book fair

Seminar about Marie’s book at Göteborg Book Fair

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It seems that a seminar related to our beloved artists is a must at the Göteborg Book Fair lately. It’s the third year in a row when a Roxette / Per Gessle / Marie Fredriksson book is out and there is a seminar about them. In 2013 it was Sven Lindström’s fabulous Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur, last year besides a cool pop quiz (1; 2; videos) it was Per’s most awesome books, Songs, Sketches & Reflections and Texter, klotter & funderingar and this year it’s Marie’s long-awaited biography, Kärleken till livet.

It would be wonderful to meet Marie at the book fair, but it seems that it will be only Helena von Zweigbergk, the author of the book who will appear there and talk about the book. The seminar is on Saturday, 26th September. It starts at 12:30 and lasts for 20 minutes. See the seminar program at THIS link on page 51. Helena will surely share much information at the book fair.

The book’s actual publishing date is 14th October according to the publishing company Piratförlaget, but it’s still 7th October appearing at Ginza, Bengans etc.

MF_HvZ_photo_by_Mattias_Edwall
Helena von Zweigbergk & Marie Fredriksson Photo by Mattias Edwall

 

Per Gessle – the book fair pop quiz sound recording

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PG_book_fair_20140926
Pic by Patrícia Peres

You surely remember last year’s Göteborg Book Fair either you could personally be there or not. On 26th September Per, in between 2 signing sessions, took part in a very entertaining pop quiz that was led by Sven Lindström. Another participant of the quiz was the other lonely boy, Nisse Hellberg. 4 months after the event, the book fair team decided to share the sound recording of that seminar, so now everyone can enjoy it. A short summary of the day as chapter 1 you could already read here at RoxBlog in this article and 1/3 of the seminar you could already watch as a video summary in this RoxBlog article. The seminar was of course in Swedish, but it is worth listening to it even if you don’t speak the language. How these guys love music shines through their talking. Always! Oh and you can also hear how Per loves to win. Because he won. Of course.

Hopefully, chapter 2, i. e. the interview Jan Gradvall did with Per on 28th September will also be uploaded as a sound recording at least. Until then, enjoy this little pop quiz!

 

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/188095909″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

New Roxette material in 2015

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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.

roxette

 

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – the videos

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PG_20140928If you have appr. 40-50 minutes between listening to The Per Gessle Archives and reading the books, you might want to check some videos from the book fair seminars. Unfortunately, there was no proper video recording of the complete seminars, so I thought I would put together the parts I recorded. Sorry for my sometimes shaking hands – mainly at the beginning of the Friday session, but I’m not a pro when it comes to taking videos. I left the rough cuts between the parts in, not to miss any milliseconds owing to transitions. 2-3 minutes of both videos I’ve already shared in the book fair review articles (chapter 1 and chapter 2), but now you’ll be able to watch 17m 32s (appr. 1/3) of the Friday seminar (pop quiz with Per Gessle, Sven Lindström and Nisse Hellberg) and 19m 57s (appr. 2/3) of the Sunday session where Jan Gradvall interviewed Per about songwriting. I hope your eyes won’t get hurt, but in the latter video the projected background is vibrating every now and then. Or was it Per’s aura? Either way, both seminars were very exciting and entertaining. Make sure you check the part where Per talks about the upcoming Roxette tour and thanks the fans for always being around, even in the seminar audience (Sunday seminar at about 18:35).

We are grateful to have all these guys following us everywhere. It’s awesome!

Friday seminar 26th September (in case the YouTube link doesn’t work for you because of the pop quiz songs’ copyrights, try to watch it HERE on Dailymotion):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYYws6w5X_Q

 

Sunday seminar 28th September:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec6-15y-6vU

 

I felt so sorry that my camera missed the Flickorna på TV2 part of the conversation on Sunday, because it was so very funny, but fortunately, Chrissie Röhrs recorded that part, so you can watch how the double meaning of words kicked in this time (starts at 9:20). Turn someone on or switch the TV on à la PG!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ValjtwZ6980

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – Chapter 2

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The second day for Per at the book fair was yesterday. The seminar he took part in started at 1 pm, but fans were already waiting for him since 10 am. We were continuously filling the rows and listened to all the authors who came before Per. One of the writers was funny, he told he was the book fair support act for Mr G.

PG_IMG_9879Per arrived with Miss Dimberg and Anders Roos at about 1 pm. PG already got stopped by fans who asked him to give them autographs even before the seminar. When Per got to sit on the stage before the conversation, he was drumming on his legs and whistling. He refused to use the microphone which they could have fixed on his head, but used a standard microphone.

Many-many people were curious about Per, but the stage area was so small that a lot of people couldn’t sit down. The seminar ended appr. 10 minutes earlier than planned, probably because they saw the signing session would last longer for that many people.

Per’s interviewer was Jan Gradvall. They talked about songwriting, specific songs, as well as rhymes. He talked about his childhood room, what posters were on the walls (e.g. Hep Stars), there was a gramophone player and there were also some Barbie dolls. The family moved a lot and e.g. in 1968 they lived in Simlångsdalen. Per said his best friend was pop music. ”Tragical, but true.” Watch the short video of this part of the interview HERE.

They talked about how productive and busy Per is. He is doing many projects at a time, but when one ends, he feels like: ”Tack, nästa projekt.”, looking forward to the next project. The archives are just the summary of one chapter in his life.

After the seminar, there was a signing session next to the stage. There were so many people queueing with the Per Gessle books in their hands. Unfortunately, the last 5-6 people were asked to go to the other signing place, at the Roos & Tegnér stand, because they were running out of time and the signing at the stand had to start at 2.30 pm, but there Per really took his time and draw a great amount of Leifs in many books and boxes.

Ah, there was one new info during the interview: the Roxette rehearsals start this week. Bring on the tour!

Thanx for all your time and for the fabulous weekend, Mr G!

PG_JG_IMG_9864  PG_signing_IMG_9911  PG_signing_IMG_9958

Per with Jan Gradvall at the seminar; Per signing the books next to the stage at the seminar place; Per signing the books at the Roos & Tegnér stand

All pics in the article © Patrícia Peres

 

P.S.: Seeing this post of Per on Roxette Official after the happenings at the book fair, you could feel he had a bit of inspiration. Good luck with The Look 2! 😉

Feel like writing something like this today! /P.