THE MINIS

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I recently came across a Greek book dedicated to the Greek rock and pop scene of the 60s and 70s, called "Get That Beat", a locally-pressed Greek tome. This 237 paged book has a good bit of information on records released during this time period, and covers all the major acts of the time, including most of the projects Vangelis was involved with (The Forminx, Aphrodite's Child, George Romanos, Socrates, etc.). I carefully examined this book, as there is quite a bit of information to consume. The author, Tinos Dimatatis, has certainly spent a lot of time in research of this Greek scene. A pity it is not available in English. Anyways, there is a small section that examines the Greek band The Minis. Some of you may have already heard of this band as one that Demis Roussos was involved in early on, before Aphrodite's Child. That is indeed true. As a matter of fact, The Minis also had Lukas Sideras and "Silver" Koulouris as members. Vangelis fans and collectors certainly know those names as members of Aphrodite's Child too! What interested me was what this book had to say about The Minis. The following is a translation of the text (thank you Panos!!!): MINIS (means "wrath" in ancient Greek) Formed: 1966, in Athens Members: Themos Petrou, vocals; Arguris Koulouris, guitars; Demis Roussos, bass and vocals; Lakis Vlavianos, organ; Loukas Sideras, drums Although THE MINIS was a short-lived band, we can theoretically characterize them as an early supergroup, since three members of the band would achieve international fame as members of Aphrodite's Child. They started playing live at the Coronet Club. In their first single work, they cooperated with Zoe Kouroukli.  They also played with her in the film "To Be Or Not To Be", a Orestis Laskos film, where they performed the two songs from their first single ("Darlin'/Yuppi Ya Ya Song"). A few months later, another 7 inch single followed, which contained adaptations of two classic Beatles songs ("And I Love Her/Girl"), where Vangelis Papathanassiou participated at the recording. The music press supported them a lot, but the two discs were a flop and the band stopped in the spring of 1966. Wow! Interesting that Vangelis would be involved in this single of Beatles covers, as The Forminx certainly were influenced by them. This is an incredible revelation. As for the songs themselves, "And I Love Her" is an instrumental version, with both organ and piano work going on (I would speculate that Vangelis is on the piano here). "Girl" is a straight-forward version of the original, complete with vocals, and a guitar-line that shows that the song, the original Beatles version, surely was influenced by Greek music. The single is very rare, and because of the Beatles connection, Vangelis collectors will have to compete with them for it.

7" singles

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Title	Pic?	Country	Label	Catalog No.	Notes
And I Love Her/Girl		Greece	Music Box	MB 632	1966

Various Artists CDs

red = I don't have it...wanna sell it? Write to me!

Title	Pic?	Country	Label	Catalog No.	Notes
Oldies But Goodies 8		Greece	Bestend A.E.E.	1702162	2010, in sleeve, with "And I Love Her", promotional giveaway with magazine purchase

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