As you already know, Per attended the book fair in Gothenburg today (26th September). Some fans were already there at the Roos & Tegnér (publishing company) stand to wait for him and buy the books before he arrived. When I arrived to the stand at about 2 pm and bought the Per Gessle books, one of the R&T guys, Christer asked me where I’m from. Told him I’m from Hungary, then he said with a big smile on his face: ”You know that… Ah, of course, you know…” Haha. Yes, it was quite evident I knew Per would sign the books at the stand at 3 pm. It was a lovely waiting time, meeting and chatting with familiar Roxer faces and having a little wine tasting. They offered us Per’s Fru Nordin white wine to taste. Benny Mårtensson, the designer of the PG books was also there. He did a great job, that’s for sure. Sven Lindström, Pär Wickholm and Jan Gradvall were there, too. It was first Nisse Hellberg who signed his book at the stand from 2 pm.
Mr G arrived to the stand with Miss Dimberg and Anders Roos (from the publishing company; photographer of the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book) almost exactly at 3 pm. He took his place at the signing desk and started signing the books for those who were queueing. He was in a great mood, smiling all the time and joking with those who asked him if they could take a pic together or if he couldn’t understand the name of the one who asked him to sign the book. When I told him the books are awesome, he told they are cool and he could find only 5 mistakes in them. So, count them when you start reading, guys! 🙂 He also mentioned that there will be (a) Roxette concert(s) in Sweden most probably in summer, 2015. Sounds good for our souls.
The signing session lasted for about half an hour, then Per disappeared before getting on stage for the pop quiz seminar with Sven Lindström and Nisse Hellberg at 5 pm. The seminar was quite an entertaining one. They were talking about songwriting, lyrics, bands, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Sven prepared a tough quiz for the guys with pop songs from different eras. After listening to a short part of the songs, Per and Nisse had to say which song they heard, who’s song it was and from which year. You can imagine it was a tough quiz if even Per couldn’t tell all the details of each song. But of course, he doesn’t like to lose and he did his best to win. PG : NH – 6 : 2. When Sven forgot to give Per points, he was ”fighting” for those points. Lovely. He enjoyed the music so much he was even humming the tunes and ”dancing” with his head and legs. Watch it with your own eyes in THIS short video. The audience was also very helpful when The Lonely Boys couldn’t find out which song was heard. I can imagine Per going home after the book fair and checking all the songs he couldn’t recognize.
The quiz should have lasted until 5.45 pm, but everyone was having fun, so it ended almost at 6 pm. We could have enjoyed it for even more hours. After the seminar, Per and Nisse were signing their books outside the congress hall. Until then Åsa arrived as well. She looked wonderful and was very nice to all of us fans, as usual. The signing session lasted again for about 30 minutes and after that Per went ”backstage”. Probably, for an interview. Then Elvis left the building and so did we.
This guy always makes me feel like I had the best day of my life when I meet him. It happened today as well. Chapter 2 on Sunday!
Per, Sven and Nisse doing the pop quiz; Per at the seminar; Per signing his books after the seminar
All pics in the article © Patrícia Peres
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Bokmässan photos on flickr