STAGES A/LIVE presents Last Drive at GAGARIN 205

Gagarin 205 took its name from cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin – the first human to journey into outer space and orbit the Earth, in 1961. This major concert venue opened its doors to the public in September 2002. It sits at the heart of the Greek capital, at 205 Liosion Street and, at capacity, can host 1,200 people standing, or 600 seated. Inaugurating its activities on September 27, 2002 with Barry Adamson’s first solo appearance in Greece, the venue has now been operating for 23 seasons. In overview, the last years have seen more than 2.500 different events held in the space, including: concerts from across the spectrum of the contemporary Greek and international scenes, DJ sets, music and film festivals, tributes to directors and film screenings, record label parties, and more. An average of more than 100,000 tickets each year marks the Gagarin 205 Live Music Space as the undisputed benchmark leader among concert spaces – and arts spaces more generally – in the Greek capital.

• 1983: Alexis “Alex K” Kalofolias (vocals, bass), Nikos Nick “Pop Mind” Kapetanopoulos (guitar), Panos “P.E.P.P” Kasiaris (guitar), Christos “Chris B.I.” (drums), all of them steeped in an explosive cocktail with equal parts garage, punk and rockabilly, take to the stage of Rodeo Club on 27 December. And their name (inspired by the cocktail of the same name at the bar Snowball): The Last Drive.
• 1984: Giorgos B.George Bop Karanikolas, a distinctive figure of the Athenian underground of the time, joins the ranks of the band as guitarist and vocalist. The line up of the first period stabilizes with Kalofolias, Karanikolas, Kapetanopoulos and Michalatos.
• 1985: On Valentines Day they record three songs: “Poison”, “Midnite Hop”, “Right By My Side”. Nikos Kontogouris, a venerable music writer and owner of the record shop “Art Nouveau” and the independent label of the same name, releases them. The historic seven inch Midnite Hop is the first proof on vinyl of the existence of a band that does not play like any other.
• 1986: In Robert Williams's studio they record their first LP. “Underworld Shakedown” also contains two demonic covers (“Misirlou” and “The Night of the Phantom”) and is released under the tag of the newly founded Hitch Hyke (which would go on to become one of the most important Greek labels), leaving the garage world speechless.
• 1987: In the wake of the glowing reviews of “Underworld Shakedown” in the European underground press, the first European tour begins. Nine people in a van, fifteen concerts in one month, one-of-a-kind moments in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, where they play together with the Fuzztones and the Vietnam Veterans. “Real madness,” as they themselves have said.
• 1988: Theodoros Angelopoulos chooses “Every night” and “The night of the phantom” from “Underworld Shakedown” for the film “Landscape in the Mist”. The groundbreaking proposal on the part of the great director, given that in the 80s things were still polarized between “non serious rock” and “serious high art”, led to two historic film sequences.
• 1988: Kapetanopoulos leaves, Kasiaris returns to the guitar. Hitch Hyke releases “Heatwave”, produced by the leader of the Fleshtones Peter Zaremba, with eight original explosive songs and a shattering cover of Bob Dylan's “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Soon the album would be reissued with a different cover by the German company Music Maniac, with their reputation as one of the toughest outfits of the European garage punk scene growing.
• 1989: One month before the Wall fell they play at the Berlin Independence Days festival and record the Time EP. “You could feel in the air that something was coming to an end. The city was like a coiled spring and everyone, on both sides of the Wall, seemed to have realised that things were going to change for good. Again in 91, when we were touring Germany with “Dead Moon”, the now unified Berlin was a city in a state of shock; the old eastern part was an urban desert where former East German neo-nazis were wandering around and the old western part was drowning in MTV rock.” Thus spoke Alexis Kalofolias.
• 1990: With Paul B Cutler of The Dream Syndicate as producer, “Blood Nirvana” is released and marks an important change in their sound. Their garage punk is now noticeably heavier and harder and “Overloaded”, “The Bad Roads”, “Holy War”, “Slave to the wave” and “Fleshdiver” leave nothing standing…
• 1992: Kasiaris leaves for good, Thanos “T. H. Lime” Amorginos joins the game on guitar and with Paul B. Cutler again as producer they persist in a hard and dark direction. “Killhead therapy” alone would be enough for F*Head Entropy, their last album for Hitch Hyke, to be considered a devastating classic today. But we are also dealing here with absolutely sinful tracks like “Shot With Crystal Balls In My Hands”, “8Ball”, “Sinner”...
• 1993: Blackmail, the rawest, most aggressive and most psychedelic side project of Giorgos Karanikolas, make their debut with the album “Life After Death”. By 2020 they will have released another five complete works, each one better than the last.
• 1994: Shortly after their historic concert at the West Club on 23 December for their tenth birthday, they finally part ways with Hitch Hyke Records. They release “Subliminal” via BMG, with the younger generation of their listeners, who grew up within the grunge framework of the 90s, swearing by its name. A year later they announce their breakup. Shock.
• 1995: Works by the great Pit Koutroubousis feature on the cover of “Subliminal”. This was the occasion for Kalofolias to secure a marathon interview of thousands of words from the emblematic writer and visual artist, for the independent magazine Merlins Music Box, and to this day it is considered one of the best ever published in the Greek press, independent or not.
• 2000: The debut by “The Earthbound” is released, the desert rock band formed by Kalofolias and Amorginos with members of Honeydive and Rockin Bones, a wonderful album that also includes covers of Kyuss and Woody Guthrie. They will release two more LPs, write the soundtrack for Antonis Kafetzopoulos’s film “Stakaman” and in 2009 they will pass into history.
• 2007: The band that changed the landscape of rock and roll in Greece makes the long awaited reunion happen with a wild two-day live stint at Gagarin 205. The driving force in this second period is not nostalgia and repetition, but an appetite for creation.
• 2009: Their sixth album “Heavy Liquid” “knocks you out” from the very first song, the instant classic “Glass of Broken Dreams”, while 32 talented Greek comic-book artists, graphic designers and visual artists draw inspiration from the songs on the LP and turn them into images in the collectible comic “At the Drive Ink”.
• 2013: Having released the EP “News From Nowhere” and after a few feverish shows in Berlin, they celebrate their thirtieth birthday in Athens and Thessaloniki, inviting to the stage legendary names such as Giannis Aggelakas, Dimitris Poulikakos, as well as members of Villa 21, Sound Explosion, Make Believe, Honeydive, Rockin Bones, Nightstalker, Deus Ex Machina and Adiexodo. At the Athens shows in particular, Fred and Toody Cole of Dead Moon are also present. Perhaps the wildest live parties ever held in Greece.
• 2018: Nine years after “Heavy Liquid” and with Stefanos Flotsios replacing Amorginos on guitar, they return in force with the self-titled album that contains the masterpieces “Always The Sun”, “White Nuckles” and “Snakecharmer” and is rightly received with apotheosis.
• 2023: The must-have photo album “The Last Drive: Overloaded” (pub. Οξύ) is released, a unique undertaking in the history of Greek pop and rock, the life work of Dimitris Mylonas who has been photographing them since the dawn of the 90s. The 160 magical images are accompanied by personal texts by musicians, journalists, radio producers, writers and other members of Drive Tribe.
• 2025: Four decades after they first turned the key in the ignition and floored the accelerator, the circle closes with five historic, charged and incredibly powerful concerts at Gagarin, because the deep need of all the members is to say a thank you, an acknowledgement to all that has happened and all that will follow. No one will be left unmoved from the first note to the last encore.

Concept & Curation: Christos Sarris
Producer: Elena Choremi
Line Producer: Angie Avgeri
Production: Onassis Stegi

THE LAST DRIVE

Christos Michalatos (Chris B.I.): drums
Yiorgos Karanikolas: guitar, vocals
Alexis Kalofolias (Alex K.): vocals, bass
Stefanos Flotsios: guitar, backing vocals
Thanos Amorginos: guitar, backing vocals
Panos Kasiaris (P.E.P.P.): guitar, backing vocals

Sound Engineer (FOH): Tasos Tsobanis
Stage Crew: Jim Spliff, Dimitris Katevas, Panos Mariolopoulos, Nikos Ketzeas, Babis Amorginos
Production & Communication: Goodheart Productions
The Last Drive would like to thank: The Drive Tribe, Achilleas Stavrou, Christos Loukataris, Kristine Fine, Elena Kouverianou and the entire team of Goodheart Productions, all the staff at Gagarin 205, the video crew of Onassis Stegi, Urban Studios, Anda Theodorakaki, Anna Nikolaou, Anna Sfyri, Ira Stamatopoulou, Petros Voulgaris, Beatniks Road Bar

GAGARIN 205

Gagarin 205 Venue Manager: Stefanos Elpiziotis
Sound Engineers: Dimitrios Dimopoulos, Grigoris Prassas
Lighting Engineers: Melina Zervaki, Ioannis Christodoulakis

FILMING

Director & Cinematographer: Christos Sarris
Assistant Director & Camera: Dimitris Zivopoulos
Cameras: Vasia Anagnostopoulou, Koralia Dogani, Ioannis Mylonas, Nikos Staveris, Filippos Zamidis
Technical Manager: Giorgos Talianis
Robotic Cameras & DIT: Giorgos Kolios
Video Crew Assistant: Vasilis Tsionis
Audiovisual Equipment: DK Rental House, Rent Photo Video, Live On Air Productions
CINECRANE
Cablecam Camera Operator: Panos Tsigas
Cablecam Technicians: Stelios Tsirigotis, Nikos Vourliotis
Sound Recording: Jacopo Fokas, Kostas Ragiadakos
Sound Mix: Jacopo Fokas
Editor: Tryfon Karatzinas
Colorist: Manthos Sardis—Α10 Post Productions
Still Photographer: Pinelopi Gerasimou

We warmly thank The Last Drive for generously providing their archival material.

ONASSIS FOUNDATION

Artistic Director: Afroditi Panagiotakou
Executive Director: Dimitris Theodoropoulos

Head of Communication and Content: Demetres Drivas
Campaign Manager: Haris Giakoumakis
Content Leader: Alexandros Roukoutakis
Copy Editor: Evangelia Kolaiti
Website Editor: Despina Kalyvi
Social Media Manager: Vasilis Bibas
Social Media Editors: Alexandra Sarantopoulou, Daphne Skolarikou
Creative Head: Christos Sarris
Senior Motion Graphics Designer: Constantinos Chaidalis
Graphic Designers: Thomas Tsoulias
Media Officers: Vaso Vasilatou, Katerina Tamvaki
Junior Media Officer: Nefeli Tsartaklea-Kasselaki
Media Specialist: Maria Chalkia

LEGAL SERVICES

A.S. Papadimitriou & Partners Law Firm