2024 Dallas Daion Maniac Event
I just realized the last time I wrote a blog post was in 2020. Has it really been four years since I started this website? This little labor of love has moved slowly but steadily ahead. There have been at least eight all-day photoshoots to capture various instruments and over 50 pages of main navigation content created. Between the Daion, Yamaki, Joodee, and Anea brands, there is still more to come - so stay tuned!
I wanted to add a blog post to capture the Dallas Daion Maniac Event that occurred over the weekend of October 12th, 2024. Many months prior I got tapped to host the event. I’m not sure if I volunteered or just accepted the assignment. My partners in crime that helped organize the event were Michael Callahan and Michael Bechmann, the co-moderators of the Daion Facebook Group.
How did the event get its name? Well, there was a gathering in Copenhagen back in 2019 called the “Daion Maniacs Event” organized by the aforementioned Facebook group, so we kept the name. The Dallas event was attended by about a dozen Facebook group members from around the world - Australia, UK, Denmark, Japan, Africa, and the United States. The special guest was Hiro Teradaira, the designer of the Daion instruments that we all so adore, and his son Kohichiro (both pictured below).
In retrospect, I wished I had taken more advantage of my time with Hiro to learn more about the Daion brand. As the event’s host, I was running around quite a bit, but I did get a brief opportunity to pull some instruments out of my collection for Hiro and others to see. As he inspected instruments, some that he had not held in his hands for over forty years, I could tell from his face that memories were rushing back into his mind.
We looked at some early first generation PowerMarks, a CA 800 Clip Amp, a Mark X-B2 Double Neck Bass (which Hiro said there could be no more than 10 made), a Mark V acoustic, a Savage, and some late production PowerMark XXVs which I believe Hiro said he did not design. That makes me think the XXVs were built after Yamaki shut down and production moved to Cushin. I also pulled out my stash of original period literature (catalogs and sales slicks) for Hiro to flip through. I think he was impressed with the archive I had put together.
Besides the community and camaraderie, one of the big objectives of the event (and the highlight of the weekend) was to put a “band” together and play out in public. I secured a local restaurant in my community with a large outdoor patio and I tapped a high school classmate to play drums and a coworker to help out with keyboards. Michael Callahan brought in our PA System all the way from Alabama. For those traveling, I provided guitars and basses to those who needed them so attendees wouldn’t have to risk damaging their rare instruments in transit. A Google doc was circulated in advance to suggest songs, and in the end we were able to pull together over three hours of music.
We had two sets of rehearsals at my house (pictures above), Friday and Saturday afternoon, with the live performance Saturday night from 6-9pm (pictures below). The complete list of Daion musicians that day: James Wells (UK), Michael Callahan (Alabama, US), Richard and Michael Bechmann (Denmark), Kohichiro Teradaira, (Japan), Drew Devlin (Australia), and Shell Black (Dallas, TX). A special thanks to our non Daion players - Cory Morrow on drums (Dallas, TX) and Greg Glasser on saxophone and keyboards (Dallas, TX). You helped us sound legit!
The videos below are just a sampling of what was played that night.
Duran Duran - Rio (James Well guitar & vocals, Michael Callahan vocals, Shell Black bass, Greg Glaser keyboards & saxophone, Cory Morrow drums)
Rebel Yell - Billy Idol (James Well guitar & vocals, Shell Black bass, Greg Glaser keyboards, Cory Morrow drums)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Texas Flood (James Wells guitar and vocals, Richard Bechmann guitar, Kohichiro Teradaira guitar, Michael Callahan bass, Cory Morrow drums)
By midnight on Saturday, as I finished unloading gear back at the house, I was exhausted. The event was over. By Sunday morning people were traveling on to new destinations or returning home - Michael Callahan back to Alabama, Hiro and Kohichiro to Japan, Michael and Richard Bechmann to Nashville, James Wells and crew to New Orleans, and Drew Devlin and his wife off to New York.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. I made some great friendships, was finally able to meet some of the Daion community face-to-face, got to play some music live, and share my passion for the Daion brand.