Trivia / Vangelis

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• Creator Killer: Vangelis killed Aphrodite's Child, the band he was in in the late '60s, by composing the double Concept Album 666 that sent the band into Prog Rock against everyone else's will. The album was completed in 1969, but the band's record company turned it down and wasn't willing to release it until 1972. The band stalled in the meantime. Vangelis didn't want to return to the band's old sound, the rest of the band didn't want to stick with the new sound, and there was no point in recording more albums when the band already had one in limbo already. Unable to do anything sensible, the band split in 1971. It didn't live to experience 666 becoming a Breakthrough Hit with an entirely new audience, but Vangelis was free to start a new solo career.
• He Also Did:
  • He was the percussionist and keyboardist of Aphrodite's Child, a band of London-based Greeks, before he became world-famous as the instrumental musician Vangelis.
  • He was one half of the synth-pop duo Jon & Vangelis; Jon Anderson of Yes was the other half.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: By far most of Vangelis' enormous musical output has never been released as albums or compilations. Bootlegs recorded from video tape were the only way to obtain his post-Chariots of Fire soundtracks for quite a while. He only released the Blade Runner soundtrack because people simply didn't stop asking for it, not even after he threw them a bone with Themes which only contains the "Love Theme" and the "End Titles". The soundtrack album itself only contains the popular "Main Titles" as an excerpt, so bootlegging was the only possible way of obtaining them in their entirety until The Collection was released in 2012.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In 1973, after Aphrodite's Child had split, Vangelis was asked by Jon Anderson to become Yes' new keyboardist after they had thrown Rick Wakeman out. He turned the offer down because he was done with bands, but he kept collaborating with Anderson as Jon & Vangelis.
  • He was sought out to compose Blade Runner 2049, but he turned it down.

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