Poland’s Mr. Metal Dies

Tomasz “Tommy” Dziubinski, widely known as the founder of Poland’s heavy rock market, lost his long battle against illness Dec. 16. He was 49.

After leaving the Silesian University of Technology with a Master Of Science degree in 1985, he took two years to set up Metal Mind Productions. It subsequently became Poland’s No. 1 record label and concert agency for metal acts.

No sooner had the shadow of Communism been lifted from Europe than Dziubinski was setting up a Polish Monsters of Rock, which in 1991 saw bands such as AC/DC, Metallica and Queensryche all performing in front of more than 35,000 people.

The same year he promoted shows by Deep Purple and Chris Rea, and has since put on nearly 1,000 gigs and brought some of the world’s best-known rock acts to Polish audiences.

Even before Polish Communism ended and the Russian troops returned home, Metal Mind had begun Metalmania. It’s since become the largest metal fest in the old eastern bloc and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006.

Dziubinsk’s activities extended beyond live music. As a record label, Metal Mind Productions was involved in releasing several classic albums by Polish rock and metal legends, such as Acid Drinkers, Perfect, TSA, Krzak, SBB, Turbo, Varius Manx, Armia and Homo Twist.

Metal Mind also developed into a distribution agency and is the official distributor for Roadrunner Records in Poland and is cooperating with such companies as MVD (USA), Soulfood – Sony (Germany) and Plastic Head (Great Britain).

In 1990 Metal Mind began publishing the Polish edition of Metal Hammer magazine, which is now one of the biggest and oldest music magazines in the country. He remained its editor in chief until the time of his death.

“He bound his life with rock and metal music from the early ’80s, working as a journalist and later as a manager and an energetic organizer of the music scene,” said Jan Sikorski from The Agency Group’s London office, which has formed a long-term working relationship with Metal Mind.

“To the very end he remained true to music. He looked forward to the release of the new Rush and Pendragon albums and he still believed in the reunion of Black Sabbath in its original line-up,” Sikorski told Pollstar.

Dziubinski is survived by his wife and two sons. The family is discussing the future of Metal Mind Productions, while the company’s ongoing affairs are being handled by the Metal Mind staff.