Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας

Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας ( Lavrentis Machairitsas, born 11 May 1956) is a popular Greek rock musician from Volos. He was born in Volos, and at the 6 he began taking piano lessons. These lessons lasted a year. At the age of 9 he bought his first record, which was Help! by the Beatles. After three years he discovered the record Revolver by the Beatles. His first job was at a record store (Minos Matsas), but due to his lack of punctuality he was fired (chance has it that his current label is MINOS-EMI). He dropped out of school at a very young age, because he didn't like school and because he had also started a fight with one of his teachers, which led to an expulsion from all high schools. He went through countless jobs, and he served in the army for 14 months (and an additional 5 to 6 months in military prisons). When he left the army, he started singing with Πάνος Τζαβέλας in Sydrofia. At the age of 20 he (as Larry) formed a band called P.L.J. With him, Παύλος Κικρίλης (Pavlos Kirkilis-Paul), Τάκης Βασαλάκης (Takis Bassalakis-Jimmy), and Αντώνης Μιτζέλος (Antonis Mitzelos) completed the band. They all moved to Paris with the hope of a musical career outside of Greece. In 1982, their first album titled "Armageddon" was released by Polygram. Their producer was Γιάννης Δουλάμης. Even though at the time the genre of rock played in "Armageddon" was not very popular, it is now considered to be one of the best Greek rock albums. In their second album they changed their name to Τερμίτες (Termites), and started singing in Greek. In 1984, their third record gained positive feedback and they began gaining popularity. Γιώργος Νταλάρας (George Dalaras) is also featured in this album. In 1986 they released their fourth disk by Virgin. The last studio record from Τερμίτες was "Περιμένοντας την βροχή" (Waiting For The Rain) which came out in 1988. In 1989 he began his solo career as a writer and a performer. His first album was "Ο Μ'αγαπάς και η Σ'αγαπώ", by Minos-Emi. In 1991 he released the disk "Διδυμότειχο Blues", which was certified Gold. In 1993 "Ρίξε κόκκινο στη νύχτα" was released. Many other artists are featured. Since 1993, he has been working closely with Διονύσης Τσακνής (Dionisis Tsaknis), another very well known and respected greek musician. In almost all their live appearances they are together. Their live performances have also been recorded and turned into records. In 1995 he released "Παράθυρα που κούρασε η θέα". This is considered to be his best album yet. In 1996 he released "Παυσίλυπον". This CD had a great success, and it featured many other artists. After 3 years, he released his next album "Έτσι δραπετεύω απ' τις παρέες". Again, he worked with a lot of very well known musicians, especially in the song "Και τι ζητάω". He then composed the music for the movie "Ένας και Ένας", and then released his next personal work, "Το διάλειμμα κρατάει δυο ζωές". He also wrote the music for the album "Ξύλινο αλογάκι" by Γιάννης Κότσιρας. His latest release is a two disk album "Τόσα χρόνια μια ανάσα". It includes one new song with the same name as the album itself, and 34 of his best songs. It's his first his first "Best of" album. Besides the many albums, Λαυρέντης Μαχαιρίτσας pairs up with Διονύσης Τσακνής every summer and has held countless concerts all around Greece. He has also held concerts with Ελευθερία Αρβανιτάκη, Χάρις Αλεξίου, Βασίλης Παπακωνσταντίνου, Χρήστος Θηβαίος and many more. Official Website: http://www.machairitsas.gr/ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.