EUROPE keyboardist Mic Michaeli has issued the following update from the road:

"Alright, here’s the thing. In Graz, Austria we had a day off and I needed access to the Internet. The hotel they had an Internet provider called A1. Being the trusting guy I am, I pay the fee of €24 to be able to have access to the Internet for 24 hours. There was a lot of things to be done, and the main mission was to update the Tour Diary. Now, €24 is ridiculously expensive compared to other companies but spare no expenses when trying to keep our fans updated ;)

I logged on and dealt with some personal matters for an hour, then went out of the my room to have a chat with the boys. When I came back I had no connection and it was impossible to log back on again. So I call the A1 'international' help desk and ask them…. Well, here’s the dialog:

-- Hello, my name is Mic, do you speak English?
-- 'click' (they hung up on me)

Another try:

-- Hello, do you speak English?
-- 'click' (hung up again)

Third try:

- Guten Tag, sprechen Sie English?
- Nein! ('click')

A nice lady of the hotel tried to help me out but even when spoken German to, A1 didn’t want to get me logged on again. Their anwer: 'Try again tomorrow' (?).

The following two days the magnificent staff of our Austrian promotor were really helpful and spent a considerable amount of hours talking to A1 to help me get at least some of my money back. The outcome however was that A1 thought 3 hours (though paying for 24h) was 'enough' (?) and did not want to repay my money.

And take into consideration that my dear keyboard technician Roger (also paying for 24h) was only logged on for 1 hour but got the same reply from the evil A1.

Is this really happening in a civilized country like Austria?

You have a feeling of powerlessness in a situation like this and you think: How many other people have been subject to the same misstreatment by A1?

And the question still remains: Was A1 also in on the plot? We are starting to see a pattern here: The Deadly Chicken, the Spanish Connection and now the fucking A1 attempting to drive a wedge between the band Europe and their fans by not letting the band update the Tour Diary. It seems we have to keep our eyes open for future attemts by this growing conspiracy to attack the band Europe and it’s fans.

Anyway, I have to say that this all gets overshadowed by the fact that the Austrian crowd (seasoned with people from neighbouring countries) blew our minds. We had a fantastic time on stage thanx to you! Thank you all!

PS: About the Spanish connection (I read some posts on the forum on the subject)… Don’t blame Mark. I had a wonderful mini vacation in Spain by myself despite being without passport, ID, money, and my bandmates.

Need is the the mother of creative thinking!"

/mic

To read Europe vocalist Joey Tempest's previous tour update go to this location.

Remaining dates on Europe's current tour are as follows:

February

4 - Nuremberg, Germany at Hirsch
6 - Hamburg, Germany at Fabrik
7 - Bochum, Germany at Matrix
10 - Newcastle, UK at Academy
11 - Glasgow, UK at Academy
13 - Bristol, UK at Academy
14 - London, UK at Shepherds Bush Empire
15 - Birmingham, UK at Academy