Live Review : Europe + King King @ The Academy, in Manchester on September 14th 2018

The red Audi screeches to a stop outside my door. I jump in, Johann is drumming the steering wheel. He is super excited and roars up the road. Manchester can’t come soon enough. I’d already been warned that Europe are a first love. Still integrity and all that.  No one is fast enough and Manchester’s myriad of perma-road works aren’t helping. Doors open at 7:00pm so a 7:30 kick off isn’t unlikely and there is the usual gauntlet of getting in to run.  The Academy has a large pool of staff so we don’t get recognised as press quite so quickly.  There is also the matter of the little jaunt between parking and entry.  All aforementioned problems evaporate, a smooth entry and we are at the bar. King King are due to start at 8:00pm. This is the start of Europe’s European tour.

My last encounter with King King was unpleasant. A mundane May night saw myself and Joubles at the Epstein theatre watching a one man band in Steve Hill followed by the one man band that is Alan Nimmo. The sound wasn’t great, it was a seated crowd which added to the low-key vibe.  So, tonight I brushed it all aside, new venue, new crowd, let’s see what goes down. Nimmo strode onto the stage with a smile as wide as the Clyde, he looks friendly, a big amicable Glaswegian bear of a man, in kilt and Timberlands.       

They walk onto ‘Highway to Hell’, I still don’t understand it as a choice but hey ho the crowd seem indifferent, they are greeted by enthusiastic cheers from all quarters of the audience.  They start the set with “She don’t give me no lovin’ a mid tempo lament to the cruelty possible from the fairer sex. The band are tight and well rehearsed, the crowd clap along. Unlike the Epstein, the Academy crowd is very diverse in age and style.  The reception is still warm from the eclectic throng and I can’t help but think maybe it’s me with the problem.  I just don’t get it at all.  King King sound so much better here than in the Epstein, they are tight and Alan Nimmo is on better form. Alan is a long serving blues guitarist for both his own band King King and as part of the blues laden Nimmo Brothers band, with Steve Nimmo.  Alan’s guitar playing is passionate and relatable to the non-musician.  He has a strong tone and good vibrato showcased in “Waking up.”  

King King played for around fifty minutes with highlights including “Lose control”, “You stopped the Rain” and “Stranger to Love”  a song reminiscent of Free with a vocal comparable to Paul Rodgers. 

There is a twenty-minute interlude while Europe set their bespoke lighting rig.  Someone nearby keeps farting and a couple next to us appear to have just come to take the piss and keep hitting and pushing each other into other audience members. There is a weird mocking vibe in the audience, plenty of ironic hipsters here for one thing. There are prides of middle aged women scattered around and a large number of solitary, grey haired men convulsing to the various guitar solos on display throughout the night. Johann takes it upon himself to sing Europe’s back catalogue to me. I could do with the band starting anytime soon.

That age-old premise that the headlining act gets the extra decibels from the house P.A. used to drive me insane. It would limit supporting acts ability to connect to the audience and ultimately make extra dollars. Now though, well now that I’m not invested blasts the booming classical intro of “Walk the Earth” taken from the band’s album of the same name released last year.  A robust and passionate song championing the endeavours of human ambition, with a heavy nod to Zeppelins later exotic musings.  The song is a barrage of John Norum’s massive guitar sound, with just enough keyboards to fill the sound, the classic part is exceptional and will likely be sampled by other musicians at some point.

They follow up with “The Siege”, again taken from their latest album, this is a stripped bare rock tune with a heavy pumping riff and concurrent guitar/keyboard parts. There is a rip roaring solo and pulsating rhythm part.  Tempests vocals are immaculate, he’s been singing for the better part of thirty years and his voice doesn’t sound like it has aged at all. They jump straight into one of the bands more popular tracks “Rock the Night” taken from their most successful album ‘The Final Countdown’. Tempest employs all his years of experience and has the crowd acapella singing along to the chorus. The whole place fist pumping to the syllables “oh oh oh ohhhh you want to rock now, rock the night whoa oh whoa oh”. The best nights are always when the band trumps all your expectations. 

Johann has made his way back to me, grumbling about the lighting, for the first three songs the lights have been low and utilised only pairs of colours.  The bands have been back lit so far, this is no fun for a photographer. The fourth song kicks in “Hole in my pocket”, the second track from the bands 2016 album ‘War of Kings’.  A high tempo metal song, with a blazing riff and almost punk drums.  This is more akin to Skid Row. It’s at this point you realise that the lighting rig has been somewhat let loose, it is outstanding and by far the best theatrical accompaniment I’ve seen all year.  It lends gravitas to Europe’s already epic music. “Last look at Eden” being by far the highpoint of the night both musically and visually.  With a flavouring of Kashmir and Europe’s pulsating rhythm section, it is the climax of the evening that doesn’t dip below this standard.  The room is bathed in red, strobes pepper the crowd as ‘Firebox’ strikes into action. As well as plenty of high tempo rock and metal there are number of low key acoustic ballads.  “New Love in Town” from the 2009 album ‘Last look at Eden’ is Joviesque power ballad, although very good it still cannot compete with Europe’s legendary track “Carrie”, a classic lighters out, eighties singalong stadium love song.  

The band in true eighties style have portions of the set dedicated to the technical capabilities of the musicians on stage.  Both John Norum, guitar and Ian Haugland on drums have extended solos.  They are both exceptional musicians sadly it’s usually at these points the crowd goes the bar and the loo. Watching Norum’s solo, makes me remember listening to Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen and how much I loved those extended solos. How much time I had spent learning them myself.  Nowadays it’s far too serious a notion, sections of the crowd are here for the novelty of ‘The Final Countdown’, living thinly veiled sarcastic lives where everything is reduced to a meme, trope or cliché.  The passion for able musicians has been slowly replaced by autotuned, Instagram models, the message is permanently disclaimed with a wink.  It was nice to watch a group with so much experience and understanding of how to entertain a crowd.

I ask Johann would he think better of them if they didn’t play that song, he laughs, “yeah, they should have played it first, like fuck you, we have your money now stay and listen to the rest of our set!”.  Europe know where the money is and despite having five or six songs most bands would kill for the younger elements of the audience seem to be here exclusively for “The Final Countdown”.  It’s one of the all time great rock songs and to an extent has fallen into cliché due to it’s popularity and like some of Queen’s finest has been used in completely unrelated spheres. 

When the iconic keyboard line kicks in the crowd goes insane, every word of the song is sung by the crowd.  Europe don’t milk the crowd though, the song is played through as it is recorded, no prolonged outros, just the song.  They bid farewell and that is that.  A solid performance, with probably one the best lighting rigs for this size venue.  Europe continue their tour in Glasgow tonight at the Barrowlands.  

We head off back to the pool for the normal thirty minute trip.  I arrive home an hour and half later, we have gone around the M60 twice, seen all four corners of the Trafford Centre and Johann has had a standing argument in the rain with the highways agency man.  I can’t wait for the next one, Johann is furious and wants to embargo Manchester, yeah till next week.