Greekobit: Demis Roussos

Demis Roussos, Greek pop star, has died.

While it's true he was a icon at home in Greece, you have to have a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason he was so well-known overseas (and remains identifiable thousands of miles from home, forty years after his peak) was because 'big bloke in a thing that looks like a dress' was such an easy, cheap target for a lazy parody.

He also had a brush with terrorism, being on a plane hijacked by Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah in 1985. His 39th birthday passed while he was being held; the hijackers marked the occasion with a cake. It doesn't really take the sting away from the shooting people and dumping corpses on the runway, though.

Roussos was 68 and had suffered from health problems for a long time; he listed Sting as one of his favourite composers.