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Biography

Europe is a Sweden|Swedish rock music|rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest , guitarist John Norum and drummer Tony Reno . Although widely associated with glam metal , the band's sound incorporates heavy metal music|heavy metal and hard rock elements. Since its formation, Europe has released eight studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and seventeen videos.

Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with its third album The Final Countdown (album)|The Final Countdown (1986), which became a substantial commercial success and sold over three million copies in the United States . Europe was one of the most successful rock acts of the 80s and sold over 20 million albums worldwide. The band has achieved two top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart ( The Final Countdown and Out of This World (Europe album)|Out of This World ) and two top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (" The Final Countdown (song)|The Final Countdown " and " Carrie (song)|Carrie ").

Europe went on hiatus in 1992, reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since then Europe has released three albums, Start from the Dark (2004), Secret Society (album)|Secret Society (2006) and Last Look at Eden , which was released on 9 September 2009.

Biography

Early days (1979–1985)

The first incarnation of the band was named Force and came together in 1979, in Upplands Väsby , Stockholm , and was integrated by vocalist and keyboardist Joey Tempest , guitarist John Norum , bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno . "I remember when we started the band Force we were playing covers in the rehearsal room, because we just wanted to learn our instruments, like all bands," Tempest said, "Then one day I said maybe we should do our own stuff. Nobody had any ideas, so I brought mine into the rehearsal room, and that is when we started writing our own stuff."

The band sent several Demo (music)|demo s to record label|record companies , but were told that in order to be published they had to cut their hair and sing in Swedish. Two years later, Olsson left the band and was replaced by John Levén . Just a couple of months later, Levén joined Yngwie Malmsteen|Yngwie Malmsteen's band Rising Force, and Malmsteen's former bassist, Marcel Jacob , joined Force. This only lasted for three months, though; Levén apparently had issues with Malmsteen, so he and Jacob traded places again.

The second album Wings of Tomorrow was released one year later and the single " Open Your Heart (Europe song)|Open Your Heart " got interest from Columbia Records|CBS Records who offered them an international contract in 1985. "I think one of the most important albums for the band was Wings of Tomorrow ," Tempest said, "We were learning how to write songs and John started playing some really cool stuff on the guitar. We became a better band and that was a good period for the band." Keyboardist Mic Michaeli was soon recruited to play in live concerts, and became an official member of the band shortly after. At the same time, Tony Reno was fired because of his lack of motivation and alleged slacking off on rehearsals. His replacement was Ian Haugland .

In 1985 Europe recorded the soundtrack for the film On the Loose (1985 film)|On the Loose , which gave them the hit " Rock the Night (song)|Rock the Night ". Several months later Joey Tempest was asked to write a song for the charity project Swedish Metal Aid . He wrote "Give a Helping Hand", which would feature the biggest stars of Swedish rock and metal. The income from the sales of the single, which was produced by Easy Action (band)|Easy Action guitarist Kee Marcello , was donated to the starving people of Ethiopia .

Worldwide success (1985–1992)

In September 1985, Europe started the recording of its next album with Journey (band)|Journey producer Kevin Elson . The result was The Final Countdown (album)|The Final Countdown . Released on May 26, 1986, the album gave the band its international breakthrough, was certified Triple Platinum in the USA and reached number 8 on the Billboard 200|Billboard 200 chart . The The Final Countdown (song)|title track , which was based on a keyboard riff composed by Tempest as early as 1981-82, was released as the first single and became a worldwide success, peaking at number 1 in 25 countries, such as the UK, France Spain and Germany. The power ballad " Carrie (song)|Carrie ", which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100|Billboard Hot 100 chart , " Cherokee (song)|Cherokee " and a re-recorded "Rock the Night" were other hits from the album.

Not satisfied with the album's keyboard-dominated production nor the band's commercialized image, John Norum decided to leave Europe in November 1986 to pursue a solo career. "I didn't really like the direction the band was going in," Norum said, "We became this teeny-bopper, bubblegum band and I hated that whole image, the spandex, poodle-rock type of thing. I was more into the heavier, guitar-oriented stuff and it seemed like the keyboards were taking over more and more, and we were becoming more commercial. So I decided to leave. I just wanted to move on and do something else."

Kee Marcello was asked to replace him, and after some consideration decided to join the band. Marcello joined the band at its commercial peak, no less than three singles from The Final Countdown (album)|The Final Countdown reaching the US Top 40. The following year included successful tours through Europe and the USA.

The follow-up to The Final Countdown was entitled Out of This World (Europe album)|Out of This World and was released in 1988. The biggest hit from the album was " Superstitious (song)|Superstitious " which peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 9 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. "Superstitious" would be the last Europe song to chart in the USA. The album was certified platinum in the States and peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 chart. More touring followed, including an American tour with Def Leppard and a festival gig at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes , England with Bon Jovi , Skid Row (American band)|Skid Row and Vixen (band)|Vixen .

After ten years of living, recording, and touring together, Europe decided to take a break at the end of the 1992 tour. "I remember in the tour bus afterwards we were talking about where the whole thing was going and I think at the time the consensus of the band was we really felt ready for a break," Tempest said, "We felt that it was time to put some roots down and I was really into the idea of making my own solo album." In that time, Tempest and Marcello released solo albums whilst the other members participated in several different projects and bands.

Reunion (1998–present)

The band members started to discuss the possibility of a Europe reunion in 1998. "Mic and Ian came over to see me in Ireland," Tempest said, "Then whilst we were there, John Norum called from LA, and we were like 'Yes, maybe now is the right time to get things started again'." For the 2000|millennium celebrations, Europe was asked to do a concert in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999. That would be Europe's first, and to date only, concert with both of their lead guitarists, since both John Norum and Kee Marcello had accepted the offer to play that evening with the rest of the group. They played "Rock the Night" and "The Final Countdown".

The songwriting for a new album, Start from the Dark , began early in 2003. "It was just a matter of moving forward and writing songs for the new album," Tempest said, "That was always our intention. We thought that if we were gonna make a comeback, we wanted to do it properly, and that meant we wanted to write and record some new songs, a new album." For the recording of Start from the Dark , the band decided to work with producer Kevin Elson, who had also produced The Final Countdown . "We could either go with a younger producer, or we could go with someone that we knew, someone experienced who is on the same wavelength as the band," Tempest said, "So in the end we decided that Kevin would be the perfect choice."

In the summer of 2004 Europe went on a festival tour through the European continent. The concert setlists included the old hits, but also introduced the title track from Start from the Dark . The album was released on September 22, 2004, the same day that John Norum became a father. Start from the Dark featured a more modern sound compared to Europe's previous albums. "We wanted to be doing something at least that was a little bit relevant now; bit of a dry mix, detuned a bit," Tempest said, "So we felt like we didn't want to do an '80s album per se, we just wanted to start like a fresh band really." Eventually, the album sold in excess of 600,000 copies worldwide.

Europe released its seventh album, Secret Society (album)|Secret Society on October 26, 2006. "We think it's one of the strongest albums that Europe has ever done," Tempest said, "There is definitely some more melodic stuff on this one. Start from the Dark was very raw and made a statement, which is cool but for us it felt like a debut album in a way, so we wanted to branch out a bit on this one and take it to new levels."

On January 26, 2008 Europe did a semi-acoustic live concert at Nalen in Stockholm, calling the event Almost Unplugged . The band was accompanied by a string quartet and played reworked versions of its own songs, as well as cover versions of songs by bands that have influenced Europe's sound throughout the years – Pink Floyd , UFO (band)|UFO , Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy . The show was broadcast live over the Internet on Europe's official website. It was released on CD on September 17, 2008 and on DVD on August 19, 2009.

On July 23, 2008 Europe did a co-headlining concert with Whitesnake in Padua , Italy . During Whitesnake's performance of their encore " Still of the Night (song)|Still of the Night ", Joey Tempest joined David Coverdale on stage for the last chorus. In August 2008 Europe was the opening act for Deep Purple for two concerts in Sweden, in Linköping on August 8 and Ystad on August 9. John Norum joined Deep Purple on stage in Ystad for a performance of " Smoke on the Water ".

On July 21, 2009, bassist and former member of Force, Marcel Jacob, committed suicide. He was 45 years old.

Europe's eighth studio album, Last Look at Eden , was released on September 9, 2009. The Last Look at Eden (song)|title track was released as a single in June. The band has described it as a modern retro rock album. "This time, we're taking some new directions with our songs, and we're exploring different styles," they stated, "There is a definite classic rock vibe on some of the tracks... a tip of the hat to groovin', funkin' 70s rock songs - but ones we have bought into the here and now." The second single, " New Love in Town ", was released as a digital download on September 3, 2009.

In an interview with Abhijeet Ahluwalia for EspyRock on November 30, 2009, Joey Tempest outlined the future of Europe, announcing the follow-up to Last Look at Eden will come in 2011: "We're gonna keep working at this rate we’re working at, which is pretty good. We’ll probably come out with an album in 2011 and tour in 2012 again. We’re looking 2-3 years ahead all the time, and in the next 5 years I see Europe with 2 more albums, 2 more world tours and hopefully having established ourselves even better in a lot of territories around the world."

On July 12, 2011, Europe confirmed that Kevin Shirley will produce their ninth studio album. The recording sessions are scheduled to start on October 3 and the tentative release date is April 2012. On January 24, 2012 the band announced the album title, Bag of Bones . http://europetheband.com/homepage.html

On August 6, 2011, Europe headlined the closing ceremonies of the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby , Sweden before an audience of 40,061 Scouts and Guides which included King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia of Sweden .

Band members

Current members

Joey Tempest - lead vocals, acoustic & rhythm guitar¹, keyboards² (1979–1992, 1999, 2003–present)

John Norum - lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1979–1986, 1999, 2003–present)

John Levén - bass (1981–1992, 1999, 2003–present)

Mic Michaeli - keyboards, backing vocals, rhythm guitar³ (1984–1992, 1999, 2003–present)

Ian Haugland - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1984–1992, 1999, 2003–present)

¹Live
²Until 1984
³Live during the Prisoners in Paradise Tour 1991-92

Former members

Kee Marcello - lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1986–1992, 1999)

Tony Reno - drums, percussion (1979–1984)

Peter Olsson - bass (1979–1981)

Marcel Jacob - bass (1981)

Discography

Year	Title	Label
1983	Europe	Hot Records
1984	Wings of Tomorrow	Hot Records
1986	The Final Countdown	Epic Records
1988	Out of This World
1991	Prisoners in Paradise
2004	Start from the Dark	Sanctuary Records
2006	Secret Society	Sanctuary Records
2009	Last Look at Eden	earMUSIC
2012	Bag of Bones

Copyright Citations

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Europe Photo by: www.rockreport.be


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Metal Music Artists

Europe

Biography

Biography

Early days (1979–1985)

Worldwide success (1985–1992)

Reunion (1998–present)

Band members

Current members

Former members

Discography

References

External links

Copyright Citations