Harry Sideropoulos’ return is about love and finding himself again

It was food that brought Harry Sideropoulos back to the stage after almost a half-decade hiatus following the death of his mother. But food has always been his love language – and a long table, a nine-course meal and a reunion set off a chain reaction that led him back to his love for performing.

Harry’s a national treasure, to use the cliché. But there’s no other way to emphasise and underline the immense talent this man has. He’s larger than life, in person and on stage. His Big Band Blast shows were, well, a blast. No Sugar, Canderel Please a one man performance that was a comedic and social discourse tour de force. Harry’s time on radio with Jeremy Mansfield on 94.7’s Rude Awakening show added much of the high octane to on-air content.

Harry’s return to the stage is cemented in the reprise of Swinging Las Vegas that opens this month at Montecasino. It’s a big band swing fest where he performs alongside the incredibly talented Craig Urbani, Nadine and Timothy Moloi and backed by the 18-piece Johannesburg Big Band. Incidentally, the band is led by longtime friend and collaborator Adam Howard, who was also the catalyst to Harry’s respawning.

A friendship that never ended

“I met Adam 25 years ago when we launched my very first big band swing show,” Harry said. “He wasn’t a maestro back then like he is now. He was just Howie with a trumpet and a wicked sense of humour. We became great friends.

Their friendship never really ended, but life got in the way and time wedged some space between the creative pair. Harry focused on voice work, creating immersive food experiences, and healing after his mother passed in 2020. “Something inside me died,” he said. “I stopped performing. I just couldn’t. Even when Covid lifted, the fire was out.”

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Fast forward to last year and the fateful long table dining experience that he hosted as one of his dining experiences. Howard and his wife attended the nine-course extravaganza and, he said, the friendship took off right where it paused a decade or so before.

“We hadn’t sat across a table in years, but it was like no time had passed,” he said. “We laughed, shared stories, and at the end of the night, he said, I have a show I want you to be in.”

Magic happened

That show was Swinging Las Vegas. Magic happened. “I was terrified,” he shared. “I hadn’t performed in years, and I wasn’t sure if I still had it in me. But I knew if I didn’t say yes, I might never get back on stage again. Across a table of food, extraordinary things happen.”

“That night with Adam brought me back to life.”

The show was right up his alley. It is a celebration of Las Vegas through the decades, swinging from Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to Lady Gaga and Céline Dion.

“I opened with Me and My Shadow alongside Craig Urbani,” he said. “By the end of the number, the audience were on their feet. I walked off and thought, I think I can still do this.”

It was that moment that rebooted his public career.

The performance is packed with killer moments, including Elton John favourites by Urbani, Nadine’s take on Céline Dion, Moloi’s renditions of jazz standards and Harry performing Ain’t That A Kick in the Head.

“There are duets in the show that give you actual goosebumps,” he said. “The music, the voices, the band, it’s electric.”

Launching a debut cookbook

In tandem, Harry is also launching his debut cookbook at the same time that the show hits the stage. It’s called Every Taste: A Memory and is a tribute to food, his South African, Greek and Turkish heritage and storytelling.

“It’s not just recipes,” he said. “They are stories. There are photographs of Athens and Johannesburg, family history, and every dish is tied to a memory.”

The book includes QR codes with audio stories narrated by Harry, layered with sound effects and music. “It’s theatre in a book. You can read it or just listen to it like a radio play.”

He shared that in one of the chapters he recounts his personal history with swing music and ties it to Howard’s own upbringing.

“Adam told me about growing up in Lancashire, his grandmother, and how she pushed him to become a trumpeter,” Harry said. “It was always around a table of food. That’s how the link came to me. It was about love, sound, memories and meals.”

His own family recipes are also included in the book as well as some tweaked, Harry-fied traditional Greek and Turkish dishes such as a bite-size Baklava recipe.

More in the pipeline

Harry said that beyond the Vegas show, the cookbook and his dining experiences, he’s also working on several other projects, including eventually bringing the recipes to life on stage.

“This isn’t just a comeback,” he said. “It’s not about returning to the industry. It’s about finding myself again,” he said. “Through music. And through food. Through friends who remembered what I had forgotten.”

Performances are Fridays at 19h30, Saturdays at 14h00 & 19h30, Sundays at 14h00 

Tickets range from R240 – R440, and bookings are at Webtickets or at Pick ‘n Pay outlets.
Discounts for groups of 10 or more, senior citizens, scholars and students apply.

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