Daily Chiofta

Memories of an oppressive school going through its own schizophrenic identity phase.

I went to MIDEM once in the late 1990s. This is the annual music gathering in Cannes, France and was full of coincidences for me.

2 important parts of our ethnic 60s and 70s TV diet...

A few thoughts on the most famous book on Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell.

My truck Sotiroulla is a double cabin and a saviour.

My life long love for a worldwide music that started in Jamaica...

A place deep in the heart of Nicosia old that I love to play at and some thoughts on people and places that just don't understand Reggae.

One of my life long passions...Radio...

A very special place in Gialia. A musician's utopia.

11th May 1981 is a sad day for music worldwide. The day Bob Marley died, I heard the news on a sound system at Essex University.

Around 1975 my brother George got a Skoda Coupe. Taking it for a first spin, excuse the pun, the rest as they say is history...

Living through a riot in a chippy, Liverpool 1981.

Riders are those things bands get before gigs. The more famous a band is the more elaborate the rider. Jeff Trump my drummer brother from San Francisco is an imaginative rider architect!

Names mean so much to us...we carry them for life...

Early 90s I interviewed Shaggy 3 times. Entertaining, clever and a total prankster!

Collecting records from age 14 I encountered a man in a shop who constantly called me John.

A powerful drink from Greece once taught me a simple lesson in life...Don't DJ when drunk!

My take on gigs that might go wrong...

My Saturdays....Greek School

Teaching Ithaka by Kavafy as told by Sean Connery...

The sirens wail again...

A collection of mini chioftes on things that happened during gigs in Cyprus.

The illegal industry in Cyprus that affected many musical careers.

On matters and encounters of the Imiskoumbrian kind...

My first case of inclass punishment - the crime - knowing how to dance Zorbas!

The Military Coup in Cyprus 15th July 1974 changed the course of history.

Kantonas ,Vrajes and a close shave with the law in Chingford.

Sugar's only live radio interview in Cyprus in 1997 started off with an eruption of laughter...

Good deeds always bring good vibes...

The notorious 9/8 rhythm that some cannot grasp.

My love for Sociology goes back to school and accidentally misprounouncing the word in Greek has become a Poumbouris family urban folk myth.

A painful story of infidelity, Maro-Maria, a song from my 2nd LP Aphrodite's Dream' and how the video clip got banned.

A great friend, DJ and supporter of my work since 1988.

I have known him since I was 12. Our friendship is like duracel batteries, it just goes on and on....

London was very different from Marathovouno and some things had to be learned the hard way...

The first day at school in Walthamstow was all about eyes...

The neighbours who took care of me and taught me so much.

The flight from Cyprus to London via Athens, at the age of 4 was traumatic.

The letter that changed the entire course of my life.

Travel is a very important part of my life which is thanks to my grandfather Poumbouris.

A visit to film maker Panicos Chrysanthou in Peladousa turned out to be a real cliffhanger.

Paphos is where it all began for me in Cyprus. I had an amazing time there in the summer of 1993. Lesson 1 was also learned...never cross a Paphian...

An encounter on a 29 bus with a Haringey Urban Legend.

Bands played a big role in the Wedding business in the UK.

Brox Broxenia the archaic practice of matchmaking caught on camera.

The arrival of video cameras as weddings meant everyone had a recird about bloumisha

judging people by how they talk or look has consequences

Every Saturday my mum had a routine, shopping the length of Walthamstow Market.

My lowest experience in Radio...

A customer picks the wrong fruit to steal from a Bakaliko in Dalston 1977.

Traveling the world you come across places and people with a Cyprus connection.

A true and harrowing chiofta on the writing of 'Stavroulla'.

My mum loved wrestling and my dad's cousin Milos, became a wrestler from the 1930s in England.

Toppouzos & Kantonas - friends for life. Early experiences of improvisation on stage...

Cypriots have some characteristic names and ways of reacting when they are innocent in a car crash.

An escapadecon teaching traditional Cypriot dancing.

A gig in the middle of nowhere in Chico - what goes around comes around.

The dread task of doing the zones.

My 'Fawlty Towers' moment as a waiter in 1982.

A tale of mispronounciation that could have led to an international incident!

A ten year old in a shoe factory in London Lane, Hackney E.8

When hair or lack of it becomes a criteria for playing bouzouki.

Haji can order a coffee at a wedding...but can Perry, his older brother, do the same?

Kataklysmos, Larnaca 1993/4 and being chased by 500 screaming teenagers.

Jimmys Panousis, Jimmys, Jimmako, legend!

Frank, a Jamaican Taxi Driver aka the Dancehall Reggae Wikipedia on 4 wheels.

Discovering you are from another planet by entering the wrong bar at University

My old Greek teacher at college told a good chiofta or two each week in class. This his most famous encounter is about misunderstanding everyday language.

a tale of the hard chick pea Blues...

Discos in Cyprus 1970s

You are what you declare - a self appointed singer from The Coffeeshop.

Set in the heart of Green Lanes, Haringey, Trehantiri Music, was the Chiofta centre of the community. It also had the largest Greek music selection in the world.

My grandmother Shenkou was a wise woman from Marathovouno, Mesaoria, Cyprus.

We arrive at the BBC on a cold snowy winter and file in one by one filling out name tags. Sugar is last...the rest is history.

A tale of one of the greatest singers of all time, Stelios Kazantzidis.

My first experience of teaching taught students and me how to connect in a better way.. Accents, don't you just love them...

Georges der Parthogh my dear friend taught me two key things...never judge a book by its cover and a chiofta a day keeps the doctor away.

A tale about the cat statues outside the Carera building in Mornington Crescent.

My first encounter with Gringlish as spoken by my mum to my aunt in Famagusta 1968

A true confession from a surviving vinyl addict

Where does the term "Charlie" come from

The day a taxi driver called Wagdi saved our lives in Port Said, Egypt.

The art of DJing in the digital age.

Nikos Papazoglou's first live performance in London - a landmark concert organised by Trehantiri Music with no tables and chairs!

Haji Mike has never done Eurovizion yet many people think he has...

Fate, the way things just happen sometimes is such a powerful thing...

Imagine you turn around, and Stevie Wonder's at the door...

Performing 'Mousiki' live in Jamaica 1996

Malibu the biggest disco in Cyprus - 1994 - when the champaigne flowed like a river

The one and only time I got slapped in a disco

My first ever detention...

A tale in memory of Sugar who fine tuned a song that changed my life...

The night when not playing Zorba the Greek saved our lives

Food is more important than disco lights!

a memory on a gig in Haringey...

everyone is an expert of the vine

Introducing the Daily Chiofta with Haji Mike