Genres Pop Origin Athens, Greece Record label Polydor Records | Labels Polydor Records Genre Pop music Members Kostas Tournas | |
Poll was a Greek pop group founded in 1971 by Kostas Tournas, Robert Williams, Stavros Logarides and Kostas Papaioannou. In Greece, it is considered a historic group of the 1970s with pioneering lyrics. Poll is a legendary pop group which resonated with the Greek youth of the 70s, and its songs are viewed as "some of the best songs, which have remained in the history of Greek music". Poll is the most commercially successful Greek band of all time.
Contents
Background
Kostas Tournas and Robert Williams were childhood friends who started their musical cooperation in 1964 when they formed the group Teenagers. As a group, the two recorded their first song "You don’t love me".
In 1967, they changed the name of the group to "Dinos and the X-Rays" but they separated soon after since Tournas had to go to the army and Williams went to Rhodesia where he stayed for two years.
They eventually reunited and along with Stavros Logarides, they formed another group which at first was not intended to be a professional group. Ultimately, they named their band "Poll", after first considering the names "Paul" (after Paul McCartney) and "Omega Limited". Poll was one of the first pop groups of Greece.
Poll
The motto of Poll was Poll is love and their logo was the stylised outline of a dove. Their first concert was at the Pedion tou Areos in Athens. Poll also started appearing at the popular Athens music club Kyttaro presenting folk rock songs influenced from the hippie culture which soon became very popular among the youth. They also appeared at Elatirio presenting music influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young and featuring two new members, vocalist Nasia Sandi, and drummer Kostas Papaionannou. At Elatirio, they were also joined by vocalist Despoina Glezou who later left the group to pursue a "more personalised role".
The group started recitals at a home which was owned by the grandmother of Kostas Charalambides, who was a salesman for the Greek record company Elladisk, a subsidiary of Dutch multinational Philips. Charalambides provided a demo of the band to Christos Fasolas, who was working for Elladisk in the area of copyright law, and they eventually got a record contract.
In April 1971, they released their first single which became a huge hit. On one side was the song "Anthrope Agapa" (Mankind Love Each Other) and on the B-side was "Ela Ilie Mou" (Come My Sun). The record was under the Polydor record company name. Following a suggestion by Fasolas, Stavros Logarides took part in the recording of the song, after which he decided to join the group.
First album
In September 1971, their first album Anthrope... (Humankind...) was released, which included the song Anthrope Agapa (Mankind Love Each Other) becoming a huge hit, selling 200,000 copies, a number unsurpassed before or since by any Greek group. The album was full of musical breakthroughs, and was packaged in a trendy gunny sack.
Anthrope Agapa, ti Fotia Stamata (Make Love, Stop the Gunfire), is considered the first anti-war protest song in the history of Greek rock and was released during the junta years in Greece. The song has been called "perhaps the most hippie hymn for the Greeks". The song was echoing the hippie slogan Make love not war and was inspired directly by the Vietnam War, becoming a "smash hit". With Anthrope Agapa, Poll combined "political and countercultural elements" in their songs. Other hits from the same album included Poll Means Love, Έλα Ήλιε μου (Come My Sun), Στην Πηγή μια Κοπέλα (A Girl At the Fountain), Αετοί (Eagles) and Η Γενιά μας (Our Generation).
In the spring of 1972 the band recorded a single featuring the songs "Oi Aetoi" (The Eagles") and "I Genia Mas" (Our Generation") which became huge hits. Later in 1972, they appeared at the Thessaloniki Song Festival where they played "Μολυβιές φωτογραφίες", which they also released as a single with "Oses Fores" on the flip-side.
Lefko and breakup
Anthrope... was followed by their second album Lefko (White) which was influenced by the Beatles' White Album. Lefko was the last album of the group and included songs like "Ελένη" (Eleni), "Πες της μαϊμούς να μη με πειράζει με το δάχτυλό της" (Tell The Monkey Not To Disturb Me With Its Finger), ""Ξημερώνει" and others. The album package also included a comic book which illustrated the history of the band.
By December 1972, near the time that the group broke up, Williams had become the main composer of the band, replacing in that role Tournas who until then had composed most of the band's songs. Their last performance was in January 1973 when they appeared at Nikos Mastorakis's New Year's special at YENED TV "Na Ta Xanapoume?" (Should We Tell Them Again?). There, they performed their hit "Aetoi" ("Eagles").
Poll broke up soon after their second album, because Tournas wanted to pursue a solo career. When asked about the reasons for his decision, Tournas commented that "Perhaps, the decision for the break up is due to the need of a person to create work which cannot be covered by the group. Would he then have to "bury" his creative need for sentimental reasons?". Tournas has also described the breakup of the band as a "great loss" adding that while in the beginning the members of the band thought they would go on for a long time and it was not pleasant when they disbanded, he did not think that Poll could be kept going as a "business" by force.
Reunions
On 24 September 1982 the band reunited for a concert at Lycabettus which was recorded and released as an album. Following their 1982 reunion, their first two albums were also released again due to high popular demand which had caused the older album editions to become collector items. In September 1991 a repeat performance was given by the band, at the same location in Lycabettus, which led to rumours of a permanent reunion, although this did not pan out.
Message and impact
Unlike similar pop groups of the era, Poll did not confine themselves solely to erotic and love themes in their songs. Their hit "Anthrope Agapa" was an anti-war song and many of their other songs touched on various sociopolitical issues of the young of the era, such as long hair, which was viewed with suspicion by the junta and the older generation at the time. Their songs about love were different and featured groundbreaking rhythms which alternated within a composition. Their performances throughout Greece were considered important events and were attended by large audiences. Their 1972 appearances at Elatirio club on Heyden Street in Athens were attended by full house audiences every night.