seminar

Seminar about Marie’s book at Göteborg Book Fair

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It seems that a seminar related to our beloved artists is a must at the Göteborg Book Fair lately. It’s the third year in a row when a Roxette / Per Gessle / Marie Fredriksson book is out and there is a seminar about them. In 2013 it was Sven Lindström’s fabulous Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur, last year besides a cool pop quiz (1; 2; videos) it was Per’s most awesome books, Songs, Sketches & Reflections and Texter, klotter & funderingar and this year it’s Marie’s long-awaited biography, Kärleken till livet.

It would be wonderful to meet Marie at the book fair, but it seems that it will be only Helena von Zweigbergk, the author of the book who will appear there and talk about the book. The seminar is on Saturday, 26th September. It starts at 12:30 and lasts for 20 minutes. See the seminar program at THIS link on page 51. Helena will surely share much information at the book fair.

The book’s actual publishing date is 14th October according to the publishing company Piratförlaget, but it’s still 7th October appearing at Ginza, Bengans etc.

MF_HvZ_photo_by_Mattias_Edwall
Helena von Zweigbergk & Marie Fredriksson Photo by Mattias Edwall

 

Per Gessle – the book fair pop quiz sound recording

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PG_book_fair_20140926
Pic by Patrícia Peres

You surely remember last year’s Göteborg Book Fair either you could personally be there or not. On 26th September Per, in between 2 signing sessions, took part in a very entertaining pop quiz that was led by Sven Lindström. Another participant of the quiz was the other lonely boy, Nisse Hellberg. 4 months after the event, the book fair team decided to share the sound recording of that seminar, so now everyone can enjoy it. A short summary of the day as chapter 1 you could already read here at RoxBlog in this article and 1/3 of the seminar you could already watch as a video summary in this RoxBlog article. The seminar was of course in Swedish, but it is worth listening to it even if you don’t speak the language. How these guys love music shines through their talking. Always! Oh and you can also hear how Per loves to win. Because he won. Of course.

Hopefully, chapter 2, i. e. the interview Jan Gradvall did with Per on 28th September will also be uploaded as a sound recording at least. Until then, enjoy this little pop quiz!

 

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/188095909″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – the videos

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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

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – Chapter 2

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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

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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:

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Bokmässan photos on flickr