Kalmar! Last night’s show became one of the Top3 gigs so far on this tour. Fab mood on stage, loud sing-along crowd. What else could you ask for? Billy? Yes! He is back too!
It’s always nice to have a fun security team at the concerts. The security guys in Kalmar certainly belong to that group. Dancing and singing along, enjoying life while working. Love that! It’s also lovely to see Åsa still enjoying all GT songs and dancing along while filming what’s happening on stage.
There must be something new in the process of fixing Per’s in-ear system, because last night he had some problems with it again. From the first song you could see it was uncomfortable for him how it was fixed on his back. New tape? New cable? Or just a new person fixing it? Whatever. Change back to the procedure you used until 2 gigs before, haha.
The ginger tea mix Micke Syd prepared for PG last night tasted like lakrits according to Mr. G. Haha.
When Per started talking about the „tribute to their favourite Dutch band” and he said we might be wondering what that band could be, some in the front row spoiled the fun with shouting „Shocking Blue”. Per ignored it, but Micke Syd said „there are some who saw more than one show on this tour”. Haha. Per also laughed and he went on according to his usual script mentioning Focus and Ekseption. He said he saw Ekseption in 1973, but it wasn’t his thing. He said Anders was 12 and he saw them too, from the front row. Anders corrected him by saying he wasn’t there, because he was on a curfew, sorry. Micke Syd’s George Baker Selection moment ended up in a loud „ojojoj ojojojoj” after a little „una paloma blanca”. Sounded cool! Micke Syd appreciated it with a „boom shaka laka”. Haha. Then Per said they got hooked on a band called Shocking Blue, the ones in the front were right, he pointed at them, so his translation of Send Me A Postcard got played.
Before Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång, Micke N-S brought the checkered blue and black acoustic guitar on stage, but Per walked off stage to the left side and asked technician Peter Fredriksson from the crew to do something with his in-ear system. Peter tried his best, but later we could see nothing had changed. When Per came back after a few seconds, the audience cheered him and he told us he had problems with the cables on his back. Micke N-S was sitting in front of the drums until then. He hopped up when Per got back on stage, but since he started to talk, Micke sat back. Then PG waved to him that he could bring the guitar.
Before Tuffa tider, Per said the ukulele is the world’s sexiest instrument and if in winter you are on Costa del Sol, you can see Micke Syd playing ukulele there. He is playing Gyllene Tider hits and Freestyle and Lili & Susie songs. Micke Syd laughed and said Här kommer alla känslorna works damn good in Marbella.
During the band presentation, after saying that Anders is the band’s best soccer player and Micke Syd is their wonderful drummer, Per thought he would have enough time to go off stage again to have the in-ear system cables fixed. He seemed to forget that Micke would introduce him too. Peter was trying to fix the problem again. Micke Syd went on with introducing PG, the best saved for last. „The one who plays ukulele, who is interested in driving cars and cars in general, the one who took a break again…, where is he? The magical Per Håkan Gessle!” PG rushed back on stage. Micke Syd said Per already had 2 pit stops on this gig, which is a new record that deserves a big applause. He got the tires changed, the oil level checked and the in-ear system taped. Haha.
Before Min tjej och jag, Micke said that at the rehearsals they tried the trick with Göran, that he was jumping on Micke Syd’s back how they did that in the Parkliv movie, but it doesn’t work anymore. Haha.
When the band went off stage before both encores, the audience was clapping and screaming loudly. This time, as I mentioned at the beginning, Billy found his way back to the setlist and was performed as the first song in the first encore. Welcome back! Please, stay forever!
Before the second encore, the crowd started singing Sommartider, of course. When the gang came back on stage, Per said they thought they would skip this song. „We play this one instead!” När vi två blir en got a loud cheering from the audience and an even bigger party came when finally Sommartider was on.
PG thanked the crowd for a fab evening, wished everyone a fantastic summer and said he hopes we meet again and everyone takes care of each other.
Next stop is Ronneby on Saturday.
Setlist
1. Gyllene Tider igen
2. Juni, juli, augusti
3. Det hjärta som brinner
4. Skicka ett vykort, älskling
5. Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig
6. Flickorna på TV2
7. Chrissie, hur mår du?
8. (Hon vill ha) Puls
9. En sten vid en sjö i en skog
10. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Tuffa tider
Band presentation
12. Min tjej och jag
13. Kung av sand
14. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
15. Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly
16. (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet / (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän / Tylö Sun medley
Encore 1
17. Billy
18. Det är över nu
19. Gå & fiska!
Encore 2
20. När vi två blir en
21. Sommartider
22. När alla vännerna gått hem
All photos in the article by Patrícia Peres
Per after the show:
Kalmar tjoho! Tack för en fantastisk fredagskväll. Grymt kul att få spela o sjunga för er. Tack för allt tjo o tjim och positiv energi. Svårt att sova efter det här!!! Syns igen.