EUROPE: The Spanish Connection

January 24, 2007

Singer Joey Tempest of the reactivated Swedish hard rockers EUROPE has posted the following tour diary entry on the group's official web site:

"Mic's [Michaeli, keyboards] passport and his ID was gone...... had it been stolen by someone that wanted to sabotage the band's European tour?

"Over the years the band had made a lot of friends but also a lot of enemies. Could he have misplaced the passport himself? Last night was a blur. A combination of wine, women and song made the whole thing difficult to make out.

"Now the airline wouldn't let him board the plane. Were they also in on the plot? He had to say goodbye to the rest of the band and travel by himself on a bus to Madrid where he could get the right papers to travel to Switzerland.

"After he arrived in Madrid he was sure someone was following him..... He walked into a tappas bar to hide out. His mood was lifted when he found out they had some single malt whiskey on offer. He had to gather his thought and figure out what was going on.

"A few days ago they had been to a restaurant in Granada where there had been an attempt to poison the band with 'uncooked chicken.' Was it the same people that had stolen his passport and ID?

"All the hotels he visited in Madrid refused to let him stay because he did not have an ID. There was only one thing left to do. He went to a pay phone and called the former Albanian Prime Minister ask him to send over some of his security people. A few days ago the band had played in Tirana, Albania and made some very important friends in high places.

"He managed to survive the night in Madrid and went to get a temporary passport at the Swedish embassy the following day. He made it just in time for the sound-check in Zurich. We were all glad that he made it back safe.

"....But there was something suspicious about the whole affair."

EUROPE's latest music video, "Always the Pretenders", has been posted online at YouTube.com. The song comes off the band's new CD, "Secret Society", which was released in the U.S. on November 7 via Sanctuary Records. An e-card for "Secret Society" is available here. An audio interview with EUROPE frontman Joey Tempest has been posted online at this location. The interview was conducted with an Italian journalist on October 5 and covers a variety of topics, including the group's new album, "Secret Society", the "secret" formula for the band's success, and EUROPE's legacy.

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