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Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are back on Nordic Rox with another trip down memory lane with the Swedish best of the ’80s list and they are going to check out positions No. 15 to 11. But before that, they have some friends back in action. The Hives just presented their first single Enough Is Enough from their upcoming album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives and Per thinks it’s a killer.

Mercy by Goldielocks from Finland (nowadays based in Berlin) comes after The Hives. Then the next song is Mon Amour by Swedish band The Plan. It’s from their debut album from 2001, only 24 years ago.

The following track is a song that Per discovered on an old LP from 1970 or so. PG had this in his record collection when he was a kid. This is a Swedish cover of an old Bobbie Gentry song called Fancy. Per doesn’t know if lots of people have heard this one, but it was quite a big country hit for Reba McEntire. This version has always been very dear to Per. He thinks it’s a fantastic vocal performance by Lotta Hedlund. Sven adds, Charlotte Butler came from the States and fell in love with the Swedish pop singer Sven Hedlund. Per says they became a duo and this is from their debut album. The album is called Compromise. Mr. G thinks there are some American session players playing on it, as well as some Swedish guys, because it doesn’t really sound Swedish. It’s a really wonderful record. Here they play Fancy by Svenne & Lotta.

Killer, the new single from Danish duo The Raveonettes comes next. Per thinks it has a great sound and they always sound really interesting. Sven thinks there are wonderful harmony vocals there as well.

Before getting down to the ’80s list, the guys play a song that made Roxette a brand new action name in Sweden. The first single was Neverending Love. It came out in 1986, almost 40 years ago. Per wrote a song in Swedish for another Swedish artist. Her record label turned it down, so someone at Per’s record label asked him why he doesn’t write an English lyric to it and make a record with Marie Fredriksson. Per had been talking about Marie for many, many years, he wanted to work with her, of course. So he did. They recorded a demo and people loved it. Then they made a proper recording of it and it became a big hit for them in the summer of ’86. It eventually became the lead single of Roxette’s debut album. It all went very fast. The first album they made consisted of tracks Per wrote in Swedish. He basically just translated them into English, because he didn’t have any time to write new songs. Those were intended for a solo album. Sven says he doesn’t think this song is played that much on American radio. Per says, no, thank God. Haha. Sven adds this is the origin of the Roxette career, the kickoff that made everything else possible.

Don’t Go Away by The Creeps is No. 15 on the ’80s list.

At No. 14 they have a Swedish band from Norrköping called Eldkvarn. They were really big in the early ’80s. They were one of those bands that tried to sound a little bit like Springsteen and Dylan, influenced by the new wave and they listened to Costello as well. It’s actually hard to find someone they didn’t listen to. The guys play one of their most famous tracks from the early years, 3:ans spårvagn genom ljuva livet. It’s a bit hard to translate. It’s like Tram No. 3 goes through la dolce vita, the good life. It’s a beautiful sound from 1981. Sven thinks it’s a great track and a great band. They ended up on EMI, later produced by producer Kjell Andersson who discovered Per’s band, Gyllene Tider. Per says it’s a small world in Sweden.

The next band discovered a bigger world than most Swedish bands. The track is called Lay All Your Love On Me, a great track from the album called Super Trooper. And it’s, of course, ABBA the guys are talking about at No. 13. There are several chapters in the ABBA history. When they started out, it was more like a europop thing and then it became Voulez-Vous, and Super Trooper became a little bit more danceable and disco. So this is like the later part. Super Trooper is a wonderful album, PG thinks and ABBA is a fantastic little group.

No. 12 is a power pop band from the city of Halmstad on the west coast in Sweden. The band was formed by a guy called Per Gessle. Per says he knows that guy. Haha. The song is from 1981. Moderna Tider (Modern Times) was a big album for them, PG adds. The song was picked by Sven. It was not a single, it’s an album track, but it’s a song that has been with the band ever since. They play it a lot when they are doing their shows, which is not that often. Haha. Sven says Gyllene Tider has announced that they are packing up and retiring a couple of times only to come back when you least expect it. Haha. Per says they are like a ghost. What Sven likes about Det hjärta som brinner (The heart that burns) is that it’s wonderfully new wave-ish, power pop-ish and it has some elements of early Tom Petty. That’s probably because he knows they listened to a lot of Tom Petty. PG thinks the early Gyllene Tider stuff is pretty nice. It’s a little soft for his taste. They didn’t really know how to make it rough enough in those days, and their producer didn’t know it either. So this song became a little bit soft, but it’s got a good heart. Sven says it’s a cute track.

At position No. 11, there is a wonderful artist called Jakob Hellman. He released his debut album in 1989 and then he won all the Grammys in Sweden. It was such a big success, a sensation. Then he took a 32-year break, and then he came back. The writer’s block lasted 32 years. That’s heavy, but he probably had his reasons. His debut album is really wonderful, and it’s really hard to pick a song from there. But the guys have chosen their favourite track called Hon har ett sätt (She’s got a way). It’s not just the melody, it’s also the way he is twisting the lyrics, which at the time felt really fresh and innovative, and it still does. It has a great sound and a great production by Dan Sundquist.

In the last section of Nordic Rox, Whistleblower by The Men and I Used To Be A Real Piece Of Shit by Sløtface are played. All Day by Noak Hellsing is wrapping up this episode.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and the show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Nordic Rox is back on the air again and Sven and Per are ready to continue the Swedish ’80s list. The guys are sitting in Stockholm for a change. Normally, they record in Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, but today they moved up to Stockholm. Sven says it’s good to be here sometimes, not too often. Per says Sven is such a small town boy. Haha.

They are going to check out the Swedish ’80s list from position 20 to 16, but before they dig deep into that, they are playing some real hard-hitting Swedish garage rock. Per introduces the first song, Something Wicked by The Teenage Idols and asks the listeners to check out this guitar sound.

Gemini by Johnossi feat. GERD comes next. It’s a duet and they recorded this one for their album last year. Making a duet is a good idea, Per says. It’s a great song, he likes it a lot. It’s very nice.

Blow My Cool by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives is the third song played. It’s from their 1996 debut album, Welcome To The Infant Freebase. Sven says it was a jam-packed CD. It was a very long, but a very good CD with lots of great songs, Per says. It was a very promising first album and they fulfilled that promise with a lot of great albums and many great songs, Sven adds. According to PG, they are one of the best bands ever in Sweden. Sven agrees. The singer Ebbot Lundberg played in Union Carbide Productions, another band, a sort of punkish band. They had broken up, but he had written a lot of songs. Then he got the band Soundtrack together, and band members came up with songs as well. So he had between 60 and 70 songs for the debut album. They went to the record company and said, you know, we want to record everything and release our debut CD box. 70 songs. But in the end, they made a debut CD, which is 70 minutes long. It’s like a double album and it includes only 20 songs. Haha. It’s a good band.

The guys are talking about an article that Per read from a well-known music journalist saying that the guitars are coming back into pop music. He welcomes that. If there was a band thing happening in pop music, that would be fantastic. People playing the same song together at the same time. How about that? Haha.

The ’80s list is approaching with record speed, but before that, they play Canine Prey by Tapefly.

Then comes One Track Mind by The Facer, a crazy sound from 2000. It’s 25 years ago, Jesus Christ. Time flies when you’re having fun. That’s modern music compared to the ’80s list.

The guys are at No. 20 and they picked a song from X Models. A great track that was all over Swedish radio in the early ’80s. 1981, just when the digital thing happened and people started using drum machines and stuff like that. This was a number one song for a very long time. The singer is Efva Attling who nowadays is a very famous jewelry designer. Back then she was an ex photo model. The band was label mates with Per’s power pop band. They were at EMI Records. Per adds that this song was produced by Lasse Lindbom who was also producing PG’s band, Gyllene Tider and who eventually became the boyfriend to Marie Fredriksson in Roxette. He produced Marie’s solo albums in the ’80s as well, so there is a lot of common ground there. Två av oss by X Models is a big hit from 1981. It translates into Two Of Us.

Moving to No. 19, we find Marie Fredriksson on the list with Ännu doftar kärlek. A familiar voice, Per says. Marie, of course, was the singer in Roxette. This is her breakthrough song, her first big hit in the ’80s, 1984, taken from her debut solo album. It’s still her biggest song as a solo artist. Mr. G thinks it’s a wonderful little song and it made Marie a big star immediately. There are a lot of cover versions of this one. Sven says, the funny thing is, even though it wasn’t funny in those years, that Marie’s star was rising as Per’s was going down. Per lost his recording contract in 1985. When they started Roxette in 1986, PG was the underdog. Five years earlier it was the opposite, Sven says. Mr. G says that’s how it works in life. Anyway, talking about Ännu doftar kärlek, Per still thinks it’s a really beautiful melody and a beautiful lyric and it’s always a treat to hear Marie singing.

At the next position the guys are playing a great Swedish female artist called Titiyo. Talking To The Man In The Moon was a very big song in 1989. It was produced and written by Magnus Frykberg, who was a percussionist and also, Per guesses, the boyfriend of Titiyo. He did a great job on that song. It’s a great track. Original. It occupied the airwaves in Sweden. Titiyo is the half-sister of Neneh Cherry. She has been around forever and she had a really big song called Come Along in 2001. That’s her biggest track and she is a great singer. Sven agrees.

At No. 17 the guys are changing direction a bit, because they are going back to Swedish ’80s garage rock. The prime movers back in those days, Sven thinks, were The Nomads. Per says it’s a great band and he thinks the song is from 1984. Sven says he hates to correct Per, but it’s 1983. PG says Sven is always welcome to correct him. Haha. The Nomads made an album called Temptation Pays Double and this song is called Where The Wolf Bane Blooms. It’s an outstanding track in PG’s book.

No. 16 is Himlen är oskyldigt blå by an amazing artist who is unfortunately not with us anymore. Ted Gärdestad was an amazing composer who was huge in the ’70s. His brother wrote the lyrics to this song and it was released in 1980, that’s why it fit into this list. The title translates into The Sky Is Innocent Blue. It’s actually a Swedish translation of an English song that he made in 1979. The original was called Blue Virgin Isles. It’s really beautiful. Per thinks Ted’s sense of melodies is outstanding. He was 15 or so when he had his breakthrough. He was just one of a kind. He was produced by Björn and Benny from ABBA, so he was in good hands and an amazing talent.

Nordic Rox continues with great style, Sven says. A Roxette song sneaked in here from the Room Service album 2001. It’s the last song on the album My World, My Love, My Life.

This Perfect Day by Fishtank is wrapping up today’s Nordic Rox and the show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström are back with the March edition of Nordic Rox and ready to continue the Swedish ’80s countdown list that they started in the previous show. They continue with five songs occupying positions 25 to 21. Per says it’s going to be exciting.

Sven informs that he managed to catch Per just before he headed off to South Africa. Per explains he is going on a tour with Roxette, which is going to be so exciting, because they have a brand new singer, Lena Philipsson. They are in the middle of rehearsals at the moment and it’s going to be really cool. Sven is curious about how it sounds. PG thinks it sounds amazing. Lena is an outstanding singer and a great person on stage as well. So he is sure it’s going to be a success. They are doing a couple of shows in South Africa, and then they go to Australia for a couple of weeks. Ticket sales are going very well and Mr. G is very happy.

Here the guys kick off the show with a song from the north of Sweden, from the late ’90s. Boogie Woogie/Rock ‘n’ Roll by Komeda is played first. Per loves that song, he thinks it’s a crazy one. Insane pop music from 1996. It’s the sound of Northern Sweden. Umeå, to be precise, Sven adds. These guys in Komeda are interesting. Sven read somewhere that their original name was Cosma Komeda and that was from a French-Romanian composer Vladimir Cosma and Polish composer and jazz musician Krzysztof Komeda. Sven jokes that maybe the record company said two names might be too much, choose one. Haha.

Then comes Norwegian singer Emma Jensen with her brand new single Now And Then. The guys think it sounds good.

The third song on the show is Church Of Your Heart by Roxette, taken from their 1991 album Joyride. Sven asks a burning question regarding the upcoming tour in South Africa and Australia: is Church Of Your Heart going to be on the setlist? Per says they have rehearsed it and they are not sure yet. Maybe. They have done that song in so many different varieties: acoustic, unplugged and with a full band. It’s like a 12-string electric thing to begin with. So they don’t know yet.

Sven and Per get down to the ’80s list. Per says they have a wonderful little band on position No. 25, Commando M. Pigg. The year is 1982, a long time ago. Baby Doll is from their second album and it’s a very typical song for Commando M. Pigg. They had two guys from Southern Sweden and they played in a band called TT Reuter before that. They came out of the new wave scene in the late ’70s. The guitarist  was Peter Puders. He sounded like a post-punk guitar hero.

A big hit from 1987 is No. 24. Jag blir hellre jagad av vargar (I’d rather be chased by wolves) is by a guy called Orup, who came from a band Per can’t remember the name of. Orup started a solo career and he actually went on tour in 1987 as a support act to Roxette. The first tour ever for Roxette was in Sweden and they toured together with two other artists. There were three headliners and the support act was Orup on his debut tour. Sven was there. This song turned out to be a monster hit for Orup. It was all over Swedish radio that year. It’s taken from his debut album and it launched a very successful career. He is still active and still performing. The guy who produced this song, Anders Glenmark, was a very successful producer in the ’80s. He managed to make Orup’s quirkiness just right. He’s got a very special sound to all his productions, including this one.

At position 23, the guys check out one of the Swedish forefathers of modern rock music, Pugh Rogefeldt, one of Per’s big favourites. PG loved him and he always liked Pugh’s stuff. He started out in the ’60s and he was actually one of the very first ones to sing in Swedish. And he even invented Pughish, his own language. He made an album in his own language that nobody understood. But it sounded cool. He was really innovative, heavily influenced by Captain Beefheart. He had a great trio, a guitar player who also played bass and a great drummer and himself. It was so homegrown music, but it sounded really cool. He could go from the sort of weird stuff, slightly experimental, far out to the super commercial pop stuff as well. He was all over the place. Två lika är ett is from 1986 when he changed record label. This particular song became a big hit for him in 1986. It’s produced by Anders Burman, who used to produce his old stuff in the ’60s and early ’70s, but also together with Thomas Ledin, who is an artist in his own right, a very big artist in Sweden. He was also the producer of this song. It sounds like easy listening coming from Pugh Rogefeldt. A classic summer pop hit. Per thinks it’s a wonderful song.

The guys go down to Malmö in the south of Sweden. Sven says we will hear some southern Swedish language. He is not sure we are going to hear the difference, but they do. Haha. A big, big, big artist and band in the ’80s, Dan Hylander is next. With his girlfriend Py Bäckman, they formed a band called Raj Montana Band. Per says he was listening to them. They were touring all the time. Roxette producer Clarence Öfwerman was a keyboard player in Raj Montana Band and Roxette drummer Pelle Alsing also played with them. Sven says there is a Roxette connection everywhere. Per wishes there was. Haha. They had lots of friends in common. Every time they came to Per’s hometown on the west coast, he went to see them, hung out and had a lot of beers. Dan’s lyrics were very special, because he never rhymed. He just wrote lyrics, stories, poems and there was no rhyming involved. He always said that it was always the last thing he did. The music was finished, then he wrote the lyrics and it never rhymed. Per was so confused by that, being a songwriter himself. Sven says the funny thing is that you sort of got used to it. PG agrees, it fits Dan’s style. Sven laughs, he got the free non-rhyming ticket. To Sven, his music always sounded a bit like Jackson Brown-ish. Per says the whole band was very much influenced by Jackson Brown, David Lindley and all those people. Farväl till Katalonien is probably the most commercial song that Dan ever did. It was a big hit, even though it’s over five minutes long. They would have done a radio edit, if it was today. It was all over the radio in 1981.

From 1981 the guys move up to 1988, but they stick in the south of Sweden, close to Malmö. There is this university town called Lund and there is a band called The Sinners. Per thinks they always sound amazing, he loves their guitar sound. It’s just so cool. When She Lies was one of their earliest singles from the album From The Heart Down. Sven knows Michael Sellers, he had an English father, moved to Sweden and grew up there in Lund. He was a big fan of Wilko Johnson in Dr. Feelgood. Per says you could tell. Sven says there is a Roxette connection everywhere. Roxette’s name came from the Dr. Feelgood song, Roxette.

That sums up the ’80s chart in this episode. The guys are back next month with five more songs and the tension rises and the excitement and the ticket prices go up, sky high. The guys are joking.

The last two songs on the program are Lick The Bag by the Viagra Boys and Down In The Past by Mando Diao.

The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström have started a new series on Nordic Rox. Before they get down to business, they talk about their winter. Per says he was abroad for Christmas. He is not really a fan of the Swedish and Scandinavian winter season, even though he was born there. Sven agrees and says if they start talking about it, they are going to spend ten minutes complaining about the weather. To cheer things up, the guys have got a new list to go through, the top 30 songs of the ’80s.

Per thinks the ’80s was a fantastic decade. Great hairdos, great clothes and great music. Sven adds, great shoulder pads on the record covers. Haha. They will go through the first five of these songs.

Speaking of freezing cold, they first take a trip to Finland and play Matkustaja by Egotrippi. PG thinks they are a great band. He guesses Egotrippi means ego trip. That’s as far as his Finnish goes. He can’t pronounce the title, but he really loves this song. He tries to pronounce it and Sven says he can’t correct him, because his Finnish is… Haha. For two countries that are so close to each other, the Finnish language is incomprehensible for Swedes. Egotrippi is actually one of the few words that you understand immediately.

The next song is from Norway, I Used To Be A Real Piece Of Shit by Sløtface. It’s just under two minutes, which is their favourite timing for a pop song, Sven says. Per says it’s not bad.

Run To You by Roxette is next from the Crash! Boom! Bang! album that has just been released as a 30th anniversary edition, Per informs.

Before the countdown starts, Ain’t No Saint by Peg Parnevik is played.

Per loves the ’80s. It was a fantastic decade, he thinks, especially when you look back at it now. Sven asks PG what made it special compared to the ’70s. Mr. G explains that music-wise the digital revolution happened. Suddenly you started to work with click tracks and drum machines instead of the old school stuff. Music changed a lot and everything else changed. If you look back at fashion, books…, everything was different. If you look back, Sven thinks the ’50s continued until The Beatles came on the scene in ’63 or so. The ’70s started in 1968-69. Sometimes decades go like this. When Sven hears the album Station To Station by David Bowie, it’s recorded in 1976 or 1975, but that sounds almost ’80s to him as well. Sven is curious if for Per as a songwriter there is an archetypical ’80s sound. It is the synthesizer for PG. It’s Pet Shop Boys, Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds. There are so many examples of that style. But, of course, there was a parallel industry as well. Country music went on and the rock scene as well. So basically, the guys are going to have a little bit of this, a little bit of that on the list.

At position No. 30 they kick off with a Swedish monster hit from 1980, Vill ha dig. It became the breakthrough song of a band called Freestyle. Per says this song was all over the place and his first band, Gyllene Tider and Freestyle became sort of competitors. They shared the number one spots on the charts all the time with different singles. Per thinks this is a really brilliant track for its time. It’s just really catchy and it sounds really cool. Long live the ’80s, PG says. He adds that it was a hit even in 1981. It just went on and on and on. Big song for the band, one that you couldn’t escape in the early ’80s. It was all over the radio.

A song you could escape is the next one. Öresundstwist by Torsson, a southern Swedish cult band. Per says this song doesn’t sound like the ’80s at all, it sounds rather like the ’60s. It sounds very much like Torsson. They have their own universe, Sven says. It’s very lyric-driven and it’s really fascinating to listen to them according to Per. The song is about taking the boat between southern Sweden, Helsingborg and Denmark over the Öresund strait. If you have trouble checking out the lyrics, this is basically what it’s all about, Sven informs. And while doing so, you dance some twist on the boat as well, if Sven understands the lyrics correctly. The band is still active. They are touring and they are still very popular, Sven says. PG adds „and they still sound the same”. Sven is pretty sure this is the American radio debut for Torsson.

No. 28 is Blodspengar by a great band called Japop, led by Janne Anderson on lead guitar. They made a couple of albums in the early ’80s. This is very typical of how the power pop scene sounded in Sweden in the early ’80s. Spilling over from the late ’70s new wave. This is like The Greg Kihn Band sort of style. Per thinks it’s a great, really nice pop song. Sven is curious if Per saw Japop live. He did. They were actually signed to the same record label as Gyllene Tider were in those days. Janne is a great guitar player and great singer as well. It was a trio and it’s a shame that they didn’t become bigger. They were produced by Dan Sundquist from Reeperbahn, also an incredibly cool band.

Speaking of power pop, the guys have Mikael Rickfors coming up next. Tender Turns Tuff is a great song from 1981. Mikael Rickfors became the lead singer of the English band The Hollies in the ’70s. He replaced Allan Clarke. They were pretty successful in the ’70s, then Mikael returned home to Sweden in the ’80s and made some amazing solo albums. He worked a bit with Robert Palmer. This song, the title track from the Tender Turns Tuff album, was really big. Per remembers it was all over the place. It’s also a bit new wave-ish, spilling over into the ’80s. Mikael Rickfors and his songwriting partner Hasse Huss wrote a song, Yeah, Yeah, the last track on the Cyndi Lauper album She’s So Unusual in 1983. It was one of the best selling albums in the States in 1983. They have been very successful as songwriters. They were a really good team. Hasse Huss was writing the lyrics and Mikael was writing the music. Sven says that there is a bonus version of the Tender Turns Tuff album and on that extended version there is a track called Blue Fun, which was remixed by Robert Palmer. It sounds really cool. He did a lot of interesting stuff.

The final ’80s song of the day is Ängeln i rummet by one of Sweden’s most successful female artists during the ’80s, Eva Dahlgren. She is still around and she is still amazing, Per says. This was a really big song for her, released in 1989. Wonderful vocals, really atmospheric according to Sven. It might also be the first time being played on American radio.

The list continues in the next show. On this episode the guys still play Soul Free by Atomic Swing from 1994 and Younger by Seinabo Sey from her album Pretend.

Elvis, I Love You by Albin Lee Meldau is next. Per says this is the sound of Gothenburg, Sweden. Sven thinks it’s a brilliant song and informs that PG recorded a song with Albin Lee on Per’s latest album. They did a duet together, which has been a big hit in Sweden, Per says. „Very nice! Thank you very much, Albin Lee!”

The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!