Per Gessle’s Roxette – Cologne, Germany – 23rd October 2018 – #10

Can’t believe that we already reached the halftime of the tour. The 10th gig meant the last gig in Germany. At least on this tour. There was no day-off between Warsaw and Berlin and then no break between Berlin and Cologne, so concerts for 3 days in a row. I was wondering how tiring it might be, but when we talked to Chris at the airport and asked him about how it feels doing 3 shows in a row he said that actually, the vibe and mood don’t really get low during the whole tour. The only difficulty is when the hotel rooms are not ready by the time they arrive and they can’t take a short rest before they go on to the venue.

The organizers at the venue in Cologne were not too well-prepared for the entrance. They opened the doors at 7 pm, but put the signs (which entrance accepts which tickets) on the doors only 1 hour earlier. So those who had been waiting there for quite a long time and were standing at the wrong door, they had to rearrange themselves. The inlet wasn’t too smooth, but in the end, fans found a good spot in the front, close to the stage.

Support act Lee MacDougall started his session at 8 pm. This was the last time when Lee was the support act. I will definitely miss him during the rest of the tour. He is touring Germany and Austria early next year, so if you saw him live now, go and see him again. If you didn’t see him live, check out his songs online and maybe it will convince you to go. Great music! Best of luck to him!

Mr. G and his band hit the stage right after 9 pm and sticked to the already known setlist.

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Loved that The Look started with Per counting in German again, ”eins, zwei, drei, vier!”. He could do this little change in each country, counting in the language used there. It’s fun! Let’s see if he tries it in Russia, for example. 😉 The opening song was already quite energetic, so you couldn’t tell this gang is now doing their 3rd show in a row.

After the first song Per told the audience that the last time he performed in Cologne was in the summer of 2015. At least Christoffer told him it was in summer. Then off he went to take a deep dive into the big bucket of Roxette songs and they played MATAH. Then came a little Capri talk and it was CBB’s turn. Helena has some problems with her soar throat now, it’s too cold in Germany, but the way she was singing, you couldn’t tell she had any issues. Wonderful!

The speed up section of DFS and SGNO was a blast! After the hat fell off Christoffer’s head, Per went and picked it up to put it back on Chris’s head while he was playing in the front with Ola. The drum solo ending presented by Andreas was fantastic again!

Before SMT Per told the story of his good day in 1990. He woke up in the morning, had nothing to do, then his wife, then girlfriend left a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. Per asked ”isn’t that cute?”. He said he just had to write a song and it became Joyride. Then he was very pleased with himself, had lunch with Swedish meatballs, took a break then watched 3 Ingmar Bergman movies, then stood up, went to his piano and wrote the next song. Helena got a huge applause after performing it in Cologne too.

After IGYC Per talked about Nashville that he went to record there with local musicians and a few friends, no names. Chris said in the mic ”I was there.” Per reacted: ”We had a good time anyway.” Haha. Then they performed STT’s beautiful PG-CL live duet version!

Then the experts of Swedish hillbilly music played IHAPIMH and before the song started, Per told the audience ”please pay attention to flute ladies!”. The flute ladies were fabulous, as usual and the audience loved the song. Per thanked the crowd in German.

This time Mr. G said he presented the band with 76 songs (it’s btw getting more and more from show to show! 72-74-76… 😉 ) he wanted them to learn. Magnus said ”And we learned 120. Some Stones songs, some Beatles songs… You’ll hear them later at the show after the show. But you have to have T-shirts from the stand as well.” PG: ”Not my idea.” Magnus: ”It was mine!” PG: ”Blablabla.” Haha. We all laughed at Per’s blablabla reaction. Then came one sentence by him from which we could hear he IS tired. His tongue didn’t want to cooperate, so the words came out were a little strange, but adorable. The essence of his thoughts was of course not being sure about playing IMHBL or not, because it’s Magnus’s fave song besides 99 Luftballons by Nena and Wind of Change by Scorpions. Magnus said 99 Luftballons is his No. 1. So he got one more blablabla from Per. Haha.

Then came OppNox and TBL and since Åsa joined the gang on tour again, she came and filmed these songs, also the crowd partying. When this section ended, the audience shouted and were clapping loud, it was awesome. PG showed thumbs up and started to talk about the ’90s. He asked Magnus how his parents were. Magnus said they were very fine people and actually they ARE very fine people since they are still alive and they were living in the ’90s as well. Everyone laughed. Per started counting on his hands how old they might be. FLAF was the next song and Helena did great on it, so the crowd cheered her.

Then came a crowd favourite, DMS. No blood this time, but you could see on Jakob’s face when he handed the guitar over to Christoffer that he was prepared for everything. Haha.

The band presentation was much fun again, all musicians got huge applauses and at the end Per said he is surrounded by talent. Then came HDYD and while Mr. G was preparing for it he said ”let’s see if you know this one… let’s see if I know it…”. Haha. Then came the intro and the whole crowd started singing. This time it was even more aaawesome, because Per let us sing much further than usual, until here we are cracking jokes…  He made fun of us instructing the crowd, then looking at his (non-existing) watch. He laughed and liked the whole thing a lot, the band too. Party, party also during Dangerous!

       

During the break before the encore the crowd was shouting ”Roxette, Roxette, Roxette”. This was the first place where it happened. So far it was rather ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle” or we want more or anything else.

The band came back on stage to perform QOR (which is kinda cool according to Per) and Joyride. Helena was perfect on QOR, the audience loved her. Joyride was much fun with tons of balloons thrown by members of the crowd.

During the break before the 2nd encore, people weren’t silent and it paid back, the gang came to play 2 more songs. Before that, Per said it’s been a wonderful evening and asked the audience if this is like an ordinary Tuesday evening in Cologne. Before LTYH, which of course sounded beautiful again, he said he wrote it in the ’80s for a friend. He said ”I had friends then”. Haha. Before TSHTSG Per asked the audience the usual question ”one more for the road?”. The audience shouted yeees and then he turned to the band members and asked what they think. They all agreed. The ending was fab in Cologne. I think the crowd sang along TSHTSG the most loudly here. No clue if it has anything to do with Thomas Anders’s release of the hit in the ’90s.

Anders Roos took pictures during the whole show and probably also recorded it. There was a fun moment when Åsa was singing along and started filming Anders who was also singing along. Let’s see if we get to see the result of it.

The lights were again a bit late every now and then and some stayed in the dark while they should have been illuminated. Probably, it’s local technicians at each place, which is strange in a way, because even if they get the script of the show, it’s not too easy to follow the gig with the lights if you don’t know exactly what’s happening and when. Even seconds count.

Per’s thoughts after the show:

COLOGNE: Five shows in six days! How about that! We managed thanks to you beautiful people at the E-Werk in Cologne. One word sums it up: WOW! Super crowd + band in top shape (even new dress on Malin-My! – lovely!) so nuthin’ could go wrong. Thanx so much for showing up and having a ball. And thank you Cologne for hosting the last show in Germany for a while. But we’ll be back. Trust me!!!! Cheers from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Roxette receive award for Charm School

Right before the show at the Tanzbrunnen in Cologne, Roxette and producers Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman received the golden award for 100,000 copies of Charm School in Germany. Congratulations again!

Update: A short TV report to be found on YouTube.

Update 2: Now the press release is out with the official photos!

Update 3: Translation of the press text!

Gold for Roxette in Cologne!

The Swedish superstars Roxette now added another trophy to their phenomenal career as part of the successful tour in Germany: The comeback album “Charm School”, released by EMI Music Germany and Starwatch Entertainment that managed to hit directly the first place of the German charts in February, sold over 100,000 copies since then. Last Thursday Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle received the Gold awards in the eve of the Cologne concert. The popularity of the Swedish duo within the German fans is visible in the impressive chart success of the latest album as well as the top ten hit “She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)”.

Uli Mücke, Vice President New Music of EMI Music Germany, is delighted: “We are very happy about this successful comeback of the sympathetic Swedes, with whom collaboration is simply fun. Moreover the journey of this album is still far from over.” Hans Fink, CEO of Star Watch Entertainment, adds: “I am very pleased for Marie and Per. “Charm School” is a fantastic album. It’s great that the German fans are as excited about it as we are. Congratulations!” After the sold-out Open-air concerts in June Roxette will continue with a large arena tour in October 2011.

World Tour 2011: Cologne, Germany – June 16 #39

Comment from Per Gessle

Oh Cologne! What a night!!! Great gig indeed. Super duper crowd and Marie in top shape. Broad daylight but it didn’t matter – we had a blast! Thanx a million everyone for showing up! How many were you? 11000? 12000? More? I dunno, doesn’t matter, we had a field day. Woohoo!

Setlist

01. Dressed For Success
02. Sleeping In My Car
03. The Big L.
04. Wish I Could Fly
05. Only When I Dream
06. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
07. Perfect Day
08. Things Will Never Be The Same
09. It Must Have Been Love
10. Opportunity Nox
11. 7twenty7
12. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
13. How Do You Do!
14. Dangerous
Band presentation
15. Joyride

16. Watercolours In The Rain
17. Spending My Time
18. The Look

19. Way Out
20. Listen To Your Heart
21. Church Of Your Heart

Articles and photos

Derwesten.de
WDR

Westdeutsche Zeitung (very well written!)

NOTP tour: Cologne, December 19, #41

We need your help. Each and every concert will have a such topic. If you find something connected with this particular gig, post it in the comment section. Thanks for your help and cooperation!

Photos:

Revierfoto

Per Gessle’s comments:

XLNT 2nd gig in Cologne. Thanx!!! Great crowd, the band is pretty tight by now and I finally start to learn the lyrix to The Look. .

Official videos:

Fans stories:

YouTube clips:

Media reports/reviews: