The Europeans - short-lived, but a stepping-off place.
The Europeans – short-lived, but a stepping-off place.

. . . Or click on the link here for Audio Player – The Europeans – Live At The Goldiggers, Chippenham – 1984 – BBC 6 Music

Short-lived New Wave band The Europeans tonight. Recorded live at The Goldiggers in Chippenham and broadcast by the venerable BBC in 1984. The Europeans were only together a little over 4 years. During that time they had 3 albums released and did a substantial amount of touring. Mostly to no avail.

When the band broke up, keyboard player and co-vocalist Steve Hogarth joined Marillion and that’s where fortunes changed.

But before then, it was a tale of frustration and bad breaks, culminating in their point-person at A&M leaving his job as Managing director. When that happened, promotion for the band took a nosedive and it was the final straw that necessitated in calling it quits.

This concert is one of those rare appearances that managed to be recorded and preserved for posterity.

I don’t imagine The Europeans is a familiar name to a lot of people, especially, as the band had no hits and not much in the way of support. But they were a good band with a goodly amount of creative imagination going for them. And even though the individual members of the band landed with other bands and, like the aforementioned Marillion, sought their fame and fortune with other groups, they were another in the seemingly endless line of bands that come and go and split up for whatever reason.

Still, it was okay while it lasted.

Here comes the weekend.