London Greek Radio

Another Excuse To Party

This event is sponsored by:

Skyler Lounge, TV Magic Box, The London Landlord and Vic Smith Beds.

Never been to an LGR Club Nights party before?
Take a look at some of the highlights from a past event:

To purchase tickets for this event, click here.

Greek singer Demis Roussos, who became popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s, has died in an Athens hospital at the age of 68. The singer had been in hospital with an undisclosed illness for some time.

Roussos was well known for many songs, including Forever and Ever, Goodbye and Quand je t’aime.

He began his music career aged 17 in a band called The Idols, where he met his future Aphrodite’s Child band mates.

His band mate Vangelis paid tribute with a touching message: “Demis my friend. Nature gave you this magic voice of yours which made millions of people around the world very happy”. He continued: “As for me, I keep those special memories that we share together those early days and I wish you to be happy wherever you are”.

Greek singer Nana Mouskouri paid tribute on French radio: “He had a superb voice, he traveled in the world … he loved what he was doing”.

John Karayiannis ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’

Cyprus will select our song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 via the route of the live Cypriot Eurovision Song Project which airs on 1st of February in Nicosia. While if you twitter savvy you are sure to have thought at using the hash-tag #EurovisionCY for news on the auditions and Eurochallenge semi-finals (on the CyBc), moreover, 55 entries will be eventually cut to six finalists and our song will be decided by public opinion and judge for who wins…

Mike Connaris, a London Cypriot song-writer has made it all the way to top 6 with his acoustic ballad he penned for Cypriot singer John Karayiannis called ‘One Thing I Should Have Done‘ featuring in a really good line-up of songs eyeing the huge prize of becoming our island’s entry which heads to Austria in the spring. 

Mike’s already written himself into Cypriot Eurovision folklore for his Top 5th result, equaling our best ever, with Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in 2004, noting he has an English mother and Cypriot father from Lekkoniko in his biography.

He unearthed male soloist John who is 21 years-old born and bred in Limassol, with the signature look of black, thick-framed spectacles and he recorded the tune at Mcasso Music in Great Marlborough Street and suiting his modern ballad style…

John Karayiannis (left), Mike Connaris (right) celebrate their success at the audition with 4 yes ”votes”

John was introduced to Mike by Christos Kyriakides, who runs a successful music school of the same name in Limassol. Mike was very impressed with John’s voice and invited him to London. After getting to know John, and working closely in the studio with him, Mike set about writing a song especially for John. The song is about regret, but with a twist because it’s not until the end of the song that the real truth comes out. It makes you realise that in a relationship you should look back with no regrets, and always be honest.

The song has a pleasant touch of acapella which is stripped-back to show us John’s crisp really strong vocal, which is adding to the honest and captivating feel to the tune. He knows precisely where the camera lens is and is performing directly to it and each of us are bought into his song and verse…

John explained to LGR his goal of flying the Cypriot flag in Eurovision with his opinion on the song… 

”As soon as Mike played me the song, I knew this was for me. I just loved the simplicity in the track and beautiful melody… and lyrics… well that was me! I would love to represent Cyprus in ESC – and I would be so proud to get the support of the Cyprus public to send me there with Mike’s beautiful song”.

”John is one the best young vocalists I have ever worked with. I’ve known him for 6 months now, and his voice just improves with every session/video. John can eclipse Lisa in Eurovision for Cyprus, I have no doubts. But the hardest task ahead is winning the Cyprus Eurovision Song Project. But he’s getting there! John has the potential to become Cyprus’s biggest music export – he will become a true international star in the future for sure”, explained Mike about his Eurovision ambitions… 

John has applied to Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was put through auditions and managed to succeed and got accepted. At 6 years-old he discovered music writes his biography, and passed Grade 8 vocals exams with a Distinction and attained 1st place in Cypriot island-wide competitions. He even tried his shot at junior Eurovision at the age of 14 and now he aims to go much further… well all the way to Vienna… the Cypriot final result will be decided by public voting at 50% and judges 50% which airs on Sunday, 1st of February at 19:30 GMT.

Cyprus competes in Eurovision Semi-Final 2 on Thursday 21st May, and the UK can vote for the 10 qualifiers… reaching Saturday night, the 23rd of May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, 8pm GMT.  

You can check out more news of John Karayiannis by heading to the official web-site at johnkarayiannis.com and facebook.com/JohnKarayiannis.Music and twitter.com/JohnKarayiannis.

British High Commissioner in Cyprus Ric Todd has pointed out that the British Government supports efforts to bring the tragedy of the missing persons in Cyprus to a close, acknowledging the importance of trust and respect between the two communities in a viable Cyprus solution.

According to a press release issued by the British High Commission, Todd met on Monday with a delegation of the Community Council of the occupied village of Ashia. Speaking during the meeting, the Commissioner said that the relatives of the missing persons in Cyprus can always rely on the UK to keep raising the humanitarian issue, adding that every day he is struck by how extremely close the human ties between Cyprus and Britain are.

Furthermore he expressed the full support by Britain to the work of theCommittee on Missing Persons (CMP). Todd expressed his gratitude to the relatives of the missing of the village of Ashia, for their presentation noting that “diplomats have to remember”.

The delegation presented the HC with a petition.

According to the recent report of the UN Secretary General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus, as at 18 December 2014, the Committee’s bicommunal teams of archaeologists had exhumed the remains of 948 missing persons on both sides of the island and the remains of 564 individuals have been returned to their respective families, including 135 during the reporting period (June-December 2014). The total number of missing persons identified in 2014 now stands at 157, the highest in any given year, it is noted.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory.

Michelle Janes (Abstract Artist)

I was so pleased that one of my favorite pieces was snapped up at a recent charity event at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green.

“Emerald Light” is an optimistic vision where colour rather than substance was applied to achieve what some admirers have called “exuberant”.

The finished product was adapted from the original abstract painting to create a limited edition print. I decided to print on a diasec format in order to achieve the maximum gloss effect … a face mounting process that allows photographs to be bonded directly and permanently to Acrylic sheet.

The art work was Photograhed by the World famous firm John Jones and mounted by Kay mounting.

The piece was sold to a private buyer at the annual dinner dance of a charity which raises funds for children with special needs. The Chairman of SYNDESMOS ATOMON ME EIDIKES ANANGES John Kyriakides was delighted with the sale and commented afterwards “the proceeds will help to pay for social excursions and activities which mean so much to the children .”

The dinner was attended by local dignitaries and to all accounts was a great success.

The Council of Ministers in Nicosia decided on Wednesday to explore the soonest possible the prospects of establishing a new Cypriot private company which will bear the logo and the name of Cyprus Airways, after the airline closed down last Friday, following a European Commission decision ordering it to pay back over €100 million in state aid it had received in previous years.

Deputy Government Spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said after today’s Cabinet meeting that the goal is to enhance air links between Cyprus and overseas destinations, create new jobs for the former Cyprus Airways employees and use the brand name and logo of Cyprus Airways.

“After this decision we begin the process to find a new investor based in Cyprus so that a new company can operate and adopt the logo and the name of Cyprus Airways”, he added.

Replying to questions, Papadopoulos said that following the decision of the European Commission, no problems have been reported as regards air travel or reservations as it has happened in similar cases in other countries.

On the 9th of January 2015 the European Commission announced that Cyprus Airways would have to pay back over €100 million in state aid it had received in previous years as it gave the company an undue advantage over its competitors in breach of EU rules.

Cypriot Finance Minister Harris Georgiades has said that ailing national air carrier Cyprus Airways will stop its operations since following the European Commission decision the company was “no longer an active economic entity”.

The UN Secretary General’s special adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide (pictured) acknowledged Wednesday that President Nicos Anastasiades has made a positive contribution to the efforts for the resumption of the UN-led talks, aiming at reuniting the island, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The President has suspended his participation to the talks in response to Turkey`s violation of the Republic’s exclusive economic zone, where Cyprus has already licensed drilling.

“I think we should see that a step has been taken by Mr. Anastasiades and that`s something to build further on. I now call on all sides and also the Turkish Cypriot side to recognize this”, he said, adding that these will be issues that he would bring to the Security Council`s attention in a week and a half.

He explained that until recently there was no agreement on whether hydrocarbons should be discussed as part of the negotiations and Anastasiades has made a constructive contribution saying that towards the end of the negotiations all issues will be on the table.

Eide expressed also his increased concern because as he said “things are not moving and I`m afraid that as they are not moving they are de facto moving in the wrong direction”.

Saying that the two leaders are strongly arguing in favour of return to the talks, he added that the problem is that they have not been able to sort out the factors in the right order so that the talks can actually start.

The UN special envoy said also that it is a sad paradox that there is much more agreement on the future, something that prevents the sides to actually moving towards the future over which there is quite a lot of agreement, particularly on the issue of hydrocarbons where the issues of federal competence and share revenues was already established.

“But despite of that, we are seeing a prolonged crisis over hydrocarbons which serves no one and which takes us nowhere”, he said.

The UN envoy expressed regret that “we were not able to use the small window of opportunity that we have, when there was no drilling and no NAVTEX at the same time” due to a number of factors
that made this impossible, adding however that he would not give up.

He added that the difference on the issue of hydrocarbons is so deep that it prevents any direct talks about anything, saying that this is highly unfortunate. Eide said that there are other issues in which the disagreement is much higher than hydrocarbons, because there is already agreement on the issue and the leaders keep reiterating that hydrocarbons belong to all Cypriots and will be shared on basis of existing agreements between Talat – Chrisofias and Anastasiades – Eroglu.

“These issues would actually not be problematic in the table if we were there”, he said, adding that issues of property and territory are more difficult.

On the 26th of January, Eide will brief the Security Council in New York on the Cyrpus issue, and as he said “I will give as honest and genuine representation of what is going on here”. He added that he would urge cooperation from not only the sides in Cyprus but all other states to help to create the conditions necessary for a speedy resumption of talks.

Eide said that there`s no purpose of just talking, but there`s a need for the resumption of the talks with the purpose of actually getting somewhere and talked about the need for a structured agreement for the talks process within a time line that would allow him to go back to the Council a second time and make observations about “how well we are doing and how we find a solution”.

Turkey issued in October last year a Navtex for illegal seismic research in Cyprus` offshore Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). After this provocative move, President Anastasiades decided to suspend his participation in the UN-led peace talks until the Turkish seismic vessel Barbaros leaves Cyprus` EEZ.

Turkey, whose troops occupy Cyprus’ northern part since they invaded in 1974, does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, in spite of numerous calls by the EU, which Ankara aspires to join, to do so and normalize relations with Nicosia.

St Andrew the Apostle School celebrated Theophany and the start of the new term with a special assembly led by school chaplains, Fr Damian Konstantinou and Fr John Hookway.

After a reminder of the significance of the Great Feast, students and staff joined in the prayers. They were then blessed with Holy Water by Fr Damian.

Headteacher Robert Ahearn said: “We are so grateful for the continuing support of the Greek Orthodox Church. We were very blessed by our chaplains and the way students are taking such an active interest in their faith. We’re really looking forward to the new term.”

An artificial reef, to be constructed by Larnaca Tourism Development & Promotion Company in the town`s coastal areas, will take the form of a great historic battle.

According to CNA sources, the company`s plans, which are being prepared in cooperation with an expert, will be submitted soon to the Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Ministry to request funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

So far three regions in Larnaca are claiming the creation of this unique project for Cyprus. They are Pyla – Oroklini area, the Kastella area and an area in front of Larnaca International Airport.

The main criteria for selecting the site will be based on various parameters such as accessibility, water purity and cost, which is estimated to be very high since the creation of an artificial reef does not merely include the sinking of an old ship.

The materials that will be used for the construction of the project should aim to reinforce the seabed`s diversity and upgrade the diving tourism product.

As the UN Secretary-General`s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide is expected to wrap up his meetings in Cyprus today, Turkish journalists have shown interest if the UN Secretary General`s report on Cyprus, which was unofficially given to members of the Security Council, will become an official document.

During Tuesday`s press briefing the UNSG`s Deputy spokesman Farhaq Haq told reporters that the UNFICYP report, is scheduled to be presented to the Security Council but he did not think it is a public document yet “but hopefully that will happen fairly shortly”.

Asked about Eide`s visit to Cyprus, Haq said he will give more information if he receives updates once Eide meets with the two leaders.

Eide who is currently on the island, is scheduled to meet President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday he had a meeting in the Turkish occupied north with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.

The purpose of Eide`s visit is to ascertain directly from the leaders their views on the current impasse in the talks and prospects for its resolution. The deadlock comes after Turkey`s decision to extend its Navtex notification in Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone for illegal exploration for hydrocarbon reserves until the 6th of April 2015.

The Special Adviser also plans to use the trip to prepare his briefing to the Security Council, scheduled on 26 January, in view of the renewal of the UNFICYP`s mandate which expires on the 31st of January.

Turkey, whose troops occupy Cyprus’ northern part since they invaded in 1974, does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, in spite of numerous calls by the EU, which Ankara aspires to join, to do so and normalize relations with Nicosia.