Europe gig no.3 - June 18th 2005 - Vestlandshallen, Bergen

I remember writing this very shortly after the concert, I'm 19 1/2. 

1 year and 7 days since my very first Europe concert.
I`m in front row, right in front of Joey, in the protecting arms of my girlfriend.
I had low expectations, because one week earlier I had attended Nightwish and Mötley Crüe in Oslo, and even though my high heeled shoes were killing me, they didn't help me see nothing! In the middle of the crowd I couldn't see a thing, other than backs, asses, heads, hair and waving arms. (imagine when everyone jumps up and down and the feeling and fear of being crushed!)
I'm not telling you about the trip, the most beautiful landscape of Norway (high mountains and great lakes), I'm not even telling you about the support act (local band doing 80's cover hits).

First let me take you to outside the entrance of the big, big arena that is Vestlandshallen. Me and my girlfriend arrives around half past 6. Not many people there, but the few there are hard core fans. I don't need to say my name, cause they recognize me from the Europetheband forum. One of them asks me if I'm to stay behind to try and meet the guys afterwards. I had no intensions of doing it, because I felt I couldn't ask that of my girlfriend. She, on the other hand, is more than willing to let my inner dreams come true! Can you imagine my happiness?

It turns out that we're in the wrong line. We're in the line where you can buy tickets. We all have baught our tickets beforehand. But security is really lovely (well, no wonder, some of the fans among us have been standing there since 11 that morning...), they are going to let us in first, so we'll have the apportunity of finding first row spaces. They even gives goblets of Pepsi to those who has been there since noon. Half past 7 we are being followed by nice security men to the front row.

Now we`ll have to skip two-three hours. Support act... (doing Kiss and Van Halen among others). After support act is finished, (also known as the half hour with tuning Europe's instruments and setting it all in perfect conditione for the perfect band), one of my front row fan friends asks the very nice security guy to take a picture of her and her friend. (Oh no, she is showing him the camera!) And she asked if we were allowed to take pictures. He gives us the thumbs up, we're ALLOWED! And I have been bringing my camera IN! Great! (really a progress from my first gig, when I left it in the car, with the window open...)

In the newspaper the next day, it said that Europe was on stage precisely 10.13 p.m. I would not know, but around that time Europe shows up, and blasting us with "Got to have faith"! It's magic, once again. Europe really does a PERFECT gig (not that big shock, is it?). One song after the other is played, and we take pictures! My girlfriend, Stine protected me from the 1200 people crowd the entire concert, having to stand the hits of elbows and shouting... just gotta say: I LOVE THIS GIRL! Europe really makes the crowd rock.

 The set list is the same as last time, with new guitar solo, and new keyboard solo. My heroes play perfectly!
The set list goes as follows, though not in the right order...
Got to have faith
Superstitious
Carrie
Cherokee
Wings of tomorrow
Flames
Hero
Wake up call
Start from the dark
Yesterday news
Rock the night
Sign of the times
Girl from Lebanon
America
Ready or not
Guitar solo
Key solo
Seven doors hotel
The final countdown

After the gig: Behind lattice fences in front of the hall's exit, facing the back of the tour bus... 10-15 people is standing with us, waiting to catch a glimpse of a bass player,a singer GOD, or to get an autograph. After half an hour John L is standing in front of me. I can TOUCH him! (I know, cause I actually did it, I touched him!) I'm calling a fan friend of mine on the cell phone, and makes John say "HI" to her. I think she'll be remembering that one for some time... John is funny, saying he feels trapped like a monkey behind bars. He's making fun of the Norwegian language, (in Swedish), and suddenly takes my hat (he used my hat, he has used my hat!) He is signing our tickets, and I make him sign my left shoulder! He is a great guy!

Next comes JOEY! It's really funny, he is talking to my girlfriend, she told him that she thinks he is a music genious! And suddenly he points at me and asks: "You know eachother quite well, huh?" "Did you see us from the stage?" my girl replies. Joey smiles and nods. Spelled out, this means that Joey has seen us making out! OMG! I'm screaming, running around in circles, this is amazingly funny, same time brilliant! Joey signs my ticket and right shoulder right after Mic has done the same thing. Joey also leaves a message on my phone, I've recorded him saying "Hello darling". Mic has also touched my phone, i made him listen to a Mic-solo from 1986...
Mic: Cool, who is that?
Me: It`s you!
Mic: Really?

I shook his hand and Ian's hand. He was heading straight for the bus, but I made him join us by the fence. Only one I haven't met now is Norum. Too bad. I could have a ticket signed by all 5. But 4 is more than I ever expected. Silly me with the low expectations, used all my pictures at the concert. But I guess I don't need pics. I have live memories!
Do i have to tell you this was my best concert EVER

The next day, several friends told me they had seen me in the local paper. I'm the girl looking petrified on the right... 

Europe gig no.2 - October 19th 2004 Rockefeller, Oslo

Note: This is not the typical blog about how the music sounded, how the band looked or played. What is worth remembering equally is the feeling. So as I post here my old tour reviews, I try to change as little as possible from the original.
At the time I wrote this, I was 19 years old.

Oslo, October 19th 2004

My second gig is so far the last and absolute best Europe gig I've ever been to.
I had just started school (which started the same day Europe was in Drammen, my home town.. I chose to be at the beginning of school) well, where was I? yes.. I had just started school, and was in front of the computer when an old class mate of mine says "you know Europe is playing at Rockefeller?" I did a bit of research, and he was right!! So I made a friend of mine come, not a fan, (well, NOW she is) but a good friend. She looked forward to it. I started to chat with a Europe fan on the web at the same time, without knowing where he lived. And he says "Hey, I see you're from Hamar, maybe we should drive together?" And risky though it was, driving with a guy we'd never met,  we joined him and his friends in the 2 hour drive to Oslo October 19th.
We arrived several hours before the concert, to avoid rush traffic. So we went for a pizza. Then we looked in a few record shops, with no Europe items at all, before we had a few drinks at a pub nearby the Rockefeller arena. Of course, it was only coke for me that day as well, music is my drug! I had problems sitting still with the rest, so I got outside and joined the line outside the entrance. I could see several 80s inspired people. And the people I talked to really understood that I wasn't there by coincidence. I met a girl, whose friend had told me was a real fan, and I could clearly see. Her hair was...80s!! I thought she was 25! But she was one year younger than me. Also at this concert I met Stein Vidar, who had come once again all the way from Båtsfjord, in the Northernmost county in Norway.
My heart almost stopped when they opened the doors, and the guards denied Stein-Vidar entrance, cause he had no ID on. That had been my nightmare thoughts all day, that I wouldn't get in. You had to be 18, cause there was alcohol sales there. Stein Vidar was 21 years old. (born at August 19, Joey's birthday!) So I tried to argue with the lady who stood guard at the door, but she was pretty hard on me. We had to pass to let people in, but later, the lady guard came to the stage to ask me how old he was, and I said 21, and his birth date. She said she would let him in, but on the condition that he would not touch alcohol. He, like me, wouldn't need it, I said.

The arena was a little and cozy one, and me and Ingri found our spot right in front of the stage, a little to the left. That, it occured, was the spot right in front of John Levèn. But first came the warm up band. They were called Hellfueled. Nothing very impressing, just long haired, black clothed, playing and screaming and really making a fuzz out of having long hair, so that they nodded and had hair in the face on the riffs :/
But you can't have luck all the time, in finding good warm up bands. But after tree quarters of their hair touching the floor, it was time for....

Rearranging instruments on stage. You know how it is, the crowd getting even tighter behind you, and your high heels starting to nag your feet. Some of the best things with this concert was that there was extraordinary little activity from the wanna-be-fans-with-too-much-beer-consumed trying to come to stage and jumping up and down and pushing aside every true fan in their attempts to do so, and smashing fists and stuff into other crowdmembers. We had them this time too, but only once. And this concert we didn`t get our tummys, heads and other parts of the body pressed into the fence by the crowd. We kept our place at the fence the whole concert! The crowd was actually polite and mature.

Well, after an hour of waiting, our men finally hit the stage, and I really felt.. HOME.. this was my crowd, an extension of me rocking in my room, but with more intensity, and of course, LIVE Europe. I don't remember the set list, I just remember I was totally satisfied with everything they did, and when one hour had passed, I had not thought ONCE "are they gonna play The Final Countdown?". I had no worries about that matter whatsoever. 5 months before I would have died if they had not played their major hit, but if they didn`t this time, I would have been just as happy, I'm sure of it. But hey, concert review is not finished yet...
They had amazing surprises for us, like Carrie acoustic version, where you could hear the crowd singing louder than Joey, and lifting the spirit up to another level. And Joey did this (usual) call and response-thingy with his audience during Rock the night (I've seen it on videos), and you could hear his voice was beyond good, it was... oh, heavenly (and that goes for Carrie acoustic as well)!! They did Got to have faith, Start from the dark, Flames, Hero and Spirit of the underdog from the new album, and I don't think there was much difference between their old songs and their new songs. They had a whole new touch to their old songs, making them just as melodic, but a bit harder and more rock-like! But I would have liked everything they did (except rap...)

I should maybe remember during what song this happened, but I don't, and it's a real pity.. But during one song, Joey bent his upper body to touch the waving hands of the fans first in line at the fence, and I was really close to being touched by him. But then he touched Ingri instead. I was so dissapointed, I had been THAT close to touch my nr.1 Hero. I forgot it pretty quickly, I was still having my best time ever by being there. It's just that a touch of his hand would have made the little extra for me.. And so it did, when, during another song (Carrie? Rock the night? or even TFC?) He had his hands in the crowd's reach again, and touched my right hand! I was in the seventh heaven. Oh, I almost forgot, that Levèn smiled at me. Looked me in the eyes and smiled at me! :D
Something I forgot? Hmm.. well.. After an hour and tree quarters (or nearly so), they did play The Final Countdown. And this time, no one touched my boobies, like happened the last time. And... woow... Orgasmic sensation. They really make people happy...

I thought, during the entire concert: "why isn't my stomach turning and twisting with joy?" Well, after the concert, it certainly did. I jumped up and down, I talked to everybody, I gave some money to a streetwalker, I jumped some more, and was totally happy. This guy comes to me and shows me his T-shirt, and it's the same one I'm wearing. That would not have been strange, if it had been a Europe T-shirt. But it wasn't. It was the T-shirt with the tiger on (look at the Vallset gig). Of course, his shirt shoulders were intact... And I met the girl with the 80s hair again, she had gotten Joey's water bottle. I wasn't all that jealous, I had been touched by him!
Well, I had a coke (probably my 5th that day) and my last cigarettes (probably nr 30), and went with Ingri and Per Erik and his fellows back to Hamar, the next day I stopped smoking and drinking coke, just like that. And I'm still not smoking (except New Year's Eve)!! (this last sentence is probably added a little while later)