Per Gessle – En vacker kväll in Östersund, Sweden – 28th July 2017 – #11

After Stockholm, it was time to travel up North and perform at a festival in Östersund. Per Gessle and the band arrived by private jet, as expected. Mr. G shared a pic of the whole gang in front of the jet.

We arrived in the afternoon and realized that not too many hardcore fans chose to take part in the festival. I could count them on one hand. While changing our tickets to wristbands we could hear the technicians’ soundcheck and there was no band soundcheck that day.

Gates opened at 19:00 and while we were queueing to get in, we met Linnea Henriksson (you surely remember her at least from the GT tour in 2013 when she was the support act). We said hi and she recognized us and told us she would join us in front row for Gessle. Haha. She performed at 19:30 at another stage. A pity that it wasn’t she who performed on the main stage before Per. We got José González instead, who is an Argentinian-Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg. He had a bigger fan base there, very young people who knew all his lyrics and were singing along. That seemed to be a promising crowd for PG as well.

We had rain showers during the day, but by the time Per & Co came up on stage, the rain stopped falling. However, there was a little shower again from the middle of the show, but who cares.

People who live at the main square in Östersund could watch the whole gig from their balconies. How cool is that!

The crowd consisted of very young people, but they knew the lyrics and were singing along loudly to almost all songs. During Tycker om när du tar på mej, when Helena was singing, the crowd started singing parts that Helena didn’t sing. It sounded absolutely awesome! The most dancing, jumping and clapping along was to Sommartider and The Look, but yeah, Joyride as well. Actually, the audience was open to any songs and they loved each of them unconditionally. Even the security guys were dancing with each other! So lovely! People were cheering Per loudly: ”Gessle! Gessle! Gessle!” And also before the encore there was ”En gång till!” and ”Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” as well. Loved it! So even if we had the shortest setlist that night, it was a fantastic gig!

Chris went so wild during Joyride that probably a string on his guitar cut his hand, so it started bleeding. You can see it on the group pic. Hopefully, all is well with his hand now.

So, the shortest setlist. It could have been 18 songs even, but Puls (which would have worked very well with the Östersund crowd) and Småstadsprat were cut off. They were there on the original setlist though… Actually, Pet Shop Boys came after Per & Co, but only at 00:30 and even if they had a lot of technical stuff to apply on stage, our gang would have had the time to play at least 2 more songs. Btw, the crowd stayed loud during Pet Shop Boys as well. They were really a fab one! I wish such crowds for each gig!

Anders Roos was there at the festival and he took thousands of pictures again.

Per after the show:

YEEHAA! What a great reception we got at The Storsjöyran Festival in Östersund. Magic crowd and somewhat decent band! Loved it! See y’all next time! Like tomorrow! /P.

 

All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Setlist

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

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

Videos:

Juni, juli, augusti: 1; 2;
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
The Look: 1; 2;
Joyride: 1; 2;
Sommartider: 1; 2;
A boomerang video by Josef Hermansson (Space Station 12)

Articles, pictures:

ÖP (subscribers only)
Rockfoto

 

 

Roxette XXX Tour – Vasa, Finland (Wasa Open Air) – August 15 – #60

Roxette’s 60th gig on this tour happened in Vasa, Finland last night. This time there were 2 ”support acts” to warm up the crowd. No, unfortunately, Eskobar wasn’t one of them. The first was Frida Andersson at 18:00, then came Alphaville at 20:00. Yes, Alphaville. Do you remember the ’80s? It wasn’t only the decade of Milli Vanilli, Modern Talking and Roxette with shoulder pads and great hairdos, but it was also the brightest era for the band that constantly asked if you really wanted to live forever, forever young.

roxette_in_vasa_01
Pic by Mari Pudas

If they succeeded with the warming up? Well, it took a bit of time for the crowd to clap along, but after Roxette came up on stage at 22:00 and kicked off the show with Sleeping In My Car, the audience did feel the heat.

The concert was expected to be sold out, but there were still some Golden Circle spots and standing tickets left. All in all, the planned number of visitors was 11,000 and in the end more than 10,000 people came to see Roxette and party to their evergreens. Nothing to complain about.

It was an open air show and it was windy and cold, so many had to wear jackets. Of course, Marie was among the freezing ones and she was wearing a jacket, a scarf and gloves, plus she had the already well-known heaters turned on. Nevertheless, she had much fun on stage, smiling during the whole show and was singing perfectly. Per was on a high. While showing how fit he is, as usual, he hit the right strings on the guitar and his singing did the magic, too. The band showed their best as well. Dea joined Marie with a neverending smile and brilliant vocals, Chris and Magnus joined Per in going wild and Pelle and Clarence were rocking in the back.

The crowd appreciated Roxette came to visit them and realized they still rock. People were loud with their sing-alongs and were clapping hard. Those who were standing in the back could watch the 2 side screens, so they were charmed well enough, too. The crowd left the venue in high spirits. No other option after hearing an ass-kicking version of The Look.

On a side note, it was so windy in Vasa that at the end of the concert, while waving goodbye Per just showed his six-pack. This pic is by Evgeny Perekopskiy, but similar photos (even official ones) appeared here and there of this unique moment. Yeah, 10 minutes at the gym every other week still pays off. In a way. 😉

Per after the show:

VASA, FINLAND UPDATE: A great summer evening, nice temperature, beautiful sky light you’ll find up in the north, splendido people everywhere, a band eager to please. What can go wrong? Nothing! We had a blast. Thanx Vasa for taking care of us. Love to come back and play for you guys & dolls!!!! Anytime. Cheers, P.

Next stop is Elvefestivalen in Drammen, Norway on 22nd August. Can you believe that only 1 gig is left for 2015? Impossible! BUT the tour goes on and on and on next year! South African tour stops are out and surely, not much time left until we get to know even more dates.

 

Articles and photos

Beauty pics by Teppo Kangas Photography on Wasa Open Air Facebook page (you can play with the panorama pic on Virtual Finland)
Iltalehti.fi
Vasabladet (another article is available if you subscribe)
Pohjalainen: 1; 2;
svenska.yle.fi
Niclas Glasberg Photography

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25;

Videos

Stars
Crush On You
Fading Like A Flower
Joyride

 

Setlist

roxette_in_vasa_02
Pic by Evgeny Perekopskiy

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Säkkijärven polkka)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Thanx for the help with the setlist, Evgeny Perekopskiy!

Tour 2010: Smukfest Skanderborg, August 8

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

Setlist

* Dressed For Success
* Sleeping In My Car
* The Big L
* Wish I Could Fly
* She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
* 7Twenty7
* It Must Have Been Love
* Silver Blue
* Fading Like A Flower
* How Do You Do
* Dangerous
* Joyride Joyride
Extra:
* Listen To Your Heart
* The Look
* Church Of Your Heart

Fan stories

Gabba77: May the devil take Google Translate – and all of you guys would not had read these horrible reviews…
But I was there and I must say that I was really surprised about the big interest for the concert. I had thought that there would probably be 10-15 hardcore fans who would insist on being in the front row and then a lot of curious people who would like just to be there to see this famous duo Roxette.
But 2 hours before the concert I realized I was wrong. There were a lot of fans. People from Germany, Sweden, England, Argentina, Peru and Denmark of course. But not only the fans – everybody wanted a place up front.
It also really surprised me that people seemed to know all the lyrics. I stood among some people with an age of about 20 years – (They were not what we call fans.) They had hardly learned to speak as Joyride was released. But they sang along on all the songs – not only Joyride, LTYH, The Look & IMHBL that you hear on the radio from time to time. But they also knew the lyrics of songs like Fading Like A Flower & Dangerous which you never hear on the radio here.
I had never dreamt that so many people with a Roxette passion were hiding here in Denmark. What a nice surprice!
The reviwer from Gaffa.dk writes that he has been writing several hundreds of music reviews during the last ten years and he has never before experienced such an enthusiastic audience as met Roxette at Smukfest.
It is a big shame that it seems that nobody recorded the moment that Roxette entered the stage and started playing Dressed For Success – it simply does not get any bigger!
What a thrill, what blessing what a big moment – Hallelujah!

Videos

HD clips by MusicDKMan (Joyride, 7Twenty7, The Look, Fading like a flower, How do you do!) | Listen to your heart (by Momse1, has Fading as well) | It must have been love (by AiCStrange2508) | Church of your heart (by stinasveske) | The Look (by pnordentoft) | It must have been love (by metalmickeydk) | How do you do! (by metalmickeydk) | Silver Blue (by 1977browneyedgirl) | The Look part I (by Lurirox, has The Look II + Church as well) | Dressed for success (by MacGyverBurger)

Photos

Smukfest gallery

Roxette’s comments

Thanx for a great weekend!!! Sundsvall was pretty shaky just like a PREMIERE should be!!! The Smuk festival last nite was really really awesome. I’m so proud to be part of this!!!! /Per

it looks like it’s gonna be around 20.000 on Saturday. And almost 30.000 last night. There is a God. / Per

And over 16.000 two days ago… hmmm… forgot that…. Getting spoiled I guess / Per

Official videos

Smukfest report

Media reports

Ugly reviews: Ibyen.dk | Ekstra Bladet | Horsens Folkeblad | TV2 VIP
Fairly nice review: Gaffa | So-so review: Nordjyske.dk

Trivia

Close to 30,000 people in front of Roxette’s stage!