Per Gessle’s Top9 songs from the 90’s

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This program is from more than a year ago, but last summer there was a heavy Per Gessle solo tour, so I didn’t have the time to sit down and summarize Gessles nio i topp in English. Now I feel like I need to practice my Swedish, so why not listening to these enthusiastic PG podcasts again. Maybe you get into the mood too. 😉

Per and Sven Lindström talk about the 9 best songs from the 90’s in THIS podcast. The guys say there could have been thousands of songs chosen for this program and it was really hard to pick 9 real good hits that remained in the heart and brain. Per says it was the decade when Roxette had its greatest success, so he was also involved and actually listened to other bands’ music differently vs. how he listened to music e.g. in the 80’s or 70’s and 60’s.

Per’s Top9 songs from the 90’s:

9. The La’s – There She Goes
8. Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself
7. Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
6. The Dandy Warhols – Every Day Should Be A Holiday
5. Guy Clark – Dublin Blues
4. Oasis – Supersonic
3. Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Mary Jane’s Last Dance
1. The Cure – Friday I’m In Love

Per’s first choice is The La’s There She Goes, a song that was released in 1988, but it flopped, then it was released again in 1989 and it flopped again. Then it was remixed by Steve Lillywhite (U2’s producer) and re-released in 1990. Per thinks it’s an awesome song, survived all the trends and is still cool.

Per looks at his list and says there are several one hit wonders on it. Matthew Sweet is his next choice and Sven says besides the song chosen by PG, Sick of Myself, Matthew Sweet had at least one other hit. Per then laughs and says he means one hit wonders in HIS world. Sick of Myself from 1995 is a fantastic song, it’s kind of a bubblegum pop song. It’s from the album, 100% Fun, and that’s exactly what it is: 100% fun. Pure power pop, which fitted the 90’s so much.

Natalie Imbruglia (it’s worth listening to PG how he tries to pronounce her name, haha) is No. 7 with Torn, released in 1997. Per thinks this song has that magical power good pop music has to have. Mr. G says 1997 was the year when The World According to Gessle came out, while he and Marie were taking a break from Roxette. Sven says in the 90’s Per worked with Roxette, Gyllene Tider and solo as well and real power pop songs were born then, like June Afternoon or Sleeping In My Car. It was the decade of classic guitar pop. Sleeping In My Car he tried to write with the thought of Gyllene Tider power pop a la Roxette. Sven mentions SIMC was released on Crash! Boom! Bang! and Per says after they had been working on the album for more than a year, EMI couldn’t find a single. Then Per went home pissed off and wrote SIMC and that became the lead single off CBB.

No. 6 is The Dandy Warhols, Every Day Should Be A Holiday, also from 1997. Per thinks The Dandy Warhols made cool pop music, he thinks their song Bohemian Like You (2000) is a masterpiece. Sven likes their tough guitar sound and the melodies.

The next song on the list is a wonderful country song, Guy Clark’s Dublin Blues from 1995. Per thinks it’s incredibly good. Guy Clark lived in Nashville where Per recorded his latest 2 Swedish solo albums. Mr. G likes how Guy Clark expressed himself as a singer-songwriter and how he sang his own texts. Per says country music came into his life indirectly. His mum listened to Gunnar Wiklund in the 60’s, Jim Reeves classic country songs, then there was the Eagles, then The Rolling Stones’ Dead Flowers in 1971 and then Neil Young. There is country music everywhere.

Mr. G says one can’t write a list of 90’s songs without Oasis, so they come next with Supersonic from 1994. It’s a very well-done song with a really cool guitar sound, everything is good about it, the singing and title as well. Sven mentions Liam Gallagher said Oasis is like Ferrari. ”Great to look at, great to drive, and it’ll fucking spin out of control every now and again.” Per (a Ferrari lover) says Liam was right.

The third place is of a one hit wonder, Crash Test Dummies and their Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm from 1993. The song was produced by Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads. The exciting video made the song even bigger and it was shown on MTV all the time. It was an odd song, just like XTC’s Senses Working Overtime. Per likes the title a lot.

No. 2 on PG’s list is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Mary Jane’s Last Dance, released on the Greatest Hits album in 1993. Per thinks it’s an awesome song with an awesome guitar sound. It had a fantastic video starring Kim Basinger. It was worth buying the Greatest Hits album for those 2 new songs on it. Sven jokes this is what they did with Roxette as well, releasing a greatest hits album with new songs. Per laughs. Sven is wondering why Per as a huge Tom Petty fan didn’t put this song to the first place, but Mr. G says it’s because the No. 1 on his list is a bit better than this song.

Saying that, you might be surprised that No. 1 is Friday I’m In Love from The Cure, from 1992. For Per they are a typical one hit wonder band, even if there are hardcore fans still following them. Friday I’m In Love is such a good song that no other hit comes even close to it. It has timeless pop quality and great production and has followed Per through all his life since it was released. After the song Per shows his high and low voice. It’s worth listening, haha. Awesome!

Sven says Per had at least 6 different lists before he finalized THIS list. There was a list that had Brainpool on it with Bandstarter, which is an awesome song and there could have been R.E.M. with Man on the Moon as well, but this Top9 wasn’t a double LP, so they got erased from the list in the end.

BOXETTE: 7 things we hope could happen with this release

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Over 4 years ago we have prepared a comprehensive summary of all Roxette concerts we know have been recorded professionally on tape. Some of these have only been shown live on TV, others were lucky enough to become official releases and there is even one or two that were streamed online in dark days of slow internet. And for the most of these cases they weren’t showcasing the whole concert.

There were quite few concerts released on VHS, some received laser-disc treatment (do you remember what that was?) and only selected saw the light of DVD revolution, not to mention Bluray nor streaming-days. Currently only Roxette’s “Travelling the world”, a release covering 2012 gigs, is available to mass audience, while some of you might still find MTV Unplugged circulating over the auction sites as a part of 2006 out-of-stock RoxBox.

For a very long time there have been discussions when we could expect re-release of major Roxette concerts and each time Per Gessle answered Warner and Team Rox are investigating what’s possible. This week Roxette Cafe, Facebook-based fan site, has found a plan to release a 4-DVD box called “Boxette” on the Slovenian site. The box includes:

  1. SWEDEN LIVE ’88 (filmed at Himmelstalundshallen in Norrköping, Sweden on 16 December 1988) & LOOK SHARP ’89 (filmed at two concerts at Borgholm Castle on the Baltic Sea island of Öland on 25/26 July 1989)
  2. LIVE-ISM ’91 (performance at Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia on 13 December 1991)
  3. CRASH!BOOM!BANG!LIVE! ’95 (recorded on 14 January 1995 at Ellis Park Johannesburg, South Africa)
  4. ROOM SERVICE TOUR ’01 (recording from the Globen Arena Stockholm on 16 November 2001)

The 4 DVD collection will be housed in a hardcover book with a 24 page booklet with new interviews including one with Per Gessle. Though we have not received any press release from Roxette management team yet, Per already shared this on Roxette and Per Gessle Facebook profiles, making  it officially. Still it’s unsure if the provided information is full and final nor when this would be released.  And as Sandra Knospe noticed, the cover picture was taken almost exactly 29 years ago on the 12th of July 1989 – obviously without that pink Instagram filter 😉

Is that release a good news, you may ask? Idea-wise and from fans perspective – it’s excellent. I found its name funny in that very peculiar Gesslish style (RoxBox or It must have been lunch are another examples). Are there any risks? Potentially. It depends how much involvement and care Warner and Rox team have given to this project.

Here’s the list of 7 things we hope could happen with this release:

1. Sound

Everyone connected to the Internet at the end of 2001 remembers how exciting it was to wait for the second to last Roxette concert during the Room Service tour in Globen, Stockholm. It was about to be streamed all over the world free of charge to anyone that was willing to watch. Crazy jolly times! And how disappointed many of us were when we noticed (heard, to be more precise) that the whole concert had those awful metal noices in the background. Back in the day both Marie and Per said the quality of Stockholm gig would not be high enough for a DVD or home video. “Recording a concert for a DVD would mean cameramen running around on the stage. It would destroy the night,” said Per, Daily Roxette reported back in 2001. 18 years later it became an option as it seems for the reason one can only speculate. Better late than never, but we hope the sound would be remastered across all releases and if necessary replaced with soundboard recordings that we know exists for most of the concerts. Do I need to say that older concerts would also gain a lot with improved sound? After all, if Roxette studio albums got newly remastered back in 2009, why not Boxette-concerts?

2. Picture

Fans living in the 90s surely fondly remember times where VHS was the only way to watch something on demand – anywhere and anytime, though looking for a certain song was certainly an effort. But every time the concert was played, the quality got a little bit worse and after few years VHS recording looked like an out-dated movie taken from the vaults. Together with sound remastering, one can hope picture remastering was done as well. We obviously understand it takes time and money (and most of all – efforts) to do so, but as we have waited so long for that release, this would be a clear sign for everyone it was done properly with all the deserved respect to Roxette legacy and to 2018 audience needs. And hey, we’re hoping master tapes were found in the EMI/Warner archives as it would be the only way to get it right and in better quality. We’re already fed up watching VHS-rips of ’88 performances or a blurry internet connection version of 2001 Stockholm gig. Fingers crossed for 16:9 ratio as well if possible. And a colour version.

3. Bonus songs

Tracklisting provided by the Slovenian site gives us very little hope there would be something extra on this release, except for the 24-page booklet. No additional footage from the legendary Borgholm castle concert, where Listen to your heart video was shot. Nothing extra from the massive Jo-burg C!B!B! gig nor any omitted songs from the Sydney performance. We understand some songs could have been removed from the official releases due to lack of space on VHS or a certain formatting-demand from TV-channels around the world, but why not to look more deeply for forgotten treasures? Just have a look at the RoxBox case; it turned out that MTV has all the songs recorded beyond the TV broadcast that could’ve been released for the first time. Why not to have the same high expectation from this release? Dear Warner, I’m sure you can do it right.

Let’s have a closer look at the announced tracklist and what could’ve been improved:

DVD1
  • Sweden Live ’88 could be enhanced with “I Call Your Name”, “Chances”, “Goodbye to you”, “It must have been love” (pre-Pretty Woman Christmas version!) or “Sleeping Single”, that were performed during that concert.
  • Look Sharp ’89 – it seems like there are just 3 live songs we already know by heart (Dance Away – Cry – Paint) and 3 extra materials that serve as official videos for Dangeroud, Listen to your heart and Silver Blue.
    Sweden Live ’88 part:
  1. Dressed for Success
  2. The Look
  3. Cry
  4. Joy of a Toy
  5. Surrender
  6. Neverending Love
  7. Dance Away
  8. Dangerous
  9. Soul Deep
  10. Listen to Your Heart
  11. The Look
  12. Dressed For Success

    Look Sharp ’89 part:

  13. Dance Away – LIVE
  14. Dangerous – VIDEO
  15. Cry – LIVE
  16. Paint – LIVE
  17. Silver Blue – VIDEO
  18. Listen To Your Heart – VIDEO
  19. The Look (remix) – VIDEO
DVD2
  • LIVE-ISM ’91 recorded in Sydney misses 6 songs from the setlist, obviously following the VHS release. Why these 6 songs didn’t make the final release in 1992 – gods only know, but it means we have been living without Sydney versions of Listen To Your Heart (seriously?) Fading Like a Flower (?!), Sleeping Single (again!), Spending My Time (what the?), Paint and Dance Away for the past 26 years. And do we really need to see “How do you do” video here, hm? I would not mind removing it.
  1. Hotblooded
  2. Dangerous
  3. The Big L
  4. Watercolours in the Rain
  5. Church of Your Heart
  6. Knockin’ on Every Door
  7. Things Will Never Be the Same
  8. Dressed for Success
  9. Soul Deep
  10. The Look
  11. It Must Have Been Love
  12. (Do you get) Excited?
  13. Joyride
  14. Perfect Day
  15. How Do You Do!
DVD3
  • CRASH!BOOM!BANG!LIVE! ’95 – 5 songs were removed from the final cut including “Go to sleep”, “So you wanna be rock’n’roll star”, “Fading like a flower” (is there a FLAF curse that three official releases – Live-ism, MTV Unplugged and C!B!B! in a row erased that songs off the setlist?!), “I love the sound of crashing guitars” and“Hotblooded”.
  1. Sleeping in My Car
  2. Fireworks
  3. Almost Unreal
  4. Dangerous
  5. Crash! Boom! Bang!
  6. Listen to Your Heart
  7. The First Girl on the Moon
  8. Harleys & Indians
  9. Lies
  10. The Rain
  11. Run to You
  12. It Must Have Been Love
  13. Dressed for Success
  14. The Big L
  15. Spending My Time
  16. The Look
  17. Love Is All
  18. Joyride
DVD4
  • ROOM SERVICE TOUR ’01 – the second ever concert – just after 2006 RoxBox MTV Unplugged – to be released entirely. Not much to comment yet, as long as we get the better quality to what we have seen so far. My expectation here is not very high; still wondering what made this release possible after 18 long years?
  1. Crush on You
  2. Dressed for Success
  3. Listen to Your Heart
  4. Waiting for the Rain
  5. Real Sugar
  6. It Must Have Been Love
  7. The Centre of the Heart
  8. Stars
  9. You Don’t Understand Me
  10. Fading Like a Flower
  11. Spending My Time
  12. Dangerous
  13. Sleeping in My Car
  14. Milk and Toast and Honey
  15. Wish I Could Fly
  16. The Big L.
  17. Joyride
  18. Little Girl
  19. Crash!Boom!Bang!
  20. Anyone
  21. Hotblooded
  22. The Look
  23. Queen of Rain
  24. Church of Your Heart

4. Quality

I belive I mentioned several times: we are in 2018. It means few things – political-wise it feels like we have moved quite significantly back in time, but for the most of world – except the flat-earthers out there – technology has proved to be moving forward very fast. DVD became famous in the early 00’s as you could put much more material, increase the quality of video to even 5GB compared to 700-MB CD size. Since then we have seen double-sided DVDs (remember RoxBox?). The only concert Rox & team released on Bluray (size from 25 to even 180GB, faster data transfer, better picture resolution of 1920x1080p, better sound options) was “Travelling the world”. Why not to get the same for these legendary concerts? If not for us fans, then these concerts simple deserve being served to general audience in much better quality. If you are interested in knowing more about the quality of DVD versus Bluray, there is a great Wikipedia article summing things up.

5. Extra material

We all know – the concert is one thing. But after watching Roxette Diairies and hearing about forthcoming Look Sharp! 30th anniversary release, we are sure there is so much more video material existing, recorded by Per and Åsa themselves covering backstages, soundchecks, travels and free time during the Roxette touring hey days. A short documentary special on each concert (or tour) could be provided with this behind-the-camera feeling. It was wonderful to watch the documentary on “Travelling the world” or two other docs “The Making of Joyride” or “Really Roxette” on previous DVDs. These homevideos deserve to be part of Roxette concert history. Will there be a better occassion to share them than this?

6. Streaming

We’re living in interesting times where it’s not about owning the stuff any longer, but about having access to it. So why not to try and pitch one of the global streaming platforms and make these concerts available for some time for those who would watch but are no longer collecting DVDs, Blurays or might even have no device to play it? HBO, Amazon, Netflix are looking for different stuff and maybe they could feel the Roxette niche is worth investing in. It’s worth a try. If not paid platforms, why not previously mentioned ad-supported YouTube?

7. Future releases

And does this Boxette mean no other release will ever officially see the daylight? What about magical Zurich ’91 or South American concerts recorded for TV purposes in both ’92 and ’95? Why not to include MTV Unplugged and all videos every made into that box? If Roxette days are over, group’s history needs to be wrapped up in a very decent form covering all video efforts ever made. And more.

But let’s see what the future brings. Hoping only the good.

Per Gessle – En vacker kväll – live DVD

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1 year after Per Gessle’s most wonderful  ”En vacker kväll” tour you can now relive the whole 2017 summer feeling. We already hoped for a live DVD when we were there in Halmstad for the 16th gig on 11th August 2017 and saw so many cameras around. Then in December we could see the fantastic documentary, Gessle enligt Gessle (Part 1; Part 2), in which there was footage from the tour as well. We’d been kept waiting a bit longer, but at last, tadaaa, the live DVD was released on 25th June.

The DVD looks beautiful already on the outside. It comes in a shiny cardboard sleeve which you can take off and there is the usual plastic DVD case, including the same pictures and info on the front and back covers as the cardboard sleeve. The picture on the front cover is not from Halmstad. It’s probably from Rättvik. The black & white inside picture, showing PG + the whole band + Lars Winnerbäck from the back after taking a bow is from Linköping. Pictures are taken by Anders Roos.

You put on the DVD and you’re right back in Halmstad. The crowd cheering before PG & Co come up on stage, clapping, whistling, shouting. Then they are all there and start playing the hits. It’s awesome to see and hear Per and his fantastic band and also to see so many familiar faces, not only on stage, but also in the crowd, from all around the world.

Goosebumps during the whole film, from the first shalalalalalalala singalong to the gang taking a bow. It’s really great to have the complete show recorded, including all the talkings, intros and of course, the fab songs. The sound is awesome, the recordings are perfect. Grumpy Production did a wonderful job filming it all.

”Ljudet av ett annat hjärta” was a highlight during each gig. A cool uptempo song among the ballads. It makes you jump up from your sofa and dance in front of the TV. And ”Spegelboll” keeps you on your feet too. And towards the end, ”Sommartider” with the adrenalin rush drum intro. Gosh! Can we just turn back time? Or maybe fast forward to October now, please! I need a tour, right now! 😉

P.S.: Thanx for including ”Tittar på dej när du dansar” over the cast & crew credits!!!

If you were there in Halmstad, it is a must to have this DVD in your collection. If you were not there, it is a must too! Get it from Bengans, Ginza or CDON and e.n.j.o.y.! Watch the trailer HERE!

 

Per Gessle – Small Town Talk album release

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Per Gessle will release his next English solo album on 7th September 2018. The title is ”Small Town Talk” and the album can already be pre-ordered in 3 formats at Bengans: standard CD, standard 2 LP gatefold and an exclusive, numbered limited edition white 2 LP gatefold (500 copies available – only at Bengans).

CD tracklist:

  1. There’s a Place
  2. The Finest Prize (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  3. Small Town Talk (feat. Nick Lowe)
  4. Simple Sound
  5. Far Too Close (feat. Savannah Church)
  6. Hold on My Heart (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  7. No One Makes It on Her Own (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  8. Being with You
  9. It Came Too Fast
  10. Name You Beautiful (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  11. For the First Time (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  12. One of These Days
  13. Rudy & Me (feat. Jessica S)

2 LP tracklist:

Disc 1 – Side A

  1. There’s a Place
  2. The Finest Prize (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  3. Small Town Talk (feat. Nick Lowe)
  4. Simple Sound

Disc 1 – Side B

  1. Far Too Close (feat. Savannah Church)
  2. Hold on My Heart (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  3. No One Makes It on Her Own (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  4. Being with You

Disc 2 – Side A

  1. It Came Too Fast
  2. Name You Beautiful (feat. Helena Josefsson)
  3. For the First Time (feat. Helena Josefsson)

Disc 2 – Side B

  1. One of These Days
  2. Rudy & Me (feat. Jessica S)
  3. Far Too Close (feat. Savannah Church) [Alex Shield Remix]

The album cover is a hot Nashville pic of Per taken by Anton Corbijn. Curious what other pictures we will find in the booklet. Exciting to see the tracklist! Looks like a great mix of Per’s Swedish Nashville songs translated into English, 2 gems that we could only hear as demos so far, 1 song that is probably a re-arranged version of Roxette’s NOMIOHO and at last, we will get to hear the duet with Jessica Sweetman, which Mr. G skipped to release on ”En vacker dag”. Probably, because he already knew he would release his Nashville project in English later. Very cool that ”Name You Beautiful” got a spot on the album and that Mr. G is doing the title track as a duet with one of his greatest idols, Nick Lowe. I personally wish ”Tittar på dej när du dansar” would be hiding behind one of the English titles, but somehow I doubt it’s any of them. Never mind! Mahi Nana! 😉 Many other fab songs to be enjoyed anyway. The first single is one of the fan favourites, the English version of ”Första pris”. ”The Finest Prize” is planned to be released digitally on 13th July.

 

Here we go again: 2018 solo tour setlist predictions

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Only 4 months are left to – what is currently planned – the premiere night of Per Gessle’s solo tour in Prague, Czech Republic on the 7th of October. The upcoming tournée will take the man from Roxette across 12 countries & 21 European cities in just 40 days. For the second time ever Gessle takes himself and European fans on the English language adventure through music, lyrics and memories he has been part of for the last 30 years.

Last year over 1,000 of you, dear RoxetteBlog readers voted for your favourite songs of Gessle, Gyllene Tider and Roxette in the series of 10 polls just before the solo Swedish tour took off. We are still hoping some of your suggestions might help Mr G to prepare a setlist as the band will surely start rehearsing during late summer. So here comes a little summary of what we know, what we think we know and what we don’t know (and we might never know).

As Roxette sadly became the past, Per declares his plans to concentrate mostly on the vast Roxette catalogue during his European tour in the exclusive RoxetteBlog interview: In the perfect world Marie would have been by my side to sing and perform but that won’t happen anymore. I have to live with that. You do too. The options I have are to perform the songs without her or not perform them at all. I chose the obvious one (…) Most of the songs will most certainly be Roxette-songs. I’ll probably sneak in a couple from the new solo album as well. Time will tell.

Do we have any hints of what Roxette gems can be performed during the tour? In the generic TV commercial produced for promotional purposes you can easily see and hear 3 Roxette songs from Halmstad’s 2017 concert as follow: The Look, Joyride, It must have been love. These hits are likely to get the same treatment as last year as it’s going to be the same band that goes on European roads with Per. It must have been love with Helena on the lead might be a hard to swallow for some, but well, we’re in 2018.  Dressed for success and Listen to your heart were also performed on a brief occassion during 2017 gigs, so these are another safe bets.  Looking also at some historical data, during the Party Crasher Tour the band performed 13 Roxette songs, beside 5 megahits mentioned previously, tracks such as Wish I Could Fly / She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore / 7Twenty7 / Opportunity Nox / Church Of Your Heart / Dangerous / Sleeping In My Car / Queen Of Rain. Country arrangements, anyone?

Would there be enough space on this year’s setlist to put songs less known which we haven’t heard in a while? I belive mosts fans support the idea of hearing compositions Per has created and sang himself originally on the official releases which haven’t heard live at all. One of the Swedish auction site Tradera user put a poster on sale that seems to be the official one for the Swedish leg of 2018 tour. What can come as a little surprise is the fact it includes tracks’ names that haven’t been performed by Gessle solo so far which are: Spending my time / How do you do / Fading like a flower / June Afternoon / Crash! Boom! Bang! / Vulnerable / Real sugar. Back in 2009 Vulnerable was said to be “impossible” to perform live. Have 9 years changed anything in that matter? Is it a random choice from the concert agency? Or maybe the poster is just fake? But hey, June Afternoon or Real Sugar are brilliant choices anyway.

On the top of that there is a Spotify Roxette playlist recently created by The Man himself which includes – beside obvious – incredible pearls (if you seriously consider theses songs could be performed live): “Paint”, “Jefferson”, “A Thing About You”, “Some other summer” or “Secrets that she keeps”. Unfortunately, we know such teasing on social media rarely leads to anything surprising in the end. In the last year’s poll you voted for She doesn’t live here anymore as the most desired Roxette songs that needs to be performed live. “a safe risk” with most popular Roxette songs? Time will tell, to quote our Guru.

Let’s not forget the fact the previous tour was also partially about solo material which actually received a very positive feedback from the audience back then. 11 songs performed during the Party Crasher Tour were a mix of Son of a plumber classics (Drowning In Wonderful Thoughts About Her / I Have A Party In My Head (I Hope It Never Ends) / Late, Later On / C’mon /  Are You On Old Hippie, Sir? / Hey Mr. Dj (Won’t You Play Another Love Song), highlights from The World According to Gessle (Stupid / Do You Wanna Be My Baby?) and very little off Party Crasher (The Party Pleaser / Doesn’t Make Sense). Yet another time we were said Silly Really doesn’t really translate well into a live song, so let it be. There was also a little surprise at the end – The Monkee’s (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone cover, also briefly performed by Roxette in 2010.

Looking at various interviews Gessle hopes “Small Town Talk” album (English version of last year’s Swedish solo projects) will get a little bit of exposure during the concert. If so, then the title song (Nick Lowe as a special guest in London?), “The Finest Prize” (Första pris last year was great live) or “There’s a place” (Min plats) could be live options off that album. Let’s face it, anything above 3-4 new songs will be a shocker. I’m hoping Per Gessle’s Roxette tour name anyway gives Per  a little bit of space and freedom to include his favourite English solo songs from the last 21 years. They are worth to be sang, they cannot be forgotten.

Just a quick reminder how you voted for your favourites off English solo albums last year: 1997 The World According to Gessle: Son of a Plumber: 009 – Party Crasher: 

Summing up, my prediction would be a setlist of 24 songs as it always makes a perfect 90-100-minute concert in the Gessle’s world. 16 songs would come out of Roxette and 8 would be solo tracks. But the more, the better.

What songs would you like to hear this year? See you around in Europe!