John Norum

what a great evolution of your name that's great story um what were those first few years like in the early 80s after you formed Europe

Yeah, I met John Norum.

He played in a band called WC, which is Water Closet, so basically toilet.

They weren't toilet, though.

They were very good.

And John Norum really blew me away.

I was in other bands.

And we met one night and we said we should form a band together because we've seen each other play.

Joel and Turner, Rainbow.

These things are in, and I'll mention UFO again, those are related to, and he said that John, the guitar player, John Norum and...

The singer, Joey Tempest, grew up listening to UFO and were huge fans.

And that makes so much sense.

Mick, were you guys early on influenced by UFO, maybe? Or you, maybe, with a lot of the piano and keys and synth songs that they used?

Yes, definitely.

And especially Joey and John Norum, the guitar player.

I think they were big, big fans of the band.

There's been a little bit of turnover.

But once you guys got settled in around 1984, like around the time you guys joined, I mean, between you and John Norum and John Levin, Ian, Joey, you guys just...

You're able to make this work whenever most bands can't do that.

Why do you think the chemistry is there for you guys to be able to keep doing this together?

So it was so fast, you know? Yeah.

And you know, as you mentioned, it happened, you guys are exploding, and then suddenly, I mean, there is a member exiting the band, right? I mean, John Norum leaves kind of at the height of the success you guys are having.

What was that like for you guys, you know, kind of blowing up and then losing a very important part of the band?

We were sort of in a state of panic, almost, because John Norm decided to leave the band while we were on tour in, I think we were in Japan.

And yeah, so it was kind of... panic because the tour was booked and everything was ready to go.

But we were lucky because we found Kim Marcelo, the Swedish guitar player.

And he's a monster guitar player, not in the same style as John Norum.

Norum is more blues-based in his kind of playing, and Kim Marcelo were at least more on the technical side, you know, shredders like that, but very, very skilled and, you know, a good musician.