One Dio Night! Greek Wizards

Hi George,

First off, I know you run a business and have a family, so thanks very much for taking the time to do this interview for DioZine.com and the other Dio fans out there.

Secondly, please feel free to add anything you think I might have missed or you have coming up in the future as far as Dio related projects go.

Okay, shall we get down to the goods?

Tell me about the success of your recent Dio Night in Greece.

Oh, the Dio-Night! One of the most unforgetable nights of my life. The whole show was a great success, more than I was expecting. But the most important thing for me was the feeling I had, that during that night I was doing something for the Man. I was “paying back” something to Ronnie James Dio, to a person that has effected and inspired my life. To a person that I owe so much.

Where was it at? When?

The Dio Night took place on January the 21^st at the “DIONYSOS Metal Café” , one of the most famous rock music clubs of Athens and during that night we had the honor to announce the foundation of the “Greek Wizards” fan club, the first greek Dio-Fanclub.

At this point I would like to thank Makis , the owner of the place for trusting us and hosting us that special night. And he continues to offer us his precious support all the time. Makis, YOU ROCK !

How many people attended?

Oh don’t ask me about numbers cause I was in trance all night long that night J

All I remember is that the place was full (both floors) of Dioheads of all ages.

You could see only Dio T-shirts and Evil-Eyes everywhere !

What was the list of videos and audios played?

Many days before the show, me and Doria (the other founder member of the fanclub) were working on the playlist carefully cause we wanted to cover the whole career of the Man, from the pre-Elf years till Magica album and present the audios and videos in chronological order. Our goal was to offer to the audience a music-journey in time and in the same time let them listen and watch some songs for their first time.

And we succeded on that, especially thanks to the DDT ! You can see the detailed playlist on our web page.

Were there any funny or special occurrences from that night that you would like to share?

Well, the beginning of the show was something I will never forget : the place was full of people hungry for Dio music. Suddenly the lights turn off, and I start running my intro-slideshow on the videowall under the tune of HolyDiver. And the audience immediately responded , singing the song together with Ronnie! It was so cool ! Like in a Dio-concert!

Another unforgetable thing were the reactions of the “older part” of the audience (fans in the age of  30’s and 40’s) everytime we were playing videos from Rainbow live in Munich and Sabbs from Black n Blue tour.

What are the future plans for similar events?

After the success of Athens, we intent to organize a second Dio Night at Thessaloniki, my hometown and second biggest city of Greece. I have already made contact with the two biggest metal clubs of the city , and both clubs want to host the show !

And there is also an invitation for one more Dio Night to another city as well !

From our side we are ready and willing to organize “Dio Nights” to every place we are invited.

I understand you started a Greek based Dio fan club as a result of this evening's success. Can you tell me how many members have joined up as a result?

During that night we had about 50 subscriptions. On the other hand we have printed some flyers and registration forms and have distributed them to all rock clubs of the biggest greek cities. So we collect subscriptions from there as well. We are currenty about 70 members and after the second Dio-Night we hope we will exceed 100 !

What media coverage did you get for this?

We just advertised the show through a metal show on radio. We could have concerned more about the media coverage but there is always a second chance. I have some friends in greek TV and greek radio, so I hope we will achieve a better coverage or at least advertisement for the second Dio Night. On the other hand, next weekend some greek wizards are invited at another metal show on radio to present some rare Dio stuff like Pre-Elf songs, Kerry Livgren project etc.

Generaly I gladly see that our newborn fanclub becomes slowly more and more acceptable in the greek metal community. Recently there was a greek metal festival in Athens and at the beginning of the show the festival producer saluted  the creation of the first Dio fanclub! And during the festival there was a band named Sorrowfull Winds who performed “Stargazer” special dedicated to our fanclub members who were among the audience!

Now, I understand you are in the process of producing a very nice newsletter for your Greek fans of Dio. Can you tell me more about this?

Well , after we collected the subscriptions, we knew that it was our turn to do something to show our members that we are an active fanclub. And the first step was the producing of this newsletter. The first issue is already produced and is on its way to our members by mail.

What kind of content?

First of all you have to keep in mind that the use of internet is much less common in Greece than in US. So for a greek Dio fan is it difficult to be informed about Dio especially because the greek metal magazines pay attention mosty to the “new wave” of heavy metal . So through our newsletter we try to inform our members about news we collect from internet . Of course we inform them also about the activities of our fanclub, about incoming events, etc. At our first newsletter we had also the updated tour days of the band but unfortunately once again there is no Greece in the European leg so far.

How frequently will it be published?

We intent to publish every 2-3 months. We need time in order to collect enough informations and material for each issue. We are currently working on the next one collecting news and also preparing a Dio-contest, testing the knowlegdes of our members! Of course we are going to have some special editions in case of announcing any important events like “DIO IS FINALLY COMING TO GREECE !”

We do hope and pray that this thing will happen soon !

What media will it be distributed in?

It will be distributed by mail as a magazine and we will post it on our web page as well. Unfortunately for you, only in greek J

Also I have seen the website (as you have mentioned MANY times here--LOL!) you are developing to support this-GREAT job by the way! What can you tell us about that site's features?

First of all I have to admit how lucky we are, having in our fanclub members such as  Stratos and Anna who are great  web-designers and are helping me much to the developing of this website.

Now about its features ?

Feel free to explore it J    http://come.to/greek-wizards

Is it available to the public or just members?

Everybody is welcome to the greek-wizards’ site !

What future elements might be added?

At the moment the site is still under construction. Of course there is a plan that we are following but we are opened to any further suggestions ! Recenty a member of our club suggested us to make a trade-board. So we put it on our list as well J

On a personal note, can you tell us how YOU became a Dio fan?

Who said I am a Dio fan ?  LOL

Actually it was back in 1980-81 when I was 12. A greek-german friend of mine (older than me) gave me a tape with various heavy metal songs to listen. Two of them were “Heaven and Hell” and “Children of the Sea”.  That was it ! Eversince I became a devoted Dio-soldier !

What compelled you to create the Greek Fan Club? And the Web Site and all you continue to do?

All these years I was annoyed by the absence of a greek Dio Fanclub, but I had never thought of creating one of my own! Until some months ago, a friend of mine from the Deep Purple Assosiation and founder of the greek DP fanclub, brought me in contact with Doria, a girl from Athens who was thinking also about a Dio fanclub. We exchanged some email, I realized that she is a HUGE Dio fan as well (actualy I never expected to find another greek fan so devoted as myself, but I finally did and I am so glad about it), so we joined our forces in the name of our addiction to Ronnie and the rest is history J

You were a key member of helping us get the Letters From Earth project off the ground-particularly your slide show contributions.

Can you tell us what inspired that?

I was very glad to learn about this project created by my good friend Egon ! It was such a great idea. Then I thought that since the result of this project will go straight to the hands of Ronnie, this was a unique opportunity for us to make him learn about our newborn fanclub, and to invite him to Greece for a concert after so many years ! That’s why we had to create an impressive participation for the project. Something that will attract his attention even for a second ! I hope Ronnie will like the slideshow !

Once again, George, I want to thank you for your time and all your energies in the promotion of Ronnie James Dio and his music.

You Rock!

I want to thank YOU Ken. Thank you for helping me getting into the Dio-internet-community some years ago. Thank you for your support to our fanclub. And thank you for the honor of hosting me to your Diozine.

You Rock !

All The Best,

KEN

And here some previews from the recent SECOND successful Greek Dio Night on 4-29-01

SO successful in fact that George will be on Television in the coming month to talk about the Greek Dio Club!

Great job George Galanis and all the Greek Dio Wizards! YOU ROCK!!