2 books written by Per Gessle to be published in autumn

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PG_SydsvenskanWe could already read about it in the press release of The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting that there will also be two books related to the project. Now Sydsvenskan informs that both books will be quite fat.

One will be in Swedish, containing approximately 150 of Per Gessle’s Swedish songs with Gyllene Tider and from his solo career. This book is said to be 300 pages long and will probably have the title: “Texter, klotter och funderingar”.

The other will be in English and is about the English songs, mainly from Roxette. Its title will probably be: “Songs, Sketches and Reflections” and will be approximately 400 pages long.

There are books about Per, but now these two books are written by himself. He gathers his notes and thoughts on songwriting over the years. The books will be richly illustrated with Per’s notes and sketches, as well as with private and so far unpublished photos. Even the lyrics will be featured, some printed and some in the form of original notes Per had taken. As we know, Per is always doing sketches, drawing and takes many notes while writing songs. Now all these will be in the books next to his thoughts and stories related to the lyrics. How exciting is that!

And if it’s not enough, each book will contain an interview with Mr Gessle about songwriting. In the Swedish version it’s Tomas Andersson Wij who does the interview, in the English version it’s Sven Lindström.

The publisher of the books is Roos & Tegnér, the same company that published the fabulous book “Alla tiders Gyllene Tider” last year. So, we can be sure that these two books will be of very high quality not just in terms of content, but also in their appearance.

According to the article, both books will be launched at the Gothenburg Book Fair during the last weekend of September 2014. It’s not yet known if Per will be there at the book fair, but looking back at the past book launches related to him – last time in 2013, one month after Sven’s “Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” was published –, it’s quite predictable he’s going to be there.

September is going to be a fantastic month this year, isn’t it?

P.S.: The box-set “The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting” is out on 24th September and as Per informed yesterday, the first two volumes are available digitally on Spotify in May. Vol. 1: 16th May, Vol. 2: 23rd May. This includes “The Conversations” (open hearted comments on each and every track = PG interviewed in English by Sven Lindström).

P.S. #2: Until September you can go and read Per’s thoughts about his songs here, on RXB. This is the collection of Mr G’s thoughts and info on demos, songs, videos, etc. he shares on Roxette Official.

 

Update: info from Per about the books:

P G B O O K S U P D A T E :

2014 is the Annus Mirabilis Overdose Year!
Two books on steroids will be released in September 2014.

1. 204 English lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + long interview (Sven L) about songwriting etc. This book is in English.
2. 153 Swedish lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + two long interviews about songwriting (different journalists…) etc. This book is in Swedish.

Both are, as expected, totally humour-free and will be available as two different items but together they will make a happy marriage. Especially with The PG Archives-box on your lap. /P.

 

 

Contest: win a copy of Per’s and Roxette’s Record Store Day special vinyls!

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KIMB_LC_Per_GessleRoxetteBlog is turning five years old today and we are happy to run a special competition to celebrate this!

In cooperation with Per’s and Roxette’s management D&D, we are giving away one copy of Per’s “The Per Gessle Archives” 7″ single and one copy of Roxette’s “The Look” special 25th anniversary 7″. Both singles were released on April 26th for the Swedish Record Store Day and are very limited editions (500 and 1000 copies each).

In order to participate simply answer the following questions:

– When and where did Per and Marie celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Look” reaching #1 at USA charts?
– The “Per Gessle Archives” 7″ is an advance of an exclusive box-set that will be released in Septethelookmber 2014. The release focuses on three parts of Per’s career, which ones?

Send an email with your name, home address (so we can send the single) and the answer to the questions to [deleted] until May 6th 23:59 CET. The 2 lucky winners will be announced a few days later.

Good luck!

And thanks D&D for this!

Update May 14th: winners are Travis W. from Australia and Kelly M. from Canada.


And here is the small letter, contest terms and conditions
– In order to participate, you have to send an email to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and answer to the 2 questions. We will consider all emails we receive until the 6th of May 2014, 23:59 CET time.
– 2 winners will be picked up randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answer, prize (either the Per Gessle or Roxette 7″ vinyl) will also be chosen randomly.
– As it is usual, you can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by standard mail only once (so basically, if the envelope gets lost.. we won’t be able to send a replacement)!
– Winners will be announced on this website and will also be notified per email. You’ll be required to answer to the email confirming your address.
– Roxetteblog.com will not enter into any correspondence regarding the result of the contest and is not liable for any damages, loss or expenses that may result in connection to the prize.
– All submitted data will only be used for the purpose of the contest and, in case you are one of the lucky winners, to send you the prize.

RoxetteBlog turns 5!

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Yes, I cannot believe it myself. In a way, it feels like yesterday. On the other hand, it feels more like 25. OK, maybe not 25 but 10?

A lot has happened since that April 2009 when we were in the middle of a Per tour across Europe and the rumours of Roxette (!!) joining NOTP started to show up. The idea was to write about that tour and anything around Roxette, make a kind of archive of all news, probably back then we thought it would be more of the ‘around Roxette’ than Roxette itself, but I think somewhere in our hearts we believed that there would be lots of Roxette to write about. And it turned out to be more than that, we just finished reporting about Marie touring solo across Sweden! And right after the end of the tour we are again reporting about a new Roxette tour… as many say, a neverending tour, or it all begins where it ends.

Surely, we didn’t expect to have so many things to write about and that this project would take up so much time and that it would be so much fun. And I will not lie, there have been some downs as well, times of ‘let’s close it down’ – but then something always happens, a few nice words or some other tiny detail that turn it all it around and brings us back to the reason and magic of why we are doing this.

So thank you everyone reading, following us on FB, sending (nice) feedback, supporting us in a way or another. And, of course, to the great team!

To the next [whatever period of time you wish us to stick around]! (where is Per’s champagne when we need it?)

Ah! And don’t miss out our RXB5 birthday contest!

rxb team1
L to R: Judith, Kirsten, Patrícia, Tomasz at one of Marie’s concerts. Sascha is missing. Target for 2014/2015: a picture of all 5 together.

Some facts and figures:

Articles written since we started: 1.735, busiest month: March 2012 with 64 articles (!)
Over 3 million views, highest again March 2012
Most written about category: Roxette, followed by tour.

Smooth entrance during the Roxette tour? Vote now!

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roxette_goes_on_tour_2014The fact that Roxette goes on tour at the end of this year made all Roxers incredibly happy. There were rumours about it since long, but the time to announce some dates had just come last week. And the list of tour dates will be longer than just those 13 shows in Russia, Estonia and Lithuania, that’s for sure.

It might sound insane (oh no, it IS insane), but yes, discussions about queuing in front of venues and how to get to the front row already started… We are used to waiting tremendous amount of hours in front of venues and tons of us are used to run-run-run to the front row after the entrance is open. It’s really funny to read conversations on Facebook already now about how to organize the entrance by the fans themselves. We are fond of the numbering system, but what could we do with it, if there is no control over the lining up and when the doors are open, everyone is just running like hell? Should we ask local Roxers to be there at the venue early and ask the security guys to let us in some minutes earlier than the rest of the crowd? Or should we contact the local security team some days before the concert actually takes place? But they might not be used to any systems like this, so they wouldn’t care about the fans too much. What should we do then? I admit it: this is crazy to discuss it this early! And it’s half a year before the tour starts… We’re getting more and more fanatic it seems. 😉 At the same time, if something is going to be decided officially by the organizers, it needs a lot of time and negotiations to organize everything in advance for the whole tour. Wishful thinking it might be.

 

Atli (Show Security Sweden) at a Gyllene Tider concert in 2013
Atli (Show Security Sweden) at a Gyllene Tider concert in 2013

Since last year’s Gyllene Tider tour, where we experienced how calmed down and smooth the entrance could be if a well-prepared and cooperating security team is in charge, there is no discussion among Roxers about such things without mentioning Show Security Sweden. You might remember our article about them. The team did an outstanding job during the whole tour in Sweden, even at the biggest venue with the biggest crowd (Ullevi, Gothenburg). They paid attention to the numbering system, took control over the lining up and let us in only some minutes before the normal entrance. No running, no danger, no being nervous, just a smooth walk to the stage. Of course, they needed cooperating fans, but when you can see they absolutely know what they are doing and are fully in charge, plus their aim is the same as ours: to have a great concert experience without any troubles, then you can only wish they or a company with the same targets would be in charge at all of the future shows we attend. It was already nice to see them at Marie’s Stockholm concert. Why not having such system on Roxette’s tour? We know it’s almost impossible and maybe not the most effective to bring so many security guys from Sweden to all over the world, but maybe it would be enough to have a great team of supervisors like Atli or Malin, who can coordinate the local security teams. If I’m right, it was the same at the GT shows. We saw different faces among the security guys, so they surely worked together with local teams in different cities of Sweden. And it worked amazingly well.

 

We know it’s not our business who is chosen as security company, but it would be great if Live Nation would consider the possibility of implementing this working numbering system or something similar on the upcoming Roxette tour to make the entrance more secure and smooth and this way, the concert experience even better for both the band and the fans. Because as Micke Syd mentioned in the interview Judith did with him during the tour last year:

I think it’s just making the concert experience a lot better. We feel it too if you have been queuing for hours and then you are frustrated because of all the stress to get to the front row. If you are relieved of all that you can just relax and enjoy. And then we also have more fun.

So, how about a poll? Let your voice be heard and vote below! We are curious about your opinion. Voting is anonymous.

Would you like Management / Live Nation & a security team to organize a smooth entrance during the upcoming Roxette tour?

[poll id=”7″]

After you voted, you can share the poll on Facebook or on Twitter by one click to the share button below, so even more Roxers could vote and share their opinion. Thanx for your help in advance!

The RoxBlog Team

The Per Gessle Archives – limited edition single is out!

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KIMB_LC_Per_GessleI’m not sure how many of you could get hold of Per’s limited edition vinyl (500 copies) yesterday, on Record Store Day in Sweden. There was some info from here and there that the single has never reached some record stores. Most probably, it was not sent to all of them in Sweden, so online ordering seems to be the most secure way to get your copy. CDON and Ginza had it for some days online, but I think they sold the number of copies they had very fast, so they took the item off their websites already. Bengans announced it will be available at them (the remaining copies after Record Store Day) at 3 pm CET on 28th April. Be fast with your order on Monday, because it will work like first come, first served.

Now getting down to the songs. Kvar i min bil (AGM, 28th April 2007), an outtake from En händig man album (as Anders Nunstedt mentions), ending up in Tomas Alfredson’s film, “Låt den rätte komma in” (= “Let the Right One In”) we could already hear earlier in the movie, as well as e.g. on YouTube and the lyrics to it were already available. I love the fact that now this great 60’s party song is released.

Loud Clothes, which was written for Have A Nice Day in 1998 is the B side of the single. To me it’s no surprise it was left off the album. Somehow it really doesn’t fit the HAND tunes. One falls in love with this song (T&A Demo, 30th August, 2002) in a second. How fabulous Gessleish lyrics again! I’m always amazed at Mr G’s songwriting skills. How can one come up with such words and lines? Ringa-linga rama-lama joy. Haha. My favourite! Sounds too cool! The whole song might remind you of Substitute (For the Real Deal). At least this melody came to our minds when listening to it. Instead of faded and fading clothes we get loud clothes. Here you have the lyrics to the demo:

 

Loud Clothes
Words & music by Per Gessle

She puts on loud clothes
She looks like a ringa-linga rama-lama joy
She puts on loud clothes
She talks when she walks blowing kisses through the noise
She puts on loud clothes
She looks like you wanna put your fingers on her skin
You can’t stop lookin’
She moves through the common people pulling every string

She really knocks you out
She really blocks your mind
It feels like you knew her
From somewhere back in time

She brings silence
Her lips never mention what you really wanna hear
She brings silence
You can’t find the words when you’re dying to get near her

She really knocks you out
She really blows your mind
It feels like you knew her
From somewhere back in time

To be here makes sense to be
To be here makes sense to me
She’s got loud clothes

 

After listening to these 2 songs, you are just longing for hearing more. As it was announced, the first 2 volumes of the total of 11 vol. of The Per Gessle Archives will be available on Spotify in May, but to hear all the almost 200 songs (172 to be more precise) we have to wait until 24th September 2014, when the complete box-set is released in form of CD and vinyl. Bring on September!