I am continuing my quest to make up for lost time and see every band that I am interested in, and have not yet seen live. So, Europe fit the bill. Every time they have performed locally, I have thought “should I go and see them?” and for some reason I have always passed. I guess because I knew only very few songs by the band.
Of course, I knew “The Final Countdown” and vaguely new “Carrie” but that was about it. Anyway, time to put this right. So, I bought tickets to see Europe at the recently renamed lovely, local venue the Glasshouse (formerly the Sage).
From the tour information: “Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979, by lead vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. They obtained a major breakthrough in Sweden in 1982 by winning the televised competition “Rock-SM” (Swedish Rock Championships); it was the first time this competition was held, and Europe became a larger success than the competition itself.
Since their formation, Europe has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and twenty-four music videos. Europe have millions of album sales under their belt and a No1 smash in 1986, with the legendary The Final Countdown, which received an award from YouTube in 2022 for the first Swedish band ever to receive a BILLION views for any one song.” Pretty impressive!
The first thing that surprised me was just how popular this band is. The venue was almost sold out very few seats remaining. I looked round at the T-shirts that people were wearing: Journey (yes, I see some similarities, another band I must see again as I have not seen them since they first started and I saw them at Newcastle Mayfair in the late 1970s I think), Def Leopard, Iron Maiden, Motorhead and several other classic, heavyish rock bands.
The second surprise was that most of the crowd knew every song (well I guess that should not be a surprise as everyone else, but me, was probably a long-term fan). And the final, very welcome, surprise was just how great they were and how much I enjoyed them.
I only recognised four songs: “Final Countdown”, “Carrie”, “Rock the Night” and pretty great covers of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” (singer Joey Tempest announced that they were good friends of David Coverdale and that he was a local lad from Redcar, which prompted a loud cheer from the crowd), and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Joey Tempest is a great front man and the band are clearly great friends who have been together with the original lineup still intact, for 40 years. Again, pretty impressive. This is a true classic rock band who deserve their success. A great evening with a great band.
Thanks to Joanne and Chris for the photography.
Setlist: Set 1: On Broken Wings; Seven Doors Hotel; Rock the Night; Start from the Dark; Walk the Earth; Hold Your Head Up; Dreamer; War of Kings; Vasastan; Girl From Lebanon; Carrie; Stormwind.
Set 2: Always the Pretenders; Ninja; Prisoners in Paradise; Sign of the Times; Space Oddity; Prelude; Last Look at Eden ; Open Your Heart; Memories; More Than Meets the Eye; Drum Solo; Ready or Not; Superstitious /Here I Go Again.
Encore: Cherokee; The Final Countdown.