CONTEST: Win a signed Per Gessle book!

PG_books_signedXmas (or XXXmas? 😉 ) is around the corner, so we thought it’s the best timing to announce our next contest. Huge thanks to Roos & Tegnér (publishing company) for offering Per’s 2 books for us to give away. Since we were there at the Göteborg Book Fair, we had the chance to make both books signed by the man himself. Besides Mr G’s artistic autograph, you’ll find a tiny message in the books, too.

2 winners will be picked. One of them wins the English book (Songs, Sketches & Reflections), the other the Swedish book (Texter, klotter & funderingar). We will do our best to mail the books as soon as possible, so that they can land under 2 Christmas trees in time.

 

In order to participate, answer the following questions (you will find help in the interview about the books we did with Per a month ago):

  1. Which books Per didn’t want to compete with, so he decided to publish 2 books instead of 1 thick book?
  2. Who did that interview with Per which can be found in both the English and the Swedish book?
  3. What does Per say, why doesn’t he want to talk too much about his own songs?
  4. Name at least 2 songs of other artists that have brilliant lyrics according to Per!

Send an e-mail with your name, home address (so we can send the book in case you win) and the answers to the questions to rxbcontests@gmail.com until 23:59 CET, 3rd December 2014. The 2 lucky winners will be announced a few days later.

Good luck!

Patrícia and Judith and the rest of the RXB Team.

Contest terms and conditions:
– In order to participate, you have to send an e-mail to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and answer to the
4 questions. We will consider all e-mails we receive until 23:59 CET on 3rd December 2014.
2 winners will be picked randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answers. The 2 books will be picked randomly for the 2 winners.
– You can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by
standard mail only once (so basically, if the package gets lost, we won’t be able to send a replacement).
– Winners will be announced on this website, on our Facebook page and will also be notified per e-mail. You’ll be required to answer the e-mail confirming your address.
– Roxetteblog.com will not enter into any correspondence regarding the result of the contest and is not liable for any damages, loss or expenses that may result in connection to the prize.
– All submitted data will only be used for the purpose of the contest and. in case you are one of the lucky winners, to send you the prize.

 

Update on 4th December:

The lucky winners are: Caroline Wiltz Delorme, Mexico (Swedish book), Mathew James, UK (English book). The winners have been informed via e-mail and were announced on our Facebook page.

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – the videos

PG_20140928If you have appr. 40-50 minutes between listening to The Per Gessle Archives and reading the books, you might want to check some videos from the book fair seminars. Unfortunately, there was no proper video recording of the complete seminars, so I thought I would put together the parts I recorded. Sorry for my sometimes shaking hands – mainly at the beginning of the Friday session, but I’m not a pro when it comes to taking videos. I left the rough cuts between the parts in, not to miss any milliseconds owing to transitions. 2-3 minutes of both videos I’ve already shared in the book fair review articles (chapter 1 and chapter 2), but now you’ll be able to watch 17m 32s (appr. 1/3) of the Friday seminar (pop quiz with Per Gessle, Sven Lindström and Nisse Hellberg) and 19m 57s (appr. 2/3) of the Sunday session where Jan Gradvall interviewed Per about songwriting. I hope your eyes won’t get hurt, but in the latter video the projected background is vibrating every now and then. Or was it Per’s aura? Either way, both seminars were very exciting and entertaining. Make sure you check the part where Per talks about the upcoming Roxette tour and thanks the fans for always being around, even in the seminar audience (Sunday seminar at about 18:35).

We are grateful to have all these guys following us everywhere. It’s awesome!

Friday seminar 26th September (in case the YouTube link doesn’t work for you because of the pop quiz songs’ copyrights, try to watch it HERE on Dailymotion):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYYws6w5X_Q

 

Sunday seminar 28th September:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec6-15y-6vU

 

I felt so sorry that my camera missed the Flickorna på TV2 part of the conversation on Sunday, because it was so very funny, but fortunately, Chrissie Röhrs recorded that part, so you can watch how the double meaning of words kicked in this time (starts at 9:20). Turn someone on or switch the TV on à la PG!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ValjtwZ6980

The Per Gessle Archives and the books entered the charts

The Per Gessle Archives beauty box entered the Swedish album charts at No. 7 and the Swedish Per Gessle book, Texter, Klotter & Funderingar. Den Svenska Delen entered Bokus’s charts in culture category at No. 14. The English book, Songs, Sketches & Reflections. The English Part is not yet on the charts, but let’s see what happens next week.

If you are still hesitating about buying any or all of these 3 gems, don’t think any further! They are so worth being bought! Check them out e.g. at Bengans, Ginza or CDON!

TPGA_No7_PG_book_swe_No14

Per’s opinion about the box’s position on the charts:

Great news. If you count the number of actual CDs sold last week the PG-Archives sold TEN TIMES MORE than the rest of the Top 10 combined. Unfortunately the CD box counts only as ONE CD…. /P.

Congrats!

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – Chapter 2

The second day for Per at the book fair was yesterday. The seminar he took part in started at 1 pm, but fans were already waiting for him since 10 am. We were continuously filling the rows and listened to all the authors who came before Per. One of the writers was funny, he told he was the book fair support act for Mr G.

PG_IMG_9879Per arrived with Miss Dimberg and Anders Roos at about 1 pm. PG already got stopped by fans who asked him to give them autographs even before the seminar. When Per got to sit on the stage before the conversation, he was drumming on his legs and whistling. He refused to use the microphone which they could have fixed on his head, but used a standard microphone.

Many-many people were curious about Per, but the stage area was so small that a lot of people couldn’t sit down. The seminar ended appr. 10 minutes earlier than planned, probably because they saw the signing session would last longer for that many people.

Per’s interviewer was Jan Gradvall. They talked about songwriting, specific songs, as well as rhymes. He talked about his childhood room, what posters were on the walls (e.g. Hep Stars), there was a gramophone player and there were also some Barbie dolls. The family moved a lot and e.g. in 1968 they lived in Simlångsdalen. Per said his best friend was pop music. ”Tragical, but true.” Watch the short video of this part of the interview HERE.

They talked about how productive and busy Per is. He is doing many projects at a time, but when one ends, he feels like: ”Tack, nästa projekt.”, looking forward to the next project. The archives are just the summary of one chapter in his life.

After the seminar, there was a signing session next to the stage. There were so many people queueing with the Per Gessle books in their hands. Unfortunately, the last 5-6 people were asked to go to the other signing place, at the Roos & Tegnér stand, because they were running out of time and the signing at the stand had to start at 2.30 pm, but there Per really took his time and draw a great amount of Leifs in many books and boxes.

Ah, there was one new info during the interview: the Roxette rehearsals start this week. Bring on the tour!

Thanx for all your time and for the fabulous weekend, Mr G!

PG_JG_IMG_9864  PG_signing_IMG_9911  PG_signing_IMG_9958

Per with Jan Gradvall at the seminar; Per signing the books next to the stage at the seminar place; Per signing the books at the Roos & Tegnér stand

All pics in the article © Patrícia Peres

 

P.S.: Seeing this post of Per on Roxette Official after the happenings at the book fair, you could feel he had a bit of inspiration. Good luck with The Look 2! 😉

Feel like writing something like this today! /P.

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – Chapter 1

As you already know, Per attended the book fair in Gothenburg today (26th September). Some fans were already there at the Roos & Tegnér (publishing company) stand to wait for him and buy the books before he arrived. When I arrived to the stand at about 2 pm and bought the Per Gessle books, one of the R&T guys, Christer asked me where I’m from. Told him I’m from Hungary, then he said with a big smile on his face: ”You know that… Ah, of course, you know…” Haha. Yes, it was quite evident I knew Per would sign the books at the stand at 3 pm. It was a lovely waiting time, meeting and chatting with familiar Roxer faces and having a little wine tasting. They offered us Per’s Fru Nordin white wine to taste. Benny Mårtensson, the designer of the PG books was also there. He did a great job, that’s for sure. Sven Lindström, Pär Wickholm and Jan Gradvall were there, too. It was first Nisse Hellberg who signed his book at the stand from 2 pm.

Per signing his books at the Roos & Tegnér stand
Per signing his books at the Roos & Tegnér stand

Mr G arrived to the stand with Miss Dimberg and Anders Roos (from the publishing company; photographer of the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book) almost exactly at 3 pm. He took his place at the signing desk and started signing the books for those who were queueing. He was in a great mood, smiling all the time and joking with those who asked him if they could take a pic together or if he couldn’t understand the name of the one who asked him to sign the book. When I told him the books are awesome, he told they are cool and he could find only 5 mistakes in them. So, count them when you start reading, guys! 🙂 He also mentioned that there will be (a) Roxette concert(s) in Sweden most probably in summer, 2015. Sounds good for our souls.

The signing session lasted for about half an hour, then Per disappeared before getting on stage for the pop quiz seminar with Sven Lindström and Nisse Hellberg at 5 pm. The seminar was quite an entertaining one. They were talking about songwriting, lyrics, bands, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Sven prepared a tough quiz for the guys with pop songs from different eras. After listening to a short part of the songs, Per and Nisse had to say which song they heard, who’s song it was and from which year. You can imagine it was a tough quiz if even Per couldn’t tell all the details of each song. But of course, he doesn’t like to lose and he did his best to win. PG : NH – 6 : 2. When Sven forgot to give Per points, he was ”fighting” for those points. Lovely. He enjoyed the music so much he was even humming the tunes and ”dancing” with his head and legs. Watch it with your own eyes in THIS short video. The audience was also very helpful when The Lonely Boys couldn’t find out which song was heard. I can imagine Per going home after the book fair and checking all the songs he couldn’t recognize.

The quiz should have lasted until 5.45 pm, but everyone was having fun, so it ended almost at 6 pm. We could have enjoyed it for even more hours. After the seminar, Per and Nisse were signing their books outside the congress hall. Until then Åsa arrived as well. She looked wonderful and was very nice to all of us fans, as usual. The signing session lasted again for about 30 minutes and after that Per went ”backstage”. Probably, for an interview. Then Elvis left the building and so did we.

This guy always makes me feel like I had the best day of my life when I meet him. It happened today as well. Chapter 2 on Sunday!

PG_book_fair_20140926_02  PG_book_fair_20140926_03  PG_book_fair_20140926_04

Per, Sven and Nisse doing the pop quiz; Per at the seminar; Per signing his books after the seminar

All pics in the article © Patrícia Peres

 

Articles and stuff related to PG at the book fair:

Expressen
Expressen’s video
Vaja.se
op.se
Bokmässan photos on flickr