Per Gessle

Aftonbladet: Per Gessle on social media websites

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Jens Peterson, Aftonbladet’s journalist, did an extensive report from the Warsaw concert on 19th June this year. He has also interviewed Per Gessle about his plans around the current World Tour and attitude to social media websites like Facebook or Twitter. Here are the most interesting quotes:

Response from fans is huge. The films are viewed by between 70,000 and 100,000 people. We get 500-600 new friends on Facebook every day.

[Band and crew have wondered whether there is a risk to put out too much on Facebook, but] this fear I can give a shit about. If you like Roxette, you get information every day. And it’s fun to do it. I wonder what it would’ve been like if this was when I was growing up. When I loved David Bowie over everything else – just imagine I would have gotten so much information. Or Lennon.

Yes, I do [Facebook & Twitter] almost exclusively on computer. I have an iPhone at home. In Sweden, I use my iPhone and I surf on the net on the way from the airport. I spend quite a lot of time on computer every day.

[Being active in social media] is really unlike me, because I’m not super technical and not much interested in the web. I’m not interested in the media itself. But one must applaud YouTube.

It’s so easy [to film everything with an iPhone]. I film a lot and choose the best clips. There may be two or twenty movies a day.

I do not think so [I use Facebook and Twitter more than traditional media], but I’m doing as little press as possible. I have seen how journalists in the Czech Republic and Spain built articles they write on the facts from our Facebook page.

The successes of the first half of the tour means that Roxette will be travelling with a larger stage and more equipment. We need to improve it a bit for the autumn tour.

Source: Aftonbladet

Roxette will be on tour until August 2012; 50 concerts done, 80 to go!

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Per Gessle reveals in an interview with Hallands Posten that “after Göteborg [concert #50], we still have 80 concerts to go”. The tour will go on until August 2012.  “As soon as we leave a city, the tour promoter wants to book us again, which is the best feedback one can get”, tells Per to Jan-Owe Wikström.

Per also comments on the success of “Radio” on the radio, “we’ve never been played on the radio as much as nowadays.” And it is specially thanks to Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe, “where we are very successful.”

Per also says that he thinks Marie is in a great shape. “Last week in Locarno was the best I’ve seen of her since, right, the 90ies”, says Per.

As we know, the band is working on a new album, “2rism”. They have already recorded 5 songs and have booked more studios around the world.

“Charm School” has sold half a million copies, which indeed is great nowadays.

Some thoughts about the tour dates.

  1. So far they have done 50 concerts.
  2. Per says they still have 80 to go, and until August 2012.
  3. Of these 80, we know already 23 of the dates (July until December 2011).
  4. This means there are 57 (if the 80 is a fix number and not just estimation) dates still unknown.
  5. Conclusion: save the whole 2012 for more! 🙂

Thank you Thomas from Sweden for the link!

Per Gessle reveals to Expressen: Roxette is recording a new album

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Roxette is already underway with recording a new album. At the same time the band’s successful World Tour that began earlier this year will extend – and continue throughout most of 2012.
(p) Lionel Zaragocin
– We’ve already started recording new songs for our next album which will be a continuation on “Tourism”, says Per Gessle.

Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson and the rest of the “new” Roxette has received a nine-day vacation from the hectic tour. Expressen met Per Gessle related with the opening of photography exhibition with Terry O’Neill’s classic 1960s images of Tres Hombres Art in Tylösand.

– Some concerts are like a big karaoke-show, the audience sings along, all the time, says Per’s wife Åsa has been for most of the tour.

– I and MP were in the studio in Halmstad yesterday and wrote a new song, Per reveals. – New album is being recorded during this tour, in local studios and during the soundcheck. Just as the “Tourism” from 1992. All material is new. Working title is now “2Rism”

(c) ExpressenPer found a part of previously unreleased recordings. – Here are the songs with young Marie, before she became ill. We will use the song and record new backgrounds. Like Stones did when they found some leftover from the cult classic “Exile on Main Street” and Springsteen’s “forgotten” recordings of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” that was released as “The Promise”.

– These successes are pure bonus for us, that we had not counted on. We cannot compete with today’s artists like Lady Gaga and other pop based on beats, arrangements and a visual idea. It is not easy to do powerpop 2011. Yet we have just played for almost half a million people. When the tour is complete, we will reach 1.3 million.

Source: Expressen

Thanks to Emilio Gimenez Bahl for the picture.

New album sets from Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle and Gyllene Tider

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As you may know from The Daily Roxette article, EMI Music Sweden is going to release the box sets with the orginal, mostly Swedish albums of Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle and Gyllene Tider on August 17th.

Ginza.se has recently revealed the covers of the first two album sets (Marie & Per) and tracklisting for both. Looking at the price it is very likely that these albums will be released in cardboard sleeves with no booklet inside. There are no bonus tracks either.

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