Anestis Delias 1912-2012

Anestis Delias, (real surname Delios) also known as "Artemis" was perhaps the most tragic figure in the field of rebetiko. He was born in Smyrna in 1912 and died in Athens of a heroin overdose in July 1944. He came from a musical family. His grandfather, Sideris Delios, played the violin, his father Panais (nickname Black Cat) the santouri and his uncle Michael, violin.

Anestis, with his mother Photeina, pregnant with his younger sister Helen, and another sister, Stella, were refugees in Greece after the destruction of Smyrna, while his father was killed by the Turks. In Greece Anestis worked at various jobs to sustain his family.
He was a self-taught musician. Initially he played guitar, and then baglama and bouzouki from 1930.

Around 1930 he worked in a taverna in Drapetsona. There he met many of the older bouzouki players such as Nikos Aivaliotis, Skourtis the printer, etc. and younger players like Markos Vamvakaris and Stratos Pagioumtzis. He participated in the first Rembetika Kompania with Markos Vamvakaris, Giorgos Batis and Stratos Pagioumtzis (the Famous Four of Piraeus), which appeared in the Sarantopoulos Yard at the "Resurrection of Piraeus" in 1934. Then he met Daisy Stavropoulou, and fell madly in love with her.

 the Famous Four

A fatal role was played in his life, from 1937 by an acquaintance, a prostitute from the brothel Vourla K. Skoularika (or Skoularikou )who dealt him some junk. Vain attempts were made by his friend Mitsos Karadakias (bouzouki, composer of the famous song "Once come about", who was murdered in 1942) to help him quit the junk. In 1938 Michalis Genitsaris found him exiled as a junkie in Neo. He helped him to quit the junk. When he returned from exile, to escape the Skoularikou scene, he left with Daisy Stavropoulou for Thessaloniki. He worked there for a short time and eventually left Daisy in Thessaloniki (where she was discovered by Tsitsanis and built her recording career), and returned to Athens and junk. With the help of Stratos Pagioumtzis and Bagianderas he managed to cut out the drugs again, but only for a while.

 Anestis in the 40's

In the summer of 1944 he was playing at the Vlachou, with Stratos and Genitsaris. Despite the hunger and misery Anestos still took heroin. One morning he was found dead, supposedly by the council refuse cart operators, outside of the teke Ntanakouli Metaxourghio, with his bouzouki.

Anestis Delias was a gifted musician, who created and played heavy rebetika songs, mostly about the life of the mangas, hashish, wine and women. Only six of his songs have been recorded, because since 1937, rebetika songs were banned by the Metaxas government censorship.

source: http://rebetiko-walrus.blog.co.uk