Tzimis Panousis

Jimis Panousis (1954-2018) was a singer, composer, and musical theater actor, known for his caustic and subversive humor. He was born in Athens on February 12, 1954, to parents from Asia Minor—Theodoros and Fotini—and grew up in Cholargos. In 1973, he found a job in a touring theater company through a classified ad. He later left the company to work as an employee at the National Bank, from which he resigned shortly after, as they refused to grant him unpaid leave. Self-taught in music, he made his first attempts in the music field while still in high school. In the mid-1970s, he formed the band "Mousikes Taxiarchies," consisting of himself (vocals, lyrics, music) and Spyros Pazios (guitar, synthesizer, strings), Giannis Drolapas (electric guitar), Vangelis Vekios (drums), and Dimitris Daskalothanasis (bass). Later, Van Svarnas (saxophone) joined the group. The band's first performance took place in January 1981 at the "Ah Maria" club in Exarchia, and their first album was "Mousikes Taxiarchies," released in 1982 (MINOS/EMI). Earlier, in 1980, he had independently released "Disco Tsoutsouni" on cassette. Subsequent albums included "An i Giagia mou eiche Rouleman," 1984, "Hard Core" (live recording), 1985. After their next album, "Kagkela Pantou," 1986, the band disbanded, and Panousis decided to continue solo, with a changing lineup of musicians that included only Spyros Pazios from the original group. In 1987, he released the album "Chimeia kai Terata" (MINOS/EMI), followed by "Douleies tou Kefaliou"/"The Greatest Kitsch, Live!", 1990 (Music Box), "O Roben ton Chazon," 1992 (Music Box), "Vivere Pericolosamente," 1993 (Warner), "Me Lene Popi" (live recording), 2000, "Deigma Dorean," Metro magazine, 2002 (CD with unreleased songs from his live performances). In January 2009, a double DVD was released featuring the filmed performance "Tis Patridas mou i Simaia," held at the Glass Music Theater in 2008. In the spring of 2015, Mousikes Taxiarchies reunited for a series of performances at "Kyttaro," after a 30-year absence. Besides music, Panousis occasionally engaged in radio, television, and cinema. He worked as a radio producer at stations such as Top FM, Kanali 15, Oh FM, Flash 9.61, SKAI 100.3, City FM 99.5. His TV show "Koritsia o Jimis," which was supposed to air in 1995 on ET2, was "cut," but clips were occasionally shown during his TV interviews. He appeared in the series "Deka Mikroi Mitsoi" by Lakis Lazopoulos. In cinema, he starred in the film "O Drakoulas ton Exarcheion" (1981) by Nikos Zervos, along with the rest of Mousikes Taxiarchies, and appeared as a guest star in the films "Iniochos" (1995) by Alexis Damianos, "Prostatis Oikogeneias" (1997) by Nikos Perakis, and "Safe Sex" (1999) by M. Reppas-Th. Papathanasiou. As an author, he wrote and published the following books: "The Dizziness of Classes" (Gnosis, 1989, 40 stories of "radio fantasy" that were broadcast on the show "Trojan Sound" on Top FM during 1988-89), "Bitter-Little Black Boy" (Opera, 1990, a 22-episode soap opera broadcast on "Trojan Sound" in the summer of 1989), "The Hunt for the Girlfriend" (Opera, 1992, featuring 30 short female biographies), "Healthy Perversion" (Opera, 1996, marking 20 years of his artistic creation, with an included music CD and the complete lyrics of his songs, interviews, etc.), "Alternative Almanac 2002: Moron Labe" (Metro magazine, 2002), "Petty Bourgeois Disaster" (Opera, 2005), "Believe and Do Not Question" (Opera, 2005), "Stalin Thinks of You in the Kremlin" (2010), "Magic Baff, The Jeffrey Hurricane" (2013). In 2011, he returned to radio with a daily half-hour satirical show on political events titled "Trojan Sound," which began with the line "American lackeys, Swiss-hearted, punks, snitches, journalists, free besieged professionals, your time has come: Avanti pomolo!" (with the musical backdrop of "Avanti Popolo"). His anarchic and irreverent humor often brought Panousis into conflict with censorship, until its abolition in 1984, as well as with the law, where he was occasionally accused of insulting authority, insulting and offending national symbols, blasphemy, slander against singer George Dalaras, among others—charges from which he was acquitted in all cases, either in the first or second instance, except for the dispute with G. Dalaras. He was prohibited from mentioning the latter's name in his performances. In June 2017, he participated in the performance of Aristophanes' "Peace" at Epidaurus with the National Theatre, directed by K. Arvanitakis. In the early hours of Saturday, December 2, 2017, while participating in a musical performance at "Kyttaro," he suffered an atrial fibrillation attack and subsequently cardiac arrest during his transport to the hospital. However, the doctors managed to revive him, and on December 11, a pacemaker was implanted. Nevertheless, his heart ultimately could not endure: he passed away from cardiac arrest on the afternoon of Saturday, January 13, 2018, at the age of 63.