One of Greece’ most charismatic and popular composers and singers Loukianos Kilaidonis died early Tuesday at the age of 73, after having been hospitalised for severe health problems.
Loukianos Kilaidonis was born in Athens and studied Architecture in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Athens Metsovio Polytechnic. However, he never worked as an architect but focused on music. He was married with Greek actress and member of parliament Anna Vagena and had two daughters.
Kilaidonis was an artist that loved to play live. In 1983 he organised "the party in Vouliagmeni" the so-called Greek Woodstock in which gathered over 70,000 people.
In the beginning of the 70’s he wrote his first music piece, which was for a theatre play by Kostoula Mitropoulou called ‘Our City’. The songs in the record released were sung by Viky Mosholiou and Manolis Mitsias.
His next record was ‘Red String’ lyrics by Nikos Gatsos with Dimitra Galani and Manolis Mitsias. In 1973 ‘Microastica’ was released with lyrics by Giannis Negrepontis, and for the first time Lucianos Kilaidonis sang in his own songs. This work is not only a milestone in the artistic life of Lucianos, but also in the whole of Greek artistic life. Before ‘Mikroastika’ was released as a record they were illegally distributed at the time of the dictatorship in Greece, and became a symbol for a whole generation. His next record ‘Simple Lessons of Civil Economy’ was again with lyrics by Giannis Negrepontis.
In 1976 Lucianos composed ‘Media Luz’ his only instrumental record.
From 1978 till 1991 he had released 5 completely personal records: ‘I am a poor and lonely cowboy’, ‘Stay cool guys’, ‘ Low Flight’, ‘Songs For Bad Guys’, ‘Why I Will become A Carpenter’ and a record with songs of the 50’s that Lucianos loved and sings : ‘Fifties and dry Bread’. He also releases a double record with theatrical music titled ‘Lets Go Maestro’.
In 1993 he released a double record titled: ‘OH! My sweet Home country’ which is a chronicle of the musical life of Greece for the last 50 years. This work represented in a record for the first time categories of songs that belonged to the oral tradition. They range from school songs, songs of the neighbourhood, of the street, of camping, of the church school, of the scouts and also of the Ionian Islands and Rebetika.
At the same time he continued to compose music for the theatre and the cinema. For ten straight years he exclusively composed the music for the Free Theatre (extracts from this music are in the record ‘Let’s go Maestro’) and he is also the main composer for the plays by the Thessalic Theatre.
He also collaborated with the National Theatre, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the Public Theatre of L. Trivizas, and also the Children’s Theatre Scene by Xenia Kalogeropoulou.
He composed music for the movies: ‘The Hunters’ and ‘The Theatre Crew’ by Theodoros Aggelopoulos, ‘Eleytherios Venizelos’ by Pantelis Voulgaris and ‘The Atheanians’ by Vasilis Alexakis. Also he composed music for many TV series.
Throughout these years Lucianos staged many concerts in the whole of Greece and Cyprus. The most well known of all is the famous ‘Party in Vouliagmeni Beach’, that took place in 1983 and was attended by approximately 70.000 people. The ‘Party in Vouliagmeni Beach’ was considered as the Greek ‘Woodstock’. In this Lucianos was the first artist who organised an event in a natural environments out of courts and theatres. The last years in his concerts he adds many theatrics and visual elements, turning them more into musical theatre plays, the show ‘Oh! My sweet home country’ in Lycabetus Theatre in the summer of 1993, was named as the first Greek public musical.
His last recorded work is: ‘New Kipseli – New Orleans’ that came out from his collaboration with the famous band from New Orleans: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
From 1995 and until 1999 he developed with his wife Anna Vagena their own Art Venue ‘Metaxourgeio’, in a completely renovated old building, that is located in the centre of Athens. This space is where they represented all their current theatrical and musical creations, and it started working in October 1999 with the presentation of the show ‘Microastica’ by Lucianos Kilaidonis and Giannis Negrepontis.
