Rebel makers

By Maria Gregoriou

There is a rebel in all of us but sometimes we just need a rebel to let that rebel loose. Giving us a little helping hand with that will be the Greek band Chainides – meaning the fugitive rebel – who will give a live performance on Friday in Nicosia.

Chainides is a Cretan folk music group inspired by the vast legacy of traditional Cretan music and whose lyrics borrow words from the Cretan Greek dialect.

The band was formed in March 1990 by group of friends Dimitris Apostolakis, Dimitris Zacharioudakis, Giorgos Laodikis, Miltos Pashalidis and Kallia Spyridaki. Most of them were, at the time, students at the University of Crete and were at the right age to rebel.

Their discographical debut was in 1991 with the album Chainides. After the success of the album, the group rapidly grew to seven members and released three more albums before taking a break in 1997. One year later Apostolakis and Zaharioudakis got back together and were joined by new members Maria Koti, Alexis Nonis, Periklis Tsoukalas and Antonis Skamnakis.

In their live performances, Chainides blend their own compositions and songs with new arrangements of themes and songs from traditions such as those of Turkey, Afghanistan and Bulgaria.

Chainides
Live performance by the Greek band. December 4. Downtown Live, Nicosia. 10pm. €15. Tel: 99-810011

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.