Piramis

Piramis (meaning Pyramid) is a Hungarian Hard Rock band formed in 1975. History: During the early 1970's Som Lajos, bass guitarist, after seeing Black Sabbath live in Western Europe, decided that he wanted to play hard & heavy rock at home. After he played in bands Tűzkerék, Neoton and Taurusz, he finally formed Piramis in January 1975. Original band members: Som Lajos (bass), Köves Miklós (drums) from band Non-stop, Gallai Péter (keyboards), Lévay Tibor (keyboards), Závodi János (lead guitar) from band Non-stop. Révész Sándor (vocals) from the band Generál joined the band in October 1975. In 1976 Lévay, a Yugoslavian citizen left the band in order to serve a mandatory military service. Later he formed his own band. Their first for-radio recordings were: "Ne bánts a madarakat" and the hit "Szállj fel magasra!". During the Summer of 1976 they went to perform a live show tour with Hungarian band Mini in Poland. Later Piramis went on another European tour with the British band Mud. For Christmas '76 the band released their first single, the hit "Becsület". They performed "Égni kell annak, aki gyújtani akar" on the Metronom '77 Music Festival. Their 1st, self titled LP was released in May 1977. Piramis played in the Solidarity Rock Festival with the British band Liar. In November 1977 they went on a Western European tour with Steppenwolf. The 2nd album, Piramis II was released in 1978, which included hits such as: "Gyere közelebb", "Őszintén akarok élni" and "Ajándék". They performed a winter concert on Dec. 23, 1978 in the Budai Ifjúsági Park. The 3rd album, Piramis III was released in 1979, which included their top hit: "Kóbor angyal". They performed another concert in the Budai Ifjúsági Park in September. They recorded their 4th (live) album there, which was released under the title "A nagy buli" at the end of 1979. They went to perform on a concert tour in the Soviet Union in 1980. In 1980 they recorded Piramis V, which was an album with their earlier tracks re-recorded with English vocals. (Note: at the time the band received 60-70 thousand letters per year from their fans.) The 6th album, Erotika was released in 1981. Their last live performance was in West Berlin on May 14, 1981. Révész Sándor quit the band. The remaining member tried to go on playing without him, but it was not the same, so Piramis finally faded away in 1982. Révész Sándor started a solo project in 1985. Som went to Senator, Závodi went to Hobo Blues Band, Gallai went to Bikini. The band temporarily reunited for a series of 5 live shows from Dec 27, 1992 to Jan 2, 1993. A CD and a DVD titled "Szeress" was released from the shows. Another reunion concert CD/DVD was recorded in the Sportaréna in 2006. Reportedly the band started recording again in 2009, under the name "Piramis Plusz", with 2 new members, without Révész and Som. Band members: Som Lajos – bass (1975-1982, 1992, 2006) Závodi János – guitar (1975-1982, 1992, 2006, 2009-) Köves Miklós – drums (1975-1982, 1992, 2006, 2009-) Gallai Péter – keyboards & vocals (1975-1982, 1992, 2006, 2009-) Lévay Tibor – keyboards & vocals (1975-1976) Révész Sándor – vocals, guitar (1976-1981, 1992, 2006) Nyemcsók János – vocals (2009-) Vörös Gábor – bass (2009-) Discography: Piramis 1. (1977) - LP / CD Piramis 2. (1978) - LP / CD Piramis 3. (1979) - LP / CD A nagy buli - Ifipark 1979 (Piramis 4.) (Live) (1979) - LP / CD Piramis (Piramis 5.) (English lyrics) (1980) - LP (9 tracks) Piramis (Spanish lyrics) (1980) - LP Rock Party (Swedish release of Piramis 5.) (1981) - LP (9 tracks) Erotika (Piramis 6.) (1981) - LP / CD Plusz (Piramis 7.) (1982) - LP / CD Aranyalbum (Best of, plus previously unreleased live) (1989) - LP Ajándék (= Aranyalbum) (1989) - MC Exclusive (Piramis 5. plus singles) (1992) - CD (13 tracks) Szeress - BS 1992 (live) (1993) - 2LP (11 dal) / CD (10 tracks) Száz év zene (remake selections under Som-Závodi name) (1997) - CD A Magyar rockzene hőskora - Reader's Digest (best of, plus singles) (2000) CD Szeress - BS 1992 (live) (2004) - DVD (13 tracks) Best Of Piramis (best of, plus singles) (2006) - CD Emberek Emberekért (a leukemia benefit release) (2007) - mp3 / flac Live - Sportaréna 2006 (live) (2007) - 2CD / 2DVD Part of Piramis' success was due to the talent of Horváth Attila, their lyrics writer. Horváth Attila also wrote lyrics for many other Hungarian artists, such as: Taurusz, Korál, Bojtorján, Senator, Omen, Kern András, Deák Bill Blues Band, Marathon, Lerch István, Balázs Fecó, Horváth Charlie, Tunyogi Rock Band, The Rock Band, Tóth Vera and Koncz Zsuzsa Official Piramis website: http://www.piramis.hu/