RoxetteBlog

Roxette XXX Tour – Budapest, Hungary (Budapest Arena) – May 19 – #30

May 24, 2015May 20, 2015 by Patrícia Peres

The 30th concert of the XXX tour happened in Hungary’s beautiful capital, Budapest. When Roxette played Budapest the last time it was 1st June 2011, almost exactly 4 years ago. Per even mentioned it before they started playing Spending My Time. HERE you can check his talking. Back then he was so much on a high that he wrote this in his concert evaluating post: ”Yep! Super crowd in Budapest as expected! Thanx all of you 10 11 12000 for screaming singing shouting waving. We love you, Budapest! Let’s get married!!” Well, the arena wasn’t sold out, but it was very much crowded (I would say there were even more people than in 2011) and we all did our best to let this long engagement come to a marriage tonight. I think we did it perfectly right. Budapest crowd was a very loud and active audience.

While Eskobar, the support act was on stage, Per posted:

BUDAPEST BACKSTAGE: Marie, Dea and Chris are singing Love Is All and Milk And Toast And Honey. What’s happening? /P.

It got lots of us thinking about how awesome it would be, if they added those 2 songs to the setlist. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen in the end. So we now need to hear / watch the backstage video of these 2 pearls. At least we hope it got recorded by Mr G.

When Roxette entered the stage, we expected Marie and Per to be in white outfits again, but it was only Marie who kept her white clothes (jeans and shoes as well) partly. Per got back to black. Sleeping In My Car was the opening song as usual and towards the end Micke N-S went on stage and tried to repair(?) something on Per’s guitar. You can see that action in THIS video (from appr. 2:35).

roxette_in_budapest_01 — Photo by Patrícia Peres

Each and every song sounded fab tonight and the crowd loved them all. The whole band was in top shape and so was Marie’s voice. She was singing her heart out and she even tried to look into the eyes of all the familiar faces in the front row and wave to them. She was awesome! Per at the same time was charmed by the crowd’s activity and he showed his energetic side with his Gessle moves during the whole show. After playing How Do You Do! he said into the mic: ”That felt good!” Oh we enjoyed it, too!

Before the band introduction, Per asked Marie how she was doing and she said ”I’m feeling fine. It’s great to be here.” PG: ”You’re a great crowd! Thank you very very much! We hope you’re having fun tonight!” If we were having fun? We had a blaaast! Although we missed very much Per’s thank you in Hungarian (köszönöm).

After the band got introduced, Chris started playing a local tune which first we didn’t recognize, but I think he started it in a teasing way rather, because when we realized which song it was, he got a fab crowd reaction. It was an old Hungarian rock band’s, Omega’s song (Gyöngyhajú lány) which was even covered by Scorpions (White Dove).

roxette_in_budapest_02 — Photo by Patrícia Peres

Then came Joyride and of course there were balloons. Some of them ended up in the front part of the stage and while Per was rushing through there, he was kicking them back towards the crowd. It was pure fun!

Marie asked the audience again several times to sing along more It Must Have Been Love and Listen To Your Heart. She was so lovely when she showed she wanna hear us.

There was a slightly new conversation between Per and Magnus before Crush On You. HERE you can check it out. You’ll get to know some info about Magnus’s ABBA lipsync secrets and that Per made an album here in Hungary titled ”Hooked on Hungary”, but he decided to release Have A Nice Day instead. Haha… 😉

The setlist was the same as at the past few concerts, 17 songs. The closing song was The Look and it was strange that this time the background cells were closed and the projection of the colourful Roxette sign went to the curtain. Might be because of some damages the stage set suffered in Bucharest. It looked perfect anyway.

Per & Co after the show:

BUDAPEST UPDATE: Fab show tonite. Thanx everyone for making so much noise!!!! Always a pleasure being here!!!! Love as always, P&Co

We are happy to have Roxette back anytime!

Next gig is on Thursday (21st May) in Prague, Czech Republic.

Articles and photos

zene.hu -> the best review of the concert: review, photo gallery
acmwallet.hu
metropol.hu
mno.hu
shockmagazin.hu
mymusic.hu
langologitarok.blog.hu
utolsoejjel.blog.hu
kultura.hu

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4;

Videos

Sleeping In My Car
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
The Heart Shaped Sea
Fading Like A Flower
Joyride intro (Gyöngyhajú lány)
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Setlist

roxette_in_budapest_03 — Photo 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

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Roxette XXX Tour – Bucharest, Romania (Arenele Romane) – May 17 – #29

November 26, 2015May 18, 2015 by Patrícia Peres

After 2 days off, Roxette played in Bucharest tonight. The gates had been announced to be opened at 7 pm and the first support act, The Amsterdams to perform at 7:40 pm, then it would have been Eskobar’s time and Roxette would have hit the stage at 9 pm. The weather decided to rewrite the whole agenda though. Gates opened later and there was a long queue for about an hour to enter the open-air venue. When The Amsterdams were on stage, a heavy hailstorm arrived to Bucharest and changed everything. People started panicking and many of them ran towards the exit. Even the security guys told the people that because of the storm the show would be cancelled. Thank God, most people sticked to their places and wanted to see Roxette live, so they prayed for the storm to leave the Romanian capital and hoped for the show not being cancelled in the end. When the situation needed some explanation, Per himself posted this on Roxette’s Facebook page:

RAIN IN BUCHAREST: The Rox show is slightly late due to the heavy rain and the majestic thunder but will start very very soon. Have to get rid of the water from the mixing console, light projectors etc. And we needed a hairdryer to get Pelle’s snaredrum back in shape! It’s all coming to place now. Thanx for waiting, folks! /P.

Some left comments under Per’s post that it would be great if they could cancel the show and do it tomorrow. Hello? It doesn’t work like this… I mean it’s understandable that the heavy storm made a lot of people leave, feeling the situation was dangerous and they were afraid of the storm itself, but the rest of the crowd was still there waiting, holding on tight to their plans to see their beloved band. No storm could stop them waiting for experiencing a great concert. The crew did their best and they made it possible for Roxette to charm the audience with their performance. Hats off, guys! Unfortunately, after all the delay and damage, Eskobar didn’t have the chance to play, but they enjoyed watching the Rox gig from the crowd.

The closest followers of Roxette got a fab surprise from Marie and Per: they appeared in white outfits on stage. This time Marie wasn’t barefoot, but she was wearing a pair of white shoes. She was still freezing, though, as it was quite cold after the thunderstorm. Per had 3 different shirts with PER, ROX and XXX written on the left arm, but he missed buying some more fitting shoes, so he had those ones he is wearing with his black outfits. They both looked awesome anyway! White is the new black! Keep those clothes for the next shows, Ms Effe and Mr G!

All in all, it turned out to be a night to remember for those who waited patiently and were partying to Roxette’s greatest hits. One could think the setlist got shorter, but no. The band played all 17 songs they performed on their past 2 gigs.

Per & Co. after the show:

BUCHAREST: Oh yea! After all that rain came shine! Great crowd, a band on its toes, all in all a fab evening. Thanx everyone for a wonderful happening. Vids to follow. Cheers, P&Co.

Next gig is on Tuesday (19th May) in Budapest, Hungary.

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7;

Dragos Stoica
infomusic.ro
Alex Chelba Photography

Videos

Instavideos:
It Must Have Been Love
Listen To Your Heart
How Do You Do!

Setlist

roxette_in_bucharest — Pic by Sandra Knospe

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Thanx to all who kept us updated during the waiting time and after the show.

Roxette XXX Tour – Barcelona, Spain (St. Jordi Club) – May 14 – #28

May 16, 2015 by Judith

The day started very early for many fans that had catch planes, cars, busses, trains to get to Barcelona on time to queue up and try to get the best spots in the first row(s). The first ones were at St. Jordi Club at around 9 and started with the numbering system, that had worked in Madrid too (as well as many times before in other countries/tours). And it paid of, around lunch time the sun was the strongest and we had to find some shadows under the trees nearby. The waiting was very calm, it felt at times more like a picnic, under some trees having lunch and chatting with friends. At around five-ish more people started to join and every body went back to her/his places in the queue. The local security told us that since we had been organised all the time, they would let us in in groups of five to try to respect the numbering system. Nice! It only worked for the first … 10? since the ones that were let in later seemed to panic to get a precious place in the first row and started to run (where is Show Security Sweden when you need them!). In any case, it wasn’t pushy but rather hot inside (and it was about to get hotter!).

Eskobar showed up on stage right on time at half past eight and played their 30-minute set, which people seemed to enjoy a lot. Some fans shouted “Eskobar! Eskobar!” or the typical “ooeee oeee oeee” many times as well as Daniel’s name. I think it’s always nice when the support band is welcomed warmly by the audience, it makes the whole show a better experience.

And finally it was time for Roxette (on time this time). About 4.000 fans were waiting for the Roxing guys and girls and ready to give everything during the whole concert. As soon as “Sleeping In My Car” started to sound people went wild. I haven’t heard such a loud bunch for a long time! Sometimes the audience was so loud it was hard to hear the band sing. This went on during the whole concert, even non-singles like “The Heart Shaped Sea” or “Watercolours In The Rain/Paint” were welcomed by a lot of sing-along (check video below). This last one was very touching, with Marie singing as wonderful as always. The setlist was the same as in Madrid.

rox_bcn — (C) Mariana G. Magnus with the chicken hat in Barcelona.

And everybody on stage seemed to love the crazy audience, judging by the big smiles. Dea and Chris were teasing each other all the time, and Magnus even had the honour to wear one of the chicken hats that made a second appearance in Barcelona (read Madrid’s review for details). And Per somehow got lost presenting one of the songs, he started to say something about he hoped we knew that song “because………”? He laughed and everybody else laughed as well. And, of course, everybody on stage got his or her share of “Claaaarence” or “Maaaagnus” or “Marieeee” or “ooeees” (a few times we went on for so long and loud they had to wait to start speaking or the next song).

One of the highlights of the night was surely when Chris played the hymn of FC Barcelona as the Joyride intro. It only needed Chris to play the first chords for the people to go wild and start to sing. If you’ve grown up in Catalunya and are a Barça fan you just know this song by heart, and it was simply special. Thanks for that!

The whole show was a constant sing-along and one could simply feel the love in the air. Goose bumps! It is simply one of the best feelings I know, to enjoy the most important band in your life, the one that has always been there since you were a teen, and feel proud to hear so many people share and give that love and share this moment with friends you have known for more than 20 years. The venue may not have been as full as the last time Roxette played in Barcelona, compared to Palau St. Jordi, but the explosion of fun and good wives in the air was there the same or even stronger.

The party went on after the show was over outside the venue. While walking to the car or down the Montjuic hill one could hear people commenting how amazing the concert had been, singing Roxette songs, or even hear some concert-goers blasting Roxette songs from their cars in the traffic jam. The reaction? Happy horns by neighbouring cars, clapping and singing by those who were going down by foot. Party! I heard some even went to a karaoke to sing some more Roxette songs…

Two TV channels (Catalan TV3 and Spanish TVE) were at the place and interviewed some fans before the show, recorded a few moments of the concert and broadcast a short report about the show as well. Check the links below to watch them.

Next gig is on Sunday (17th May) in Bucharest, Romania.

Articles and photos

Photos by Xavier Mercade.

Videos

News on Catalan TV3
News on Spanish national TVE
“Stars” recorded by Catalan TV3
Youtube:
Watercolours In The Rain
Listen To Your Heart
Joyride
Fading Like a Flower
The Big L.
Spending My Time
It Must Have Been Love
How Do You Do!
The Heart Shaped Sea (check the videos by this user, there are quite many of them, including Crush On You)

Setlist

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Roxette XXX Tour – Madrid, Spain (Palacio Vistalegre) – May 13 – #27

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 by Patrícia Peres

After a most awesome opening gig in Milan last Sunday, the European tour leg’s second show happened in Madrid. Many started wondering if Spain can beat Italy. People are loud there, too, but it felt like Milan was a tough act to follow. Not that it makes sense to compare one concert to another, since each gig is special and unique. The venue in the Spanish capital was a much bigger one, appr. 6000 people attended the show. The concert wasn’t sold out, but the arena looked quite packed.

Lots of fans had been waiting all day outside the venue to be the first ones to enter Palacio Vistalegre in the evening. This was the first Euro show with the support act Eskobar. (Read the interview Judith did with them some days ago.)

Roxette was to hit the stage at 21:30, but the show started only appr. 30 minutes later. Mañana (=tomorrow) is a frequently used word in Spain, they love taking it easy, but you shouldn’t be late when there is another show mañana in another city. Fans started worrying about the setlist being shortened because of the delayed start and they were right. 17 songs were played, the band skipped Almost Unreal.

The most common expressions regarding the concert used by the Spaniards are ”grandes” and ”conciertazo” meaning the band was absolutely great and it was an awesome concert. Per was extremely energetic, jumping and stomping even more than in Milan and joking all the time. Marie and Dea charmed the audience with a perfect Watercolours In The Rain performance. Magnus and Chris were so much on a high that at a point Magnus even fell on his bum and Chris dropped his guitar. Haha, pure rock & roll! Christoffer played ”Viva España” as the intro to Joyride and it worked very well with the cheering Spanish crowd.

Spanish fans never disappoint, they were singing their hearts out during the whole show and all the international fans who also attended the concert joined them. They were onehelluva loud crowd! As usual, Spanish hardcore Roxers prepared some fun. Instead of wigs this time they were wearing chicken hats. It surely made the band smile and we’ll probably get to see them in some short vids on Roxette’s Facebook page.

Per & Co. after the show:

MADRID! OH YEA! Fab gig tonite in front of the loudest crowd since I don’t know when! We had a blast and even did a jam session at the very end of Listen To Your Heart. Unexpected. Even for us!!! Thank you everyone who made this an everlasting memory for all of us!!!! Vids tomorrow. Barcelona as well. Cheers! /P&Co

Next gig is on Thursday (14th May) in Barcelona, Spain.

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14;

diariovasco.com
es.noticias.yahoo.com
mercadeopop
Live Nation ES
hola.com

Videos

It Must Have Been Love
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower

Instavideos
Sleeping In My Car
Spending My Time
The Look

The bow

Setlist

roxette_in_madrid — Pics by Tiina Pitkänen (1; 2)

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Thanx for the contribution, Nina Wolfframm.

Roxette XXX Tour – Milan, Italy (Teatro Arcimboldi) – May 10 – #26

May 15, 2015May 11, 2015 by Patrícia Peres

The long-awaited European leg of the XXX tour kicked off in Milan last night. Good sign to start a tour leg with a sold out gig, isn’t it? First the band, then Marie and Per arrived to the venue for a soundcheck in the afternoon. They were all smiles, so one could see they loved the fact the tour continues. After the F1 race had ended, they got on stage and did a more than 1-hour long soundcheck with the following songs: 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, Fading Like A Flower, How Do You Do!, Dangerous, Almost Unreal. So we could be really happy that they kept Crush On You.

When we were all checking our seats and it was almost show time, we realized the organizers took some VIP people to the very front, to the orchestra part of the theater. This way they were like in 0 or -1 rows. The show was to start at 9 pm, but there were a lot of people entering the venue late to take their seats, so Roxette got on stage only a bit later than 21:15.

Italy doesn’t get a Roxette concert each day, even Per mentioned it during the show that the last time they played in Milan was in 1989 at the Rolling Stone club. He asked if anyone was there from the crowd and said there were like 40 people or maybe 70. So it was extremely exciting to have the band playing live in Milan during the actual tour. Even if the venue was quite small (appr. 2300 people), it felt like we were in a huge arena. Believe it or not, the whole audience (even the VIP people) stood up even before the concert started and they didn’t really want to use their seats at all. The only song where the crowd was sitting was Watercolours In The Rain / Paint, but it changed quite fast with the next song, Fading Like A Flower when all people were on their feet again.

The audience was so active and loud! Everyone knew the lyrics to almost each and every song and was singing along all the time. The band, seeing all the happy party people in the audience put even more energy into the opening gig of the European tour. All of them were on a high. Marie was sitting during the whole show, but this didn’t stop her dancing on her chair and acting with the audience. Per was so happy to hear everyone singing along that he jumped and ran around the stage so much. Once he even ”kicked” Chris in the ass while playing the guitar. Chris went so crazy during The Look that he ran off the stage to the front row of the crowd and played the guitar there. Magnus joined him in some seconds and they went wild down there.

There was a funny conversation between Marie and Per before It Must Have Been Love about how Marie felt herself, if it was warm and that they didn’t really like the song in the beginning, but then it changed quite a lot in their lives. When IMHBL started, Marie was singing, then there was the crowd sing-along part and Marie liked it so much she asked the audience to sing more. She shouted into the mic several times ”I want to hear you sing!” Not only during It Must Have Been Love, but also during Listen To Your Heart. At the latter song, she had some problems with the lyrics and asked Dea to come closer to the front, so she could support her even more. Dea came to the front and they were singing together. Sounded fab! Actually, all songs sounded wonderful. All voices were in top shape and everyone on the stage was just shining. We loved seeing how the band enjoyed themselves and it was awesome to be part of such a fantastic crowd. Italy rulez!

Before we could enter the venue, we saw lots of firemen. Now we know they had to be there because they were afraid of Teatro Arcimboldi being burnt down. Gosh! Roxette put the theater on fire and it was burning from the very beginning till the very end.

After Joyride, the band went off the stage, but the crowd was shouting loud: Roxette! Roxette! and clapping and whistling and doing everything to get them back on stage. We didn’t have to wait for a long time. They happily got back to us and further entertained us with the 3 extra songs.

When Marie stood up at the end of the concert, she got a standing ovation. The crowd didn’t let them go off stage and it seemed like Marie and Per wanted to stay there forever. Then they started walking off and Marie looked at and waved back to the audience before they disappeared in the dark.

Åsa was filming a lot and even Micke grabbed the iPhone to take some videos, so we surely get some video updates on Roxette’s Facebook page.

Regarding the merchandise, a new item is a phone charger for 45 euros. One of the VIP presents in Oz was a similar equipment and Per liked it so much he promised to try to have it in the merchandise. Now there it is.

Per’s comment on the concert:

MILAN UPDATE: Thanx everyone for making the XXX Euro Tour start so good! The opening show in Milan was a blast!!! Wonderful crowd and a very jolly band enjoying every second of every song. We love Italy, we certainly hope we can come back to do some gigs here!! Thanx for making this happen, y’all! Grazie, P&M&Co
PS. Vids tomorrow…

Next gig is on Wednesday (13th May) in Madrid, Spain.

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6;

demotix.com
jaymag.it
lifestyle.tiscali.it
onstageweb.com
cubemagazine.it
impattosonoro.it
tuttorock.net
flickr – Alberto Pezzali
flickr – Francesco Prandoni
flickr – Mairo Cinquetti
flickr – Sergione Infuso

Roxetteblog Photo album on Facebook

Videos

Fading Like A Flower
Spending My Time
How Do You Do!
The Look

Video clip from Notorius

Setlist

roxette_in_milan — Pic by Patrícia Peres

Extra:
Almost Unreal
Listen To Your Heart
The Look