Europe are heading to Australia for the very first time

It’s the final countdown… to Europe’s first ever Australian tour. That’s right, Europe have never toured Australia in their whole career as a band, which has now spanned for over three decades.
So why haven’t they? Well, we got the group’s charismatic lead vocalist Joey Tempest to explain.
“Something was booked back in the ’80s but there was a management decision that steered us away to other touring. We talked about it within the band and we can’t remember why the management did that,” Tempest explains.
“Over the years we have always wanted to make it over and the reason why we are now is also because of our new management; Adam and Ace. We have been with them for about three or four years and as soon as we started working with them, we mentioned that we would love to go to Australia and they have been very instrumental in putting this together,” he continues. “The band and our crew are all very excited about this tour. We have started talking about our set lists and all kinds of stuff, with it being the first time we have made it over, it’s very special for us… it’s finally happening!”
Although the wait for Australian Europe fans has been incredibly long, they are now lucky enough to be in a position where the band has over 30 years worth of songs, all being played here for the first time.
“We are going to mix it up; we will play some new songs and some old songs,” Tempest reveals. “Because we haven’t been there before, it would be great to show crowds a wider span of the bands music. We are also very excited to play about three or four new songs. We have been getting a lot of positive attention about Walk The Earth [2017] and we actually recently got a Grammy. The 11th album in our career has been received quite well, it’s been fantastic.”
Recorded in Tempest’s now hometown of London, Europe’s 11th studio album Walk The Earth highlights their return to huge and heavy stadium rock anthems.
“We actually recorded in London in 1988 for Out Of This World. I’ve been trying to get the guys over ever since then because I’ve lived here for so many years, but finally there was an opening at Abbey Road Studios, which isn’t easy to get as it’s a very busy studio. Everybody was really excited to be there and was feeling the vibe.”
With the band members being friends since they where teenagers, it’s no surprise that Europe still loves to write and perform together, keeping things “intentionally unintentional”, the band still aims to push themselves with each release.
“We are always open to experiment and share the load in terms of writing, which makes the finished product more varied as different songs have come from different people. It helps to make each album its own entity,” he says.
“Walk The Earth is a miracle album; I don’t know how we managed to do it. The trick is not to shy away from trying things and we really tried to push it a bit with this album. This album is really out there for us, but we absolutely love it.”
When & Where: Palais Theatre, Melbourne – May 19 2018. Tickets available via ticketmaster.
Written by Alex Callan