How a reporter tracked down the Beatles in Greece
Labis Tsirigotakis’ account fleshes out our picture of the group’s trip – while raising a few additional questions
Read more:
Lord Goodman: Lawyer to the Beatles - and the prime minister
The intriguing inner circle of Alexis Mardas
Where was the Greek island the Beatles wanted? The evidence
In summer 1967, a young reporter for the Athens-based newspaper To Vima was tasked by his editor with tracking down the Beatles, who were believed to be in Greece.
The journalist, Labis Tsirigotakis, has since had a decades-long career as a London-based correspondent for his country’s state broadcaster, ERT. In the first chapter of his memoirs (published in Greek last year1), Tsirigotakis looks back at the Beatles’ visit to Greece and his reporting on it. His intriguing account of how he managed to locate the group’s base in Athens, and then kept up to date with their later movements, also sheds new light on several aspects of this topic – as I discuss below.
Though he appeared to be “a man genuinely troubled”, Lennon had a “kind smile” on his face
1. The Mardas family
Tsirigotakis’ breakthrough came when a contact told him that two Beatles had been spotted at an exclusive seaside apartment in Athens, booked in the name of Mardas.
After receiving this “golden information”, Tsirigotakis immediately looked up the surname in the phone book. The first entry was one Argyris Mardas – who the journalist describes as a retired air force officer with an address in Athens’ Papagou neighbourhood. Upon calling this number and being surprised to hear the English greeting “hello”, Tsirigotakis felt he could be on to something. So he asked to speak to Paul McCartney, while giving his own name as the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.
The fact that there was a pause before he received a negative answer strengthened his suspicions – and in an hour’s time the reporter was outside the house with a photojournalist. According to his memoirs, Tsirigotakis then hid in the garden with To Vima’s photographer until they saw Paul McCartney going for a stroll, apparently under the influence of LSD.
After striking up a conversation, the reporter was told by McCartney “that he was being hosted by Alexis Mardas and that he loved Greece a lot”, he writes. It was through this exchange, says Tsirigotakis, that he knew about the Beatles’ trip to Arachova and Delphi the next day – which he was then able to report on for To Vima.
Tsirigotakis doesn’t write much else about either Alexis or Argyris Mardas (which was the name of Alexis’ father). But his account highlights the role of the Mardas family in the Beatles’ visit.
2. Three possible islands
Tsirigotakis says he was told by John Lennon during the Beatles’ day trip to Arachova and Delphi (which was on Sunday 23 July) that the group had selected three islands that they were due to visit – though the Beatle couldn’t remember their names.
“From my own reporting,” Tsirigotakis adds, “I later learned that these three Greek islands were Agia Triada opposite Eretria, the Lichadonisia in north Evia, and Tsougria opposite Skiathos.”
In my research on this subject, I had narrowed down the range of islands that the Beatles may have been interested in to three possible locations. So I was reassured to see that Tsirigotakis names the same three.
3. But which one?
Tsirigotakis writes that the Beatles visited these islands by yacht two days later, “and their choice was the island of Tsougria”.
For me, this raises some questions. As I wrote recently for the Beatles historian Erin Torkelson Weber’s blog, I think there’s also a strong case for the Lichadonisia islands as the main focus of the group’s interest. While the issue gets quite complicated, here are two key reasons.
Firstly, Tsougria is about 290 acres big. This contrasts with numerous accounts from Beatles insiders, which describe the group being interested in a much smaller island – often said to have been about 80 acres big, and next to several even smaller islands. That description, which crops up in several accounts with minor variations, is a much closer match to the Lichadonisia than to Tsougria.
Secondly, a different Greek newspaper, Makedonia, reported on 29 July 1967 that while the Beatles were interested in Tsougria, this potential sale was blocked by the Greek government while they were still in Greece (the article includes a comment from Paul McCartney to this effect). But archive documents, as well as accounts from various Beatles insiders, suggest that negotiations over the purchase went on until several months after the group got back.
While Tsougria is frequently named as the Beatles’ chosen Greek island, I’ve never seen convincing explanations for how that is consistent with the points discussed above.
4. Official tourism involvement
I discussed in an article for the Journal of Beatles Studies last year how numerous references – such as “tourist people”, “tourist board”, or “tourism organisation” – in relation to the Beatles’ visit indicated the likely involvement of Greece’s National Tourist Office (abbreviated to EOT in Greek). Tsirigotakis’ account leaves even less room for doubt about this. He specifically states that the EOT, and its press director Nikos Katsaros, were involved with the Beatles’ day trip on 23 July. The journalist recalls that, as he followed the Beatles’ party with two photo-reporters:
“We played stealth warfare with the EOT’s press director Nikos Katsaros, who had ordered the gendarmerie to keep us far from the Beatles so that the EOT could have exclusive photographic material to use for the international promotion of Greece.”
This further evidence of the EOT’s involvement underlines how surprising it is that the Beatles’ trip apparently received official support at a time when Greece was run by a repressive military dictatorship, which disliked rock music and hippies.
5. Lennon’s state of mind
Some have suggested that the Beatles must have been politically detached to have visited Greece at this time. But from what Tsirigotakis writes, John Lennon at least appears to have been passionate about political topics. The journalist spoke to John when the group’s entourage stopped for to relax next to a lake en route to Arachova. He spotted the Beatle reading a book by Orwell, separate from the rest of the party and apparently “living in his own world”. Though he appeared to be “a man genuinely troubled”, Lennon had a “kind smile” on his face, writes Tsirigotakis.
The reporter realised from the conversation that “the world’s social inequalities” were bothering Lennon. He quotes the Beatle saying that in England, these were so large that they had “wounded me psychologically”. Lennon also reportedly railed against the “inhuman crimes” being carried out by American soldiers in Vietnam, commenting: “All of us must rise up against the war in Vietnam, in whatever way we can.”
According to Tsirigotakis’ account, John said that the situation in Britain had prompted him to consider living “in another country, in a more humane social environment”. This sentiment seems to have been deeply felt – though it’s highly debatable whether Greece at the time would have met Lennon’s criteria.
6. Julian’s present
In his book, Tsirigotakis gives a detailed account of his reporting on the Beatles’ activity while they were on the Greek mainland. The book itself doesn’t say much about the group’s later cruise around islands, though this is covered in detail in the reporter’s articles for To Vima at the time. I assume that Tsirigotakis wasn’t on the yacht with the Beatles himself – and yet he was able to write a series of near-daily reports about the journey, mentioning specific events and locations. So whatever sources he was relying on for that reporting seem to have been pretty well informed.
There is one puzzling aspect of those reports, however. Tsirigotakis twice refers to a birthday celebration for John Lennon’s son Julian - the party reportedly took place on 24 July 1967 while the Beatles were in Greece. However, Julian’s birthday is actually on 8 April. This confusion doesn’t seem to be limited to To Vima. In one article, Tsirigotakis refers to a renovated gypsy caravan which Lennon was giving to Julian for his birthday. Lennon did indeed make such a gift to his son – and it arrived at the family’s home in Surrey while they were in Greece (as was reported in the British media at the time). So perhaps for some reason, Julian did indeed have a belated birthday celebration at that time.
While I have asked Labis Tsirigotakis (who kindly gave me a copy of his book) if he can help clarify this, so far I haven’t managed to get to the bottom of the issue. So the explanation for this apparent anomaly - and for how Tsirigotakis learned the movements of the Beatles’ cruise - remains unclear.
Read more:
Lord Goodman: Lawyer to the Beatles - and the prime minister
'Alex said they could pay less tax in Greece’
Where was the Greek island the Beatles wanted? The evidence
Αναμνήσεις ζωής: Από τον Τζον Λένον στον Νέλσον Μαντέλα (2023)
Congrats on the Torkelson article. I haven't read it yet -- can you post the link?
My research, including some fairly significant "just in" info, potentially fills in the parts of your story that you suggest don't make sense, including the erroneous date of Julian's birthday party and their reasons for wanting to buy the island in the first place. (I highly doubt it had anything at all to do with the political situation in Vietnam or elsewhere.) I won't drop it here because it requires too much context, but I may write more about the Greek trip in the podcast then I'd originally intended.