Roxette XXX Tour – Halmstad, Sweden (Örjans Vall) – July 22 – #55

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Last time Roxette played in Halmstad was 5 years ago, so it was high time for them to do their 6th Halmstad Rox show of all time. Many international Roxers thought they would love to see the band playing in their hometown, so some bought a ticket for only this show in Sweden, others are there at more Swedish shows, but definitely didn’t give the Halmstad gig a miss. There were fans from the US, Argentina, Russia, Spain, the UK, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Greece and probably more.

The waiting in front of the venue started in the morning and local people were smiling at us during the day, taking pictures of us, posting it on Facebook and wished us a great evening. Lovely! Even the police guys driving by every now and then showed thumbs up for us from their car. SVT, Hallandsposten and P4 Radio were also there with us. They did some interviews with the fans and shot some cuts. (See links in the Articles and photos section.)

This time there were approximately 100 early entrance ticket owners, but only a bit more than half of them showed up by the time the entrance started. There were also fans who didn’t respect those who were waiting there all day and wanted to do the trick at the inlet. Fortunately, Show Security Sweden was there again to support us and Atli (head of the security team) made it clear how the entrance should work and those who wanted to cheat faced a very correct and fair security supervisor. He got applauded by us for his fairness. The whole security team was very polite and helpful this time, too. Thanks a lot again, Show Security Sweden for assisting us! You rule!

Once we were inside, we found our spots in the front rows and couldn’t wait for the show to start. God was good all day and night and there was no rain at all, but sunshine.

Tonight there were 2 support acts. Besides Eskobar it was Mariette who got on stage first. Her performance started at 19:30. We wished for a far much better crowd in Halmstad than the Kalmar gang and already during the support act performances one could see the audience would be more active than the usually reserved Swedish crowds. Mariette and her band did a great job, the Swedes loved them and yes, I think the international fans liked them, too.

Eskobar hit the stage after Mariette. They communicated even more with the audience than in Kalmar and there were more crowd reactions to their songs than in the previous Swedish city. They enjoyed being on stage and playing for us to the full. Daniel even thanked for the cheering to the ”international guests” before performing Freedom. For Someone New they called Mariette back to the stage and performed the song as a duet. It sounded marvellous!

roxette_in_halmstad_01
Pic by Patrícia Peres

After setting up the stage and instruments for Roxette, those almost 15000 people in the audience couldn’t wait anymore to hear the first tunes of Sleeping In My Car and have much fun during the next almost 2 hours. When Roxette came up on stage you just saw on both Marie’s and Per’s face that it was going to be a fantastic show. Being on home turf, enjoying their home crowd was all written on their faces. The band was in great mood and in top top top shape. Everyone was really on a high. Marie was shining like a real star! She was the pearl and the audience painted their love all over her world. You could feel everyone was grateful to see her on stage and cheered her during the whole concert. Per was very much into being on stage tonight. His presence was incredibly strong with all the Gessle moves and his way of performing. Both him and Marie acted a lot with the crowd, having eye contact with the fans in the front and animating them during the sing along parts which turned out to be very loud tonight. The band was also very active. Christoffer was running around like hell with his guitar, having his cool ”fights” with Per, getting kicked in the ass by Per again. There was now a new funny moment, when Per touched Christoffer’s hat while starting with Crash! Boom! Bang! Magnus was having his Baladas en español moments while charming us with his bass playing. Dea was animating the audience very enthusiastically and she was supporting Marie the lovely way she always does. Regarding Pelle and Clarence, who are always in the background, I just want to mention that without their amazing drum and fabulous keyboard playing this band is just nothing. They enjoyed being there on Örjans Vall’s stage very much.

One of the highlights of the night was It Must Have Been Love with the ’80s band intro from Per, remembering the funny hairdos and shoulder pads from those years, as well as the fantastic bands like Roxette, Milli Vanilli and Modern Talking. Another highlight was Watercolours In The Rain / Paint. Marie and Dea together can only mean a perfect duet!

roxette_in_halmstad_02
Pic by Patrícia Peres

All the international fans brought their balloons, so there were many and people in the crowd loved playing with them during Joyride. After the song the band went off the stage and the only strange thing during the whole show to me was when there were those appr. 5 minutes while they were away. It felt like the audience wasn’t sure they would come back and wasn’t sure they should be cheering. We in the front were very loud, as usual, but it took some time until the rest of the crowd joined in shouting ”en gång till” or screaming. Fortunately, the band heard it quite well, so they got back to us and oh what a Listen To Your Heart performance it was as the first extra song! How Marie ended it was out of this world!

The uptempo songs, mainly How Do You Do!, She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio), Dressed For Success and Dangerous got the audience dance and clap along during the whole songs while singing along loud and The Look at the end left the crowd wanting more. When Per said goodbye at the end of the show, he shouted in the mic in Swedish: ”See you soon again! We are very sure about it!”

Marie got 2 heaters on stage and this time it was again BoJo himself who tested if they worked well. In the end only one of them was working during the whole show. But the weather was really nice and rather warm, so we hope that 1 functioning heater was really enough for Marie.

Many in the crowd expected Gyllene Tider to appear on stage as a surprise, but those who are following Roxette and the related artists closely knew that Micke Syd had to be on stage with his Syd & Ekman project at another place, so it was predictable the fab five won’t be seen together in Halmstad tonight. BUT! We weren’t left without a GT tune! Christoffer played ”När vi två blir en” as the local intro to Joyride and it got a fab crowd reaction. We all loved it!

Per after the show:

HALMSTAD UPDATE: Yea! Very nice show at Örjans Vall. Very nice indeed. This place is so cool, just by the water, and tonight our home crowd was in terrific shape. Around 15000 joined the joyride and made a lot of beautiful noise! Vids tomorrow! Cheers, P.

Next stop is Gothenburg on 24th July.

 

Articles and photos

Hallandsposten:

SVT during the waiting time
SVT concert cuts

Videos

Sleeping In My Car / The Big L.
Spending My Time / Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
The Look

Setlist

roxette_in_halmstad_03
Halmstad setlist – Pic by Patrícia Peres

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: När vi två blir en)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Robert Broberg passed away

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UntitledDo you remember this very special moment when Marie Fredriksson, being back then in Sydney, made a satellitte connection with Robert Broberg to sing  “Everything disappears”? Yesterday we learnt Robert Broberg passed away in the age of 75 after long battle with Parkinson. Marie commented on this to TT press agency:

A great artist and a lovely man who will be missed. I have great memories from our collaborations and I am glad I got this opportunity to work with him.

Per also shared his thoughts on Robert:

Robert was truly fab! One of my favourite Swedish albums ever comes from his heart and mind, “Tjejjer”. Still have it on vinyl. Have to put it on now! /P.

 

Is it time for a Roxette musical?

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Hallandsposten (Jan-Owe Wikström) did an interview with Per in relation to the Roxette concert in Halmstad tomorrow. It’s going to be the 6th time they play in Halmstad. After 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994 and 2010 tomorrow it’s time for them to play again in the band’s hometown. It will be their first time at Örjans vall though.

According to the interview, the tour will continue in 2016, however, nothing is planned after the September concert (company gig) in Warsaw. Per says since they turn 30 next year, the tour should last until then and they haven’t played South Africa, Asia, North America and South America yet on this tour. At the same time it is Marie’s health they are depending on, how much she can do.

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Screenshot is from the making of video of The Look 2015 remake

Regarding the tour Per mentions it’s quite typical nowadays that as no artist can earn money on album sales, they go on tour. When Roxette played in Madrid, there were posters from Katy Perry via Mark Knopfler till the Foo Fighters. Since there is this big competition, he says it’s fantastic that they still have sold out shows and can sell 8000-18000 tickets per concert. In Halmstad there will be approximately 15000 people in the audience. The plan for the 5 concerts in Sweden was to sell 50000 tickets altogether and it seems it will work.

Per tells Jan-Owe the tour is one of the reasons why the new album is delayed. The other reason is the EMI – Warner merger. There are too many new people and Per wants to work with people he likes and who respect their history and the new songs. 5 songs off the new album are ready and as Per says, it is 65-70% of the total album. This would mean the album has 8 songs? Hm.

With Addeboy vs. Cliff, who mixed the 2015 remake of The Look, Per wrote some songs together. He says to Hallandsposten that it’s hard to find people who are talented in what he is not too good at, ie. programming.

There are still unknown collaborations on the new album, but Per told Hallandsposten he and Mats MP Persson wrote some songs together now for the first time since long and they might turn up on the new album. Mr. G says he would never be able to write “Fading Like A Flower” today, simply because he has moved on as a songwriter.

Regarding the changes in music consumption Per says nowadays it’s less important to people who wrote the songs or who plays the drums. Today’s pop music reflects the society today, so most of it is made on laptops where everything can be fixed in the end.

This time he says again that social media is a unique way to get close to the fans.

Jan-Owe Wikström asked Per what is left to do after that he has done almost everything with Roxette, Gyllene Tider, his solo projects and soundtrack. Maybe a musical? Per can imagine that there could be a musical built on Roxette’s, Gyllene Tider’s hits or his solo songs just like ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” and the Queen musical, but only if the right way is found. Something new. Maybe with Jonas Åkerlund as a director.

From the Hallandsposten interview it turns out that Per is still writing his diaries after each show, so it’s not only the Facebook posts he writes about them. And they film a lot. Probably, a lot more than what we get to see after each gig on Facebook.

Roxette XXX Tour – Kalmar, Sweden (Fredriksskans) – July 18 – #54

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The Swedish tour leg with 5 shows started tonight in Kalmar, where Roxette had never played before. Many posters welcomed us in town everywhere we walked, either the poster of the Kalmar show or the one with all the Swedish dates on it. All 5 concerts are open air gigs, so we prayed for good weather for the start. It worked so-so, because during the waiting time we had some heavy summer showers, but all in all the temperature was fine and the sun came out to shine on us in the afternoon.

You know you are in Sweden when the first thing organized at the entrance is the toilet. Haha. It may sound stupid, but no other country can tell they have a security team thinking about those who are waiting all day in front of the venue. And you know you are in Sweden when Show Security Sweden is in charge, with good old Atli as the head of the team. They are really the world’s best security team! Helpful, patient and kind all the time. Not only the supervisors, but the whole bunch of people they are working together with at the venues. Thanks for all your support, guys!

Swedish shows got a bit different vs. earlier years because of Live Nation’s Early Entrance ticket policy. Actually, today there were approximately 30 people showing up with an early entrance ticket, but most of them just wanted to have a calm walk inside and find a place at the bar, on the grass or at the very side of the venue, more in the middle, not in the front. They first had to register, appr. 1 hour before the inlet and they got their merch stuff which was a tour programme signed by Marie and Per and a Roxette XXX tour bag. Then they were let in 15 minutes before all those with normal tickets. Even if there were hundreds of people waiting for getting let in, everything was calm and no one was really nervous about the entrance. It feels good when after all the inlet mess in other countries you get to experience this.

Eskobar hit the stage a bit later than 19:30 and it was very nice to hear them in their homeland. For me the best they were in Vienna so far, but their tonight’s show comes very close after that. You could feel they were comfortable playing at home, however Daniel, the singer of the band enjoyed the German-speaking countries so much that he used the expression ”ein bisschen” several times.

After they went off the stage, the crew was setting it up for Roxette. While looking around and checking the seats where guests had their places, we spotted Crown Princess Victoria with her husband Daniel and Prince Carl Philip with his wife Sofia, who are on holiday in Öland now. They were sitting in the last row, which was at the highest place. They disappeared for some minutes during the break and as you could see on Eskobar’s Facebook page, they visited them in background. Victoria is a Roxer, so surely, they met Roxette backstage, too.

It’s summer, but Swedish summers are unpredictable, so it was a good option to install a heater for Marie on the stage. BoJo tested it himself to see it was working properly. After all guitars and other instruments were tested, the mics were set to the proper height and Åsa set the iPhone to video mode, it was time for Roxette to come up stage. One of the characteristics of Swedish summer is that the sun goes down quite late, so it was still daylight when they started the show. The intro didn’t have the same adrenalin kick effect on the crowd this way, but still it was very energetic how the band hit the stage.

Being at home, both Marie and Per talked in Swedish. The talks in between the songs were more or less the same as the English version, but one huge difference was that Marie talked much more than usual. She felt very comfortable and it was easy for her to talk. We all loved it so much!

The crowd did well on the sing along parts, but it wasn’t the most enthusiastic audience of all. There were however Roxers from several countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Greece, etc.) who made more noise and moves. I tend to believe Swedish crowds are really this reserved most of the time. Or maybe tonight it was because they thought the royal family members were watching them and taking notes of who behaves how. By the way, they showed how to party, during The Look. HERE you can watch Svenska Nyheter’s video about it.

Crush On You was very cool this time again, however, the effect of stopping after ”no Elvis in the leather / I want you now or never” was a bit strange with the sun still being up on the sky. Nevertheless, the crowd reaction sounded the same as in any other country where it was complete darkness at this point.

During The Heart Shaped Sea, in the era of smartphones with flashlight app, someone lit a real sparkler, but as it’s quite dangerous in the middle of the audience, Atli had to take it away.

After THSS Marie and Dea were preparing for Watercolours In The Rain / Paint and Marie started talking. That was the funniest of all. HERE you can watch it in a video. She said (in Swedish):

Now we’re going to play a really really old song. It means so much to me. Micke… ah … no, he’s my husband… it was a little mistake, but Per wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music and I’m so proud of it.

One must love her! It was such a cute little mistake!

I must mention Marie’s talking during another song, too. During Dressed For Success, when it comes to the crowd clapping choreography, she usually shouts into the mic: ”C’mon and clap your hands, everybody!” When she got to this point tonight, she wanted to shout it again in English, but before she did that, she realized she was in Sweden and shouldn’t talk in English, so she just started laughing instead. Then she made the crowd clap along.

After the balloon song, Roxette went off the stage and the audience didn’t want to stop shouting ”En gång till! En gång till!” to have them back on stage. They didn’t let us wait for long and came back with the usual 2 extra songs.

It was a nice first gig in Sweden during the XXX tour with 14612 people in the crowd. Hopefully, the next 4 shows will get the crowd into party mood and it won’t be ”only” the band on fire.

Per’s badabam after the show:

KALMAR UPDATE: Oh yea, the Swedish tour has finally started. Almost 15000 showed up tonite at Fredriksskans and sang along. And no rain in sight. Thank you!!! The band was sooo tight, have to love that!!!! Badabam from P.

Next stop should be Borgholm tomorrow (and for many of us Roxers it will be a sightseeing stop at least), but the next gig is in Halmstad on 22nd July. Can’t wait!

 

Articles and photos

Göteborgs-Posten
24kalmar.se video report from the queueing
24kalmar.se during the concert
24kalmar.se about the concert
barometern.se about the stage
Expressen
TV4
svenskdam.se
vaxjonytt.se review, photos
FotoRoddan blog article; FB album of photos

Videos

Roxette hitting the stage
It Must Have Been Love
Royal crowd members having fun
Most boring audience ever?

Setlist

Roxette_in_Kalmar
Pic by Patrícia Peres

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Här kommer Pippi Långstrump)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

20 tour dates for 2016?

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Per says in the Kappahl interview that the plan is to go on with the tour until 2016 (asDSC00278 he already mentioned many times before, and that would be the meaning behind the whole XXX tour, as Roxette turns 30 in 2016!).

Now he revealed that Roxette plans to do about 80 dates until 2016. If you count the dates until Drammen (Norway) on August 22, that makes up to 61 dates. Which means about 20 would be left to be announced / planned. And this raises lots of questions:

Will these dates be in 2016 only? Will there be more in 2015? Where will it take Roxette to? South Africa? South America? North America? Some more Europe / Sweden to celebrate the 30th anniversary “home”? Lots of questions for our never-resting minds!

What we know for sure is that fans are longing to see more of Roxette live, both those who have been to (many) shows since the tour started and those who haven’t seen Roxette since at least 2012. And that The Look 2015 is awesome. And that we cannot wait until the new album is out! And that we already need the tour dates for 2016.