All too easy to go along and take the piss out of two bloated and irrelevant seventies/eighties bands whose best days are so far in the past that bronze-age man thought they were cool. Not necessarily so easy to admit that the two bands put on a stonking night of AOR and metal and left two and a half thousand people jumping for joy.

Europe were up first and it was seriously fresh to see a band who are unashamed to be rockers. From the start Joey Tempest was the complete rock god throwing the mike stand around with abandon and doing all those moves that you would expect of him. John Norum was too low in the mix for me but when he came through he showed just why he is generally reckoned to be Sweden’s best. All the hits were played in a short but punchy set: ‘Love Is Not The Enemy’, ‘Superstitious’, ‘Rock The Night’ and ‘The Beast’ plus of course ‘The Final Countdown’ and it has to be said that on record thay are a fair melodic metal band but live they are a different animal entirely and had the crowd going wild.
Definitely be back for the tour next year.

Foreigner, frankly, were a shock. They were one of the biggest selling bands of the seventies but it is only when you see them together that you realise just how many massive hits they actually had and it is as a live act that they really deliver. The current line up still features Mick Jones and he really is a superb and understated guitarist while Thom Gimbel adds sax and flute to his rhythm guitar to give some real texture when the keyboards threaten to take over. However, Kelly Hansen is a great rock voice and although he sports a very questionable tight pair of jeans (Spinal Tap anyone) he really does deliver with great power and spectacular moves.

Again, the hits are all there: ‘Cold As Ice’, ‘Urgent’, ‘Juke Box Hero’, ‘Star Rider’, ‘A Girl Like You’ the hits just come at you one after the other and all of them played with no sense that the band are tired of them or any indication by their fans that they want anything else.

The whole performance was the epitome of a band who know what their audience wants and are happy to deliver – symmetry.
Oh yes, they did do ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ and it got the biggest cheer of the night along with five thousand arms raised in obeisance.


Picture copyright Christie Goodwin