Book

Marie Fredriksson’s biography to be published in English

by

Marie Fredriksson’s autobiography, Kärleken till livet was first published in Swedish in 2015. It was then translated into several languages and published in German in 2016 (Listen to My Heart: Meine Liebe zum Leben), in Czech in 2017 (Listen to My Heart: Moje láska k životu), in Spanish in 2019 (Listen to My Heart), in Hungarian in 2020 (Listen to My Heart – Hallgass a szívemre), in Portuguese in 2021 (Listen to My Heart) and in Russian in 2022 (Love for Life). Finally, an English edition is in the making under the title Listen to My Heart: Life, Love & Roxette. It’s planned to be published by 1984 Publishing (USA) on 25th April, 2023 and it’s already available for pre-order e.g. on Amazon (look for other countries’ Amazon sites too, to get the best price regarding postage), at Barnes & Noble and on Book Depository, but probably more online book stores will pop up later.

The English version of the biography you can buy as an e-book or a hardcover, which is a limited edition – as stated on Barnes & Noble’s website. The limited collector’s edition includes Marie’s 2004 English-language solo album The Change on CD – previously unreleased in any physical format in North America – as well as bonus track Sea of Love (2017), the last song that Marie recorded. This edition also contains foil gilded page edges and a satin ribbon marker.

Listen to My Heart is a completely candid and passionate, heartbreaking yet often witty life story of one of rock music’s most resilient lead singers, Marie Fredriksson from Roxette (“It Must Have Been Love”, “Listen to Your Heart”, “The Look”, “Joyride”).

Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002 – yet surviving for 17 more years, until 2019 – Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette, where she performed over 550 concerts to millions of fans, sold 75 million records, and released over 50 singles including several global hits. In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group – second only to ABBA.

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Tina Turner and Elton John to The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, Listen to My Heart also explores her humble family beginnings, an early tragedy in the sudden loss of Marie’s sister, her transition into the music industry as a solo artist, and the formation and challenges of being in one of the world’s most successful pop groups. All while trying to maintain a stable marriage and being a mother to two young children in the face of a life-altering illness.

Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists.

The book contains a foreword by Marie’s longtime friend, director Jonas Åkerlund (Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, U2) and personal photographs from her family’s collection.

The picture is here for illustration. The final English cover has not yet been revealed.

Update on 17th September 2022: Amazon has just shared the cover:

Roxette and related artists in Kjell Andersson’s memoir

by

Kjell Andersson, former Head of A&R and producer at EMI Sweden published his autobiography, Ingen går hel ur det här – Mitt liv i den svenska musiken on 8th February 2021. Over 40 years in the music industry, Kjell worked together with many of Sweden’s greatest artists. To name a few: Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider, Marie Fredriksson, Roxette, Mauro Scocco, Eva Dahlgren, Wilmer X, Björn Skifs, Ulf Lundell etc. In his book he writes parallel stories of different artists over the decades.

Even if the main line is not Roxette-related, there are either longer stories from our idols’ lives, mainly the early career of GT, PG, Marie and Roxette, or shorter stories, when Marie’s or Per’s ways crossed other artists’ paths or they joined projects of various artists. Most of the stories hardcore fans have heard already, but it’s always interesting to hear them from another person’s, another participant’s point of view or hear anecdotes related to happenings we’ve heard about.

I will of course highlight only parts where either Roxette or Gyllene Tider or Marie Fredriksson or Per Gessle is written about – for all non-Swedish speaker fans –, but I recommend reading the book in case you are interested in Swedish music history and you want to practice your Swedish. It’s a very informative reading not only about Kjell Andersson’s life, but tons of artists and the Swedish music industry as well. A real history book in a way.

GYLLENE TIDER

The yellow EP

Kjell writes about how his cooperation started with Gyllene Tider. He received a home-made yellow vinyl EP in January 1979. It contained 5 songs of a band from Halmstad. When Kjell listened to it, he got stuck with Billy. He thought there were vague, yet noticeable, traces of a young John Holm in the singer. Kjell played the EP to his close colleagues at the company and also sent a cassette copy to Ulf Lundell. Calle Bengtsson (photographer) could hear what Kjell heard, but no one else heard the potential. Not yet. Kjell decided to call the number attached to the EP. Per’s mother picked up the phone in their Halmstad home. Kjell asked her if Per was at home and Mamma Elisabeth told him Per was sleeping, but she could wake him up, it was past 12 anyway. Haha. Per came to the phone and Kjell introduced himself. He can’t remember what they talked about, but he told Per he liked their EP and asked if there were more strong songs. Per replied ”There are as many as you want… and only hits!”

Kjell says the guys were determined and anything else in their lives was secondary back then. A couple of weeks later Kjell got a cassette from them and hearing the new demos he realized another side of Gyllene Tider, a playful side. Kjell realized that instead of finding a young John Holm, he came into contact with a young pop band that sounded like a mix of Elvis Costello & The Attractions and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

He played the demos for Lasse Lindbom and Lasse thought there was something in the band, but had to go down to Harplinge to listen to them and then they convinced him. However, he was hesitant to the pop star potential of the singer. Haha.

According to Kjell:

If Springsteen’s Born To Run – according to Greil Marcus in Rolling Stone – is a 1957 Chevrolet running on melted down Crystals, then Gyllene Tider is a rusty Volvo Amazon from the end of the 60’s driven by old Tom Petty, Hep Stars and Nick Lowe vinyls.

Debut single and first LP

Gyllene Tider’s debut single, Himmel No. 7 was released at the end of 1979 with Flickorna på TV2 on the B side. Kjell swears it was planned to be a double A side single, but the record pressing plant in Åmål couldn’t handle double A sides, they got confused. Everyone started playing Flickorna på TV2 , it became a megahit. At some point in the book Kjell adds that it was Niklas Strömstedt who as a DJ first heard the single potential in the song.

The band’s debut album came out in February 1980. It became a huge success.

Moderna Tider

In the summer of 1980 it was time to start recording Gyllene Tider’s second album. Per and MP claimed all songs they wrote were ready and as usual, Per said they are all hits. As soon as Kjell received the demos he listened to them with high hopes, but thought they were terrible. Per stayed with the subject (teenage sex) that worked in their first hits. Kjell thought it seemed like GT’s own parody. He thought Gyllene Tider was much bigger than that.

Kjell called Per and told him his opinion. Per thought 2 months of work was flushed down and it was a diabolic slap while GT were the biggest in Sweden. Kjell thought and still thinks the real diabolic slap would have been if they released the LP with those songs from the first demos.

So the guys started from scratch and by early autumn there were new songs and the recordings for Moderna Tider began. The lead single, När vi två blir en was released in October 1980. When Kjell played it in the office, a girl from the finance department stopped and asked what he was playing. Kjell thinks that’s always a good sign when someone from the „outside” reacts in a positive way, because they are listening to the songs like everyday people, not like those who are dealing with repertoires all the time and thinking and analyzing the songs too much.

Puls

The guys wanted to make GT’s third LP a Swedish pop classic. Per wrote a series of strong and inspirational pop songs: (Hon vill ha) Puls, Vän till en vän and Vandrar i ett sommarregn. Kjell’s favourite from the album is Händerna, but he thinks Puls lacked the charm, joy of playing and spontaneity of the debut album. It often happens when you want to make a masterpiece, you forget to have fun.

When the album was ready, everyone was satisfied with the result, but a single was missing. Kjell was standing in the bus stop Solna Centrum on a sunny spring morning, waiting for bus 503 to EMI and he was thinking about song titles. He thought they needed a summer single – summer and Gyllene Tider – En gyllene sommar (A Golden Summer)? He had some more titles popping up in his head, but he got stuck with Sommartider in the end. Kjell called Per and told him about his idea. Per liked it and immediately wrote a bubblegum pop song.

The Heartland Café

After all their success, GT wanted to go international and record an English album. They were on tours all around in Sweden, they beat the audience record and felt there was nothing more to reach in Sweden. So they recorded The Heartland Café. The album was released as a mini LP with six songs in the US under the name Roxette (from Wilko Johnson’s Dr. Feelgood song). Nothing happened.

Återtåget

Halmstads pärlor – Samtliga hits! 1979-95 was released in May 1995 and Gyllene Tider did a gig on Stora torg in Halmstad in front of 18,000 people and the band was challenged to do a summer tour, which came to life next year. Before the tour, a newly recorded EP with two new hits was released: Gå & fiska! and Juni, juli, augusti. Kjell thinks it’s a perfect pop EP. The tour became a huge success, beating audience records all over the country.

Finn 5 fel!

GT started recording a new album in February 2004 at Aerosol Grey Machine, Christoffer Lundquist’s studio in Vollsjö. Per wanted to release an EP only, but Kjell was nagging an album. Maybe he pushed Per hard he thinks when he is listening to the LP today. It doesn’t stick together like an album should, some songs feel like they are leftovers from Mazarin. The band chemistry was still there though.

Ullevi 2004

GT set a new audience record at Ullevi in 2004. Kjell was there and it was an uplifting experience for him – from a phone call on a winter morning in 1979 to this. He doesn’t say that Gyllene Tider is his creation or that gig wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t called and woke Per up on that January day in 1979. He is convinced that they would have suceeded anyway. The band’s talent and Per’s and MP’s songs would have probably brought them to that magical evening in Gothenburg on other paths as well. Media or the music industry wouldn’t have missed the natural forces of their magnitude.

MARIE FREDRIKSSON

MaMas Barn

Kjell remembers he heard Marie in MaMas Barn first. He got to know her via Gyllene Tider, because they shared rehearsal studio in the basement of Harplinge’s school. According to Kjell, their strongest song was Det är svårt att bryta upp, a piano ballad Marie herself sang.

It serves as a sample for what she does later. The ingredients are there, Marie’s building blocks: melancholy, contact with the listener and her peculiar warmth and sincerity.

Solo debut

Kjell tells that Marie and Lasse met for the first time when the Lasse Lindbom Band recorded their Romantisk blackout LP. When Lasse couldn’t find a singer to sing duet on Så nära nu, he asked Per to contact Marie and then she sang the duet with Lasse. She sounded young, nervous and extremely enthusiastic, according to Kjell.

When later Marie and Lasse Lindbom became a couple, Marie wanted to be signed by EMI. Lasse found a song he worked on before, but never finished. It didn’t even have a title or a text. Marie loved the melody and wrote lyrics to it. Ännu doftar kärlek became Marie’s debut single as a solo artist in 1984.

Kjell says that from all the artists he had worked together with during his 40 years in the business, Marie was the biggest riddle to him.

Everyone who meets her likes her, even loves her! Even me. She is warm and personal, but at the same time distanced and shy. I can’t state that I know her. I know limited parts of her, her sides she decided to show over the years, but a big part of Marie as a person is a mystery and will always be.

Marie has the peculiar ability only a few artists have; she can sing a catalogue and make the text sound personal, heartfelt, warm and even poetic. When she sings in Swedish, she is undisguised and open like a child or an old person who no longer has anything to hide. How she expresses herself hits the listener in the heart, it’s impossible to defend yourself.

Den sjunde vågen, Efter stormen

Den sjunde vågen was inspired by Henri Charrière’s novel, Papillon which Marie was reading during her journey with Lasse to the Canary Islands to write material for the record. The novel is about a man who escaped from Devil’s Island, a French penal colony of French Guiana. Marie was inspired by the idea that the sea waves had a pattern: every seventh wave was the biggest and the process is repeated forever.

According to Kjell, Marie’s self-esteem and expressing herself improved by every album. Den sjunde vågen was a big step after Het vind and Efter stormen was even bigger. These two LP’s were very important on the way to Marie’s perfection, artistic flowering, her modern and anxious tour blues album, Den ständiga resan.

Regarding the Efter stormen cover photo Kjell says that Marie had a principle those days: Marie in Roxette and Marie as a solo artist dress differently. In Roxette she was modern, wearing e.g. the type of leather jacket she wears in the video of Neverending Love, while as a solo artist, she was more casual, wearing jeans and sweater. This difference disappeared over the years.

Den ständiga resan

Kjell says Marie chose music to convey her tour blues feelings related to the Join the Joyride World Tour and Den ständiga resan became a dark self-portrait. The lyrics are direct, not poetic and that makes them credible.

Marie wrote the songs on airplanes, at airports, in hotel rooms, on tour buses. She recorded the melodies and parts of the lyrics on a little tape recorder she always had with her. On the tapes one can hear the landing and departure messages through the airport loudspeakers.

It was an important album for Marie. She wanted to show that she is more than the extraordinary voice singing Per Gessle’s songs in Roxette.

Äntligen

After New Year in 2000, the CEO at EMI realized that it would be difficult to reach the budget in the financial year, so he asked Kjell if he had any ideas that could help. Kjell and Rolf talked about a Marie compilation album, but the timing never fit. Kjell then called Marie to ask what she thought about it and Marie was positive. Kjell asked if she wanted to write a new song that could be a single and the opening song. Marie wrote Äntligen and recorded it with Micke. The compilation album was released in March and it sold 160,000 copies until summer, so the budget was safe.

The album was such a great success in spring that Marie’s first solo tour in eight years was also planned for the summer.

Nu!

In June 2013 Kjell was invited – together with Marie Dimberg and Thomas Johansson – to Marie’s and Micke’s house in Djursholm to listen to their recordings for a new album then called Vad vore jag utan dig. Kjell was interested in Marie’s songs, but to his surprise, when he asked Marie how many songs she had written for the album, she replied „one and a half”. Kjell doesn’t know what happened to that half song.

Kjell told his opinion, both positive and negative. He stayed honest, but minded his words knowing the difficult times Marie and Micke had gone through. The most important and biggest critique was about the title. „What would I be without you” can’t be an album title, he thought. He asked Marie and Micke to send him the lyrics of all songs, so he would search among the lines for title options.

According to Kjell, as a whole, the album lacks Marie’s brushstrokes, her words, motifs and colours. There is a sense of art falsification, when you are trying to recreate an artist’s expressions. The only song Marie wrote for this album is Sista sommarens vals.

PER GESSLE

Solo debut

All GT guys – except Per – went to the obligatory military service in January 1983. Per released his first solo album instead, a singer-songwriter record, which was probably rather Kjell’s idea than Per’s. Kjell admits that it wasn’t this type of music that made Per unique and world famous.

He is not a rock poet or a troubadour, rather a composer genious and a pop thief of the highest caliber. Per is young, 24 years old, it’s not in his nature to write open and self-disclosing texts that make this genre interesting. His lyrics seek melancholy and romance.

Scener

Kjell says Per’s second solo album is unbalanced, heading into several directions simultaneously. Per didn’t know which way to choose. When the recordings started, it was just a side project that he could afford himself next to GT’s success, but it suddenly became his future after Anders left Gyllene Tider. Kjell’s favourite from this album is Blå december.

Son Of A Plumber

Kjell says Per made Son of a Plumber for himself. He wanted to challenge himself, as well as his audience to dare to go even further into that dream he had lived so long. SOAP is a sentimental journey back to the past, a map of all the pop music Per grew up with and worshiped.

For Kjell it’s SOAP, GT’s first three albums and Per’s solo debut album where he shows himself and his songwriting genius most clearly. He thinks SOAP was one of the strongest pop albums during the EMI years.

En händig man

Kjell thinks it’s difficult to follow up on a success like Mazarin. Ideas get thought out and it loses the spontaneous and natural. EHM lacks the unforced charm of its predecessor. According to Kjell, Per’s music is the best when it’s spontaneous and he plays his way through small light clouds, among new ideas and old influences and steals bits from his favourites.

ROXETTE

Neverending Love

Kjell tells that Rolf Nygren had the idea that Marie and Per should sing together. He thought that Marie could lift Per’s songs to a totally different level when she was singing on his demos. During that period in 1986 Per was writing songs for other artists. Svarta glas he wrote for Pernilla Wahlgren, but she didn’t want to record it. Per sent the demo to Rolf with the following text attached: „You always tell we should make an English single when we have the right song. What do you think about the attached tape?” Rolf thought the song was a hit and Per shouldn’t give away such strong song to another artist. PG wrote an English text to it and the song became Neverending Love.

Per needed a new producer. Kjell heard a Py Bäckman single that was produced by Clarence Öfwerman. Kjell knew Clarence as the pianist in Raj Montana and from Ulf Lundell’s autumn tour leg. The three guys met at Café Opera and Per and Clarence found each other despite the fact that they were coming from different musical worlds.

Kjell wasn’t the most positive about the idea of Marie and Per working together. Marie started her solo career with two albums and for Kjell the Swedish market was the territory he understood the most. He thought the international market was an unrealistic dream and he also had low confidence in international EMI.

Kjell suggested they should handle the Roxette project as a test. Their names weren’t written on the single and the sleeve illustration was a couple’s picture taken from a 40’s American weekly newspaper Kjell found in the attic. There was a rule for Roxette: Marie and Per not to be launched as a couple, no passionate duets.

Neverending Love became a hit in Sweden and Roxette started recording Pearls of Passion from the material that was meant to be Per’s third solo album. Clarence brought his musician friends: Jonas Isacsson (guitar), Pelle Alsing (drums) and Tommy Cassemar (bass). Kjell thinks the undisguised in Marie’s voice was partly lost in English, but her passion survived.

Look Sharp!

Kjell tells Roxette’s second LP had Paint as the title for a long time. Per wanted to keep up with the period’s machine-produced pop music and wanted to use drum machines, sequencers and synths. Anders Herrlin had been working with machines since a while, so he was asked to do the programming.

The album sleeve, The Daily Roxette was inspired by Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick and John & Yoko’s Some Time in New York City. Marie Dimberg wrote the texts and Kjell built up a newspaper front page. Eminent fashion photographer, Mikael Jansson took the picture. Kjell asked colleagues from the company to be there as extras on the photos next to professional models. Marie Dimberg also appears on the sleeve photo, Alar Suurna became a press photographer, Clarence Öfwerman is the driver on the pic.

Joyride

Kjell tells Per read an interview in Musician with Paul McCartney where he said writing songs with John Lennon was a joyride. Per thought this expression described the feeling he wanted Roxette’s music to convey: joy, excitement and adventure. Joyride contains Kjell’s most favourite Roxette song, Watercolours in the Rain, to which Per wrote the lyrics and Marie wrote the music.

It’s the best-selling album of Roxette and the best-selling album in Kjell’s EMI career. Kjell remembers that before Christmas 1991 Per called him to thank for the year and to wish him merry Christmas and happy new year. Kjell told him he must be satisfied with the album sales, 300,000 copies in Sweden. Per said not really, he thought it could be double. Kjell thought Per was crazy, but by the end of next year the album sold 600,000 copies in Sweden.

Tourism

Kjell calls Tourism his „gold mine”. Per wanted to release a double live LP from the Join the Joyride tour. Rolf and Kjell were hesitant to the idea. On a studio meeting Kjell could convince Per to make a tour LP instead.

That was the first and last time Rolf gave royalty to Kjell. The album sold 6 million copies around the world and Kjell received 3 million SEK. He bought his first apartment in Stockholm from that money.

Crash! Boom! Bang!

While the band was in Capri to record Crash! Boom! Bang!, Kjell got countless reports about how good things were going and that it doesn’t sound like anything else before. When they got back and the team listened to it at EMI, Kjell was disappointed. If he hadn’t received all the positive reports, he would have probably reacted differently. The album contained rather ballads and it needed an uptempo song, a single. Per agreed with Kjell in the end and the day after he called Kjell to tell that he wrote a new song, Sleeping in My Car.

Have A Nice Day

Kjell tells his influence in the circle around Roxette diminished over the years. He ended up in the group that listened to Per’s demos and told what they thought about the songs, but nothing more. When it came to the cover of Have A Nice Day, Per and Marie chose Kjell’s colleague, Karl-Magnus.

Kjell hoped that Roxette would make an album where Marie would get as much space as a composer as Per, they would be less formatted and allow greater stylistic differences. Like a late Fleetwood Mac with three songwriters, Roxette could have done it with two equivalent composers who coexisted within a more spacious framework. Kjell says he got no response to his ideas and he lost interest in the upcoming albums.

 

These are only excerpts from the book mainly for the non-Swedish speaker fans, but there are many more little details in this memoir. Details like the inspiration for the lights settings in Roxette’s She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore video or techniques used during recording sessions, as well as ideas of photo shootings for album and single covers, and of course, more of Kjell’s personal opinions, just to mention a few. So one day, if you have the chance, I suggest you read this book, published by Albert Bonniers Förlag. You can order it from Ginza or buy it in Swedish book stores.

Interview with Helena von Zweigbergk – “I’ve never met anyone who has had the strength of Marie Fredriksson”

by

24.hu in Hungary did an e-mail interview with Helena von Zweigbergk in connection with the Hungarian edition of Marie Fredriksson’s biography (Listen To My Heart – Hallgass a szívemre) and published it yesterday, on Marie’s birthday.

The interview has a nice intro. Referring to the book, it says that the positive attitude to life and the spiritual power shines through the biography. By reading it, we can understand how Marie was able to defeat cancer and win almost two decades so she could see her children grow up and even be on stage again, even though years ago it seemed utterly unlikely.

Journalist Bence Inkei’s first question to Helena is if she stayed in touch with Maire after finishing the book in 2015. Helena says she visited Marie many times in her home. They had coffee and ate her favourite cinnamon rolls while they were talking and laughing a lot. And of course they were crying too. They became very good friends while they were working on the book. Afterwards, unfortunately, they couldn’t meet as often as they would have liked, as Helena had to work and Marie lived far away from her. But they stayed in a very good relationship.

According to 24.hu, the end of the book seemed pretty optimistic: it was spring, Marie was preparing for Roxette’s summer tour, but from the epilogue it turns out that the band stopped touring not long after, because of Marie’s condition. They ask Helena if it was unexpected that Marie’s condition got worse. Helena doesn’t really know. She says that for Marie, touring was a huge effort already back then. All the stress, the tight tour schedule, the travelling would have worn out anyone who was in a condition like her. She had constant problems with her legs, she could only perform while sitting. Everyone knew how hard it was. She loved her fans and being on stage, but it was too exhausting for her by then.

24.hu is curious about how Marie spent her life after publishing the book. Helena tells she spent it at rest. She loved being at home and living by her own rules. So whenever she could, she was at home. She loved her garden and spending her time with her family. She could hardly walk and that caused her a lot of sadness. On the other hand, it was a relief that she was no longer under any pressure.

To the question if Marie had any unfinished plans Helena replies that Marie was a very creative person who could express herself in many ways. She talked about writing a book of poems and writing even more new music. She also wanted to write something about her mother’s life, to express her love for her and tell her story.

24.hu asks if Marie’s traumatic childhood due to the tragedy that happened in her family helped her to fight against cancer for so long. According to Helena it probably helped. She has never met anyone who has had the strength of Marie. She seemed very shy in a way, but she was as stubborn as a mule and had the power of a tiger. Neither as a child nor as an adult was she pampered. She always knew she had to fight for what she wanted to achieve.

Based on the book, it’s not entirely clear for 24.hu whether Per and Marie were real friends or just co-workers. Helena thinks they were good friends. They made this incredible journey together and had known each other for a very long time. As Helena saw it, their relationship was pretty close, but it’s also true that outside of working together, they didn’t meet too often. They lived far away from each other and Marie had to live a very calm life to be able to go on tour and get enough rest.

One of the most shocking part of the book for Bence Inkei was that a tabloid provided false info about Marie’s condition, but they could get out of it without any consequences. Helena confirms that there were no legal consequences. Marie might have been able to get them punished, but then they would have had to go through that hell again and that would have occupied their thoughts. That would have placed a heavy burden on the family when they were going through a difficult period anyway.

24.hu asks if it is a coincidence that ABBA appears only once in the book. If there was any rivalry between Roxette and them. Helena doesn’t think so. They were popular in different times and in different styles. They respected each other.

According to 24.hu, Roxette still has a very strong and active fan base in Hungary. They ask Helena where she sees the band has the most fans. Helena many times wondered how much love Marie and Roxette had received from all over the world. For example, when Helena and Marie had a book signing session together in a store in Stockholm, a South African family was the first in line. They travelled just to meet Marie and ask her for an autograph. Helena knows Roxette has a big fan base in South America and of course in Hungary too.

Marie described herself as a kind of “rock and roll personality”. As a last question, 24.hu asks how Helena saw it. Helena tells Marie loved this attitude. She didn’t want to look kind and harmless. She loved wearing black leather stuff and partied a lot before her illness in real rock and roll style. There was some kind of raw power in her voice through which she could express her true self.

You can order the Hungarian edition of Marie’s biography HERE.

Roxette in the Rock ’n’ Roll Circus

by

As we already posted about it in November 2019, in connection with the 50th anniversary of founding EMA Telstar (Live Nation today), legendary concert organizer, Thomas Johansson released a book, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus: Artisterna – Musiken – Mötena (Rock ’n’ Roll Circus: Artists – Music – Meetings). Over the years Thomas has been working together with an endless list of artists and bands and of course, Roxette is one of them.

Thomas told his stories to writer and journalist (also author of The Lonely Boys fiction book among others), Mats Olsson who wrote them down. It’s not tabloid style, not at all. You won’t get to know any secrets you never knew about the artists themselves and most importantly, it’s not a scandal book. Thomas would never reveal anything he had been told in confidence. Why he can still do what he loves to do after 5 decades is that he is proved to be a trusty person and one who can sort out even things that seem to be impossible related to the concerts he organizes. Sometimes even related to those shows where he was not involved in the organizing. This is how his cooperation started with Bruce Springsteen, for example.

For a Roxer, the most important chapter in the book is without no doubt the one about Roxette, but since Per’s name and Roxette turn up here and there even in other bands’ and artists’ chapters, it’s worth reading the complete book. But not just because of that. The book tells you the story of how Thomas started his career already at the age of 17 and created his future day by day, event by event. You learn how important trust is and maintaining connections is another key factor. The little stories let you have an insight of how event organizing and musicians worked in the 60’s and 70’s and how it all has been changing over the decades. How you continuously have to keep up with the trends and be up-to-date with what’s happening in the industry. E.g. if someone has 1 billion views on YouTube, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people would buy tickets for 1000 SEK to see them live.

Roxette’s story in the book starts with them flying from Uruguay to Paraguay for their show in Asunción in April 1992. Thomas tells it was definitely the most dangerous flight ever in his life. He had pictures in his mind how the plane would crash in the rainforest, they would become completely isolated and stranded and started eating each other up. He says it was not a weird thought, because an air pocket caused a four-kilometer straight downfall. Per and Marie were quite calm, but there were other passengers panicking on the plane, screaming and crying. When they finally landed in Asunción, it was raining like hell. There was a press conference right at the airport, as it used to be a tradition in South America. There were 150 journalists sitting in a strange hall and so there was chaos, but they managed to get through it and leave by the cars that were already waiting outside after the conference.

Marie, Micke, Thomas and BoJo were travelling in the same car, a Mercedes. Thomas was sitting in the front and he remembers it was raining so heavily that his feet got completely wet even inside the car. Then suddenly, Marie from the backseat told she forgot her bag at the press conference. The whole convoy stopped, BoJo jumped out of the car into the water that reached up to his knees and rushed back to the airport for Marie’s bag. After he got back, they went to a golf hotel outside the city.

It stopped raining during the night and in the morning Thomas saw that the hotel was situated along a wide flood where dead cows were floating with their legs straight up in the air and crocodiles were swimming like in a Donald Duck comic. And Per was sitting on a balcony, sunbathing. [Hahaha. /PP]

The venue for the Roxette show was a big soccer stadium in Asunción that the organizer sold out. The arena was of the capacity of 30,000 people, but the organizer proudly said he sold 40,000 tickets. Tor Nielsen and Thomas immediately realized that they should strengthen the fences in front of the stage and they brought there a man who helped them with these kind of practical things.

The band was terribly good even if one couldn’t really hear what they were playing, because the crowd sing-along was louder than them. They asked the organizer how that could be, because no one spoke English, but the organizer said that in Asunción they used Roxette records for teaching at schools.

The organizers had built a large tower with mixer boards and spotlights in the middle of the crowd and while the band was playing Thomas saw from the stage how the light cones started to move and the whole tower was swaying by the pressure. BoJo gathered 200 soldiers who marched straight through the audience, up to the tower and they actually built it during the concert.

Thomas tells he has been working together with Per for 40 years, more than half of his life. Together with ”Blixten” Henriksson, who Thomas was working with in EMA Telstar they worked with Ulf Lundell, Tomas Ledin and Magnus Uggla, but after ABBA’s win in Brigthon Blixten took care of many other Swedish artists, while Thomas had other things to do. Blixten didn’t really believe in Gyllene Tider, he couldn’t see Flickorna på TV2 as a big hit and refused to work with them. So GT started working with their competitor, Thomas Nordlund at Showring. Later, in September 1981 they met Gyllene Tider and their business manager, Janne Beime and his wife, Lena in Örebro. Janne suggested to do a tour together. Blixten and Thomas were thinking all night about how to set up a tour for GT. The first time they worked together was in 1982 and the tour started in Ljusdal’s Folkets park. Thomas came just in time for the soundcheck and when he arrived he saw that the whole band was drinking coke except Göran and Per who ordered beer at the restaurant, but they didn’t get served, because they were too young. They were not, but they still didn’t get their beer.

Thomas says there was quite a contrast. They just did The Rolling Stones at Ullevi and then GT in Ljusdal. He was amazed at how good Gyllene Tider was. People loved them and the girls were screaming. Thomas is a nerd when it comes to songs and he can tell Per has written hits. GT was a classic pop band and they sounded fantastic already back then.

Mr. Johansson says it’s been a pleasure to work with Per, Gyllene Tider and Marie in different constellations. Before Roxette’s international break-through they already worked together on the Rock runt riket tour. Thomas could well build on what he learned from when he was organizing concerts for ABBA and other big international bands. Roxette played around the whole world. Not only in traditional arenas in England and the US, but also in South America and even Beijing in 1994. Wham! played there before Roxette, but Roxette was the first rock band allowed to play in China. Thomas remembers that they lived in a nice hotel in Beijing, but the venue, Capital Stadium left much to be desired. There were 12,000 in the crowd and no one was allowed to stand up and soldiers were sitting in the very front. The tickets cost 1-2 dollars, so not too expensive. People from the party listened to the songs in advance, checked the lyrics and they said they can’t play Sleeping In My Car. They didn’t explain why.

Thomas about Per:

Per is the engine, an engine of everything, a living dynamo. He was very young when we met in Örebro, but he was curious, smart and focused already then. Per has visions and thoughts, he wants a lot and that makes you talk, talk, talk and you can’t stand still. It’s a challenge, but also a pleasure to work with someone who is so creative.

Thomas admits he was a little worried before Gyllene Tider’s farewell tour last summer, but in hindsight he understands how incredibly deeply rooted GT’s songs are. They are part of Swedish summer.

Thomas mentions that Roxette had their very last concert in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. [The very last concert was in Cape Town, 8th February 2016. /PP] As Thomas says, ”Marie, this fragile little person, such a warm and unbelievably strong woman, could no longer tour”. Thomas remembers that after releasing Nu!, Marie so much wanted to do her last solo tour in 2014. Everyone told her she shouldn’t, she can’t, it won’t work, but she insisted and then you could see her enormous strength. She went through so much… The tour turned out to be phenomenal and she was singing like a goddess. Thomas says:

For me this is the essence of Marie, a mix of pop, blues, jazz, a little, little body with a big, big voice. Many have great voices and sing well, but can’t express anything. Marie can do that. She is a storyteller and not many are.

It’s hard to forget Roxette’s last show. It was windy that night in Johannesburg and there were 10,000 – 12,000 people inside the venue. Marie had problems with walking, so BoJo walked her to the stage. She was sitting on a chair, stood up and sat down again. Thomas thought that can’t go on like this for a long time. They booked a summer tour, but then it had to be cancelled.

After Marie stopped touring, Per wanted to continue. He wanted to play the songs he wrote for Roxette and Thomas and PG talked a lot about it. Thomas told Per that if he doesn’t do it, he will be thinking about it all the time in the future. So he said let’s call it Per Gessle’s Roxette and they book a tour in Europe in theatres between the capacity of 200 and 2000. Thomas thought Roger Waters performs as Roger Waters, but he plays Pink Floyd songs and those songs couldn’t sound more like Pink Floyd than when Roger plays them. The same with Paul McCartney and The Beatles. And no one else could sound more like Roxette than Per. The tour was good, even if it wasn’t sold out everywhere. It sounded fantastic and they got nice reviews. We will see what’s next. Now Per also has an electronic band, Mono Mind and Gyllene Tider’s 2019 tour was one of the biggest in Sweden.

Thomas says that Per has two, soon three generations in his audience. Like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Roger Waters. 40 years of constant hits.

In other chapters Thomas mentions that he is a Formula 1 fan, just like Per. Roxette turns up in a chapter with their 1996 Toronto TV appearance and Mr. Johansson tells that at the same time he was negotiating NHL matches to be brought to Sweden. In the Ulf Lundell chapter Thomas tells the story of how he started working with Lundell. He asked if Thomas still works with Swedish artists and when Thomas said he works with Ledin and Gessle, Lundell said then he wants Thomas to do his next tour. Mr. Johnasson explains that Per, Tomas and Ulf are very different, both in music and in their personalities, but they are very similar in their creativity. Thomas says it’s motivating to work so close together with artists who are so creative, because you can learn what drives them and then it doesn’t matter if the artist’s name is Per, Tomas, Ulf, Mick, Keith, Bowie or Bruce, they have the same thoughts and same questions and Thomas feels lucky and priviliged to work with them.

Mr. G pops up in the David Bowie chapter as well. There Thomas mentions that he, Bosse Norling (tour leader), Bengt Berg (from EMI) and a very young Per Gessle were travelling together to Lyon to see Bowie’s concert in 1983. They were flying to Geneva, rented a car there and drove through Switzerland to Lyon, France. They arrived in the afternoon and Per invited them for lunch at a truck stop. Appetizer, main course, dessert and wine, everything was included and cost ten francs per person. They ate one-minute hearty steak with french fries and there was nothing wrong with the wine either. For the coffee they could choose dessert or calvados. Thomas felt like they had begun to live the glamorous rock life.

From the Tina Turner chapter we get to know that Tina lives in Switzerland and Thomas was once there for dinner with Roxette. They were drinking good wines and eating excellent truffle pasta prepared by Tina herself.

As I mentioned at the beginning, you can see that Per and Roxette really turn up in the book in several chapters. Thomas and Mats picked 25 artists and bands to write about. So besides Roxette you can read stories related to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, KISS, ABBA, Queen, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, Ulf Lundell, David Bowie, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tomas Ledin, Neil Young, Tina Turner, AC/DC, Metallica, Rod Stewart, Pink, Roger Waters, Paul Simon, U2 and Paul McCartney. The foreword was written by Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA.

It’s a very interesting reading, I can only recommend. Good for practicing your Swedish too.

CONTEST – Win Marie Fredriksson’s biography in Hungarian!

by

As we already informed you earlier, Marie Fredriksson’s biography has been published in Hungarian. Title of the book became Listen To My Heart – Hallgass a szívemre. A longtime Hungarian fan, Zoltán Dúl decided to translate the book from Swedish into Hungarian and fortunately, a publishing company, G-ADAM Könyv- és Lapkiadó Kft. (in cooperation with SzépKönyvek Kiadó) was interested in releasing it. Thank you, Zoltán, for the initiative and your work!

As you all probably know by now, I’m Hungarian too, so I was excited to see that the book would be available in my mother tongue. I’m a fan of reading books and watching movies in their original language and of course I read the biography in Swedish when it was published years back, but it’s a big thing that after several other countries, Hungary is the next one where this wonderful book is out. (I know, I know… still no English version. Sigh…) I was among the first ones pre-ordering it online to be picked up in the shop. The planned publishing date was 28th February and I planned to read it at the weekend, but due to a slight delay it arrived to the shops only on 4th March, so it became a birthday reading for me. What I liked to see when I went to get my copy at the shop was that among hundreds of different books waiting for being picked up by their new owners I could see several copies of Marie’s biography on the online order pick-up shelves, also waiting for their new owners. So lovely!

Reading the book for the first time in Swedish was amazing. Reading Marie’s story in her own words, her thoughts on her life and life in general, her childhood, her tragedies, the ups and downs, her illness, her fabulous family and her fantastic career was a rollercoaster of emotions. Heartbreaking and heartwarming parts are equally present in the book and Marie’s love for life and her always fighting, amazon personality shines through all her words. She won’t ever stop being an inspiration to so many people all around the world! Now reading it all again after 5 years and most importantly, after what happened on 9th December 2019, put some parts in the book in a different light. Impossible to read it without tears in the eyes.

As I can see there are only a few differences vs. the original Swedish book. There are much less pictures in the Hungarian version and there are photos that are not in the Swedish biography, but I think some pictures I saw in the books published in other languages. The leather jacket pics on the Swedish inside covers are skipped in the Hungarian version. The book is translated from Swedish, but the last chapter here is the same extra chapter that you could read in the German version. Otherwise there are no new texts. The only reference to 9th December is on the back cover of the book.

It’s very nice that the publisher decided to donate 1% after each sold copy of the book to Alapítvány a Daganatos Betegek Gyógyításáért és Rehabilitációjáért (Foundation for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Cancer Patients).

THIS site is in Hungarian, but this is the official website for the book where one can also order it with a 20% discount.

C-O-N-T-E-S-T!

The publisher of the book was kind enough to offer 3 copies of the Hungarian book for a RoxBlog contest. It’s probably most interesting to Hungarian Roxers, but maybe collector fans would also be glad to have an exotic language book in their collection. So anyone is welcome to take part in the contest.

In order to participate, answer the following questions correctly:

  1. In which year was Marie’s biography published for the first time in its original language and what was the title of it? – 2015, Kärleken till livet
  2. In how many languages has the biography been published until now, including the actual Hungarian release? – 5 (Swedish, German, Czech, Spanish, Hungarian)
  3. How many times did Roxette play live in Hungary? – 3 (1992, 2011, 2015)

Send an e-mail with your name, address and the correct answers to the questions to rxbcontests@gmail.com until 23:59 CET, 15th March 2020. The 3 lucky winners will be announced shortly after. Sok szerencsét! (Good luck!)

Contest terms and conditions:
– In order to participate, you have to send an e-mail to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and correct answers to the 3 questions. We will consider all e-mails we receive until 23:59 CET on 15th March 2020.
– 3 winners will be picked randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answers.
– You can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice or more times will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by registered mail only once.
– The winners will be announced on this website, on our Facebook page and will also be notified per e-mail. You’ll be required to answer the e-mail confirming your address.
– RoxetteBlog.com will not enter into any correspondence regarding the result of the contest and is not liable for any damages, loss or expenses that may result in connection to the prizes.
– By taking part in the contest, personal data (first name, surname, e-mail address and address) will be collected. These data are needed in order to run the contest, particularly in order to match participation applications to their entries as well as to identify and notify the winners. This method of processing data is therefore required pursuant to Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit b of the GDPR to fulfil contractual obligations. The personal data collected will be processed and used by RoxetteBlog.com only to the extent that is required in order to run the contest. The personal data will be stored for the duration of the contest and – in order to process any claims relating to winnings and damages – for a maximum of 6 months afterwards and they will then be deleted. By participating you agree to all above mentioned and your name being published on this website as well as on social media channels in case you win.

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE on 16th March 2020: 3 winners are picked. They are: Nikolett Házas, Gabriella Vadasi and Márton Mihályfi. The winners are informed via e-mail too.