Per Gessle

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström are back to Sirius XM with the second part of their ’70s countdown on the August episode of Nordic Rox.

Before the guys get down to those 5 great songs from the ’70s, they stay in present tense and play Fire In Cairo, a new track by The Hellacopters. A wonderful song according to PG.

The next one is Black Hole by Edith Backlund. Per loves this song. It came out appr. 10 years ago. Then comes Send Her My Love by Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker. Sven thinks it’s a great band name and Per agrees it’s a wonderful one, but he doesn’t know anything about Robert Pehrsson and his Humbucker. It sounds great, Mr. G likes it. Sven found this song on a list of Swedish garage rock.

The guys start talking about Gyllene Tider – Per says he knows those guys, haha. It’s Per’s power pop band from Halmstad. PG says they started off in 1978 and in 1979 they had their breakthrough. Sven says they made a major impact in Sweden in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and around 1983 they were ready to conquer the world. Per says he did his first solo album in 1983 while the other guys in the band did their military service. The band had a comeback and they made an English album called The Heartland Café that came out in 1984. It’s not the best album in the world, PG says, but what’s interesting is that there is one track that was pretty popular called Break Another Heart. That was the first time where Per worked with Marie Fredriksson who he eventually formed Roxette with. Sven says it was released in the States and they used the name Roxette, so this is actually a teaser of what would become Roxette five years later. Per confirms, the first version of Roxette was actually these five guys. The album came out on Capitol Records in 1984. It sold about 225 copies, Sven adds. The guys are laughing. It didn’t sell that much. Per remembers going to Los Angeles and he went to Tower Records on Sunset and they had their own little section next to Roxy Music. PG thought it was so cool. Then the band split up and he started Roxette with Marie instead. It was a good idea, Mr. G says. Sven says if you are a record and vinyl nerd, which they grew up with of course, the bass player in Roxette, Magnus Börjeson had a band called Beagle in the early ’90s. They were really happy about that name, because that put them between The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Haha. Per thinks it’s brilliant.

Yours To Keep by Paola is next. Per thinks it’s a nice one; the Teddybears is involved in that song. Then comes Where The Wolf Bane Blooms by The Nomads, a superb garage rock band from Sweden. The song is from their debut album.

Here comes the ’70s list from No. 15 to No. 11. Sven warns the listeners, because if they are sensitive to sweetness and sugar, they should watch out. A super sugary track called Moviestar is next by Harpo, produced by Bengt Palmers, one of the biggest producers in Sweden in the old days. He produced Hooked On A Feeling, for instance, and he was really big, producing lots of artists for EMI Records in the ’70s. Moviestar was an enormous hit in 1975 and it was also an extremely big song in Germany. Harpo is still touring in Germany once in a while, Per adds. He says you couldn’t escape this one in the ’70s if you were in Sweden or in Germany. Per asks the listeners to fasten their seatbelts.

Sven says they got the reason to return to Bengt Palmers later on in the shows, because you can’t escape him.

No. 14 is a guy called Magnus Lindberg. He used to play in a band called Landslaget, before he became his own sort of singer-songwriter, eventually becoming a little bit more new wavish. He did two albums in the ’70s. They were pretty acoustic and very good. He’s got a wonderful voice according to Per. He writes his own songs as well. The guys picked Månsken Peggie (Moonlight Peggie). PG thinks it’s a beautiful song. It came out in the late ’70s.

No. 13 is a band of ’60s pop veterans, Secret Service. They consisted of lots of people from the band Ola & The Janglers from the ’60s and some veterans in the industry. The band had their own distinctive sound and original songs as well. Not bad in Per’s book. PG says it was pretty rare in the ’70s to have international success for Swedish artists. ABBA was probably the only exception. They probably woke Secret Service up to the idea. They became enormous in France and this is their breakthrough song, Oh Susie from 1979.

Now the guys go to the north of Sweden and play a wonderful, typical ’70s mix of modern music and old traditional Swedish folk music. Gammal jämtländsk brudmarsch (A wedding march from the county of Jämtland /in the north of Sweden/) was a big hit. It was an instrumental track by a girl playing the organ called Merit Hemmingson. It was a big one on the radio in the ’70s, produced by Bengt Palmers, who also produced Moviestar by Harpo we just heard. Sven says, he was back earlier than they expected. Haha. Sven thinks it’s an interesting mix of musical styles. Per says the first time he heard it, he loved it and he was just a kid. He still loves it. Sven thinks it might be the first time Merit is played on American radio.

This brings the guys up to new wavish sounds from mid Sweden. A band called Eldkvarn is next. They had a big breakthrough in the ’70s and they are still around on and off. They closed down the factory a couple of years ago, then they came back again. They have been really big and have their own distinctive sound as well. The songs are written by vocalist Plura Jonsson. Their current tour, a sort of new farewell tour is named Det är aldrig försent att lägga av (It’s never too late to quit). The guys are laughing. Per finds it a good tour name. When Eldkvarn started out in the mid ’70s, they were not called Eldkvarn (Fire mill), but Piska mig hårt (Whip me hard) instead. It probably caused some controversy, Sven thinks. Per has never listened to them that much. In the ’80s-’90s he listened to them a bit, but this is new music to him. It’s taken from their 1979 album where they totally change musical style from slightly progressive ’70s rock, Sven says. Per thinks it sounds like Elvis Costello & The Attractions came into their lives. Sven thinks that there is life for Eldkvarn before this year’s model and there is another life after. They took up their amps to eight or something and started speeding up the tempo. It’s not bad, Per likes it. So they play the title track from their album Pojkar, pojkar, pojkar (Boys, boys, boys), wrapping up the ’70s countdown on this show.

The guys take a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. Here is She Owns The Streets by The Raveonettes. Sven thinks it’s a cool band. Per adds it’s one of their favourite bands.

The amazing sound of I Go For The Cheap Ones by Heavy Tiger is next. They are a female band from Stockholm. Per heard they haven’t been doing anything since 2019, but they are an amazing group and they are missed. Sven says they should come back, the world needs Heavy Tiger.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Pic by Patrícia Peres, Book Fair 2014, Gothenburg

Thanks for your support, Sven!

After doing the ’60s countdown, Per Gessle and Sven Lindström came back to Sirius XM in July and started a ’70s countdown for Nordic Rox. They listed their favourite Swedish and Scandinavian songs from the ’70s from 20 to 16 in this episode.

The guys are talking about another decade. Per says there were so many things happening on the Swedish music scene in the ’70s, so they are going to go through a couple of songs that they like. Then he adds that to tell the truth, they even included a couple of songs that they didn’t like. Haha. Sven says they are very open-minded and inclusive here on Nordic Rox.

Before getting down to the list, they kick off with a track by a band that made an album 30 years ago, and Sven thinks Per is familiar with it. PG says it’s Roxette and the album is called Crash! Boom! Bang! It was recorded in the isle of Capri in Italy. The song they play from CBB is Run To You. Sven asks Per what he remembers about this one. Mr. G remembers they spent like six weeks in Capri making the core of the album in 1993. It was good fun. INXS had just been in the studio when they arrived, so they inherited a lot of the INXS wine bottles. Haha. They had a great time and it was a very creative period in their lives. Marie just had her first child, so she had a family with her. They did some great stuff on that album. Sleeping In My Car, for example. Sven says a jubilee version of the album is coming out. Per confirms it’s coming out just before Christmas, the 30th anniversary release. Sven says they will get back to that one.

A new single from one of the guys’ favourite constellations comes next. It’s Say Lou Lou’s Above Love. Sven thinks it’s a great one, PG says it has a French touch to it. Sven saw all these French singers, Françoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot. They made some cool ’60s pop songs with fussy guitars and that sort of touch is here as well.

Then comes Borderline by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives from the album Origin Vol. 1. There never was an Origin Vol. 2, but for some reason it was named Vol. 1. Per thinks the band has a classic sound, and it sounds like it’s really familiar, but at the same time, it stands out. They have a very distinctive sound. Every song you hear from their catalogue sounds like The Soundtrack Of Our Lives.

Nordic Rox continues with a new single by Noak Hellsing from Stockholm. The song is All Day. PG says he has never heard of Noak Hellsing before. He must be very young and very new. Sven says Per is right on both points. Mr. G thinks it’s a good song, Sven agrees.

Shimmy Shimmy Style by the Teddybears is next.

Then the guys are leaving the modern age and going back to the ’70s. Track No. 20 is by a guy called Ola Magnell. Per says Ola was a singer-songwriter in the early ’70s and he had a couple of so-so hits, but then he went on tour with another Swedish guy that was a little bit bigger than him called Pugh Rogefeldt. The song they play is a live recording from a live album coming out in 1974. Per was there at the recording of that album in his hometown, Halmstad. Mr. G was 15 years old at the time. He remembers it being an amazing show in a pretty small theatre in Halmstad. There were like 800 people or so. It was a sensational evening for a 15-year-old kid. Sven remembers Pugh, he was probably the biggest rock star in Sweden in 1974. Sven saw Pugh and Rainrock in his hometown at the disco called Barbarella. The bass player came out on stage in a jeans skirt and that was rather cool. Back to Ola, the guys play his breakthrough song Påtalåten. It’s done with the Pugh band and it’s a live version from 1974. Per thinks it’s really, really cool and hopes the listeners like it. Per thinks it’s a great song. It’s got this sort of country flavour combined with some Swedish folk music. The rhythm is really wonderful. Sven thinks that sort of mix sounds incredibly Swedish. A lot of people were looking back to folk music in the ’70s.

Speaking about that, one of Per’s favourite singers, Monica Törnell is up on position No. 19. Mr. G has had the pleasure of working with Monica a couple of times, singing together. She’s got a really amazing voice, Per thinks. She had a breakthrough in 1972. There was a Swedish singer-songwriter called Cornelis Vreeswijk, who unfortunately is not with us anymore. He found her and he got her a record deal. Monica made an album which was basically a lot of covers translated into Swedish. It’s really an outstanding album, because her voice is so outstanding, PG thinks. It’s the elite of the Swedish session musicians at the time playing. It sounds really cool with standup bass and amazing piano playing. Per just loves this song. The original, I Really Loved Harold was written by Melanie. It’s called Förut (när jag var liten) in Swedish. Sven asks Per if this was something that mesmerized him when he was a teenager. PG listened to this album a lot and this is his favourite track. Sven thinks Monica sounds like some kind of mythical figure living far up in the woods. Per loves her voice.

The guys travel to Hollywood, somewhere in Los Angeles in 1971. Gram Parsons And The Flying Burrito Brothers. The next song sounds like that at least. It’s a guy called Basse Wickman and it’s taken from his first album in 1976. Out On The Road is not a big hit, but both Sven and Per always loved Basse. Per says he’s got this amazing, velvety voice and he made some amazing albums. Actually, PG has never heard the debut album before, so this is a new one to him. Sven says it’s actually quite obscure. For some reason, he never really made it, but Sven thinks they have a couple of tracks that they are going to revisit on the ’80s list when they get there. Per agrees and says Basse had his peak in the ’80s. Now comes some sort of Swedish country rock. It didn’t make the charts in Sweden at all, but it sounds lovely, Per thinks.

No. 17 on the list is a group called Dag Vag. Sven says it’s some sort of slight new wave reggae. Mr. G says it’s more like ska music, like The Specials from England. Dag Vag was really outstanding in the ’70s on the Swedish music scene and made it big, Per says. Sven says they were a bit older than the new wave movement. He means they came from the hippie movement, more or less. Per agrees, but they used this punk new wave attitude to come through and they did it very well. They brought along Kenny Håkansson on guitar from the prog rock group Kebnekajse. He is an amazing guitar player. Everyone in the band had really weird names, alter egos. Per can’t remember the name of Kenny. Sven thinks he was called the Silver Surfer, but he is not sure. Dag Vag means a „vague day” in English, it doesn’t make sense. Sven says „if it doesn’t make you any wiser, you can trust us, we’re not wiser either.” And the song is called Dimma, which means „fog”. It’s probably the first time this song is played in the US.

The guys think they did a great job on this list, as always. Now they are moving to the late ’70s, 1979. There was a group called Factory, that was enormously big in Sweden. Per says, first of all, most of the songs from the ’70s they played are in Swedish, because it was a big thing in the ’70s to work in Swedish. In the ’60s nobody did that at all. But in the ’70s everyone changed. Pugh was probably the first one. So, Efter plugget (after school) by Factory was a huge hit in 1979. If you listen to it now, you can trace the influences by Supertramp a lot. Per remembers when he was a kid, this song was all over the place. Sven says it was rock disco, a sort of danceable rock music. It was the same time as Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? by Rod Stewart. That sort of style. Or Miss You by The Rolling Stones. This one was all over the airwaves in 1979, you couldn’t escape it, for good or for bad. People tried to dance to it. Sven remembers girls from that time looking slightly bored. At least when they (the guys) came up on the dance floor. Per says probably that was the reason why they looked bored. Haha.

This wraps up the ’70s list for July.

Nordic Rox continues with Nowhere Blue, an indie duo from Stockholm with a new track called Keep On Running Off.

Do You Love Me by Amanda Jenssen is next. Amanda is one of the guys’ favourites and the song is from her debut album Killing My Darlings, 2008. Per thinks it’s a wonderful song. Sven thinks she is an amazing artist and an amazing singer.

The beautiful sound of Doojiman & The Exploders is next and their wonderful Yeah Yeah Yeah, Per says. Garage rock in its prime from Sweden, taken from the album Sweden’s Newest Hit Makers, Sven adds. PG thinks it’s such a great title. Sven says it makes you think of how they marketed The Rolling Stones in the States back in 1964: England’s Newest Hitmakers.

The guys are ready to leave, they have to go. Studio time is up. They will be back with five more songs taken from the Swedish ’70s in the next show.

Sven and Per thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Photo by Anders Roos (2019)

Thanks for your support, Sven!