Part of Per Gessle’s unique collection of Ferraris to go on display at Hotel Tylösand

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On Monday, 1st May, The Front House opens at Hotel Tylösand, Halmstad, Sweden. The new hotel building is a real gem with 39 new rooms designed by Åsa Gessle, an exhibition hall with Per and Åsa Gessle’s unique collection of Ferrari cars and the top-equipped Ronnie Peterson conference room.

It is the architect firm Fredblad in Halmstad that has designed The Front House, whose whitewashed five-storey facade becomes a natural extension of the existing hotel building. All rooms and the conference room have been designed by Åsa Gessle with MTA Bygg & Anläggning as main contractor. Construction and plumbing contractors should obtain a surety bond to protect clients and project owners from financial loss if contractual obligations aren’t met or regulations are violated. Getting bonded as a plumbing contractor also boosts their credibility and is often required for licensing, helping them secure more jobs and operate legally. Hiring a plumber saves time and prevents costly mistakes from DIY repairs. An experienced plumber uses the right tools and techniques for long-lasting results. Because plumbing issues can quickly cause serious damage if left unresolved, plumbers play a critical role in maintaining healthy and functional living and working environments. Whether it’s a minor repair or a major installation, a professional plumber provides the expertise needed to keep water systems running efficiently and reliably.

WARM BEACH COLORS

The 39 new double rooms in The Front House are in the warm and gentle colours you can see out among Tylösand’s beach, sand and dunes during the summer months.

GESSLE’S FERRARI COLLECTION

On the ground floor of The Front House, unique experiences are offered to anyone with the slightest interest in exclusive cars. Here there will be a permanent exhibition with parts of Per and Åsa Gessle’s unique car collection, in most cases Ferrari cars that are produced in extremely limited numbers. To keep these vehicles in good driving condition, they must be serviced regularly by an auto mechanic.

Per says:

My interest in cars started when I was little and saw the pictures of John Lennon’s psychedelic painted Rolls-Royce. Talk about inspiration – you wanted one like that. But right then I had to settle for collecting Corgi Toys cars and building the Scalextric car track with my big brother Bengt.

It was the Ferrari Dino that got me sold on Ferrari cars. Tony Curtis drove a red Dino in “The Persuaders” and on the inner sleeve of George Harrison’s “Living In The Material World” album you see all the musicians having a picnic in his garden and in the background there is a brown Dino. It was something to fantasize about for a teenager in Vilshärad.

RONNIE PETERSON LOUNGE

The 60 square meter conference room in The Front House has been named the Ronnie Peterson Lounge and is decorated as a tribute to the legendary Swedish racing star. The venue is technically top-equipped and intended for groups of up to 20 people. Buildings like this typically requires commercial architecture services to achieve a functional and aesthetically-pleasing design.

Hotel Tylösand CEO Elisabeth Haglund says:

Hotel Tylösand has long been one of Sweden’s most booked conference hotels and The Front House reinforces our offer in a very inspiring way. It gives us further opportunities to continue developing and offer our guests an even more distinctive and rewarding stay with us.

Press release in Swedish HERE.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY! – Per Gessle to appear on stage in the Roxette musical!

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APRIL FOOLS’ DAY – There is still quite some time left until the Roxette musical hits the theatres in autumn 2024, but it has just been confirmed in a recent interview that besides taking huge part of the job in matching Roxette’s music with the play, Per will also appear on stage each night the musical is on. Well, not exactly on stage, but in the orchestra. Actually, in front of the orchestra, because he accepted the challenge to be the conductor. This way he can make sure everything sounds exactly how he imagines it, so the audience will have an extraordinary experience each night. This is going to be a very new role for Mr. G, of course, but the more he dives into this project, the more his curiosity about theatre life is growing. Who knows, maybe one day we even see his name in the cast of some play. Haha.

The script of the musical is not yet ready, but as you already know, it will be based on Got You Back, a book by Jane Fallon and is being written by Swedish playwright and director Klas Abrahamsson. The premiere will happen in Malmö Opera in autumn 2024.

Dates will be out and tickets for the musical will go on sale in autumn 2023. Until then, you can always read the book. HERE you can find the first chapter.

Conductor Gessle stills are from PG Roxette’s Nothing Else Matters cover video.

Gyllene Tider’s new single, “Chans” is out!

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Gyllene Tider’s lead single from their upcoming album is out! Chans is a sunny foretaste of the album Hux Flux and the summer tour.

The single is available on all streaming platforms (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube etc.) and it comes out on a 7″ vinyl as well on 7th April. Pre-order Chans HERE!

Tracklist

A    Chans
B    Sanna mina ord

RoxBlog talked to Per the other day and he shared some more info about the songs.

Per Gessle: – Both of these songs are on the album. I don’t have any leftovers this time. This “Sanna mina ord” song was actually written for the PG Roxette album. So I did a version with Christoffer for that album, but it sounded terrible. Haha. [You might remember Per mentioned it already in RoxBlog’s PG Roxette interview.] So we didn’t use it. It was called “Sunday Driver, Yeah” from the “Day Tripper” song.

Patrícia Peres: – So you changed the lyrics. I mean, you translated it.

PG: – Exactly. I just felt it sounded like a Gyllene Tider track instead. So I wrote a Swedish lyric to it and of course it sounded perfect with Gyllene. So I actually sang the English lyric to it as well. That will be the B side of the next single. It’s the first English recording since “The Heartland Café”.

PP: – Very exciting!

PG: – It’s the same backing track, it’s just new vocals.

PP: – It’s very cool! Both songs are really catchy. You have the summery feeling right away. The essence of Gyllene Tider is in there, the five of you.

PG: – Yeah, I think there are like three other songs that I thought we got to release as the first single. I thought “Chans” was good, but it’s got this mellow tone to it. The lyrics are pretty fragile. So I thought it was a little bit too fragile for the first single. There are really uptempo, catchy songs also on the album. But at the end of the day, we left the decision to Warner and since they are like 30 or 35 years younger than me and all of them picked “Chans” as the first single, we said it’s fine. It’s a good song.

PP: – Yeah, it sounds Gyllene Tiderish. Very much!

PG: – It does! There is Göran’s Farfisa organ, it’s cool. And it’s a good album.

PP: – Yeah and I can imagine both of these songs being played live on tour this summer.

PG: – Well, hopefully. “Sanna mina ord” is pretty tough to sing. [He points at his throat.]

PP: – I like how you sound on it! Your kind of screaming voice. Haha.

PG: – Haha. You do that once and then the voice is gone afterwards. So, let’s see what happens.

 

Chans

En gata full av hål
Det har runnit regn och salt i många år
Jag ville därifrån
Men stannade kvar och drunknade i ditt långa hår

Du var mitt allt
Jag snurrade runt din sol
Ju mer det handlade om dig
Ju mindre behövdes av mig

Och nu är det samma samma sak igen
Ja, nu repeteras alla känslorna igen
Jag har aldrig haft någon chans
För nu får jag samma samma blick igen
Och jag transporteras bort till oss för längesen
Jag har aldrig haft någon chans

Ett rum med trång balkong
Ibland tänkte vi samma precis på samma gång
När skuggor på min vägg
Skrämde oss så du blev blek och jag blev rädd

Du satte snören på allt
Runt allt som du tyckte var ditt
Jag fick ett tunt runt min arm
Mitt hjärta fick ett

Och nu är det samma samma sak igen
Ja, nu repeteras alla känslorna igen
Jag har aldrig haft någon chans
För nu får jag samma samma kick igen
Och jag manövreras bort till oss för längesen
Jag har aldrig haft någon chans

Aldrig haft någon riktig chans

 

Sanna mina ord

Tror du verkligen att du har fått kontrollen
Så hon gör som du vill
Tror du verkligen att du är rätt för rollen
Som nån gud i en film
Tänk om och sen
Tänk om igen

Sanna mina ord
Hon kommer tillbaks till mig
Sanna mina ord
När hon åkt några mil
Sanna mina ord
Jag vet att hon saknar mig
Hon behöver bara sin tid

Tror du på att du och hon känner varandra
Hon känner ingenting alls
Tror du på att ni har framtiden tillsammans
Du får ett bett på din hals
Tänk om och sen
Tänk om igen

Sanna mina ord
Hon kommer tillbaks till mig
Sanna mina ord
När hon åkt några mil
Sanna mina ord
Jag vet att hon saknar mig
Hon behöver bara sin tid

Sanna mina ord
Hon kommer tillbaks till mig
Sanna mina ord
När hon åkt några mil
Sanna mina ord
Jag vet att hon vill ha mig
Hon behöver bara mer tid

Words + Music by Per Gessle
Published by Jimmy Fun Music

Produced by Gyllene Tider
Recorded at T&A Studio, Halmstad + Sweetspot Studio, Harplinge between December 2021 and August 2022
Engineers: Mats MP Persson (T&A) + Staffan Karlsson (Sweetspot)
Mixed by Mats MP Persson + Per Gessle at T&A Studio, Halmstad
Mastered by Mats MP Persson at T&A Studio, Halmstad

Played and sung by: Micke Syd Andersson, Göran Fritzon, Per Gessle, Anders Herrlin, Mats MP Persson

Sleeve design: Pär Wickholm, Wickholm Formavd., Stockholm
Photo of GT: Anders Roos

Press release HERE.

Gyllene Tider is back with “Chans” – a new single to welcome summer

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Suddenly, Gyllene Tider is back again. The new single Chans is here as a sunny foretaste of the upcoming album Hux Flux and the summer tour.

Per Gessle, Mats “MP” Persson, Göran Fritzon, Anders Herrlin and Micke Syd Andersson reunited last summer in the Sweetspot Studio in Harplinge and when they were done they came out with eleven new Gyllene favourites.

The reunion started mostly by chance. In the winter of 2021, Gyllene Tider was in the middle of its Sleeping Beauty dream, which began after the farewell tour two years earlier. At the same time, Per was out on a solo acoustic tour, which had to be postponed when new corona restrictions hit. Then he bought a new guitar, played a fuzz chord, got a feeling and wrote some pop songs that screamed for Gyllene Tider.

The first example of that is Chans, which has a classic Gyllene Tider sound with Göran Fritzon’s Farfisa organ as a guide. And as if that wasn’t enough, it is accompanied by another genuine pop track: Sanna mina ord, also taken from Hux Flux.

But how did it happen that a bunch of new and catchy Gyllene Tider songs could pop up in the middle of a calm acoustic solo tour?

Per says:

It’s a bit typical of my temperament. When I’ve played too much acoustic I get the feeling that I just want to play power pop after a while. And a quick check with the rest of the band made it clear that everyone wanted to reevaluate the decision to call it quits.

I think the pandemic changed everything. After it, everyone longed for a little security again and it is easiest to find with friends and family, so starting to think about Gyllene Tider again was not that difficult. We realized we weren’t done yet. And once we decided to do another tour in 2023, I started writing.

Chans will be released on 31st March and is part of the upcoming album Hux Flux which will be released on 30th June. Once again, Gyllene Tider show that they are the band that takes the chance when it comes. Congrats, Sweden – summer 2023 came early this year!

The single will be available on all streaming platforms, as well as on 7″ vinyl. Pre-order Chans HERE!

Tracklist

A    Chans
B    Sanna mina ord

Stills are from the promo video including a little snippet from the new song.

Press release can be read in Swedish HERE.

Press photo of the band by Anders Roos.

Per Gessle on Nordic Rox – March 2023

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After a well-deserved beachtime, skipping one month of being on air on Nordic Rox, Per Gessle is back on the Spectrum with Sven Lindström. Mr. G is taking a break from recording to make this episode with Sven. He is in the studio at the moment. Also preparing for a big summer tour in Sweden with Gyllene Tider, but he says it’s great to be back on the show. Nordic Rox is where it’s at. Sven asks PG what kind of project he is working on right now. Mr. G says right now he is working on some solo material. There will also be a Roxette musical coming out late next year, so he is working on that one as well. There is a movie coming out about Gyllene Tider next summer, so he is keeping himself busy. No peace for the wicked, Sven laughs. Per says it’s good. He just released the PG Roxette album in October last year, so he is still releasing some singles from that one. Some promotion here and there. Sven says as soon as that one is out, they will play it on Nordic Rox. He asks Per when the EP will be available in stores. It’s out mid April and he is preparing some videos and stuff for that one as well.

The March episode has a special where the guys are focusing on a Swedish group called Atomic Swing. They are a great band that started out in the early ’90s. They were big in Sweden, big in Japan.

The first song the guys play is Sven’s band’s new single, Close To You. The only thing he has to say is „here’s Nordic Rox with some good looking music in the shape of Velvet Beat”. After the song is played, Per says Velvet Beat is a Malmö band.

The next track is Gold Rush, new music from Stella Explorer. Then comes Hey Princess by Popsicle. Per thinks it’s a beautiful song. A classic.

Next one is The Loneliest Girl In The World, one of the hits from the PG Roxette album, Pop-Up Dynamo! Sven says they talked about this song earlier, but he is curious how it came about. PG says he doesn’t know, but when he wrote it, he just felt immediately that it’s got a really catchy chorus. He says you feel that in your spine when you are writing songs, when it hits that a chorus is really going somewhere. So he felt immediately that this is going to be a very strong song. He didn’t have a title or any lyric at the time, but it turned out to be the first single off the album. Sven says Per could have written it for Gyllene Tider. They were making an album around the same time. PG reacts that it was a little earlier, but it is sort of the same style, he agrees. The big difference of course is when he works with GT, it’s a very organic band with five people playing all the time, while with PG Roxette everything is programmed. So it’s more like an ’80s-’90s synthesizer based production. Even though the music is quite similar, the end result is pretty different.

Next is Sergels Torg by Veronica Maggio. Sven says it’s always great here on Nordic Rox to grab the chance to polish up your Swedish with the help of Veronica Maggio. Per adds for those who haven’t been to Stockholm that Sergels torg is the big square in the center of town where you are sort of wheeling and dealing, underworld, dark web. Sven adds it’s a place where you can buy this and that.

The Atomic Swing special starts with the guys talking about the band. Sven asks Per if he remembers when they came out. They were formed basically when Roxette were travelling the world in 1992. Atomic Swing made it quite big in Sweden. Per remembers their breakthrough. He liked the band a lot and they sounded pretty different. Per thinks their sound was really fresh. Good songwriting as well and they are a great band with great singers and great arrangements. The first album was a massive success for them. Sven says they made it really big in Sweden and they also broke through in Japan and Australia. Sven thinks the singer, Niclas Frisk has got a special attitude. Nobody else sounds exactly like him and he is also a very good guitarist. Per agrees and says it was a complete band. A really good band and they looked cool too. The first song the guys play from them is Stone Me Into The Groove, their biggest hit from their debut album, A Car Crash In The Blue (1993). The band was definitely influenced by the ’70s, but still there are some new elements to it in their sound. They sound like the ’90s as well. Sven says it’s just like the way Oasis updated the ’60s, to make it into a ’90s thing.

Per thinks that what made Atomic Swing work was that they had good songs. The next one they play, Dream On is an even better song, he thinks. It was a big success for another Swedish artist called Jerry Williams, an old rocker from the ’50s. Atomic Swing made their own version and it’s from another album. They made three albums in the ’90s and split up in 1997, and then they were gone for like 10 years and they reformed to make The Broken Habanas in 2006. Dream On has a wonderful guitar and organ solo where they sort of overlap each other in a wonderful way. Per thinks it’s a great song. He loves the guitar sound and the Hammond thing as well. They used Hammond a lot in the production arrangements. It makes the whole production sound really big.

The next song is also sort of flirting a bit with the ’70s sound. The guys go back to Atomic Swing’s second album called Bossanova Swap Meet. It was released in 1994 and had a track called Soul Free. There is a great little flute melody in the intro. It’s nice. Per thinks flute is a very underrated instrument. You immediately think about Jethro Thull. The flutes were everywhere in the late ’60s, early ’70s and then boom, off they went.

The last Atomic Swing song they play is Lovin’ Out Of Nothing, which Niclas Frisk, the leader of the band wrote together with Swedish singer Titiyo. She released her version in 2004 and it became a big song. A couple of years later, Atomic Swing released their own version on their comeback album, The Broken Habanas. Titiyo’s version is quite different, but it’s a really good song. Per didn’t know that the Atomic Swing had recorded it themselves, but when he heard it, he immediately recognized it of course. Sven was looking for the word „atmospheric” to describe it. Per says why not, it’s a good word.

The guys go back in time to 1995. Sven asks Per what happened in 1995. PG says it’s a long time ago. He was on the Crash! Boom! Bang! tour with Roxette. Sven says in Stockholm, Sweden a young girl was recording her debut album. He talks about Robyn and plays Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect) from her.

Hollow Talk is next by Choir Of Young Believers, a Danish one man band. It was the theme song for The Bridge TV series. Great TV series, Per thinks. Sven also thinks it’s very cool and it turns out Per didn’t see the last two episodes, because for some reason they stopped showing it on the network. That’s what you call a cliffhanger, Sven laughs. Per says he has to do something about that. Haha.

The guys wrap up, thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom is closing the show.

Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!