Just the Beginning
In 1978, five musicians from the Swedish suburb Upplands Väsby started a rock band called WC. Those musicians were guitarist and vocalist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, drummer Tony Niemistö, guitarist Micke Kling and bassist Jan-Erik Bäckström. WC played cover versions of rock classics by bands like UFO, Status Quo and Thin Lizzy. They became very popular, much thanks to Norum's impressive guitar playing. But after a short while the band split up, because the guys became more interested in mopeds, parties and girls than music.
Then one day in 1979, Peter called Norum and asked if they could start a new band together with drummer Werner. Norum thought that was a great idea, and so the band was formed. This band was also called WC. But Werner quit after just a couple of weeks and was replaced by Tony Niemistö. "Then we decided that we needed a singer," Norum says. "An awesome singer."
One of Norum's old friends was Joakim Larsson, the vocalist and bassist in the band Roxanne. "I thought that he was really great," Norum says. "He had a charisma on stage and a beautiful pitch to his voice." Though WC were Roxanne's worst rivals, Joakim didn't hesitate to join. Then he suggested that WC changed their name to FORCE. The name was taken from the UFO album "Force It".
"One evening we were rehearsing at the Centrumgarden and it worked right away," Norum says about his first rehearsal with Joakim in the band. "It was a special sort of chemistry."
Joakim wrote songs of high class, which he composed on his acoustic guitar. Then he played the songs to the other members on John's electric guitar. Some of the songs were "Rock On", "Strange", "Midnight Show", "Black Rose" and "Can't Work It Out". Soon FORCE would become the most popular rock band in Upplands Väsby. At that time they got 100 Swedish Kronor (14 US dollars) for each concert. In 1980 they recorded their first demo, which contained six songs. They sent it to many record companies, who at that time didn't show much interest. They didn't think that a Swedish rock band would ever make it big...
One year later Peter Olsson quit FORCE because Joakim not only took over the band, but also Peter's girlfriend. While the band was searching for a new bassist, they recorded a second demo with Joakim playing the bass. Once again they got a negative response from the record companies.
Then, on a rainy evening Norum visited his good friend John Levén. "At that time Levén was a guitarist," Norum says. "I thought that he was very good and had a good feeling for the instrument. So I got on my moped, rode home to him and said: 'You're in the band - if you play the bass."
The same year FORCE participated in a rock contest at Underground. They didn't win, though, and that was a big disappointment for the guys. In April Levén got an offer from Yngwie J. Malmsteen to play in his band Rising Force. Since Yngwie was a big star in Sweden, Levén couldn't resist and accepted the offer. His replacement in FORCE was Yngwie's former bassist, Marcel Jacob.
During the time Marcel was in FORCE, two songs were written: "The King Will Return" and "Black Journey for My Soul". "The King Will Return" would later be included on EUROPE's debut album, and "Black Journey for My Soul" was put on their second album, with the new title "Scream of Anger".
Marcel didn't stay in FORCE for a long time, though; He quit the band after just three months and two concerts. The single that Levén was going to record with Rising Force was never released. Levén didn't want to stay in the band anymore, because Yngwie acted like a dictator and wanted to make every decision. Levén and Marcel decided to switch places again. Later Marcel would form his own band, Talisman.
Rock-SM
In 1982, the rock competition "Rock-SM" (Swedish rock championship) was held in Sweden. It was arranged by Thomas Erdtman, who was a former product manager at CBS Records, and his own, newly started record company Hot Records, as well as the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet". At first Erdtman asked another newspaper, "Expressen", about arranging "Rock-SM" together with him, but they declined the offer. So he teamed up with "Aftonbladet" instead. He had gotten the idea from Norway in 1980, where the contest "NM i rock" was arranged. Bands who didn't have a contract, could send in demo tapes. The best band won a record contract. Erdtman hoped that with his "Rock-SM" he could find a new Swedish band to make money on.
Actually FORCE didn't care so much about this competition, but Joakim's girlfriend, Anita Katila convinced them to record a demo tape with five songs: "The King Will Return", "Seven Doors Hotel", "Rock On", "Children of This Time" and "Paradize Bay". They didn't post the tape, though, because they didn't think the recordings were good enough. "It didn't sound good," Norum says. "We didn't care about sending the tape, and soon we forgot why we even recorded it."
But only a couple of days before the deadline, Anita sent the tape to "Rock-SM" without telling Joakim or the band about it... The "Rock-SM" contest was a success. Thomas Erdtman received a total of 4000 tapes and listened to them all. After that, he and his family picked out the 485 best bands to participate in the 80 part competitions of "Rock-SM". One of the bands who qualified for the contest was actually FORCE! They began practicing seriously because they now finally had the chance to make it big.
But they didn't think the name FORCE was good enough. They dreamt about becoming famous abroad, so they wanted a name that had the same meaning all over the world. Joakim came up with the name EUROPE, which he took from the Deep Purple live album "Made in Europe". "I thought the name EUROPE had a big and special sound to it," Joey says.
Then one day the band had a couple of beers at Joakim's place, and Joakim decided to tell the other guys about his suggestion. At first they didn't know what to think... "We just thought: 'Is he nuts?'" John Norum laughs. "But after we had some more beers, we really started to like the name!"
The same day that FORCE became EUROPE, they went to Solna to participate in the first part competition of "Rock-SM". One of the bands they met there were Trilogy, whose drummer was Ian Haugland! Trilogy were defeated, while EUROPE went to the quarter final. Erdtman was impressed by EUROPE, even though he originally was looking for a pop band, not a hard rock band. He was mostly impressed by Joakim's vocals.
At the same time that EUROPE participated in "Rock-SM", Levén was doing his military service. He didn't always get a day off to be at the competitions, so often he decided to go AWOL. "Guys who wanted time off to participate in sport contests could get it all the time, but I who was in a rock band, didn't!" Levén says.
Between the competitions, Norum also took time to tour Sweden with Eddie Meduza, one of Sweden's most famous rockers. EUROPE won the quarter final in Uppsala, and now it was time for the semi final being held in Södertälje. They won easily and were then qualified for the final.
That's when Joakim decided to take an artist name. If the band would ever become famous abroad, he would need a proper artist name. He wanted to have a name with a historical association. Finally he chose the name Joey Tempest. "I was in the USA when I was 12 years old," Joey says. "And the guys there couldn't pronounce Joakim properly, so they called me Joe instead. And one time when I was at a library, I saw a book with the title "The Tempest" on the cover. So I decided to put those two names together, and thought it sounded cool."
"The Tempest" is a famous play written by William Shakespeare. "I haven't read it that much, but I saw a movie based on it on TV once," Joey admits.
Tony knew that his last name, Niemistö, would be hard to pronounce abroad, so he decided to take an artist name too. He chose the name Tony Reno, while John Norum and John Levén decided to stick with their real names.
The "Rock-SM" final was held on Sunday, December 12, 1982 at Gröna Lund in Stockholm. Now there were only eight bands left. The final was shown live on TV. EUROPE were the favorites... They played two songs: "In the Future to Come" and "The King Will Return". Some of the members of the jury were Thomas Erdtman, along with rock stars like Mikael Rickfors and Tomas Ledin. But Erdtman, who had become friends with the EUROPE members, didn't vote for them as best band!
The first prize of the contest was a record contract with his record company Hot Records, and he didn't think that EUROPE, a Swedish hard rock band singing in English, would sell many albums in Sweden. Instead he voted for Joey as best vocalist and Norum as best guitarist, and voted for Café Midnatt as best band. But thanks to the rest of the jury, EUROPE won the contest with just one vote more than the second band! As if that wasn't enough, Joey and Norum won one award each, for best vocalist and best guitarist!
Even though Erdtman really liked EUROPE, he thought that they could do with a few changes to become more successful. He suggested that they could start singing in Swedish, maybe change to a more "poppy" music style and cut their hair. Joey considered it, but fortunately Norum didn't, so they didn't change anything at all. After that Norum never really liked Erdtman...
The first album
EUROPE recorded their debut album, "Europe", in December 1982, and it was released on February 24, 1983. New versions of all the songs from the "Rock-SM" demo tape were included on the album, as well as "In the Future to Come" and new songs like "Memories" and "Words of Wisdom". Both the lyrics and title of the song "Rock On" had been changed completely. Now it was called "Farewell".
The music was melodious hard rock, and it's obvious that they borrowed a lot from bands like Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple. But EUROPE still had their own style, thanks to Joey's great skills as a songwriter. Most of the music was recorded live in the studio, and the album was recorded in just a couple of weeks. For example, they only used a half hour to record the instrumental song "Boyazont". John Norum and his former tour buddy Eddie Meduza co-wrote that song.
Hot Records was a small record company, so there was a low budget: Just 100 000 Kronor (14 000 US Dollars). The sound quality wasn't that good either, mostly because Swedish hard rock was fairly untried earlier. So it was hard to find producers and technicians who were used to its sound. But EUROPE tried to produce the album themselves, and it turned out OK in the end. They also got a little help from Thomas Erdtman and engineer Erik Videgård.
The first cover for the album wasn't much to brag about, with just a picture of the band on it. Only the EUROPE logo - designed by Tony Reno's brother, Toivo Niemistö - looked cool there. When the album was re-released in 1989, a new and better cover had been made, featuring a big castle with statues in front of it.
"Europe" became very popular in Sweden and reached number 8 on the album charts right after its release. 30 000 copies were sold in just a couple of weeks, which was very good for a Swedish hard rock band making their debut. Erdtman didn't make a penny on the album, even though it was successful. But he continued to work with EUROPE because he understood that they were going to make it big in the future. In total, one million copies of "Europe" have been sold all over the world.
An interview with EUROPE in the studio and a live performance of "Children of This Time" was shown in the popular TV show "Casablanca" during the spring of 1983, and made them even more popular. Later that spring they went on an amusement park tour, doing 25 concerts in total. That tour was very successful, with sold out concerts almost everywhere. At that time EUROPE had a scarce stage equipment. Newspapers wrote about EUROPE all the time, and they were undoubtedly the most popular hard rock band in Sweden.
Most of the other hard rock bands at that time, like Iron Maiden and Motörhead, were rawer, faster and more aggressive than EUROPE, and it was mostly boys who listened to them. Both girls and boys listened to EUROPE, who opened the musical boundaries between them. Joey used to have a moustache, but once he shaved it away, he became the girls' new idol. After a while he bleached his hair.
One day the Japanese rock journalist Masa Itoh visited an import store in London. There he found the "Europe" album and decided to buy it. He liked it so much that he later played it for a good friend of his. That friend was T.T. Tsutsumi, director of the Japanese record company Victor Records, and he liked it too. Then Erdtman got a phone call from Tsutsumi, who told him that Victor Records was interested in releasing "Europe" in Japan. Erdtman started to think seriously about an abroad launching, but "Europe" wasn't released anywhere else at that time. The album became a big success in Japan, reaching the Top 10, mostly thanks to the popular single "Seven Doors Hotel".
The single was released in Sweden as well, but didn't sell quite as much there. That was the only single released from "Europe".
EUROPE decided to make their first music video ever, for the album's opening track: "In the Future to Come". The standard performance video featured the band playing in a desert area, mixed with clips of rocket launching and explosions. The video's budget was low, so it wasn't a big production. It was only shown once on Japanese TV in 1983, and nowadays the EUROPE members are glad that it wasn't shown more often. "You just laugh at that one," Joey says. "It's just us running around in snow, which actually was soap!"
Now Erdtman thought that EUROPE would have to get a new and prettier look and get their own image. But the band didn't care so much about that, because they thought that image bands didn't have any future. EUROPE cared more about the music, so they stayed with their straight, long hair and black denim clothes.
EUROPE's victory in "Rock-SM" wasn't just a breakthrough for them, but also for Swedish hard rock. Now that EUROPE had done so well, CBS Records were quick in finding more Swedish hard rock bands to make money on. They found 220 Volt, who did become a big band in Sweden, but not nearly as big as EUROPE would become...
Wings of Tomorrow
Since "Europe" had been such a big success in Sweden, there was no doubt about recording a new album. Earlier Thomas Erdtman had given Joey a portable studio, which was a multiple track recorder. Joey would spend a lot of his time with the portable studio at home in his apartment, recording demo tapes of songs he had written for the new EUROPE album.
"When I was going to record a demo, I first recorded a drum beat, humming the song to myself," Joey says. "Then I recorded the guitars, keyboards and vocals. It took a long time, and often I played something wrong. Then I had to start all over again."
At that time Joey was very influenced by UFO guitarist Michael Schenker's solo band. This can especially be noticed in songs like "Wings of Tomorrow". Other songs Joey wrote then were the beautiful ballads "Dreamer" and "Open Your Heart". The album would eventually be titled "Wings of Tomorrow", and was recorded during the winter of 1984. It was recorded in Polar Studios, a studio earlier used by bands like ABBA, Scorpions and Led Zeppelin. It was there that EUROPE had met Leif Mases, who would produce the album. He had earlier worked with Led Zeppelin.
The budget for "Wings of Tomorrow" was about 400 000 Swedish Kronor (56 000 US Dollars). The sound quality on that album was much better than "Europe", but Joey wasn't completely satisfied with the production. "Their digital recording system gave us a lot of problems with the rhythm guitars," he recalls. "And that made a lot of the rock feeling disappear."
The cover art was great, one of the best covers ever made in Sweden. The painting of an iron-clad eagle flying in front of a big planet was painted by Peter Engberg. The album was released on February 24, 1984, exactly one year after the release of "Europe". Shortly after its release, 38 000 copies of the album were sold in Sweden, and in total - just like "Europe" - one million copies have been sold all over the world.
Originally the first single from the album was going to be an early version of "Lyin' Eyes". But the day before its release, several copies of the single were taken back and destroyed. Instead EUROPE decided to release "Stormwind". Both the "Lyin' Eyes" and "Stormwind" singles have a high market value among collectors today. There are only 500 copies of "Lyin' Eyes" left in the whole world.
The second single, "Open Your Heart", became the biggest hit from the album, reaching a number 2 spot on the Swedish charts. It also gained EUROPE some attention and interest from American record companies. Some other great songs on "Wings of Tomorrow" are "Wasted Time", the instrumental "Aphasia", and one of the heaviest EUROPE songs ever, "Scream of Anger", co-written by Joey and Marcel Jacob. "That song is a good example of the 'fire' between me and John Norum," Joey says.
Till now, Thomas Erdtman had been EUROPE's friend and "Jack of all trades". But now the band felt that they needed a manager, so they offered Erdtman the job. After some consideration he accepted the offer. In late February Joey and Erdtman went on an international promotion trip to represent EUROPE. First they went to the USA to negotiate for an international record contract for the band. Erdtman had booked meeting with the big record companies Polygram, A&M, Warner Brothers and CBS. In New York Erdtman met an old CBS colleague who helped him into the A&R department at Epic Records. There he left a copy of "Wings of Tomorrow" and a note with the address of the hotel he stayed at. Soon he got a phone call from Lennie Petze, the manager of the A&R department at Epic. He was very excited after hearing the album, and wanted to meet Erdtman as soon as possible.
But then Erdtman and Joey was on their way to Los Angeles to meet some people from another record company, A&M. Petze, who had planned to go to San Fransisco, decided to go to L.A. instead to have a meeting with them. Only one hour before the scheduled meeting with A&M, Joey and Erdtman had lunch with Petze, who had brought a suggestion for a record contract. They accepted it and dropped the meeting with A&M. But it would take some time before a final contract was ready. After the meeting with Petze, Joey and Erdtman went to Tokyo, Japan. For an entire week Joey did many interviews with newspapers, TV and radio stations.
Back in Sweden, the "Wings of Tomorrow" tour started in Mjölby, Sweden in late April 1984. This time they had bigger light and sound equipment, so the concerts were bigger than on the first tour. But that wasn't the only change. Everyone in the band had gotten a perm and new stage clothes. Earlier they thought that image bands soon would disappear, but now they had changed their mind. Now they thought that it was not only important to sound good, but also to look good. Once they had gotten their perms, they thought that they looked strange. But they kept their new haircuts, though it took some time for them to get used to it. "The first time you get a perm, your hair looks like an... an acceleration pedal!" Joey says.
Until now Joey had played the keyboards both on albums and concerts to give the music a broader sound. But he had became tired of that because he felt like he was stuck behind the keyboards. He was, after all, the lead vocalist and wanted to concentrate on just singing. The keyboards were also becoming more important in EUROPE's music style now. So they decided to find another keyboardist who could play at their concerts.
That's when Joey thought about Gunnar Michaeli, who he had seen in the band Avalon at a rock gala once. At that time Gunnar was supposed to record an album with his new band, Universe. But when he was asked to join EUROPE, he quit Universe and accepted the offer, even though he was only supposed to be a background musician for the tour. At first he used Greg Michaeli as artist name, but soon he decided to change it to Mic Michaeli. Right before he was asked to join EUROPE, he had cut his hair. He regretted that and let his hair grow again.
Now EUROPE were becoming more and more famous, and there were fewer people who only associated them with "Rock-SM". Thousands of people came to their concerts, and they appeared often in newspapers and TV shows, like "Nöjesmaskinen", where they did a singback performance of "Dreamer".
In the middle of the summer, EUROPE took a break from the "Wings..." tour to play at a big rock festival in Finland. That was their first gig abroad ever, and it was a success. Everyone thought that it had worked out really well having Mic in the band on the tour, so on the way home from Finland he was asked if he wanted to join the band officially. He didn't have to think twice about accepting the offer! "He was the right guy for us," Joey says. "A great guy who's really talented on keyboards!"
"I was so happy," Mic says. "EUROPE was the perfect band for me!"
But at the same time that EUROPE got a new member, they also lost an old one as they decided to fire Tony Reno. He was fired because he didn't practice hard enough, and didn't realize how hard EUROPE worked to become big and famous. "Tony never arrived on time for rehearsal," Norum explains. "A half hour would be okay, but not two - three hours. Every now and then he didn't show up at all. Then we got a little angry. He had a nonchalant attitude. He thought it was more important to be at home with his girlfriend than to rehearse. And when we told him so, he would just start laughing."
It wasn't an easy decision to fire Tony, because he was a really good friend. But it was the only right thing to do for the band. Erdtman was asked to tell him the bad news, and did so by a letter. Then they met one last time and talked it out. Tony wasn't happy about being fired. "I have no idea why they fired me," Tony says. "Suddenly I was just gone! And the other guys would scamp rehearsals every now and then too."
Nowadays Tony Reno doesn't want to be associated with EUROPE at all... "Today we're in touch again, but as soon as I mention EUROPE he won't talk about it," Norum says.
It was a sad time for EUROPE, but now it was important to find a new drummer. Then Norum found out that former Trilogy drummer Ian Haugland was looking for a new band. At that time Ian worked as a service man at the Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, doing exciting work like emptying the latrines! Often he thought about going abroad to find a good band to join. The only band good enough in Sweden was EUROPE... Thomas Erdtman decided to call Ian and left a message on his answering machine since he wasn't home. Later Ian called back and was told that EUROPE were interested in hiring him to be their new drummer! Ian became really excited and met up with the band at their new rehearsal room.
"Joey and John Norum were sitting with their sunglasses on during the whole meeting," Ian says. "I remember thinking they were really cocky. But after the meeting they were really nice and I blended in well. I got a tape with four songs to take home: 'Seven Doors Hotel', 'Scream of Anger', 'Wings of Tomorrow' and 'Treated Bad Again'. Then there was nothing left to do but go home and rehearse like hell. Then we met again in the rehearsal room."
The band rehearsed for a whole month, and the other guys soon realized that Ian was the right drummer for them. "We were convinced right away that Ian was the right guy for us," Joey says. After that EUROPE went on the road again, starting the second part of the Swedish "Wings..." tour in Värmland. "I was nervous as hell before that first gig," Ian remembers. But after the gig it was a quite different story...
"After his first gig with us, I remember him running naked in the corridor, screaming," John Norum says. "It was a good start. He was a real drummer. Crazy. But in a good way." The new songs "Rock the Night" and "Ninja" had been included in the set list on the tour, and both were received warmly by the fans, something that certainly bode well for the next EUROPE album...
On the Loose
In the winter of 1985, the band went to the Soundtrade Studios in Solna to record the single "Rock the Night". This was the first EUROPE recording with Mic and Ian in the band. EUROPE produced this single themselves together with sound engineer Ronnie "Thunder" Lahti. Originally they had asked Leif Mases to produce it, but he had turned down the offer. Then he changed his mind, only to never show up after all! The band also recorded a new version of "Seven Doors Hotel" there, which was going to be the B-side for the single. "We had an idea about recording new versions of all the songs from the first album," Joey says. "And then we would use them as B-sides for the singles from the next album."
But because of lack of money, they couldn't afford to re-record any more songs than "Seven Doors Hotel". Too bad, since the next song they had planned to re-record was "The King Will Return".
Right when EUROPE were busy working with the "Rock the Night" single, Thomas Erdtman ran into the studio. The record contract with Epic Records was finally finished, and Erdtman had brought it along to be signed. It was a pretty big contract on more than 100 pages, so they didn't have time to read it all. But they decided to sign it anyway. This was, after all, their big chance. "We should probably have had some lawyers read through it first," Ian admits.
Later that year EUROPE were approached by movie director Staffan Hildebrand. He asked them if they were interested in acting in his new movie "On the Loose", which was produced by LO, the Swedish Federation of Trade Unions. He also wondered if Joey would be interested in making the movie's soundtrack. "It sounded exciting," Joey says. "And I felt that I could do a good job."
Joey decided to put "Rock the Night" on the soundtrack, together with two songs he had recorded alone: "On the Loose" and "Broken Dreams". He played all the instruments there himself, except for the drums, which were drum machines, and the guitar solo in "On the Loose", which was recorded by John Norum. First the "Rock the Night" single was released. Then sometime later the EP "On the Loose" was released, including "Rock the Night", "On the Loose" and "Broken Dreams". But even though two of the songs on that EP were recorded by Joey alone, the EUROPE logo had been printed on its cover by mistake, making it look like a EUROPE single. John Norum didn't like that very much.
"Joey had done everything there himself," he says. "So it wasn't too cool that the single was released as a EUROPE single. We, the other guys in the band, weren't even there!"
But it wasn't all bad. In total 90 000 copies of those two releases were sold in just a couple of months, making "Rock the Night" EUROPE's first huge hit in Sweden.
The movie "On the Loose" was recorded in the small town Katrinaholm in 1985. EUROPE acted in the movie, with Joey being one of the main characters. Another actor appearing was the old rock star Jerry Williams. The plot of the movie evolves around the young couple Peter and Nina. EUROPE come to their hometown to do a concert, and it turns out that Nina had an affair with Joey a couple of years ago! Peter doesn't like this very much... If you haven't seen the movie, you're probably wondering: Is it any good? Well, personally I have to admit that I wouldn't have seen it if EUROPE hadn't been there. EUROPE themselves aren't too thrilled about the movie either. "One of the worst movies ever made in world history," John Levén says.
"On the Loose" was shown at schools and youth clubs all over Sweden, and became a big success. Since both the movie and the "Rock the Night" single had become such huge successes, EUROPE decided to go on a new tour: The "On the Loose" tour. This time they would play in big sports halls. The budget for this tour was much bigger than for the earlier tours, so their light and sound equipments were better than ever. It was a successful tour, and EUROPE were better on stage than ever. Now they showed that they truly were a world class band. On the tour they presented the new songs "Danger on the Track", "Love Chaser" and "Carrie". The first version of "Carrie" consisted only of piano and vocals, and was more tranquil than the version on their next album. According to the EUROPE members themselves, the first version is the best.
After the tour EUROPE finally had time to relax for a while. One day the Japanese rock magazine "Burrn!" paid them a visit. There was now a huge EUROPE fever in Japan, with many fans waiting for a new album. In the USA there was quite a different story. "Wings of Tomorrow" had been released there in May 1985, but didn't sell much, mostly because Epic didn't bother to do much promotion for it. To quote rock journalist Anders Tengner: "It was like they threw the record at the wall and hoped it would stick..."
Another reason was that EUROPE never made a video for their first single ever released in the USA, "Open Your Heart". They didn't make videos for any of the other singles from the "Wings..." album either. Perhaps it was because of the big fiasco they had had with the "In the Future to Come" video...?
In the summer Joey wrote and produced the single "Can't You Stay?" for John Norum's sister, Tone Norum. Originally he had written it for the next EUROPE album, but realized that it didn't quite fit the band's style. So he gave it to Tone instead, and it became a big hit during the fall. Besides producing the single, Joey played all the instruments and sang background vocals on it, while John Norum recorded the guitar solos and Ian Haugland recorded some drum parts.
At that time Joey was asked by producer Dieter Dierks to write a ballad for the German band Scorpions. He wrote the song "One of a Kind" and sent it to them. But he never heard from them again, so the song would later be included on Tone Norum's debut album "One of a Kind" instead.
Later Joey was asked to write a song for the charity project "Swedish Metal Aid". It was kind of like "Band Aid", but this time there were only Swedish hard rock bands involved. They were going to do a single, and the income from its sales would be donated to the starving people of Ethiopia. Joey wrote the song "Give a Helpin' Hand", which was recorded in the fall of 1985. He was one of the five lead singers on the song, accompanied by a huge choir consisting of members from almost every hard rock band in Sweden, including EUROPE. The single was produced by Kee Marcello, the guitarist of the glam rock band Easy Action. He also recorded the guitar solo. This was the first time EUROPE and Kee worked together, but it wouldn't be the last!
The Final Countdown
Many years ago there was a discotheque in Stockholm called Galaxy. Before it was opened in the evenings, a lot of people were waiting outside to get in. The people who owned Galaxy wanted an instrumental song that could be played while the crowd was waiting. So around 1983-84 they asked Thomas Erdtman if Joey could write a song for them. Joey decided to do it and borrowed a keyboard from Mic, who hadn't joined EUROPE yet at that time. After a while Joey came up with a keyboard riff that he really liked, and gave it to Galaxy. Then, one late night in the summer of 1985, the EUROPE members were at Galaxy. Joey's song was played over the speakers, and John Levén really liked what he heard: "I said, 'It's fantastic. You have to write a song!'"
"One day Joey asked us to listen to this new song he had written," Ian remembers. "He had recorded a demo of it and was really excited about it. So we all sat down in his car and Joey put the demo tape into the car stereo."
That song was "The Final Countdown", EUROPE's most famous song ever. "I was inspired by David Bowie's song "Space Oddity" when writing it," Joey says. In the beginning the other members' reactions were mixed. "It didn't feel quite like a hit, but there was something special about that song," Ian says. "A song with a life of its own."
"My first impression was: Do we have to include this song on the new album?" John Norum laughs. "I was pretty skeptic towards it in the beginning, but later I thought: 'OK, let's give it a shot'. And it turned out pretty good!"
In the summer of 1985 it was time to think about a new EUROPE album. And now it wasn't enough with the best producers in Sweden. Now it was time to get an international producer. Scorpions' producer Dieter Dierks was interested, but would eventually produce Twisted Sister's "Come Out and Play" instead. Other producers EUROPE asked were Gary Moore's producer Tony Platt and Bon Jovi's producer Bruce Fairbairn. But none of them were interested either. Fairbairn even said that there were no hits among the demos he had heard... One of them was "The Final Countdown", a song that later would become number 1 in almost 30 countries!
Finally they ended up with Kevin Elson, former sound engineer for Journey. At the same time that EUROPE asked Elson, he got an offer to produce UFO's comeback album. But he chose EUROPE, and the budget for the album "The Final Countdown" was 1 million Kronor. (140 000 US Dollars) Then Elson suggested that EUROPE could use the Powerplay Studios in Zurich, Switzerland. "He had worked in that studio before and therefore he knew that he could give us a good sound there," Joey says.
Most of the songs had been ready for a long time, but one week before going to Zurich, Joey wrote the last song that was going to be included on the album. He had been fascinated by the history of the Native Americans, and that led to the song "Cherokee". New versions of "Rock the Night" and "On the Loose" had been included on the album, together with the new songs they had played live in 1984-85, like "Carrie", "Ninja" and "Love Chaser". Another new song was "On Broken Wings", which would only be used as B-side for the "Final Countdown" single.
Now EUROPE had changed their hard rock style into a more pop influenced style, similar to Journey and Foreigner. That wasn't strange, since Elson had worked with Journey earlier. The recordings started without problems, until something terrible happened.
Everything was finished, except for the lead vocals. But Joey couldn't sing... His voice was completely "broken"! First they thought that he just had a cold, because both Levén and Ian had had a cold not long ago. But Joey soon found out that it was far more serious: His vocal cords were completely inflamed. He had gotten a mysterious virus, and was told not to sing or speak at all!
Joey went back to Stockholm to rest, and ate lots of garlic to make his voice better. The other guys had already went home, as they were finished with their recordings. When his voice had gotten a little better, he sang "Give a Helpin' Hand" together with Swedish Metal Aid, live at the show "Nöjesmassakern" with a fever of 38°C.
Then he went to the Soundtrade Studios in Solna to try recording the album again. First he sang the song "The Final Countdown". It worked out great, even though he still had a fever! But that was the only song his voice could manage for now. After that he went to Florida, because the warm weather there might help improving his voice. Later he went to Kevin Elson's studio in Atlanta. After a lot of trying, he succeeded at singing the vocals for "Ninja". But he wasn't satisfied with the result. Joey was deeply depressed over the fact that he couldn't do better than that, and started to think that his career could be over...
This problem had made the recordings cost more than the budget had allowed. But when Lennie Petze at Epic Records heard "The Final Countdown", he didn't think twice about doubling the budget to 2 million Kronor (280 000 US Dollars)! Back in Sweden, Joey and Ian had gone to the resting home Skebo Herrgård. There Joey would rest, and Ian would diet after the "On the Loose" tour. "I think I lost about 10 kg in one week!" Ian laughs.
After that, Joey hired singing master Bo Sydow to help his voice getting better. That helped, and they went to San Francisco where Joey recorded the remaining nine songs in ten days! His vocals were now better than ever, because now he had learnt to sing more relaxed. In February 1986, the first single from the album was released: "The Final Countdown". It smashed right into number 1 on the Swedish charts, and that was a bit surprising for EUROPE. Originally they had just wanted it to be an opening song for concerts, and not a single. But since "Rock the Night" had already been released in Sweden one year earlier, and "Carrie" didn't fit as a first single, the choice would have to be "The Final Countdown". But they still used it as opening song for all the concerts on the entire "Final Countdown" tour, even though it had become such a huge hit.
The release of the album had been delayed a lot because of Joey's voice problems. But even though the album was finally finished, the release had to be delayed again! EUROPE had hired the American artist Les Katz to make the cover art for the album, but he hadn't started working on that art before the album was finished. So EUROPE had to start their Swedish "Final Countdown" tour without any support from the album. The first concert was in Gävle on April 29. Joey and EUROPE were better than ever, giving a fantastic show in every concert. But during almost the entire tour, the concert halls were only half-full!
If a rock concert is going to be successful, one of the most important things to have is an audience that knows all, or most of the songs and can be a big part of the show.
But now EUROPE played all the songs from the new album, and there were several songs that the audience had never heard before. The newspapers were saying that the tour would probably end up in an economic fiasco for EUROPE. The tour leader this time was the experienced Bosse Norling, who earlier had done tours with ABBA. The tour was very expensive; it cost 102 000 Kronor (14 300 US Dollars) a day to keep the tour going on.
Finally, on May 26, the same day that the last concert of the tour was arranged in Solna, the album "The Final Countdown" was released. It got stunning reviews everywhere. Everything was great: The songs, the music, the vocals, the production... Ironically, the only thing that they got bad reviews for was the album's cover art! It was basically just amateur-painted portraits of the EUROPE members flying up in outer space. The EUROPE members themselves weren't too thrilled about the cover either.
"It's pathetic that an album release has to be delayed because of the cover art," John Levén says. "And even then the art wasn't exactly of world class!"
"It looks like somebody threw up and added some pictures to it!" Ian says.
A Swedish TV crew was in Solna that day to film EUROPE's concert. It would be broadcasted on TV in the fall. An American promotion team were also there to film the concert, and there was a European album release party.
At the same time and place, EUROPE decided to record their second (and more successful) music video: "The Final Countdown". That video captured the fun and excitement of EUROPE in concert, and video cuts of Swedish landscape and TV technicians working on the broadcast of the concert were also included.
EUROPE were ensured a gold record on basis of the advance ordering of the album alone - 50 000 copies. In only two months, 100 000 copies were sold. But despite the huge success, not everyone was satisfied with the production of the album. "I couldn't stand the way it was mixed," Norum says. "The keyboards completely buried the rhythm guitar."
"It was a better production than the two previous albums and it was the first 'professional' album," Levén says. "But I think there are too much keyboards and too little guitars. And the drums shouldn't have that reverb sound and crap like that. But that's how albums should sound back then, it's a document of the time."
The conquering of the world
The international release campaign of "The Final Countdown" started in Europe in July 1986. First the single was sent to radio stations, and after much airplay on radio, the single started climbing most of the European charts. The first foreign country where it became number 1 was Holland. Joey spent almost the entire summer producing Tone Norum's debut LP, "One of a Kind". He got a break when he and Thomas Erdtman went to the USA to promote EUROPE. The video for the "Final Countdown" single had achieved a "High Rotation" spot on MTV! ("High Rotation" = The videos played most often on MTV)
On September 3, EUROPE started a Japanese tour. This was their first tour there ever. The only other Swedish band who had toured Japan before was ABBA. EUROPE did six concerts in Japan - four of them in Tokyo, the two others in Osaka and Nagoya. The Japanese had built a copy of EUROPE's stage design, because bringing it all over from Sweden would be too expensive. Sound and light equipment was also rented there, so all that EUROPE had to bring was their instruments.
In concerts one of the most popular songs was a medley of songs from "Europe", in which an instrumental version of the Swedish national anthem was included. Needless to say, the most popular song was "Seven Doors Hotel", their first hit in Japan.
EUROPE had a lot of work to do in Japan: Their Japanese record company, Victor, had planned several TV interviews, press conferences and photo sessions, among other things. A new single had already been released in Japan only: "Love Chaser". Instrumental versions of it and "Carrie" were also included on the soundtrack for the movie "Pride One".
But right in the middle of the tour, when EUROPE were bigger than ever, a shock came: John Norum told the other members that he had decided to quit! He was tired of the endless promotion touring, having to do playback shows, interviews and photo sessions all the time. "Now it was all about the money and our image, and the music took second place," Norum says. "It all became too much bubble gum metal, and I didn't like that. I hated the whole image - those hairstyles made us look like poodles."
Norum and the other members had serious disagreements about their music: He wanted to play harder guitar, which the others didn't think fitted their songs. They, on the other hand, wanted to use more keyboards, but Norum didn't. He had songs that he wanted to be on the album, but there wasn't any room for them. "'Tempest writes the songs' was the word."
But the main reason that Norum wanted to quit, was that there were intern problems between him and manager Thomas Erdtman. Right from the start Norum realized that Erdtman only wanted to make money and wouldn't think twice about fooling EUROPE for big sums. Norum never wanted to sign the contract with Erdtman and Epic Records, but was convinced by the other members.
Around 1984-85, Norum's mother Sofie had started dating Erdtman. "At first I thought it was cool and so did the other guys," Norum says. "But she started telling me that he often had lots of money in his pockets saying: 'This is the boys' cash but I don't care - let's have fun with it instead'. I thought it was strange that he had so much money and we had so little when we already had two gold albums. It was all a mystery. I left partly because of Erdtman's management, and partly because he and Joey made too many decisions. Joey and Erdtman were the bosses, and the rest of us had to deal with it."
The others were shocked by Norum's decision, but at the same time they understood him. They hadn't gotten along really well lately, so maybe it would be best if he left the band.
"There was a silent agreement between us," Ian says. "He wanted to leave the band, and we wanted him to leave the band."
"It grew on us, I guess, the vibes got worse and worse," Mic says. "He isolated himself more and more, so his decision didn't come as a shock. I guess there was too much press and promotion and too little rock 'n' roll."
"To a certain extent I don't blame him," Levén says. "You had dreamt about playing and touring. Not about making interviews."
Norum accepted to go on with EUROPE for a new tour in Sweden, but then that was it. The guys agreed to keep Norum's decision secret. An incomplete band could mean loss of popularity. The only thing that was on the four remaining members' minds that night was to find a replacement for Norum. They wanted a really good Swedish guitarist, and in the end they all thought of the same person: Kee Marcello, the Easy Action guitarist who EUROPE had worked together with on the "Swedish Metal Aid" single.
"Kee had just recorded an album with Easy Action and I remember that we got a copy of it before it was out," Levén says. After listening to it, there was no doubt about him being the right guitarist for EUROPE. Then Erdtman called Kee and gave him the offer, but surprisingly enough, Kee refused!
"He felt bad for the other members of Easy Action and their record company, and he was the most important writer in the band," Levén continues. "They took the cover photo for the album the day after we asked him, so you can see on the photo that his mind is somewhere else." But EUROPE didn't give up. One evening Erdtman met a friend of Kee's at the Hard Rock Café in Stockholm, and asked her to convince Kee. She thought that Kee was stupid to refuse the offer, so she promised to do her best.
Meanwhile, EUROPE got their revenge with the second "Final Countdown" tour in Sweden. Now the talk about economic fiasco was long gone. EUROPE were greeted by the masses at ice stadium after ice stadium, in town after town. The grand finale was at the Ice Stadium in Stockholm. Now the "Final Countdown" single was number 1 in West Germany, and it kept climbing the charts all over Europe. Then the band had to go to Munich to do a showcase - a concert for specially invited guests, press and record companies. That would be Norum's last real concert with EUROPE.
Right after that concert, Thomas Erdtman got a call from Sweden. Kee Marcello had changed his mind and was ready to join EUROPE! Norum was asked to do one last promotion tour with the band, because there wasn't enough time to rehearse with Kee. They did playback performances at several TV shows all over the continent, ending the tour in Amsterdam, Holland on October 31, 1986. There they played at Sky Channel's annual music festival, which was held at the discotheque Escape.
Norum was happy when the show was done. "Finally it's over," he said. "Now I can make my own music." He and the band parted good as friends at the Arlanda airport in Stockholm. It was probably best for them all that it went that way. But did Norum ever regret it? "That's happened a few times - I missed my pals from Väsby! But at the same time it was the best thing I could have done. I got a solo deal and could make a solo album with my own songs. After that, Dokken called and in 1990 I moved to Los Angeles and lived there for eight years. I wanted to get away and try something new."
"In retrospect you can say that Norum did the right thing," Ian says. "He believed in his thing and stood up for his opinion."
Now Kee was the guitarist in EUROPE. After practicing their songs at home for weeks, it was time to start rehearsing with the band. "The first rehearsals with him were great," Mic says. Late in November they recorded the videos for "Rock the Night" and "Carrie". The "Rock the Night" video was shot at the Hard Rock Café in Stockholm, while the "Carrie" video was shot in England.
Kee's first official performance with EUROPE was at the TV show "Peters Popshow" in Dortmund, Germany on December 12, 1986 - in front of more than 16 000 people. Other artists performing were stars like Samantha Fox, Depeche Mode and Billy Idol, but the most popular ones were definitely EUROPE! The show was aired on TV in 36 countries, and watched by 50 million people. Then the band did another promotion tour on various playback shows for TV. "It was so bizarre playing 'air guitar' to songs I hadn't recorded," Kee laughs.
On November 2, the "Final Countdown" single had finally reached number 1 in England. The band celebrated with beer at an English pub in Stockholm. At the end of the year, the single had sold almost 2 million copies.
Their first live tour around the European continent started in Bergen, Norway, on January 24, 1987.
"The first two months I was so worried," Kee remembers. "Did I do the right thing when I threw myself into EUROPE's world career? What would the fans think? The hardest part was when the guys in the band wanted me to play those melodic parts of the songs the way John Norum did. For example, I had to do 'Carrie' like he'd done it. That felt really difficult in the beginning. I was scared that I'd lose my own playing style... But later everything felt great. I didn't lose anything by playing like John, quite the contrary. I learned a lot and broadened my own playing. Today I don't regret even for a second that I joined EUROPE!"
On February 23, EUROPE recorded their concert at Hammersmith Odeon in England. It would later be released on home video as "The Final Countdown World Tour". The tour ended on March 12. The arenas were filled in every city they had played, like in Zurich, Switzerland, where 12 000 people came to the concert. In Italy a total of 66 000 people came to the seven concerts EUROPE did there. In total 155 000 people had come to see EUROPE live on the tour.
Right after that, the band went to the Soviet Union to do a TV show. "That's probably one of the weirdest places I've played at," Kee says.
The "Final Countdown" was climbing fast on the Billboard chart in the USA. The videos for "The Final Countdown" and "Rock the Night" were shown often on MTV. America was ready for EUROPE, and the band's first US tour started in San Fransisco on April 15. They decided to play in theatres with room for 2000 - 3000 people, as they didn't know how many people would come to their shows. They thought it would be better with a full theatre instead of a half-full ice hall. All the concerts were sold out quickly.
EUROPE played in 23 cities all around the USA and traveled 14565 kilometers. For the tour they had hired a private jet for 650 000 Swedish Kronor (91 000 US Dollars). "The idea was to save time to do more promotion in every city," Ian says. "At that time it was said that the record label was gonna pay the difference between commercial and private flying. But we ended up with the whole bill making it cost more than it was worth."
"Someone said we should fly private," Levén says. "We just thought: 'Cool - our own stewardess bringing pizza every time you get on the plane'. I mean how good can it get? But they forgot to tell us the important thing: 'By the way - you're paying for this.'"
The tour ended in Philadelphia on May 17. The Swedish TV channel SVT had followed the band during the tour, producing the documentary "EUROPE in America", which was shown on TV in 1988. It was also released on home video. EUROPE's biggest hit in the USA was actually "Carrie", reaching number 3 on the Billboard single chart. The "Final Countdown" single ended up as number 8. The album stayed on the chart for over 60 weeks, also reaching number 8. The band could go home with a platinum record - 1 million sold albums! In total, the "Final Countdown" single has sold more than eight million copies and been number 1 in 26 countries. The album has sold just over six million copies.
In September they went to Almeira, Spain to record the video for "Cherokee". It was filmed a half mile from where Sergio Leone shot the famous Clint Eastwood spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars". When filming the scene where the horses run through the valley, someone accidentally set some brush near the set on fire. The entire video crew, including band members, had to fight the fire by quickly digging a road that the fire could not bridge.
The taxes were high in Sweden, and EUROPE's tax advisers, who were pretty sloppy at that time, suggested that they should move abroad. Then EUROPE made the biggest mistake in their lives as they did move! Only Mic chose to stay home in Sweden, while the others moved to the tax haven Nassau on the Bahamas. But Mic's adviser told him to move as well, if he wanted to make it. So eventually Mic moved there too. Later they all moved to an island in the West-Indies called Turks and Caicos.
Out of This World
Having been one band amongst many others, EUROPE were now top priority for Epic Records - second only to Michael Jackson - when it was time to record the next album. "I guess Joey was the one who was under the most pressure," Mic says. "He wrote most of the songs. We did our best in backing him up. I remember Joey being in Denmark for a while to write songs. I went to record some keyboards and test some ideas. Although nothing was said or shown, something was in the air. We knew that repeating a success was the main thing."
In March 1988, EUROPE went to London to start working on their fourth album, "Out of This World". The single "Superstitious" was released in July and went straight to number 1 on the Swedish charts. Later that month "Out of This World" was released, also reaching number 1. 100 000 copies were sold in two days, giving the band a platinum record. In the USA 600 000 copies were sold on the day of the release date. The style of the album was a bit harder and more bluesy, but still had strong melodies. A new version of "Open Your Heart" had been included, together with harder songs like "Ready or Not" and "Sign of the Times".
The album was recorded at the Olympic Studios and Townhouse Studios in Swanyard, London. The producer was Ron Nevison, who had worked with Led Zeppelin, KISS and Ozzy Osbourne. "We wanted Ron because he had done the UFO albums 'Lights Out' and 'Obsession'," Joey says. But EUROPE weren't satisfied with Nevison's producing. They thought that he made too many decisions about the sound. "It sounds way too slick," Ian says. Kee Marcello once said in an interview that Nevison was one of the most unsympathetic people he had met. Ozzy Osbourne wasn't too happy with him either: "Being produced by Ron Nevison is like being produced by Darth Vader."
During the summer the band did a new tour in the USA, this time as "special guests" for Def Leppard. At that time Def Leppard were the biggest rock band in the USA, and their album "Hysteria" was number 1 on the charts, so this was pretty good promotion for EUROPE.
"The funniest thing was that Def Leppard asked us personally if we wanted to go with them on their indoor tour in the fall," Ian remembers. "But we were already booked for an Asian tour so it meant breaking all those contracts, plus our management thought that tour was more important. Lesson learned is that if you get a chance to tour with a Def Leppard going up, you take it."
Before leaving America, EUROPE shot a video for "Superstitious" at Hamstead House on Long Island, New York. At that time the single was number 38 on the Billboard charts, while "Out of This World" reached number 19. Then the band went to Europe to do a promotion tour - a month of interviews and playback shows. "The worst month of my life," Levén says. "Doing all those playback shows was one of the most boring things ever. We wanted to make albums and play live, but then someone said: 'If you don't do this for French CBS, they won't promote the album'. But was this what I really wanted to do? Doing a TV show where the audience consisted of people in suits and evening gowns? What the fuck are we doing here?"
In the fall they released the "Open Your Heart" single and recorded a video for it in London. Then they went on an Asian tour in November, starting with a charity show at a soccer stadium in Bombay, India in front of 60 000 people. The tour was ended in Japan, where they would shoot a video for the next single - "Let the Good Times Rock" - at the Budokan in Tokyo.
The European "Out of This World" tour started January 10, 1989, in Malmö, Sweden. The tour was a great audience success, with sold out concerts in almost every country. The tour ended in Lille, France on April 6. At that time the sales of "Out of This World" had stopped at 2.3 million copies. Compared to "The Final Countdown", this was a fiasco. "I feel that the success with 'The Final Countdown' was one of the reasons why we broke up," Mic reflects. "When the rest of the albums didn't sell as much, we lost the spark. And that was even though the other albums didn't flop. They all sold a couple of millions. Perhaps we were a band that should have sold one million instead of six. We weren't mentally prepared for that tremendous success."
Prisoners in Paradise
In the summer of 1989, EUROPE started working on a new album. "On the earlier albums Joey would bring us more or less ready-produced demos that we'd just add our personal touches to," Ian says. "But this time around, Joey just presented us a rough idea on guitar or we would simply jam on ideas and build songs from there."
They decided to fire their manager, Thomas Erdtman, replacing him with Herbie Herbert. "Many of us saw Erdtman as a slippery person, but if we were gonna go against him, we had to be united," Mic says. "This took us several years and we weren't that united until the time of the tour with Def Leppard in 1988."
John Norum claims that Erdtman has swindled millions of money from the band, leaving only crumbs for them in the end: "There has to be something wrong when Thomas has a big house, five cars, summerhouses everywhere and a big boat, while the band members have to share a fucking house in the West Indies!"
In the middle of it all, they were asked to play at a festival in Milton Keynes, England, together with Bon Jovi, Skid Row and Vixen, on August 19, 1989 - Joey's 26th birthday. EUROPE's setlist included four new songs: "Yesterday's News", "Seventh Sign", "Wild Child" and "Give a Little Bit of Lovin'". The band's style was harder and rawer than before, influenced by Thin Lizzy, Rainbow and Led Zeppelin.
Later that year, on September 17, EUROPE did a concert at the legendary club Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood, California. "We thought it was a great idea," Ian says. "But since we didn't have any work permits, we were a little concerned about what Uncle Sam might say. " Then somebody came up with the idea that we should play under a fake name. So we decided to do the gig as Le Baron Boys, named after the rental cars we had. The show gave us a chance to try out more new songs."
In February 1990, EUROPE went to Chile to play at an annual music festival in Viña Del Mar, and later that year they did a tour of South-East Asia. They also spent time in the West-Indies, London, San Fransisco and Los Angeles writing more songs, including "Here Comes the Night", "Break Free", "Girl from Lebanon" and "Homeland".
Then they decided to find the producer for their new album. "We met Bob Rock at a strip club in Vancouver," Ian says. "He was very interested in our project, but at that time he had just started working on Metallica's Black Album, so he was kinda busy. So we decided to go with Beau Hill, who is a great guy and producer. After a month of pre-production, we went to the Enterprise studios in Burbank, California. Everything went very smooth; the drum tracks were done in two days and the whole session done in about ten weeks. We were very happy with the way the songs came together and we felt that this was gonna be the best EUROPE album to date."
Unfortunately their record company didn't think likewise. "During the recording there was a restructuring in management at Sony Music. Everyone involved in EUROPE were gone over one night and replaced with new people who had their key projects. We went from being a priority band to an inherited project. The new people didn't like what they heard when we played them new material. 'We don't hear any hits - write more,' they said. That's when we lost a lot of the fire. We were being ass-fucked by the record company that used to back us up."
Four new songs were written: "All or Nothing", "Halfway to Heaven", "I'll Cry for You" and "Prisoners in Paradise". The album's working title was "Break Free", but as the song "Break Free" had been taken off the album, the band decided to go for "Prisoners in Paradise" instead. Several other songs had also been removed, including "Here Comes the Night", "Mr. Government Man" and "Yesterday's News". Sony Music thought those songs were too heavy to go on the album. They also tried to take "Girl from Lebanon" off the album, as they claimed its lyrics were "too provocative".
Several demos recorded by the band in 1989-90 are available on the bootleg "Le Baron Boys", including early versions of songs like "Talk to Me", "Seventh Sign", "Break Free" and "Little Bit of Lovin'" as well as songs like "Don't Know How to Love No More", "Wanted Man", "Rainbow Warrior" and "Blame It on Me".
The "Prisoners in Paradise" single was released internationally as the first single from the album, except for England. There the record company decided to go for "I'll Cry for You" instead. The video for "Prisoners..." was filmed in Paris, France, while the "I'll Cry for You" video was filmed at the Circus in Stockholm, Sweden. The album was released on September 23, 1991, reaching number 9 on the charts in Sweden. In total 1.2 million copies were sold.
On New Year's Eve, EUROPE played a show at the Tokyo Dome together with Metallica, Tesla and Thunder in front of 30 000 people. Though Metallica were the headliners, the show was actually called "The Final Countdown".
On January 7, 1992, EUROPE started their "Prisoners in Paradise" tour in Helsinki, Finland. Several times they would have three guitarists on stage, as both Joey and Mic played the guitars together with Kee. The music video for the last single released from the album, "Halfway to Heaven" was shot during the tour, at the Marquee in London, England. As the tour went on, the end of EUROPE seemed near. "I remember being in a taxi with Joey," Ian says. "And he said: 'When this tour is done, we're done.'"
"I was personally almost burned out from all the touring," Joey says. "We all needed some peace and quiet in our lives. I had to do something completely different or I would have gone nuts. So I think it was the most sensible thing we could do, to take a break."
"It seemed like a good idea," John Levén says. "We had tax problems in Sweden and a lot of bad press. We were fed up with the financial side of the music business." The last concert of the tour was held in Portsmouth, England, on March 15, 1992.
The end?
Joey Tempest got together with John Norum to do the single "We Will Be Strong" for Norum's album "Face the Truth" the same year. According to rumors, Joey wanted to reunite the old EUROPE together with Norum, Tony Reno and John Levén. But Norum wasn't interested. He preferred to be on his own. In 1993, Thomas Witt and Joey compiled the Greatest Hits album "1982 - 1992".
Now EUROPE had tax problems. Their move to Nassau on the Bahamas to avoid the taxes, wasn't approved by the Swedish taxation authorities. They considered the band still being resident in Sweden, so that they had to pay the taxes, while the band members themselves considered being resident on the Bahamas. The taxation authorities started getting interested in EUROPE's money already in 1988, and were now pressing them for all the taxes they didn't have to pay back then.
EUROPE appealed against the sentence, but both the county administrative court and the administrative court of appeals ascertained that they had to pay back what they owe. EUROPE owed the state 20 million Swedish Kronor (2.8 million US Dollars). Nowadays the taxes are deleted for Levén, Marcello, Michaeli and Haugland, as it has been seven years since their verdict. As for Joey Tempest, the officials applied for a five years' delay of the deletion of his taxes in 2002, because he lived in Ireland. Joey still owes 8.5 million Kronor (1.2 million US Dollars).
Since EUROPE split up, Joey, Kee and Norum have released solo albums, while the rest of the guys have participated in various bands and projects. Mic, Ian and John Levén toured together with Glenn Hughes, and also played together in bands like Brazen Abbot and Last Autumn's Dream. Ian and Levén played together in Clockwise, and they also did one tour each with Norum.
The first reunions
In late 1998, it was rumored on the Internet that John Norum said EUROPE would reunite for a TV show in 1999. It was very surprising as he had been the biggest opponent of a reunited EUROPE. The following year, Sony Music kept asking Joey to do something special with "The Final Countdown" for the new millennium. Joey decided to record an ambient version of the song in January, calling it the "Blue Version". Sony Music weren't satisfied with it, though, so they decided to hire producers Brian Rawling and Gary Miller to do a dance version. The result was "The Final Countdown 2000", released on December 12, 1999.
In September 1999, there was an article in the Swedish newspaper "Expressen", saying that EUROPE would reunite for New Year's Eve. They would receive 1 or 2 million Kronor (140 000 - 280 000 US Dollars). The band denied that it was true.
During the following months, it became clear that EUROPE would reunite for one show in Stockholm on New Year's Eve. Rumors said that they would be paid 21 million Kronor (2.9 million US Dollars), to play "Rock the Night" and "The Final Countdown". Joey Tempest would apparently get 11 million Kronor, and the rest of the members would split the remaining 10. In reality each member, including Joey, got a half million Kronor.
For that night, EUROPE had a six members line-up: Joey Tempest, Ian Haugland, Mic Michaeli, John Levén, Kee Marcello and John Norum. This would be the first EUROPE concert with two lead guitarists on stage. The band went on stage when it was 15 minutes to midnight, it was 15 degrees below zero (Celsius), and Joey had a cold. They did a great show, the only bummer being the vocals. Joey couldn't reach the high notes like he did years ago, but after all he did have a cold.
When the last note of "The Final Countdown" had been played, it was just minutes left of 1999, and Joey Tempest said: "Tack Stockholm!" (Thank you Stockholm). Then the band left the stage, and the King of Sweden made a short speech and proposed a toast. Then there were enormous fireworks, and the new millennium had begun.
The concert was broadcasted live on Swedish TV3, and Joey said in a late interview that it had been great to play together with the guys again. The next day, the Swedish newspapers "Aftonbladet" and "Expressen" both gave excellent reviews of the concert, and even had a comment from John Norum saying: "So far we have no plans, but I really hope we'll get together to play again."
On April 14, 2000, the EUROPE members had gathered at the Hard Rock Cafe in Stockholm, the place where it all started, and where they recorded the video for "Rock the Night" in 1986. They had donated some memorabilia, which would be displayed in a big glass unit. This included gold and platinum records, hand-written lyrics, instruments and one of Joey's jackets from the "Prisoners in Paradise" period.
EUROPE also received their gold records for the sales of the "1982 - 1992" album in Sweden. The cover band Playboys was at the cafe that night to play a short set of EUROPE classics - interestingly enough, they didn't have any keyboards on stage - and right before they were going to play the last song, Ian Haugland came up on stage. Soon he was joined by John Levén, John Norum and Kee Marcello. Together with the Playboys vocalist, they tore into "Rock the Night". Right before the second last chorus, Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli hit the stage. Since there weren't any keyboards on stage, Mic had to settle for background vocals.
The next day, there was an article in "Aftonbladet" saying that there would be a new EUROPE album and a tour in 2001. This wasn't true, however, and the fans kept waiting for another reunion...
Start from the Dark
In December 2002, EUROPE announced that they would release a box set to celebrate their 20th anniversary as recording artists. Joey Tempest could reveal that a 2-CD "Greatest Hits" album and a DVD, all packed with unreleased material, would be released in 2003, exactly 20 years after the release of "Europe". But the release date for this set would be heavily delayed...
Almost a year later, on October 2, 2003, another announcement was made: EUROPE had reunited again! But this time it wasn't just for one night. Plans for a new album and world tour were announced. John Norum was back in the band, together with Joey Tempest, John Levén, Mic Michaeli and Ian Haugland.
"Deep down we always knew that we would get back together again," Joey says. "When we did the rehearsals for the Millennium gig, we realized that the magic and chemistry was still there. Contractually I had to do a third solo album, and when that was released in 2002, I decided I wasn't going to renew my solo contract. I knew then that the time was right to go back to EUROPE."
"We decided that if we wanted to do this right, we should use the line-up that had the best chemistry," Ian says.
"I always missed John Norum," Joey admits. "When he left, that was the beginning of the end for EUROPE. I'm thankful that the band is together again and that Norum has come back."
Kee Marcello was too busy with other projects, including a new solo album, to join the reunion. "You should never say never, but I feel that my time in EUROPE is done. I couldn’t picture myself going around the world playing the ‘F’ song again."
The songwriting for the new album started early in 2003. "Norum and I started bouncing ideas back and forth to each other," Joey says. "The first two songs we wrote were 'Start from the Dark' and 'Got to Have Faith', both of which originated from his riffs. I finished the songs off in my studio in London, wrote the lyrics and came up with the melodies, moved things around a bit... Then I sent them back to Norum and he was like: ‘Hey, this is great’. At that point we sent them to the management and to the rest of the guys in the band, and everybody was like: ‘Wow, this is exciting!’ … So we knew we were on to something."
On March 3, 2004, the 2-CD "Greatest Hits" album and DVD were finally released in Sweden, although not as a box set, but sold separately. They were both titled "Rock the Night". The DVD was the first official EUROPE DVD ever, and included almost all their music videos, plus live footage and interviews from 1982-88.
Later that month EUROPE went to the Studios 301 in Stockholm together with the "Final Countdown" producer Kevin Elson to record their new album. "It doesn't have so much to do with 'The Final Countdown'," Mic explains. "He is very good at finding what's missing in the songs. He has good ideas. At the same time he is a very easygoing fellow. We didn't want to have some new 'hip' producer, but someone that we know can bring a good sound".
Few people knew about the recording of the new album. "That's how we wanted it to be," Ian says. "We didn't want any people from the record company or management to interfere."
"We did the whole song writing bit in probably six to seven months," Joey says. "Then we went into the studio and did the whole recording thing in 40 days. We didn’t want to drag this out. We called Kevin in America and said… ‘Let’s not drag it out, let’s record the whole thing in 40 days and then mix it quickly to try and retain that live vibe. Let’s make this a point in time and not drag it out for years’ … so we recorded it pretty much live. It’s just a mark in time really."
On June 11, 2004, EUROPE played their first real concert in 12 years at Vallset in Norway. It was the premiere of their summer tour, and they would play at various festivals all over the European continent; the highlight being the show at Sweden Rock Festival in front of more than 20 000 fans. The concert setlists included several old classics, but also introduced the title track from their new studio album: "Start from the Dark". Another interesting fact was that they didn't play any songs from the "Prisoners in Paradise" album. The B-side track "Yesterday's News" was the only song played from that period.
"I guess you can blame it on me," John Norum admits. "I don't like that album at all. It's the worst EUROPE album ever."
"I think the band grooves much better on stage now," Joey reckons. "When you’re young, you play quite fast and you’re very excitable, which can be a bit unpredictable up on stage, but now all that sits very well, the band grooves and plays great together."
In September, "Got to Have Faith" was released as the first single from the album "Start from the Dark". The music video featured the band rocking out in a garage, mixed with clips from the cult films "Ghostrider 1" and "Ghostrider 2". The album was released in Sweden on September 23, 2004, by Sony Music Sweden, who also released it in the rest of Scandinavia. Internationally EUROPE had gone from Sony Music USA to Sanctuary Records, record company for bands like Iron Maiden. The album's style was hard, using detuned guitars and pushing the keyboards more into the background. Many fans were surprised.
"To do 'The Final Countdown' all over again would have been the dumbest thing possible," Norum says.
"Mic was tired of the old 80's style keyboard sound," Ian says. "He always wants to do new things. There are actually a lot of keyboards on the album, but they have a guitar-like sound and melt together with the guitars."
"When Norum and I started writing, it was very obvious this was going to be more guitar oriented," Joey explains. "We didn’t write together as much before with EUROPE. He would play guitar and I wrote most of the songs. Now since we’ve been writing stuff together, it’s really triggered off some melodic but yet more guitar oriented and heavy music. It was just automatic! It was something we wanted to do that sounded like the rehearsal we had when we first met."
The European leg of the "Start from the Dark" tour started in Helsinki, Finland on October 14. Six songs from the album had been included in the setlist, together with "Girl from Lebanon" from "Prisoners in Paradise".
The last concert of that tour was on November 15, at the Hammersmith Apollo in London - previously called Hammersmith Odeon - and was filmed for the DVD "Live from the Dark". The DVD also included interviews and music videos, and was released in Europe on November 18, 2005.
The single "Hero" was released in November 2004, and was given a nostalgic music video, recreating scenes of teenaged band members dreaming of becoming rock stars. Live clips from EUROPE's concert at Hovet in Stockholm one month earlier were also included. An interesting fact is that Ian Haugland's son Simon and Mic Michaeli's son Marcus appear in this video!
In January 2005 EUROPE went on a Japanese tour. Three of the concerts were recorded for a live album. In March they played some shows around Europe, including two concerts in Russia. On April 22, they started their first American tour in 17 years. The venue was the House of Blues in Anaheim. Then they did a tour in the UK, as well as playing some more concerts around Europe.
In August 2005 EUROPE received a gold record for selling 30 000 copies of "Start from the Dark" in Sweden. Rumor has it that the album has sold more than 600 000 copies worldwide.
The new album
The following message was posted by the band on their official site on March 31, 2006:
"Hello everyone,
We're now getting very close to start recording our new album. We've decided to work yet again in good old Stockholm. The rehersal & pre-production will take place this spring, starting in May, and we're aiming to have the album recorded & mixed by July. The plan is then to have the CD ready for release in October / November.
The production will be handled by us (EUROPE), and it will be recorded and engineered by Pontus Nordgren, who was also our livesound engineer during the "Start From The Dark Tour".
At the moment we have about 15-17 song ideas. Joey is writing in London. Norum in LA. Mic, Ian and Levén in Stockholm. We will probably record 12 tracks for the CD. Everything is running very smooth and there is a chance we'll meet up for one more writing session before we start the pre-production.
We have a really great feeling about the new album, and we can't wait to get started so that we can get out on the road and see you guys again.
All the best & Rock on!
/EUROPE"
And on May 2, the EUROPE Supporters Club of Italy could reveal the following news:
"Up 'till now there are 20 tracks ready, 14 written by Joey Tempest and 6 by John Norum. EUROPE will select 12 tracks to be included on the upcoming album.
Recordings will be over by the end of the summer, as a consequence the new album will be ready to be released by September / October! Unfortunately there is no official release date yet, but as soon as we will get to know it, we will write it in capital letters!!! :-P
EUROPE will be back on the road before Christmas for their new tour!"
On June 6, Ian Haugland posted the following message on the official EUROPE forum:
"Hi All You Crazy Rockers!
OK here it is... We just finished rehersal for the new album. It all went very smooth. I personally feel that this will be our strongest album so far!!! The recording will start next week, and well put out pics´n´stuff on the site as soon as we get started... watch out!"
On June 11, the EUROPE Supporters Club of Sweden could reveal the following news:
"On June 12, the recording of EUROPE's new album will start. They have chosen 11 songs and will do the production themselves."