Stein
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Post by Stein on Sept 29, 2021 23:29:29 GMT 2
Cool! Such an interesting read! Actually some stuff in there that I didn't know. Thanks Stein for taking the time to translate it all   I wonder... Were they all in the same room? (Or Zoom meeting perhaps). Cause the interview suggests that. Like Joey reacting to Kee about that Rod Stewart story for example. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that each of them were interviewed at separate times. Seeing as Joey responded to Kee's story about Rod, maybe Kee was interviewed before Joey. |
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Post by marco17 on Oct 5, 2021 14:57:42 GMT 2
Thanks for the translation Stein. Great read for us non-Swedes!  I gotta give it to Kee... He's more subtle about it in this interview, but he never misses an opportunity to take a jab or make you feel like he's a bit of a victim. That said, PIP is in the top 3 Europe albums over the entire discography for me, if not my favorite. I really liked the heavier sound after the very pop-polished OOTW. I'd love to see the demos out there sometime, cleaned up a bit. I always thought we might see something like that a few years back when the band teased the "vault" or whatever they called it, on their website, with rarities and things like that, but nothing ever happened. I'm sure they could work it out, but it would also mean that everyone involved in those sessions would have to be in the same room, and unless embellished in the interviews, Kee, most of time sounds like he can't stand Joey, so would they even want to be bothered? |
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Stein
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Post by Stein on Oct 5, 2021 20:36:38 GMT 2
Thanks for the translation Stein. Great read for us non-Swedes! I'd love to see the demos out there sometime, cleaned up a bit. I always thought we might see something like that a few years back when the band teased the "vault" or whatever they called it, on their website, with rarities and things like that, but nothing ever happened. I remember the talk about that vault too. Recently they announced on their Facebook page that they will do something new for Friday Nights with EUROPE, something that will be revealed in a couple of weeks. Maybe that could be the vault? Fingers crossed!  |
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Post by gabree on Jan 7, 2022 14:17:18 GMT 2
"The record company wanted a new album," Kee confirms. "It would be a misdemeanor not to ask for a follow-up if an album sells a million copies, which Prisoners in Paradise actually did in total. But we talked in the band and felt that we had no place in this time. What were we going to do in a time of Nirvana and a bunch of other bands that could barely play? There was no room for us. We had no ideas and definitely didn't want to try to hop on the grunge train, as so many other bands did. We said, 'Let's sit this one out for a while.'" It would be a long while. Specifically, eleven years until EUROPE were reunited for real, with Kee Marcello dismissed in favor of original guitarist John Norum." May I say one thing democratically, without offending anyone? My opinion is they still tend to believe that “grunge” was a matter of “music” and bad bands playing (*): ok, people were looking for more direct things and less production, on one side. But problem was content: look at the lyrics of the 80s rock bands: they are incredibly poor, often unrelated to lives of real people, and sorry Europe is no exception. What saved Bon Jovi (I was a huge fan of both the bands) was he removed any Eighties redundancies from his music, simplifying it without loosing his identity. In his case it was easier because he was just able to relate to people in its lyrics: when we met Jimmy and Julia in Prisoners in paradise, there had been his Gina, Tommy, Danny, Bobby, lots of people and stories to identify with. At some point in 1991 lyrics became prominent, no matter what the music was (of course, the more direct the better). After 2000 Europe improved a lot in lyrics: ok, “Hero” can’t compete with 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. But there are less ninjas, seventh sign and other strange things.  (*) there had been hundreds of hard rock, glam, hair metal american bands with no talent at all (NOT Europe), well before “grunge”! That is, mediocrity has always been everywhere and in some cases mediocre bands gained money and fame (I prefer not to name a very famous one: they made a movie about them too). "Grunge" means a lot of bands with completely different level of musical abilities and sources of inspiration. It’s not a simple bunch of punk bands one can easily spit on |
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Post by EuropeMagnum on Jan 11, 2022 12:40:31 GMT 2
But there are less ninjas Except in Japan.  |
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Post by gabree on Feb 4, 2022 16:46:46 GMT 2
But there are less ninjas Except in Japan.  Maybe there were more ninjas in the past in Japan. The Daigorō series is a bit dated too.  Sorry for the late reply. |
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Post by marco17 on Feb 4, 2022 22:13:52 GMT 2
Stein, can't remember if I thanked you in my earlier post on this, but thank you again for the translation!
In response to the earlier list of things they would or might need to do... If they could get the masters, the current technology would allow them to clean it up or at least get the tracks on the same volume level, without redoing things. I think the goal would be to leave them in demo-like format, and not make it a "lost" album type situation sitting behind PIP in the discography. It might actually be a fun project to get Beau Hill involved in. In any interview he does, when/if Europe is brought up, he always speaks very highly of the guys and the album in general.
One issue could be if Kee has any hang-ups about anything, and then having to work through that and the money stuff, etc..etc.. I don't think there's any need for John Norum to be involved, unless he or the rest of the band want him to, if they did need to do anything. He wasn't in the band at that time, and he's never held that album in great regard. I could almost see this being a pet-project of Mic's and Ian's since they seem to be the biggest fans of the album overall.
I'd love to see them do more with this era of their music, the demos, live stuff. I feel like there's probably a lot of "gold" there, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in doing anything with the past albums. Understandably, it could be because of the rights, but I would think some live recordings could come out. Again, could be an issue with Kee not in the band and not wanting it to be a slap in the face so to speak to JN, but who knows. I've always had a soft spot for PIP, and love it and the demos.
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Post by marco17 on Feb 4, 2022 22:35:44 GMT 2
A couple things I thought of with your comment gabree... The Def Leppard's and the Bon Jovi's were allowed to change their image...their fanbase and more importantly at the time, their record companies backed them because they were such cash cows. That said, DL did not really fair well with Adrenalize, tanked with Slang (though I actually like a lot of that, it's before it's time), and flew under the radar for a lot of the 90's. BJ was really the only band of that era with some staying power at their level, but they even took long breaks between their albums, and I would say, I love older BJ, but they are terrible now. The overall change in music took 99% of the hard rock bands out. Similarly today... BJ stinks now, but the record company knows that it's going to sell a ton because it simply says Bon Jovi on it. Unfortunately, Europe, while a huge act worldwide, didn't keep up with Bon Jovi (nobody big at one time did), even though many people spent a lot of time comparing them. More than that, I think they use the music scene changing as a blanket excuse, like a lot of bands, because frankly... some of the relationships in the band weren't great. Joey and Kee were at odds a lot, and Joey wanted Norum back, and I think they felt like it just made sense to stop the machine for a while. That said, it's a lot easier to use changing music trends as the excuse than we needed to get away from each other for a while. |
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Stein
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Post by Stein on Feb 4, 2022 22:36:30 GMT 2
marco17If I were to guess, they'll probably wait until they get the rights back from Sony/Epic before they do something with the demos. I'd also love to see the band release some golden nuggets from the archives, such as demos and live recordings, but they don't seem to be interested in releasing old stuff, but rather focus on the present. It's understandable, but hopefully with this year marking the 40th anniversary of the Rock-SM victory, maybe they'll plan something special.  Also, welcome to the forum, gabree! 
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