EUROPE (& King King)

Tilburg (NL)-013-26 September 2018

September 28, 2018 by Ron Willemsen - More about our team

Approximately 1500 people found their way to the ‘013’ venue this midweek, which wasn’t bad at all. They all came to see Europe, who made a stop in Tilburg during their ‘Tour The World’-tour.

Singer/guitarist Alan Nimmo and organ/keyboard player Jonny Dyke of King King

Bassist Lindsay Coulson of King King

Drummer Wayne Proctor of King King

King King from Glasgow opened the night with their bluesy rock. Singer guitarist Alan Nimmo, who was wearing a kilt, has a very pleasant voice and also with the song material there is nothing wrong, however, people around me thought it was a bit boring. I disagree, the song material is strong and tasteful and the frequent use of the Hammond organ gave the music extra depth. Songs like ,,Rush Hour’’ and especially ,,Stranger To Love’’ were well received and with a well deserved applause their set ended.

Mic Michaeli, Joey Tempest and Ian Haugland in action

Boring is not a word that refers to Europe. The Swedish, who are making waves since the early 80s but reached stardom with the album ‘The Final Countdown’ and the title track, came saw and (once again) conquered Tilburg. Right from openers ,,Walk This Earth’’ and ,,The Siege’’ it was a done deal. The sound was almost perfect, the light show was big and the band itself was in top form.

Joey Tempest hypnotizing the audience

Joey entertained the audience with his usual swagger (,,somebody called me a ‘mafkees’ (Dutch for weirdo) backstage. What does that mean? That ain’t good? Hey, I am proud to be a mafkees). The setlist was great. Starting with the title track of their latest album ‘Walk The Earth’ followed by ,,The Siege’’ things couldn’t go wrong. Of course there are always people complaining why a certain song is or isn’t played but overall it was a very balanced set in which the well known songs could not fail, so there was room for ,,Rock The Night’’, ,,Ready Or Not’’ but also ,,Sign Of The Times’’ and ,,Carrie’’. For me the biggest surprise was ,,Pictures’’ which turned out to be a little diamond with its David Bowie feel, beautiful.

Sing along with John Levén and Joey Tempest

The band played super tight with drummer Ian Haugland and bassist John Levén laying down the foundation, Mic Michaeli took care of the colouring and John Norum proved, once again, to be an outstanding guitarist.

John Norum, the master of the fret board

His real moment in the spotlight was during the beautiful, instrumental ,,Vasastan’’ which sounded very much like Gary Moore was back on the stage.

Ian Haugland ‘are you lookin’ at me?’

If you would have to nit-pick it could be that Ian Haugland might start looking for a new drum solo because this one, ,,The William Tell Overture’’, we know by now. Other than that everything was perfect and the set was finished with their larger than life hit song ,,The Final Countdown’’ after which everybody went home satisfied.