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Flowers Of Romance - 1996 - Brilliant Mistakes
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THE FLOWERS OF ROMANCE A brief history of the band as written by mrs Darkness: Flowers Of Romance was one of the most successful groups to emerge from the Greek rock scene of the 1990s. They started more or less as a pure punk band (although already their first album, Dorian Grey, showed signs of poppiness and gothic influences as well), then moved closer to traditional gothic rock with the album Pleasure & The Pain and then exploded into a gazillion of styles, combining missionesque riffs, gloomy atmospheres, and electronic pulses with a newly-found love for jazz, industrial, and spaghetti-western film scores.
The band was originally formed on February 2nd, 1981 by members Mike Pougounas-vocals (later will perform keyboards and synthesizers but played the bass when needed), Tasos Dimitriadis-bass and Costas Venos-guitar and were named after Sid Vicious's band (of the pre-Sex Pistols era). Recruiting George Venizelos on the drums, they started gigging regularly and quickly gained a number of followers in the punk rock scene and the university circles with their a la Dead Boys/Lords Of The New Church style. Trying to put down the Flowers Of Romance would be ridiculous as Greece was never a friendly ground for greek bands with english lyrics, playing rocknroll, gothic, new wave, punk rock or whatever you wanna call it. Cause you see, there aren't any famous bands coming from good old Greece that people heard of, except maybe Vangelis, Aphrodite's Child and this means we go a long way back.
It was not until 1988 that the Flowers Of Romance finally obtained a record deal and released their first track Autumn Kids on the compilation "12 Raw Greek Groups", followed in 1990 by the album Dorian Grey. The catchy ditties with distinct, memorable guitar riffs and tight, mesmerizing rhythm sections of Dorian Grey, will get you a complete and pretty meaningful overview of the band's earliest days. Having a talented songwriter (Mike Pougounas who was the only one from the original line up to make it to the first album) and a highly professional rhythm section in every release of theirs, the Flowers Of Romance did everything well, enough to earn their legendary status in Greece and partly in some European countries. They recorded the Love Means Death EP in 1992 with bass player Harry Stavrakas, who became a full-time member to stay with the band till the end. The 7" single "Winter Waltz"/"Pleasure & The Pain" was released in 1993 to be followed by their second album, "Pleasure & the Pain". The album was released on vinyl for Greece and on CD in Germany (the German CD included 4 bonus tracks). Both these first two albums got distribution in Australia too and several songs of the band appeared on German, English and Scandinavian compilations. During 1995, Wayne Hussey came in charge of the production of the band's third album, "Brilliant Mistakes". By that time, the line up was: Mike Pougounas, Harry Stavrakas, Jim Koukas (drums) and Aki Hadziantoniadis (guitars) The album was released late in 1996 in Greece and early next year Hyperium Germany, released a cd single titled "Channel Z" to be followed by the album "Brilliant Mistakes" (promoting the band as the Mission epigons). It is obvious that Wayne Hussey is doing backing vocals and some guitar parts. The album was recorded in Greece and Wayne's studio, Swirlsound - Bristol, engineered by Steve Whitfield. Rumor has it that "Brilliant Mistakes" attracted the interest of american producer/musician Bill Laswell.
Lots of information were spread in the media of a Mission/Flowers Of Romance European tour back in those days but nothing realy happened. One thing is for sure, Flowers supported the Sisters Of Mercy and New Model Army in 1997 to break up in 1998 when Mike Pougounas left the band to launch both the industrial goth band Nexus and his own record label, Cyberdelia Records (released the Mission's album, "Aura" in Greece and Cyprus). Both, Nexus and Cyberdelia Records no longer exist since 2005. A new band was formed in 2006, by ex- Flowers and Nexus members called New Zero God, including Flowers Of Romance matterial in their playlist.
LP/CD DORIAN GREY (Only on vinyl released in Greece) PLEASURE & THE PAIN (vinyl for Greece/CD with extra tracks in Germany ) BRILLIANT MISTAKES (Only CD both in Greece and Germany too) 12" EP LOVE MEANS DEATH (Only Greece) 7" PLEASURE & THE PAIN / WINTER WALTZ (Only in Greece) CD SINGLE CHANNEL Z (Only in Germany)
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