Interview with Mikael Bolyos about Marie Fredriksson’s upcoming live album release

On Friday, 6th December, a double vinyl live album (also available digitally!) of Marie Fredriksson’s last solo tour (Nu!) in Sweden will be released – ten years after the tour and almost to the day five years after she passed.

Former RoxBlog member Kirsten Ohlwein and Oliver Zimmerman thought we would all want to hear more about the release and that was reason enough to ask Marie’s husband Mikael Bolyos – who is behind the release – about the new and yet not so new album.

Kirsten Ohlwein: – Mikael, you can imagine that everyone is super excited about this release, it’s a dream come true. The last live album we got was “Äntligen”, which was 24 years ago. First of all, I am pretty sure many fans wonder: How are you doing these days? You know you are in the thoughts of many people out there who send you their best wishes and highest regards.

Mikael Bolyos: – That’s very kind of you, it’s touching and I really appreciate it! I am alright, thanks.

KO: It’s been ten years since the “Nu!” tour which we all loved and have the fondest memories about. Now it’s apparently time to release the live album. What has been the initial thought to look into the live recordings again and decide that the material is good enough to release it?

MB: – I always wanted to release a single, EP or even more songs from the concerts, and when I heard a video clip last summer, I decided to go through the concerts again.

KO: Can you tell us which shows have been recorded back then and why you picked Stockholm as the one to release?

MB: – We recorded every show in 2014. Christoffer and I went through all of them and realized that Marie and the band sounded so good at all of them, it was impossible to choose. The Stockholm concert took place at “Cirkus” which is a great venue, the crowd was very enthusiastic, and it was a magic night.

KO: How long did it take to go through the material again and when did you make the final decision to release the Stockholm show as an album?

MB: – I started to listen to the different concerts pre summer 2024. It took a couple of weeks and together with Christoffer Lundquist we decided that the Stockholm show had an energy that was impossible to ignore. Peter Domnérus at Cosmos Music (our record company) came up with that brilliant idea to release the whole concert on a double vinyl record.

KO:Were the moments when you went through the songs again when you thought: „Wow, this is much better than I remember it” or „why didn’t we do this earlier?”?

MB: – As you probably remember, Roxette started a world tour later the same year, 2014. Christoffer made some mixes already then, but we were all too busy to start the work with releasing anything from the “Nu!” tour. The Roxette tour went on until spring 2016, when Marie was too weak to continue. It was a very tough time for Marie and our family. And if this wasn’t enough, I had to do a heart surgery in 2017. I was recovering during 2018 and in 2019 as you know, Marie passed away.

The following years, I have been mourning. On 1st June this year I wrote to Christoffer and asked him to make a first brief mix of all of the songs, and in October we sat together in his AGM studio to do the mixes, and here we are now!

KO:How did the process of going through the tour material feel for you? I can imagine that it wasn’t the easiest thing to do for you and yet probably very warm and special as well?

MB: – It was many tears…

KO:What are your memories regarding that tour? What did you preserve from back then? Which one was your favourite song to play and what were your favourite moments?

MB: – It was a very special tour. Marie was so keen on doing the tour, she knew it was going to be her last Swedish tour, singing her own songs. Personally, I felt so good touring again, playing music in a band, consisting of friends. I always liked to play “Bara för en dag”, and “Efter stormen”, but my favourite moment was playing ”Så skimrande var aldrig havet”.

KO:You have been quite busy spoiling fans with unreleased stuff in the past years. Every now and then you find a song or a recording that gets to be released either in December or May. We are very grateful for that! Is there more to come in the future?

MB: – Sorry to say, but I don’t think so. This double LP will probably be Marie’s farewell.

Thank you so much for your time, Micke and thanks a lot for your interview, Kirsten!

Live från Cirkus is out on 6th December! The record is a beautiful 180-gram double vinyl in a gatefold edition, with a total run of 1,000 copies. You can order it at Bengans.

Tracklist

Side A

  1. Så stilla så långsamt
  2. Kom vila hos mig
  3. Bara för en dag
  4. Det regnar igen
  5. Sista sommarens vals

Side B

  1. Ber bara en gång
  2. Sparvöga
  3. Ett hus vid havet
  4. Ett bord i solen
  5. Så skimrande var aldrig havet

Side C

  1. Ännu doftar kärlek
  2. Så länge det lyser mittemot
  3. Om du såg mig nu
  4. Efter stormen

Side D

  1. Den sjunde vågen
  2. Mellan sommar och höst
  3. Den bästa dagen
  4. Tro

Marie’s tour: Uppsala audio bootleg

After Norrköping audio and Göteborg and Halmstad video bootlegs, another audio bootleg showed up from Uppsala (19th March 2014). The sound is low, so turn up the volume to hear it better. Thanks a lot for sharing it, Bianca Martins Cappelletti from Roxette Brasil! In audio bootlegs I always enjoy the talking between the songs the most. Click here for the bootleg.

2 shows left from the tour, Friday in Luleå and Saturday in Umeå. Enjoy the concerts you all who are joining!

MF_Stockholm_20140408

Marie’s tour: Västerås, 12th April #17

Yesterday Marie and the band rocked Västerås big time!

The first row was again mostly full of fans, but there were some also in the other rows, which probably helped to keep the mood happy and loud throughout the whole concert. Of course, the band was awesome and Marie was in a very good mood, so all this were the perfect ingredients that made the Swedes want to join the party. And they did already on song #2. After a few shows where we had to wait until towards the end to see some action, I was pretty surprised and felt so happy for the girl and boys on stage. They seemed to be happy with the response as well because they were all smiles, proud smiles.

Of course, Efter stormen was the song where really everybody (not only the fans) stood up and clapped and sang along, but you could see that in many other songs as well. Even the people at the balcony were standing and having fun, and Marie saw that and waved to them with a big smile. At some places we have seen skeptic or a bit angry faces when we stood up to some songs, but yesterday the audience seemed to like that. Like the 70-something ladies in the first row who had a blast; or the 4-6 Swedes that were sitting in row 2 who first looked shocked when we stood up but at the end thanked us in the first row for spreading the fun; or the two mid 50 ladies in the first row who were faster standing up than some of us!

The craziest rockiest song was Mellan sommar och höst. The audience was already standing up when Marie walked out to the stage again and everybody went wild with the amazing guitars and Marie’s rocky voice.

This concert was also the last one for many fans and Marie and band knew it, so they gave special attention to the ones on first row. Specially during Tro when everybody hugged and moved to the rythm of the song and many of us were all tears she gave those looks of hers to many of us. At the end, she also made sad faces to some of the fans she knew were saying goodbye to the tour yesterday night. It was not possible to  hold back the tears, it is actually also not possible as I am writing this now. It has been so special… the love tour 🙂

Some fans had prepared flowers and a card for Marie to thank her for the great tour. Many fans had signed it and Anne gave it to Chris at the end of the show. The fans who waited for Marie after the concert explained that Micke had thanked them for coming to the concerts and said that fans turned the tour to something completely different and special and he added that the reviews were all very good because of that.

By the way, Clarence was in the audience yesterday night.

So now it’s just 2 concerts left: Luleå and Umeå. Those who are going to the last shows will surely give our best and party until the end!

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]

Articles

VLT

Marie’s tour: Stockholm, 8th April #15

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

Per and Åsa at Cirkus - sorry for the bad quality pic... :)
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.


MF_CirkusOne 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]

Articles and photos
Gaffa.se
Svenska Dagbladet

Videos
Den sjunde vågen by Heartland Anne (4:13-4:16 Marie and a fan whistling were too cool 😉 )
Ett bord i solen & Så skimrande var aldrig havet by Heartland Anne