Europe

I well remember this show. Expecting to be assailed with a mock-rock bunch of prancing ninnies and coming away completely blown away by the sheer power and energy of the band.

Riffs, themes and melodies, they have them all and when you add some superb playing from the likes of John Norum and the vocal prowess of Joey Tempest they really are a step above most of the hard rock bands who have been around through the years.

The show opens with the band playing their last album ‘War of Kings’ in its entirety before moving into the ‘greatest hits’ section. Two huge screens on the stage walls and a full-on lightshow with the band almost dwarfed on the stage below. John Norum playing the funky opening riff to ‘Hole In My Pocket ‘ with Ian Haughland’s drums hammering the beat and John Leven’s bass carrying the pace and drive, original keyboardist Mic Michael creating a height and breadth to the music before Joey Tempest’s vocals tell the tale. For a show to be elevated to a ‘special’ status the band have to be playing for as well as with one another and Europe definitely sounded as though they were having a great time on stage. It really hds everything a great rock show should have.
When they moved on to the softer stuff – ‘Praise You’ – they showed that they can do the big power ballad too and without overcooking the emotion.

The capacity crowd was totally with the band – I remember seeing a mosh pit bigger than even for Deep Purple last time I saw them – and huge cheers came up for every number.
As the pounding opening of ‘Children of The Mind’ started there was a cheer from the crowd and a forest of arms out pointing and hammering the rhythm.

They opened the second half of the show with ‘Final Countdown’, video, smoke, fans going apeshit and singing the refrain with Tempest. Looking at them you get the feeling that many of the crowd weren’t even conceived before it was released (and many may have been conceived to it) but as one they were dancing, chanting and cheering.

As the rest of the show progresses you begin to realise just how many ‘hits’ Europe had over the years – ‘Rock The Night’ leads into the beautiful ‘Carrie’ and on … ‘Ninja’ followed by ‘Cherokee’.

A terrific night and a classic example of why hard rock has never lost its following over the many, many years.