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.
The 2014BMI London Awards took place at the Dorchester Hotel (Park Lane) tonight. The invitation-only gala recognizes the UK and European songwriters and publishers of the past year’s most-played BMI songs on American radio and television. As Per posted about it earlier today, he and Mats MP Persson were there to receive the Million-Air Awards for Listen To Your Heart andIt Must Have Been Love for the songs being played more than 5 million times each. Per has been prepared for this event since at least a year ago, when he posted a pic of him and MP from the 2005 gala. 5 million plays! Sounds fab, doesn’t it! I mean it’s really huge! Just to make it easier (or harder) to imagine, 5 million plays of LTYH means appr. 50 years if it were constantly played and 5 million plays of IMHBL means appr. 41 years. Amazing!
In the meantime, LTYH video is heading for 40 million views on YouTube, while IMHBL is heading for 45 million. Millions here and there and everywhere. Hats off! Before the gala, Per posted both videos (1, 2) on Roxette Official with these words:
OVER five million radioplays in the US. Happy. Proud. Thanx everyone for listening! /P.
I hope we’re good role models for the new generation.
One more short PG interview has been uploaded by BMI on 27th October. Check it out by clicking HERE.
MP, Marie and Per at the BMI Awards gala in 2005. Pic from BMI.
1 million plays earlier, It Must Have Been Love got the BMI Million-Air Award for 4 million plays in 2005. Marie and Per were there at the gala. You’ll find some pics here. You can watch a video with Per from that year about how he started and another about how he writes.
Listen To Your Heart got the award for 4 million plays 3 years later, in 2008. Here you will find a pic and here a video with Per and MP. Per says:
It’s great! I mean this is for 4 million airplays. It’s the second time I’m part of it. This is for Listen To Your Heart, last time it was for It Must Have Been Love. It’s just amazing! Amazing! I have to pinch my arm. It’s just great!
Photos from the event:
Photos on Roxette Official and PER GESSLE OFFICIAL: 1, 2, 3, 4,
We had to wait a year to be able to relive the sommartider of our lives, but now here it is! Gyllene Tider’s Dags att tänka på konserten was released on 23rd July. I would say it was worth the waiting. Even if it’s ”just” a DVD (I mean no Blu-ray around – who knows why…), the quality is great and what we can see on the DVD is simply fantastic. It contains a complete concert (24 songs, 1 hour 36 minutes), a documentary (1 hour 6 minutes) and 3 videos. Photos on the cover and in the DVD booklet are by Anders Roos. He’s the photographer who took those amazing shots for the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book, which was written during the tour.
Concert
The stage scenes are from Skövde, but the crowd scenes are mixed from 2 concerts. Besides Skövde, some crowd cuts are from Eskilstuna, so if you were there at the last 2 concerts of the tour, there is a high chance you will see yourself.
What I felt when watching the concert was that I was there in Sweden again, on a summer night, being part of a loud crowd, seeing 5 energy bombs on stage. And it left a constant smile on my face during the whole show. Judging by what I saw, Skövde concert must have been one of the Top5 most energetic gigs. From the 2nd song the crowd was more reactive and I must say it’s amazing to see everyone doing the coreography Micke Syd shows during Min tjej och jag. When you are in the crowd in the front you can’t see such things and it must feel so great to see this reaction from your crowd when you are on stage.
Another fantastic thing to see is young and old (let’s say from 15 to 70) singing along to old and new GT songs. It’s unbelievable what music, THIS music can do to people.Too cool!
Camera angles are great, too. Grumpy Productions did a fab job. You might remember the posts (1; 2) on Gyllene Tider’s Facebook page about the camera techniques they used in Skövde. Looking good!
I left it for last, but it’s definitely one of the most important points: T.H.E. S.O.U.N.D. I.S. P.U.R.E. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.N.E.S.S.! Hats off to Christoffer Lundquist who did the mixing! So now we are in need of a live CD! Anyway, wasn’t it the case that we get one? Hm.
Documentary – Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013
It’s the same that was broadcast on TV4 last December. A fantastic one! You can read my review of it if you click HERE. Love to have it on DVD.
One more thing I must add is that towards the end of the concert part I felt the same I felt at the end of each gig last summer: I don’t want this come to an end! But the good thing with the DVD is that you can play it as many times as you wish. This one is definitely something I’ll play several times in my life.
If you haven’t bought / ordered your copy yet, do yourself a favour and get yourself this DVD. If you attended any of the concerts, the reason why is to relive those magic moments. If you couldn’t attend any of the shows, you’ll have the chance to jump and sing along in front of your TV now. Here are the links from where you can order the DVD: Bengans, Ginza, CDON.
Judith’s review
Today it was finally the day for concert that many were waiting for, expecting it to be a blast! And what to say, the concert was more than super! Marie was welcomed by a very very loud crowd and she had to wait a bit to start singing the first song. After that she was all smiles! The shouting and the smiles remained the whole concert.
After an amazing concert in Linköping I didn’t think this could be topped, but wow! The band did an amazing job, I’ve never seen Surjo move around so much before, Chris, watch out! 😉
Jokke was all smiles all the time, as were all of us in the audience. Jokke also delivered an incredible solo in Den sjunde vågen, which also felt longer than usual. It was simply great to see the band and Marie have so much fun with us, or the other way around.
The most touching song was probably the last one, Tro. It was the last concert for many fans and I could see many of us hugging and singing along. It felt as if the song had suddenly become a hymn for love and friendship. Not to forget to mention that fans had arranged to bring roses to give to Marie at the end. Everybody had one rose, at the end of Tro all of them were brought to the front and put on the stage. Micke collected them all and took them backstage for Marie.
There were also some familiar faces in the audience. Lasse Lindbom, Anders Herrlin, Mats MP Persson, Jonas Åkerlund and, last but not least, Per and Åsa, just to mention a few. Per posted on Facebook that they celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Look reaching #1 in USA at the after-show party.
Patrícia’s review
Åsa & Per at Cirkus – sorry for the bad quality pic… Check out Roxette Rosario’s pic, too 😉
As you could already read here and there, Marie’s gig in Stockholm was marvellous with many famous people in the crowd. Oh yes, with Per among them! Woohoo! We’ve been expecting him to appear at this concert, but we couldn’t be sure he would really come until we saw Åsa, Per and Jonas Åkerlund arriving together 1-2 minutes before 19:30. They found their places in the 10th row, on the left side, close to the exit. After many Roxers realized Per was there, we started clapping and he and Åsa waved to us smiling. After some minutes we repeated it. It was awesome to see him in the crowd, sitting among us. Besides them, there were many other familiar faces and now I’m not talking only about the hardcore fans. Mats MP Persson (who was sitting in front of Per), Anders Herrlin, Clarence Öfwerman, Dea Norberg (she even posted a pic on her Instagram), Marie Dimberg, Lasse Lindbom were there in the audience, just to name some of them, but there were many other famous Swedish people in the crowd. Also Oscar, Marie’s son was there, sitting in the 6th row, together with his grandma, Micke’s mum.
One could have thought that this crowd would make Marie and the band nervous, but no! They were in TOP shape and rocked Cirkus! The sound was perfect and Marie’s voice simply blown us away. She was smiling a lot and the audience was clapping so much that some songs had to wait to be started. I think there was no concert where they could start Så stilla så långsamt so late, waiting for the audience to be silent. Marie enjoyed it so much, you could see it on her face. She was shining!
I must admit that the audience was very good at clapping, they could even follow the rhythm Surjo and Micke showed by clapping themselves, but if you ask about how many of them stood up… Hm. We, the international fans (Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czecz Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, USA etc.) were sitting at different places in the crowd, owing to the not so funny mechanism the tickets went on sale in October. Some got tickets in rows in the middle, some in the front, some in the back, others on the balcony. We thought it was a great chance to animate the Swedish part of the crowd even more, since we could do a little of this ”job” in every corner of Cirkus.
We stood up already at Kom vila hos mig and we expected the Cirkus crowd being at least as cool as Göteborg audience was and following us, but not really. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people in the middle and on the left of the first 4-5 rows who were not willing to stand up, so people in the back could have thought it was still better to be sitting. We thought, OK, maybe at the next fast song they would realize how they should act when seeing how Marie loves this reaction and they see the security guys didn’t make us sitting.
Oh yes, talking about security guys – who were not present at any other shows so far – Atli, from Show Security Sweden was there too. You surely remember him and his team from the Gyllene Tider tour. I greeted him after the concert and he said the show was great, he liked it a lot.
Back to the concert: Så länge det lyser mittemot made us stand up and dance again. Then there were some more in the crowd who followed us, but the left side was still sitting, only clapping. Efter stormen was our next party song. It rocked big time again! There were Swedes sitting in front of me and it was such a good feeling to see them deciding: ”OK, maybe now we could really stand up” and they did so. C’mon, people! There is nothing wrong with it… Live it!
Den sjunde vågen was fabulous this time again and I always have a big smile on my face when I see Marie’s reaction to the fact she has to go off stage. It’s different every time, but always so lovely. After she left the stage, the guys went crazy. Christoffer even throw away his hat. Hat was grabbed up by Jokke when they also left the stage. I have to mention that I think Jokke was the best on this concert from the 5 I’ve seen. He’s a great guitarist! We couldn’t stop clapping and being loud to have Marie back on stage and some minutes later she appeared again for the extra songs. We didn’t sit down and Mellan sommar och höst was again the song that made even more people stand up. Even Per stood up towards the end of it. Hats off, Mr. G! We’re very proud of you! 😉 Then came Den bästa dagen and many of us had the feeling it was really the best day of our lives. Such a fantastic concert it was! And it hadn’t ended yet. During Tro we stood up again and there were roses in our hands. We’ve been holding them up and waving them during the whole song. Thank you very much for the great idea, Christina Tholander and Nina Wolfframm and also thanx a lot to Heartland Anne, who organized roses for many fans and even a heart-shaped bunch of red roses for Marie. When the song ended, we’ve been forwarding the roses to the front and Micke was collecting them, while Marie got one bunch of red roses from a fan, handed over by Micke N-S and Chris collected the heart-shaped bunch. It looked fab and Marie was so happy to get the flowers. Awesomeness! (You can see it here, in the video I embedded and on these 3 Instagram pics: 1, 2, 3.) Per was leaving his seat before Tro ended, but Åsa stayed until the end of the song.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TaE7m1E1Vc
After the concert, there was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Look’s becoming No. 1. on the Billboard. The celebration took place in a separated area of the restaurant at Cirkus. Everyone looked very happy and enjoyed their time there. Per’s comment on tonight’s show:
TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: Had a blast at Marie’s gig at Cirkus in Stockholm. Wonderful concert and Miss Effe + band in top shape. Great to see so many Roxers making a lotta noise. Afterwards some press + celebration with old friends. As you probably know by now….The Look No 1 in the US goes 25! Thanx Warner/EMI for being great hosts! Cheers, P.
We’re glad you enjoyed it! We had a blast, too! Unfortunately, this was my last concert on this tour. I’m very sad about it, but I’m grateful that I could be a part of it and enjoy every second of 5 absolutely fabulous and exceptional concerts. Tack så väldigt mycket Marie & the band! By the way, can you believe that only 4 shows left from this magical tour? Impossible. We need a next tour soon!
Setlist (no changes)
1. Så stilla så långsamt [1992 – DSR]
2. Kom vila hos mig [2013 – Nu!]
3. Bara för en dag [1987 – ES]
4. Det regnar igen [1992 – DSR]
5. Sista sommarens vals [2013 – Nu!]
6. Ber bara en gång [1996 – IETSV]
7. Sparvöga [1989 off the Swedish drama TV series]
8. Ett hus vid havet [1985 – DSV]
9. Ett bord i solen [2007 – TFT]
10. Så skimrande var aldrig havet [1990 off Taube compilation album]
11. Ännu doftar kärlek [1984 – HV]
12. Så länge det lyser mittemot [1992 – DSR]
13. Om du såg mig nu [1987 – ES]
14. Efter stormen [1987 – ES]
15. Den sjunde vågen [1985 – DSV]
16. Mellan sommar och höst [1992 – DSR]
17. Den bästa dagen [1985 – DSV]
18. Tro [1996 – IETSV]
Halmstad was cooking almost at the same temperature as Gothenburg! What a great show and what a great audience again!
Since the venue was changed from Halmstad Arena to Halmstad Theater, a much smaller place, everyone who bought the tickets already the first day they went on sale in October was worrying about the seats, how the organizers would solve this issue. We hoped for not sitting in the 15th row if we had a ticket for the 1st row, however, the organizers tried to assure us that it wouldn’t be the case. We were still not sure about how it could work, until we actually got into the theater and saw that they renumbered the seats, so everyone could be satisfied with the new seats.
In the audience – besides many Roxers from abroad(Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Denmark, etc.) – there were Göran Fritzon(from Gyllene Tider)and Jan-Owe Wikström(Hallandsposten; author of the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book among others). We missed 1 big Roxer though, but we hope for his appearance at least in the crowd at a future concert. Per, you must go and see Ms Effe! She’s awesome! But you know that.
Some of us met Marie and the band when they arrived to Halmstad and they were all smiles already then. We were excited to see them on stage again. Before the show, when almost everyone found their places, a girl from the crew came and distributed some signed Marie cards(the one you could get if you pre-ordered her album Nu!) to the fans in the front rows. It was very nice. Thanks a lot for that!
And the show began. Should I mention Marie was barefoot? Now it’s quite evident she performs like that and we just love it.
After the acoustic Så stilla så långsamt we just jumped up from our seats and so did almost the whole audience, so the fab intro of Kom vila hos mig led us to a great party this time again. Halmstad crowd was almost as cooperative as the one in Gothenburg. Marie mentioned it already at this song how fantastic the audience is. She kept the acting she did in Gothenburg during Bara för en dag. So lovely! The bridge between Det regnar igen and Sista sommarens vals is still something fabulous. Ber bara en gång brought the party feeling again, but we were sitting, just clapping and dancing while sitting. At Sparvöga Marie mentioned it’s her favourite song and it sounded amazing this time, too. During Ett hus vid havet a seagull flew to the wrong place, but otherwise the performance was fantastic. Still so heart-warming how Marie and Jokke are performing it together. Then came the 2 most touching songs, Ett bord i solen and Så skimrande var aldrig havet. Marie’s facial expressions and how she feels these songs were again undescribable. Ännu doftar kärlek made the audience sing along. Not too loud, but you could hear more people were singing out loud than before. Party time again AND this time the audience stayed standing also after Så länge det lyser mittemot, so we were still dancing during Om du såg mig nu and of course during Efter stormen. Wow! THAT was a party! By the end of the tour there might be a concert where no one is sitting, but standing during the whole show. Before ES, Marie thanked the Roxette fans in English for being there. She got a loud response from the fans. Some fans also shouted ”I love you, Marie!” several times and they got a reply from Marie: ”I love you, too!” The party at the end of Den sjunde vågen when Marie already went off the stage (helped by MNS) was so intensive that even Christoffer’s hat fell off his head.
During the break we didn’t sit down, were clapping and standing all the time, waiting for Marie to come back. And she came back, of course. Micke was helping her again to find her place at the mic stand. The party went on with Mellan sommar och höst, then came Den bästa dagen. Before the closing song, Tro, Marie thanked in Swedish for all the energy she gets from the crowd. It means a lot to her. And it means a lot to us. It’s really fantastic to see her reactions, how she loves the active audience. One can see the whole band enjoys it much more when the crowd makes some noise. Even Surjo was acting more tonight, clapping and dancing a bit in the background and Micke was playing the keyboards many times standing and dancing more than how I could see them before.
At the end of the concert, a red heart was back. This time there wasn’t ”Tack!” written on it, but it was a heart-shaped pillow Marie got from a fan, Nikolett. That’s what you can see on the picture here.
Halmstad audience was really fab, joining us whenever we stood up and clapping with us to the rhythm. I loved the reactions of some older Swedish people behind me. They were happy about being part of a crowd like this and they were smiling all the time.
After the show Marie came out and gave some autographs. We also met Pelle and Chris. Chris said it really makes a difference to them when we are there. He said his favourite concert so far was Gothenburg and also Växjö, but tonight’s Halmstad show was very close to them. Chris asked us if we know the guitarist of Gyllene Tider… Of course we know! Pelle and Chris said MP (Mats MP Persson) was playing at a place not too far from the theater, so if we want to see him, we should go there. Some of us went there and yes, MP was playing with a band. They were covering e.g. Bryan Adams: Summer of 69 and we were in time for hearing their cover of Tylö Sun from Gyllene Tider. Per’s voice was definitely missing, but otherwise MP’s playing was great. I had a chance to talk to him a bit and he said they play together with this band once a month. He seemed to feel more comfortable with this cozy set up on stage than with Gyllene Tider. He agreed. This ”after-party” was a great closure of tonight.
Marie and the band are in Karlstad tomorrow. Have fun, everyone and make some noise there, too!
Setlist (no changes)
1. Så stilla så långsamt [1992 – DSR]
2. Kom vila hos mig [2013 – Nu!]
3. Bara för en dag [1987 – ES]
4. Det regnar igen [1992 – DSR]
5. Sista sommarens vals [2013 – Nu!]
6. Ber bara en gång [1996 – IETSV]
7. Sparvöga [1989 off the Swedish drama TV series]
8. Ett hus vid havet [1985 – DSV]
9. Ett bord i solen [2007 – TFT]
10. Så skimrande var aldrig havet [1990 off Taube compilation album]
11. Ännu doftar kärlek [1984 – HV]
12. Så länge det lyser mittemot [1992 – DSR]
13. Om du såg mig nu [1987 – ES]
14. Efter stormen [1987 – ES]
15. Den sjunde vågen [1985 – DSV]
16. Mellan sommar och höst [1992 – DSR]
17. Den bästa dagen [1985 – DSV]
18. Tro [1996 – IETSV]
One could have thought that this crowd would make Marie and the band nervous, but no! They were in TOP shape and rocked Cirkus! The sound was perfect and Marie’s voice simply blown us away. She was smiling a lot and the audience was clapping so much that some songs had to wait to be started. I think there was no concert where they could start Så stilla så långsamt so late, waiting for the audience to be silent. Marie enjoyed it so much, you could see it on her face. She was shining!
And the show began. Should I mention Marie was barefoot? Now it’s quite evident she performs like that and we just love it.