Per Gessle – En vacker kväll in Fredrikstad, Norway – 23rd July 2017 – #9

The 9th show on tour was a festival gig in Norway, the first concert outside Sweden. A handful of hardcore fans decided to go and see Per and the band there too and what a good decision they made! The gig turned out to be even more wonderful than the one in Gothenburg. Honestly, when you think Mr. G and his gang can’t surprise you with an even better show than what you had already experienced, they just do. And this coming on a 3rd day in a row when they have no days off, just gig after gig. Fantastic! They rule!

The festival crowd seemed to be in great party mood already before Per & Co came up on stage, so it was predictable they would be a loud audience for the main act too. Loud? It’s not even the right word to describe them. Ass-kicking crowd for an ass-kicking band. People cheering during the whole show, singing along all the time and clapping, whistling, dancing, jumping, whatever you can imagine.

There were several memorable moments at the concert, but just to highlight some most fab ones, I mention 2.

This was the first time Chris didn’t play a Per-song-related intro before The Look. He played In the Hall of the Mountain King (he played this as intro to Joyride already in 2011 when Roxette had a tour stop in Norway). Before he could start playing, the crowd was so loud he had to tell them ”Shhhhhhh!” Haha. Too cool!

After Sommartider, before Per could start performing Småstadsprat, the audience went ”oh-oh-oh-oh-oh”. Such a great crowd reaction, such a sweet acceptance of love from Per and the band! Watch it HERE! Says it all how the whole Månefestivalen gig was! Pure awesomeness!

Still is from Üli Car’s VIDEO of those magical oh-oh-oh-oh-oh moments!

Per’s most enthusiastic comment after a show on this tour so far:

FREDRIKSTAD, NORWAY JULY 23, 2017! Hallelujah! My Gosh what a gig. Slightly shorter version due to it being a festival but HOLY COW what a crowd! We love you! Thanx for singing along and making our lives exploding with joy! Been riding on the tour bus three hours now and we still talk about you!!! Lots of love + see ya soon!!!! /P.

   

All photos in the article are taken by Sandra Knospe, except for the still from Üli Car’s video. Thanx so much for your cooperation, girls!

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. Honung och guld
8. Kung av sand
9. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
10. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
11. Spegelboll
12. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
13. The Look (with In the Hall of the Mountain King as intro)

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

Encore 2:
17. Sommartider
18. Småstadsprat

Videos:

Juni, juli, augusti: 1; 2;
Det hjärta som brinner
It Must Have Been Love
Chris playing the intro to The Look & The Look
The Look
Tycker om när du tar på mej
Joyride
Sommartider: 1; 2; 3; 4;
Don’t miss out on Per’s before-the-show backstage videos on his YouTube channel either! 1; 2; 3; 4;

Articles, pictures:

Fredrikstad Avisa
Månefestivalen FB: 1; 2;
Gaffa
Fredrikstad Blad (for subscribers only); this one is not only for subscribers
Ringdalen
Artist Pictures Blog
Photo Lasse Ljung

 

Roxette XXX Tour – Drammen, Norway (Elvefestivalen) – August 22 – #61

Judith: Since it was a special show for us and there is so much to tell… we decided to write this review together. So please bear with us. It may be a bit longer than usual. 😉

PP: The last show of the European tour leg was a festival gig in Drammen, Norway. We were all afraid of having a very short concert because of other artists also being present at the festival, even after the main act, Roxette, but fortunately, the organizers arranged 2 stages and so the concerts right before and right after our band were at another stage. This way there was no need to hurry with building and getting down the stage, so the setlist wasn’t shortened. Only The Heart Shaped Sea was missing, but we got used to it during other festival shows.

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It Must Have Been Love kick-off – Pic by Patrícia Peres

Judith: Also it was about a month I had seen them in Rättvik and there had been just 2 shows since then (Faroe and Vasa) so I wondered how they would be after a “break” or bigger breaks in between. The weeks before we realised many fans were travelling to the ‘last’ show so I was sure it would be a party.

PP: It’s also a rare occasion when at least 3/5 of the RXB Team is there at the same show. This time Judith, Tomasz and me were there to eye- and ear-witness the last European gig and – together with the rest of the whole crowd – we were all blown away by what we saw and heard. It was a perfect ending of this tour leg.

Judith: I didn’t know what to expect, maybe just a great Rox concert as always. But surely not what we experienced. It is hard to find words for it. I felt like at my first Rox concert in Barcelona 1994, an incredible energy but transmitted in a different way. This is probably my #1 of this tour, even though all the others I saw were amazing. Hard to choose, but no need to really. Just need to think of the great memories I am taking home.

WAITING TIME

Judith: The usual suspects were there very early at the main entrance and started the numbering system, which worked very well (except for two Swedes who didn’t want to be nice but well, there is always that one…). It worked fine in the end for the rest, but one cannot help and wonder why? Was that necessary?

PP: The local newspaper soon got to know about what was going on and went to interview those fans who had been there already from the early morning.

Judith: The reporter was very interested in our story, how many shows we had seen, where we come from, how long have we known each other, how do we pay for all the trips, and when she saw the chickens she wondered about them too (watch out for them on videos and more). She wrote a nice piece in the end, I think.

PP: The article with photos was published not much later as we got to know from Polish-Roxer-living-in-Norway Magda Kulinska and during the day those who read it came to ask if we knew how famous we got and that the local media was full of the Roxers. Haha. Surprise, surprise.

This time the waiting period included some creative preparations, too. Some days before the show Judith came up with the idea if we should do something special during the show, since it was the last one for a while. Soon it got decided that it’s actually a huge thank you we want to say to Roxette for this amazing European tour, so we decided for writing ”thank you” on paper in different languages. Thanks for the blue and yellow paper support to Basia Konarzewska. Besides thank you, tack, gracias etc., some fans got more ideas to put on paper. There were many questions from those passing by, who certainly hadn’t read the news and had no clue about who was playing in Drammen that night. They asked why we were there, what band were had been waiting for, etc. When we said it was all about Roxette, they found it cool and showed thumbs up.

Judith: Since everybody passing by was looking and we were working on the signs, I just joked maybe we should put up a sign to ask people passing by to support the next tour. Mind you it was a joke…

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Marie all smiles – Pic by Patrícia Peres

PP: Paula Cafiero Högström and Christina Tholander identified themselves with the idea and thought these people might be kind enough to help them and decided to put out the chickens (“Poshos” which is how Argentinians pronounce pollos = chicken) they usually bring to the shows and wrote “Support the next tour” on a paper. They even had a hat for collecting the money, but well, they surely won’t get to another continent from the money collected. It was of course just for fun and we had a good laugh. Álex Usero was very much into Per’s guitar picks, so he created several asking-for-a-PG-pick papers. They looked quite cool including pick drawings and saying ”throw me a pick”. One of them you can see at this link. There were several other short texts, like Marie’s name in a heart, ”Magnus = sex machine”; ”Pelle, I’m in room 69”; ”Per you look great” and ”Per you look sexy” among others. We thought for a last show it could be fun to hold up these papers. Later we tell you how these signs worked.

Judith: Don’t forget the “Pelle = såååå snygg!” one. It was surely fun to make the signs. I think I had never had so much fun waiting at a queue (which I don’t do often…).

PP: The organizers and the security team were very kind and understanding, so they supported us with letting us in a bit earlier to be able to reach our most beloved spots in the front. Huge thanks to them again. Unbelievable that the staff can be so cooperative in another country as well, not only in Sweden.

Judith: Indeed. They were very surprised when they found out about the numbers and saw that we were just sitting there having fun while waiting and not causing any problems. So they helped us back too.

THE BAND BEFORE ROXETTE

PP: No Eskobar, no mix tape. Too cruel this world is. We better don’t even talk about the band that played on the same stage where Roxette performed later. After we got inside the festival area, it was a Norwegian band’s, Razika’s turn to entertain us from 18:45. They looked and sounded like a beginner school band. Vocally and musically they were a bit too far from what we, spoiled Roxers got used to. So most of us were quite happy when they left the stage. At the same time I must admit, there were some locals who could sing along and dance. OK, we had worse before.

Judith: I missed Eskobar too! I danced and clapped with Razika because the tunes weren’t that bad. And I always think… it must be weird to stand on a stage in front of  people with poker faces… and I was way too nervous. I needed to get myself busy somehow.

PREPARING THE STAGE FOR ROXETTE

roxette_in_drammen_03
She rox! – Pic by Patrícia Peres

PP: Already when we took a walk around the festival area we realized that not only the stage was very small, but also the place for the crowd. Everything was so close to us. There was only the main stage, no front part where usually Per and Chris are doing their guitar fights. Both Pelle’s drum set and Clarence’s keyboards were set much closer to us, they weren’t placed as much in the back as normally. It was only when Marie’s chair and mic stand, as well as the heater, plus Per’s mic stand were put to their places we realized how close they would be to us. It was only 2-3 meters between Marie & Per and the front row.

Judith: That didn’t make us feel calmer, did it? The whole thing was getting better and better! Funny how we all felt so excited as if we had never seen Rox live before! And that it was common, not just me.

PP: This time Micke N-S, Per’s technician wasn’t there, so Micke Lindström prepared the guitars and plectrums for Per. Besides the red acoustic picks, the white Touched by the hand of Per and the white Pop til you drop picks were put on the stand. By the time the stage was ready, we were all too excited. We couldn’t really explain why, but it felt completely the same as if it was the first show. Strange that most of us, coming from different countries (Germany, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, the UK, Finland, Sweden, Norway, etc.) seeing the band at several shows during this tour, all felt the same ROXcitement. It was harder and harder to wait for the show to begin.

ROXETTE, THE MAIN ACT

PP: When the band came to the stage, the crowd went wild and screamed and shouted already during the intro. Then they started playing Sleeping In My Car and no one could stop us anymore.

Marie recognized many familiar faces in the front during The Big L. and she waved to them. She was all smiles during the whole show and you could see she had so much energy she could be touring forever. She was acting a lot, her gestures were priceless and her facial expressions, too. Her voice charmed us again. And again. And again. She’s the top she’s got the world on a string, she makes us boogie makes us do anything. Yea yea.

Judith: It is just incredible to see. For us who saw the first shows in Milan or Barcelona. And even in the middle of the tour. So much energy! It is really hard to describe, but anyone who knows Marie probably knows what we mean. But this goes for the others too. It felt like a magical interaction with everybody, everywhere you looked you could see happy faces all around. Biig biiig smiles! Our belly and face muscles felt sore afterwards of so much laughing/smiling.

roxette_in_drammen_06
Mental hospital at its best! Woohoo! – Pic by Patrícia Peres

PP: Mister Duracell Bunny Per didn’t have much space to bounce around on this very small stage, but he found the way to let his incredible amount of energy spread. He did more circles and more Gessle choreography including new moves even. Killer moves, killer voice, killer guitar-playing. What else could you ask for? Eye contact! We got that, too! On a side note, Per’s black nail polish disappeared. Whatever happened to it.

In between the songs they talked in Swedish, just like on their Trondheim concert. Norwegian and Swedish are very close, so they can understand each other’s languages very well.

Before playing Crush On You, the chat between Per and Magnus started the same way as usual, Per mentioning Magnus’s fave Rox album is not Look Sharp! or Joyride, but Have A Nice Day. Magnus being a better actor and more of a stand-up comedy guy, this time he didn’t reply his all time fave Roxette album is Baladas en español, but he was joking it’s ”High Over The Borderline”, a common album of Roxette and A-ha which had Marie and Morten on the front and Per, Magne and Paul on its backside.

Before the show started, with Mariana Gumuzio we decided that if Per appears on stage in white, we put up our signs already at the beginning of the concert, but if not, then it’s Crush On You when we should use them. So the song started and we held up our signs. Mariana got ”Per you look great”, which Per recognized and smiled at it and I got ”Per you look sexy”, which was recognized by Åsa and she showed thumbs up for that and even filmed it. Let’s see if Per feels sexy enough to post that video. 😉 Anyway, always nice to see a proud wife how Åsa is of his hot man. She shot a lot of videos again and while shooting she was singing along and even dancing a bit. She’s too cool!

Watercolours In The Rain / Paint sounded awesome in Drammen. Actually, was there any city where it didn’t sound awesome? Marie and Dea = a wonderful combo. They got a very loud applause and screams from the crowd.

The audience got into complete party mood after Fading Like A Flower. How Do You Do! made people jump and dance even more. It Must Have Been Love without a doubt was huge and the crowd sing-along was wonderful.

Judith: I love this part. Like I mentioned in another of the reviews, I think the setlist is perfect. It just flows. And when FLAF starts it’s like a sing-along crazy party until the end with The Look. It feels like first one is building up expectation for Watercolours/Paint and enjoy Marie’s and Dea’s wonderful performance. And then the excitement starts again towards The Look. During HDYD! some of us wore funky hats and the chickens. Marie couldn’t help laughing and trying not to look at us and concentrate. At the end of the song she couldn’t help it and just laughed.

roxette_in_drammen_04
They’ve got the look! – Pic by Patrícia Peres

PP: During Dressed For Success / Dangerous something happened to Per’s guitar, because he started playing the one he usually uses for these songs, but at one moment I just realized he was playing the one he uses for Crush On You and She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio). I couldn’t see when he changed the guitars though, but something must have gone wrong.

After these 2 songs, before Joyride there was the band presentation, but this time Chris didn’t play a local song. Magnus talked about BoJo having his 60th birthday (on 23rd August) and asked him to come up to the stage. At the same time we were getting prepared for Joyride with blowing up the balloons, so even that fitted. Bo came and they played ”happy birthday to you” and all on and off the stage were singing happy birthday to him. He was very touched and this happening almost got him into tears. He’s THE MAN! The ”birthday party” video you can watch here! We all love it when something really spontaneous is happening at a Roxette show.

Judith: Marie and a few others also sang Hurra! Hurra! Hurra! typical for birthdays in Sweden, but I think not many heard it/joined as BoJo was already leaving and Joyride getting started.

roxette_in_drammen_05
Yeah, yeah, yeah! – Pic by Patrícia Peres

PP: So the balloons (yellow and blue – thanks to Basia Konarzewska) were ready to be released and we let them fly not much later. They looked fab! Lots of them landed on the stage though, so there wasn’t too many left in the air to play with until the song ended. Those that landed on the stage rested mainly around Marie. While Per was bouncing from one side of the stage to the other he even hit one of them with his guitar while playing and Chris and Dea tried to push the balloons back to us, without much success. One blue and one yellow balloon got stuck right at Marie’s heater, the rest on the stage was removed during the break before the extras.

The crowd wanted Marie and Per and the rest of the gang back on stage and when they came and started playing Listen To Your Heart, we held up our ”thank you” signs. See it in this video. It looked great and they recognized the ocean of thanx signs and smiled. Marie even mimed ”thank you” to us. How lovely! Åsa filmed the signs a lot, so hopefully, at least one video of this will end up on Roxette’s Facebook page.

After LTYH only The Look left. A mind-blowing version. During the nananananas Per sat down a bit on the speaker on the right side of the stage. It was funny. Marie was again singing a bit of ”you’ve got the look” while pointing at fans. And we all pointed at her. She’s got the look.

It was very hard to let them go. A last European bow, a last European walking off, but turning around before leaving the stage. Too emotional. But we all know, it all begins where it ends. Soon more fun is waiting on other continents. Watch the last goodbye here.

Judith: It felt strange after they had left. It may be the first time that many of us haven’t planned anything for the next time. Many are waiting for USA/Canada or South America to be announced to decide what to do. A few have already started to plan South Africa… Some are waiting for more Europe in 2016…

AFTER THE SHOW

PP: We all wanted to say thank you for an amazing tour leg and a perfect ending to it, so after the show we went to the back entrance and waited for the band to come out. They certainly celebrated a bit more backstage before they go on a longer tour break. Probably, BoJo’s birthday, as well as the successful European tour leg, so it took a while until they came out and we could tell them how much we loved the tour. First came the band, then came Per and Marie was the last. Per took his time and signed many autographs and he was also kind enough to let us take pictures with him. He was still in a great mood and relaxed. Marie came out with BoJo and we applauded her. She was also still in a smiling mood and she was waving to us while getting into the car.

After they left, it was time for the fans to say goodbye to each other, wondering which show is the next we will meet. For some it’s going to be South Africa and probably another continent for others. But we meet soon, that’s for sure.

Judith: It was the perfect ending to an incredible Euro-tour and amazing last concert. It just felt right to say bye and most important, say thanks for all these special moments and memories. There are some things coming up now. Marie’s book, the new single/album, this collaboration with Sebastien Drums and who knows what else…

roxette_in_drammen_07   roxette_in_drammen_08

The last European goodbye… for a while – Pics by Patrícia Peres

 

Per’s lovely update after the show:

DRAMMEN, NORWAY UPDATE: Truly magnificent gig in this amazing town. Beautiful summer evening and loads of party people everywhere. Thanks for making this “the last show in Europe for a while” happening big time. We had a blast, the band is really really tight now, everything works like clockwork, it’s such a pleasure to play together!!!

We even managed to bring the great BoJo on stage (he’s 60 tomorrow). Thanx for singing Happy Birthday for him, he’ll never admit it but he loved it!!!!

Vids by Åsa to follow tomorrow! Cheers everyone. /P.

Now comes a longer tour break and Roxette then further celebrates the 30th anniversary in style. Next stop is Johannesburg, South Africa on 31st January 2016.

 

Articles and photos

drm24.no
dt.no (only for subscribers); another dt.no
Meet the hardcores and hear them singing How Do You Do! to the local paper
Drammen Elvefestival; FB page

Videos

part of Spending My Time and Crash! Boom Bang!
Fading Like A Flower
Joyride
Listen To Your Heart & The Look & the goodbye

 

Setlist

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We usually don’t get to see the setlist before the show, but this time one copy was set to a quite visible place – Pic by Patrícia Peres

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

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Roxette XXX Tour – Trondheim, Norway (Sverresborg Arena) – June 13 – #37

Tickets for Roxette’s 37th show of the XXX tour went on sale mid November last year. They were selling like hot cakes and the concert was sold out already on 1st January. So tonight, after having an almost 2-week-long tour break, the band performed in front of 10,000 people who had a picturesque view.

It was quite cold, so Marie dressed up warmly. She even had a pair of cool-looking gloves on. There were 2 heaters on stage for her and they looked more modern and probably worked better than the one in Denmark 3 weeks ago. Marie had an ear-to-ear smile on her face during the whole show, tapping the rhythm on her legs. She enjoyed the gig to the full.

Despite the fact that it was an open-air show and you would have expected Per following the routine of wearing his white outfit, he left it at home and was wearing some new black shirts instead. They have the same design with PER, ROX, XXX on the sleeve as the white set. PG was very energetic and he was even acting a bit with the camera when Åsa was filming him.

The whole band was in top shape and they did their best to animate the crowd. There were hardly any familiar faces in the front row or better said, in the whole crowd at all. People in the audience didn’t really realize they wouldn’t be freezing if they were jumping more, but they proved they knew the lyrics to all the hits and used their hands for clapping along.

Since Swedish is very similar to Norwegian and vice versa, both Marie and Per used Swedish when they were talking to the crowd.

Per’s comment after the show:

TRONDHEIM UPDATE: Truly fab sold out (10.000+) gig tonite in this beautiful town. Band in top shape after two weeks of moonshining and jailbreaks and Miss Effe blessed us with her golden voice for 90 adorable minutes. All set in this wonderful venue under the (almost) midnight sun (yea, I know – it’s not really the m.s. but it’s so light outside it’s hard to imagine unless you’re here…). Thanx everyone for showing up. Can we come back, please? /P.

Next gig is on Monday (15th June) in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15;

adressa.no:

dagbladet.no
nidarosfoto.no

Videos

The Look

Instavideos:
Spending My Time 1; 2
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Setlist

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)
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Thanx for the setlist confirmation to Daniel Herden!

Roxette XXX-Tour: another date in Norway!

rxno2Roxette will play at the 20th edition of the Elvefestival in Drammen, Norway, on August 22nd, 2015.

Tickets for the festival, which takes place between August 21st and August 23rd, can be bought at billetservice.no starting on Friday, Feb 6th. The ticket for Saturday, the day Roxette will perform, costs 585 NOK and the festival pass for two days 715 NOK. Roxette is the only known artist so far, further artists will be announced soon(ish).

Drammen is just about 45 minutes from Oslo, and it’s on a Saturday, so not many excuses not to go there, huh?

 

 

Would it be fun to have Roxette concerts on USB stix?

We already informed you about Roxette’s one and only Norway concert in 2015 being sold out. When I was checking the organizer’s Facebook site, I saw an interesting thing. Roxette’s concert is on 13th June in Trondheim and Mark Knopfler plays there one day before them. This fact is not quite interesting, but I realized Mark Knopfler records all his shows and gives the fans the opportunity to purchase high-quality, live soundboard recordings of every show on a guitar-shaped USB stick or as mp3 / FLAC download. Digging deeper in this topic, many more artists are providing such a treat.

This USB stick doesn't exist. It's just an illustration.
This USB stick doesn’t exist. It’s just an illustration.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have the professional sound recordings of the concert(s) you attend during the XXX tour? Since Roxette play 100% live, each concert is very much different to the others, even if the setlist doesn’t change much or not at all from one concert to another. On one hand, all concerts are most probably recorded anyway, so it would be just a nice extra to copy them on some sticks and provide Roxers with the possibility to buy them. On the other hand, Chris wouldn’t have the chance to mix all concerts one by one since it would be simply too much and maybe the PERfectionists they are, it wouldn’t feel comfortable for them to release such sticks.

Either way, let’s play with the thought it’s possible. Let us know about your opinion!

 

[yop_poll id=”19″]

 

The tour goes on in 18 days! Either we get live recordings or not, we are looking very much forward to all 2015 shows and more!