that we cut from.”
It’s always the same. Contribute like 2000 drachmas instead of going for coffee,
Is one of my biggest problems with Greece: religion and all those people
going out for coffee all day long. Cops come right after them.
They’re just morons. You already know them and can seem them for who they are.
Self-organizing is good, but in order for it to maintain itself,
people have to respect one another, respect the scene, and respect what’s happening.
Beyond addiction and getting high, everyone has to be careful.
We need to become more serious about what we’re doing.
As an audience and as organizations.
We had said at some point that we were only going to play in squats
we didn’t want to play in any venues.
We would set up the shows on our own and put a donation box by the entrance.
Not only would we put our own money in the box,
but we would see people just destroying the place.
We didn’t have the donation box for us, but for supporting the places.
And there was 5 euros in the box.
One time when we had gone out and played with Vandaloup, the organizers left
and everyone left and the whole place was empty.
No one even asked us if we had a place to stay, or welcomed us,
or tried to engage in any conversation.
Punk was about that,
we are doing something as friends, or family, and then we see how it goes.
Then it mutates.
If something starts turning into a cult it starts to turn sour.
If we don’t agree on something we’re going to spend 2 hours discussing the subject.
Why don’t we sit down and look at the things that we do agree on?
Punk is not like a chalice with holy water
so whoever we throw inside will become holy.
It really had become a fad, and we felt that in the band.
And politically it had started to decay. A big faction was leaning toward Nazism.
The other faction, which was us, was leaning toward nihilism or anarchism,
or however else you want to explain it.
You had the feeling that you were playing shows,
like you were the king of all fools.
There was no point to have power, so you gained a strange magical power.
Sotiris from Adiexodo said do this or do that which, we turned down.
In some way or another the stardom that you didn’t want to exist
was given to you even though you didn’t want it.
That’s another reason why we broke up the band.
We didn’t want to be the kings of the fools.
Chapter 5 : Until you become the king of fools
It’s a reaction against the system, and everything you’re living through.
It’s the same thing as 30 years ago, I don’t think there’s a difference.
But at some point it became fashionable.
Like most things that are rebellious or whatever become fashionable.
Everyone sees things differently.
Some went to score chicks, and others went for soul seeking.
There were all sorts of people,
if you grabbed every single one of them they were all different than the other.
Different mindsets, different social classes.
There were people that were conscious of what they were doing,
who were getting into this scene for the artistic reasons.
Others would get into it to get girlfriends,
and some people stepped into it because it was fashionable.
I don’t know if that affected the scene in a good or a bad way.
In one way it was good, since a lot of people got to hear it.
I think it’s a one-way street.
It’s going to happen at some point or another, and they take advantage of it.
On the other hand, some others think it’s bad because it became more corporate
but I don’t think that nowadays there is a style of music,
because that’s what we’re really talking about.
It’s not so much as a way of life, especially after the year 2000.
I think very few music genres reached the masses without becoming corporate.
There were all kinds of people,
Someone would go to England and bring back a pair of Dr. Martins
and then *** them on the wall to make them seem old and used.
And we had holes in our shoes because we could not afford to buy a new pair.
That was poserish.
That’s exactly what Johnny Rotten said.
It’s like an army right now, you can see everyone in uniform.
And I heard it from a younger fellow too
who would also refer to the people with the mohawk as uniformed.
Seeing people over 30 dress like they’re living in the ‘80s punk era
seem psycotic to me.
Its diffrent if you still listen to the music, because music is timeless.
We’re talking about how you go out in society.
Back then letting your hair grow long and trying to fight for it meant something.
Now it doesn’t really mean anything.
Everything is possible and there’s a market for everything.
Why do you even bother putting up your mohawk now?
Guys like David Beckham have mohawks now too.
Anyone that hears these things and understands music
or is involved in some way or another understands.
The point is that as years went by, there were people that thought
that it was just going to deteriorate and fade away.
Punk naturally is very tolerant musically and ideologically,
so it accommodate a lot of people, and unfortunately that includes the far right.
It was really violent. When I say violence, I mean a style that we got used to.
We would push or kick each other,
sometimes we might have been bleeding but you got used to it.
When we started playing in the begging of 2000,
it was definitely better than the ‘80s when the first bands got started.
Things were a lot better in society,
and from what I see it was way better than it is now too.
And now not only is it worn out,
it’s coming out again as reality.
It was better than what it was in the beginning and middle of the ‘80s,
which I think was the hardest time.
Somehow it started to be accepted that these kind of people exist
and they’re not leaving that easily.
Passion before fashion. I think that says it all.
CHAPTER 6 : PASSION BEFORE FASHION
Most people were like, «I don’t care, I don’t give a ***.
I’ll just go out and drink a coffee or go on a date.
Why would I care about what’s happening in the world or in Palestine. War?
Why should I be concerned? I’m doing fine, right? »
And whether you wanted to or not you had to have some kind of association with them
because you would see them in your every day life, and that made me think,
«Hey! Wake up! »
That first group of young people that reacted
in that way with that consciousness of Greek reality,
they were able to win people over every day.
5 of them would become 10, then 20, then 100.
And today that scene had influenced almost all the bands.
The only label I can apply to myself as a personal would be that
of belonging to this big group of friends from the scene.
Whenever I see someone from the past who I used to play with, and who witnessed
all this shittiness with me, who has fallen and gotten back up with me,
I know that I am talking to a brother.
You can’t call someone a punk just because they look punk externally.
It’s what’s in their heart.
In that category you’ll find Sidiropoulos, Katerina Gogou, and a whole bunch of people
that had similar energies and practices.
I mentioned before social violence, well it had created its antithesis,
it created solidarity.
If you didn’t have instruments and wanted to get them you would easily be able to.
Someone would happen to have them and would lend you theirs.
If you wanted to set up a show
you knew there would be 10-15 people down to help you set it up.
If you wanted to practice, you always found a studio that someone was using
and was willing to share.
It gave you a sense of solidarity or unity. That’s the legacy the ‘80s left behind.
The notion that as diluted or estranged or out of place you might feel,
there’s always the possibility that what you say can or may concern others.
From the moment that is does and they relate and come out and tell you,
you realize you’re not alone anymore.
Where you’re going to end up as a band is up to you yourself.
Whatever point you reach, if you have given it your all,
you will always be satisfied.
It will be like you were the best band in the world.
We never lived in a golden age.
There were always anxious and repressed people who needed to express themselves.
In essence, that was what we were trying to do, to get our emotions out
through our music and our whole way of life.
You will always have something to say.
Don’t forget we’re talking about a kind of music
that speaks about things that annoy and trouble you.
It’s not possible for things to stop bothering you.
It never stopped. I have to say it probably got better.
No, I don’t think it ever stopped.
Yes, it truly never stopped.
Some bands became subversive, and new ones started coming out.
It’s only natural for that to happen.
It was transformed in some way.
It changed. It adapted to other conditions.
It has other social implications now.
It’s not the same punk attitude, with the mohawks, the beer-drinking, the peeing on walls,
the getting picked up by the cops and taken to the station for an ID-check.
There is still some kind of innovative or inspired reaction
from the younger generation and that will be the future of punk.
I play because I like the directness I feel with the crowd,
and that gives me the motivation to continue.
A thousand times, especially with XEIMERIA NARKH, I’ve said, «I’m quitting the band.»
I’ve just gotten to the point where I can’t handle it anymore, being tired or whatever.
And then we play a show, and what I get from the crowd is so strong,
that I say, I’ll do it for so many more years.
If we accept that punk is an expression of outrage and free speech,
in a good sense, then it can survive.
It might not be like how we lived it in ’79 or ’82.
But within the conditions that each generation demands,
punk as a form of sound
and an understanding of social issues, will continue to live on.
At least that’s my humble opinion.
It’s going to stick around because it’s alive inside of us. It’s a necessity.
Every time we play with EKTOS again we’re revived.
We see the light again. It’s a creative, productive repetition for me.
The conditions of society, social, economic, or political,
are what leads someone to write songs like this.
People are hungry for punk, but punk from back then.
The kind of punk that said something. Not that it doesn’t now.
Through punk, you can discover.
For me that shows that punk exists, that it never went away, that it’s still here
Punk’s message is up to date.
It gives us hope for the future.
There will always be kids that might hear a band from the ‘70s, or ‘00s,
or even a band from their country or wherever, that will give them the impetus
to pick up an instrument and play and make their own music and set up shows.
Because it was so pure and true,
I think that's why it became timeless and did not die even though no one helped us.
We didn’t have labels backing us up or managers or anything.
We paid for our records on our own.
A teenage disease that stays with you till you grow old. That’s what I say.
What makes it beautiful for a band to exist even after 30 years is realizing
that you’re still doing something you did when you were 16.
They used to say, «You’re still singing about cops? »
But cops are still doing the same things, right? They haven’t changed.
It’s not just the cops.
OK, it’s not just the cop's fault,
but I don’t think anyone’s going to stop writing about them.
It’s everyday life.
This music needs aggression.
It’s for when you’re younger, for when you feel hatred and your blood is boiling.
It’s for when you’re enraged.
Whether it’s called punk or whatever,
you should love it and be authentic in what you do.
The only thing you need is to feel like it, have the time
and know that you’re definitely going to lose money.
If you manage to do something no one will know.
You have two corners on the street, the left and the right one.
Let’s say that on one of them you have a guy screaming
and on the other one someone is whispering.
Put those two together and in the middle you’ve made punk rock.
You have something to say? Go out and say it!
If you don’t, you can sit at home and listen to other people’s music.
But if you do, you have to go out and say it. That’s it.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the making of this documentary and to those who didn't.
Going out and life. Kisses to chaos!
Where am i going?
Let them make their own banners. We already held up our own.
We fought for them as much as we did. They took us where they took us.
We destroyed them when we needed to. Now go out and make your own!
It’s harder compared to other countries
where this kind of music was a variant of the already existent scenes that prevailed,
if what I’m saying even makes sense.
In memory of our dead friends.