Per Gessle was the DJ on Mix Megapol between 10.00 and 12.00 CET on Sunday, 15th November. He played his own 80’s music from Roxette and Gyllene Tider, as well as songs from his favourite artists of the decade.
Songs played on the program (PG talked about the ones in bold):
- Bruce Springsteen – The River
- Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind
- Roxette – The Look
- Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance
- The Police – Every Breath You Take
- Divinyls – Pleasure And Pain
- The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be
- Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra
- Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes – (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life
- Irene Cara – Flashdance… What A Feeling
- Roxette – Sleeping Single
- Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You
- The Go-Go’s – Vacation
- Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams
- Madonna – Into The Groove
- Mauro Scocco – Sarah
- Chicago – You’re The Inspiration
- Gyllene Tider – Flickorna på TV2
- Pointer Sisters – I’m So Excited
- Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning
- David Bowie – Time Will Crawl
- Lionel Richie – Say You, Say Me
- Tina Tuner – We Don’t Need Another Hero
- Queen – I Want To Break Free
- Roxette – Paint
- Orup – Då står pojkarna på rad
- Limahl – Neverending Story
- Roxette – Listen To Your Heart
- Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F
- Belinda Carlisle – Circle In The Sand
Roxette – The Look
Per says it has a fantastic title. He wrote it in 1988 for Roxette’s Look Sharp! album. He had just bought a new synthesizer, an Ensoniq ESQ-1 and he wanted to learn the programming properly. He had the melody, but didn’t have an idea for the text, so he just wrote down what came to his mind first. It has a psychedelic logic and it became their first No. 1 in the US.
Divinyls – Pleasure And Pain
According to Per, one of Australia’s absolute best bands is the Divinyls. Chrissy Amphlett was one of the best singers. He thinks Pleasure And Pain was their first single hit. It was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight. Mike Chapman is known to many as the producer of e.g. My Sharona by The Knack and that he wrote a lot of hit songs in the glam rock era, e.g. The Ballroom Blitz by Sweet. Per thinks Chrissy’s singing is terribly good on this one. So just leave everything you are doing and listen to it.
Roxette – Sleeping Single
It was written in 1988 based on the title. He thought it was an awesome title. Ambiguous in many ways. In the studio it became a key song for them. The sound was based on the technology at the time, synths, drum machines and programming mixed with Jonas Isacsson’s funky guitar. His playing is divine on this one. And don’t forget about Marie Fredriksson’s fantastic singing. A match made in heaven. It had never become a single, but it’s a tough song, it’s damn cool to play it live and is very popular among the fans.
The Go-Go’s – Vacation
The 80’s wouldn’t have been the same without The Go-Go’s. Per says he had the pleasure to work together with Belinda Carlisle, who sang in the band. He wrote 2 songs for her solo album. But already before that he was a fan of this song, Vacation from 1982. It’s incomparably good. There were 2 tough girl bands during that period, The Bangles and The Go-Go’s. He always was into The Go-Go’s. They still sound good today.
Gyllene Tider – Flickorna på TV2
It was first released as the backside of Himmel No. 7, but fate wanted something else with it. A certain disco in Stockholm started playing Flickorna på TV2 out of the blue, because it’s a quite slow song, not a dance song. There was something suggestive in it, so the hip discos started playing it and slowly but surely, in an organic way it became a hit all around Sweden. It’s probably owing to the combination of the title, the lyrics and the special sound of it. Per says it’s hard to explain it now what it meant when there were speakers between 2 programs on TV. It’s a bygone era, he was a teenager when he wrote it, but he remembers he had the text idea from Hasse och Tage [Swedish comedy duo. /PP]. He has a sketch of it, he can’t remember exactly, but he was inspired by them for this „sätta på” thing.
David Bowie – Time Will Crawl
David Bowie is one of Per’s greatest heroes. He wrote his project report [Swedish special work written during the secondary school’s final project work. /PP] about David Bowie. His career between 1969 and 1983 is magnificent, there is no weak record of his during that period. Later his music became less attractive to Per, but in 1987 he released Time Will Crawl which Per thinks is awesome. Bowie was an enormously talented singer and it’s special to play him on Mix Megapol. David Bowie in top shape.
Roxette – Paint
It’s on Look Sharp! and it was a particularly important song for Roxette when they recorded this album. It sounded totally awesome. They left their organic band and started woking with machines, sequencers and synths to sound modern at the time. Paint became a hybrid of hi tech stuff mixed with Jonas Isacsson’s fantastic guitar playing and Marie Fredriksson’s wonderful singing. Per is super proud of this song and thinks it’s one of their best.
[Unfortunately, Mix Megapol didn’t play the album version, but the T&A demo from TPGA… /PP]
Roxette – Listen To Your Heart
It’s a hit song that survived all these years. Per wrote it together with Mats MP Persson. He wrote the lyrics after a whole night’s conversation with a good friend who would divorce. The outcome of the conversation was that you should listen to your heart and do what feels right. It’s tough, but it became a really good title and also a very good song, thinks Per. When they recorded Look Sharp!, it was recorded for the Swedish market, even if they were dreaming about breaking through abroad. They talked about trying to make a song that sounds American and they wouldn’t use the synths and machines on that. This one was played in by a real band and they put it on the album as the last song on the tracklist, so that it’s not in the way of their new, hip sound on the other tracks. It became a super hit and their second US No. 1. It’s very popular all around the world.
