By STEVE MASCORD
IT was in the tour bus on the way to the 2012 Download Festival that Europe’s Joey Tempest came up with the idea.
“Let’s make something different this time,” the 1980s heartthrob, now on tour in Australia, told his bandmates.
“Let’s exclude, not play, ‘The Final Countdown’.”
Now 54, Tempest tells Hot Metal: “Can you imagine the Download audience? It would be such a big boo and scream that we would get more publicity than anything.
“But … what happened was, we didn’t make it to the show. That year, it was raining. We missed our slot. A lot of other bands did too, they had to rearrange the whole festival.
“We took it as a sign never to discuss leaving it out. We didn’t make it to the show and now we’ve decided not to do it again.”
Europe are far from being another hair metal band trading on past glories. Just as Bon Jovi managed to outlive the genre that made them famous by becoming purveyors of sickly ballads, Europe are trying do likewise by being … Deep Purple.