Scan Magazine

By Emelie Krugly | Photo: Patric Ullaeus

If you have never heard The Final Countdown, you have to visit planet Earth more often – and in particular Europe! The band’s Keyboard Intro is one of rock history’s most iconic creations ever. Scan Magazine talks to Europe’s singer Joey Tempest about the band’s wild heydays in the 80s, their successful new album Last Look at Eden and the forthcoming UK tour.

Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson better known as Joey Tempest was certainly a pioneer of ‘Hair metal’ in the 1980s. As a fan I still remember how I used to steal my brothers OKEJ magazines, (Sweden’s largest teenage pop magazine) every time Joey was on the cover. I would languish, pretending I was his girlfriend entangling my fingers in his long and wavy hair. It almost feels surreal now hearing his voice on the telephone.

The Force that got them started

For the group it all started in the Stockholm suburb Upplands Väsby in 1979 when Joey and his friends, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno performed under the name Force.

In their teens the foursome had great confidence in the band and sent several demos to record companies only to be told that to be published they had to cut their hair and sing in Swedish. Their first breakthrough was winning the Swedish rock talent contest Rock-SM; having competed against 4,000 other bands they were presented with a record deal with Hot Records. During the contest, Force changed their name to Europe; why? The idea came from listening to a number of Deep Purple’s live albums and in particular Made in Europe, explains Joey. “It took the guys quite a while to get used to it, about 17 pints or so,” he recalls laughing.

The countdown to fame

However it was not until their third album, The Final Countdown, that things really began to change. This monster hit album sold over three million copies in the U.S alone.

After several triumphal tours around the world, the band decided to take a break during 1992, but reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year’s Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since the band’s first days the lineup has changed a few times and today, besides Joey Tempest, consists of John Norum (guitar), John Levén (bass ), Mic Michaeli (keyboards) and Ian Haugland (drums).

In September 2009 Europe released its latest album – the third since the reunion – Last Look at Eden. The album shot straight to number one in the Swedish album charts, something that has not occurred since 1988 when the band released Out of This World, and is now being unanimously extolled by the world’s greatest rock critics.

You have recently celebrated thirty years as a band; what is the recipe for such a long union?

The fact that we found each other all those years ago has given us an incredible strength. We all have a burning passion for music plus we are one hundred percent committed regardless of what challenges we face; that is, I think, what is unique about our band. We are an extremely hardworking group!

How would you say that Europe has changed in the years gone by?

We are experienced businessmen these days, not those naïve young guys we were back in the days; we have now taken control over our affairs in a different way. The long break we had back in the 1990s did us a lot of good, we explored new paths, for example recording our own solo albums, I developed my singer and song writing skills.

Can you tell us the story behind The Final Countdown?

I Came up with the keyboard intro when I was in college. I kind of knew that there was something special about it as soon as I had written it, but it actually took a few years for it to be used. We needed an intro to start our gigs, and we decided to try that tune out that I’d written all those years ago, The Final Countdown was then born. We could have never imagined in our wildest dreams that it was going to be such a major success; mainly because it was so long, more than six and a half minutes. We didn’t think the radio would be interested in playing such a long song!

British media have praised your latest album Last Look at Eden; what does it mean to you?

It’s incredibly exhilarating and very special to us, as the UK has always been the country of rock n’ roll for us. All the bands we have admired, like Deep Purple, UFO, Queen and Gary Moore, were spawned here and we have always aspired to break into the British scene. It’s amazing to play live over here; you just know that the audience gets it straight away. We are being featured in Classic Rock magazine in the next few weeks and that has been a Rock bible for us, so it’s very flattering to be featured.
How is touring life these days compared to the 1980s?

Our drummer Ian Haugland recently said that touring in the 1980s was “80 percent about partying and 20 percent about the music”, today I would say it’s the other way around! But we are still five guys who play rock n’ roll and still know how to party!

What are your future plans? Will you be like the Rolling Stones and tour until you drop?

Hah hah! Well, we’re not sure about that, but we can at least guarantee that we will be here for a long time. We are usually forming five year plans; the immediate future is all about the tour. We start our UK tour on the 18th of February and will be on the road for pretty much all of 2010 and then we start to work on the new album in 2011. We are generally better at planning these days since we all have our own families.

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Europe February 2010 UK Tour
With special guest Diamond Head
•    Leeds O2 Academy (Feb 18)
•    Birmingham O2 Academy (Feb 19)
•    London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (Feb 20)
•    Oxford O2 Academy (Feb 22)
•    Bournemouth O2 Academy (Feb 23)
•    Bristol O2 Academy (Feb 24)
•    Manchester O2Academy (Feb 26)
•    Newcastle O2 Academy (Feb 27)
•    Glasgow O2 ABC (Feb 28).

Ticket Hotline: 0844 477 2000 | www.ticketweb.co.uk
The album Last Look At Eden is out now.
More info: www.europetheband.com