On Manos Hadjidakis' birthday, the Greek National Opera and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center present a day-long tribute to the music of the great Greek composer, who, this year, would have turned 93.
“That short and fat gentleman is our dark hero. He was born 80 years ago, and he never died. He continues to stay up all night and hang out with tramps, poets and naughty students”. That was the caption we wrote next to Hadjidakis' photo in the tribute we had prepared for him in the fifth issue of our magazine, “Schooligans” (October 2005). Naturally, most of our readers, 16 and 17year olds, didn't know who he was. It was a chance for them to discover him. A chance just like the one offered now by this tribute which will feature high school and university students' bands from the Schoolwave festival. A few months ago, most of them hadn't played Hadjidakis before. Some of them had not even listened to his music. But in their ignorance, they carried him inside them. And when they bowed over his songs and started “reworking” them, they discovered a relative in him. And as far as this “reworking” is concerned, unorthodox as it may sound, it is certain that Hadjidakis himself would enjoy it. He had even said that himself once in a radio comment: “My songs teach disobedience”.
Christos Ioannidis, Schooligans magazine manager/Schoolwave Festival
With the participation of School Wave bands:
- Boulevard, Alternative Rock (high school students) band from Athens
- Mysterios Typos, Hip Hop (students) band from Athens
- Gis Madiam, traditional polyphonic (high school students) band from Serres
- Astrarot, Metal (students) band from Thessaloniki