Per Gessle

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are back on Nordic Rox with another trip down memory lane with the Swedish best of the ’80s list and they are going to check out positions No. 15 to 11. But before that, they have some friends back in action. The Hives just presented their first single Enough Is Enough from their upcoming album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives and Per thinks it’s a killer.

Mercy by Goldielocks from Finland (nowadays based in Berlin) comes after The Hives. Then the next song is Mon Amour by Swedish band The Plan. It’s from their debut album from 2001, only 24 years ago.

The following track is a song that Per discovered on an old LP from 1970 or so. PG had this in his record collection when he was a kid. This is a Swedish cover of an old Bobbie Gentry song called Fancy. Per doesn’t know if lots of people have heard this one, but it was quite a big country hit for Reba McEntire. This version has always been very dear to Per. He thinks it’s a fantastic vocal performance by Lotta Hedlund. Sven adds, Charlotte Butler came from the States and fell in love with the Swedish pop singer Sven Hedlund. Per says they became a duo and this is from their debut album. The album is called Compromise. Mr. G thinks there are some American session players playing on it, as well as some Swedish guys, because it doesn’t really sound Swedish. It’s a really wonderful record. Here they play Fancy by Svenne & Lotta.

Killer, the new single from Danish duo The Raveonettes comes next. Per thinks it has a great sound and they always sound really interesting. Sven thinks there are wonderful harmony vocals there as well.

Before getting down to the ’80s list, the guys play a song that made Roxette a brand new action name in Sweden. The first single was Neverending Love. It came out in 1986, almost 40 years ago. Per wrote a song in Swedish for another Swedish artist. Her record label turned it down, so someone at Per’s record label asked him why he doesn’t write an English lyric to it and make a record with Marie Fredriksson. Per had been talking about Marie for many, many years, he wanted to work with her, of course. So he did. They recorded a demo and people loved it. Then they made a proper recording of it and it became a big hit for them in the summer of ’86. It eventually became the lead single of Roxette’s debut album. It all went very fast. The first album they made consisted of tracks Per wrote in Swedish. He basically just translated them into English, because he didn’t have any time to write new songs. Those were intended for a solo album. Sven says he doesn’t think this song is played that much on American radio. Per says, no, thank God. Haha. Sven adds this is the origin of the Roxette career, the kickoff that made everything else possible.

Don’t Go Away by The Creeps is No. 15 on the ’80s list.

At No. 14 they have a Swedish band from Norrköping called Eldkvarn. They were really big in the early ’80s. They were one of those bands that tried to sound a little bit like Springsteen and Dylan, influenced by the new wave and they listened to Costello as well. It’s actually hard to find someone they didn’t listen to. The guys play one of their most famous tracks from the early years, 3:ans spårvagn genom ljuva livet. It’s a bit hard to translate. It’s like Tram No. 3 goes through la dolce vita, the good life. It’s a beautiful sound from 1981. Sven thinks it’s a great track and a great band. They ended up on EMI, later produced by producer Kjell Andersson who discovered Per’s band, Gyllene Tider. Per says it’s a small world in Sweden.

The next band discovered a bigger world than most Swedish bands. The track is called Lay All Your Love On Me, a great track from the album called Super Trooper. And it’s, of course, ABBA the guys are talking about at No. 13. There are several chapters in the ABBA history. When they started out, it was more like a europop thing and then it became Voulez-Vous, and Super Trooper became a little bit more danceable and disco. So this is like the later part. Super Trooper is a wonderful album, PG thinks and ABBA is a fantastic little group.

No. 12 is a power pop band from the city of Halmstad on the west coast in Sweden. The band was formed by a guy called Per Gessle. Per says he knows that guy. Haha. The song is from 1981. Moderna Tider (Modern Times) was a big album for them, PG adds. The song was picked by Sven. It was not a single, it’s an album track, but it’s a song that has been with the band ever since. They play it a lot when they are doing their shows, which is not that often. Haha. Sven says Gyllene Tider has announced that they are packing up and retiring a couple of times only to come back when you least expect it. Haha. Per says they are like a ghost. What Sven likes about Det hjärta som brinner (The heart that burns) is that it’s wonderfully new wave-ish, power pop-ish and it has some elements of early Tom Petty. That’s probably because he knows they listened to a lot of Tom Petty. PG thinks the early Gyllene Tider stuff is pretty nice. It’s a little soft for his taste. They didn’t really know how to make it rough enough in those days, and their producer didn’t know it either. So this song became a little bit soft, but it’s got a good heart. Sven says it’s a cute track.

At position No. 11, there is a wonderful artist called Jakob Hellman. He released his debut album in 1989 and then he won all the Grammys in Sweden. It was such a big success, a sensation. Then he took a 32-year break, and then he came back. The writer’s block lasted 32 years. That’s heavy, but he probably had his reasons. His debut album is really wonderful, and it’s really hard to pick a song from there. But the guys have chosen their favourite track called Hon har ett sätt (She’s got a way). It’s not just the melody, it’s also the way he is twisting the lyrics, which at the time felt really fresh and innovative, and it still does. It has a great sound and a great production by Dan Sundquist.

In the last section of Nordic Rox, Whistleblower by The Men and I Used To Be A Real Piece Of Shit by Sløtface are played. All Day by Noak Hellsing is wrapping up this episode.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and 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!

Nordic Rox is back on the air again and Sven and Per are ready to continue the Swedish ’80s list. The guys are sitting in Stockholm for a change. Normally, they record in Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, but today they moved up to Stockholm. Sven says it’s good to be here sometimes, not too often. Per says Sven is such a small town boy. Haha.

They are going to check out the Swedish ’80s list from position 20 to 16, but before they dig deep into that, they are playing some real hard-hitting Swedish garage rock. Per introduces the first song, Something Wicked by The Teenage Idols and asks the listeners to check out this guitar sound.

Gemini by Johnossi feat. GERD comes next. It’s a duet and they recorded this one for their album last year. Making a duet is a good idea, Per says. It’s a great song, he likes it a lot. It’s very nice.

Blow My Cool by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives is the third song played. It’s from their 1996 debut album, Welcome To The Infant Freebase. Sven says it was a jam-packed CD. It was a very long, but a very good CD with lots of great songs, Per says. It was a very promising first album and they fulfilled that promise with a lot of great albums and many great songs, Sven adds. According to PG, they are one of the best bands ever in Sweden. Sven agrees. The singer Ebbot Lundberg played in Union Carbide Productions, another band, a sort of punkish band. They had broken up, but he had written a lot of songs. Then he got the band Soundtrack together, and band members came up with songs as well. So he had between 60 and 70 songs for the debut album. They went to the record company and said, you know, we want to record everything and release our debut CD box. 70 songs. But in the end, they made a debut CD, which is 70 minutes long. It’s like a double album and it includes only 20 songs. Haha. It’s a good band.

The guys are talking about an article that Per read from a well-known music journalist saying that the guitars are coming back into pop music. He welcomes that. If there was a band thing happening in pop music, that would be fantastic. People playing the same song together at the same time. How about that? Haha.

The ’80s list is approaching with record speed, but before that, they play Canine Prey by Tapefly.

Then comes One Track Mind by The Facer, a crazy sound from 2000. It’s 25 years ago, Jesus Christ. Time flies when you’re having fun. That’s modern music compared to the ’80s list.

The guys are at No. 20 and they picked a song from X Models. A great track that was all over Swedish radio in the early ’80s. 1981, just when the digital thing happened and people started using drum machines and stuff like that. This was a number one song for a very long time. The singer is Efva Attling who nowadays is a very famous jewelry designer. Back then she was an ex photo model. The band was label mates with Per’s power pop band. They were at EMI Records. Per adds that this song was produced by Lasse Lindbom who was also producing PG’s band, Gyllene Tider and who eventually became the boyfriend to Marie Fredriksson in Roxette. He produced Marie’s solo albums in the ’80s as well, so there is a lot of common ground there. Två av oss by X Models is a big hit from 1981. It translates into Two Of Us.

Moving to No. 19, we find Marie Fredriksson on the list with Ännu doftar kärlek. A familiar voice, Per says. Marie, of course, was the singer in Roxette. This is her breakthrough song, her first big hit in the ’80s, 1984, taken from her debut solo album. It’s still her biggest song as a solo artist. Mr. G thinks it’s a wonderful little song and it made Marie a big star immediately. There are a lot of cover versions of this one. Sven says, the funny thing is, even though it wasn’t funny in those years, that Marie’s star was rising as Per’s was going down. Per lost his recording contract in 1985. When they started Roxette in 1986, PG was the underdog. Five years earlier it was the opposite, Sven says. Mr. G says that’s how it works in life. Anyway, talking about Ännu doftar kärlek, Per still thinks it’s a really beautiful melody and a beautiful lyric and it’s always a treat to hear Marie singing.

At the next position the guys are playing a great Swedish female artist called Titiyo. Talking To The Man In The Moon was a very big song in 1989. It was produced and written by Magnus Frykberg, who was a percussionist and also, Per guesses, the boyfriend of Titiyo. He did a great job on that song. It’s a great track. Original. It occupied the airwaves in Sweden. Titiyo is the half-sister of Neneh Cherry. She has been around forever and she had a really big song called Come Along in 2001. That’s her biggest track and she is a great singer. Sven agrees.

At No. 17 the guys are changing direction a bit, because they are going back to Swedish ’80s garage rock. The prime movers back in those days, Sven thinks, were The Nomads. Per says it’s a great band and he thinks the song is from 1984. Sven says he hates to correct Per, but it’s 1983. PG says Sven is always welcome to correct him. Haha. The Nomads made an album called Temptation Pays Double and this song is called Where The Wolf Bane Blooms. It’s an outstanding track in PG’s book.

No. 16 is Himlen är oskyldigt blå by an amazing artist who is unfortunately not with us anymore. Ted Gärdestad was an amazing composer who was huge in the ’70s. His brother wrote the lyrics to this song and it was released in 1980, that’s why it fit into this list. The title translates into The Sky Is Innocent Blue. It’s actually a Swedish translation of an English song that he made in 1979. The original was called Blue Virgin Isles. It’s really beautiful. Per thinks Ted’s sense of melodies is outstanding. He was 15 or so when he had his breakthrough. He was just one of a kind. He was produced by Björn and Benny from ABBA, so he was in good hands and an amazing talent.

Nordic Rox continues with great style, Sven says. A Roxette song sneaked in here from the Room Service album 2001. It’s the last song on the album My World, My Love, My Life.

This Perfect Day by Fishtank is wrapping up today’s Nordic Rox and 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!