Was hunting through the used vinyl bins in a local record shop when I found the Europeans Live LP. This was quite a surprise since I'm in the US and I've never seen a Europeans record. For those not in the know, the Europeans was Steve Hogarth's first proper band from the early '80s. After this band he and Colin Woore (guitarist from Europeans) went on to form How We Live. In Europeans, H played keyboards and sang. The music was quite energetic and earnest new wave. The album is a live recording from 1983 and H sings lead vocals on 3 tracks.
The music actually isn't bad, I found myself quite enjoying a lot of it, especially the more melodic rockers. In some songs they went for a certain weirdness factor that feels a bit forced (almost like they were trying to emulate the Talking Heads). Though he was much younger, the H voice we know and love comes shining through and you could hear the talent even back then. The Europeans weren't exactly the next Duran Duran, but it's very cool to have this snapshot of the past and hear where H came from.
If anyone is interesteed, I ripped this album from the vinyl to lossless FLAC at 16/48 and am currently seeding it on a torrent. Even though it is out of print, I'm not sure of the legality of posting links. If you are interested in the torrent file, send me a PM (or do a search on a certain swashbuckling themed site).
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Originally Posted by interbellum
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