Andreas Dahlbäck

Per Gessle – En vacker kväll in Örebro, Sweden – 8th July 2017 – #3

by

Per Gessle’s concert in Örebro was planned to be held at Slottsparken, but at the end of April, the venue was changed to Gustavsviksbadet, because the castle park is now declared not to be suitable for concerts.

Zigzagging in the country from one concert town to another, we arrived to Örebro in the afternoon. Not much later than we had arrived to the venue, Per and the band started their soundcheck before 5 pm and it lasted for about 20 minutes. Some of us stood up on the fence and watched them on stage. HERE you can see a short part of it. The energy level is indeed different when you have a crowd in front of you, isn’t it? Haha.

It was raining almost all day and so we prepared our ponchos for the night, but fortunately, the sky got clearer and clearer. It rained until 4 pm, then started again at 6 and once again a bit later, but by the time Per & Co came up on stage, there was no rain at all and it stayed like that all night.

In the queue I met a young Swedish guy. We chatted a bit and were standing next to each other in the front row. He is 22 and got into PG’s music only 4 years ago. He knew Gyllene Tider before that and wasn’t really fond of them, but something kicked in at the age of 18. Cool! It’s never too late to become a Per Gessle fan, eller hur? I love it how the younger generation also finds Per’s music attractive.

Good Harvest and Strandels were there in Örebro and played their 25-25 minutes before Per and the band came up on stage. I haven’t written about the stage outfits so far (besides Per’s white clothes, of course!). I like it very much how everyone’s appearance fits each other’s set, but still everyone has their clothes tailored to their own personalities. You can see it on the pictures and in the videos. Do I have to mention that I just love PG’s black outfit with those red stars and stripes on? It’s too hot and it’s so much his style! Lookin’ cool!

Now both Per and the band were even more relaxed than in Oskarshamn. Mr. G was jumping around and doing his circles (mainly during Joyride) on stage all night very energetically. Even if now there are more slow songs in the setlist, during which Per is more of the swaying his hips guy, during the uptempo songs he still shows us his left leg stomping trademark. Adorable! His voice needed some ginger tea during the show, but we loved how he sounded. During the concert he was licking the picks quite often. We know that from the 2014 plec interview that he is doing it for the picks to stick more to the finger.

There were several funny and / or adorable moments during the whole show, as usual, but I have to mention especially one of those moments. After Första pris Per was talking to the crowd and a guy was shouting from the audience: ”Perra, vi älskar dig!” ( = Per, we love you!). How PG reacted to it, with an ”Aaaaaah!” leaving his mouth and how the crowd was cheering him was absolutely priceless!

The band was very energetic too. They communicate more and more with the crowd and we love that. Keep it up, guys and girls! They are all so talented and nice people and you must love how they enjoy performing. There is a very lovely scene during each show when Sommartider is being played. The band members all go to Andreas to stand in front of him, very close to each other, while Per is in the very front, making the crowd sing along. In Örebro BoJo gave the job to someone else to film the crowd during this song. The screens and the camera cooperated perfectly this time and we could see crowd pics on the background screens.

The second RoxBlog live video in history was Varmt igen in Örebro. Cool that so many of you wacthed it! And isn’t it a most beautiful presentation of the song by Per and his beautiful band? It absolutely is!

   

The setlist was the same as in Helsingborg (except for the LTYH intro to The Look), so Mahi Nana got back! Woohoo! The last song was again Småstadsprat. Still makes me think that Sommartider would be a better ending to the show and they should find another spot for Småstadsprat. Regarding the setlist, I mean the songs it includes, I like it like that (except for IMHBL, for obvious reasons already mentioned earlier), but it could still have at least 1 song that could be changed for each concert. Most of the hardcore fans agreed on the fact that the changing song could be Honung och guld. Per’s brilliant career has so many eras that are still not represented on this tour. Yet. We miss at least one song from his English solo, ’80s Swedish solo or SOAP. And if Roxette, then She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a most wanted song or any other uptempo Rox hit. Can be something that had never been played live with Roxette. Maybe next time? Wishful thinking?

At the end of the show the crowd (4000 people) were cheering the fab 8 on stage. Per and the band were smiling continuously. They bowed to the crowd 3-4 times before they left the stage. Per even tried to throw picks from his mic stand to the audience, but after approximately 3 attempts he gave up, because he failed to throw them further than the edge of the stage. His facial expression after each attempt was too funny. Try just a little bit harder next time, Mr. G! Haha.

Oh, one more thing. When the crowd was leaving the venue, some fans got close to the stage and asked Micke N-S for the setlist. He threw some sheets of paper to them and what you could read on them made you laugh. It was written in English (why not in Swedish… LOL… 😉 ) and it reads: ”You don’t get a setlist, because your ticket does not say entertainment and a souvenir. It just says that you get to see the show. That should be enough. What are you going to do with a lousy piece of paper anyway?” Thanx for the laugh of the day, MNS!

Per after the gig:

Tack Örebro! Tack för en härlig kväll i Gustavsvik igår. Grymt att se så mycket folk och höra så sköna röster överallt! Och, håll i hatten, inget regn!!! “Honung och guld” var magisk och Christoffers “Queen Of Rain”-intro till “Varmt igen” är en pärla. Cheers. Syns igen! /P&Co

 

All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Setlist

1. Min plats
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Vilket håll du än går
4. Juni, juli, augusti
5. Det hjärta som brinner
6. Segla på ett moln / Första pris
7. Tittar på dej när du dansar
8. It Must Have Been Love
9. Honung och guld
10. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Kung av sand
12. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
13. Spegelboll
14. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
15. The Look (with Listen To Your Heart as intro)

Encore:
16. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
17. Tycker om när du tar på mej
18. Dressed for Success
19. Joyride

Encore 2:
20. Sommartider
21. Småstadsprat

Videos:

Min plats
På promenad genom stan: 1; 2;
Juni, juli, augusti: 1; 2;
It Must Have Been Love
Honung och guld
Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
Kung av sand
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta: 1; 2; 3;
Gå & fiska!
The Look: 1; 2;
Tycker om när du tar på mej
Sommartider: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5;

Articles, pictures:

Örebroguiden
Örebro Tribune
NA

 

Per Gessle – En vacker kväll in Oskarshamn, Sweden – 7th July 2017 – #2

by

The 2nd stop on Per Gessle’s solo tour was a festival in Oskarshamn. Latitud 57 is a 2-day-long festival and Per was announced to perform there on the first day, being the Friday headliner. Weeks before the event we saw pictures of cars (1; 2) promoting the festival and we all agreed that they looked very cool and we would love to drive one like that. Who wouldn’t want a PG face on their cars? Haha. One car we also saw upon our arrival to Oskarshamn.

When we arrived, the festival area wasn’t too crowded. All the people who were around just wanted to change their tickets to armbands, so they were queueing for that. The gates opened at 16:30 and even if PG was to perform on the main stage at 21:00, we occupied our spots in the front row already after we had been let in.

First there was a show for children (Duran & Mollan) on the main stage, starting at 17:30. The kids (3-10) enjoyed it a lot and their parents too. Some parents were more active doing the choreography than their kids. Haha. Then there was a little break and set up for the next main stage act and the organizers announced that the festival for Friday is sold out. This meant 9000 people attending the event. So, Peg Parnevik was next, starting at 19:00. Her fans are mostly teenagers and we let them enjoy their ”idol” (?) from the front row. Her performance was, let’s say, a bit too far from our musical taste. Strandels, one of Per’s support acts were performing at the small stage from 20:00. We didn’t go there, we stood in the main stage front row instead, but we could hear Strandels performing very well from there too.

The crew was setting up the stage and preparing the instruments for Mr. G and the band. I think I haven’t mentioned yet that the stage background seems to stay on wheels during the whole show, so it is probably much easier to carry it around Sweden, from one place to another. The crew is still so professional anyway, they are always very fast with setting up before the gigs and tearing down after the shows. This time Åsa wasn’t there, but BoJo was testing the big stage camera in Oskarshamn too, just like in Helsingborg. However, at the point he would have had to use it (during Sommartider), there was a little technical issue, so the picture didn’t appear on the screens. He waited for someone to sort it out, but in the end it didn’t work. Never mind. It was much fun anyway!

PG and the band appeared on stage at 21:00. I decided to shoot the first ever RoxetteBlog live video and broadcast it on our Facebook page, to let you all enjoy how the concert starts. Being it the first attempt, I almost missed the beginning of Min plats. Too many buttons to click on… Haha. Fortunately, it worked out fine in the end and I’m glad you liked it. Will do it again later too, promise. 😉

The opening song sounded beautiful, didn’t it? This time there was no sign of nervousness. Per and the band played as if they have been playing together since ever and they all communicated more with the audience than at the premiere gig. In the video you can hear that the crowd was really loud, already after Min plats they let their voice and hands be heard and it got only better.

We knew that a festival show would be shorter than a usual one and that was the case indeed. PG’s concert had to end after 90 minutes as there was another band starting to perform on the small stage at 22:30. This way the setlist got shorter vs. Helsingborg, but it was still longer than the Leif’s Lounge show.

One harmonica song was out of the set (Vilket håll du än går), but fortunately, the other stayed in (Kung av sand). Honung och guld was left out too.

I won’t go into hit by hit details, but of course I’d like to mention some fun things or facts that I could pay more attention to on the tour’s second show. One of them is that I actually love how Per and the gang stop playing Juni, juli, augusti after ”För vindarna är varma då / Juni, juli, augusti” and leave a break for the cheering crowd then go on playing the song from ”Du tror jag inte ser dig så”.

Oskarshamn’s crowd knew the lyrics to It Must Have Been Love very well and were not ashamed to sing along loudly. Still, the song left us with the same mixed feelings as in Helsingborg. You know why.

Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and Spegelboll were 2 highlight songs again. They work just perfectly. It would have been even better for me if the security guy didn’t decide to take his job so seriously during Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and step up on the fence in front of me to order someone in the middle to get off someone else’s neck or so. It took some time until I had a clear stage view in front of me again.

 

During Gå & fiska! there was some technical issue with Per’s guitar. No clue what it was. He just brought it to Micke N-S to fix it. MNS wanted to give him another guitar, but Per refused it and came back to the stage without a guitar. It was fun seeing him without any instruments, gesticulating heavily with his hands while singing. While Mr. G was moving around without the guitar, checking if MNS was ready with it yet, he bumped into either Helena or Malin (I can’t remember, I think it was rather Malin) and let her go first. It was too cute. MNS was fast fixing the guitar though and PG got it back in probably less than 2 minutes.

When I was writing down the setlist, I had to check it twice what the intro to The Look was, because I tried to memorize it was Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, but as that song was already played in the set, I got a bit uncertain. I don’t know why Chris chose that one to play as the intro too, but well. It sounded cool in Christoffer’s psychedelic performance too. Haha.

Now standing on the left side, I could see more of Ola and Andreas. They both can go real wild on stage and it’s great watching them how they enjoy playing their instruments. Ola and Chris were playing a lot next to each other and they both also went several times to Andreas to have some fun while playing. Magnus from the right joined them too every now and then.

Regarding Joyride, we brought balloons with us, but as the setlist changed and this time the song came after Tycker om när du tar på mej, we realized it quite late that Joyride was the next song and we were not ready with blowing the balloons up on time. Even BoJo saw us being late and he was laughing at us. Haha. Whatever. Another fun fact, before Per started playing Joyride, he picked the acoustic plecs off the mic stand one by one and threw them to the crowd. Well, he already knew he wouldn’t need more acoustic picks during the rest of the show. Unfortunately, the shorter setlist didn’t include Tittar på dej när du dansar. We missed it much! But what was even stranger is that Småstadsprat wasn’t performed either.

The last song in the first encore was Sommartider and the 2nd encore contained only Dressed for Success. I would have changed these 2 songs and played DFS before or after Joyride and perform Sommartider as the closing song, but we enjoyed it this way too. However, there was a little technical hiccup again. When the gang came back for the 2nd encore, Per’s mic didn’t work so we couldn’t really hear what he was saying and even his guitar had a low sound. The guys fixed it in no time though and all went on perfectly fine with DFS.

Andreas was rocking the drums so hard that one of his drumsticks flew out of his hands at the end (absolutely not on purpose) and it landed in front of us in the front row. One Russian guy could pick it up, so now he is a very happy owner of an Andreas Dahlbäck drumstick and keeps it in his collection as a very nice memory of that Oskarshamn night.

Per after the show:

W O W ! Fantastiskt gig på Latitud 57 festivalen i Oskarshamn. Utsålt = 9000 pers. Den här turne’n kommer att bli mycket speciell. Häng med! /P.

All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Setlist:

1. Min plats
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Juni, juli, augusti
4. Det hjärta som brinner
5. Segla på ett moln / Första pris
6. It Must Have Been Love
7. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
8. Kung av sand
9. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
10. Spegelboll
11. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
12. The Look (with Ljudet av ett annat hjärta as intro)

Encore:
13. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
14. Tycker om när du tar på mej
15. Joyride
16. Sommartider

Encore 2:
17. Dressed for Success

Videos:

Roxette hits (short parts of all the Rox songs that were played)
Kung av sand
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta: 1; 2;
Sommartider: 1; 2;

Articles, pictures:

Barometern

 

Per Gessle – En vacker kväll in Helsingborg, Sweden – 6th July 2017 – #1

by

4 days ago Per Gessle’s most awaited solo tour started. The pre-premiere gig at Leif’s Lounge was a real good appetizer for what was about to come in July and August, so we couldn’t wait anymore to see and hear Mr. G and the band on a huge stage under the Swedish summer sky. The premiere gig was held at Sofiero Slott in Helsingborg. This place I remembered from 2013 when Gyllene Tider played there. Besides recalling images of 5 amazing golden guys on stage, I also remembered 2 other things: all the people were coming with picnic baskets and the sound was so weak back then that we could hear our voices better than Per’s and also the sound of the instruments was very low. So I was wondering how the show would be, if the sound could be better after 4 years and if the Swedes come to have a picnic again.

Hardcore fans arrived from several countries during the day: besides Sweden, there were fans from Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and maybe from even more countries. So the front row seemed to become very international to cheer PG on his big night. The security team was very helpful and nice, they seemed to understand our insanity of waiting for our favourite artist during all day.

While we were waiting for the gates to open at 6 pm, we could hear the soundcheck that started at appr. 4 pm. The stage was too far away to see clearly what was happening, but the sound was great outside. Gave us high hopes for it to be awesome at night too. What PG and the band rehearsed were På promenad genom stan, Vilket håll du än går, Det hjärta som brinner, Segla på ett moln which lead into Första pris, then Mahi Nana, woohoo Tittar på dej när du dansar, It Must Have Been Love, Honung och guld, Varmt igen, Tycker om när du tar på mej, then we could hear some drum tacts from Soul Deep, then came Småstadsprat, Dressed for Success and Min plats. The whole soundcheck lasted for about an hour. Åsa was there at the venue too and she came to greet us some minutes after 4 pm, during the soundcheck. She was as nice she is always with the fans.

The gates opened at 6 pm and just as we thought, after we got to our places in the front, no Swedes were coming closer to us. They all landed their baskets on the grass, far away from the stage and started having their picnic. Haha. Still such a funny thing. But good for us.

As I already shared some pictures on our Facebook page, there is of course new merchandise. You can buy T-shirts (6 different ones), a crew-neck sweater, a sailor bag, a lithography, a corkscrew, a set of 3 wine glasses in a nice case and a pack of cards. Hm. It might be hard to find out what to include in the merchandise and then you have to decide on the design too. Well, next time it would be worth asking the fans about it. Just saying. To those who plan to buy any of the above mentioned, it might be useful info for you that the wine glasses have tussilagos printed on them. Not engraved, printed. So you might not be able to wash them in a dishwasher. At least we wouldn’t try to. 3 glasses. 3? Could be 2 or 6. Interesting anyway. Another funny thing is the corkscrew and its design. To print ”Per Gessle” with silver on a silver coloured (plastic) surface wasn’t the best of ideas. OK, everyone can decide on what he / she is into and would buy from the merchandise. What we all miss are mugs and keyrings and T-shirts with the tour dates on the back. And more PG pics on the merch stuff, instead of signs. The tussilagos are fine though. And how about merch guitar picks? Besides all what I listed above you can also buy the standard ”En vacker natt” vinyl and the CD, as well as the Mazarin LP at the merch stand.

After checking the merchandise, we got back to our places. While standing there waiting for the support acts, we saw photographer Anders Roos on stage. We talked to him shortly and it turned out he would be at several shows to take photos. So let’s hope there will be a nice photo book of this tour too.

Good Harvest was the first support act to perform. The 2 girls, Hanna Enlöf and Ylva Eriksson got on stage at 19:30 and played for about 25 minutes. They sound beautiful together and their guitar playing is also wonderful. Their songs and covers are really unique.

After Good Harvest, the stage was set for Strandels, Tova and Sixten Strandell (sister and brother) and a young guitarist and drummer. They performed both own songs and covers too, starting at 20:10, playing for about 25 minutes. They got the crowd into a bit more party mood.

Before, after and between the support acts PG’s mix tape was on. The good old crew, the technicians were busy with setting up the stage, having everything ready for THE show. Some minutes (maybe 3-4) after 21:00, the band and Per appeared on stage.

Here comes the setlist and then I go into details:

1. Min plats
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Vilket håll du än går
4. Juni, juli, augusti
5. Det hjärta som brinner
6. Segla på ett moln / Första pris
7. Tittar på dej när du dansar
8. It Must Have Been Love
9. Honung och guld
10. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Kung av sand
12. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
13. Spegelboll
14. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
15. The Look (with När vi två blir en as intro)

Encore:
16. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
17. Tycker om när du tar på mej
18. Dressed for Success
19. Joyride

Encore 2:
20. Sommartider
21. Småstadsprat

As Min plats was the opener at Leif’s Lounge, we expected it to be the first song on tour too. You could sense Per was so nervous (during the first 3 songs maybe), his facial expressions showed it and his moves too. He messed up the first verse in Min plats and he had to check the screen in front of him several times to make sure he sings the correct lyrics. It was probably not visible to all in the crowd and mostly hardcore fans realized it only anyway. Mr. G was so cute in this situation. I think the crowd’s reaction during and after the songs encouraged him to think all was going fine and he let his nerves ease. Really after 3 songs there was no sign of being nervous at all.

Before the next song, Per said ”I thought to play songs from my whole, ridiculously long career. I’ve been writing songs since more than 40 years now…, which is a little odd, because I’m only 33.” Then they went on with the 2nd song. You can’t go wrong with På promenad genom stan. The crowd loved it and was singing along loudly. Sha la la… he-he-hej!

Vilket håll du än går was a nice addition to the setlist, it wasn’t played at Leif’s Lounge. Why I liked it so much is because I love when Per plays the harmonica. When the crew was setting up the stage, we could already see there were harmonicas attached to Per’s mic stand. I couldn’t wait for him using them. The song sounded cool live, with Malin on the violin and all.

Before Juni, juli, augusti, Per talked a bit to the crowd and said he hoped they had nothing against a little Gyllene Tider. Oh, we had nothing against it, of course. Party time! Just like with the next song, Det hjärta som brinner. On this one, Ola came to the front with his guitar and was rocking it hard. Also had a funny interaction with Mr. G.

Then it was time to calm down a bit. Helena and Malin started singing Segla på ett moln while Per was changing his guitars next to Micke N-S. Before Per got back to the stage he was singing along (without a mic). This intro lead into Första pris. Malin’s viloin playing here was heavenly too and Helena’s singing as well.

After Första pris Per talked to the audience again and talked about Nashville, that they recorded the song there and it was an amazing experience for them. He said he gives a holiday idea, go to Nashville. He mentioned they also recorded the next song there. And yeeeeaaah, Tittar på dej när du dansar came as next on the setlist. We really wanted to hear this song live and it didn’t disappoint. Sounds fab live too! Mahi Nana! The boogie didn’t catch the standard crowd’s feet, but we hope they will be more into it during the rest of the tour. Maybe a physical release of this single would help. 😉 Haha. The song got a big applause anyway. By the way, Malin plays both the violin and the mandolin on this one. So talented and sweet!

After the song Per talked to the crowd again. He said back in the days one learned English via pop music, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Small Faces, Pink Floyd, oh well, Pink Floyd not really. He said he thought to play one of the first songs he wrote for Roxette. And it was It Must Have Been Love. Oh well… I think we (I mean the hardcore fans in the front) were not really prepared to hear this song. It is so much Marie and we are so not over the fact that Roxette is not touring anymore (and maybe not even recording anymore) that it hurt very much hearing this actual Roxette song live – without Marie. So even if we sang along and the rest of the crowd enjoyed it, we had mixed feelings and we could easily live without this song in the setlist. Really. At the same time, it’s a big song in Per’s career, a US No. 1 and a huge hit all over the world, we know it. And seeing and hearing the standard crowd’s reaction, it will surely stay in the set. But still. It hurts.

After IMHBL came another song that was new on the setlist vs. what was played at Leif’s Lounge. It’s from Gyllene Tider’s third album, Puls and Per asked the audience if they remembered that album. The crowd’s reaction showed they remembered. He said he thought he would play a song they had never played live before, so asked the crowd to keep their fingers crossed. Honung och guld was the song.

After sipping a little from his ginger tea, Mr. G and the band went on with Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång. The same way it was played at Leif’s, however, there these two songs were the last on the setlist. The crowd loved it very much and we enjoyed a loud sing along. Doobie doobie dum doh!

Then came another harmonica song, woohoo! Kung av sand! What a lovely song it still is!

After KAS it was time to party hard again. The crowd went crazy when they realized which song was next. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta! Helena and Malin go wild on this one, jumping like hell. This song is a real highlight and how Spegelboll comes after LAEAH is awesome! You can’t stop dancing, jumping, clapping, singing along and shouting. Not even during the next song, because it’s Gå & fiska! and you just hope the party never ends. The stage is now much bigger than it was at Leif’s and so all the musicians can go from one side to another, Magnus and the girls from right to left, Chris and Ola from left to right and Per can also run around easily. However, every now and then they still bump into each other. 6 people moving around can be tricky sometimes. Haha. But it’s so cool!

After Gå & fiska! Per introduced the band and he started it with telling that he found them on a dating site. First he introduced Helena (vocals), one his favourite singers, then Malin (violin and mandolin), who was born in Umeå, but grown up in Hong Kong, then Clarence (keyboards), an old acquaintance of Per’s wife, then Magnus (vocals, bass, dance and a little blue machine), Stockholm’s, Malmö’s, Sweden’s biggest sex machine. Per asked Magnus how he felt. Magnus said he was fine, it was a very special day. Besides having their premiere gig, it was 60 years ago when John met Paul. Magnus told the crowd if they know who John and Paul are, they get Dumle (Swedish sweet). Then Per introduced Ola (guitar and pedal steel), Andreas (drums) and ”last but least”, Professor Christoffer von Lundquist (guitar). All in the band got huge applause and shout outs from the crowd.

Then Chris played När vi två blir en as intro to The Look in his crazy style. The party mood was guaranteed again and it was yet another highlight in the set. All the guys on stage going psychedelic and the crowd singing along the nananananas. Then the band left the stage and the crowd was clapping and shouting to get them back.

The first encore was different to that in Leif’s Lounge. First all band members came back on stage and Chris started playing Queen of Rain (which I must admit I haven’t recognized until Per mentioned it, I was probably distracted by so many other things on stage, haha) and it lead into Varmt igen for which Per appeared on stage in WHITE clothes. Oh my God! How long I had to wait for this moment! You might find it stupid and I don’t really know what we, most of the fans (OK, probably most of the Gessle Girls) like so much about Per in white, but that’s a fact: we adore him in white clothes. Well, clothes don’t make the man, we love him anyway, you know that. 😉 Varmt igen sounded incredibly wonderful, it was a pure delight to hear this song live. Both Per and Helena sing beautifully.

And they go on sounding wonderful on Tycker om när du tar på mej which came next in the setlist. Per’s moves and facial expressions during this song are priceless. This song definitely means much to him. And when he goes next to Chris and they play the guitars together is so lovely too.

After 2 slow songs it was time to p-a-r-t-y and bring a little Roxette sound. Dressed for Success was next and the audience was singing along heavily to this one too. Also to Joyride which came after DFS. Everyone was a real Joyrider on and off stage. Per and Chris played their guitars back to back each other at some point. It was much fun! And time flies when you’re having fun, they all went off stage again.

The crowd was loud and wanted them back again. Of course, they came back after some minutes. First Andreas sat behind the drums and aaaaaah, he started playing Sommartider. One must love how he is drumming. A real pleasure to watch and hear him playing. Fun guy! Hej hej! The crowd went crazy for Sommartider and it became a heavy sing along again. Only this time we realized why BoJo was checking the camera (as a cameraman) before the show, because he came to the front and started filming the crowd. The pictures went on to the screens on the stage. It looked cool. And BoJo seems to be not only the nicest bodyguard and tour manager on Earth, but also a talented cameraman. Haha.

I would say Sommartider would be a PERfect ending to the concerts, but for some reason the ending song became Småstadsprat. Before they could start playing it, the crowd started shouting oj-oj-oj-oj-oj and clapping and it lasted long. Per appreciated it, thanked and sent kisses and he also applauded the audience. If it were not the blue lights on stage we might have had seen him blushing. He was so sweet! Småstadsprat sounded beautiful at the premiere show too and with it the show ended. Per thanked for the audience, told them they were absolutely wonderful, thanked them for coming and wished a wonderful summer.

We couldn’t believe the concert ended, it had just begun! And we would have been ready to relive it again (and again and again) right then. It was really en vacker kväll. More than that! A most fantastic night! Great start of the tour both for the band and for the audience (8385 people).

Åsa filmed a lot during the whole show and 3 videos Per already shared on his YouTube channel (1; 2; 3). We hope there is more to be uploaded.

Per about the show:

Yeehaa! Tack alla ni nästan 8 1/2 tusen som kom till Sofiero ikväll. Vilken resa ni gav oss. Premiärnerver till trots…. en fantastisk afton.

End of the concert, goodbye! From left to right: Christoffer Lundquist, Andreas Dahlbäck, Ola Gustafsson, Per Gessle, Helena Josefsson, Malin-My Wall, Magnus Börjeson, Clarence Öfwerman

   
Micke N-S tuning the violin                                             BoJo, the cameraman

All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Videos:

Det hjärta som brinner
Tittar på dej när du dansar
It Must Have Been Love: 1; 2;
Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta: 1; 2;
Gå & fiska!: 1; 2; 3;
The Look: 1; 2;
Varmt igen
Tycker om när du tar på mej: 1; 2;
Småstadsprat: 1; 2;

Articles, pictures:

Aftonbladet
Sydsvenskan
Expressen (funny, we saw Anders Nunstedt sitting there at Sofiero and writing his review right after the show /and probably during the show he was working on it too/)
Rockfoto
hd.se (for subscribers only): 1; 2;
Dagens Nyheter

 

Per Gessle’s pre-premiere gig at Leif’s or a night to remember

by

A night to remember! Exactly. Per Gessle fortunately kept the tradition of doing a pre-tour show at Leif’s Lounge. When in the beginning of May I asked him in our interview about it, the only thing he could tell was that there ”could be” a gig like that. In the whole interview context it sounded more like a ”yeah, sure”, but still, the date was unknown. Then at the beginning of June there was a corporate gig at Hotel Tylösand and we kept our fingers crossed that there is still something else at the holy place for us, fans. And tadaaa, on 16th June THE gig was announced to be held on 27th June. Since the place is not too big, all who wanted to attend had to decide very fast and buy the tickets. There were 50 tickets released twice after the show got sold out and in the end 700 lucky and very happy people could get to experience this fabulous event last night.

We wouldn’t be hardcore enough if we didn’t start queueing already in the morning. For a gig that starts at 21:00 and the entrance opens at 19:00… Tough life. Haha. So a handful of fans gathered at the entrance of Leif’s Lounge and spent some time together while we could listen to Roxette, Gessle solo and Gyllene Tider music via the speakers in front of Leif’s. There were hours to kill and the marketing manager of Hotel Tylösand, Andrea Hanné realized quite early that there were fans waiting outside. So she came to us, brought us coffee and asked if we were OK with doing some social media content for Hotel Tylösand. Sure. That’s how we became a boomerang video on Hotel Tylösand’s Facebook page and Instagram account. Later Andrea got back to us and brought Leif postcards and VIP Leif tattoos for us as a present. Very nice of her. We appreciate Hotel Tylösand’s whole staff so much. They are always so nice to us fans.

While waiting we could see the stage being built during the day, BoJo arriving, the crew arriving, then the band. Åsa was also busy around the hotel. After 3 pm we could hear the sound of a Ferrari and ooops, Per came and brought Marie Dimberg. Mr. G waved at us and some seconds later got a little depression treatment from 2-3 people coming out of the hotel. I mean they asked him for a selfie in front of his Ferrari. He looked happy. Then he left and came back only after 5 pm for the rehearsal. From that we couldn’t hear much, but those who walked around could hear that they rehearsed Spegelboll. Spegelboll!!! So cool! We hoped it was to be played at the concert too.

We could see Per leaving again after the rehearsal and we were ready to be let in. By 19:00, not more than 30 people were there in the queue. Some minutes after 19:00 the door opened and we could get in one by one in a line. The space was enough for appr. 15 people in the front row, so those who were waiting there during all day could stand at extremely fine spots. The stage was tiny, the instruments and mics and plecs all set to their places. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger and by appr. 20:30 the place got full. VIP guests had their places at the Chef’s table, the rest were either sitting on the side or standing as close to the stage as they could. The technicians, the good old team came to prepare everything at appr. 20:40. The fun part was with the setlist. Jakob Johnzén and Micke N-S were taping the setlist in front of all band member’s places and we could take photos of those. The stage was so low. When we checked them, we realized that Per got a different setlist. The first song on it was Här kommer alla känslorna and his included It Must Have Been Love, the others’ didn’t. That made us curious, but some minutes later Micke N-S came and cut out and taped Min plats as the first song, what was already on everyone else’s setlist and he cut out Här kommer alla känslorna and taped it to the end. Then we saw MNS counting the songs and he realized that there were 15 songs on Per’s list instead of 14. Then he checked which song was extra and he taped IMHBL not to be visible for Per on the list. It was really funny. Another thing we realized that Micke placed a photo of a guy on the gear holding boxes. Face towards the stage. We were wondering who he might have been and today it turned out he was a technician who died not too long ago. So in the picture and in soul he was there with the guys and girls last night.

We expected a 10 minute delay in the start and the crowd was impatient, clapping and shouting for the band to come up on stage, but we had to wait until 21:22 to see them coming. Per Gessle and the band: Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Helena Josefsson, Magnus Börjeson, Ola Gustafsson, Malin My-Wall and Andreas Dahlbäck. 4 good old, beloved members and 3 new, soon to be beloved musicians. They came from the Spa area. The crowd went crazy and couldn’t wait for them to start playing. PG & Co seemed to be on a high, they were all smiles. First I paste the setlist here, then I go into details.

Setlist:

1. Min plats
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Juni, juli, augusti
4. Det hjärta som brinner
5. Första pris
6. Småstadsprat
7. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
8. Spegelboll
9. Gå & fiska!

Band presentation
10. The Look

Encore:
11. Dressed for Success
12. Joyride
13. Sommartider

Encore 2:
14. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång

So the first song was the opening song from Per’s latest album, En vacker natt. Min plats sounded absolutely awesome in that cozy place, on that tiny little, intimate stage, played for those 700 people in the crowd. After the first song Mr. G talked a few words, greeted the international friends in the front row (fans were there from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, Finland, Sweden of course) and mentioned its the debut gig of this great band of 8.

Then they played  På promenad genom stan which also sounded phenomenal, including the crowd’s shalalala sing along. And here I have a personal touch, literally… After the song Per came to me and with a huge smile on his face he shocked me and put the acoustic plectrum he played into my hands. It was an out of the world experience for me, that’s for sure. What a fab thing to happen in a fan’s life. Much appreciated!

After my pulse got high, the band kept it up with Juni, juli, augusti. The crowd was happy to hear a Gyllene Tider song and of course, on a summer tour you can’t leave this one out. And then came another GT song, Det hjärta som brinner. The stage was so tiny for those 8 beautiful people that they (mostly Per, Chris, Ola and Magnus, sometimes Helena and Malin too) bumped into each other while moving on the stage, crossing each other’s ways.

After a short GT section it was time to bring back En vacker natt and the band played Första pris. Wow! What a crowd reaction to that one. I wouldn’t have expected that, but the crowd knew the lyrics and Helena got a heavy applause for this song and after it ended the crowd shouted ”Helena, Helena!”. She was so happy. But actually, after each song she looked very happy to hear the crowd reaction. Such a lovely lady!

Before another En vacker natt song, Småstadsprat, Per talked a bit again and said rumour has it he wrote a lot of songs about Halmstad. The part Lars Winnerbäck sings on the album version was sung by Helena. It sounded fab too. Here I have to mention Malin’s wonderful violin playing and Ola’s fantastic pedal steel guitar playing. They are so talented musicians. And they can play these instruments so softly on the ballads, while they are rocking out on the uptempo songs. Great to have them in the gang!

After this song, Per asked how about a bit more Gyllene Tider and they went on with Ljudet av ett annat hjärta. The crowd was clapping like hell! Here I also highlight Andreas. He is just another fab musician. Playing the drums like nothing can stop him! Not only on this song. Great to have him in the gang too!

The next song… oh yeah!!! Spegelboll! It got on the setlist, so awesome! When the crowd realized what song it was, they went wild. Heavy sing along here too! Woohoo!

Some more  Gyllene Tider? Why not! Gå & fiska! was next and the crowd stayed wild. After the song Per thanked and said to the crowd they were really fantastic. Just like the band up on stage! And here came the band presentation. First Per introduced the one and only Helena, then Malin, Ola, Andreas, Clarence, Magnus (the Swedish sex machine) and ”last, but absolutely least”, Chris. A video of this presentation is coming soon on RoxBlog. 😉 Besides the 3 new faces it was so great to see all the good old musicians, still enjoying playing and giving their 120%.

After being introduced, Chris started playing the intro to The Look. The crowd went wild for that too, hearing the first Roxette hit during the night. Heavy sing along again and HERE in this video you can see how PG surprised Sandra, who was filming the crowd’s nanananana. Such a cool guy!

After The Look, the band left the stage. They didn’t tell a word, they were just waving to the crowd bye-bye. The crowd started clapping heavily and it lasted for a few minutes until the band came back for an encore.

They started the section with Dressed for Success and it hit the crowd again. Sing along and the well-known clapping choreography worked totally fine. Not only during this song, but Per got so close to us we sometimes thought he would bump into us with his guitar. What a nice way it would be to end up in hospital. ”What happened?” ”Per Gessle hit me with his guitar…” Haha. It was incredibly great to see him playing so close to us. The distance between us changed from 1-2 meters to 5 centimeters!

After DFS came Joyride. Oh, Joyride! Balloons!!! Thank God Basia Konarzewska didn’t forget about bringing some, so the front row could start blowing them up. But blowing the balloons up after Dressed for Success…, really??? When it’s hard to breathe even. LOL. Whatever. We succeeded and for the right moment all balloons were ready to be released. There weren’t many, but it fit the tiny place and the crowd was happy to play with them and PG and the band were happy to see the balloons too.

One more uptempo in the encore section, this time GT. We couldn’t have left without hearing Sommartider. Hej hej! We had a blast during this song too and the band enjoyed playing it very much. All of them. We couldn’t believe they leave the stage again. Per thanked and pointed at the front row to thank separately. We love it!

The crowd didn’t want to leave Leif’s Lounge and shouted ”en gång till” all the time and we were clapping hard for 2-3 minutes. Then the gang came back on stage again for the second encore. Mr. G had a used tissue in his hands, probably he wiped the sweat off his face backstage (having no towel there) and he couldn’t do anything else with the tissue, but handing it over to MNS while getting the guitar from him. Haha. Poor guy. I mean MNS. Well, next time you just throw it away, Mr. G. Talking about a tissue, BoJo brought a mug of ginger tea up on stage before the concert started and gave it to Micke N-S. He put it on his counter and PG sipped it every now and then.

OK, back to encore No. 2, Per started playing Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) very slowly, then the band started again faster and it became yet another fab sing along happening. I wouldn’t have thought this song could be a great last song, but hey… first of all, we love mid- or uptempo songs as last songs, and as you know the lyrics, ”Att allting har ett slut / Att allt det vackra är kort” ( =That everything has an end / That all that beautiful is short). So true! Sadly. BUT, it didn’t really end like this, as the song suddenly became Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång. It was an even greater ending. Doobie doobie dum doh and the concert was over.

The crowd was wild, clapping hard, shouting woohoo. The band took a bow, took another bow, Per pointed at the front row again to thank for the cheering. All were happy, satisfied and we all had a blast for 70 minutes.

There were so many other tiny little details which I probably didn’t write about, but it’s impossible to collect them all. The world needs more of such concerts! It was such a fantastic night! Killer Mr. G, the Duracell bunny who never gets old, gives 150% on stage and leaves you breathless, a beautiful band giving all their energy creating wonderful music, a loud, all-the-time cheering crowd, fantastic mood both on and off stage, a great (just too short) setlist. What else could you ask for? Oh well, maybe Tittar på dej när du dansar? We need some Mahi Nana on tour, Per! 😉 We are sure the setlist gets longer and there are more gems to be included. We can live with a 2-3-4-hour long concert too, can’t we?

Next stop: the tour premiere in Helsingborg on 6th July. Can’t wait!!!

 

Setlist evolution (from left to right: Helena’s setlist, Magnus’ setlist, Per’s 1st setlist, Per’s 2nd setlist, Per’s 3rd /final/ setlist):

     

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Judith’s review:

Not many details to add after Patrícia’s review but still wanted to write down my thoughts and impressions after the gig.

What can I say?? This was an amazing tour warming up evening! If you don’t have tickets for the shows yet… go get them!
I expected maybe a bit more relaxed country and all I remember is jumping and clapping and dancing. Of course, the ‘real’ thing will be different but that was a great sneak preview.
I had a lot of favourite moments and actually loved all songs and arrangements. Some things to mention:
– nice På promenad! It felt great to hear so many people sing along this song. Nice arrangements on this one, it sounded a bit faster and pop-ier.
– the drums!! I have a thing for drums, specially live. And Andreas sounded fab! Very different to what we are used to. He gives a nice touch to songs we are used to hear with other beats. Later a fan told me that he has seen him play with Ulf Lundell and that he saw him break drum sticks at many shows. I did not see any broken one so I look forward to some awesome crazy drums during the tour!
– Första pris!!
– the band had so much fun. We had so much fun. It was great to see Helena again and get to know the new guys and girl. Ola as extra guitar when he is not on pedal makes it all rockier. I have seen him with Eva Dahlgren in 99 and 2013 and you may remember he was on Tack för musiken where Marie performed so I was looking forward to seeing him with Per. I thought he would be mostly on pedal steel but he did grab the guitar many times and ooohhh he is an amazing guitar player and he and Chris together wooow!! Malin and the violin sound incredible (Gå & fiska! Nice touch there.)
– when The Look started I felt weird and I could not help the tears, went on with Dressed. Missed Marie so much! Of course, I know it is a Gessle tour, it was more the feeling and thought of knowing that we probably won’t hear those songs again with Marie. But at the same time it felt good to listen to them again, Helena did a great job taking over some of Marie’s parts. Pure fun!! And we got to surprise them with the balloons (thanks Basia!).
I am sure I will remember more things but the best feeling to take away from yesterday: fun!!

Ps: Per asked on FB how much we can take because they have lots of songs to play. Oooh I can assure you we could do more than 4 hours!! Just try us out 😉

Videos:

Joyride
Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
Första pris

Per about the show:

Thanx everyone for an unforgettable evening at Leif’s Lounge. Superb crowd, fab band, lots of laughs, a few tiny mistakes to make you smile. All in all the best night you can dream up when it’s a debut gig with a new band!

This weekend we start working properly on the production (lights, set design etc) and promise to be ready, willing and able next Thursday at Sofiero. Hope to see you there!

Looks like we have too many songs in the setlist. How much can you take? Good to know….. /P.