JOHN NORUM
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Джон Норум родился 23 февраля 1964 года на севере Норвегии в городе Вардо, но свое детство провел в одном из пригородов Стокгольма. В восемь лет Джон уже был большим фанатом Элвиса Пресли и Клиффа Ричарда, а в десять выпросил у матери первую гитару. Ярко выраженное желание стать рок-звездой пришло к юному Норуму, когда он услышал пепловскую "Strange kind of a woman". Также на мальчика сильно повлияли "Kiss", и в своей подростковой команде он со своими товарищами использовал "киссовый" мэйк-ап. В возрасте 14 лет Джон уже колесил по стране в составе панк-группы "Dog Wayst", а также записался с видным шведским рок-н-ролльщиком Эдди Медузой.
По окончании гастролей 1978 года Норум познакомился с барабанщиком Тони Ниемисто (Тони Рено) и бас-гитаристом Петером Олссоном, с которыми организовал трио "WC". Проект постепенно эволюционировал в "Force", и в конечном итоге превратился в "Europe". К 1986 году популярность этой группы достигла своего пика – с альбомом "The final countdown" "европейцы" получили всемирное признание. Однако Джона коммерческий успех своей команды не радовал, и вскоре он объявил об уходе. Дав своим коллегам время на подбор замены, он честно отыграл все положенные концерты и с 1 ноября 1986 года пустился в одиночное плавание. При помощи своего давнего друга Марселя Якоба Джон записал дебютный альбом "Total control". Диск вышел в октябре 1987-го, а четырьмя месяцами позже Норум отправился в турне, закончившееся выступлением в "Hammersmith Odeon" на разогреве у Эйса Фрили. В Лондоне Джон познакомился с Гленном Хьюзом и пригласил его в свою команду. Однако сотрудничество с маститым рокером не заладилось, и после одного концерта Хьюз ушел от Норума. В 1988 и 1989 годах гитарист играл у Дона Доккена, после чего вернулся к сольной работе. На диске "Face the truth" прозвучал дуэт Норума с его бывшим коллегой Темпестом. После совместной работы Джоуи усиленно уговаривал Джона провести реюнион "Europe", но того идея не вдохновляла. Норум наслаждался калифорнийской жизнью, а Швецию навещал время от времени.
В 1995-м музыкант выпустил третий сольник, а также поучаствовал в трибьютах Эйсу Фрили и "Thin Lizzy". В 1997-м гитарист вновь выручил Дона Доккена, заменив ушедшего Джорджа Линча на остатке тура. В том же году вышел концертник "Face it live", провалившийся из-за нулевого промоушена. Надо сказать, что сольная карьера не принесла Норуму особых дивидендов, ведь поклонники "Europe" предпочитали видеть любимую команду полностью, а не по частям. И вот долгожданный реюнион наконец состоялся, и "еврофаны" вновь смогли услышать "Rock the night" и "The final countdown". Более того, в 2004 году "Европа" выпустила новый альбом, "Start from the dark", открыв новую страницу в своей биографии. Однако пока группа двигалась к этому событию, Норум не сидел без дела, а в очередной раз отметился в "Dokken" и набросал материал для своего сольника. Выпустив "Optimus" 23 февраля 2005 года, Джон сделал себе подарок на свой же День рождения. http://rockarchive.ru/j/johnnorum.htm
en.wikipedia
Early years John Norum was born on February 23rd 1964 in Vardø, at the extreme northeast corner of Norway on the Barents Sea, only 40 miles from the Russian border, near the entrance to the Varangerfjord. When he was 1 year old, his family moved to Sweden and he grew up in Upplands Väsby, a suburb of Stockholm. At the age of 8, he was a big fan of Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. Two years later, at the age of 10, he started playing his mother's acoustic guitar: he learnt quickly, and soon he got his own one. Listening to Strange Kind of a Woman by Deep Purple, John decided to become a rockstar. He had his first band at the age of 12, in 1976, and it was called Dragonfly with Tony Niemistö as drummer and Stefan Kéry as singer. That band took its name from the street John was living in, Dragonvagen. Their first live performance took place in John's bedroom, and they had Kiss make-up on their face. When he was 14, his stepfather Thomas Witt got John into recording with Eddie Meduza the leader of Eddie Meduza & the Roaring Cadillacs band, a Swedish rocker. He played the guitar solo in Punkjävlar (Punk Bastards), released as a single in 1978. John was a punk rocker himself, influenced by Sex Pistols, and the band he had at that time was called Dog Wayst and his name on stage was Johnny Fuckfaster, but soon things changed, and the reasons were essentially two: Gary Moore and Thin Lizzy, that captured his interest and the main result was that John founded a new band called WC together with his old friends, that were playing covers of their favourite bands as Thin Lizzy, (UFO, and Status Quo: Tony Niemistö, Micke Kling and Jan-Erik Bäckström. Eddie Meduza's albums reached gold-status as soon as they were released so it was definitely an early success; in 1979 John recorded two guitar solos (inPunkjävlar and in I'm a Fighter) for Eddie's album Eddie Meduza & the Roaring Cadillacs. The other big John's passion was the moto racing, passion that let him to know Joakim Larsson (later Joey Tempest), who became a great friend. They were about 16 year old. A bass player, Peter Olsson, asked John to join a band with him and a drummer, Werner. The band at the beginning worked as a trio, with John as singer and guitarist, then after two weeks the drummer went away and he was replaced by the Dragonfly and WC’s drummer Tony. Together they re-founded WC band. They got quite famous in the Stockholm area, the band got close to take part to a TV-show, but to do that they would have had to change name - which of course they refused to do… Peter Olsson told his friends that the line up was good but they needed a good singer; John thought of his friend Joakim, who was playing bass and singing in the band Roxanne. With Joakim, the band was complete and they called themselves Force, inspired by the new UFO release Force It. They started playing seriously at CentrumGården in Upplands Väsby: Joakim started writing some songs of incredible quality, which was composed at home with the acoustic guitar and then played in studio with John's electric one. They started having a considerable repertoire: Strange, Midnight Show, Black Rose, H & H, and Rock On that later became the beautiful Farewell of the first Europe’s album. They also added a couple of covers Since You Been Gone by Rainbow and Lettin' Go by UFO, the only ones they played during live performances, preferring to concentrate themselves on their own material. The thought of a demo was more and more present, and the Brown Glenmark Study in Djursholm let them record some songs with Thomas Witt at a good price. But the quality wasn't as good as they thought, so they decided to wait for another chance. At the beginning of 1981 the band had internal problems, Peter Olsson left the band for personal reasons. While the band was in search for a new bass player, they recorded another demo in the same studio and Joakim was responsible also for the parts on bass. It was in this period that he started thinking that his name wasn't right and he found a stage name suitable for him: Joey Tempest, taken from the Shakespeare’s The Tempest. John Norum asked John Levén, who was playing the rhythmic guitar in a local band in Upplands Väsby. He liked that guy very much – more for his personal qualities than for his ability in playing guitar - and he tried to convince him to play the bass. John Levén remembers when John Norum came to his home in a stormy night to talk with him about his project... John Levén thought for a while about it and then he decided to join the band as bass player: in this way, the line up of the group that two years later would have been named Europe was complete. Force reputation was growing more and more, they started performing live more often... In 1981 Force took part in a contest at the Underground Club, now closed, that was situated in Stockholm, in Sergels Square. They didn't win and this was for them a big disappointment, not without consequences: in April of the same year in fact John Levén had an offer he couldn't refuse, a proposal arrived from the Yngve Malmsten (better known as Yngwie Malmsteen), a famous guitarist in Stockholm who asked him to play bass in his Rising Force when they were about to record the single for CBS. John accepted. So there was an exchange of bass players: John Levén joined Rising Force and John Norum asked Marcel Jacob, Rising Force former bass player, to replace John in Force. There was also a change of location, the band was authorized to use a room inside the palace of TeleCompany in Dragonvagen. But Marcel Jacob didn’t remain for long with the band. He played in only two concerts with Force, one in Folkets Park and the other in CentrumGården. Joakim and Marcel composed together Black Journey Into My Soul that is in the second album of Europe, renamed as Scream Of Anger. Marcel took also part to the "The King Will Return" song writing (he wrote the chorus beginning), contained in Europe debute album. It all happened in three months, then both the bands Force and Rising Force got back their original bass players. Europe and the worldwide fame The boys were 18 years old when the Product Manager of CBS Records Thomas Erdtman decided to organize the greatest rock competition ever held in Sweden, a national Contest for emergent rock bands, the Rock-SM: to do it, he left CBS it and he founded Hot Records as a base for the contest. He found many sponsors, and the collaboration of the well known newspaper Aftonbladet that was a great recall for every emergent band. Aftonbladet published the rules at the beginning of 1982: every band who intended to join it would have had send a tape cassette with two original tracks. Joakim's girlfriend, Anita Katila, convinced the band to record a demo tape and to join the contest and hey recorded five songs: The King Will Return, Paradize Bay, Seven Doors Hotel, Children of this Time e Rock On, but the tape didn't convince them and they renounced to send it. The response was great: 4000 bands answered, and among these, without knowing it, there was also Force: Anita sent the tape anyway, and they were selected for the second phase of the contest. Force worked hard for the competition and changed name into Europe. Force wasn't a good name to begin a rock career, they wanted a name that it could be recognized everywhere, and that meant the same worldwide... Another very interesting band joined the same contest, a band with a very good left-handed drummer: the band was Trilogy and the drummer was Ian Haugland! Trilogy didn't pass the second phase, but Europe reached quarter-finals in Uppsala. Semi-finals took place in Södertälje and Europe reached the finals. And at that time they had a big supporter group following them. Joakim decided to start using his new name Joey Tempest. Tony also decided to change his Finnish name, so difficult to be pronounced, in Reno. The day of the finals was on December 13th, National Swedish holiday, at Grona Lund, in Stockholm. Europe vs. Café Midnatt, among judges there were Thomas Erdtman and some celebrities as Michael Rickfors, Thomas Ledin and Hasse Carlsson. Europe won everything: not only the Championship, but the two major prizes to Joey Tempest as best lead singer and to John Norum as best guitarist. The final prize was to record an album for Hot Records. Their new manager Thomas Erdtman, tried to convince them to sing in Swedish language, and to polish their music and look a bit. Joakim was just about to do it but John didn't agree at all. John and Erdtman have never been in good terms since the very beginning... Their self-titled debut album was recorded in a studio in Kista, few kilometers north of Stockholm: the songs were long, lyrics were complicated and melodies were pure hard rock, influenced by UFO, Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple, but totally revised in a personal and particular way. Budget was low, only 100.000 Swedish Crowns and at that time, the Swedish hard rock production was at the beginning and it was very hard to find a producer or a technician that was able to mix that kind of music: the band together with the technician of Rock SM and Erdtman himself did their best. Worth to mention is the fact that it was recorded in one weekend only, most of it was recorded live in the studio and for example, Boyazont took 30 minutes only to be recorded. When the album was released at the end of February 1983, nobody considered the possibility Europe could become such a well-known name worldwide: conquering Swedish market was already a very difficult target to reach at that time... Europe became very famous after their victory, reviews were really good and the album sold about 30.000 copies during the first weeks, which was good in Sweden for a hard rock band. They were invited to the famous Swedish TV show Casablanca, and that night they performed Children Of This Time: this increased the interest of the audience towards Europe and the band started a Swedish tour reaching 25 public parks. In Japan the single Seven Doors Hotel was a big success, thanks to a Japanese rock journalist, Masa Itoh, who found by chance a copy of the LP Europe in London and he was so enthusiastic he contacted immediately a friend of him at Victor Records: it became a best seller and Europe made a video for In The Future To Come: it wasn't so good and Japanese TV was the only one that broadcasted it. It was also released Lyin' Eyes as single, withdrawn shortly after. It's the hardest item to find for the collectors: there are only 100 copies of that single in the world. In November John went again in tour with Eddie Meduza and The Roaring Cadillacs for two months and in that occasion it was recorded the album Dåren é Lös - The Roaring Cadillac's Live. On February 23rd 1984 Wings of Tomorrow was released, it sold 60.000-70.000 copies in Sweden only! Gunnar Michaeli, from the band Avalon - better known as Mic Michaeli – was brought in to play live keyboards during the upcoming promotional tour, and he became the 5th member of the band. Without the band knowing, Thomas Erdtman fired Tony by letter. Håkan Jan Haugland (Ian Haugland for short) was brought in. In the same year, John recorded two more guitar solos (in Hold Your Fire and in California) for Eddie Meduza's album West a Fool Away. In 1985 there were two projects that Europe were involved in. They starred in a 30 minutes movie directed by Staffan Hildebrand and made by the Social Democrats Union - LO, it was called On the Loose and Europe's role it was just to be themselves. Joey wrote three songs for the film: the title track, Rock The Night and Broken Dreams. The cover of the soundtrack accidentally said Europe but it was a Joey's own work. Rock the Night was however released again later with the whole band playing. In the name of LO (Trade Union Conference) they made a quite embarrassing tour with only these three new songs... The audience didn't show up (except for the die - hard fans, of course). Later in the same year, Joey wrote Give a Helping Hand for Swedish Metal Aid, a benefit single for the starving in Ethiopia. The élite of the Swedish hard rock bands gathered to record that single, and on top of that there were six lead singers: Robert Ernlund from Treat, Björn Lodin from Bedlam, Malin Ekholm from Aphrodite, Tommy Nilsson from Easy Action, Joakim Lundholm from 220 Volt and Joey Tempest. The music was performed by members of Treat and Easy Action. This was also the first time Joey worked with Kjell Lövbom (better known as Kee Marcello) from Easy Action, who produced the single. John sang in the choir consisting in 150 members from different bands. In August, John played in collaboration with Joey as producer, in his sister Tone Norum’s debut single Stranded – that became a big hit – and in her first album One of a Kind. John played also in the other single Can't You Stay. John teamed up with some other rockers and they did a small tour called "The Boys Are Back In Town" - as a tribute to Phil Lynott, dead on 4th January 1986. The Final Countdown was recorded, but delayed. Another tour, booked before the album was released, without the new album backing them up. No audience this time either. Everyone knew the 3rd album would be the most important one: were they just another one-album band, could they repeat the success or was it just pure luck with Wings of Tomorrow? But on May 26th 1986 the album was released, and thanks to the single, it sold gold before it hit the shops and in two months it sold 100.000 copies in Sweden only, and 7 millions copies in the world. They did a tour in Japan: Scandinavia and Japan were in love with Europe. New tour in Sweden - TV filmed a show on the first leg (in Solna on May 27th) and it was broadcast two months later just to hype them even more. And then a tour in Europe. Just one videoclip featuring John was released: The Final Countdown, filmed in Solnahallen, Solna (Sweden), and other singles were released: Cherokee and Love Chaser (later re-released with Carrie as the lead track). Love Chaser was also played in the Japanese movie Pride One. But John decided that he had had enough of the cute image, play-back, TV shows and so on, and he told the band he'd quit. He gave them enough time to find a replacement. Kee Marcello became the new Europe guitarist. Last John's performance live with Europe was in Amsterdam on October 31st 1986. The show was broadcast live on Sky Channel. On November 1st he was on his own. The solo career Immediately after leaving Europe John formed a new band. His bassist friend Marcel Jacob joined it. The first single Let Me Love You was released on October 16th 1987 (it reached the 2nd place in the Swedish charts), and on the same month 29th came out Total Control. John showed his great affection for Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy by recording Lizzy songs as B-sides. The band was, besides John and Marcel, drummers Henrik Hempo Hildén and Peter Hermansson, vocalist Göran Edman and Mats Lindfors on rhythm guitar and keyboards. The album is dedicated to Tommy Östervik, one of John’s friends and heroes, who drowned the same night as Europe played the show that later was broadcast on Swedish TV. The tour started on February 2nd 1988 and finished on March 19th supporting Ace Frehley at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Other two singles and videoclips were released to promote this album: Love Is Meant (to Last Forever) and Back on the Streets. Glenn Hughes partnered with John Norum with the intention of a long term band project, as reported in an interview for Swedish music magazine Okej with the journalist Anders Tegner, who introduced Glenn to John in London. John and Glenn started to rehearse with members of Norum's solo band. Glenn was a vocalist as well as bass player. John, Glenn, Mats and Hempo played only one live show at Rock SM on May 21st 1988 which was broadcast on Swedish National TV. Songs played included I Got Your Number, Reach for the Sky and Still the Night. But due to Glenn's still on-going battle with substance abuse, the partnership never flourished and this appearance marked the end of the planned project. Two months later, John played with Yngwie Malmsteen as guest musicians in Tone Norum’s album This Time, which was produced by Joey Tempest again. Marcel and Göran were brought in again for a late summer tour in the Northern Sweden and Norway. In 1988 John got in touch with Don Dokken for the first time; in September 1989 John moved to Los Angeles and he was brought in as the new guitarist of Dokken. Don Dokken wasn't allowed to use his family name as a band name again, instead it became to be a Don Dokken solo-album: Up from the Ashes was released in 1990, with a following tour in Japan. The line up included also the bassist Peter Baltes. Two singles and videoclips were released to promote this album: Mirror Mirror and Stay. In the same year, CBS released Live in Stockholm, with 3 tracks (Eternal Flame, Don't Believe a World and Blind) recorded live in March 1988 and one track (Free Birds in Flight) recorded in 1987. John put also in a brief appearance with Don Dokken in the Tommy Chong's first solo production Far Out Man. As a result of the work with Glenn Hughes, Glenn's L.A. Blues Authority Vol. 2: Blues and John's Face the Truth were released in 1992. The main vocal parts on the Face the Truth album were handled by Glenn. Hempo Hildén once more supplied the drums, although Mikkey Dee also guested. The album featured a faithful cover of Thin Lizzy's Opium Trail for good measure. On the Face the Truth European version, there's a duet with Joey Tempest: We Will Be Strong - with Peter Baltes on bass again - was released as a first single and a video was made for it. With the right promotion this could have been a hit all over the world... But someone put the lid on, hits never been his thing. Two singles more were released: Face The Truth and In Your Eyes. In 1992 Joey hung around John quite a lot, Europe had split up (or was taking a long break as they preferred to state) and Joey wanted to reform the original Europe's line-up. John had no plans in that direction, he enjoyed California far too much as well as the life as an independent solo artist; he pointed out the benefits of being on his own: to decide over his own material, the directions, the musicians and have it in his own pace. And so it happened, for both. In August, John joined Joey Tempest on stage at the Waterfestival in Stockholm. One would be expected for to see them announced, but it was all in a moment of surprise so still today nobody seems to know about it. John didn't enter Swedish ground again until January 1994 when he teamed up with some Swedish rockers to do a The Boys Are Back in Town tour over 10 days, it began in Stockholm on 4th and ended in Malmö on 14th. They performed all sorts of rock classics. In 1994 he played as guest guitarist in Phantom Blue’s album Built To Perform (with his girlfriend Michelle Meldrum, lead guitarist, who in 1995 became his wife) and in the Deep Purple's tribute Smoke on the Water - A Tribute in which he played Stormbringer with Glenn Hughes as singer. In July he recorded his 3rd solo album, Another Destination, with the singer Kelly Keeling, the bassist Tom Lilly and the drummer Gary Ferguson. It was released in Japan on July 1995. And it was time for Sweden again. The tour kicked off in Göteborg on March 31st and took them around the Country. With John on this tour were Kelly Keeling and Michelle Meldrum. John Levén from Europe played bass and Niclas Sigevall played drums. On August 1995 at a tribute concert held in Los Angeles at The Palace he teamed up with Carmine Appice. John recorded Massacre for a Thin Lizzy tribute album called The Lizzy Songs - A Tribute to Phil Lynott. In the same year, John recorded also Right to Respect for Joey Tempest's solo album and single A Place to Call Home. Surprisingly, John would then team up with UFO lynch-pins Phil Mogg and Pete Way in late 1995 following Michael Schenker's disappearance. The liaison was brief due to Schenker's enforcement of a contract stipulating the band could only be titled UFO with his involvement. And the Walk On Water tour went belly-up. In 1996 he recorded Cold Gin for the tribute album Spacewalk - A Salute to Ace Frehley. The same year, on December 21st, Worlds Away (with Kelly Keeling and Peter Baltes back on board) was released in Japan; the album was released in Sweden by Svensk Musik Distribution (M-D) on May 16th 1997 and Where the Grass Is Green was released as a single to support the album. John Norum kicked off a pre-tour in Karlskrona Sweden on April 24th 1997. One of the four dates took place in Upplands Väsby. In the end of 1997 John did some more work briefly with Don Dokken, after George Lynch had left the band: he went to the States for just over a month to finish the tour. John put together a live band for a Japanese tour, these shows being recorded for the Face It Live '97 album. Joining him onstage were the vocalist Leif Sundin and Anders Fästader. The album was released later in Sweden too, but once again a wrong promotion killed it. Shrapnel took off four tracks and released it in the US. In the same year, on October was released Channel Mind Radio: Guitar Zeus 2 by Carmine Appice, in which John played Nothing. In 1998 John toured in Sweden with his John Norum Group (JNG). He almost got to tour with UFO under the name Lights Out, but as Michael Schenker heard the rumours he returned to the band. JNG were: Hempo Hildén on drums, Leif Sundin as vocalist, Anders Fästader on bass and John on guitars. On June 5th JNG performed at Sweden Rock Festival in Karlshamn. On the same month and only for a single date, Ian Haugland was the drummer and Stefan Rodin the bass player. In the same year, John recorded 2 tracks for Above & Beyond by Midnight Sun, a Swedish metal band. In March 1999, during the Italian tour, the drummer Thomas Broman and the bass player John Léven joined the JNG. In August he performed as guest guitar player with Brian Robbo Robertson in the last Lotus gig in Sala (Sweden). In the same month, with his wife Michelle, Robbo, Leif Sundin and Marcel Jacob, John played in a magnificent jam session at Anchor Pub in Stockholm. Between 1999 and 2000, the line up changed again, with Thomas Broman and Leif Sundin as confirmed members and the guitarist Fredrik Åkesson as guest and Marcel Jacob alternated to John Levén on bass. In June 1999 John performed live with Motörhead as special guest at Sweden Rock Festival in Norje, he played the last song of the set, Killed By Death. In August he toured in Finland and Sweden with Five Fifteen and Lotus. John was the guest artist on the last gig in Sala, Sweden. Actually Lotus was technically a trio but for this latest outing, the seven years old band recruited former Thin Lizzy guitar specialist Brian Robertson and the Swedish guitar hero John Norum does a brief guest spot here as well in Peace in Mind. In October, during the release party at Valand in Gothenburg for Lotus CD A Taster for the Big One, Lizzy's Gonna Creep up on You was one of the highlights from the gig and once again John played guitar on the encores. John's album Slipped into Tomorrow was released in Japan. John recorded also Eighteen for the tribute album Humanary Stew - A Tribute to Alice Cooper. 1999 was also the year of the incredible Millennium Gig for the New Year's Eve, with all the Europe members reunited for a special night: John Norum together with Joey Tempest, John Levén, Ian Haugland, Mic Michaeli and Kee Marcello, playing Rock the Night and The Final Countdown. The new Millennium didn't produced more events like that, but the band gathered at Hard Rock Café in Stockholm to receive a gold award as well as open a permanent exhibition. No deal with the band about playing on stage that night, but John Norum, John Levén, Ian Haugland and Kee Marcello with Bo and Anders Lindmark from Dalton have been so kind to join the band on stage in a very nice 3-minutes-jam of Rock the night while later on, Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli jumped on stage completing the song. It happened on April 14th 2000. In June, JNG and Brian Robertson performed together at Sweden Rock Festival in Karlshamn. John worked again with Midnight Sun recording Dreams for their album Nemesis and he toured with them as guest guitarist at least for one show in Stockholm. Featured in the live band was Bjorn Boge on vocals and on bass Wild Willy Bendiksen. In May 2001 John teamed up again with Brian Robertson for a short series of Norwegian dates performing Thin Lizzy and his own songs. In the summer of 2001 John joined Don Dokken again, filling the gap left by a departing Reb Beach. In June Dokken featuring John performed at Sweden Rock Festival in Karlshamn. Later, they did a sort of best of Dokken tour in the US, recorded a new album called Long Way Home and then went on tour in Europe. John’s arm was injured in an accident during that tour and he was replaced by Alex DeRosso. In 2001 John worked also again with his wife Michelle in her new Meldrum band's debut album Loaded Mental Cannon, recording Through Shattered Eyes. He recorded also together with Jeff Pilson What Cost War for his band War & Peace album Light at the End of the Tunnel. In 2002 two singles taken from Long Way Home were released: Sunless Days (as promo only) and Little Girl. In March 2003, UFO had officially recruited John Norum as a replacement for Michael Schenker. And Norum, after the stint with Dokken, finally joins the band officially. However, in typical fashion a matter of months passed before Norum issued a statement declining UFO's offer of employment. In the same year, he toured with Whitesnake. Back with reunited Europe He would soon be back in the limelight, teaming back up with Europe for a reformation of the classic line up: on October 2, 2003 the band finally announced their reunion and that they were going to record a new album and headline at the Sweden Rock Festival 2004. The line up would be the same of the TFC era. Kee Marcello was asked to join the band for the summer tour, but then projects changed from both the parts: Europe members weren’t so sure of their previous idea and Kee was more and more involved in his musical projects. With the largest audience ever at SRF and broadcast live on national radio Europe got back on track, the title track of the new album Start from the Dark proved them to leaning towards the heavier stuff. The album was released on September 22, 2004. The same day, Jake Thomas, the son of John and Michelle, was born. Two singles and videos - Got to Have Faith and Hero (dedicated to Phil Lynott) were released. The Start from the Dark tour in 89 dates reached all the Europe, the US, Russia and Japan. The first gig was in Hamar (Norway) on June 11, 2004 and the last one in Braşov (Romania), on August 20, 2005. While writing material for the Start From The Dark album, John also worked on his solo album Optimus where he handles both guitars and vocals. This was released on his birthday, February 23, 2005. No single was released. Bass tracks were handled by Thomas Torberg, additional guitar by Fredrik Åkesson, keyboards by Mats Lindfors with drums coming from Richard Hux Flux Nettermalm. Optimus had a heavier and darker sound than previous recordings, and was well received by metal fans and the musical press. In 2005 John worked with Kelly Keeling recording Nothing for his new Giving Sight to the Eye. In the same year, he also contributed with his interpretation of Stay with Me to a Frank Marino tribute album released by WildMess Records and entitled Secondhand Smoke. On October 26, 2006 the last Europe album Secret Society was released by Sanctuary Records and the world tour started the same day in Lund, Sweden, and ended September 1, 2007 with two performances at the Dalhalla in Rättvik, Sweden. The band performed in Sibiu, Romania, to celebrate New Year's Eve with a one-hour live show, and on January 26, 2008 they've performed at the Nalen, in Stockholm. That was a special event called Almost Unplugged: their first acoustic live show, during which they've played some of their old and new never played live songs, and some covers from the bands that have influenced them in the years: Pink Floyd, UFO, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. The show was webcasted on their official website. After some summer European festivals and a couple of gigs as support act for the Deep Purple tour dates in Sweden, the band will be ready to record the new album, expected for spring 2009. It will be followed by a world tour. On May 21, 2008 John Norum's wife, Michelle Meldrum passed away at the age of 39, due to a cystic growth on her brain that had restricted the oxygen and blood flow to her brain, rendering her braindead. In respect of her memory, Europe cancelled their presence at the festival in Norway scheduled for the end of the month. On September 29, 2008 Mascot Records will release John Norum's new solo album, titled Magnetic Soul. Most parts of the album were recorded in late 2006, and it'll be more bluesy than the previous ones. It will contain an instrumental song. Mic Michaeli, Leif Sundin, Thomas Broman and Tomas Thorberg have worked at it. On April 2008, John mixed the album with Peer Stappe (Gemini Five, Dos Flamingos and more) behind the wheel. Discography Eddie Meduza & the Roaring Cadillacs
Europe
As soloist
Don Dokken
Dokken
Filmography
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