Vangelis Videos

The Dragon

The Dragon is the second of the pair of illegally-released Vangelis LPs (Hypothesis is the other one) that came out in 1978 but was recorded in June 1971. This album includes Vangelis, Silver Koulouris on guitar, Michel Ripoche on violin, Brian Odger on bass guitar and Mick Waller on drums. It was produced by Giorgio Gromelsky and recorded at Marquee Studios in London. Unlike Hypothesis, The Dragon has a more Greek flavor to it, consisting of three tracks, the side long jam title track, the spaced-out "Stuffed Aubergine" and the upbeat "Stuffed Tomato". This album was also subject of a lawsuit filed by Vangelis and fellow musicians against Charly Records Ltd. After they won, future manufacturing of the album stopped, but there were plenty of albums available already in the marketplace. This album saw wider release than Hypothesis. Again, like Hypothesis, don't spend a lot of money to get a copy of this LP, as there are plenty of UK and Italian pressings to go around ($10-$15+). The most desirable issue would be the Japanese pressing. Now, there is a CD available of this from Hungary, although I'm not being sold as a pirate there, however, but apparently readily available. Otherwise, any other CD you might see on places like ebay are homemade, so pay accordingly.(Thanks to Roland Weißflog for the scans of the Dragon UK LP test pressing inner label and the Japanese white label promo LP.)