Per Gessle Unplugged Tour – #1 – 5th November 2021 – Linköping

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In summer, Per Gessle & Co. had 10 very successful, sold-out gigs at Hotel Tylösand and when the last show ended on 3rd August, we all hoped there would be more concerts of this format. We didn’t have to wait for too long until the announcement of an unplugged tour. On 30th August Per announced he would go on tour around Sweden in November-December, playing at concert halls and theatres to keep the intimate atmosphere. Tickets went on sale on 2nd September and they were selling like hot cakes. 3 extra gigs had to be added to the originally planned 12 shows, because several were sold out already the first 1-2 days. So altogether there will be 15 gigs this autumn.

The premiere happened in Linköping last night. And what a most awesome first show it was!

The concert was set to start at 19:30 and the entrance to open at 19:00. When we got to the venue it was nice to meet some familiar faces we already met in summer and of course at other Rox World-related shows.

First we checked out the merch stand. For this tour there are black T-shirts with 3 different designs, all 3 of them having the concert dates on the back. There is a tote bag and a poster with the tour dates as well. Earlier we could see Per posting different designs and white T-shirt too, but it’s only these 3 in the end that got produced.

When we entered the concert hall we could see the stage set which was very similar to the Hotel Tylösand set, but the stage here was bigger, so the decoration and the lights, the bulbs had to be adapted to this bigger space. It looked magical. Designed by Åsa Gessle of course.

While waiting for the concert to start, we could listen to a new mix tape. When the sound of it turned off, the lights on the audience went down and the band came up on stage at 19:45. They got a very loud applause and cheering. Per greeted the crowd and told „if you know the lyrics, sing along, it’s fun. If you don’t know the lyrics, it’s even more fun.” Haha.

The set started just like in Tylösand, with Kung av sand, På promenad genom stan and Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång. After this came a little surprise with Magnus standing up, picking the double bass – which until then I thought was part of the decoration. Småstadsprat was played like this and it sounded fab! Actually, hearing the first 4 songs and anecdotes I started thinking there wouldn’t be too many changes vs. summer, but then Mr. G asked Magnus if it was hard to play the double bass. Magnus said it was very hard and they laughed. Then PG said they would play another Nashville song. He didn’t start with the correct chord though and said „I have to find the right chord first”. Haha. He managed and the next one was Min plats, which is a new song on the unplugged setlist. It also turned out that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, however, Per thought it was his. Chris joked that it costs 2000 SEK per gig.

Tycker om när du tar på mej was next in the set and Helena got a very loud applause from the audience for her performance.

Then came a Gyllene Tider segment, with Det hjärta som brinner as the seventh song on the setlist. After DHSB, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage and only Per and Clarence stayed. Here came the biggest surprise and the absolute highlight of the show. PG told he wrote a song on the tour bus in 1981 during the GT tour. Back then they didn’t have time to rehearse, so they did that on their soundchecks, like how you can see it in Parkliv!, directed by Lasse Hallström. The guys performed Ljudet av ett annat hjärta. It has left me – not only me – absolutely breathless. The crowd appreciated this extremely beautiful version of the song with loud applause and cheering. Mr. G stood up after that, went to Clarence and they high-fived each other. They got even more cheering and the crowd didn’t want to stop showing their happiness. Helena, Magnus and Chris came back on stage and they were clapping their hands too.

Per took the capo off his guitar and provided us with another big surprise: Varmt igen! What can I say… Another highlight of the evening!

Micke N-S brought Per his ukulele and we all knew it’s Tuffa tider’s time. PG told he remembers he bought his first ukulele right after he saw a film about George Harrison. He bought it with Sven Lindström in Stockholm.

Fortunately, Juni, juli, augusti – which for me was the biggest highlight during summer, to hear it in an acoustic arrangement – was kept on the list.

It Must Have Been Love came next with the story of how it was refused by the German market while it was a success in Sweden and later how it became the soundtrack of Pretty Woman. The performance got a very loud crowd reaction, we loved it!

If you think there were no more new songs on the setlist, you’re wrong! Getting back to the Mazarin era, Vilket håll du än går popped up last night! The band introduction came after this song. When Per got to Clarence, he was joking that Mr. Öfwerman doesn’t have a mic in front of him, which is actually quite nice. They laughed.

Just like during the summer sets, Här kommer alla känslorna and Min hälsning followed the band intro and after MH, the gang went off stage. The audience was incredibly loud, didn’t stop clapping their hands and making noise with their feet on the concert hall floor. And so Per & Co. came back on stage after a while.

How to start the first encore? Why not adding a new track here too? They did! Födelsedag was an interesting choice of song and it sounded quite cool in this arrangement.

The gang remembered Marie Fredriksson and Pelle Alsing and dedicated Listen To Your Heart to them. It was also a big favourite of the audience.

Do you think adding more songs that haven’t been played on the unplugged gigs yet was over? Ha! No!!! Per introduced the next one by telling there are lyrics which you can only write when you are very young. He said he was thinking about Flickorna på TV2 for example. He laughed and the audience laughed as well. He said it wouldn’t be too politically correct in 2021, but it was fun in 1979, coming from a 20-year-old guy. There are other songs like this in his song catalogue. He started playing När vi två blir en and the crowd was singing along and didn’t want to stop applauding the band after the song. Per said it’s hard to top.

När alla vännerna gått hem was the last song in the first encore. The whole crowd stood up when the band took a bow and went off stage and they still waited for the gang to come back with some more songs. Of course they came back! You just had the feeling that you don’t want this night to end.

Vid hennes sida opened the second encore and don’t be afraid, Sommartider was there too with amazing crowd reactions.

Someone shouted Dangerous before the last song, but Per & Co. closed the gig with Om du bara vill. The audience gave a standing ovation, Per and the band had a wide smile on their faces. We all had. Such a fantastic premiere gig it was!

There were missing hits vs. the last summer set, e.g. Pappa, Ömhet, Vandrar i ett sommarregn and Honung och guld, but it was so worth to include these 6(!!!) additional songs. Let’s see how the setlist changes from gig to gig during the next 14 concerts!

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går

Band introduction

14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning

Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en
19. När alla vännerna gått hem

Encore 2
20. Vid hennes sida
21. Sommartider
22. Om du bara vill

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the show:

Wow! Thx for an amazing nite in Linköping. Loved every second of it. I’m blessed having a crowd like this! Norrköping tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Wow! Tack så mycket för en helt makalös kväll i Linköping. Vilken fantastisk stämning, vi älskade varje sekund. Hoppas ni är inte hesa imorgon!!!! Syns i Norrköping om några timmar. Love, P.

 

Gyllene Tider – Moderna Tider 40th anniversary

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“We were constantly trying to keep up with our own success”, says Per Gessle, talking about the times 40 years back, more precisely, 1981. Gyllene Tider broke through with thunder and crash a year earlier and the shy boys from Halmstad didn’t really know how to be in the media, what clothes they should wear or how to behave on big stages… even if they were the biggest.

The difficult second record – the one that so many fail with – was on the doorstep. But it couldn’t be a fail for Gyllene Tider – it became a success beyond all expectations.

Now, 40 years later, Moderna Tider is being hailed with a 3-set vinyl box containing the original vinyl, a vinyl with all the songs that were released around the album but weren’t included on any record, as well as a vinyl with all the songs from the original album in their original format, recorded live in the rehearsal studio in Harplinge.

Release date is 19th November. Besides the LPs, the box will also contain a 36-page booklet with Sven Lindström interviews with the Golden Five in it.

Tracklists

LP #1:

Side A

  1. Vänta på mej!
  2. Tuff tuff tuff (som ett lokomotiv)
  3. På jakt efter liv
  4. När vi två blir en
  5. Det hjärta som brinner
  6. Du spelar svår att nå
  7. Kom intill mej

Side B

  1. (Kom så ska vi) leva livet
  2. Min tjej och jag
  3. Povel Ramel, Paul McCartney och jag
  4. Chrissie, hur mår du?
  5. Kärleken är inte blind (men ganska närsynt)
  6. När alla vännerna gått hem

LP #2:

Side A – 19.32

  1. Gyllene tider för rock’n roll – 2.57
  2. Vill ha ett svar! – 2.15
  3. Och jorden den är rund. – 1.58
  4. Ge mej inte det där – 2.13
  5. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta – 3.49
  6. Teena – 6.04

Side B – 21.00

  1. För dina bruna ögons skull – 3.37
  2. Vem tycker om dej? – 4.29
  3. Leka med elden – 4.50
  4. Beating Heart – 3.04
  5. To Play With Fire – 4.50

LP #3:

Side A – 23.10

  1. Vänta på mej! (Live replokalen 10 feb 1980) – 2.54
  2. Tuff tuff tuff (som ett lokomotiv) (Live replokalen 1 jan 1981) – 3.02
  3. När vi två blir en (Live replokalen 12 aug 1980) – 3.09
  4. Det hjärta som brinner (Live replokalen 12 aug 1980) – 3.05
  5. Du spelar svår att nå (Live replokalen 20 jan 1980) – 2.41
  6. Kom intill mej (Live replokalen 9 jan 1980) – 2.59
  7. Henry, dansa inte disco! (Live replokalen 20 jan 1980) – 5.03

Side B – 20.59

  1. (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet (Live replokalen 20 jan 1980) – 3.22
  2. Povel Ramel, Paul McCartney och jag (Live replokalen 19 jan 1980) – 3.48
  3. Chrissie, hur mår du? (Live replokalen 20 jan 1980) – 3.51
  4. Kärleken är inte blind (men ganska närsynt) (Live replokalen 18 juni 1980) – 3.52
  5. Vill ha ett svar! (Live replokalen 7 jan 1981) – 2.17
  6. S.O.S. (Live replokalen 18 juni 1980) – 3.34

You can pre-order your copies on Bengans, Ginza and CDON. Only 2000 copies will be available!

Check out how cool the box looks HERE!

 

Per Gessle in radio documentary about Jonas Åkerlund

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Swedish Radio P3 did a radio documentary about Jonas Åkerlund’s career. They interviewed Jonas about his collaborations with tons of world famous artists, the music videos he directed, his black metal band, Bathory, his dyslexia he struggled with and also about his movies. Besides his wife, Bea Åkerlund, Jan Gradvall and Per Sinding Larsen, Per Gessle was also interviewed for the docu.

The Roxette-related part starts with Jonas’ collaboration with Marie Fredriksson at 17:21. It’s Marie talking in the Den ständiga resan docu. Jonas tells that during Den ständiga resan project in 1992 Marie and he became good friends which was easy with Marie, because she was so kind and friendly towards everyone, including Jonas who says he was a nobody back then. He is thankful to Marie that he got the job and that led to so many others. It was that half-hour-long documentary and the videos to the album that Per Gessle saw. Then Jonas began to work with Roxette and that was his break-through.

The first collaboration with Roxette was the video for Fingertips ’93. Jonas thinks it’s a good song. Marie was pregnant and she didn’t want it to be visible, so the clothes she was wearing were hiding it. Jonas was working together with Roxette for 25 years. In 2016 they released Roxette Diaries, a documentary made of home videos recorded by Per and Åsa in the 80’s and 90’s during tours and recordings.

Per tells Jonas is an amazingly creative explosion all over. They became very close friends, both are music nerds. Their style is very different, but both of them are workaholic and dedicated to their own job. Mr. G tells every recording occasion with Jonas was an adventure, because anything could happen. Per thinks Jonas is quite organized in a way, but he is also very spontaneous. If a new idea comes up, he is testing it.

According to Per, Jonas’ best videos are like a very good pop song that is interesting in its whole length, no matter if it’s 3 or 4 minutes long. Jonas is very talented in building up a video that you want to watch again. Per feels it’s the same how he works with his pop songs, to make it interesting and catch the attention. That’s what Jonas is doing both when he is filming and cutting.

Per Gessle appears at the end of the docu again (at 1:24:53) telling Jonas will go down in history as one of the greatest music video directors not only because he has been working with many of the greatest artists, but also because his style is so unique and innovative. Mr. G says he is superproud to have been working with Jonas.

During the documentary, you can hear Small Apartments soundtrack several times and of course, part of Marie’s DSR docu and songs, as well as parts of Roxette songs.

Jonas photo by Allis Nettréus/TT/SR, Marie and Per stills are from Fingertips ’93 video

Roxette – “It Must Have Been Love” played 6 million times on US radio

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BMI proudly honoured the top UK and European songwriters, composers and music publishers of the most-performed songs of the previous year at the 2021 BMI London Awards. Among others, honourees for Million-Air Awards were announced as well. As BMI states, they recognize and celebrate these accomplished songwriters whose classic standards have literally been played millions and millions of times in the U.S.

Listen To Your Heart celebrated its 6-Million-Air Award a year ago, now it’s It Must Have Been Love’s turn! American radios played it 6 million times! If it was constantly played, it would mean almost 50 years! Pure awesomeness!

Roxette reached their 3rd No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with IMHBL on 16th June 1990 and stayed on top of the chart for 2 weeks. In 2000 Per received the award from BMI for this song being played over 3 million times on American radio, for 4 million he got the award in 2005 and for 5 million plays in 2014.

And hey, it started out as a Christmas song that found its way to hot-hot Hollywood! At least 6 million thanks to Per Gessle for writing this most amazing ballad and to Marie Fredriksson for adding her wonderful vocals and turning it into Roxette’s signature song! Big congrats! Big! Huge!

Per Gessle on Mix Megapol’s Maracas

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Per was guest on radio Mix Megapol’s new show, Maracas today. It was a pre-recorded appearance. The show contained lots of music and maybe even more ads, but one could hear the program leaders chatting with Mr. G in between.

Anders Bagge (musician and songwriter) and Arantxa Álvarez (TV presenter and singer) are very happy and feel honoured to have Per on their show – not only because PG poured milk into Arantxa’s coffee (as seen in the teaser video). Anders says Per is insanely musical, he has always seen Mr. G as Sweden’s Beatles king in a way, writing nice melodies, using simple chords. He thinks Per is a fantastic songwriter and he feels starstruck having PG on the show.

Anders and Arantxa ask Per to tell about how he spends a weekend. Mr. G says he spends it with his loved ones. When it’s normal times, there is a lot of travelling in his life, e.g. he spends one or two weekends at the F1 racing, which he is very much interested in. Anders asks if he is racing too. Per tells he tried it once, but it’s not for him. Arantxa asks how fast the cars are driving there. PG replies way too fast.

Here they play Här kommer alla känslorna.

The guys call DJ Rob Wåtz who is in Marbella and ask Per which song he should mix during the program. Mr. G wants to hear The Look in a mash-up. He thinks there could be many songs, but this one is a classic and would be fun to hear. Rob says he likes challenges and he will not gonna let Per down.

Then they leave some time for Rob to mix and Arantxa and Per play a little quiz. They have to recognize a weird cover band’s take on 3 songs and tell who the original artist is. The first song is a cover of Billie Jean. Per finds out very quickly that it’s Michael Jackson. The second cover they play is Eye Of The Tiger and Arantxa knows it, but she doesn’t know the artist, so Per has the chance to guess it and he guesses it right of course, Survivor. The third one is Joyride, which Per recognizes immediately, haha, so he is the winner of this game.

Then comes another game. Arantxa says there is a bird with a backpack and brings some info in it. The first is that Per’s whole house is spinning after the sunlight. Mr. G’s reaction is: what?! Arantxa says rumor has it in Halmstad. Mr. G laughs and says there are many rumors in Halmstad, e.g. that they took away all speed bumps for him to be able to drive faster with his cars. His house is located in the South, so there is a lot of morning light on one side and a lot of evening light on the other, the house doesn’t have to spin. Another info from the bird’s backpack is that Per started his career as a street musician playing on streets and squares. PG says it’s not true at all. What he did on streets and squares was walking as a sandwich man when he was 13-14 years old in Simlångsdalen for Lonebergs Keramik. He tells he and a friend of his started as troubadours employed by the city council and played at nursing homes for old people around Halmstad. They performed songs that were for the target group they played for, e.g. Drömmen om Elin, Svarte Rudolf, Så skimrande var aldrig havet. He remembers he also played När alla vännerna gått hem, because it had just been written then and he got tired of those 50 songs they always played 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It must have been in 1978.

Another game is coming, where you have to spin a wheel. There is some kind of wheel in the studio and Arantxa asks Per to tell who he sees on it. Mr. G tells there is e.g. Ricky Martin, Carlos Santana. Arantxa explains that Anders tells a story related to the artist on the wheel Per will spin. Per spins it and it lands on Enrique Iglesias. Anders tells a story of his revenge on Enrique after he gave Anders a near-death experience in his private plane. You can watch this part HERE.

Arantxa reads questions from listeners they asked on Mix Megapol’s social media sites. One of them is which song Per has written he is most proud of. Mr. G says it changes all the time, but he likes The Look because it was born when he was learning how to program his new synth. It felt something special. Another listener says he wants to hear some questions about Per’s wardrobe, because he gets too little credit for it, but he also wants to hear a little about his guitars and of course some juicy anecdotes. Per laughs and says it sounds like he could have an own program to talk about all this. Regarding his wardrobe he says since he is performing a lot and has many photo sessions, there are a lot of clothes involved. Anders says Per has always dressed very nicely. Mr. G thanks for it and says Anders is very kind. Regarding guitars Per says he has way too many, about a hundred. He says collecting them is a sign that he starts getting old. He buys new ones, but never sells the old ones. All guitars are unique and if you want a special sound, you have to have the guitar to have that special sound.

The guys come back to DJ Rob Wåtz in Marbella and he starts playing the mix he prepared in the meantime. He mashed Bomfunk MC’s Freestyler with The Look. HERE you can watch a video of PG enjoying it (nevermind that Mix Megapol wrote Joyride instead of The Look in the video text…). After the mash-up ends, Per says it was very good. He thinks Freestyler was a cool choice, it’s a forgotten tune.

Anders thanks Per for joining the program and tells he is a very nice person. PG tells Anders is so sweet. Arantxa thanks for Per too and Per thanks for them as well and his part is over.

Stills are from Mix Megapol’s videos linked above.