tribe4mian

About me:

The first day I was in Germany, this German friend that I was visiting took me to see his record collection. He pulled out a vinyl album and proudly handed it over to me. ““666” by Aphrodite’s Child” he said and his eyes were shining.

Although I was never a fan of Vangelis and Demis Rousos, the whole thing made me feel kinda proud. Of course, this album was released about 20 years before that day ... but I had this guy from Germany, a country with a rich rock’n’roll history, being proud for having an album of a Greek band when most of the Greeks were simply not interested to know about it.

For some reason (which was strange to me until the day I found out why) Greece was not interested in exporting Greek bands. The major record labels were exporting only the traditional pop bouzouki music, mostly to Greeks that lived abroad and fans of ethnic music, while local rock bands from every rock genre were trying their best to release their work, get some fame, or make the dream of making a living out of their own music, somehow come true.

To make a long story short, Greek independent labels were found during the 80s and they released singles and albums of Greek bands, and thus, the problem was partially solved. Greek fanzines were printed promoting these bands, and occasionally one could find a radio show which specialized in all these musicians or in the early 90s a show on the national TV network.

Thousands of bands existed throughout these 4 decades. Hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, gothic rock, new wave, you name it. And since the financial ability of their indie record labels was limited, most of their releases became collectors items all over the world cause they were printed in 500 or 1000 copies at the most.

Only a few bands sold thousands of copies, signed to foreign labels, or re-released their albums through them, and a number are still touring the globe building a great name in the world of rock’n’roll.

For example, Greece has a very good name when it comes to black metal bands.

Weird, you might say, but true.

The trademark of the old man on the donkey is just a tourist attraction and doesn’t give the exact, clear picture of Greece anymore.

On this blog we will also try to present this point of view, as well as other stuff, in order to pay tribute to all these Greek musicians that had the minimum of help from their own country but carried on thanks to their love of music.

Falling into oblivion is the worst thing that can happen to someone.

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