Radio

True or false game with Per Gessle on Mix Megapol

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Per was a guest on Gry Forssell med vänner on Mix Megapol on 24th October. The program is available as podcast HERE (last 3 minutes), but only a short version of the conversation is online. The program leaders played a „true or false” game with PG. They also shared a short video HERE.

One of the questions was if it’s true that Per has a house (here Per replies immediately that it’s true, haha), a house that moves with the sun. Mr. G thinks it’s a brilliant idea, but it’s unfortunately false. Rumor has it that Per called the municipality of Halmstad and asked them to remove all speed bumps in the surroundings, so that his Ferrari wouldn’t hit them. Per says he has also heard about it and he thinks it’s also a good idea, but that is not true either. He heard this story from his neighbours. Gry asks Per how it feels that there are made up stuff like this about him. PG thinks it’s quite fun. It makes everything a little more confused about him and he likes that.

One of the guys asks Per if it’s true that he picked songs for their Spanish album in which he doesn’t sing, so that he didn’t have to sing in Spanish. PG smiles and says it’s true. He says he sang only one song, Vulnerable (Tímida in Spanish). Mr. G thinks it was a miserable project. Marie was perfect though. She even sang Spending My Time live in Spanish when they played in South America.

Gry says they talked about this with PG before, but maybe things have changed since then. They are curious if it’s true or false that has never bathed in Tylösand. One of the guys asks if there was no swimming this summer. Per replies he was on tour this summer, so no. He has never swam in Tylösand. He tells the story that his father and grandfather were plumbers and they built the whole water system in Tylösand, Frösakull and Ringenäs. It was in the ’50s and ’60s and when Per was a kid, he went with his father to Frösakull a lot. They had a little shed there and Per spent a lot of time in Frösakull. That’s the beach next to Tylösand. So he swam there. The program leaders say that now Per doesn’t bathe in Tylösand, because that’s a story that should live on. Per says he can still bathe there and lie afterwards. Haha.

Stills are from the video.

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – October 2023

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström offer a Lisa Miskovsky special on the October episode of Nordic Rox. PG thinks she is a great singer with a wonderful voice and she is a wonderful artist. She released her first album in 2001. Still going strong. Sven adds she is a great songwriter too.

Before the special starts, the guys talk about The Cardigans, a Swedish band that wasn’t from Malmö, but they moved to Malmö. Love Fool was a big hit in the States, but now the guys play a song from the Life album called Carnival. Swedish indie from 1995.

Ooh I Like It! by The Creeps is the next song. It’s produced by Clarence Öfwerman, who produced Roxette. Sven says it sounds really good. The band is from Älmhult, the town that made IKEA famous. Marit Bergman is next with her beautiful This Is The Year from 2002.

The guys are moving in the direction of Per Gessle and play the latest single, Vandrar i ett regn. It’s to celebrate the Swedish legend, Pugh Rogefeldt. Sven mentions they did a Nordic Rox special with Pugh. Per says he passed away unfortunately in May this year. Per says he was part of a tribute concert, an homage to him, and he released a single with one of Pugh’s songs from 1975. Sven says it’s from a live album and he doesn’t think there was a studio version. It was only released live and it was sort of a ’50s pastiche. Per adds he always loved that song. He was actually there at the show where it was recorded when he was 16 years old. The double album became a big hit for Pugh. When Per recorded the song himself, he removed all these ’50s influences. He made it into a little bit more like his style instead. Sven thinks it’s a great move. It became something else, a wonderful pop track with Per’s guitarist Ola’s slide guitar there as well. Per is sure a lot of people of course don’t understand the song, because it’s in Swedish, but it’s got all those typical elements of Pugh’s wonderful lyrics. He had his own style. Sven says he is called the founding father of Swedish rock music, and not only because of the music, but also the lyrics. PG says he was the first one to do rock music in Swedish. In a credible way, Sven adds. Per is very happy to be able to participate and to pay some tribute to him.

Electric by the fabulous band Melody Club is next. They are from Sven’s hometown, Växjö. Great stuff coming out of that town, Sven says. The guys are laughing.

Sven and Per move on to the Lisa Miskovsky special. Per says she is a great singer and she is from the North. Her father was from the old Czechoslovakia and her mother was from Finland. She had made a debut album in 2001, which was an instant success. Sven adds she started writing songs at an early age, but she was super talented in many other ways. She was really close to become a member of the Swedish national team in snowboard. And she played hockey, Per adds. But the songwriting and the singing eventually got the upper hand. In 2001 she made her first single Driving One Of Your Cars. Mr. G says it’s very special. It sounds exactly like how pop music sounded in 2001. Sven agrees.

Cool track coming up next, Lady Stardust from Lisa’s second album Fallingwater. Sven doesn’t know how it did internationally. He is not really sure about Lisa’s international career actually. Per thinks it went so-so. This was a really big album in Sweden. She started working with Joakim Berg from the band Kent who co-wrote songs with her and also co-produced. That made a big difference style-wise. This is a really cool album and Lady Stardust was a big, big song on the radio. Sven remembers you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it. Big radio track.

Sven says it’s starting to heat up now, because they are moving out to the international big hit scene. Per says, what was interesting was that Lisa Miskovsky had this song called Another Shape Of My Heart, which eventually turned out to be Shape Of My Heart by the Backstreet Boys. Sven explains that Lisa made a demo of this song and it got in the hands of Max Martin. PG says Max Martin was producing and writing for Backstreet Boys at the time. In the Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sven adds. Sven doesn’t know if you can say that he kept half of Lisa’s ideas. Per says he doesn’t know, he wasn’t there. Haha. Sven says he wasn’t there either. Max Martin added some magic to it and just to let you know what the difference is, the guys play Another Shape Of My Heart, the Lisa Miskovsky version, and then the Shape Of My Heart version by Backstreet Boys.

Sven asks Per if he has ever written something similar to a boy band tune. Per says not that he knows of. Sven is curious about how it is for Per as a songwriter what started in the boy band era that there were multiple songwriters working together. Sometimes you can see up to 5 or even 10 songwriters. PG says it’s a different thing, he comes from a different generation. He is used to working alone or with one partner. But nowadays you do everything on the computer and you send your files to each other and people add things all the time. So it’s a different ball game. New times, new methods.

One more track is played by Lisa Miskovsky, also from the Fallingwater album. It was Lisa’s second album. A Brand New Day is Per’s favorite Lisa Miskovsky track. He thinks she sings beautifully on this one. It’s co-written by Lisa herself and Joakim Berg from Kent. A wonderful track from 2003. This wraps up the Lisa Miskovsky special. The guys mention once again that she is a great songwriter, performer, singer, hockey player and snowboarder.

The guys have an ace up their sleeves in the shape of Bob Hund. A wonderful band, according to Per. They play Tralala lilla molntuss. PG can’t translate it. Sven says if you think it’s a bit difficult to understand Thomas Öberg, the singer’s lyrics, don’t feel too depressed, because he is coming from Helsingborg in the South of Sweden, and a lot of Swedes have actually a bit trouble hearing what he says.

Mando Diao’s The Band is next and Toys And Flavors by The Hellacopters is the last song, from the album High Visibility released in 2000.

Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle on “Halv tre med Lotta Bromé” on Mix Megapol

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Per Gessle was Lotta Bromé’s guest on radio Mix Megapol on 18th October. You can listen to the interview HERE.

Lotta welcomes Per in the studio and mentions that it was exactly a year ago when Per was on this show, October 2022. She finds it fun that PG always releases new music in October. Per laughs and says it’s a coincidence of course. He releases music all the time. Lotta knows it and says she was sitting here in the studio all Easter waiting for Per to come, because he promised to come back then when he was on the show last time. She had eggs and stuff, but PG didn’t come. Per laughs and says something came in the way. Lotta says it was Gyllene Tider. She asks how the tour was.

Per says it was fantastic. The GT tour was magical and Gyllene Tider is a wonderful little pop band. They have always been touring regularly with odd intervals. These days, it feels like there is almost no one left who makes that kind of music anymore. So all of a sudden, they kind of represent a bygone era. They felt it for the first time this year. It didn’t feel like that at all when they toured in 2019. Lotta asks if it was a farewell tour again this summer. PG says it wasn’t. He doesn’t think you should paint yourself into a corner. Only Micke thinks so. Per laughs. So Lotta is curious if another GT tour is coming. Per doesn’t know, but it’s always fun to play together with the guys.

Lotta thinks GT has a very mixed audience. PG confirms it. It’s mostly those who have been there before, but it’s a fantastic mix of all sorts and they have been lucky enough to have managed to build up a song catalogue that is still attractive to a lot of people.

Lotta says it must be fun to get to a younger audience as well and that there are people who only now discover the music that has been around for so long for us. Per confirms it’s cool. The case is that the majority of those who listen to almost all music he makes, it’s music that they have gotten married to, they have divorced, they have graduated and stuff like that. There is so much going on in their lives and the music represents so many life events. It becomes a kind of soundtrack to everything that people have been through. It’s cool to be a part of it.

Lotta asks Per if he himself should pick one GT song that meant the most to him, what song would that be. PG finds it difficult to pick one and Lotta says he can’t cheat and say a Roxette or PG Roxette or Per solo song. It has to be a GT song. So after thinking, Per says a song that was some sort of a stepping stone to something new is Det är över nu. It was the first time that they really sounded the way they always wanted to sound. They got a new producer and it was recorded in 1995. Per had been out for 7 years with Roxette and got more routine through Roxette, so that all of a sudden when GT got back together in 1995, they sounded damn good.

After they play Det är över nu on the radio, Lotta mentions that Per will be on stage tonight. PG explains that there will be a tribute concert to Pugh Rogefeldt at Cirkus. It’s Per, Tomas Ledin, First Aid Kit and other artists on stage. Lotta asks Per why Pugh meant so much to him. Mr. G says Pugh has been with him his whole life. Pugh’s first concert Per saw was when he was 14, in Halmstad’s folk park. Pugh played there with his band Rainrock. Per remembers that Pugh had a bandana on his head and a long ponytail and after a few songs he took off this scarf and then they saw he was completely bald. He looked like Kojak. The Halmstad audience had never seen anything like that before, so they were shocked. Afterwards PG and his friends went to the Esso Motor Hotel where the band lived. They waited for the band there at the reception. Lotta asks if they dared to say hi to the band. PG says they didn’t dare to talk to them. Lotta asks if Per had the chance to tell Pugh about this when they met. PG says he did.

The first time Per and Pugh met was when Gyllene Tider recorded their second LP. It came out in 1981 and Pugh came to the studio to read the stanza “mina damer och herrar, det är gyllene tider för rock’n’roll”, the intro to the song Gyllene Tider för rock’n’roll. It’s unbelievably big for the guys in GT that he did it. Then he went on tour with Gyllene Tider in 2004, on the biggest GT tour. Pugh was a special guest.

Lotta says people always talk about Pugh as the father of Swedish rock. His first album was Ja, dä ä dä! and he wrote lyrics in Swedish. PG says not only that he wrote in Swedish, but he actually created his own language. The second record was called Pughish and there he sings in his own language. Per has always been interested in lyrics and he thinks there are similarities between Pugh’s lyrics and John Lennon’s lyrics. There are these nonsense, odd lyrics, e.g. I Am The Walrus. That’s very attractive to Per. Especially Pugh’s early records, which are a little more fuzzy and a little more unstructured are incredibly attractive to PG.

He chose to cover Vandrar i ett regn. It came out on a live record called Ett steg till in 1975. That was recorded at Halmstad Theatre – among other places – where Per saw Pugh and Rainrock and Janne Lucas and Ola Magnell.

Lotta says Pugh was truly an idol. Per says he had great vibes and he looked cool. Mr. G says he made a video for Vandrar i ett regn and Ebba, who directed this video, has managed to find a lot of cool pictures of Pugh from the past. He looked damn cool.

Lotta says Per doesn’t wear a bandana. Per laughs and says he doesn’t have any. Too much hair to put under, Lotta says. Per laughs and then they play Vandrar i ett regn.

Lotta asks when was the last time Per met Pugh. Mr. G says he met Pugh in person at his last concert. He performed at Cirkus in Stockholm in 2019. Per was there with Clarence Öfwerman, Roxette’s producer. They were sitting in the first row of the gallery and at one song Pugh went out into the audience and sang the song. He caught sight of Per, walked up to him and then he hugged Mr. G. It made Per so happy, because they never had that kind of a relationship, but he just hugged PG. He was happy to see Per.

When Mr. G had recorded Vandrar i ett regn, it ended up with Pugh, so he listened to it and thought it was great that Per recorded it. It was only a couple of days before he passed away, so it also feels great that he got to hear it and Per got a response to it.

Lotta is curious how often Per makes covers. It’s not that often. However, PG likes covers as an artist, because you can use them to tell a little about where you are coming from. They did that with Gyllene Tider early on. They played, for example, ABBA’s S.O.S., Mott The Hoople, The Beatles, a bit of everything by Tom Petty. Roxette played a bit of Blondie and a bit of The Birds. One of Per’s favourite records is David Bowie’s Pin-Ups album, which is a fantastic collection of Bowie’s ’60s favourites. Lotta adds that Bryan Ferry has done some great covers too. Per agrees.

So, Per thinks covers are fun, but he doesn’t make covers that often. You have to prioritize your own songs.

Lotta wants to know how many times Per was asked to be on Så mycket bättre. [It’s a Swedish TV reality show in which participating musicians perform their own version of well-known songs by other artists. /PP] Many times, Per replies. Lotta is curious why Per doesn’t take part in it. Per says from what he understands, you have to go away for 6 weeks and live with other artists. It sounds like a nightmare. They are laughing. Lotta says that Per is touring a lot and asks if it is OK to live with the guys in GT then. PG says it’s true he is away on tour a lot, but there are no cameras all the time.

Lotta says the last time they also talked about getting older and people passing away. Then Per also talked about the importance of nurturing relationships. PG says you have to make the most of what you have. He says you start to become like your parents, throwing out clichés like this about how you should behave when you get old. Per laughs. Lotta says she is very happy that Per came here today and nurtures their relationship. Haha.

Last time Per was on the show he had many things coming up. There was the PG Roxette album, the Gyllene Tider record, then a tour. PG says there will be a lot of stuff happening next year as well that he can’t really reveal yet, but he thinks he will have to do it before Easter. Haha.

What he can tell is that a Gyllene Tider movie will premiere next summer. The shootings end this week. Then next autumn the Roxette musical will premiere in Malmö.

Lotta asks Per about contemporary music. She is curious if Per heard anything lately that he liked. There aren’t too many new songs that Per gets hooked on, but there are occasional artists who are exciting. Weyes Blood, for example. He says now he is like his parents again and laughs. Mr. G says when he really needs to listen to music, he often goes back to the music he grew up with. He doesn’t need a new Joni Mitchell, because he has Joni Mitchell and he doesn’t need a new Tom Petty, because he has Tom Petty. He knows so much music and he has such a huge music collection that it’s enough for him. So it’s not that easy to knock on his door and get in with a new song.

Lotta asks Per to pick an old song they should play then. PG chooses American Girl by Tom Petty.

Lotta says it’s always a pleasure to see Per and a warm welcome back at Easter or even earlier. Per thanks for it and says he’ll be glad to come back.

Stills are from THIS video.

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – September 2023

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Per Gessle and Sven Lindström recorded the next episode of Nordic Rox in Halmstad. They are featuring one of Per’s favourite bands from the ’60s, a Stockholm based band called Ola & The Janglers. Sven says here comes the 10,000 dollar question: what does jangler mean? PG hasn’t got a clue, but he thinks it sounds cool. Sven agrees. He says they know the „jingle jangle morning” that Dylan had in his lyric and he also thinks he saw some definition that the jangler was some person who was useless in doing something. Sven: „You know, he’s been jangling with this forever.” PG: „Like you.” Sven: „Haha. Exactly. Another version pointed out a guy like you, and that was the dark web version that a jangler was someone who kicked another guy in the balls.” PG: „Alright. Thank you very much.” Sven says that since they are from Sweden, they don’t actually have a clue, they just accept that the band is called Ola & The Janglers.

The guys start off with one of their favourite artists who is on repeat playing on Nordic Rox. It’s Adiam Dymott and the track is from her self-titled album from 2009 and it’s called Pizza.

Swedish ’90s pop, Fishtank by This Perfect Day comes next. It’s a great song, Per thinks, taken from their album C-60 from 1997. Sven asks Per what C-60 makes him think of. PG replies cassettes, of course.

The latest and greatest single from First Aid Kit called Turning Onto You is next. It’s taken from their latest album Palomino.

Before the guys sink their teeth into Ola & The Janglers, they take a look at Gyllene Tider and play Sunday Driver, Yea. The English lyrics to a song that Per wrote for his Swedish band. PG explains that the album is in Swedish, but one song was originally in English, so he decided to make an English version as well. Waking up the power pop monster that’s been dormant for a couple of years, Sven says. As they mentioned on the last show, the band has been on a successful tour around Sweden for 6-7 weeks, winding up doing some festivals in Finland and a big show in Norway as well.

Chris Craft No 9 by The Shanes comes next. The Shanes is a ’60s band from the northern part of Sweden. Sven thinks that this is one of the best original Swedish pop songs that came out in the ’60s. Mr. G thinks it still sounds good. Sven says no wonder, because it was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios. Per thinks it’s cool.

Endeavor by Timo Räisänen, a great indie track from the mid noughties is played next.

Speaking about cool bands, Ola & The Janglers from Stockholm, Sweden are today’s featured artist. The guys play 4 tracks from them that sort of paint a picture of what they were all about. Per says he liked this band a lot when he was a kid and he actually had their first album, Surprise Surprise. It was based on this old Rolling Stones song called Surprise Surprise. It was Ola & The Janglers’ first hit record in Sweden. It brought them into the Tio i topp show (Top10 show). That made them instant pop stars in Sweden in 1965. They were a great live band as well and had a very distinctive sound, because they had this Hammond organ, which was great. Johannes Olsson was an amazing player and they sounded really good. Most of the stuff they did was original material, but at the same time, many of their hits were cover versions. But they had a really, really gifted songwriter in the guitarist Claes af Geijerstam. He eventually became the front of house guy for ABBA. When ABBA did their world tours in the late ’70s, he was the front of house guy. And to add even more credentials, he won the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden with another guy called Göran Fristorp in 1973. Sven says Per didn’t ask for that kind of information, but he got it anyway. Per says we could have lived without that. Haha. Here they play Surprise Surprise.

The second Ola & The Janglers song was written by Claes af Geijerstam. It’s a 1966 track called Bird’s Eye View Of You. Sven asks Per if he can remember listening to his transistor radio when this came on the air. PG can remember it, he definitely heard this song on the radio when he was young. This is from an album called Limelight and he had that album and loved it. It’s a really cool one, he thinks. Sven says the singer, Ola Håkansson was really original. He could sound a bit punky in the rocker numbers, but also being rather sweet in the ballads. He had this Mick Jagger style, Per adds. You could tell that he was influenced by Jagger. He went on to be the lead guy of the band called Secret Service in the ’80s. Eventually he became a record executive in charge of the TEN record label, which hosts, for instance, Sara Larsson these days. He worked a lot with Robyn as well. He never lost his magic hit touch, he is one of the big guys in the Swedish music industry.

The guys stick to 1966 when Ola & The Janglers were fresh out of school. Sven says Per claims 1966 is the best pop year ever. PG confirms and adds 1971 as well. Sven says he is not totally convinced. He claims 1965 is a contender, but they don’t go into that debate right now. Haha.

Ola & The Janglers made two albums in 1966. The second album was Patterns. It’s a great album too, Per thinks. They did a magnificent version of a Jackie DeShannon song. They actually did a couple of Jackie DeShannon songs, but this is Per’s favourite, Come And Stay With Me. A great track. You just get reminded what an amazing songwriter and artist Jackie DeShannon was. Per adds that when you hear this band, it’s a great little pop band. Johannes Olsson who played the Hammond organ made this great sound. It reminds you a little bit of The Zombies. Speaking of The Zombies, Ola & The Janglers did a version of She’s Not There very early on. They were heavily inspired by them. Sven likes the guitar sound here. By late 1965, the guitarist and songwriter Claes af Geijerstam had entered the band. He replaced the original guitarist. Sven thinks he does a really great guitar solo on this track. Per agrees. The ’60s guitar style is all over the place as well, so it just became a really, really good pop band.

Sven says 1966 was a great year for pop music and a very young Per Gessle who was glued to the transistor radio. Haha. The guys wind up the Ola & The Janglers tribute with a song from their first album written by guitar player Claes af Geijerstam. This one was a big hit, the first number one single they had in Sweden. Love Was On Your Mind is a beautiful little pop tune, Sven thinks. Per mentions that the band had an American hit in 1969. They did a cover version of Let’s Dance by Chris Montez and it peaked at No. 92 on the Billboard chart. One of the first Swedish artists entering the Billboard Hot 100.

Garage rock explosion delivered by The Peepshows in the shape of Cheap Thrills comes next. Then it’s Power Man And Astro Girl by Kristjan Eastman. Snack by Sydkraft from Halmstad, Sweden is played next. A short lived new wave band active in the late ’70s. The song title translates to something between hot air and pure bullshit.

Slowing things down a little bit, the guys play a beautiful cover of Broder Daniel’s Shoreline by Anna Ternheim. The Cat by True Lies, a band from Malmö is next and that wraps up this episode of Nordic Rox.

Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – August 2023

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In the middle of Gyllene Tider’s Hux Flux tour, Per Gessle and Sven Lindström sat together in Halmstad to record the August episode of Nordic Rox.

Per asks Sven how he is doing. Sven replies he is fine, but he can hear Per is a bit hoarse. It’s because he is touring at the moment, singing four or five times a week, so at his age this happens. Working hard, Sven says. Mr. G says it’s cool, it’s been a great tour. Sven informs that he was there in Malmö and he also saw the premiere in Halmstad and Per seems to be in top shape with the band. PG says it’s a great little band.

Mr. G says he always tells the crowd that this is the 8th summer tour they are doing with Gyllene Tider, his Swedish band and it’s the 5th comeback tour. They disbanded in the mid ’80s and had 5 comeback tours since then. Sven asks Per what he thinks, why they are still so popular. Per says quite a lot of their songs have become sort of classics in Sweden. It’s the back catalogue they are playing. They released a new album a month ago, which is going fine. It’s just that people prefer the old stuff, which PG can understand. It’s the same thing when he goes to watch his old heroes, e.g. McCartney or the Stones or Springsteen. He wants to hear his favourite songs from the past. He doesn’t want to hear the new album.

Sven says he saw Nick Lowe in Malmö half a year ago and somewhere in the middle of the show, he said „I’m now going to say the most dreaded words in show business: and here’s a new song”. The guys are laughing. Per says it’s like that and it’s a bit unfortunate, because for him as a writer, he is always trying to look forward and trying to be living in the now thing. But Gyllene Tider in particular, when it comes to that band, it has become very much a nostalgic act. Which is fine, he is not complaining.

Sven says GT has a new song in English. Per explains he wrote this song in English and when they recorded the new album, he translated it into Swedish. So it’s on the album in Swedish, but they did a version with the English lyrics as well, just for fun. They put it on the B side on a vinyl single. The guys play Sunday Driver Yea.

The next song is He’s Peculiar by Vibeke Saugestad, power pop queen of Norway. Great track, Sven thinks. He says he checked out a few of Vibeke’s albums. Per’s bandmate in Roxette, Magnus Börjeson was playing with her and producing her. PG thinks she is very good.

Then comes Staffan Hellstrand’s beautiful song, Lilla fågelblå, which translates into tiny bluebird. Staffan was on the same label as Per, on EMI. Sven thinks the Swedish garage rock band, The Nomads was playing with him on this one, which made the whole thing a bit edgier than it had been before. Per thinks it’s a great song.

Getting back to Sunday Driver Yea and the new album of GT, Sven mentions that every time Per buys a new guitar, he writes a new song. Per confirms. He doesn’t really buy that many guitars anymore, but every time you pick up a new guitar, you start to play in a different manner. You find new things on an instrument. He bought an old Gretsch guitar, this sort of square guitar of Bo Diddley style and he plugged it into his little amplifier in his office and out came these guitar riffs. Out of nowhere, it just happened. Sven thought with that guitar, it was destined to become a Bo Diddley beat, but it went the other direction. It went to a punk rock thing instead, Per says. He doesn’t know why. It’s just the way it goes.

Sven says GT is going to finish off their tour in the upcoming weeks with a majestic gig in Gothenburg on 5th August. Per says they are playing at the Ullevi football stadium there and it’s the fourth time they play there. It’s a big venue.

Making a soft transition to the next song, Sven mentions that the next song is by Tages, a group from Gothenburg. Per thinks Tages was probably the best Swedish band in the ’60s.

They wrote their own material most of the time and they were a great band. Every Raindrop Means A Lot is a brilliant song even today, PG thinks. Sven says they looked rather cool. He thinks they went over to London to Canopy Street to get their gear. They really had a sharp mod look to them. PG agrees. Sven says Tages is probably the worst group name in the pop world in Sweden in the ’60s. It’s an old Swedish name dated by far already then. But he thinks they chose this for ironic purposes, because nobody else would come up with a name like that. Per thinks maybe someone in the band had Tages as a second name. Sven says they have to check that out. Anyway, the song is brilliant Swedish pop from 1967.

The next track is Say Lou Lou’s latest single, which is a cover of the old Kate Bush song, You’re The One.

Here comes this episode’s special. The guys feature Teddybears with four songs. Sven asks Per what his relation with Teddybears is. PG says he didn’t really know anything about them until they had their first hits. He knows they started in the early ’90s, but it was later on that he heard about them, the Punkrocker song. They have an album called Rock ‘n’ Roll Highschool, which Per thought was really cool. Sven explains that that was the album they broke through in 2000. It was actually their third album. Sven says neither he, nor Per is into the metal world or too much in the hardcore punk world, but he just checked them out a bit and it’s interesting to see how they are described. They started out as a grindcore band in 1991. Sven says then you question yourself, what’s a grindcore band. Per says he hasn’t got a clue. It’s an extreme form of hardcore punk and metal with a connection to both death metal and crust punk, Sven informs. The guys don’t get any wiser by this info though. Haha. The Teddybears made two albums in the early ’90s as this kind of grindcore band until somebody came up with a brilliant idea that maybe they should change style. Then they got a very distinct sound to them when they had their breakthrough with Punkrocker and all those songs that the guys are going to listen to, Cobrastyle and Rocket Scientist. These sounded very typical Teddybears. It’s a bit hard to describe the style. It’s rock and it’s also a bit of pop. There is a bit of electronica to it too. And it’s an interesting, very individual, personal style. Great productions as well, PG adds. So here comes Punkrocker, the song that dominated the Swedish airwaves in the early noughties.

The next song is only 14 years old. Get Mama A House is a brilliant track from 2009, Per thinks. Great single and typical of the Teddybears late style, Sven thinks. They got their inspiration from Jamaica. But they have influences from and you could hear Devo a lot, Per adds. Sven agrees, you can hear all these electronic sounds. Almost like toy sounds. Per always loves these productions. He finds them cool. The weirder sounds of the new wave stuff, Sven says. When the band performs, they hide themselves behind gigantic bear masks. They look really cool. Per doesn’t really know how they look for real, but it doesn’t really matter. The brothers Jokke and Klas Ålund are in the band. Per knows Klas produced Swedish singer Robyn and he also worked with Britney Spears.

Get Mama A House is featuring Desmond Forster. One of many collaborations of Teddybears. They always seem to collaborate with a lot of interesting artists. On the album called Devil’s Music in 2010, they worked with The Flaming Lips and The B-52s. Rocket Scientist, the opening track on that album they did with American rapper Eve. This could be their best song for Per. It’s a brilliant, very cool track.

The 4th and final song on this episode’s special is Cobrastyle. Proof that things can only get better, especially if you are talking about Teddybears. The song features Jamaican dancehall musician, Mad Cobra. Sven asks Per how is that for an artist’s name. PG finds it cool. Sven jokes, „your name is Per Gessle. His name is Mad Cobra.” PG says „he wins”. Haha. Mr. G says this song pops up here and there. You hear it in different movies, commercials, computer games. It’s just a timeless style and it’s really cool and very original.

Sven says they forgot to mention that Iggy Pop did the vocals on the American version of Punkrocker. How is that for punk rock royalty!

The special is over and the song the guys play next is I’m Kingfisher’s The Pain Of Happiness. Then comes Kaleidoscope Dream by The Northern Belle.

The last song on the show is Wailing Wall by Todd Rundgren. Per says the big question is, how on earth Todd Rundgren wound up on Nordic Rox. It’s not easy, Sven says, but if your name is Todd and your last name is Rundgren (pronounced in the English way) or Rundgren as Sven would say in Swedish, then it’s easier, because Todd’s father is of Swedish descent. This makes it easier to slip into the Nordic Rox playlist. Wailing Wall is a beautiful song.

The guys thank everyone for listening, then Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!