Μωρά Στη Φωτιά

Stelios “Salvador” Papaioannou (vocals, bass), his brother Giorgos Papaioannou (drums) and Dimitris “Bunny” Vasiliadis (guitar) formed a band under the name Τεμπέληδες της Εύφορης Κοιλάδας (Loafers of the Fertile Valley), in 1984 in Veroia, Greece. Bunny was soon replaced by Pavlos Pavlidis (Παύλος Παυλίδης), and in early 1986 the band moved to Thessaloniki. They also changed their name, first to Λεγεώνα Των Ξένων (Légion étrangère), and then (paraphrasing the Brian Eno song “Baby’s On Fire”) to Μora Sti Fotia. During the summer of '86, they started playing shows at clubs in northern Greece.

In 1987 Κατερίνα Μουστάκα joined on keyboards. The quartet recorded 6 songs on a 4-channel mixer, with the help of Life In Cage's Babis Argyriou (Μπάμπης Αργυρίου). The songs got in the hands of Ano Kato Records' George Tsakalidis, who decided to put out an LP by the band. Their self-titled debut album was released in February 1988. Reviews for the album were great, but tensions led the band to disperse (though never officially breaking up) during early 1989. Members more or less disappeared from the local scene, for various reasons.

Pavlidis had moved to France after the band stopped, and upon returning to Greece started Τα Ξύλινα Σπαθιά (The Wooden Swords). Ksylina Spathia released their first LP “Ksessaloniki” in 1993, and there was some dispute that certain songs from that record had music originally written by Mora Sti Fotia, and not Pavlidis. In 1995, Salvador and George Papaioannou started rehearsing with session musicians, and Mora sti Fotia gave their first live show in 5 years at Sykeon Theater in Thessaloniki. Some time after, Papaioannou left the group.

Salvador decided to carry on with the name Mora Sti Fotia, while getting session musicians for future releases. In October 1999 the band's second album, “Theatrinoi” was released by Argyriou's label, Lazy Dog Records. The band performed hundreds of concerts and music festivals all over Greece, and in 2005 they released their third album, “Sto Dromo”, on Baby Records (3) (Salvador's label).