EARLY YEARS

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1999 was the year of the incredible Millennium Gig for the New Year's Eve, with all the Europe members reunited for a special night: John Norum together with Joey Tempest, John Levén, Ian Haugland,  Mic Michaeli and Kee Marcello. No one could have been happier with "Rock The Night" flowing all over Stockholm and on TV too. Just before the clock struck midnight the famous and world known hymn began... "The Final Countdown" echoed everywhere! The new Millennium didn't produced more events like that, but the band gathered at Hard Rock Café in Stockholm to receive a gold award as well as open a permanent exhibition. No deal with the band about playing on stage that night, but John Norum, John Levén Ian Haugland and Kee Marcello with Bo and Anders Lindmark from Dalton have been so kind to join the band on stage in a very nice 3-minutes-jam of “Rock the night” while later on, Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli surprised all the presents jumping on stage like felines and stealing microphone and keys and completing the song brilliantly!!! It happened on April 14^th 2000. In June, JNG and Brian Robertson performed together at Sweden Rock Festival in Karlshamn. John worked again with Midnight Sun recording "Dreams" for their album "NEMESIS" and he toured with them as guest guitarist at least for one show in Stockholm.

In May 2001 John teamed up with former Thin Lizzy and Motörhead guitarist Brian Robertson for a short series of Norwegian dates performing Thin Lizzy and his own songs. Featured in the live band was Street Legal and Da Vinci man Bjorn Boge on vocals and on bass "Wild Willy" Bendiksen of Bad Habits and The Snakes.  

In the summer of 2001 John joined Don Dokken again, filling the gap left by a departing Reb Beach. This time only Don Dokken and Mick Brown were left from the original band. On bass was Barry Spark. In June Dokken featuring John performed at Sweden Rock Festival in Karlshamn. Later, they did a sort of "best of Dokken" tour in the US, recorded a new album called "LONG WAY HOME" and then went on tour in Europe. John’s arm was injured in an accident during that tour and he was replaced by Alex DeRosso . In 2001 John worked again with his wife Michelle in her new Meldrum band's debut album "LOADED MENTAL CANNON", recording "Through Shattered Eyes". He recorded also "What Cost War" for Jeff Pilson's War & Peace album "LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL".

In 2002 two singles taken from "LONG WAY HOME" were released: "SUNLESS DAYS" (as promo only) and "LITTLE GIRL". The 13^th od December, three-fifths of the most celebrated EUROPE lineup - guitarist John Norum, bassist John Levén, and drummer Ian Haugland - reunited on stage at the Hard Rock Café in Stockholm, Sweden to perform the EUROPE classic "Rock The Night" and a version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll". The gig, which took place as part of the Christmas show of local radio station Rockklassiker 106.7, also featured an appearance by Lion's Share guitarist Lars Chriss, who played with Haugland during the regular set before Norum and Levén joined the duo for the explosive finale. In March 2003, UFO had officially recruited John Norum as a replacement for Michael Schenker. However, in typical fashion a matter of months passed before Norum issued a statement declining UFO's offer of employment. In the same year, he toured with Whitesnake. He would soon be back in the limelight, teaming back up with Europe for a reformation of the classic line up: on October 2^nd 2003 Europe finally announced their reunion and that they were going to record a new album and headline at the Sweden Rock Festival 2004!!! The line up would be the same of the TFC era; Kee Marcello was asked to join the band for the summer tour, but then projects changed from both the parts: Europe members weren’t so sure of their previous idea and Kee was more and more involved in his musical projects, so the Millennium Gig - with both the Europe guitarists on stage - become the very rare event... With the largest audience ever at SRF and broadcast live on national radio Europe got back on track, the title track of the new album "START FROM THE DARK" proved them to leaning towards the heavier stuff. The album was released on September 22^rd, 2004. The same day, John and MIchelle son Jake Thomas was born. Two singles and videos - "GOT TO HAVE FAITH" and "HERO" (dedicated to Phil Lynott) were released and the "Start From The Dark" tour in 89 dates reached all the Europe, the US, Russia and Japan. The first gig was in Hamar (Norway) on June 1^st, 2004  and the last one in Brasov (Romania), on August 20^th 2005.

While writing material for the "START FROM THE DARK" album, John also worked on his solo album "OPTIMUS" that was released on John's birthday, in February 23^rd, 2005! No single was released. Bass tracks were handled by Thomas Torberg, additional guitar by Fredrik Åkesson of Tiamat, Talisman and Krux, keyboards by Mats Lindfors with drums coming from Paatos and Buckspony man Richard "Hux Flux" Nettermalm.

In 2005 John worked with Kelly Keeling recording "Nothing" for his new "GIVING SIGHT TO THE EYE". In the same year, John also contributed with his interpretation of “Stay With Me” (voice and guitars) to a Frank Marino tribute album released by WildMess Records and entitled “SECONDHAND SMOKE”.

In October 2006 the new EuropE album "SECRET SOCIETY" was released and few weeks later it was released the first single "ALWAYS THE PRETENDERS". The same day of the album's release, the new world tour started in Lund, Sweden, and it ended with two great performances at the Dalhalla, in Rättvik, Sweden, the 1^st of September 2007. The songs performed during the first of the two nights were recorded and they are available in the official site's shop.

During the winter, John has recorded his new solo album, that will be released next 30^th of November, 2009. It will be half instrumental and more bluesy than the previous ones. Mic Michaeli, Thomas Broman, Tomas Thorberg e Leif Sundin worked at it together with John. In April 2008 John the album was mixed together with Peer Stappe (Gemini Five, Dos Flamingos and others).

John performed with Europe once again in Sibiu, Romania, the 31^st of December, 2007 and later at the Nalen in Stockholm, the 26^th of January, 2008: it was an extraordinary event called "Almost Unplugged", a semi-acoustic concert that was webcasted entirely on the official site. During that night, they played some songs of the band that influenced their career: Thin Lizzy, UFO, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. The 17^th of September the CD was released, and the 8^th of December the double vinyl was released in a special limited coloured edition. The 25^th of April, it was published Europe first official tourbook, with pics taken during their last two world tours.

The 21st of May, John's wife Michelle Meldrum suddenly passed away, as a result of a cystic growth on her brain that has restricted oxygen and blood flow to her brain, rendering her braindead. In loving respect of her memory, Europe cancelled their appearance at the fist of the planned festivals of the summer tour, in Norway, expected 10 days later.

During the summer tour, Europe featured as support act of Deep Purple's Swedish dates, and during the second night, in Ystad, John Norum jammed with Steve Morse and then played "Smoke on the Water" with Deep Purple.

In December 2008, it was time for Europe to enter the studio and to start the recording of the new album, that will be released on spring 2008 and that will be followed by another world tour.

* let’s pass over… J

Biography written by the webmistress. Infos taken from checked music sites.