NEWS: Europe set to release 30th Anniversary show live at The Roundhouse

ON JULY 21st 2017, Swedish rock ‘n’ roll legends, Europe, will share their unique 30th Anniversary performance of The Final Countdown from London’s legendary Roundhouse.

The Final Countdown 30th Anniversary Show - Live at the Roundhouse celebrates the multi-platinum album’s triple decade success.  The band played the album in its sequential entirety at a series of selected cities in 2016, with London’s most historically venerated venue playing host to an exceptionally special night on November 12th2016, which was captured by Patric Ullaeus from rEvolver Film Company AB.
Preceding the landmark event, fans were also treated to a live performance of Europe’s latest album War of Kings, a release which re-established Europe as one of the top classic rock bands in the world.

“What an awesome night!
    It was more enjoyable than we thought to revisit the whole Final Countdown album live! On top of that, to be able to share our whole War Of Kings album with this amazing audience the same night just made this show one of the most memorable nights of our career!”
    Joey Tempest / Europe

The limited edition release will arrive in the following formats and available to pre-order very soon:
 

DVD/2CD – full concert on all discs (1 visual, 2 audio) packaged in an 8 panel CD-sized digipack, including a 24 pg booklet

BluRay/2CD – full concert on all discs (1 visual, 2 audio) packaged in an 8 panel CD-sized digipack, including a 24 pg booklet

A Digital audio only release

A 12” sized Boxset, limited to 1,000 units will also be available in September.
It will contain the BluRay/2CD configuration, a double gatefold vinyl with only The Final Countdown portion of the concert, a 40 pg 12” sized hardcover photo book, a vintage replica scarf and a laminate/guest-pass.

…Live At The Roundhouse will conclude an exciting and emotional revisiting of The Final Countdown, with the band recording at the legendary Abbey Road Studios a brand new album to follow up War of Kings, which was released in 2015.

ALBUM REVIEW: It’s not the Final Countdown as Europe excel on War of Kings

POP pickers and disco bunnies all recognise Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’ but few would realise that on March 6^th the Swedish rockers will release their 10^th album, ‘War of Kings’ and if they fail to pick up a copy they are missing a slab of hard rock excellence.

As always the focus is on Joey Tempest and John Norum throughout, but to see this as some sort of star vehicle would be to miss the fact that Europe are very much a unit, tried, tested and true in their pursuit of excellence.

Jon Levén (bass) Mic Machaeli (keyboards) and Ian Haugland (drums) are all integral to the sound; and on ‘War of Kings’ there is a sense of purpose.

Building on their previous album ‘Bag of Bones’ Europe have not distilled their influences, instead they have gone back to what they love.

Tempest said:

“War Of Kings is the album we always wanted to make, ever since we were kids listening to bands like Zeppelin, Purple and Sabbath.”

Of course this begs the question about the previous nine releases, but we’ll skip over that...

Kicking off with the title track, a brooding mid-paced track, this is perhaps one of the most rounded album from the band. Stand-out tracks such as ‘The Second Day’, ‘California 405’ and ‘Angels (with Broken Hearts)’ swirl with delightful turns of musical phrase.

Yes, you can hear the Purple influence (California 405 could have been written with Ian Gillan in mind), but that does not detract from the fact that this is a triumphant hard rocking album.

Key to that could be that this is a line-up that has been largely together since the early 80s – bar the break from 1992 to 2003.

‘7 Days of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ sounds from the title as if it is another clichéd romp through how rock is great, but Michaeli and Norum produce a layered sound and backdrop to the song, and lyrically it just says that they’re still rocking...

Tempest declared that they have “done it our way” since the re-union, and that is something no-one could deny, and he’s not going to be shy about his pride in Europe.

“Looking forward to tons of touring in 2015,” he said. “It’s getting harder and harder to be modest and humble about this band. It doesn’t get much better than this.

War of Kings is released on UDR on March 6^th.

Europe play Belfast's Ulster Hall on March 3^rd, with co-headliners Black Star Riders and The Amorettes as support. It is their first visit to Belfast in 25 years.

Review by Jonny