I never thought I would buy something what is able to play a Blu-ray because of Roxette and not because of my fave actors. I also never thought I would buy it earlier than an LP player… But it just happened. And it was all worth it. Actually, the long long long long long waiting for the DVD / Blu-ray / CD was worth it, too.
As per the Blu-ray, I like how it looks like. I mean not the front cover, but how it is structured, the way the CD and the Blu-ray disc are placed in the case. Well, too bad that all the DVDs and Blu-rays seem to be produced in Germany (or at least most of them), since now we are all having this unnecessary and not too sexy stamp on the front cover. When I first saw it, I hoped it was a sticker which I could easily remove, but unfortunately, it’s printed as part of the design…
I started with watching the Gessle cam stuff & the guitar tech’s secret life from the Blu-ray as I thought most of the other 2 parts I already saw on TV last year.
The Gessle cam videos are still fun. What I like the most is that on the Blu-ray they, of course, have much higher quality than what we can see on Facebook. Even if you already saw most of them (yes, there ARE new ones), you can smile and laugh at what the guys & ladies are doing in the studio or backstage. Per was wrong when he corrected us that the ”So, Christoffer?” part is not 3 minutes, but 30. It’s really ”only” 3 minutes, but it’s a hilarious mix! 🙂
Then comes 12 minutes of ”Studio Work” from the recordings of ”Travelling”, the album. Scenes are from AGM and Atlantis studios with Clarence, Christoffer, Magnus, Pelle, Marie and Helena. Oh, and of course, Per. But you can mainly hear his voice and see him not too often. We got used to this during all these years.
The 3rd Gessle cam video, ”Travelling” is the longest, almost 30 minutes. It’s from several countries: backstage, soundcheck, food, some ”Jesus loves you!” and some more ”So, Christoffer?”, Clarence & Pelle & Magnus ice skating, band, Marie & Per, crew, etc.
The 4th extra is a 5-minute-long video of ”Mikael Nogueira-Svensson – The secret life of a guitar tech”. Micke N-S took care of the gear of Per, Pelle and Magnus during the tour. He’s talking about his job and shows interesting things backstage, like the Blue Swede Sex Machine is having problems all the time. He says he’s like a nanny for the musicians. 🙂 While talking, he is restringing a guitar.
After these videos I watched the documentary, ”It All Begins Where It Ends – The Incredible Story Of Roxette”. Most of it we could already see last year, but finally, Helena and Dea got their well-deserved part in the docu. Actually, this is the only difference I could notice. And it’s great as it is. No changes were needed besides the backing vocalists’ part. Oh, yes! Another important change is the subtitles. The English subtitles work well.
”Roxette LIVE – Travelling The World” I saved for last. Chris did an awesome job with the live mix, but we already said that when we saw it on TV. At the same time, I still get dizzy from the constant cuts and I thought a year should have been enough to change them, but Favela kept them as we saw it in the TV cut of the live stuff. No clue why. Whatever. Crowd scenes are still mixed, but at least those confusing titles with mentioning cities and countries are gone. There are now more relevant scenes between the songs than what we saw on TV: backstage moments, fans running to the front row, the drum kit getting dressed for success, etc. Besides these, now it’s more like a real complete show. Awesome to see those 9 songs too, which were not in the TV cut, but made it to the DVD. This way we can enjoy e.g. Marie’s touching performance of ”Perfect Day”, some more of Per’s left leg dance in ”How Do You Do!” and their lovely moments in ”Things Will Never Be The Same”. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are cut out from the final ”It Must Have Been Love” part, however, Marie and Per are still cut in from the video clip twice. But that’s fine. Getting this front row feeling and reliving the moments of the tour, one starts / continues longing for a new tour.
Last but not least, I love having the songs on a live CD, too. Some fans hear Marie from far away or have other problems with the sound on the CD, but my ears are not too sharp for that I assume, since I’m fine with the sound itself. One funny thing is that the preview pic of the live CD is not the final cover, but another sleeve we saw when we were guessing which the final design could be. If I have to choose between the physical release and the digital one, I go for the digital because of having ”Silver Blue” and ”Church Of Your Heart” as bonus tracks there.
All in all, if you ask me what took a year to release this material after we could see most of it already in December 2012, I’m not sure I could tell you. Maybe choosing what to include in the extras from the tremendous amount of Gessle cam videos was a bit time-consuming or doing the subtitles. No clue. But it doesn’t really matter now that it’s in my hands and I could watch it and listen to it. I could do it 24/7. More than that, I want a Roxette tour! NOW!
Songs on the live CD