Per: New album like a modern “Look Sharp!”

Per Gessle was interviewed for Hallandsposten by Jan-Owe Wikström (co-author of “Roxette – The book”) just before NOTP’s Stuttgart gig.

The article reveals some interesting details about Roxette’s first studio album after nine years and their further present and future. I tried to translate some bits:

– I have already written 14 new songs. Two more and we have an album.
– It feels great, admits Per. Studio time is booked in the spring at Atlantis and Polar Studios in Stockholm and with Christoffer Lundquist down in Österlen. Marie wanted to record her vocals in Stockholm, so we decided to have more than one studio this time.
– We test ourselves with different arrangements and so put Marie on vocals. It’s fun to see Marie really passionate for it.
– He describes the upcoming album with the working title “Roxette 2010” like a modern version of Roxette’s 21-year-old breakthrough album “Look Sharp!”.
– Perhaps not the tracks. The production with a lot of machines, but with all the instruments, everything is clearly audible, “idiot-audible” as Clarence says.

About touring:

– There has been a tremendous response, both by audience and media, it’s a very emotional journey, as we have encountered old Roxette fans from around the world and simultaneously a new audience.
– It’s been a long road, but now … it shows really how Marie enjoys every moment, describes Per. Therefore, they are beginning to consider a Roxette tour on their own again.
– The next step would possibly be a 45-minute gig. But full concerts lasting nearly two hours still feel too long.

At the same time they believe to have discovered a greater interest in Roxette again.

– I received an email from Anders Herrlin, who was in New Zealand. He said that Roxette was played several times a day over there and he couldn’t simply understand that, Per laughs.

Source: Hallandsposten

NOTP tour: Frankfurt, December 5, #30

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Photos:

Per Gessle’s comments:

XLNT gig last nite in Ffurt. Pbly the best so far onzetour. The crowd was unbelievably good. So was the catering. Thanx. Nu show in an hour.

Official videos:

Fans stories:

From roxgirl-germany:

The second Frankfurt concert would be a standing one for me. At 6PM, they let people run to the first place where tickets were checked and we had to wait another half hour until we ran past the guys handing out the funny little lights (Got one! Finally!) to get my ticket ripped off to enter the hall. There were quite some people already, I got a nice spot in the bend on the righthand side of stage with a nice view to center stage. The presenter made the same jokes as the day before (respective as on any concert). Christina Stürmer came on stage, greeting the familiar faces of the “Roxette Fan Club”. The rest of the programme was the same as the day before (see my report there).

The crowd burst with cheers when WICF started. It was the same when they came back, the mood was even better than the day before. Marie started to improvise more and got more confident walking around on stage. Per even stepped a bit in front of the stage once, near me, being impressed by the balloons. (“You are crazy!”) During the flower ceremony, a little dolphin was thrown on stage for Marie, she held it and talked to Per quite vividly. A girl near me got Per’s flowers while Marie kept hers.

Next stop: Cologne 1 & 2. And where can I buy balloons?

YouTube clips:

Wish I Could Fly | The Look (clip) | It Must Have Been Love | Joyride | Listen To Your Heart (clip) | Flower ceremony

Media reports/reviews:

NOTP tour: Frankfurt, December 4, #29

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Photos:

HR online photos

Fans stories:

From Kiwein:

I keep it short, Frankfurt #2 is waiting. Best show so far. It seems Marie reached the top now. Everything is perfect! Per seems to feel better and the Festhalle is cooking. NOTP team should think about more standing concerts. People in their seats seem to fall asleep after 20 minutes. So yesterday was LOUD, GREAT and reminded me of the old times. So all we need is more balloons for tonight’s JOYRIDE.

From roxgirl-germany:

Arriving at the venue at half past seven, I had to wonder once again why there is always such a long queue in front of the ladies’ room. Many people tried to make it to their seats ten minutes before the start of the show, which pointed to a slight trouble with the organisation of the entrance. When I made it to the first balcony, the music had already started, while I had to walk around the entire balcony to make it to my seat on the lefthand side of stage, right i

Looking at the first row, I recognised all faces!! I discovered Jonas, sitting quite near to me. While the classic parts were nicely arranged and the Katona Twins, Christina Stürmer and Heaven 17 were good, I was eagerly awaiting Roxette, who appeared ten to nine.

During the first tunes of Midsommarvaka, I could see Pelle, Clarence and Christoffer enter the stage via stairs behind the electric band, while in the front part of stage, suddenly a hole appeared, allowing the people on the balcony to see a glittering green-blueish suit sitting bent on a chair. The chair was driven upwards, while Per appeared on the righthand side of stage to the tune’s changing into WICF. Hell broke lose. It was a perfect presentation (even with subways!) that was greeted with a lot of cheering, even though I seemed to have been the only one standing in my block all the time. The platform went down again and I could see them stepping down from it, it is low down there.

The show continued with Alan Parsons giving a good performance (with Per’s black acoustic guitar that he uses e. g. for Billy). He dedicated the second song to his late partner whose funeral he attended earlier that day in Glasgow. (I had read about it in the morning newspaper.) He told about it in really good German (he read from the teleprompter) as well as in English. The Katona Twins showed once again what you can do with a guitar and then accompanied John Miles for his first song. Christina Stürmer did another song and a computer game song met Classic Music (while I have to say that was the weakest point of the evening). I had not seen Jonas and thought he had gone backstage to finally get some of the wine that the others always drink (LOL) but he stood on stage with Heaven 17 who continued the show. John Miles gave another performance, and at twenty to eleven, after the “Bolero”, “our” band entered the stage and a piano with Clarence sitting by it was lifted through the stage. (Said piano had quite some fun going up and down that evening.) Marie had changed into the black outfit, and as mentioned several times that evening, this was the comeback of the year. The music turned into The Look and the audience burst into cheers and claps. IMHBL was also a favourite and Marie’s right hand turned into a fist after the successful performance. (“Yeah, that was great!”) “Joyride” was a blast and LTYH concluded the evening. Marie got back into singing bluesy on stage and walked around slowly. After they waved good-bye and left, Oscar took Marie by her arm while she took his. She climbed down the quite steep stairs holding herself on both sides and Per followed her. A man standing next to me shouted “Bravo, Marie!”

The rest of the show were the ever popular “Land Of Hope And Glory” for the audience to sing along as well as John Miles’ masterpiece “Music”.

Everybody was called back for the flower ceremony to receive flowers. Per donated his to the front row (who got them?) while another Roxette fan got those of Christina Stürmer. Marie kept hers which caused her some problems to climb down the stairs, a guard took them and helped her downstairs. While leaving, Per even looked up into the balconies, waving to us.

YouTube clips:

Wish I Could Fly | The Look | It must have been love | Joyride | Listen To Your Heart
TL 2 | IMHBL 2

Media reports/reviews:

BILD Frankfurt: “Roxette comeback enthralls”
dpa/Zeit: “Roxette celebrate moving comeback in Frankfurt”
TV report in HR Hessenschau

NOTP tour: Stuttgart, December 3, #28

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Photos:

Per Gessle’s comments:

Wunderbar Stuttgart show last night. Marie was tip-top! Played this big venue many times before, always a great crowd. 3 x Frankfurt now.

Official videos:

Fans stories:

Kärlekens_Guld

Already the fact that I’d really see Roxette on stage was unbelievable! I became a fan pretty late and so I had never seen them on stage so far. And some months ago I would have never counted on still having this chance once in my life and now one of my biggest dreams should really come true. So you can imagine how nervous I was the days before the concert and of course also on December 3rd.

I almost couldn’t wait for the evening! After many hours of waiting the before evening finally arrived. With some presents for the best singer under this sun, Marie Fredriksson, I went to the Schleyerhalle. There I met some other fans I talked to until the show started. I was very excited when the Night of the Proms finally begun! It was pretty hard to concentrate on the acts before Roxette. Everything in my head was saying: “ROXETTE; ROXETTE; ROXETTE!!!”.

Then the orchestra played the “Midsommarvaka” and I thought it would be nice if Roxette appeared after a Swedish piece of music. And surprisingly the “Midsommarvaka” really turned into “Wish I Could Fly”. With the orchestra the song sounded like a hymn and to this hymn Marie was coming out of the ground. This moment was so magical! The only thing which was on my mind in this moment was that Marie looked like an angel on her chair and that therefore she should better come from heaven than out of the ground! 😛 Suddenly I realized that people were running to the stage (I saw such a movement for the first time on that evening and realized a bit too late what was going on down there) and so I took my camera and did the same. I thought I’d die when I was walking to this hymn to the stage. Surprisingly I was still alive when I arrived near the stage 😀 And so I could finally enjoy Roxette on stage – for the first time in my life! I was so fascinated by everything and particularly by Marie’s great voice… wow! But as always the nicest moments are over too soon again and like this it was with “Wish I Could Fly” too. After the song Roxette received the evening’s warmest applause. Marie said: “Thank you very much!” and Per said that it was great to be there and that they’d be back after the break.

And how they were back…! The second time they came on stage, they really rocked the hall! Although Per didn’t feel good, he gave his best and did a great job. And Marie was in a top shape anyway. It almost felt a bit as if she said to herself that she needed to give 200 % now when Per probably couldn’t give completely 100 %. Well… I don’t know… maybe I’m also wrong (I’m not experienced in seeing Marie live :P)… she’s great anyway. In any case I liked their performance a lot! And I didn’t seem to be the only one who felt like this. People sang along to their hits and some fans shouted: “We love you, Marie!”, whereupon she had to laugh so much. When Roxette were leaving the stage again, some people wanted them to play another song and shouted: “Encore, encore, encore!”. But of course they didn’t gave an encore. I could imagine that Per was happy that he “survived” the songs they had to sing. Because right after “Listen To Your Heart” he went back to the hotel and Marie and the band took the flowers on their owns.

Then Marie walked a bit around on stage as if she was looking for somebody to give her flowers to in the crowd. The fans who shouted “We love you, Marie!” thought that she was probably looking for them to give them her flowers. But unfortunately they were no longer standing there. Then the musicians left the stage and we left the Schleyerhalle.

After the concert we tried to meet Marie and the band at the car park where their tourbus was standing. Unfortunately the security didn’t let us go closer to the bus, so we had to wait at the entry of the car park. Suddenly we spotted Clarence and Pelle in front of their tourbus and after the fans had screamed and waved they came to us for a few minutes and signed things and took photos with us. Then they were asked whether it was also possible to meet Marie quickly, but they said they didn’t think so. So I gave my presents for Marie to Pelle to give them to Marie. I would have preferred to give them personally to Marie, but at least I didn’t have to carry them home again and she (hopefully) got them. So I’ll keep on dreaming about a meeting with Marie once in my life!

Anyway it was such a great evening I’ll surely never forget! THANK YOU SO MUCH ROXETTE!!! Love you guys!

YouTube clips:

Joyride

Media reports/reviews:

Stuttgarter Nachrichten

NOTP tour: Mannheim, December 2, #27

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Per Gessle’s comments:

Official videos:

Cheese guy | Chris is pink

Fans stories:

YouTube clips:

Media reports/reviews:

Morgenweb | Echo online | Wiesbadener Kurier