10th Anniversary Round
Up
January 2009
|
I am very aware that I haven't updated the
site very much in 2008, so I'm starting off 2009 with a bumper
round up of all things Europeans and How We Live.
This website has been running for just over 10 years now, which I cannot
really believe myself. I still regularly receive emails via the site
showing interest in both bands, and it is a testament to the appeal of their
wonderful music. Thanks to everyone who has emailed with comments,
clippings, tapes, videos, interviews etc... over the
past decade. I am constantly surprised to find "new" things
to do with the Euros & HWL, and I still have a lot if fun
updating the site. I have lots of great stuff coming up in the
year. Here's to the next 10 years... who knows what will happen? |
|
Steve
Hogarth |
|||
|
|
Back in 1983, Europeans'
artistic director Daevid Western
named his design company 'Head Heart & Soul.' (Click to see the
promo picture to the left.) Bizarrely, the phrase features on Marillion's 14th studio album
released at the end of 2008. Steve writes "I've actually
included the phrase in a lyric on our album Happiness Is The Road. The
song is called "Essence" and the line is "fingers, toes, head,
heart and soul, connected deep, to every living thing.." The 2CD set is only
available via the www.marillion.com website, and is highly recommended! |
||
|
Another recent release is Naked in the Chapel, a
DVD from Steve's September 2007 solo show at the Union Chapel in
Islington, London. Steve
explains: "If you were there, thanks for coming - it was a great night
among many great nights. It was about as relaxed as I have ever felt on a
stage and I'm indebted to all who came and created such an atmosphere in such
a beautiful little church. I'm thrilled to announce that the DVD of the
concert is now ready; The Boom Boom Boys shot and
edited it, I mixed it myself, and it looks and sounds great! The vibe was
lovely and I think we've captured it. There's also bonus material of a
handful of excerpts from my diary - a few interesting days including prison
in Poland, the Pulp Fiction evening in San Diego and the bizarre 37 hour
flight to Mexico City via most of America (so that the FBI could arrest Cat
Stevens, and - very nearly - me too..) ..You couldn't make it up!" The DVD is available from the Marillion website at http://www.marillion.com/music/solo/h-chapel-dvd.htm. |
|
|
|
|
|
There have been a few more h natural (solo piano & voice) shows, including two sold out dates in Liverpool and London just before Christmas. Steve reads excerpts from his diary at the shows, and at the London date it was an entry about the How We Live "Edinburgh Playhouse Incident" as mentioned elsewhere on this site. You can download complete h natural shows at http://www.h-tunes.com/, whereas the h natural myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/hnatural has an exclusive video clip of Steve performing HWL tune Working Town. |
|
|
|
|
You can watch a complete h band show from 2002
over at Fab Channel http://www.fabchannel.com/hband_concert.
Filmed at the Amsterdam Paradiso, it
includes a rarely performed version of the How We Live song India. (It's Track 9 on the
playlist) Finally, Steve has a myspace page of his own at http://www.myspace.com/stevehogarth and his own website at http://www.stevehogarth.com (although it is not updated very often) |
|
|
Geoff
Dugmore |
|||
|
|
It has been another busy year for Geoff Dugmore, who continues to be one of the
most in demand session drummers in the world today. Drumming duties
this past year alone have included Will Young, Leon Jackson, Jack Saverotti, Heather Nova (see below), Helen Boulding, Sergio Dahlma,
Paul Carrack, Lulu, Chris De Burgh, Noah Johnson, David Knopfler,
Gregory Lemarchal, Joe Echo & Emily MaGuire (at Glastonbury). He
has also attended a number of Drum "clinics" this year including
'Drummer Live' and the 'Bath Rhythm Course'. He rounded off the year
with his 41st worldwide Number One album. |
||
|
Geoff's official website (that I also
run) can be found at www.geoffdugmore.com and is
regularly updated. One extract from the summer reads: "Well, I just played to about the biggest audience I will ever play to! An estimated 2 billion people watched the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and heard me playing Whole Lotta Love on the handover with Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis. Quite a gas really!" |
|
|
There are numerous articles and interviews available via Geoff's site, but this one from Mike Dolbear's website is a particularly good one: Geoff Dugmore: British Drum Icon: http://www.mikedolbear.com/story.asp?StoryID=1673 The Heather Nova gig at the Amsterdam Paradiso from October 2008 is available to
watch over at Fab Channel: http://www.fabchannel.com/heather_nova_concert/2008-10-26
Finally, Geoff too has a myspace page and it can be found at http://www.myspace.com/geoffdugmore1 |
|
|
|
|
The
Animal Song - Various versions on the web Live Version
(from the Live LP) at: http://www.esnips.com/web/NewWaveCollection/ Cross Country Version (from
12"): http://arcimage2006.multiply.com/video/item/129/Europeans_-_Animal_Song.flv It has also made its way onto a Best Of New Wave Megamix CD compilation: http://www.discogs.com/release/725993 |
|
Vocabulary & Live albums on CD ? Lucy Jordache (Marillion's Marketing & Communications Manager) tells me that "I don't think we have any plans to release the other albums but you never know - plans do change all the time!" Here's hoping that the remaining two albums will finally make their way onto CD in the near future. There is a lot of support for a re-release via this website! |
|
Europeans on YouTube |
||||
|
This website's own YouTube channel EurosHWL can be found at http://www.youtube.com/EurosHWL. Another channel called (amusingly) 'musicvideosthatsuck' has uploaded a very good quality version of the legendary Animal Song video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxGZYIHmmfs. Previous copies of this have been removed for copyright infringements, so enjoy it while you can! Randomly, there is a video
for Europeans' AEIOU featuring
a computer animated girl dancing at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXThbF4ga0k For the more brave of you, check out the video of Polish
artist Iza "covering" the Animal
Song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie_x7_TJsFE
|
|
|
Interviews with Steve Hogarth A few extracts, and links to interviews with Steve where he talks about Europeans & How We Live |
|
|
Interview with Steve Hogarth from
Polish cgm.pl site (Nov 2004) Q) In the 80s you were a member of
Europeans.
What can you say about that part of your career? A) The band was from Glasgow.
In the early 80s their keyboard player had left the band and I replaced him.
Fergus Harper was the lead singer. During one of the first
rehearsals I showed the band some of my songs & they were very
pleased. From this moment on, The Europeans had 2 singers. We played experimental
music. We were influenced by post-punk and industrial: Heaven 17, Joy
Division and Talking Heads. Our music was more raw.
During gigs we were dressed like sportsmen or wild animals. We wore
masks. We had a great fun. Europeans were
a great live band. We had tours in Europe and USA.
It was an excellent lesson in singing live, and being a singer. The
experience was helpful when I joined Marillion. It's also helpful
nowadays. I learnt that you should always be self-confident while on
stage. (The full interview (in Polish) can be found here) |
|
Q&A with Steve Hogarth - Montreal Gazette (June 2007) Q) How about your early-career songs that you've been singing? How is it different for you singing a Europeans or How We Live song now as opposed to 20-some years ago? A) I guess I'm someone else now, really, to the point where I don't really remember who I was back then. It's very hard to compare. I'm very conscious of who I am and how I am now, but it's such a long time since back then, and I guess I'm such a cabbage that I actually can't remember. I've lived so many lives, almost, since then that the person I was back then, I would barely know him if he walked in the room now. I don't know what I'd make of him. I'd probably have a big argument with him. (Laughs) (Read the full interview (in Canadian) here) |
|
|||
|
Ice
Cream Genius:
a nice little biography / blog: http://rissan.blogspot.com/2008/07/ice-cream-genius.html
Steve
Hogarth Speaks His Mind (Dutch Prog
Rock Pages) http://www.dprp.net/specials/2006_hogarth/
|
|
|
|
Recollections
from Euros Tour Manager & Sound Engineer Paul Owen "It has been 25 years or more since I worked with them. I was there for nearly every transition, I have held the guys in my heart since then. They influenced my life more than any other band I have worked with. Being their tour manager and sound engineer through it all helped me see them from both angles, both professionally and personally. I saw Geoff in Japan a few years back, and Steve at an old haunt of mine in the Midlands, JB's Dudley. Steve was performing there with Marillion, and I was over visiting from the USA. It was an amazing night, to see him perform, and then spend a few hours with him going over our past 20 odd years apart, |
|
I have be very fortunate in this business to have travelled to over 60 countries, and played stadiums in nearly all of them with bands such as Metallica, AC/DC and many more. At present I part own and run one of the largest sound companies in the USA (www.thunderaudioinc.com) with tours such as Steely Dan, Robert Plant and Dolly Parton out at present, I am just about to embark on an other world tour with Metallica. It may be my last, but I've been saying that for 10 years now. Over my 30 years in this business, no band has been as close to me as the Europeans. And trust me, I have seen a few. They are a band that had so much talent, and yet like so many of them during that time, never made it big. I often wonder how different my life would have been if they had. Listening to the CDs brought a few tears to my eyes. I will always have the deepest respect for all of them. I feel Steve Hogarth is one of the greatest front men of our time, fire extinguisher and all! I still have a live shot of them on my desk at work. And, if by a miraculous work of fate they get together and do a show, I will drop whoever I'm with, fly over, and be honoured to mix them again." (Paul Owen) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Review
of Dry Land Album
"Dry Land sounds remarkably
fresh and fun after 13 years of confinement, and you know what? The
compositions aren't half as bad as you might expect. If you grew up with the
music of the eighties (like yours truly) then this albums just sounds
familiar and new at the same time."
Read the full (and very complimentary) review of How We Live's Dry Land album
at: http://frisiansotherfavorites.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-we-live-dry-land-1987.html
|
|
Bassist Taif's
Website How We Live bass player Dave 'Taif' Ball has played with many artists, including Jools Holland, Killing Joke, Paraphernalia, David Knopfler and Steve Hackett. His website can be found at http://taif.co.uk/taifbass/index.cfm?page=gallery, where you'll find some exclusive photos taken during his stint with HWL. There is also a small entry in the Biog section in the site. Well worth a look. |
|
|
|
|
HWL
Discography Additions A couple of updates to the Discography. I have
managed to track down one of the Rock Over London radio shows, which
has an insert describing How We Live as "Anglo-Scottish duo making their worldwide
debut." See Cover
Page / Cue Sheet. |
|
|
|
|
I also now have the "Rock-Pop Live in Concert"
album, which includes two How We Live tracks Games in Germany & All
the Time in the World. Contrary to the album title, the tracks are
not live. This 2LP set was a tie-in release for the Munich Open Air
Concert in 1987. Other artists on the record include Tina Turner, Joe
Cocker, Eurythmics &
John Farnham! See Cover
/ Back
Sleeve Credit / Label More details of the video broadcast of the concert
(including HWL
track Working Girl) can be found at http://www.concertarchiv.net/Rockpop-1987.htm. |
|
|
|
|
Introducing Marillion's New Singer
1989 Finally, here are a number of clippings & photos from 1989, when former Europeans and How We Live singer Steve Hogarth was announced as the new lead singer of Marillion. The first promo shot released to the press shows Steve in the same sheepskin jacket he wore on the cover of How We Live's Working Girl single here! Click the pictures to see the bigger versions.
|
|||||||||||||
Back
to Articles