Since beginning of the year you, dear Roxette Blog readers, have been voting for your favourite Gessle, Gyllene Tider and Roxette songs. In the late autumn it turned out this would be the first time ever when Per mixes all his three music careers during one concert. Now we all obviously cannot wait untill the first Gessle solo tour in 8 years starts in the majestic city of Helsingborg. Only 19 days till the gig #1, just 10 if you’re attending the pre-premiere concert at Hotel Tylosand.
What we always did before the new tour starts was choosing the best, most-desired songs from the vast music catalogues. Remember the Silver blue-case where we were lucky enough to get a song so many people voted for performed live by Roxette? We absolutely loved that moment and we still feel humbled by your support and the impact we did together. We are hoping some of your suggestions might help Mr G to prepare a setlist of his (and ours) dreams – the band has started rehearsing, so “our prayers are in good hands tonight”.
There have been 10 polls since mid-January, 70 days of voting dedicated to 8 solo albums as we’re convinced they should play pivotal part in the setlist, whereas two latter votings were done around Gyllene Tider and Roxette live catalogues from 2000s. Nearly 1,000 unique users took part in this, so thanks much for your time and dedication, we really appreciate that!
When it comes to the concert setlist, no one should be expecting big suprises, should we? Gessle / Roxette / Gyllene Tider’s latest concerts were always more about pleasing big crowds (is it bad after all?), not fullfiling fans’ desires to hear forgotten pearls. There wasn’t many Gessle’s solo tours in the past, but just by analysing Mazarin 2003 and En händing man 2007 we can make initial assumption where 2017 takes us.
In 2003 Swedes were longing after Gyllene Tider so much not hearing the band since ’96, so it was obvious to play some of the biggest standards then – in the regular setlist 9 songs came from GT’s catalogue (Kung Av Sand / (Hon Vill Ha) Puls / Flickan I En Cole Porter-sång / Småstad / Juni, Juli, Augusti / Gå & Fiska! / Det Är Över Nu / Sommartider / Billy), 10 out of very successful Mazarin (Vilket Håll Du Än Går / Gungar / På Promenad Genom Stan / Jag Tror Du Bär På En Stor Hemlighet / Smakar På Ett Regn / Här Kommer Alla Känslorna / Födelsedag / Spegelboll / Om Du Bara Vill / Tycker Om När Du Tar På Mej) and 4 not-so-predictable choices of solo classics from the 80s (Inte Tillsammans, Inte Isär / Timmar Av Iver / Segla På Ett Moln / Tända En Sticka Till). I would say it was a pretty diverse setlist, covering the biggest hits, massive live cover of Mazarin songs and some of the less known titles, that also pleased hardcore ones in the front row. You could easily see that it was tour to promote Mazarin and yes, it succeeded.
2007 tour came quite quickly after 2004 Gyllene Tider’s massive revival, but still GT’s song played very 
important part during the concert. This time for a change – there was no solo songs from before Mazarin times and the 24-song setlist setlist was 10/24 GT tracks (five different songs to 2003 gigs; Juni Juli Augusti / (Hon Vill Ha) Puls / Det Hjärta Som Brinner / En Sten Vid En Sjö I En Skog / När Alla Vännerna Gått Hem / Kung Av Sand / Gå Och Fiska! / Ljudet Av Ett Annat Hjärta / Ska Vi Älska, Så Ska Vi Älska Till Buddy Holly / Sommartider) with Mazarin and then-newly-released En händing man playing equal 7-song parts (På Promenad Genom Stan / Vilket Håll Du Än Går / Om Du Bara Vill / Här Kommer Alla Känslorna (På En Och Samma Gång) / Födelsedag / Spegelboll / Tycker Om När Du Tar På Mej vs. Pratar Med Min Müsli (Hur Det Än Verkar) / En Händig Man / Hannas Kärlekspil / Jag Skulle Vilja Tänka En Underbar Tanke / Fru Nordin / Om Du Kommer Ihåg / Min Hälsning). It was the first time I attended the Gessle gig and I remember I thought there could be less Gyllene and more solo stuff. Of course, I understand it’s also about selling tickets and filling each and every venue, but I felt disappointed there was just 7 songs from En handing man record and nothing covering the first two albums. Time will tell I should’ve been happy with the number of “new songs” as in next years we will get even less new material performed live across all Gessle’s projects.
Even 2009 European tour followed similar pattern – with obvious decision to replace Gyllene Tider with Roxette (hey, it was the time of The Man from Roxette) and to play English solo stuff from 3 albums. In the end 13 out of 24 songs were Roxette, many of which were considered untill then “Marie’s” and never performed by Per solo live (Dressed For Success / Wish I Could Fly / She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore / 7Twenty7 / Listen To Your Heart / Opportunity Nox / Church Of Your Heart / Dangerous / Joyride / The Look / It Must Have Been Love / Sleeping In My Car / Queen Of Rain). The rest 11 was a mix of Son of a plumber bits (6 songs – Drowning In Wonderful Thoughts About Her / I Have A Party In My Head (I Hope It Never Ends) / Late, Later On / C’mon / Are You On Old Hippie, Sir? / Hey Mr.Dj (Won’t You Play Another Love Song) and highlights from “The World According to Gessle” (Stupid / Do You Wanna Be My Baby?) and – what may come as a suprise as it was the tour that promoted the new album – “Party Crasher” (The Party Pleaser / Doesn’t Make Sense). There was a little suprise at the end – The Monkee’s “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” cover, also briefly performed by Roxette in 2010.
So where 2017 leads us with the previous tours experiences and your votings? Here’s the full summary of all 10 polls we did and here are some of my predictions.
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Can we expect anything off the 80’s albums?
No, I’m afraid there won’t be anything from that time. Per is very dedicated to his Mazarin-baby and Gyllene Tider’s stuff, so if there was to be a place for older songs, I would guess it must’ve meant number of Gyllene Tider’s songs would be shrinking. Which I don’t think will happen. Anyway anything from the solo 80’s will be welcomed with open arms. Maybe a song should change each evening, so the band could test some other tracks?
Your top 3 choices:
1983 – Per Gessle: 1985 – Scener:
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How about English solo stuff?
Very unlikely – Per has never been mixing his English and Swedish solo songs, previously stating (suprise, suprise) these are just different languages and he didn’t want to mix in people’s heads. Now – considering he would play Roxette’s greatest hits, chances for anything from his plumbering/crasher worlds are minimum. I also don’t think these songs would work nicely with the Swedish picnic-concert goers.
Your top 3 choices:
1997 – The World According to Gessle: Son of a Plumber: 2009 – Party Crasher:
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Mazarin is a milestone in Per’s 2000s career, it’s his biggest, most popular album, so there definitely needs to be a big exposure of songs off that project. I’m sure three singles will be performed such as Tyckers om…, På promenad… or Här kommer… On the other hand I’m not really sure if En händig man makes the setlist. We might hear title song or “Jag skulle vilja…”, but that would be it.
Your top 3 choices:
2003 – Mazarin: 2007 – En handing man:
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New album “En vacker natt” was released back in April. There will be a follow-up record “En vacker dag” in the autumn. What about these live?
There is a new country band in place with three new musicians. So I’m thinking it might mean quite a lot of new stuff being performed or totally new arangments (which is also a good thing). Definitely first and second singles should be on the setlist – we see fans absolutely love “Första pris” and “Min plats”. Första pris was the song that got the highest number of votes across all polls and this says something. As for the autumn album – at least one unknown song would be a cool addition. Club tour in the autumn wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Your top poll choices:
2017 – En vacker natt:
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Speaking of Gyllene Tider – any chances for less-known choices?
Nah, Arabiska nätter won’t happen this time. My safe bet would be well-known hits you heard already many times on 2003 – 2004 – 2007 – 2013 tours, but in solo arrangments, excluding legendary sound of Farfisa. During some private gigs in the last months, Per and his band performed Det hjärta som brinner, Gå & fiska! and Sommartider. I cannot imagine this tour without Juni, juli august as well, so yes, it seems like there will be golden hits only.
Your top poll choices:
Gyllene Tider:
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Roxette touring days are all over, but what expectations should we have from Gessle’s summer tour regarding duo material?
It won’t be a reprise of the Party Crasher Tour, but we are very likely to hear Joyride, Dressed for success or what seems to be Listen to your heart. If it was for fans, they would recommend to go with She doesn’t live here anymore, Opportunity Nox or How do you do. Yea, How do you do could work perfectly well in the summer Swedish night! I also belive Roxette songs won’t be central during the concert, just filling the gaps that Per could’ve filled with songs from Swedish solo albums. Which doesn’t make me happy, but whatever works for Per, should work for us, I’m a modest and humble beliver.
Your top poll choices:
Roxette:
So, summing up, my prediction would be a setlist of 24 songs as it always makes a perfect 90-100-minute concert in the Gessle’s world. 10 songs would come out of Gyllene Tider, 8 from Swedish solo albums Mazarin and En vacker natt and 6 Roxette tracks would also make the setlist. Anything out of this frame would come as a very positive suprise. The more, the better.
What songs would you like to hear this year? Let us know your thoughts here below or on Facebook.
And yes, see you around in Sweden!
