The Blue Birds

The Blue Birds formed in the port town of Piraeus, Greece. They were one of the first garage bands releasing a national hit “Julie” in mid-1965 on Philips. In it's first release as a promotionoal single of the detergent "ROL", in which "Julie" is backed with an instrumental number by another artist (Gerasimos Lavranos - Corfu Jenka). The Phillips-ROL label 45s were given away to promote ROL laundry detergent! Their next 45 was also released on both Philips and ROL, both sides included this time. Sweet “Polly” / “Just Remember”, both excellent garage numbers, with fantastic farfisa organ playing and good harmonies. The fact that the Group never played live bevore helped in the creation of a legend about them. But the lack of appearances in clubs or concerts was the reason for poor sales of there ;other singles. Their first ever concert took place in May of 1966, when their Hit Single "Julie" had already been forgotten. Two of the main members (Petridis & Louloudis) left the group. They where replaced from a duet Manolis & Lia Laoutari. With this change in the lineup in 1967, their music developed with more psychedelic and folk influences. They stopped singing in English and wrote songs with Christian themes to the lyrics. The Blue Birds participatet in 1972 in the National Song Festival of Saloniki with the song "Ξύλινος Σταυρός" (Wooden Cross). In total the Bluebirds released thirteen 45s and one LP album, "Οδός Αγάπης ενταύθα". In 1976 they disbanded after a second try at the National Song Festival, ironicaly with the song "Πάμε καλά" (We are doing great).