Jan 29, 2015

RhoDeo 1504 Goldy Rhox 194

Hello, today the 193th post of Goldy Rhox, classic pop rock. Todays artist in the blacklight is a Greek pop and rock singer who became an unlikely international star in the 70s and 80s, famed for his soaring, high-pitched voice and voluminous kaftans, who has died last weekend aged 68. He was a European superstar popular from Russia till Portugal, he has sold over 60 million albums worldwide and became "an unlikely kaftan-wearing sex symbol".

Today's mystery artist was born Artemios Ventouris in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek-origin parents who had also been born in Egypt. He studied music and sang in the city’s Greek church until, as a teenager, his parents were forced to move to Greece, penniless, following the Suez crisis.

In Athens, he played guitar and sang with the group, the Idols, later meeting Vangelis, who had a major influence on his career. As part of Aphrodite’s Child, he had planned to base himself in London but work permit problems meant the group ended up in Paris, and it was France where they became most successful.
When the group split following the recording of 666, our man began a solo career, having immediate success in 1971 with the single We Shall Dance.

His solo career peaked in the mid 1970s with several hit albums. His single "Forever and Ever" topped the charts in several countries in 1973. It was No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1976. Other hits were "My Friend the Wind", "My Reason", "Velvet Mornings", "Goodbye My Love, Goodbye", "Someday Somewhere" and "Lovely Lady of Arcadia". His first UK single to chart was in 1975: "Happy to Be on an Island in the Sun" written by an Englishman David Lewis with the record reaching No. 5 in the charts. His popularity in the rest of Europe, but not the UK, came to fascinate BBC TV producer John King who made a documentary entitled "The Phenomenon" in 1976. Philips Records released a four-song record of the same name, which was the first extended play to top the UK singles chart. He was equally successful across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Japan.

During much of his peak era mystery man cut a sometimes improbable figure in popular music with his significant girth, which reportedly peaked near 150kg. He later lost much of this and co-authored a diet book, A Question of Weight. In 1985 the singer was on a TWA flight from Cairo to the US that was hijacked by armed men seeking the release of Arab prisoners from Israeli jails.


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Most of the albums i 'll post made many millions for the music industry and a lot of what i intend to post still gets repackaged and remastered decades later, squeezing the last drop of profit out of bands that for the most part have ceased to exist long ago, although sometimes they get lured out of the mothballs to do a big bucks gig or tour. Now i'm not as naive to post this kinda music for all to see and have deleted, these will be a black box posts, i'm sorry for those on limited bandwidth but for most of you a gamble will get you a quality rip don't like it, deleting is just 2 clicks...That said i will try to accommodate somewhat and produce some cryptic info on the artist and or album.


Today's mystery album is the biggest million seller album of our mystery artist, it was first released late 1972 when he was at the top of his popularity, and contains hits like "My friend the wind", "My reason", "Velvet mornings", "Good bye, my love good bye" and the title song "Forever and ever". This lossless rip is from a 2013 remastered source and comes with 3 bonustracks...hey, at least you could burn your mother a cd.. N'Joy


Goldy Rhox 194 (flac 349mb)


Goldy Rhox 194 (ogg 123mb)

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