Wish I could fly
The Look
Great thanks to Project_Z for sharing these two clips.
Archive for December, 2009
Happy New Year 2010!
Dec 31
nordish-by-nature
Some days ago I talked with my best friend on the phone and we talked about our little tradition we started 10 years ago cause we met first on the New Years Eve where we became friends.
We are preparing New Years Rockets with some pics of Per and Marie every year and shoot them into the sky wishing them all the luck on earth. And as we all had such a fantastic Gessle-Roxette-year this year we just got the idea to spread the tradition. Then maybe the sky will be filled with funny Roxette rockets this year…
…Wish I could fly… over the rooftops…!
Thanks to nordish-by-nature from R2R forum for this picture and story.
I have not listened to the X-mas interview with Per Gessle from P4 Halland yet, but from this what I read it seems the Man promised that there are going to be more tours from Roxette in the nearest future. 25th celebration in 2011 is not the bad idea, what do you think? 
More at P4 Halland. A short translation will come up a little bit later, when I will be at home.
Edit: There is a possibility to listen to the whole interview here (about 5-6 minutes into this broadcast).
Update, December 29: The Daily Roxette offers a summary.
For all the Brainpool fans…
Dec 29
…Christoffer Lundquist back in 1994 with short hair and no beard
Source: SVT.se/PSL
Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle found their places on the list of 100 biggest Swedish celebrities of 2009 published by a tabloid newspaper Expressen. Per Gessle is at #33 (the last year he was #22) and Marie Fredriksson debutes at #84.
Source: Expressen 26-50, Expressen 76-100
Alison Lowther
My trip to Germany started very early on the morning of 17th December with an early start at 4.30am as a taxi picked me up from home and took me to Manchester Airport where I boarded my first of two flights that day. A short time later I landed at Heathrow Airport where I went on to board my Lufthansa flight to Köln after of course raiding Duty Free for Christmas bargains!
I arrived in Köln and headed into the city and checked into my gorgeous hotel the Radisson Blu for three nights, although I was not staying there for three nights now since my plans had changed somewhat as I’d planned now to take a train to Hanover for an extra show. So it was a quick case of changing and packing an overnight bag and heading to the train station for a three hour journey to Hanover. If you have ever had the pleasure of travelling on trains in Europe they are pure heaven compare to UK trains, spacious comfy and usually they arrive on time unless certain problems arise! Sadly this train journey did run late, instead of taking three hours it took over four and arrived 90 minutes late in Hanover which I have to admit left me somewhat frustrated because the train pulled into Hanover at just gone two minutes to 8pm and the show for Night of the Proms was starting at 8pm. I was panicking thinking I’ve not checked into my hotel for the night. I did call the hotel and tell them I would now check in after the show but the main panic was I wouldn’t be allowed in late to the arena to take my seat!
I jumped off the train and practically ran through the station knowing I had around 45 minutes to make it to the arena before Roxette made their first appearance on the stage, I jumped in a taxi and eventually we arrived around 8.25pm. Security wondered what was in the bag I was carrying and I explained it was my overnight bag and that I’d just come in on the train from Köln and it had just arrived late and I’d had no chance to check into my hotel before coming to the arena, after checking its contents they let me through and I was led into a dark arena to find my seat, thankfully having a front row seat it was not going to be difficult to find! I didn’t bank however on having to dodge German couples waltzing to Tchaikovsky up and down the aisles! I walked to the front row but all the seats were taken eventually some security man noticed I was holding a ticket and approached me and after helping move some German girl wearing a ‘Halmstad’ t-shirt out of my seat, I took my seat and took out my banner and flag!
I had of course the most magnificent view being on the front row and as soon as you heard the intro from the orchestra to Roxette’s ‘Wish I Could Fly’ every Roxette fan in the crowd stood up and screamed as Marie appeared out of the stage floor on a seat and Per walked onto the stage. There performance was so perfect words can’t describe how wonderful it felt to see them both on stage in such a big arena playing to such a crowd like that again! I couldn’t fault this performance in anyway, it was everything I dreamed of!
Read the rest of this entry »
The word from the Man:
The mighty Swedish Television, SVT, will premiere its new series “” (“Story of the hit”) with the fabulous fairy tale of Roxette’s “The Look.” This broadcast is on January 16 with repeat on January 20. SVT1 is the channel. And yes, it’s quite good
The programme will last for 30 minutes and will start at 21.45 CET.
Looking forward to the radio broadcasts of the NOTP shows of several German radio stations I listened to Bayern 3, WDR 2 and SWR 1 so far. After having spent three nights in front of the PC listening to the programmes the result is just disappointing:
Only Bayern 3 was able to bring us a “new” recording with “Wish I could fly” and “Joyride” from Munich. On some special they even played “It must have been love” AND interviewed Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman and played “The Look” from Munich, too. Unfortunately, the only thing that annoyed me on this show was the host who talked about Marie as a woman with silver hair. He reacted to emails very quick and admitted that he used some stuff from the CD and recordings from Antwerp/Rotterdam as well. But in the end – this was the best radio special about NOTP in Germany so far.
The next to come was the special on WDR2. They even splitted the NOTP broadcast in two parts on two nights, so I thought we were supposed to get some new stuff. In the end, they played “The Look” and “Listen to your heart” from of the official NOTP CD and “Joyride”, which most probably came from Rotterdam or Munich and was nothing new to us. The host said that Marie looks “static” on stage and that she hasn’t fully recovered yet – well, there is nothing MORE to recover for her. She will stay like that – I think. Of course, we all would be happy if it wasn’t, who knows. In fact the host thought she isn’t in the best of health and said it. In the end – no new recordings here, too.
SWR1 played “Wish I could fly” – which would have been nice to know, because they didn’t play it in the official NOTP hours but BEFORE the show started. Well, in the end there is nothing to be angry about because they also didn’t offer anything new but played the already known version from Munich. When the show started I was happy because they played live stuff which wasn’t on the CD, but now I think it also was the Munich stuff. Looking forward to Roxette the next disapppointment came immediately. Again: No new version of “The Look” and “It must have been love”, but another time from the CD.
Compared to what the Belgium and Dutch channels offered so far this is just really disappointing. But in the end the Belgian/Dutch shows were better as well. So it fits..
Looking to the future… the far away future… well, there will be a TV show about this year’s Proms on Deluxe Music around EASTER. A bit late, eller hur?
Full list:
The Look, Interview, It must have been love, Wish I could fly (from Munich)
Listen to your heart and The Look (from CD)
Joyride (from wherever..)
Thumbs up to Bayern 3, a big Boooh to WDR2 and SWR1 (although the SWR1 host was much nicer and seemed to know all the relevant facts about Marie)
Make sure you catch one of the broadcastings of this year’s Night Of The Proms with Roxette! Here are the known dates so far. Please feel free to complete if you know more!
Netherlands
TV: 21.12.09, 19:25 – AVRO, Nederland 2
Germany
Radio:
Sunday, 13.12.2009, 16:00-20:00 – BAYERN 3 “Greatest Hits“ (Special „15 Jahre Proms” but incl. songs from this edition)
Monday, 14.12.2009, 22:00-24:00 – BAYERN 3 “Nightlife“
Thursday, 24.12.2009 and Friday, 25.12.2009, 23:00 – WDR 2
Saturday, 26.12.2009, 22:30–24:00 – SWR 1 “Kopfhörer” (Highlights of NOTP 2009)
Date unknown – HR 3
Date unknown – NDR 2
TV: Around Easter – Deluxe Music
Update, 27.12.2009:
The TV dates for Belgium got changed:
Part 1: 27.12.2009, 0:00-0:50 – EEN
Part 2: 03.01.2010, 23:10-0:00 – EEN
All times are CET. To be updated…
Source: NOTP Fanpage | Project_Z
So tomorrow is the day when the annual interview with Per Gessle will be broadcasted in “Konsekvens” programme on P4 Halland. Don’t miss it and turn on the radio at 5.00 pm Swedish local time.
Very merry Christmas from RoxetteBlog.com staff.
Thanks to Project_Z.
Kirsten Ohlwein and Judith Seuma met Clarence Öfwerman before the show in Munich on Saturday. In the following interview you will find information about the Night of the Proms, Clarence’s musical roots and family and much more..
Kirsten: So we heard the Olympia Halle is not standing anymore since yesterday.
C: Hm. Maybe not haha! It was fantastic.
J: Even better than Frankfurt?
C: Maybe the same, but the crowd was a bit wilder yesterday. Second and third in Frankfurt were excellent too. The first wasn’t that good. Stuttgart was the best so far, and the 2nd in Munich.
K: We are going to top it today. The balloons are ready to be used.
C: Balloons! We saw some of them yesterday as well, it’s great you are doing this.
J: It’s actually just 1 week left of NOTP, how do you feel about that?
C: Yeah, Dortmund next Sunday is the last one. It’s kind of sad, we’d like to go on forever.
K: Christoffer mentioned last week it’s quite long time away from your families.
C: Yes, that’s true, but at least we had the family come down to us a couple of times in between, so I think it’s ok. All in all it’s great, when you get into it it’s wonderful to be on tour.
J: What are you going to do through Christmas?
C: I will be home with my family and Santa Clause..
K/J: ..and Kalle Anka..
C: Yeah! Do you know that? Haha! Well yeah, it’s typical Swedish. Specially if you have kids.
K: How did you start making music, playing instruments? Your family is quite musical, too?
C: My father did kind of the same things that I do, he played piano, jazz, and got into producing Swedish artists and later from all around the world. He always said to me “don’t become a musician, it’s very difficult to make a living on it”, he thought I should study economy, because he actually wanted to do that but never succeeded. He once produced an album with Toots Thielemans and he came down to Rotterdam and they hung out one night together, which was great!
But I started to play in bands when I was a teenager anyway. I started playing guitar, then I met a guy who was a lot better than me playing guitar, so I switched to piano. I think that was around 73, 74. You weren’t even born then I think!
Then I started to play with different people in Sweden, as a session musician in the studio, later I started to produce some albums. Then I met Per in 86, and from then on it’s been Roxette all the way.
J: How did you meet Per?
C: I met him once a couple of years earlier, when I played with Ulf Lundell on his tour. We were in Halmstad and Ulf gave a birthday party after the show, the Gyllene Tider guys joined us, and then we were introduced. Anders and Göran and I became friends.
The idea to produce Per’s third solo came actually from Kjell Andersson at EMI. He told Per “Why not try Clarence”, because I did some productions before for EMI, like 2 or 3 albums, so I was the new guy around.
I actually didn’t like his previous solo albums, I hadn’t listened to them very much. I liked the early Gyllene Tider, and Marie. Marie was involved in the first song, “Neverending Love”, so we did that one just to try and see what happens. It was actually Pelle who told me to go for it and take this production job, because I wasn’t much into this Per Gessle type of music.
J: And you brought Jonas and Tommy along.
C: Yes, I had known them for a long time, so I always wanted to have them as a band in the album. So I told Per, I wanted Pelle, Jonas and Tommy. Per himself wanted Tommy as well, but he preferred other guys on drums and guitar. So we reached a compromise, and we kept Tommy to record “Neverending love”, which was a success. Then for the album Jonas and Pelle joined, as well as Alar Suurna as engineer.
J: Were you also oin tour with Rock Runt Riket?
C: Yes, in 87, with Ratata and Eva Dahlgren. Each of us, Jonas, Pelle and myself played with two bands each. I played with Roxette and Ratata. Pelle with Roxette and Eva Dahlgren. Jonas with Ratata and Eva Dahlgren. Jonas couldn’t play with three bands, and since Roxette was the newest band for him, he went for the other two bands.
J: What can you tell us about this tour?
C: Each artist played a bit longer than one hour. We also had a support act, Orup, who became successful after that. Then Eva Dahlgren, Ratata and Roxette played. It was about ten minutes break between the acts, so after Ratata I had to go and change my clothes and make me ready for Roxette. It was kind of strange.
J: The pictures from that time are also kind of…
C: Strange? Yeah, that’s true. 80ies. Specially Per and Marie looked strange. Eva looked very different to now.
K: It’s interesting you’ve all been in the same band for such a long time.
C: Yes, it’s very unusual. But it’s very good as well not to have new people coming and going. Christoffer joined in 96, so it’s also a very long time. The band changed a lot when he joined, to the better, of course. He is an amazing guy, he can play anything.
Per Gessle gave another interesting interview in Swedish for Lotta Brome from P4 Extra the last week. In this short talk he releaved that the new Roxette album should be released before Christmas 2010 and that Roxette is in the middle of recording at the moment. He also admitted that Marie is extremly motivated and sings ‘bloody fantastic’. They also decided for simplicy and pureness while recordings and a lot of duets.
Sounds hot!
Yesterday the Dutch TV station broadcasted a 50-minutes special on “Night of the Proms 2009″ tour. Two Roxette songs were included – “The look” & “Joyride”.
If you want to watch the programme, click here – you have to look after “bekijk uitzending” button. Anyone who can download it and upload it somewhere? The high quality versions would be highly appreciated!
It was recorded in Rotterdam on November 21st.
Thanks to Roxette Holland at TDR for information.
After I have seen 14 shows of this hilarious Night of the Proms tour it’s time to write a review about the last eight weeks, starting with my first show on October 23rd in Antwerp, Belgium. It is not only colder outside but also warmer inside of me. I am feeling exhausted, empty and happy at the same time. I don’t feel like writing at all, but with writing everything down I can share my experiences with all of you. Not only the performances changed during these last weeks – especially Roxette’s – but also my point of view has changed a lot. I got a lot more relaxed, especially during the last shows and seeing so many shows helped me to really get the Night of the Proms feeling itself. If I had to choose which show was the best I would certainly pick the second Frankfurt show, not only because of the balloons. But altogether if someone asked me to choose from the Belgium/Dutch or German shows I’d always pick Belgium/Netherlands, maybe I’d even pick Antwerpen. The Belgian shows were extremely good and the audience was much more into it than the German audience which seems to be a bit too old to have a party.. ! So if you want to see a Night of the Proms show next year or whenever, go to Antwerpen. You will love it. My review starts with the five Belgian/Dutch shows I have seen (and drove more than 2500 km):
Antwerpen, October 23rd, 2009
210 km to Düsseldorf, another 230 km to Antwerpen = 440 km
We arrived early since we wanted to have some time for shopping. Well – the city isn’t what you call beautiful so it wasn’t worth it at all. At the Sportpaleis we meet some fans who are already waiting for the doors to open. I remember a Brazil guy, Ivan and some Russians. Well – if you know who you are leave a comment here so I can add your names. Unfortunately all we got were seating tickets, faaaar away from the stage. Unfortunately not far away enough to not notice Marie’s problems during Wish I could fly. Sharon den Adel rocked the house before Roxette and I really liked the Belgian audience. On this first show Marie and Per appear on stage together – out of the blue, practically speaking. While Per just has to make one step Marie has to find her way to the microphone. Seeing this my first thought is: “Hmm, why did she agree to do it like this?” She can barely see something and has problems to walk over. It’s obvious. Wish I could fly starts and I am really nervous. Marie sings “Halfway through the night” three times in a row and I feel totally sorry for her. Nothing I can do from that far off. All I can do is hope that she doesn’t care and she really sings the rest of the song quite ok. My friend and I are worried about her in the break but she proves us wrong. She totally rocks her socks off during the second set. She’s great on The Look and Joyride and she sings so good on It must have been love and Listen to your heart. Yet – I feel like I need to support her. Unfortunately we have to go back to Düsseldorf in the night and arrive late (or early) at 3 am. We could have been there earliert but we waited for Roxette at the backstage entrance and I was really happy that Per decided to come to us after the show. We were not many, maybe around 10. He told us that Marie has a sore throat and doesn’t feel well. He signs stuff, everyone gets a photo and we chat a bit. When he left (with the words: “We’re here tomorrow. Same songs, different lyrics”, I won’t ever forget it, haha) everybody was happy. We didn’t even notice that Marie passed by while we were talking with Per. So, arriving in Düsseldorf I decided to go back to Antwerp the next day. Not to let me entertain. No, just to support Marie. I didn’t even have a ticket and I just drove 230 km without knowing if I could get in in the end. Fortunately I could..
Antwerpen, October 24th, 2009
230 km from Düsseldorf to Antwerpen, 230 km back to Düsseldorf, another 210 km back home = 670 km
I was lucky! Evgeny already had tickets for Antwerp but couldn’t go because of his Visa problems. His friend Emil sold me Evgeny’s ticket. If I didn’t say thank you until now: Thank you! So I didn’t have to worry about a ticket. My friend couldn’t join me so I was alone this time – just to meet some friends in Antwerpen. I arrived early (14.00) and only a few people were there. Since I had a standing ticket for this night I knew everything would be more exciting than the night before. And since there was a huge catwalk in Belgium and The Netherlands we even had to decide whether to stand on the left or the right. Usually the left side was always Marie’s and the right side Per’s. Soon a lot of people stood on the left of the entrance so we decided to try it on the right. Good choice – we made it to the front row and could stand next to each other and in the end it turned out that there’s no left or right anymore. Both standing quite in the middle of the stage everybody could see Per AND Marie, left or right – it didn’t matter (except one wanted to catch Per’s guitar picks). My decision to come back was the right to make. Again – on Wish I could fly both appeared together and Marie had to make another 10 steps to the mic, this not working at all. Again – she had problems with the text but everyone around including me screamed and sang with her, helped her through this song and we showed our support with all we had. During the ballads I kind of had the feeling that she was looking for help in the audience. She looked at us all the time, it was like she was trying to read the text from our lips. Well, we did our best. Even worse – her voice was just not there. We felt so sorry for her. She must have been totally ill that night but we could see she was fighting like hell and we loved her even more for this. Still – I couldn’t stop worrying and I couldn’t enjoy the Roxette performance at all. This was the worst of all 14 shows I have seen. I fellt sorry for Marie and hoped the several thousand people in the Sportpaleis weren’t too disappointed, especially since I knew she can do much better and she proved it only some weeks later. Unfortunately the most videos on YouTube you find when you search Roxette and Night of the Proms are from this night. Bad luck… or Murphy’s law. Whatever you want to call it.
Arnhem, November 13th, 2009
600 km in total
This show didn’t turn up in my personal “schedule” until three days before the concert. Well – we decided to just go there to “have a look” and to give some presents to the band and Per – one of these being the Roxopoly game. Well – unfortunately I checked ebay right in time and found tickets for that night. Too cheap to not buy it (15 Euro) and we decided to join the show. But more important were our presents and we had no idea how to hand them over since we didn’t find a particular backstage entrance. I had luck again: my seat was next to the stage entrance for the artists and after the show was over I waited for the band and asked if they could come out to get some presents. They could – and it was damn relaxed that night. We were only around 5 fans, we had all the time in the world to talk and when I showed my Roxopoly to Christoffer he helped us to make Per come out so that I could give it to him directly. Well – the rest you see on the video on YouTube.
The show itself was much better than three weeks earlier. Marie’s voice was back, she looked a lot more confident on stage and she even improvised during The Look, bringing the Hey Jude “Na na na na” up for the first time. We loved it. The sound wasn’t very good, maybe because they divided the venue in two parts and the voices just vanished in the “empty” part of the venue. Who knows..! Hard to rate this show, wasn’t the best, wasn’t the worst. The audience was so-so, too. So in the end it was worth the trip because of our presents and just because of that road trip feeling – we love to drive hundreds of kilometres not knowing what will happen when we arrive. But the three of us were happy – both going and coming back home: saturday morning around 4 am. Read the rest of this entry »
