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Per Gessle on Fredagsbubbel, RIX FM

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Per Gessle was a guest on RIX FM on their Fredagsbubbel show on Friday. Program leader Martina Thun also invited Shirley Clamp on the program. Listen HERE!

Martina welcomes Per and Shirley and explains that she always starts by asking if her guests have known each other from before. Per says they don’t know each other, but he knows Shirley has recorded one of his songs. Shirley confirms. She says she was scared when she was going to do that, because they were waiting for an OK from Mr. Gessle. She thought it would probably be a no, just because she was quite young. The song was It Must Have Been Love. Ingela “Pling” Forsman translated the lyrics and the title is När kärleken föds. Shirley still sings it at her gigs. Per thinks she made it great.

It’s the first time Per and Shirley meet, at least it feels like the first time for PG. Martina says Shirley put on a lot of perfume to impress Per and turns to Mr. G to ask if he feels impressed that Shirley smells so good. Per says he is a bit impressed actually and he notes the champagne glass in front of Shirley and is wondering how many she has drunk before. They are laughing. Shirley says they have run into each other over the years, but never talked. So it’s very nice now. Martina says now they get the chance to get to know each other on live radio. She looks at Shirley and says she looks terrified. Haha.

Martina asks Per about his album release and how his week has been. PG says it has been quite normal, that is to say busy. Martina is curious what a normal week is in Per Gessle’s life like. Per says it depends on what you are doing. This week he has started rehearsals for Roxette’s tour next year with Lena Philipsson, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist. They have run an acoustic rehearsal. Martina finds it exciting.

Per is also releasing an album today, so there has been a bit of promotion and stuff like that.

Martina turns to Shirley and asks how her week has been. Shirley can’t even remember what she has been doing and asks what day it is. Haha. It’s Friday, Martina says. Shirley is in the middle of selling the house and in the middle of rehearsing for Mamma Mia! – The Party, to jump in for Sussie Eriksson, which will be great fun. Martina thinks it’s such a perfect role for Shirley. Martina says they will talk more about Mamma Mia! and she informs that Shirley also releases a song that they will get to listen to in a while.

Martina turns to Per again and says his album contains a lot of collaborations. Per says it consists of duets. Before they talk more about the album, Martina starts playing one of the duets, Har pa? ka?nn by Per Gessle and Uno Svenningsson and says that’s a really long intro, but she doesn’t dare to talk during it when the artist is sitting here. After the song ends, Martina asks Per about how artists feel when program leaders talk over the intro on the radio. PG says it’s foolish. He doesn’t like people doing that, because you spend a lot of time making a very good intro. Haha. Martina informs that this song has an intro of 20.9 seconds, so there she has time to just talk and tell a funny anecdote about herself. Haha. She says Per could think about that in the future, if he doesn’t want people to talk over the songs.

Shirley says there aren’t that many intros in modern music. Per agrees. Shirley loves intros and solos and long outros. Shirley explains that she was sitting there listening to the radio when Per was at his best, in the beginning of his career and recorded the tracks. And then the program leaders talked both during the intro and the outro. It destroyed the whole thing. Then came Kaj Kindvall and was going to tell some shit about the song. She was so angry. Per laughs. Shirley says to Martina that she doesn’t want her to talk during her intro. Haha.

Martina asks Per how it is to work with other artists. Per thinks it’s lovely. The whole of Roxette is based on collaboration. Martina says that regarding Roxette, it was like the same collaboration all the time, but now it has changed. PG says when he starts doing anything, he starts from himself as a songwriter. That’s what they are building on. So was Roxette, too. When Marie came in and sang these songs, she turned them into her own songs, in her way, the way she sang. It’s a bit the same here when Per has chosen collaboration partners for this record: Amanda Ginsburg, Lena Philipsson or Molly Hammar. They come in and sort of make the songs their own. At least that’s the vision.

Martina asks Shirley about musical collaborations. Shirley loves it too. Even though she knows that she sings really well, she is afraid of asking for collaborations, because she doesn’t want them to say no. But now that she is 51, soon 52, she has promised herself to just ask the question. The worst can be that they say no, so what. She wants those collaborations to be as Per says, unique meetings. Then you can reach new levels together. Then it must be something that you haven’t heard before, she thinks. She has a list of people. Martina asks if she can reveal any name from the list. Shirley says Titiyo is one of her first ones that she would like to record something with, but she doesn’t know about it.

Martina wants to ask a thousand questions from Per. She is curious what it was like when he called Lena Philipsson and asked about collaboration in Roxette. PG explains Lena was in the studio with him in Halmstad and sang on the title song of his Swedish album Sällskapssjuk. Per was very impressed with her capacity, the way she thinks and the way she works. Then this token fell on him if she could imagine singing Roxette songs, because it would suit her very well. Per has been thinking for many, many years if he is going to do anything at all with the Roxette catalogue. Then he thought heck, he would talk to her. They met and he asked Lena if she wanted to… not to start a new band by any means, but mostly to go with Per and do concerts and sing Roxette songs. The girls ask Per what her reaction was. PG says she changed color. Haha. She disappeared rather quickly from that meeting, went home and thought for a bit. But then she came back after a few weeks and thought it was interesting. Then they met again.

Shirley thinks it’s an honourable task of its kind. Martina says it must feel so exciting to go out with this constellation. Per says that’s one of the reasons he thinks Lena went along with this. It’s something she hasn’t really done before. She has been around for so long, too, but she has never stood in front of 10,000 people in Melbourne or Cape Town. The girls say there aren’t that many Swedish artists who have had the chance for that.

Martina wants to know how the fans reacted. PG says there are of course many who wonder how it is possible to replace Marie. But she won’t replace Marie, that’s not the idea. As said, the idea is to manage the song catalogue. Per slowly but surely feels that people like this idea. A lot of tickets are sold, however, people don’t really know what they are buying tickets for. They are laughing. The girls say, but Per will be there. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but it’s going to be good, the girls say. It will be very exciting.

Here they play Shirley’s version of Blinka lilla stjärna. Martina thinks it’s very nice and emotional.

Martina and her guests start talking about melodies. She says this topic came up with other artists before, when they have a melody idea, they quickly record it on the phone. Martina wanted to listen to other artists’ such recordings, but they didn’t show them to her. Shirley says it would be fun if she sent one to Per and Per sent one to her and then Per would do her recording and she would do Per’s. Shirley says she hardly even understands herself, what she meant by some of these recordings. Both Shirley and Per sing in such cases. PG says it’s maybe one out of five that can be listened to. Four out of five sound like the vacuum cleaner is running. Haha. But sometimes it turns out nice. It can also be that you sit at home at the piano and then you come up with something and record it. But when the taxi is waiting, you just record it on the phone. Then you let it go and listen to it maybe three weeks later and realize it wasn’t that bad. Shirley says the vacuum cleaner demos that Per records usually turn out to be huge. Haha.

Martina is very curious about the archives filled with music, if Per and Shirley save everything or also delete files. Per says he listens to it and if he doesn’t get it, he deletes it. Shirley does the same. Only those remain of which you benefit from. If Per plays something on the piano, he writes what kind of chord it is or what date it is, because he won’t remember that three weeks later. Shirley says she doesn’t name the files, so when she scrolls down, there are files from the beginning, ever since her daughter was two. Then comes a file that says nothing, so she would delete it. She should go through the files and maybe name them now. Per asks her what she would name them then. Shirley says no clue. Maybe vacuum cleaner 241. Haha. Now that Shirley is cleaning the house, she found newspaper clippings as well and thought, why has she saved them. She is not the best at keeping things in order.

The girls are curious how Per is. If he collects things and if he is a hoarder. He doesn’t think so, but his wife is, PG says. Shirley doesn’t see it as a problem. She says that in Per’s case, he probably has a thousand awards and gold records and all that. Mr. G says he has only one gold record at home. It’s Flickorna på TV2 from 1980. All others are in a warehouse and at Hotel Tylösand. Martina asks Per what he collects at home then. Per says, as he said, he doesn’t think he is collecting anything. And he is pretty good at keeping things organized. He has his shoes where the shoes should be and the shirts where the shirts should be. Martina says he does seem like that. So this means Per doesn’t have a room that is filled with shit when you open the door. Per confirms there is no such room. Shirley says Hotel Tylösand sounds great for her stuff. She asks Per if she could have some space for her stuff there. They are laughing. Shirley realizes that she should get herself a hotel.

Martina says that during the songs they talked a lot about celebrities and being impressed by celebrities. Both she and Shirley have lived with Per Gessle and his music throughout their lives, so they have asked a thousand questions and praised Per a lot during the songs. Shirley has claimed that she is absolutely not one to run after celebrities and chase them, but there are two-three stories. One of them is related to Pink. Shirley tells a story when she met Pink in Sundsvall where they had a festival gig and went after Pink to the elevator and asked for a pic, but Pink didn’t want to have one. Shirley is not interested in celebrities, but Marie Fredriksson, Pink and Bette Midler meant a lot to her.

Martina asks Per if he has met anyone who has made him starstruck. Shirley laughs and says it was probably today, when Per met her. PG smiles and says, of course. He met some like Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen. These are big names, Martina says. She knows that Per is a calm person, but she wants to know if Per gets nervous when he meets these guys. PG says he becomes a little fan then and he would really want to sit down, have dinner with them and ask a thousand questions. But it never happened. The girls are happy to see that Per is human. He is a hit machine, but calm and human. They are laughing and Per says he is happy to hear that.

Martina says it turned out that Per is an ordinary person and it has also come to light that he is pedantic. They are the complete opposite with Shirley. Shirley likes it if there are a lot of things around her, while Per likes it to be clean, when there aren’t too many things around.

Per is also good at cleaning, he doesn’t stick to old stuff. Sometimes he finds himself sorting out old books from 1988 and old CDs that you never listen to. It just takes up space and you need space for other things. It’s the same with clothes. Martina was just about to ask about Per’s wardrobe. She asks Per and Shirley if they keep their stage clothes and clothes they were wearing at photo sessions. PG says he saves those. Martina says Per must have a lot of clothes like that. Per laughs and says Shirley probably has more. Martina asks if those clothes are also at Hotel Tylösand. Mr. G says most of them are at a warehouse. Martina says people would probably want to see those clothes. Per says they should expand the hotel. Martina says expand the hotel so that it becomes a museum with outfits and such. It would be fun.

Shirley organized a flea market where she was selling her clothes. There was a piece of clothes that she didn’t want to sell, just wanted to see how much it is worth, so there was an auction and the price went up to 25,000. She didn’t sell it in the end, it was a fake auction. Martina says it’s strange to joke with that. Shirley says it was very strange, because the one who put the highest bid there thought he got it. Per says, of course, because that’s how it works with auctions. Haha. Martina says this is not something she recommends, running fake auctions.

Martina turns to Per and asks him what he thinks, how it has been to get to know Shirley Clamp on live broadcast. Per thinks it was absolutely fantastic. They will be friends next time they meet. Martina asks Shirley how she feels. Shirley says what the listeners don’t see now is that she is sending some money to Per now to bribe. They are laughing. Shirley thinks it was great, it feels nice. Next time they meet, they will say hi. Shirley says Per seems genuine and he seems so nice. Some giant artists like hime are not so nice. Per says he is super nice. Shirley says she likes Martina as well, every time she comes here. Martina likes both her guests too.

Martina asks PG what his weekend plans are. Per says since he has released his record today, he has TV on Sunday. He will be on Efter fem. Then he will have a lot of IDs to record with Lena. IDs when you say „hi this is Per and this is Lena”. So they are filming these for Australia and different cities. And then there is F1 from Mexico. He likes F1. Martina says how exciting. But they just drive round and round. Per says they do, but it’s not that bad. Haha. It’s definitely not boring. Martina asks Per if he loves engines and cars and likes to drive really fast. PG says he likes cars, but he doesn’t necessarily need to drive very fast. Shirley says it’s good, because she wants to hear more music in the future. She laughs at how dramatic she was here, but if you drive too fast, accidents can happen and she wants to hear more music. It’s good not to drive too fast.

Shirley is free at the weekend. She might go to the flea market. Martina reminds her that she is cleaning the house now, so she doesn’t need any more stuff. Shirley says maybe she doesn’t need to buy anything, but she gets inspiration. Then there are rehearsals for Mamma Mia! – The Party.

Martina summarizes that there is a new album by Per, there will be Roxette concerts next year. Shirley asks Per how Martina and she could go to Per’s concerts. PG says he will fix that. Sommartider is available on Viaplay from November.

Here the girls and Per thank for the show and say goodbye.

Stills are from RIX FM’s instastories.

 

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – August 2024

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström are back to Sirius XM with the second part of their ’70s countdown on the August episode of Nordic Rox.

Before the guys get down to those 5 great songs from the ’70s, they stay in present tense and play Fire In Cairo, a new track by The Hellacopters. A wonderful song according to PG.

The next one is Black Hole by Edith Backlund. Per loves this song. It came out appr. 10 years ago. Then comes Send Her My Love by Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker. Sven thinks it’s a great band name and Per agrees it’s a wonderful one, but he doesn’t know anything about Robert Pehrsson and his Humbucker. It sounds great, Mr. G likes it. Sven found this song on a list of Swedish garage rock.

The guys start talking about Gyllene Tider – Per says he knows those guys, haha. It’s Per’s power pop band from Halmstad. PG says they started off in 1978 and in 1979 they had their breakthrough. Sven says they made a major impact in Sweden in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and around 1983 they were ready to conquer the world. Per says he did his first solo album in 1983 while the other guys in the band did their military service. The band had a comeback and they made an English album called The Heartland Café that came out in 1984. It’s not the best album in the world, PG says, but what’s interesting is that there is one track that was pretty popular called Break Another Heart. That was the first time where Per worked with Marie Fredriksson who he eventually formed Roxette with. Sven says it was released in the States and they used the name Roxette, so this is actually a teaser of what would become Roxette five years later. Per confirms, the first version of Roxette was actually these five guys. The album came out on Capitol Records in 1984. It sold about 225 copies, Sven adds. The guys are laughing. It didn’t sell that much. Per remembers going to Los Angeles and he went to Tower Records on Sunset and they had their own little section next to Roxy Music. PG thought it was so cool. Then the band split up and he started Roxette with Marie instead. It was a good idea, Mr. G says. Sven says if you are a record and vinyl nerd, which they grew up with of course, the bass player in Roxette, Magnus Börjeson had a band called Beagle in the early ’90s. They were really happy about that name, because that put them between The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Haha. Per thinks it’s brilliant.

Yours To Keep by Paola is next. Per thinks it’s a nice one; the Teddybears is involved in that song. Then comes Where The Wolf Bane Blooms by The Nomads, a superb garage rock band from Sweden. The song is from their debut album.

Here comes the ’70s list from No. 15 to No. 11. Sven warns the listeners, because if they are sensitive to sweetness and sugar, they should watch out. A super sugary track called Moviestar is next by Harpo, produced by Bengt Palmers, one of the biggest producers in Sweden in the old days. He produced Hooked On A Feeling, for instance, and he was really big, producing lots of artists for EMI Records in the ’70s. Moviestar was an enormous hit in 1975 and it was also an extremely big song in Germany. Harpo is still touring in Germany once in a while, Per adds. He says you couldn’t escape this one in the ’70s if you were in Sweden or in Germany. Per asks the listeners to fasten their seatbelts.

Sven says they got the reason to return to Bengt Palmers later on in the shows, because you can’t escape him.

No. 14 is a guy called Magnus Lindberg. He used to play in a band called Landslaget, before he became his own sort of singer-songwriter, eventually becoming a little bit more new wavish. He did two albums in the ’70s. They were pretty acoustic and very good. He’s got a wonderful voice according to Per. He writes his own songs as well. The guys picked Månsken Peggie (Moonlight Peggie). PG thinks it’s a beautiful song. It came out in the late ’70s.

No. 13 is a band of ’60s pop veterans, Secret Service. They consisted of lots of people from the band Ola & The Janglers from the ’60s and some veterans in the industry. The band had their own distinctive sound and original songs as well. Not bad in Per’s book. PG says it was pretty rare in the ’70s to have international success for Swedish artists. ABBA was probably the only exception. They probably woke Secret Service up to the idea. They became enormous in France and this is their breakthrough song, Oh Susie from 1979.

Now the guys go to the north of Sweden and play a wonderful, typical ’70s mix of modern music and old traditional Swedish folk music. Gammal jämtländsk brudmarsch (A wedding march from the county of Jämtland /in the north of Sweden/) was a big hit. It was an instrumental track by a girl playing the organ called Merit Hemmingson. It was a big one on the radio in the ’70s, produced by Bengt Palmers, who also produced Moviestar by Harpo we just heard. Sven says, he was back earlier than they expected. Haha. Sven thinks it’s an interesting mix of musical styles. Per says the first time he heard it, he loved it and he was just a kid. He still loves it. Sven thinks it might be the first time Merit is played on American radio.

This brings the guys up to new wavish sounds from mid Sweden. A band called Eldkvarn is next. They had a big breakthrough in the ’70s and they are still around on and off. They closed down the factory a couple of years ago, then they came back again. They have been really big and have their own distinctive sound as well. The songs are written by vocalist Plura Jonsson. Their current tour, a sort of new farewell tour is named Det är aldrig försent att lägga av (It’s never too late to quit). The guys are laughing. Per finds it a good tour name. When Eldkvarn started out in the mid ’70s, they were not called Eldkvarn (Fire mill), but Piska mig hårt (Whip me hard) instead. It probably caused some controversy, Sven thinks. Per has never listened to them that much. In the ’80s-’90s he listened to them a bit, but this is new music to him. It’s taken from their 1979 album where they totally change musical style from slightly progressive ’70s rock, Sven says. Per thinks it sounds like Elvis Costello & The Attractions came into their lives. Sven thinks that there is life for Eldkvarn before this year’s model and there is another life after. They took up their amps to eight or something and started speeding up the tempo. It’s not bad, Per likes it. So they play the title track from their album Pojkar, pojkar, pojkar (Boys, boys, boys), wrapping up the ’70s countdown on this show.

The guys take a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. Here is She Owns The Streets by The Raveonettes. Sven thinks it’s a cool band. Per adds it’s one of their favourite bands.

The amazing sound of I Go For The Cheap Ones by Heavy Tiger is next. They are a female band from Stockholm. Per heard they haven’t been doing anything since 2019, but they are an amazing group and they are missed. Sven says they should come back, the world needs Heavy Tiger.

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

Pic by Patrícia Peres, Book Fair 2014, Gothenburg

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – July 2024

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After doing the ’60s countdown, Per Gessle and Sven Lindström came back to Sirius XM in July and started a ’70s countdown for Nordic Rox. They listed their favourite Swedish and Scandinavian songs from the ’70s from 20 to 16 in this episode.

The guys are talking about another decade. Per says there were so many things happening on the Swedish music scene in the ’70s, so they are going to go through a couple of songs that they like. Then he adds that to tell the truth, they even included a couple of songs that they didn’t like. Haha. Sven says they are very open-minded and inclusive here on Nordic Rox.

Before getting down to the list, they kick off with a track by a band that made an album 30 years ago, and Sven thinks Per is familiar with it. PG says it’s Roxette and the album is called Crash! Boom! Bang! It was recorded in the isle of Capri in Italy. The song they play from CBB is Run To You. Sven asks Per what he remembers about this one. Mr. G remembers they spent like six weeks in Capri making the core of the album in 1993. It was good fun. INXS had just been in the studio when they arrived, so they inherited a lot of the INXS wine bottles. Haha. They had a great time and it was a very creative period in their lives. Marie just had her first child, so she had a family with her. They did some great stuff on that album. Sleeping In My Car, for example. Sven says a jubilee version of the album is coming out. Per confirms it’s coming out just before Christmas, the 30th anniversary release. Sven says they will get back to that one.

A new single from one of the guys’ favourite constellations comes next. It’s Say Lou Lou’s Above Love. Sven thinks it’s a great one, PG says it has a French touch to it. Sven saw all these French singers, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot. They made some cool ’60s pop songs with fussy guitars and that sort of touch is here as well.

Then comes Borderline by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives from the album Origin Vol. 1. There never was an Origin Vol. 2, but for some reason it was named Vol. 1. Per thinks the band has a classic sound, and it sounds like it’s really familiar, but at the same time, it stands out. They have a very distinctive sound. Every song you hear from their catalogue sounds like The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

Nordic Rox continues with a new single by Noak Hellsing from Stockholm. The song is All Day. PG says he has never heard of Noak Hellsing before. He must be very young and very new. Sven says Per is right on both points. Mr. G thinks it’s a good song, Sven agrees.

Shimmy Shimmy Style by the Teddybears is next.

Then the guys are leaving the modern age and going back to the ’70s. Track No. 20 is by a guy called Ola Magnell. Per says Ola was a singer-songwriter in the early ’70s and he had a couple of so-so hits, but then he went on tour with another Swedish guy that was a little bit bigger than him called Pugh Rogefeldt. The song they play is a live recording from a live album coming out in 1974. Per was there at the recording of that album in his hometown, Halmstad. Mr. G was 15 years old at the time. He remembers it being an amazing show in a pretty small theatre in Halmstad. There were like 800 people or so. It was a sensational evening for a 15-year-old kid. Sven remembers Pugh, he was probably the biggest rock star in Sweden in 1974. Sven saw Pugh and Rainrock in his hometown at the disco called Barbarella. The bass player came out on stage in a jeans skirt and that was rather cool. Back to Ola, the guys play his breakthrough song Påtalåten. It’s done with the Pugh band and it’s a live version from 1974. Per thinks it’s really, really cool and hopes the listeners like it. Per thinks it’s a great song. It’s got this sort of country flavour combined with some Swedish folk music. The rhythm is really wonderful. Sven thinks that sort of mix sounds incredibly Swedish. A lot of people were looking back to folk music in the ’70s.

Speaking about that, one of Per’s favourite singers, Monica Törnell is up on position No. 19. Mr. G has had the pleasure of working with Monica a couple of times, singing together. She’s got a really amazing voice, Per thinks. She had a breakthrough in 1972. There was a Swedish singer-songwriter called Cornelis Vreeswijk, who unfortunately is not with us anymore. He found her and he got her a record deal. Monica made an album which was basically a lot of covers translated into Swedish. It’s really an outstanding album, because her voice is so outstanding, PG thinks. It’s the elite of the Swedish session musicians at the time playing. It sounds really cool with standup bass and amazing piano playing. Per just loves this song. The original, I Really Loved Harold was written by Melanie. It’s called Förut (när jag var liten) in Swedish. Sven asks Per if this was something that mesmerized him when he was a teenager. PG listened to this album a lot and this is his favourite track. Sven thinks Monica sounds like some kind of mythical figure living far up in the woods. Per loves her voice.

The guys travel to Hollywood, somewhere in Los Angeles in 1971. Gram Parsons And The Flying Burrito Brothers. The next song sounds like that at least. It’s a guy called Basse Wickman and it’s taken from his first album in 1976. Out On The Road is not a big hit, but both Sven and Per always loved Basse. Per says he’s got this amazing, velvety voice and he made some amazing albums. Actually, PG has never heard the debut album before, so this is a new one to him. Sven says it’s actually quite obscure. For some reason, he never really made it, but Sven thinks they have a couple of tracks that they are going to revisit on the ’80s list when they get there. Per agrees and says Basse had his peak in the ’80s. Now comes some sort of Swedish country rock. It didn’t make the charts in Sweden at all, but it sounds lovely, Per thinks.

No. 17 on the list is a group called Dag Vag. Sven says it’s some sort of slight new wave reggae. Mr. G says it’s more like ska music, like The Specials from England. Dag Vag was really outstanding in the ’70s on the Swedish music scene and made it big, Per says. Sven says they were a bit older than the new wave movement. He means they came from the hippie movement, more or less. Per agrees, but they used this punk new wave attitude to come through and they did it very well. They brought along Kenny Håkansson on guitar from the prog rock group Kebnekajse. He is an amazing guitar player. Everyone in the band had really weird names, alter egos. Per can’t remember the name of Kenny. Sven thinks he was called the Silver Surfer, but he is not sure. Dag Vag means a „vague day” in English, it doesn’t make sense. Sven says „if it doesn’t make you any wiser, you can trust us, we’re not wiser either.” And the song is called Dimma, which means „fog”. It’s probably the first time this song is played in the US.

The guys think they did a great job on this list, as always. Now they are moving to the late ’70s, 1979. There was a group called Factory, that was enormously big in Sweden. Per says, first of all, most of the songs from the ’70s they played are in Swedish, because it was a big thing in the ’70s to work in Swedish. In the ’60s nobody did that at all. But in the ’70s everyone changed. Pugh was probably the first one. So, Efter plugget (after school) by Factory was a huge hit in 1979. If you listen to it now, you can trace the influences by Supertramp a lot. Per remembers when he was a kid, this song was all over the place. Sven says it was rock disco, a sort of danceable rock music. It was the same time as Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? by Rod Stewart. That sort of style. Or Miss You by The Rolling Stones. This one was all over the airwaves in 1979, you couldn’t escape it, for good or for bad. People tried to dance to it. Sven remembers girls from that time looking slightly bored. At least when they (the guys) came up on the dance floor. Per says probably that was the reason why they looked bored. Haha.

This wraps up the ’70s list for July.

Nordic Rox continues with Nowhere Blue, an indie duo from Stockholm with a new track called Keep On Running Off.

Do You Love Me by Amanda Jenssen is next. Amanda is one of the guys’ favourites and the song is from her debut album Killing My Darlings, 2008. Per thinks it’s a wonderful song. Sven thinks she is an amazing artist and an amazing singer.

The beautiful sound of Doojiman & The Exploders is next and their wonderful Yeah Yeah Yeah, Per says. Garage rock in its prime from Sweden, taken from the album Sweden’s Newest Hit Makers, Sven adds. PG thinks it’s such a great title. Sven says it makes you think of how they marketed The Rolling Stones in the States back in 1964: England’s Newest Hitmakers.

The guys are ready to leave, they have to go. Studio time is up. They will be back with five more songs taken from the Swedish ’70s in the next show.

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

Photo by Anders Roos (2019)

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle interview on Studio Ett about “Joyride – The Musical”

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Studio Ett, news magazine on Swedish Radio P1, did a phone interview with Per Gessle after he saw one of the final rehearsals of Joyride – The Musical on 3rd September. Listen to it HERE!

The program leaders welcome Per Gessle on the show. He is joining via phone from Halmstad. Per was in Malmö yesterday (on 3rd September) to see one of the final rehearsals. The program leaders are curious what it was like to see and hear Roxette songs in musical form. Mr. G says it was the first time he got to see it together with an audience and it was absolutely fantastic. It’s a strange experience, of course, but it’s awesome. It’s a new chapter in the book in a way. It’s amazing.

To the question in what way it is a strange experience, Per replies it’s awesome, it’s so big. There are almost 300 people who worked full time on this musical in Malmö. It’s a huge production and there are costumes, there is a 45-piece orchestra and everything is larger than life. Then they play these Roxette songs for 2.5 hours. It’s absolutely magical.

Per is asked if it was obvious to say yes to the musical. He says it wasn’t. They have been talking about it since 2015, actually. They got the first request then and he has been to various showcases in London and everywhere. Different companies, different producers presented different ideas, but they have all been turned down, because the script has never been good enough. Then they heard about Jane Fallon’s book, Got You Back and all of a sudden it felt like it could work with their music. It’s a cool story and it simply fits the music. Per doesn’t think the music itself has any major problems to fix so it works in a musical context. There are very big emotions and big melodies and there are a lot of ups and downs. So it fits the musical format very well.

As Per saw the show yesterday in Malmö with a lot of people, but there are many who of course haven’t seen it yet, the program leader asks him to describe it. Mr. G says that so far there were three rehearsals with invited audiences, e.g musical school children and others, but the actual premiere is on Friday. It’s magnificent. It’s a large venue for 1,400 people, it’s a fairly large theatre. It’s a fantastic production that has a huge orchestra and an enormously talented cast. There are many singers and dancers. You have to go and have a look yourself, he suggests.

The program leader says Roxette was Per and Marie Fredriksson, who passed away five years ago and is missed. She wasn’t really a musical girl, so the program leader is curious what Per thinks Marie would have thought about this musical. Per says Marie liked the musical idea. He thinks Marie would have thought this was great fun, because it keeps the Roxette spirit and the Roxette catalogue is shown to new audiences. Per thinks you should welcome such things. He thinks it’s the same they did with the Gyllene Tider movie that premiered this summer. You reach a new group of people, a new generation all the time with your music, so he thinks Marie would have thought this was amazing.

Speaking of the GT movie, it’s very much Per Gessle right now. Musical, film, Roxette tour with Lena Philipsson by his side next year, new solo album in October. Per turned 65 in January and the program leader asks him if this is how he picks up the pace. Per laughs and says he is retired now. He says he ended up on the cover of a pensioners’ magazine. He was shocked. Getting back to the question, it just happened. The movie and the musical were not really meant to come out with such a short interval, but it has become so. Per tries to keep up as much as he can. He likes his work and he loves working with all these projects. It’s incredibly exciting stuff, both the film and the musical and the solo album, which is mostly duets in Swedish, coming in October. It’s very exciting. Then the whole adventure with Lena Philipsson next year will also be a completely new blank page of what it will be. So he tries to keep up as best as he can.

Roxette has sold close to a hundred million records. It’s almost hard to take in. They have had enormous success. The program leader asks Per how often it comes to his mind when, for example, he was packing food boxes in Halmstad and his teacher came by and said „I knew this is where you would end up”. Per laughs and says it was like that. He says he came from a fairly simple childhood and very much lived in the middle of his little bubble all his life until he met MP and started a band in the late ’70s. It became Gyllene Tider. We all have our own destiny and lines to follow, so he tried to keep up as best as he could. It has been fantastic.

The program leader asks Per what of everything he does he would most like this teacher to see and hear. Per says, nothing, he didn’t like him. Per doesn’t think about it, it doesn’t matter anymore. There are so many adversities that you face, especially when you are young. It becomes a driving force. You have to show yourself that you can handle things. Per has always been quite a determined and ambitious type. It was one of many things that got him going.

The program leader mentions that as Per says, he loves to work and he loves his job, but a large part of his job was Marie Fredriksson. She wants to know how much Per misses her in everyday life and now that Joyride – The Musical is premiering. Mr. G says it’s been a long time since Marie passed away, but he thinks about her every day. Especially now, when so many Roxette-related things are going on. She is there in spirit somehow. The whole musical is an homage to her in a way, it’s also written in the program. It’s clear that she is felt. Per has to say that it’s highly emotional for him to sit in the theatre and hear all these songs. You kind of travel back to a lot of events, tours and things that they worked on over the years. It’s a common journey that’s completely unique, so it’s clear that Marie is there all the time.

The program leader asks what the strongest memory is that Per gets from watching this musical and hearing their songs. It’s above all the big Marie ballads, It Must Have Been Love, Spending My Time, Queen Of Rain, the songs that she represents. Every time you hear these songs, she sits next to them. It’s magical. Then there are some of her songs that are in the musical as well, songs that she has written, so it’s not just Per’s stuff. It’s amazing, Per thinks. He adds that he thinks a lot of people will like this, because it’s strong and a lot of people have a very big relationship with Roxette, especially with Marie.

The program leader says there are many people who have a relationship with Roxette all over the world. She is curious if Per thinks many people will go to Malmö to see the show. Mr. G says he actually knows that that is the case. Someone at Malmö Opera said that 45 percent of all tickets sold are bought by people who have never been to Malmö Opera before. It must mean that Roxette is a strong magnet.

Here the interview ends by thanking Per for joining Studio Ett.

Per Gessle and the creators about “Joyride – The Musical” on Swedish Radio P1 Kultur

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Swedish Radio P1 Kultur did a reportage about Joyride – The Musical before its world premiere on 6th September. Besides the main characters, the director and the costume designer, they also talked to Per. Listen to it HERE!

The program starts with the introduction of Roxette, a Swedish duo that took the world by storm in the late ’80s. They formed their band in 1986, but the first time Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle sang together on a record was five years earlier. Here they play Ingenting av vad du behöver, a Gyllene Tider song from 1981. Five years later they formed Roxette and became one of Sweden’s biggest pop exports.

Now their music has been revived in Joyride – The Musical at Malmö Opera, which has its world premiere on 6th September.

The program brings you behind the scenes, so you can take part in the preparations for the premiere. Before that, Jenny Teleman talks about good old MTV, her memories of those times and then Roxette’s history and heydays.

The script of the musical is based on English author Jane Fallon’s novel Got You Back, published in 2008. It’s a triangle drama that touches on topics such as infidelity and double life. So a lot of emotions are involved, which Roxette’s music fits perfectly. There are a few days left until the world premiere and you will get to accompany reporter Johanna Olofsson to take part in the preparations for Joyride – The Musical.

In one of the halls at Malmö Opera, rehearsals for Joyride – The Musical are in full swing. Jessica Marberger and Alexander Lycke, who play two of the main characters, are on stage and three child actors as well. The musical is not about Roxette itself, which Per Gessle is happy about.

Per says:

There has never been any discussion about writing a story about Roxette in particular. It’s not a documentary thing about Roxette. I think it’s more fun if it has an independent story and you use the music as the spice of this story.

The script is based on the novel Got You Back written by British author Jane Fallon. It has been reworked into a musical script by Klas Abrahamsson and then adjusted by director Guy Unsworth who wants to find a world where the music leads the drama.

Guy says:

This is my kind of adaptation of the piece, turning it into something that feels like it is a part of the music and related to the music. I wanted to find a world where the music would really lead the drama.

The story revolves around Stephanie who lives in London with Joe and their teenage daughter Stella. One day, Stephanie finds a note in Joe’s pocket that makes her suspect that he is cheating.

Jessica Marberger, who plays Stephanie, says:

I don’t want to reveal too much, but by accident, she discovers that her husband is in another relationship and everything she thought was very good was apparently not very good. So her world is turned a little upside down and then the whole story takes off.

When Stephanie contacts the note’s sender, Katie, it turns out that she is also in a relationship with Joe, who has been living a double life. The women then decide to join forces and take revenge on Joe played by Alexander Lycke.

Alexander says:

It’s basically infidelity, but I think it can hit quite a lot of people on how you feel in such a situation, also how you act, like these two women do. Roxette’s songs fit perfectly a story like this with broken heartache and such stuff. So it will be fun.

Guy says:

I think what’s amazing about Roxette’s music is particularly Per’s lyrics of a glimpse into the abstract world, or the non real world. The world of people’s minds. The music is expressing what people don’t say in real life. That’s really nice to have the dialogue representing the real world and then this music opening up that real world and exploring something more abstract and more magical inside.

Director Guy Unsworth believes that Per’s lyrics with their abstract qualities stand in good contrast to the dialogue in the musical that represents real life.

When Per Gessle is asked which songs will be included in the musical, the answer is:

It’s not that hard to guess, perhaps, but the big songs that are the sharpest in the musical world are of course our big ballads, Spending My Time, Listen To Your Heart, It Must Have Been Love,  Queen Of Rain, Fading Like A Flower. There are as many as you like. I write very melodic music and there are big gestures at times. It should fit in the musical world very well.

The music has been reworked by Per Gessle’s extended arms in Roxette, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist in collaboration with Joakim Hallin, who is the conductor of the orchestra.

Per says:

I haven’t had any direct wishes or opinions about how it should be other than that I think it should be very much Roxette. I think the worst that can happen is that it sounds like a Roxette cover band playing this. You want it to sound like the soul of Roxette is present in some way. It sounds fuzzy, but I’m a little fuzzy sometimes.

To the question what the hardest part of the process has been so far, Per replies:

For me it’s getting used to the fact that you leave things to other people who decide. I’m quite used to doing what I want. When working with Malmö Opera and directors and orchestras, there are a lot of people involved. It’s a different way of working than I’m normally used to.

The program brings you to Malmö Opera’s costume studio. Costume designer Torbjörn Bergström says:

This is where all the costumes are made and now we are inside the actual tailoring. Here are all the tailors sitting, working feverishly on the Joyride costumes now.

300 costumes will be used in the show and half of them will be made from scratch with designs by Torbjörn Bergström.

Torbjörn continues:

Roxette for me is very colorful. Therefore, I immediately felt that it is important that there are a lot of colors in the performance. It’s 1994, but you can say that everything between 1989 and 1994 is part of this performance.

It was also in the ’90s when Roxette had its heydays, after they broke through in the US in 1989 with The Look. Today they have sold more than 80 million albums with a string of chart-topping hits.

In the costume studio, the work continues and the tailors ask Torbjörn for help in making a decision. This is how they work. It’s part of the job, Torbjörn says.

You have to make a lot of decisions all the time. Much of what you decide, you cannot change on stage, because once something is cut, it’s cut. And as a costume designer, you also design masks and wigs. If there is one thing that’s very definitive, it’s cutting a wig. It doesn’t grow back. Haha.

At the moment, ten costume designers and four tailors are working on costumes for the Joyride musical. Johanna talks to one of them, who test sews a T-shirt for one of the actors. She says it’s common to test sew things, especially when you are a little uncertain about the fabric and its characteristics. Test sewing makes you feel safe. She thinks it’s super fun working on the Joyride costumes, because they are very varied. All are individual costumes.

Torbjörn says:

It is very grateful that the set is in a world of fashion. That’s a very, very big advantage of this show. It would be difficult to bring in so much color and shape in other contexts. This way there is no limit to how much fashion and high fashion you can get into the show.

During the course of the musical, Stephanie’s character goes from working as a stylist to working as a designer, so the sewing room is filled with her half-finished costumes. Costume designer Torbjörn Bergström is standing at a workbench, flipping through his many sketches of models in colorful, pattern-softening creations.

Here you can see all the intricate patterns and then accessories on top of that. It must not be messy. It is very important. When I make a sketch, that’s why I often copy it down so that it’s quite small and I can see how it looks from a distance. You must remember that it is a very large theatre with many seats and many sit very far away. It is important that even those who sit very far away can take part in everything.

The reporter mentions that Roxette will go on tour and Per brings Lena Philipsson as the singer. Marie Fredriksson passed away in 2019, but Per thinks she would have liked that Roxette’s music now becomes a musical.

I think she would have thought it was amazing. She was much more interested in musicals than I really was from the beginning. So I think she would have thought this was really cool. I’ve never been a huge musical fan myself. It’s a new chapter in the book of my life and it’s exciting to step into it.

The first request to make Roxette into a musical came back in 2016.

There were different versions by several people. They have written scripts and they have even showcased it to me and performed eight songs with dancers and an orchestra in London. I have turned it down, because I didn’t like the script. So Malmö Opera was not the first one on it, but it became Malmö Opera, because it is a fantastic organization and it has a very fine and large orchestra. I was there at one of the previous orchestra rehearsals and it’s really cool to sit in the middle and hear a big orchestra play your music. It will be a completely different trip than two guitars and drums and bass that I’m used to in the rehearsal room.

To the question how important it is to him that Roxette’s music becomes a musical, Per replies:

It’s a big thing and it’s exciting. It feels great and I have a good feeling about it in every way. I hope this musical will be a success, so that it can go on around the planet, just like Roxette did once upon a time.