Kee Marcello of Europe Leaves His Legacy Behind at Bluesiana (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Velden am Wörthersee / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: 16.01.2016
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €34.00 (presale) / €39.00 (day of show)

Kee Marcello is the famous former guitarist of the Swedish hard rock band Europe, whose full name is Kjell Hilding Löfbom. Before founding his first real band, Easy Action, in 1982, Kee Marcello played in a number of different outfits, including the Stetson Cody Group, Norbom Hilke and Noice. Easy Action was the first Scandinavian band to land a deal with the big American label Warner Bros Records, in 1983. Under that label Easy Action put out two albums: a self-titled debut, followed by “That Makes One”. Even before joining Europe, Kee Marcello had worked with singer Joey Tempest, and the two of them created the hit “Give A Helping Hand”. It was the success of that collaboration that later led to the decision to draft Marcello into Europe, and he joined the band in 1987 for the tour promoting the album “The Final Countdown”. With Europe, Marcello recorded the studio album “Out of this World” in 1988, followed in 1991 by “Prisoners in Paradise”, and then 1992 rolled around and Europe announced they were calling it a day.

Kee Marcello has played Bluesiana before, so he knows the venue inside out. This time, though, he ran into some trouble getting to Velden. As a result, he arrived badly late. He got to Bluesiana so late that he started his soundcheck at the hour when concerts here normally kick off. So a crowd of fans piled up on the club’s front steps, unable to get in. People stood squeezed together out there for about half an hour while the guys got set up and tuned their gear. It would all have been fine if it hadn’t been a few degrees below zero outside.

Kee Marcello played with three Italian musicians, as a four-piece. The standout among the three is Nazzareno Zacconi, a superb guitar virtuoso who has already played in Slovenia several times, and who is always at Bluesiana whenever someone needs to step in and help out one of the eminent names on the world’s rock map.

Kee kicked off the gig just as you’d expect: with the Europe song Seventh Sign (“Prisoners in Paradise”, 1991). Right from this opener it was clear that Kee Marcello is no singer and that shredding remains his home turf. As expected, the man pulled out a “dangerous” solo straight from the classic Scandinavian school. Marcello is still a speed demon of a virtuoso. Lightning-fast arpeggios are practically his middle name. For the rest of the set, too, Kee mostly played Europe material: in the first half from “Prisoners in Paradise” (the aforementioned Seventh Sign, then Halfway To Heaven and I’ll Cry For You), later from even older Europe albums, like the absolutely obligatory Superstitious (“Out of this World”), plus the expected live highlights at the close with the big hit Rock the Night and, for the encore, Girl fom Lebanon and the venomous hard rock evergreen The Final Countdown.

Kee didn’t forget to showcase his latest studio album “Judas Kiss”, released in 2013. He played the songs Dog Eat Dog and Dead End Highway. Just before the end of the main set he also surprised with an Easy Action song called We Go Rockin’.

The gig was over in the blink of an eye. Encore included, it ran a flat hour and ten minutes. Meager. The performance was patchy at times, too. Quite a few ugly slip-ups crept into the show, sometimes down to Kee himself, who often couldn’t handle vocals and guitar at the same time. He’d occasionally forget to turn a potentiometer on the guitar up or down in time, or to hit the footswitch for the effect he wanted, and so on. The band didn’t show convincing signs of being tight. That’s why the show didn’t fully win me over. Add Kee’s merely average singing and a drawn-out, pointless solo spot where all three backing musicians got a chance to shine, and the disappointment really piles up.

Still, Kee ruled with his solos. That’s where he remains brilliant, and that’s really what carried the show. It’s a joy to watch him launch into neoclassical-flavored tonalities, which he grinds out from under his fingers with extreme speed and feather-light ease. That makes up for a lot. Even so, despite how short the get-together was, Kee Marcello still owes the fans a better show. Let’s hope he comes back to Bluesiana again, this time for a re-sit exam, and puts in a more serious effort at his next gig.