Gkogkos Dimitris i Bagianteras

Dimitris Gkogkos was born in 1903 in Piraeus. He was the 22nd child of the non-commissioned officer of the Port Corps, Yannis Gkogkos.
Dimitris started learning music from a very young age, from 7 years old; he started playing the mandolin, then the guitar, the violin, the bouzouki and the small bouzouki. He was educated (certificate of an electrician).
Since 1925, when he made a new version of the Italian operetta “Bayantera” of Erich Kalman for a public orchestra, he took the nick name “Bayanteras”. Just a while before the decade of 1930, he plays in the Piraeusʼ industrious pitches of the port. He obtains a tight relationship with the protagonists of the rempetiko, Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Pagioumtzis and the Methanian George Batis. In 1937, he records his first disc and since then he composed unforgettable hits, like “Chatzikyriakeio”, “A fish boat starts”, “I was leaving alone without love”, “My mind twinkles like it would be enchanted” etc. In 1941, Bayanteras lost his vision, while he was singing on the stage, by a fast evolvent glaucoma.