The Blue Birds formed in the port town of Piraeus, near Athens. They were one of the first Greek garage bands, releasing a national hit “Julie” in 1965 on Philips. The flip, “Way to Heaven” is supposed to be a good, moody song, but I haven’t heard it because I have the ROL release, in which Julie is backed with an instrumental number by different band. The 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” are both excellent garage numbers, with fantastic farfisa organ playing and good harmonies.

Two other early singles are highly rated, but with a change in lineup in 1967, their music developed with psychedelic and folk influences. They stopped singing in English and wrote songs with Christian themes to the lyrics. In total the Bluebirds released thirteen 45s and one fine album, Xylinos Stavros (Wooden Cross).

The following list of band members is adapted from an autotranslation of a good list of 60’s bands in Greece.

* BLUE BIRDS (1964, Piraeus)
Giorgos Petrides: Vocals (-1967, + Lj’a Laoyta’ri)
Yannis Bjmoppoylos: Guitar, Vocals
Leonidas Loyloy’dis: Bass (-1967, Manolis Laoyta’ris)
Swkra’tis Ardava’nis: Organ
Gavrj’lis Pantzi’s: Drums (-1972, + Nikos Kalogera’kis)

* BLUE BIRDS (1964, Πειραιάς)
Γιώργος Πετρίδης: Τραγούδι (-1967, + Λία Λαουτάρη)
Γιάννης Ψιμόπουλος: Κιθάρα, Τραγούδι
Λεωνίδας Λουλούδης: Μπάσο (-1967, Μανώλης Λαουτάρης)
Σωκράτης Αρδαβάνης: Όργανο
Γαβρίλης Παντζής: Ντραμς (-1972, +Νίκος Καλογεράκης)