Is it time for a Roxette musical?

Hallandsposten (Jan-Owe Wikström) did an interview with Per in relation to the Roxette concert in Halmstad tomorrow. It’s going to be the 6th time they play in Halmstad. After 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994 and 2010 tomorrow it’s time for them to play again in the band’s hometown. It will be their first time at Örjans vall though.

According to the interview, the tour will continue in 2016, however, nothing is planned after the September concert (company gig) in Warsaw. Per says since they turn 30 next year, the tour should last until then and they haven’t played South Africa, Asia, North America and South America yet on this tour. At the same time it is Marie’s health they are depending on, how much she can do.

PG
Screenshot is from the making of video of The Look 2015 remake

Regarding the tour Per mentions it’s quite typical nowadays that as no artist can earn money on album sales, they go on tour. When Roxette played in Madrid, there were posters from Katy Perry via Mark Knopfler till the Foo Fighters. Since there is this big competition, he says it’s fantastic that they still have sold out shows and can sell 8000-18000 tickets per concert. In Halmstad there will be approximately 15000 people in the audience. The plan for the 5 concerts in Sweden was to sell 50000 tickets altogether and it seems it will work.

Per tells Jan-Owe the tour is one of the reasons why the new album is delayed. The other reason is the EMI – Warner merger. There are too many new people and Per wants to work with people he likes and who respect their history and the new songs. 5 songs off the new album are ready and as Per says, it is 65-70% of the total album. This would mean the album has 8 songs? Hm.

With Addeboy vs. Cliff, who mixed the 2015 remake of The Look, Per wrote some songs together. He says to Hallandsposten that it’s hard to find people who are talented in what he is not too good at, ie. programming.

There are still unknown collaborations on the new album, but Per told Hallandsposten he and Mats MP Persson wrote some songs together now for the first time since long and they might turn up on the new album. Mr. G says he would never be able to write “Fading Like A Flower” today, simply because he has moved on as a songwriter.

Regarding the changes in music consumption Per says nowadays it’s less important to people who wrote the songs or who plays the drums. Today’s pop music reflects the society today, so most of it is made on laptops where everything can be fixed in the end.

This time he says again that social media is a unique way to get close to the fans.

Jan-Owe Wikström asked Per what is left to do after that he has done almost everything with Roxette, Gyllene Tider, his solo projects and soundtrack. Maybe a musical? Per can imagine that there could be a musical built on Roxette’s, Gyllene Tider’s hits or his solo songs just like ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” and the Queen musical, but only if the right way is found. Something new. Maybe with Jonas Åkerlund as a director.

From the Hallandsposten interview it turns out that Per is still writing his diaries after each show, so it’s not only the Facebook posts he writes about them. And they film a lot. Probably, a lot more than what we get to see after each gig on Facebook.

New Roxette material in 2015

The news regarding the BMI London Awards reached Musikindustrin.se. They asked Per about the gala, The Per Gessle Archives, his books and Roxette.

About the gala Per said it was a lighthearted event with the usual red carpet-walking and quick TV interviews where the subjects changed between Marie’s brain tumor and Miley Cyrus’s tongue. He tells the award for this year’s song, Daft Punk’s Get Lucky was well deserved. Getting 2 awards, one together with MP for more than 5 million plays of Listen To Your Heart and one for more than 5 million plays of It Must Have Been Love among other, much older songs with the same amount of airplays was good for the ego, Per says. But all other 5 million-air songs are fantastic.

Regarding the book fair in Gothenburg he says whenever he / they do an official appearance, The International Hardcore Fans always turn up.

It’s always nice, they are really wonderful supporters from around the world who are there for better or worse. So the book fair was a very happy event for me. Lots of people and good atmosphere.

And now some news for all those who don’t fancy the idea of another greatest hits album. Per confirms again:

Roxette has been in the studio and finished a bunch of singles that will be released next year. We also aim to put together a brand new album in 2015, but right now we are concentrating on the “XXX – The 30th Anniversary Tour” starting October 28 in Vladivostok. It ends, as it looks now, the summer of 2016. I believe my passport expires then.

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New EP or full-scale album by Roxette

Roxette_tp_white_bgAs you could hear it with your own ears in the Australian radio interview with Per, he started writing new songs for Roxette a couple of months ago and they will go to studio in August to record new material before they start rehearsing for the tour in September.

Now Per reveals in an interview with The New Zealand Herald that they are planning to do an EP with 4-5 songs. However, being the hit machine he is, there might be a new studio album coming! That’s what he says:

We’re talking about doing an EP, four or five songs. At the same time, knowing me, I write a lot and if everything goes well, it might as well be a full-scale album.

Fingers crossed for a full album!

 

Besides this, he tells what the secret behind one of pop’s most enduring relationships is:

It helps that we never had a romance. We’ve known each other all our lives and it’s like a brother-sister relationship. When Marie got ill in 2002, it was a nightmare for all of us. I’m so pleased that she’s still alive. To be able to do these tours again is just amazing.

We are all so pleased, too! Bring on the new album and the tour!

 

Swedish press reviews Marie’s new album

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Marie’s new album is out today! We will collect the reviews published by the Swedish press here:

Allehanda (4/5)
Borås Tidning (4/5)
SVD (4/6)
GD.se (4/5)
Allas (4/5)
Aftonbladet (3/5)
Sydsvenskan (3/5)
Uppsala Nya Tidning (3/5)
Helsingborgs Dagblad (3/5)
Dagens Nyheter (3/5)
Värmlands Folkblad (3/5)
Göteborgs-Posten (2/5)
Smålandsposten (2/5)
Corren.se
NWT (2/5)
Expressen (2/5)
Arbetarbladet (2/5)
Hallandsposten (2/5)

 

 

The dates when DATPR songs were written

Until now you could reach the lyrics of Gyllene Tider songs on gyllenetider.com, but now they are available on gyllenetider.se as well. Next to all songs off ”Dags att tänka på refrängen” album you can find when the songs were written. All of them were born in 2012, except ”Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sej”, of which the original text (”Är det jag?”) was written in the 70s. In our Per Gessle, the workaholic article I was already writing about the demo dates. Now here come the dates when these pearls were written:

 

  • Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sej (Demo 6/8 2012): the lyrics can’t be found on the website yet, so no exact details of when this song was written, but at least we know that the first demo of it was ”Är det jag?” made on 9th July, 1979.
  • Man blir yr (Demo 26/7 2012): written on 22nd July, 2012. Maybe Per wouldn’t have enough time to write this song if Brøndby, Denmark gig (21st July, 2012) hadn’t been cancelled due to logistics reasons between Cluj and Gdansk gigs.
  • Singel (Demo 6/12 2012): written in October-November, 2012. Probably not 2 complete months were needed to write this hit, but it seems that it took the most time.
  • Allt jag lärt mej om livet (har jag lärt mej av Vera) (Demo 6/8 2012): August, 2012, but surely between 1st and 6th August, as the demo was recorded on 6th August, the Halmstad earthquake day.
  • Tio droppar regn (Demo 6/10 2012): written on 3rd October, 2012. Most probably it was such a rainy day that one had to be sitting inside and eat some glass meringue. 😉
  • Jag tänker åka på en lång lång lång lång lång resa (Demo 28/8 2012): written on 24th-25th August, 2012, between the Oriflame gig in Stockholm (22nd August) and the North American tour leg that started on 29th August, in Canada. This long journey surely had an effect on Mr. G.
  • Lyckopiller (Demo 21/6 2012): written on 17th June, 2012 in Halmstad. This was the first written among these new songs.
  • Chikaboom (Demo 6/12 2012): written on 20th-21st-27th November, 2012 in Stockholm. This was the last written among these new songs.
  • Anders och Mickes första band (Demo 5/10 2012): written on 9th September, 2012 in Calgary, so gig day in Calgary, Canada.
  • Tiden är en dåre med banjo (Demo 9/8 2012): written on 8th-9th August, 2012. During the short tour break PG must have had enough time to read some Charles Bukowski again. The quote ”Time is a fool with a banjo.” comes from him.
  • Knallpulver (Demo 8/5 2012): most probably it was born on the demo day, 8th May, 2012 in Curitiba, Brazil.
  • Dags att tänka på refrängen (Demo 28/6 2012): written on 25th-26th June, 2012. Maybe Mr. Gessle didn’t want to think about the end of the tour that was coming in less than 3 months.

 

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