Backtrackin' was formed in 1995 by Yannis "Fenderias" Papadantonakis (g,v), Kostas Kafousias (b,v) and Mike Drakakakis (dr,v). Kostas and Yannis were long time musicians & friends and always wanted to form a more permanent rock cover band. This was fulfilled in January 1995, when they met Mike, an experienced drummer. Through the years the band gigged in several music pubs in Athens area, including Posto, HiHat cafe, Jazz, BeBop, Kelsos, Mike's irish bar, Kivotos.
In 2004 Kostas left the band, to continue with another buddies band. In 2006, Fenderias and Mike met Stavros Angelakis (b) and Mike Tzortzis (v,fl), members then of the band "182 pages", and decided to form a rock band with a more focused cover area. Based more on Mike Tz's abilities as a shouter, they decided to mainly create a repertoire of Rainbow, Whitesnake and D. Purple tunes. This lineup is valid today known as Backtrackin' Mk-II.
In early 2007, Fenderias and Mike Dr. wanted to move on in parallel with a long desired project: A tribute band to Thin Lizzy. Ex-bassman Kostas and Fenderias' longest time friend Peter Dalakos (g,v) joined the project, and, since the initial Backtrackin' band (Yannis F - Mike Dr - Kostas) was entirely included, the band was simply named Backtrackin' Mk-I... It should be noted that Kostas and Peter had performed Thin Lizzy tribute gigs with Fenderias already in the 80's!
In March 2007 they recorded their first demo, in Fenderias' home studio (you may hear a few songs above). Fenderias assisted also the sound engineering tasks. The demo helped enormously the band in booking live gigs.
During autumn 2007, Backtrackin' developed a further project: A tribute to giant rock singer Paul Rodgers, consisting of Free and Bad Company tunes.
Last-not-least, recently, the original trio prepared a different part, that they use to play in the past: A tribute to Dire Straits, including mostly songs of their very early period.
So, the following core parts rule currently Backtrackin' live gigs: A tribute to Thin Lizzy (performed by Mk-I), a tribute to Paul Rodgers & to early Whitesnake/Rainbow/Deep Purple (performed by Mk-II), and a tribute to Dire Straits (performed by the original trio). This colorful, yet targeted repertoire allows all 6 musicians to present different, but still very coherent styles of 70's rock...
Backtrackin' support Rockpages , a Greek classic rock & metal web magazine, and Rockmachine , the first classic rock Internet Radio broadcast over Greece.
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