Classic Rock has teamed up with Swedish hard rock royalty Europe to bring you the ultimate collector’s package!
In celebration of the Final Countdown hitmakers’ 12th studio album, Come This Madness, you can now pre-order a huge bundle featuring Classic Rock issue 358 with the band on the cover. It also comes with a marble vinyl variant of Come This Madness that you won’t find in the shops, plus a signed lyric sheet. Only 250 copies are available, so get yours while stocks last!
Inside the issue, we talk to frontman Joey Tempest about his near-50 years in rock’n’roll, from the early days of Europe and their ascent in the mid-to-late 80s through to the new album. “It was kind of Beatlemania in the UK – we couldn’t make it from the limo to the venue, they’re grabbing hold of everything!” he says of their heyday.
“You can get stuck in the pop world – like, ‘let's make copies of The Final Countdown for 10 years.’”
He also opens up about the band’s deactivation in 1992, before their reunion 11 years later. “I never really closed the door on Europe,” he tells us. “It was just complicated at the time with the shifting in the music business, my new interest in singer-songwriting, John Norum [guitarist] not in the band. So it was a good time to take a break, but it was difficult.
“I remember in Bournemouth, 1991 or something, it was the last UK show, John Leven [bassist] said: ‘I don’t know how to run a dishwasher. I don’t know how to run anything. I never had my own place, I’ve lived on the road since you guys picked me up.’ There was a lot of that sentiment in the tour bus, like, ‘how do you live a normal life?’ Because we hadn’t. We were teenagers straight into these huge tours. It was tough for a while.”
Read the full interview in this exclusive Classic Rock bundle, or get the regular version of issue 358, available from September 11. Pre-order your copy with the exclusive cover, marble vinyl and signed lyric sheet now!
