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EUROPE: “Live At Sweden Rock”

Time flies and 30 years of career drifted by, assumingly as if the maiden voyage was yesterday. Truth be told, I have never been one of those folks that recognized the Swedish Hard N’ Heavy band EUROPE through their major 80’s hit “The Final Countdown”, probably their key to glory starting that same year. On the other hand, while listening to the band in the past, I tried to experience them in full, back from their early 80’s period manufacturing well blended Heavy Metal with blazes of catchy Hard Rock through their mid era 80’d success where the band began smothering itself with Pop Rock fumes and commercialized ethics up until their time off passé after the early 90’s. Sometimes I think that ordinary people forget that behind the entity called EUROPE there is a lot more to offer than just “The Final Countdown”, but I guess that sometimes you just can’t argue with reality that in a way that song, following that very album by the same name, was probably EUROPE strongest bargaining chip. Later on, after coming back with 2004’s “Start From The Dark” with a purpose to continue the hey days without looking too much backwards, EUROPE began releasing albums on a regular basis, sometimes revealing sides of theirs that haven’t been there before, biting Blues, enticing classic Rock and generally establishing a front with decent material, which ended up being darkened hazy on several occasions. 2013 is the breaking point, a time to celebrate a three decade anniversary andEUROPE issued a DVD, “Live At Sweden Rock”, via earMUSIC, performing with their best of the best along with promoting their latest “Bag Of Bones”.

Consisting of a setlist of 28 songs, including two cover performances with guest appearances and a duo of unplugged versions, over two and a half hours playing, that were fairy picked, scouring the band’s depthy career, indicating the changes, for a better or worse, which occurred down the road. I couldn’t really count the filming angles, yet I am positive that there were plenty of cameras out there actively documenting the event with tremendous HD quality. No too many close crowd shots, however, I might comment that it didn’t bother me that much as I wanted to experience more of EUROPErather than the fine audience that attended the show. Furthermore, the cameras added a sort of a supplementary dimension to the band’s performance, making it larger than life, for that I was immensely pleased. The timing was nothing other than perfect, every powerful moment was acknowledged as should. Judging the sound, I didn’t expect anything less, creative engineering work that every now and then made me believe as if I was the only one there watching the band perform. In addition to the normal set, there are tasty additions such as “Behind The Scenes” and of course a gallery of high quality photography.

Diving to the performance itself, coming forward as an 80’s Metal / Hard Rock fan, I must imply that I naturally found myself relating to the band’s earlier catalog, at least at first. EUROPE, coming with a message of peace, profoundly let loose their Metal nostalgia with “Scream Of Anger”, “Sign Of The Times”, “Seven Doors Hotel” and “Paradize Bay”. Surely that Joey Tempest isn’t the same young vocalist that serviced these magical tunes back in the day, and his mid high register isn’t the same, but still the as a whole, EUROPE let the good times roll and Tempest in particular shared their memorandum with a staggering ability and a lot of heart. There were also the old rockers that enhanced the partying with “Superstitious”, whereJohn Norum shined with his lead guitar playing matching the efforts of the studio version recorded by Kee Marcello, “Rock The Night”, “Let The Good Times Rock”, emotive “Prisoners In Paradise” and the unforgettable power ballad, possibly the bands’ finest ever, “Carrie”. I missed “Cherokee”, as I believe that it should have been an integral to the list, but it didn’t ruin anything. The newer material had me perplexed, yet following EUROPE’s impressive showmanship, I was satisfied, even pleased. Right before my very eyes I found out the Heavy Rock appetizer such “Always The Pretenders”, the atmospherically enhanced Rocker “No Stone Unturned” and the Blues Rock manifold of “Firebox”. “New Love In Town” and “Start From The Dark” were pretty nice, but as the record shows, EUROPE concentrated their efforts on their early days, and I was grateful for that. Finally, there were the pair of covers. I was somewhat stunned that in this kind of anniversary such an icon would perform covers songs. On the other hand, it shows humbleness and a fine tribute to one’s influences. Paying a tribute to UFO, with “Lights Out”, EUROPE featured Michael Schenker that demonstrated his guitaring mastery, taking on the entire lead guitar flares. The song appeared so natural for EUROPE to perform. Second, there was the old THIN LIZZYout of jail hymn, “Jailbreak”, performed with no other than LIZZY’s old Scott Gorham exchanging solos with John Norum, another excellent pick that spiced up the originals.

“Live At Sweden Rock” is a must DVD, a high importance memo of a legacy that is more than meets the eye. There is more to EUROPE that just “The Final Countdown”, and the people need to understand that. This DVD is the proof to that, indulge its contents.

30 jaar oud: Ammonia Avenue van The Alan Parsons Project

Ammonia Avenue, de zevende lp van The Alan Parsons Project, is deze maand 30 jaar oud. De plaat bereikte de bovenste positie van de Nederlandse albumlijst en bevatte de hit Don’t Answer Me.

Net als de zes eerdere albums van The Alan Parsons Project viel op Ammonia Avenue een overkoepelend thema te ontdekken. Zo was het debuut Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (1976) gebaseerd op de verhalen van Edgar Allan Poe, verwezen de songs op de tweede lp I Robot (1977) naar de sciencefictionverhalen van Isaac Asimov, speelde Pyramid (1978) handig in op de toen actuele ‘pyramid power’-rage en had het kaartspel een grote rol op The Turn Of A Friendly Card (1980).

In 1982 verscheen Eye In The Sky, de meest succesvolle plaat van The Alan Parsons Project tot dan toe. De titelsong werd de grootste hit in Amerika en het door Colin Blunstone gezongen Old And Wise bereikte de Nederlandse hitlijst. Zoals de titel van de lp al aangaf, was het concept van dit album gebaseerd op het geloof in iemand van boven die ons allemaal in de gaten houdt – of dat nou het oog van een camera is of een hogere macht.

Het idee voor de volgende lp Ammonia Avenue ontstond nadat zanger en Parsons’ schrijfkompaan Eric Woolfson de directeur van het later door AkzoNobel overgenomen Britse bedrijf Imperial Chemical Industries ontmoette. “Hij nodigde me uit om naar Billingham te komen, want hij had het idee dat ik er muzikale inspiratie door zou krijgen”, vertelde Woolfson in een interview met NetMusic, “Wat me het eerst opviel in dit enorme complex was een lange straat zonder bomen en zonder mensen, met alleen maar oneindige pijplijnen en een bordje waarop ‘Ammonia Avenue’ stond. Simpelweg werd hier dus ammonia gemaakt, maar die twee woorden grepen me aan en ik werd er inderdaad door geïnspireerd.”

Het intrigerende concept leverde wederom een goed album op, met onder meer de schitterende Phil Spector-achtige hit Don’t Answer Me en de in Amerika eveneens succesvolle single Prime Time. Naast Woolfson zelf namen de bekende Alan Parsons Project-gezichten Colin Blunstone, Chris Rainbow en Lenny Zakatek de leadzang voor hun rekening in de aardige softrocksongs, terwijl ook de gebruikelijke instrumental (in dit geval Pipeline) niet ontbreekt. En zoals alle eerdere platen had ook Ammonia Avenue een puike climax, ditmaal met de gevarieerde titelsong.

Voor The Alan Parsons Project was Ammonia Avenue het eerste en enige nummer 1-album in Nederland, en Don’t Answer Me de laatste grote hit – hoewel ook Let’s Talk About Me van de volgende plaat Vulture Culture de top veertig bereikte.