Vangelis developed an interest in music at age four, composing on the family piano and experimenting with sounds by placing nails and kitchen pans inside it and with radio interference.
At six his parents enrolled him for music lessons, but Vangelis later said that his attempts to study “failed” as he preferred to develop technique on his own.
He considers himself fortunate to have not attended music school, as it impedes creativity. He learned to play from memory. “When the teachers asked me to play something, I would pretend that I was reading it and play from memory. I didn’t fool them, but I didn’t care”, said Vangelis.
He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
He also found traditional Greek music as particularly important in his childhood, but at twelve developed an interest in jazz and rock.
At fifteen, he started to form school bands, not to cover other musicians but to have fun. He acquired his first Hammond organ at eighteen. In 1963, both he and three school friends started a five-piece rock band The Forminx (or The Formynx), playing cover songs and original material largely written by Vangelis with English lyrics by radio DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis. After nine singles and one Christmas EP, which found success across Europe, the group disbanded in 1966.
In 1980, he agreed to record the score for Chariots of Fire (1981); he accepted because “I liked the people I was working with. It was a very humble, low-budget film.”
The choice of music was unorthodox as most period films featured orchestral scores, whereas Vangelis’s music was modern and synthesiser-oriented. It gained mainstream commercial success which increased Vangelis’s profile as a result. The opening instrumental title piece, “Titles”, later named “Chariots of Fire – Titles”, was released as a single which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week after a five-month climb.
Should You Tip for Bad Service?
Should You Tip for Bad Service? By now, the workers at the La Fisherman restaurant in Houston, Texas are probably wishing they would have just let the whole thing go. But they didn’t, and now the story has been splattered all across the internet.
In case you missed it, a family went into the establishment for dinner and decided that the service they received was not worthy of the required 17% tip for parties over five. When Jasmine Marks informed the waiter that she wasn’t going to pay the gratuity, the staff responded by locking the doors and calling the police.
Is it illegal not to tip?
Marks wanted to know if it was against the law not to tip, but when the HPD arrived, even they didn’t know what to do.
In the end, Marks took the high road and paid the bill, gratuity included, just to end the stand-off.
Obviously, the folks of La Fisherman forgot that we’re living in a world of immediate and widespread news — thank you very much internet!
Regardless of who’s in the wrong, this couldn’t have been a positive PR move for the headstrong restaurant.
Rewarding bad service is a bad idea
Personally, it’s hard not to side with the consumer here. If you’re going to assume that a mandatory, predetermined tip amount is necessary, then you better make sure your service is up to that expectation.
Marks claims the wait staff messed up their orders and were rude in the process. So fine, losing track of what someone ordered is one thing , but the rudeness needs to be addressed, and most certainly shouldn’t be rewarded.
The opposition will claim that a business has the right to enforce it’s own policies, and if you don’t like it, eat somewhere else — but is that really the point?
What’s the point of tipping?
Tipping used to be defined as a social custom, and voluntary, depending on how you felt about the service provided to you.
I understand that in the present economy, those working in the customer service business are feeling the same strains that we all are feeling, and most likely, many waiters and waitresses are working for far less than they should.
The flip side is, consumers are more careful with spending, and less likely to pay for something they don’t feel is deserving of their hard earned money.
So what about the cops?
Well, although the law was unclear in Houston, the Bethlehem Township police department in Pennsylvania had a different interpretation of the law in 2006 when they arrested a couple for denying a mandatory tip due to their dissatisfaction in service.
What was the charge?
The charge was theft, but eventually the case would be dropped by the police department, but the young couple still got to experience being handcuffed and booked for their trouble.
Should there be a price to pay in the form of a tip, even for bad service?
Feel free to sound off in the comments below.