Draft:Alex Spyropoulos

Alex Spyropoulos, or by his birthname Giorgos J. Spyropoulos, was born in Athens, Greece. He is the music writer and pianist of the duo psychedelic pop-rock band, Nirvana, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(British_band) formed in London in 1967.

Their instrumentation differed from most pop-rock bands at the time, with its incongruous absence of the guitar replaced by a cello and a harpsichord. Ray Singer, part of the original band, who then became a successful Producer, influenced the classical instrumentation of the band. Alex Spyropoulos took the vocal lead on several elaborate songs. After the disbanding of Nirvana, Alex and his partner Patrick, took part in the writing and recording of a musical, Secrets, that was put out on the market in 2022.

Present interests

Alex Spyropoulos has developed a hobby of creating fantasy images, and his visual artworks have been exhibited in various art galleries around Athens. He still writes music, songs and music for films and collaborates with musicians, theatre playwrights and actors, and a variety of other artists, counselling on musical arrangements for their performances.

Discography

Members of the band: Alex Spyropoulos, Patrick Campbell-Lyons, Sylvia Schuster, Brian Henderson (5), Dave Preston

Studio albums

The Story of Simon Simopath (Island 1967)

·       The Existence of Chance Is Everything and Nothing Whilst the Greatest Achievement Is the Living of Life and So Say ALL OF US (Island 1968)

·       Dedicated to Markos III (Pye 1970) a.k.a. To Markos III a.k.a. Black Flower

·       Orange and Blue (Edsel 1996) in which they covered the Seattle Nirvana song "Lithium" as a tribute.

Compilations

·       Black Flower (Bam-Caruso 1987) (LP compilation)

·       Travelling on a Cloud (Edsel 1992) (CD compilation)

·       Secret Theatre (Edsel 1994) (CD compilation of rarities and outtakes)

·       Chemistry (Edsel 1997) (3CD retrospective)

·       Forever Changing - An Introduction To (Island 2003) (CD compilation)

·       Cult (Burger 2012) (2LP compilation)

·       Rainbow Chaser: The 60s Recordings (The Island Years) (Universal 2018) (2CD compilation)

Singles

·       "Tiny Goddess" (July 1967) – UK No. 62

·       "Pentecost Hotel" (October 1967) – UK No. 56

·       "Rainbow Chaser" (March 1968) – UK No. 34

·       "Girl in the Park" (July 1968)

·       "All of Us" (November 1968)

·       "Wings of Love" (January 1969)

·       "Oh! What a Performance" (May 1969)

References

1.    ^ Colin Larkin, The Virgin Encyclopaedia of Sixties Music, 1997. p. 329 ISBN 0-7535-0149-X; "Nirvana (UK) Songwriters Patrick Campbell-Lyons (b. Dublin, Eire) and George Alex Spyropoulos (b. Athens, Greece) and Ray Singer met in La Gioconda, a legendary coffee bar in Denmark Street, London...."

2.    ^ Encyclopaedia of Rock - Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Stephen Barnard - 1988, p. 320; "NIRVANA Multi-instrumentalists Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos came together as Nirvana in 1967 to produce two superb dreamlike singles, 'Tiny Goddess' and 'Pentecost Hotel'. They went on to produce The Story of Simon ..."

3.    ^ Jump up to: a b c Brian Hogg, Sleeve Notes to the compilation Travelling on a Cloud, 1992.

4.    ^ ''Mark Beaumont (29 June 2011). "From Nirvana to Viva Brother: what's in a name change?". The Guardian.''

5.    ^ Jim Irvin, Phil Alexander Mojo collection: the ultimate music companion 2007 (Page 115) “Nirvana The Story of Simon Simopath, a sumptuous soft-psych classic from the original UK Nirvana.”

6.    ^ Donald Clarke, The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, 1990. p. 859; "NIRVANA Psychedelic rock band formed in UK '67, led by Patrick Campbell-Lyons (b Waterford, Eire) and Alex Spyropoulos (b Greece)"

7.    ^ 4809078-The-Nirvana-Ensemble discography at Discogs

8.    ^ ''"Nirvana UK". YouTube. 18 August 2008. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2012.''

9.    ^ "Dali" spoken word track on Secret Theatre

10. ^ "Melanie Blue" (attr.) liner notes, To Markos III

11. ^ Everett True. Nirvana: The Biography

12. ^ Jump up to: a b ''Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums(19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 396. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.''

13.  https://www.last.fm/music/Nirvana-UK 

14. https://dangerousminds.net/comments/meet_the_original_nirvana_a_pioneering_sixties_psychedelic_rock_duo 

15.  https://blues.gr/m/blogpost?id=1982923%3ABlogPost%3A484197 

16.  https://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/nirvana/pclinterview.html 

External Links

·       Electric Roulette review of Markos III

·       Nirvana discography at MusicBrainz

·       Marmalade Skies: Nirvana

·       Trilogy Rock: Nirvana Interview to the band in 2010

·       Myspace: Nirvana

Youtube videos

·       https://apotis4stis5.com/news-f/52266-nirvana-progressive-rock

·       https://apotis4stis5.com/themata-f/33474-nirvana

·       http://www.artrockheaven.com/search?q=nirvana+uk

·       https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4DGncXvX-32aG7obY5dF1w/playlists

Family

He is the son of Jean Spiropoulos [or originally Ioannis Georgiou Spyropoulos (16 October 1896 – 7 August 1972)] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Spiropoulos and Elizabeth Thiveou (1922 – 2002). Jean Spiropoulos was an eminent professor at the University of Athens. He was a Greek expert in international law, one of the fifteen members of the ‘International Law Commission’ having taken part in June 1949 (in New York) in the drafting of the Nuremberg principles and the definition of crimes against the peace of mankind. Both of Alex Spyropoulos’ parents were raised in Germany between the two world Wars and spoke French at home, as well as Greek, their mother tongue, cradling young Alex in a multicultural home.

Biography

Alex Spyropoulos, studied classical music in Athens from an early age and attended concerts halls twice a week, absorbing the works of composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Bartok, Stravinsky, Xenakis and other contemporary musicians. At the age of eighteen he left Athens to study law in France. Eventually he moved to London, England preferring an artistic career while engaging in the film world. He attended Robert Dunbar’s London International Film School. By an unforeseen twist of fate, in 1967 he met a pop music artist who was to become his partner in the Pop Music business in the midst of the famous swinging London of the 60s. The branding of Alex Spyropoulos’ musical work stems from his classical music education, and it’s how the band stood out on the pop-rock record market with classic tunes lining some of the songs.

Music

Soon he was writing the music of original songs influenced by this classical background. He co-founded the group Nirvana UK with his friend Patrick Campbell-Lyons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Campbell-Lyons  under the hospices of the legendary Chris Blackwell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Blackwell of Island Records. Soon after hearing their tune Tiny Goddess, Blackwell signed them up with his label. Then followed a series of psychedelic albums and singles such as their banner title “Rainbow Chaser” reaching the Top of the Charts in 1968 and encapsulating the unique ambience of the era, as the escalating war in Vietnam was being heavily opposed by the Hippie anti-violence movement Make Love not War. At Island Records offices, the Nirvana duo met some of the cult musicians of the time, like Jimmy Hendrix, Cat Stevens, Jimmy Cliff, et al. On his piano, Alex Spyropoulos assiduously wrote the music of Nirvana’s most popular hits such as Rainbow Chaser, Tiny Goddess, Pentecost Hotel and so on. Nirvana’s success is till alive today with die hard followers all over the world and in Greece where Alex has just released a documentary interview, and has been invited to the Radio show https://metadeftero.gr.