News Round Up

January 2002 

This page contains a number of europeans and how we live references (mostly from the world wide web), that I have collected over the last year or so.  I thought that these items were too big to dump straight on the News page, so I have put them all together here. 

News from Geoff Dugmore (January 2002) 

Geoff Dugmore contacted me in the New Year with the following message :

"Just to let you know, I have just been voted into the WORLDS TOP 5 STUDIO DRUMMERS for 2001 in the annual international drummer magazine awards (voted for by the public and fellow musicians)... Sitting just behind two US heavyweights Vinnie Colaiuta (No1) and Kenny Arnoff (No2). Just goes to show the BRITS are coming."

'A Night in Heaven' Soundtrack  

Europeans' 'The Animal Song' appeared in the 1983 US Film 'A Night in Heaven.' As far as I'm aware (I haven't seen the film, and from the sound of it have no intention of doing so), it is a 'disco-dancing' film.  Colin Woore told me at the H gigs last summer, that their song appears during one of the many nightclub sequences.  The Europeans track appeared on the subsequent soundtrack album (Cat. No. A&M SP 4966) alongside tracks by The English Beat, Rita Coolidge, Bryan Adams & Jan Hammer.

See the LP cover (pictured left) larger here

Marillion / Euros / How We Live Feature  

'Marillion' are currently the 'featured band' at the 'Progfreaks.com' website.  There are lots of pages for Marillion themselves, plus 'side projects' including Europeans and How We Live.  The guys at the site have managed to condense a lot of the information on this site into a very readable and comprehensive 'history'.  Definitely worth a look : 

http://www.progfreaks.com/Marillion/Side/Side.htm

'Iza' covers Europeans 

In 1990, a Polish female artist Izabela Trojanowska (called 'Iza') covered the Europeans tracks 'The Animal Song' and 'Acid Rain.'  They both appear on her album 'Independence' (Cat No. Continuum 0095751920721).  I have only heard 'The Animal Song' (which I picked up as a promo CD single) which I can only describe as an interesting interpretation!  To be honest, it is a fairly straight copy of the original, only a deep female voice singing the lead vocal. (As far as I can tell, the original Europeans backing vocals are kept on this version.)

Motion Pictures' Alan Dalgleish  

In his interview elsewhere on this site, Ferg Harper mentioned that their former 'Motion Pictures' keyboardist Alan Dalgleish continued to work in the music business after quitting the band. I discovered that he played keyboards in (Buzzcocks' frontman) Pete Shelley's band in 1981, and also co-wrote the song 'The Pride You Hide' with Roger Daltrey for his 1985 solo album 'Under A Raging Moon.'  Strangely enough, I'm a pretty big ' Who' fan, and always thought this to be one of Roger's better 'solo' efforts.

Marillion 'Front Row Club' CDs 

The Marillion website has started up the 'front row club', a membership-based club for collectors, which will be releasing full live concerts on CD.  These live albums will not be on sale publicly - they are only available to members who pay an upfront fee (£80 for 6 CDs).  The first issue is a full concert from Marillion's 'Radiation' tour recorded in Germany in 1998 and has a version of 'This Strange Engine' that apparently includes excerpts from the How We Live track 'Games in Germany.'

Full details at : http://www.marillion.com/frontrow/frc001/index.html

Europeans 'Half-Life' LP ?  

The reference seems to have been taken down now for some reason, but the complete A&M Records Discography at http://www.bsnpubs.com/aandm/aandm10-5000.html recently had the following entry : SP 5032 - Half Life - Europeans [1984].  I asked Colin and Ferg about this at Steve's Dingwalls shows in the summer, and they guessed that 'Half Life' was the working title for the 'Recurring Dreams' album.

Colin Woore track on charity album 

I've tracked down a picture of the charity album that Colin Woore appeared on in the late 1980s.  Track 6 on CD1 of the 'International Hostage Release' album, "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" is the first song Colin wrote and recorded after How We Live, 'If You Really Love Me.'  Other artists on the 2CD compilation included Peter Gabriel, Pete Townshend, Clannad, Talk Talk, Dire Straits, Mike Oldfield, Steve Winwood and many more... If anyone can get me a copy of the song, please let me know.

Otway Europeans MP3  

A kind soul has posted MP3s of two John Otway / Europeans tracks ('In Dreams' and the non album track 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet') on the web at http://www.the-nacnud.co.uk/otway/mp3.htm. The 'Sounds' page on my site will be online again soon, thanks to someone who has offered to host the files.

The 'Other' Europeans  

And finally, here's a little more info on the other 'Europeans' - another four piece that played in and around Bristol in the late 1970s : http://www.sugarshackrecords.co.uk/european/euro.htm

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