Concert at Sydney Opera House added to Australian tour

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Ext_PinkDawn_M
Photo taken from the Opera House’s website

A new show has been added to the Australian and New Zealand leg of the tour, which starts on February 7th in Auckland.

The show will be held on the iconic venue Sydney Opera House forecourt on February 25th. “To play this show on the steps of the Sydney Opera House is an absolute honour and is sure to be a major highlight of the tour!” says Per Gessle.

In total, Roxette will give 9 concerts in Australia. “We are beyond thrilled to head back to Australia, a stunning country with beautiful fans who have remained some of our most loyal supporters over the last few decades” says Per Gessle. “Marie, the band and I are ready and raring to go with a brand new show full of our hit songs and a few surprises.”

Tickets for this special event will go on sale on December 11th.  Live Nation members can be amongst the first to secure tickets during the pre-sale beginning two days earlier, on December 9th. Prices range between $101.90 and $331.70.

 

NEW Roxette tour date – Faroese Roxers, get ready!

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And we thought it’s strange that Roxette plays in France next year… Now another rare tour date is announced. One in the Faroe Islands! Who would have thought? They will really tour countries and cities they’ve never toured before. Too cool! There is a summer festival in Klaksvík between 6th and 8th August and Roxette is one of the main acts performing there next year. Tickets are already on sale, however, it’s not yet confirmed which day Roxette is there. Most probably, 8th August.

This means the band’s last European gig in 2015 is not going to happen in Stockholm in July, but so far it seems the European tour leg ends in Klaksvík in August. Who knows what else they have in the can? There are still some free days in between the already announced tour dates. Let’s see what happens!

 

Faroe Islands_Roxette

Unplugged tour wanted!

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Two days ago Per posted a video of Marie, Christoffer and Dea singing an acoustic version of “Stars” during the warm-up in Turku. The video went totally viral afterwards and has been shared 420 times on Facebook. It popped up several times on every Roxer’s timeline and made people go crazy and remember a wish that most of them have for a long time now: an unplugged tour.

The wishes and high hopes for an acoustic set and arrangement already came up when Roxette announced another world tour earlier this year, starting with the shows in Russia, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. As we all know, it came differently, instead it’s (another) Greatest Hits tour in all the huge arenas around the globe.

Still, the “Stars” video which is furthermore even lo-fi and a totally unpretentious video of warming up made the hearts melt again. So, here there is our wish again: Give us an unplugged tour or at least some unplugged shows, dear Per and Marie. In case you haven’t seen the video yet (which we doubt!), you can watch it here:

Video

Roxette 30th Anniversary Tour: Turku, Finland – November 29 – #15

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Maybe it’s time to widen my top list of concerts. Nah, doesn’t matter. Each concert is different and special for one thing or another and the one tonight was definitely a top gig. The show in Turku was magical and I dare to say: it was the best of the last 4 gigs this year!

The support act, Costello realized it’s better to keep those songs in, which have English lyrics than play only in Finnish. It worked better. What we were surprised at was that they started playing at 19:00. We expected the support act to start a bit later and there were almost no people inside the arena except for the first 4-5 standing rows. People started coming in during Costello’s part, but then again, they went out and occupied their seats only after a while.

Roxette started at 20:00. Marie was in an extremely top shape, smiling during the whole show, dancing a bit, swaying her hips many times and pointing at fans every now and then. At the end of the concert she tried to point at each and every fan in the front row. Per was also amazing tonight. Sounded fab! Besides bouncing around, we could see some hot moves from him. He even ”kicked” Christoffer in the ass. Talking about Christoffer, his intro to Joyride worked much better today than in Helsinki. The crowd was quite reactive.

Marie had some problems with the lyrics of Listen To Your Heart, looked at the crowd and asked for help, but almost before she could ask, we were already singing out loud to help her. The whole arena became one and sounded great. Marie even said a short ”sorry” into the mic while she was singing. Sorry for messing up the lyrics. No need to say sorry. We all loved her! Dea was again very supportive. Whenever she felt / heard that Marie might not remember the lyrics, either she just sang a bit louder or she mimed at Marie what’s next.

During The Heart Shaped Sea there were again some red cardboard hearts in the crowd and the Spanish fans brought their colorful wigs to wear them during Dressed For Success. It was fun. Åsa was filming a lot at this concert, too.

In THIS short video you can see Marie throwing kisses to some front row fans and Per realizing there was nothing else to do on a Saturday night in Turku. Hilarious!

Marie, Per and the whole band were filled with so much energy, I bet they could have played another show. And we would have gladly attended that one, too. A pity that this was the last concert for a while, but we don’t have to wait for so long. Hopefully, everyone will have some relaxing time with their families at home. Christoffer and Clarence will surely have less time for that, since Mr G probably already booked some studio hours and won’t let them rest for so long. Marie, Dea, Per, Chris, Clarence, Pelle and Magnus, thanx for all the great shows in 2014! Have a good rest until the next concert and amaze us all again in February 2015!

Per’s post after the concert:

TURKU UPDATE: Superb ending of the first leg of the XXX Tour! The massive Turku-crowd was outstanding and the band wasn’t too shabby either. Had a wonderful time, Marie in top shape + Magnus in his bartender-look = what else do you need? Films by Åsa tomorrow. Thanx everyone for showing up on the first 15 gigs of the tour, what would we do without you? All the love there is from P&M&Co.

Next gig (first one in 2015) is on 7th February in Auckland, New Zealand, where the new XXX stage design will premiere.

 

 

Articles and photos

ts.fi
mesta.net

 

Videos

Sleeping In My Car
Spending My Time
Real Sugar & She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Perfect Day
Fading Like A Flower
Fading Like A Flower & How Do You Do!
Watercolours In The Rain
Chris intro to Joyride + Joyride
The Look
Listen To Your Heart
Queen of Rain

 

Setlist

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Real Sugar
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Perfect Day
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
7Twenty7
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride

Extra:
Watercolours In The Rain
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
Queen of Rain

 

All photos in the article © Patrícia Peres

Roxette 30th Anniversary Tour: Helsinki, Finland – November 28 – #14

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In my Tallinn review I wrote that gig made it to my Top3 best Roxette concerts ever. What can I say now? It got easily replaced by Helsinki last night! What a show it was!

The support act, Costello was on home turf and to our biggest surprise, they performed their songs in Finnish tonight. Except one song that they kept in English. We almost learned some of their lyrics and now they changed them to Finnish. OK, no sing-along then.

Roxette was greeted by an international front row this time again. Now some more Roxers joined us, so there were even more countries represented. Per was happy to see the familiar faces, he already mentioned us in his first speech, which you can watch HERE. I was very happy that while we were waiting, a younger girl from Finland joined us. It turned out that she started liking Per Gessle and Roxette after she heard Per’s Mazarin album 4-5 years ago. She was too young for her parents to let her go to any concerts years ago. Today was her first show. I love it that Roxette can still engage new fans.

Before the show everyone was thinking about Marie, if she was fine, if she would be sitting on stage or if not, then was everything fixed for her to be safe on stage or if she decided for standing during the whole show. Apply the latter one. She was standing all night and showed us how strong she is! She acted like she would really want us to see everything is alright with her. She even stood for some moments without holding the mic stand. This time the stand was fixed to the floor indeed. Even BoJo came up on stage and checked it with his own eyes. Marie was singing her heart out and enjoyed it to the full. It was just amazing! Perfect Day got a fab respsonse. Marie was satisfied with the crowd’s reaction and she showed Clarence a thumbs up and Clarence showed thumbs up, too. Some fans brought cardboard hearts with different texts on them and held them up during The Heart Shaped Sea.

The concert was so powerful and sound-wise it was awesome as well. Everyone acted so much during the whole show. Marie was smiling at the crowd all the time, showing some funny facial expessions, swaying her hips; Per and Chris played their guitars in several poses, e.g. leaning against each other’s back. That was a cool one! Per even took a round around Marie with his guitar. It was during The Big L., if my memory serves me right. It was so funny. What surely added a lot to Per’s mood tonight is that Åsa is here with him. She filmed a lot. Gabriel was also there, as well as Micke and Christoffer’s daughters. It’s good when the families are around, that’s clear. The band puts even more energy into the gig then.

Despite the fact that Christoffer’s intro to Joyride didn’t really catch this audience, the crowd was loud enough and Per said several times we sounded terrific. I haven’t filmed Chris’s solo, just the band presentation before that. You can watch it HERE. The Look got everyone on their feet, of course! Now the setlist was full, they didn’t leave out any songs this time. Introducing Real Sugar it turned out that yesterday Magnus’s fave Roxette album of all time was Baladas en español. Yeah, sure.

Per’s thoughts after the show:

HELSINKI UPDATE: Yea! Fab evening in Suomi! We’ve been playing this place so many times and it’s always a treat! Thanx for stopping by and help us out with the lyrics! See y’all next time! How about tomorrow in Turkku??? /P.

Hell yeah! Next gig (last one in 2014) is on Saturday (29th November) in Turku. See you there!

 

Articles and photos

iltalehti.fi
Tiia Santavirta Photography:1; 2; 3;
iltasanomat.fi; 2; 3;
rexfeatures.com
eastnews.pl
turkulainen.fi

 

Videos

Sleeping In My Car
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Dressed For Success & Dangerous
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Stars & Spending My Time
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love

 

Setlist

Photo by Patrícia Peres

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Real Sugar
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Perfect Day
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
7Twenty7
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride

Extra:
Watercolours In The Rain
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
Queen of Rain