Back To Yesterday: A New CD by John Vickers

In July 1972, a young Englishman arrived in Cyprus, carrying a suitcase and a guitar. Soon, his name and his voice would be familiar to almost everyone in Cyprus, thanks to his radio and TV shows and to his own music.

In 1975, John Vickers set a poem entitled ‘It Was an Island’ to music, which led to it becoming the country’s biggest-selling single, and in 1979 he released ‘At Last’, the first of four albums of his own songs. Later, he would also write the music of Cyprus’ 1990 Eurovision entry ‘Milas Poli’ and the words and music of the title song of Marios Stilianakis’ acclaimed 2005 short film ‘Good Morning Aphrodite’, which he sang himself.

Since the release of his CD ‘Favourites 1968-1978’ 25 years ago, John Vickers has focused on his career as a journalist, editor and translator but now he’s back with a brand-new collection of songs – all of which were written before he came to Cyprus.

‘Back To Yesterday’ contains 20 songs, written between 1969 and 1972, which might well have featured on his first two albums in the early ‘70s, had his life taken a different course. In 1971, he was ‘discovered’ by the legendary French singer and songwriter Charles Trenet, who secured a recording contract for him with CBS Records. That same year, he also played guitar on Trenet’s summer tour of France. In the end, however, he chose to finish his university degree and move to Cyprus and all but four of the many songs that he wrote at the time remained unrecorded until now.

Over the past two years, John Vickers has worked with producer Michalis Roussos (bass guitar, keyboards) and three other musicians (Avraam Kontos – guitars; Harrys Peratikas – drums; Guy Creen – piano) to bring the best of those unheard, 50-year-old songs to life. The collection begins with a short piano piece and ends with the French-language version of a song for which Charles Trenet wrote new French lyrics. In between are 18 songs that are sure to appeal to everyone who loves ‘70s rock/pop/singer/songwriter music.

John Vickers was Chief Editor of IMH's English-language magazine GOLD for a decade, while he is currently the magazine's Senior Executive Editor.

‘Back To Yesterday’ is now available as a special limited-edition deluxe CD and in digital format via all the main music stores and streaming platforms. You can also hear it here: https://johnvickers.hearnow.com/