Nordic Rox

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle were on air with the October episode of Nordic Rox to share their top 2000s songs from No. 10 to No. 6. It’s getting really exciting to enter the Top10.

Before that, the guys play Ifrån mig själv by a band called Dundertåget. Originally they were called Thunder Express, they just moved away from English to Swedish and then they disbanded. The song is from 2010. It’s a great track according to Per.

That’s a Year by Anna Lille from Norway is next. It’s her brand new single and it sounds really cool, Per thinks. Great production on that one.

The next track is Stay with This Song by The Facer from 1999. It’s classic Swedish garage rock, a really great band. The song is taken from their debut album, Go for the Show.

The guys are moving back to Norway with Sløtface. Norway has got some great stuff. Sven thinks she has a really nice, punky attitude. The song is called Magazine.

James Last Experience by The Soundtrack of Our Lives is next from their Behind the Music album. Per loves that album. James Last was big in Germany, but he was big in Sweden as well in the late ’60s, early ’70s. He played pop hits for the guys’ parents’ generation with a big orchestra and singers, who didn’t sing the lyrics, but they just la-la-la through the song. Wonderful, cheesy versions.

Sven and Per get down to the Top10 and the first song they play is Electric by Melody Club. PG thinks it’s a wonderful track. A great pop track and classic one on the Top10 from 2002, taken from their album Music Machine.

No. 9 on the noughties list is You Can’t Hurry Love by The Concretes. Sven asks Per which soul track he thinks of when he hears the title. Per replies, The Supremes track. But this is not a cover version of that. It’s an original tune by this indie group from Sweden, The Concretes. The singer is Victoria Bergsman. The guys think it’s a very cool track.

No. 8 is Per’s absolute favourite band, Sven says. PG says it’s The Beatles. No, The Rolling Stones. No, it’s Roxette, of course and a track from 2003, a pop hit called Opportunity Nox. It was the lead single of a compilation album called The Pop Hits. Sven has just found out that Per is the guy doing the crazy guitar solo. He is a bit knocked out by this info, actually. Haha. Per says he was never allowed to play the guitar solos, but on this particular track, he was. They recorded this track at the old Polar Studios, which was run by ABBA. Led Zeppelin recorded there too. Lots of international bands worked there. Roxette did the Room Service album there and also this track, Opportunity Nox. He remembers playing that guitar solo, it took forever, but it was worth it. Sven says, next time he is going to play a guitar solo, he is going to have whatever Per were having that day. Haha.

No. 7 is Automatic Lover by the Teddybears. Per thinks it’s a wonderful song. It’s a cool track from their commercial breakthrough album called Rock ‘n’ Roll Highschool from 2000. Before that, they were in some sort of metal stuff called grindcore. Sven is not really familiar with this, he hasn’t even heard those albums. But they changed style completely. The band became really cool and they did some great videos as well. They have some great singles, according to Per. The guys considered the song Hiphopper for a while, which is a great track as well, but then Sven and Per decided for Automatic Lover. It’s an excellent track.

On position No. 6 there is a sort of a cousin to this song, because Above the Candy Store by Paola was produced by Klas Åhlund of the Teddybears. She was married to Klas Åhlund. It’s all in the family. Haha. The song is taken from her great album Stockcity Girl, which the guys have been playing a lot. This is by far the best track on it, Per thinks. He thinks it’s a really wonderful song.

Nordic Rox continues with a wonderful song, Everything & Then Some by Melodic Fluke. Then comes I Woke Up in a Dream by Les Big Byrd. The next one is Lilla Lapper by Søte & Rare. Words Enough to Tell You by the Mascots is next. This is the sound of Stockholm in the ’60s, released on a flexi disc with a pop magazine that both Sven and Per bought.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are getting ready to sink their teeth into the neverending list of their top 2000s songs on the September episode of Nordic Rox. They are at position No. 15 to No. 11 and the tension is rising.

Before that, they go back to the early ’90s and check out one of the bands that Per was a bit involved in. Brainpool was signed to his publishing company way back. This track is the first song from their debut album and it’s outstanding according to Per. It’s called That’s My Charm from 1994. The band is featuring Per’s current guitar player, Christoffer Lundquist. He was the bass player in Brainpool.

The next song is Knife in the Heart by Lykke Li, a remix by The Magician. The guys are in the remix mood today. The Magician has been working with Lykke Li before, he did I Follow Rivers as well. A highly successful song.

Then comes the remix version of Roxette’s I Call Your Name from 1986, taken from the first album, Pearls of Passion. It’s a Frank Mono remix. It has always been tough to get on the radio and EMI in Europe had this recipe of using European remixers and DJs to do remixes of songs. So they wanted to make a remix of I Call Your Name, which was an album track from Pearls of Passion. Per doesn’t know who Frank Mono was, he never actually met him. Roxette had to wait a couple of more years for everything to kick off in the States. It was with the second album.

Coming up next is Whatever by a fantastic band called Thundermother, consisting of four girls from Växjö, Sven’s old hometown. That’s how tough they are in Växjö. Haha. Per asks Sven if he knows the girls. Sven replies that he thinks he left town some decades before they were born, haha.

The guys are ready to dive deep into the best of the noughties list. At position No. 15 they have a fantastic song called Do You Love Me? by the amazing Amanda Jenssen, who is an outstanding singer. This was her breakthrough song in Scandinavia, the first single from her debut album, Killing My Darlings in 2008. There is something about her personality that’s hooking on. She cuts through the radio. She is really good.

No. 14 is Kent, one of Sweden’s biggest bands in the noughties. They are singing in Swedish. They made an amazing album called Vapen & Ammunition, guns and ammunition, in 2002. That album included several hit singles, including Kärleken väntar (Love Awaits). Per thinks it’s a great track, great production and a really good song as well. Typical Kent sound. He likes it a lot. It’s sung by Jocke Berg in Kent.

No. 13 is Dream On by Atomic Swing. They got quite big when they came out in 1993 with their debut album. They don’t exist anymore, or if they do, they keep a really low profile, haha. Under the radar. This is a great track from their The Broken Habanas album in 2006. It’s a song that’s been covered by other artists as well. Sven loves that guitar solo just merging over into the organ solo. Per thinks it’s very cool.

No. 12 is Running out of Gaz by Pauline. She was born in Zimbabwe and her mother moved to Sweden with a Swedish man who adopted her, so she grew up in Sweden. This is her biggest hit, released in 2003. It’s just a brilliant pop track. Per really likes it.

No. 11 is a song by The Cardigans. It’s a single from their latest / last album from 2005. They are still active, some members of the band and the singer Nina Persson, but the main songwriter Peter Svensson moved to LA and is working out of LA as a writer. I Need Some Fine Wine and  You, You Need to Be Nicer is a great track. The guys love that title. Nina Persson wrote the lyrics for The Cardigans and Peter Svensson wrote the music. That was the recipe of excellent teamwork.

The next artist is Merit Hemmingson. Sven doesn’t think they ever played her on Nordic Rox before. She is getting into her golden years, she is 86. She was really big in the ’70s, a fantastic keyboard player, Hammond organ player. Gammal jämtländsk brudmarsch was a smash hit in 1973 in Sweden, which is pretty rare because it’s an instrumental track and it’s a folk music tune. She made a specialty up by taking folk music, adapting it and modernizing it.

The next song is Death Defied by Will by Eagle-Eye Cherry. Then comes More! by Robin Bengtsson. God Knows by Mando Diao wraps up this month’s Nordic Rox.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle were on air with the August episode of Nordic Rox to share their top 2000s songs from No. 20 to No. 16.

The guys kick off the show with Something Wicked by The Teenage Idols. Superb garage rock. Sven loves those one-chord tracks. He says, that’s basically what he can play. Haha.

Then comes Nicole Sabouné’s brand new single, Mirror On The Wall.

The next song is Sharpshooter by The Creeps from their Blue Tomato album in 1990. It was produced by Roxette producer Clarence Öfwerman. The Creeps were a special guest on a big tour for Roxette. They are a great band, Per loves them. The band is terrific, but especially the singer, Robert Jelinek. He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1965 and he came to Sweden with his father who was a designer for Ikea. He grew up in Älmhult in the south of Sweden.

[When Sven and Per recorded this show, the North American tour leg was still on the horizon, so they talked about it. /PP]

Sven asks Per what to expect on Roxette’s US tour. Per says there are 15 dates: 13 in the US and 2 in Canada. It’s basically the same show that they are doing in Europe and South America. It’s a greatest hits show and he has been able to collect the classic players in the band. Clarence Öfwerman, keyboard player and Jonas Isacsson, lead guitar player, are still with them. They have a new singer, the most amazing Lena Philipsson who is doing a fantastic job. Sven says she is a great stage personality. PG says it’s been a wonderful tour. Since they started off with Lena, they have done almost 60 shows. It’s just been awesome to play all these classic tracks again. Per is having a blast. Mr. G asks Sven if he is coming to see them in the US. Sven says he used to go to the South by Southwest Festival, but that’s in the spring, so he will see. Per says he can come by and sell some T-shirts. That’s a great offer, Sven admits. Haha.

Two songs from the Swedish ’60s are coming up. The one they play first is in Swedish. Per says most Swedish acts in the ’60s were singing in sort of English. Swenglish, as they used to call it. They were playing more easy listening music for Sven and Per’s parents’ generation, but there were a few exceptions who got big. Sven-Ingvars is one of those bands. The guys picked a song that was very big in 1965. Säg inte nej, säg kanske, which translates to don’t say no, say maybe. It’s a good title, Per thinks.

Then Wedding by the Hep Stars follows from 1966. You might recognize the organ sound, because that’s Benny Andersson, who later kicked off ABBA. He even wrote the song. He was the keyboard player in the Hep Stars, probably the biggest band in 1966/67. They were leading the pop craze wave in Sweden at the time. Per has this song as a seven-inch single. It was a major hit single when he was a little kid.

No. 20 on the Nordic list is With Every Heartbeat by Robyn, who is still going strong. She made this song in 2005 together with Kleerup.

The next track is a trip to Denmark. The guys play The Raveonettes a lot on Nordic Rox. They are a cool duo. Love In A Trashcan is one of their best songs, Per thinks. It’s from 2005. They were formed by Sune Rose Wagner and Sharon Foo back in the early noughties. They have a very special sound, basic and atmospheric. The album is called Pretty In Black, if you want to buy it.

Sven and Per are moving to Sweden for song No. 18 and play Hot Night Crash by the amazing Sahara Hotnights. It’s from the album Kiss & Tell. They had a couple of great tracks in there and this was the first single from the album in 2004.

Here comes one of Sven’s favourite bands, The Hellacopters, hard rock and roll from Stockholm. By The Grace Of God is a great track from 2002. It sounds perfectly like 2002.

A major hit, the breakthrough song for Peter Bjorn and John is coming up next on position No. 16. Young Folks is from 2006. It’s a fun thing what a whistle can do. Never underestimate a whistle, Per says. Roxette had that written on the vinyl inner track on the Joyride album: Was it really necessary to whistle? Someone said that when they did the Joyride track, because they didn’t like the whistle. So Roxette kept it and it became a major hit as well.

The guys play a Roxette song, something from the old days from the Joyride album from 1991. Things Will Never Be The Same they used to play live a lot. They don’t do that anymore, though. It’s one of the highlights for Per from that album.

Close To You by Velvet Beat is next. Then comes O.C.D.O.D. by The Hives and Darling, Go Home by Amanda Jenssen wraps up this episode of Nordic Rox.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle presented their 550th Nordic Rox show in July. They shared their top 2000s songs from No. 25 to No. 21 in that episode.

The guys are ready to play the best sound from the Nordic countries and kick off with something really greasy, Grease Baby by Clutter, garage rock from Stockholm. A very cool song according to Per.

Then comes Mia Karlsson’s beautiful track, Breathe Now from 2024. PG loves this song and he thinks Mia has a great voice.

The next track is Let’s Go Parking Baby by Caesars from their Youth Is Wasted On The Young album from 1998. Excellent stuff, Sven thinks. He loves their sound.

The guys play two US No.1s in different versions. First of all, Björn Skifs who topped the US Billboard charts with Hooked On A Feeling. Per corrects Sven that he wasn’t called Björn Skifs those days, but Blue Swede and the song was a cover version of Hooked On A Feeling, the ooga chaka stuff in 1974. But the track they play is a Eurovision song from 1975, a big, big, big hit in Scandinavia: Michelangelo by Björn Skifs. It’s a cool song according to PG. It makes you smile.

Then there is an ABBA track in a different version by the group called Pale Honey, a cover version of Lay All Your Love On Me from the Super Trooper album 1980. The guys think it’s a great track and Pale Honey’s interpretation is an interesting, nice version.

No. 25 on the noughties list is a Danish song that travelled the world. It was the theme song for the TV series The Bridge. Hollow Talk by Choir Of Young Believers is a very special track. Per was pretty late watching the series. Everyone saw it around him, except him. He watched all the seasons, and then just before the three last episodes, they took it off Netflix or HBO, whatever it was. So PG hasn’t seen the ending yet and begs Sven not to tell him. Sven laughs and confirms no spoilers here.

Sven knows the next song is one of Per’s favourites. It’s by Lisa Miskovsky. Mr. G thinks she is a great singer, and this is one of her early hits, Driving One Of Your Cars. Per thinks it sounds amazing and he loves it. It’s an excellent track from 2001. It’s getting old. “Just like you”, Per turns to Sven. Haha.

No. 23 is a female singer called Titiyo. She broke through in 1989 with Talking To The Man In The Moon, but her biggest song is Come Along. It’s written by Peter Svensson from The Cardigans and Jocke Berg from Kent. Jocke wrote the lyrics. Kent was a massive band in Sweden, but has never broken through outside. Come Along has got a great sound, and it sounds a little bit like The Cardigans, Per thinks. It’s a very good song, and you can still hear it here and there.

Someone New by Eskobar feat. Heather Nova is next. It was a one-off collaboration between this band from Stockholm and Heather Nova from Bermuda in 2002. It was a big song in Europe, and it still sounds cool.

No. 21 is Wonderchild by Christian Walz, who is a great producer and writer, and he has been around for many years. This was a really big song for him. It’s from the album Paint By Numbers. He is also a very prolific writer for Swedish artist Veronica Maggio. He has written brilliant tracks for her in Swedish.

Sven introduces the next track, Bad Blood, as a song by the touring version of Roxette. Per says it’s not really a Roxette track. It’s sung by Per and Lena Philipsson, who is an amazing singer.

The next song played is Hey Princess by Popsicle. Then comes Fine by The Cardigans. It’s taken from The Cardigans’ second album, Live, which broke them big in Japan in 1995. Sven asks Per what he was doing in 1995. PG has to think about it. He came off a tour. If you can’t remember the ’90s, you weren’t there, Sven says. Per says they did a world tour with Roxette in 1994 and 1995. The Crash! Boom! Bang! tour, so they probably played some big shows in the summer of 1995. Then they recorded more music, because they made their first compilation album in 1996. Per says “it’s all coming back to me now”. Haha. Like Peter Sellers would say.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are back on Nordic Rox with a new countdown. In the June episode, the guys share their top noughties (from the years between 2000 and 2009) songs from No. 30 to No. 26.

Before they get down to it, they go back to 1975 and Benny Andersson, alive and kicking in the studio. Intermezzo No. 1 is the only instrumental track ABBA ever released. It’s from the great album called ABBA. Per is wondering how No. 2 sounded. It’s an outtake, Sven says. Per still thinks it’s a great track. You could hear the musical ambitions of Benny Andersson in that one. Wonderful, sort of classic influences and power pop all melting together. And you got all the fine session players from Stockholm of the ’70s era. The guys say, if Benny hears this, they are in the studio in Halmstad waiting for Intermezzo No. 2. Haha.

Effortless by Sabina Ddumba is next, then comes Old Man Chicago by Alberta Cross. A great track according to PG. Sven says it’s a Swedish guy on the vocal, but they are based in England. They used to be a duo, they had different setups in the band or lineups, but Petter Ericson Stakee is the founding member and singer, and the only original one left.

Push Play by Miriam Bryant is played as the next song. Then comes the amazing sound of the Viagra Boys from Stockholm and the song Waterboy. It’s a cool band formed in 2015 and quite successful.

No. 30 on the top noughties list is from Gothenburg on the West Coast, Sweden’s number two city. It’s Midnight Prayer by an indie band called the Bad Cash Quartet. Per thinks they were a very good band. This song is taken from their third album and the final one as well.

The guys are moving up to 29. The song is It’s Been Hurting All The Way With You, Joanna by a great artist called Moneybrother. It’s taken from his Blood Panic album 2003. It’s a great track according to Per. Sven remembers seeing him in Austin, Texas during the South by Southwest festival. He was great on stage as well. He remembers they played there and then they jumped into a tour bus, and went up quite a long while for the next gig immediately. It’s hard being on the road, Per says. Sven says, that’s why he never broke through as a pop star. Haha. Moneybrother was later changing language to Swedish and he is quite successful in Sweden as well.

Position No. 28 belongs to The Ark, a sizable international hit group. It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane is a great song. The Ark broke up, but they got back together and they are still touring once in a while with a spectacular singer, Ola Salo, as a frontman. He’s been doing a lot of musicals as well. Sven remembers they had a summer house in a little city or rather a locality in Småland, where the band came from. It’s in the middle of nowhere by a lake. There, in an empty house, which you thought were empty, you could hear drums pounding, and it was The Ark rehearsing.

Sven and Per go back to the second biggest city of Sweden. Gothenburg is No. 1 in many ways though. Here comes another indie band from the early noughties, The Plan. There are so many fantastic artists coming out of Gothenburg. Starting when Per was a kid in the ’60s, they had Tages, one of the biggest bands in the ’60s in Sweden, coming from Gothenburg. The guys are playing Tages quite a lot, every time they get a chance. So The Plan is following their footsteps in a way. The song picked is Mon Amour from 2001. High energy, power pop. PG thinks the organ in the beginning is pretty cool, he loves it. Sven thinks it sounds a little bit like Per’s power pop band Gyllene Tider. Mr. G says, they all use these Italian organs. Haha.

For No. 26, the final song from the best of the noughties list so far, the guys go to Helsingborg. They picked Painted By Numbers by The Sounds. They had quite a big song in the States, Living In America. Painted By Numbers is taken from their second album, 2006. They have done some really amazing stuff over the years, PG thinks.

The Morning Show by Metro Jets, Big Big World by Emilia and Don’t Hate On Me by Vincent are played.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!