Per Gessle’s Roxette – Cologne, Germany – 23rd October 2018 – #10

Can’t believe that we already reached the halftime of the tour. The 10th gig meant the last gig in Germany. At least on this tour. There was no day-off between Warsaw and Berlin and then no break between Berlin and Cologne, so concerts for 3 days in a row. I was wondering how tiring it might be, but when we talked to Chris at the airport and asked him about how it feels doing 3 shows in a row he said that actually, the vibe and mood don’t really get low during the whole tour. The only difficulty is when the hotel rooms are not ready by the time they arrive and they can’t take a short rest before they go on to the venue.

The organizers at the venue in Cologne were not too well-prepared for the entrance. They opened the doors at 7 pm, but put the signs (which entrance accepts which tickets) on the doors only 1 hour earlier. So those who had been waiting there for quite a long time and were standing at the wrong door, they had to rearrange themselves. The inlet wasn’t too smooth, but in the end, fans found a good spot in the front, close to the stage.

Support act Lee MacDougall started his session at 8 pm. This was the last time when Lee was the support act. I will definitely miss him during the rest of the tour. He is touring Germany and Austria early next year, so if you saw him live now, go and see him again. If you didn’t see him live, check out his songs online and maybe it will convince you to go. Great music! Best of luck to him!

Mr. G and his band hit the stage right after 9 pm and sticked to the already known setlist.

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Loved that The Look started with Per counting in German again, ”eins, zwei, drei, vier!”. He could do this little change in each country, counting in the language used there. It’s fun! Let’s see if he tries it in Russia, for example. 😉 The opening song was already quite energetic, so you couldn’t tell this gang is now doing their 3rd show in a row.

After the first song Per told the audience that the last time he performed in Cologne was in the summer of 2015. At least Christoffer told him it was in summer. Then off he went to take a deep dive into the big bucket of Roxette songs and they played MATAH. Then came a little Capri talk and it was CBB’s turn. Helena has some problems with her soar throat now, it’s too cold in Germany, but the way she was singing, you couldn’t tell she had any issues. Wonderful!

The speed up section of DFS and SGNO was a blast! After the hat fell off Christoffer’s head, Per went and picked it up to put it back on Chris’s head while he was playing in the front with Ola. The drum solo ending presented by Andreas was fantastic again!

Before SMT Per told the story of his good day in 1990. He woke up in the morning, had nothing to do, then his wife, then girlfriend left a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. Per asked ”isn’t that cute?”. He said he just had to write a song and it became Joyride. Then he was very pleased with himself, had lunch with Swedish meatballs, took a break then watched 3 Ingmar Bergman movies, then stood up, went to his piano and wrote the next song. Helena got a huge applause after performing it in Cologne too.

After IGYC Per talked about Nashville that he went to record there with local musicians and a few friends, no names. Chris said in the mic ”I was there.” Per reacted: ”We had a good time anyway.” Haha. Then they performed STT’s beautiful PG-CL live duet version!

Then the experts of Swedish hillbilly music played IHAPIMH and before the song started, Per told the audience ”please pay attention to flute ladies!”. The flute ladies were fabulous, as usual and the audience loved the song. Per thanked the crowd in German.

This time Mr. G said he presented the band with 76 songs (it’s btw getting more and more from show to show! 72-74-76… 😉 ) he wanted them to learn. Magnus said ”And we learned 120. Some Stones songs, some Beatles songs… You’ll hear them later at the show after the show. But you have to have T-shirts from the stand as well.” PG: ”Not my idea.” Magnus: ”It was mine!” PG: ”Blablabla.” Haha. We all laughed at Per’s blablabla reaction. Then came one sentence by him from which we could hear he IS tired. His tongue didn’t want to cooperate, so the words came out were a little strange, but adorable. The essence of his thoughts was of course not being sure about playing IMHBL or not, because it’s Magnus’s fave song besides 99 Luftballons by Nena and Wind of Change by Scorpions. Magnus said 99 Luftballons is his No. 1. So he got one more blablabla from Per. Haha.

Then came OppNox and TBL and since Åsa joined the gang on tour again, she came and filmed these songs, also the crowd partying. When this section ended, the audience shouted and were clapping loud, it was awesome. PG showed thumbs up and started to talk about the ’90s. He asked Magnus how his parents were. Magnus said they were very fine people and actually they ARE very fine people since they are still alive and they were living in the ’90s as well. Everyone laughed. Per started counting on his hands how old they might be. FLAF was the next song and Helena did great on it, so the crowd cheered her.

Then came a crowd favourite, DMS. No blood this time, but you could see on Jakob’s face when he handed the guitar over to Christoffer that he was prepared for everything. Haha.

The band presentation was much fun again, all musicians got huge applauses and at the end Per said he is surrounded by talent. Then came HDYD and while Mr. G was preparing for it he said ”let’s see if you know this one… let’s see if I know it…”. Haha. Then came the intro and the whole crowd started singing. This time it was even more aaawesome, because Per let us sing much further than usual, until here we are cracking jokes…  He made fun of us instructing the crowd, then looking at his (non-existing) watch. He laughed and liked the whole thing a lot, the band too. Party, party also during Dangerous!

       

During the break before the encore the crowd was shouting ”Roxette, Roxette, Roxette”. This was the first place where it happened. So far it was rather ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle” or we want more or anything else.

The band came back on stage to perform QOR (which is kinda cool according to Per) and Joyride. Helena was perfect on QOR, the audience loved her. Joyride was much fun with tons of balloons thrown by members of the crowd.

During the break before the 2nd encore, people weren’t silent and it paid back, the gang came to play 2 more songs. Before that, Per said it’s been a wonderful evening and asked the audience if this is like an ordinary Tuesday evening in Cologne. Before LTYH, which of course sounded beautiful again, he said he wrote it in the ’80s for a friend. He said ”I had friends then”. Haha. Before TSHTSG Per asked the audience the usual question ”one more for the road?”. The audience shouted yeees and then he turned to the band members and asked what they think. They all agreed. The ending was fab in Cologne. I think the crowd sang along TSHTSG the most loudly here. No clue if it has anything to do with Thomas Anders’s release of the hit in the ’90s.

Anders Roos took pictures during the whole show and probably also recorded it. There was a fun moment when Åsa was singing along and started filming Anders who was also singing along. Let’s see if we get to see the result of it.

The lights were again a bit late every now and then and some stayed in the dark while they should have been illuminated. Probably, it’s local technicians at each place, which is strange in a way, because even if they get the script of the show, it’s not too easy to follow the gig with the lights if you don’t know exactly what’s happening and when. Even seconds count.

Per’s thoughts after the show:

COLOGNE: Five shows in six days! How about that! We managed thanks to you beautiful people at the E-Werk in Cologne. One word sums it up: WOW! Super crowd + band in top shape (even new dress on Malin-My! – lovely!) so nuthin’ could go wrong. Thanx so much for showing up and having a ball. And thank you Cologne for hosting the last show in Germany for a while. But we’ll be back. Trust me!!!! Cheers from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Berlin, Germany – 22nd October 2018 – #9

The show in Berlin happened in Admiralspalast. It was a seated gig again and oh what a gig it was! So it really seems to be guaranteed that a seated concert can’t go wrong on this tour. I mean when it’s planned to be seated from the beginning.

The support act was Lee MacDougall as on every other German date. He was great in Berlin too and we had much fun listening to his stories and music. After he finished his unplugged song and stepped back, he tumbled over Per’s mic stand and said ”Sorry, Per!”. Haha.

Anders Roos was there and set all his cameras around the venue. The real deal started a bit after 21:00, with no setlist changes.

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

The show hasn’t even started when everyone was already on their feet, so we could rock to The Look which started with Per counting ”Eins, zwei, drei, vier!” Helena was on a high too and she even hi fived fans in the front row. Woohoo! Mr. G said it’s always a pleasure to be in Berlin and he played there with Roxette in 2015. Of course, many from the audience were there 3 years ago. Magnus too. PG said he would do a deep dive into the bucket of Roxette songs. He also said he sneaked in some of his solo songs, as we know him. He asked to sing along if we know the lyrics, to help them out, they love that.

When Per said thank you after MATAH, someone shouted from the crowd ”you’re welcome”. He laughed. Then he let us know that the most expensive pizzas you can find in the world are still in Capri, where Roxette went to record CBB.

Before DFS Per asked if we were ready for them speeding it up a bit. Yeah! Party party party that got even wilder during SGNO. Andreas’s drum solo ending was so cool in Berlin too. After the song Per said ”it felt good!” Oh yes, it did! Ah, as per the drums… Now it seems you can buy a drum head at the merch shop, customized to the actual city. There is a design related to the city, there is the Per Gessle’s Roxette logo and the name of the city on it. What else? It is signed by all band members and Per himself. From what I know, it was sold in London first, but there seems to be only 1 drum head like this per each city. Let us know if you know someone who got hold of the drum head in any other town. 😉

Before SMT Per talked about his good day in 1990 when he woke up in the morning, had nothing to do, but found a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. It was written by his wife, then girlfriend and he thought it was kind of cute, it just had to be a song. So he wrote Joyride and then he was exhausted, ate Swedish meatballs, watched 3-4 Ingmar Bergman movies just to get in the mood to write another song. Spending My Time. Helena singing it, she got a huge applause from the audience.

STT was loved by the audience. Chris got his well-deserved extra applause on it.

Then came Swedish hillbilly IHAPIMH and the party never ended until the show was over.

Per mentioned he started with 74 songs for the tour and asked the band to learn those songs. Magnus said and they did. Every verse, every chorus, every intro, every outro. It’s hard work. There was only one song Per wasn’t sure about playing, but it turned out to be Magnus’s all time fave song besides Kraftwerk’s The Model and the collective works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. IMHBL was the top. Per said Magnus is weird. The sing-along was the strongest on this song last night.

Then came the OppNox-TBL partytime. Nothing can beat it! Per and all the band members were like Duracell bunnies during both songs! Love Ola’s rocking solo in OppNox and also there is a tiny little detail I adore, an Ola-Magnus move in TBL after ”lonely at night”. So cool! After these 2 songs Per said ”that felt good too” and ”danke schön” and was cheered by the crowd.

The usual ’90s discussion was next between Per and Magnus. Magnus joked he had a flat in Prenzlauer Berg (part of Berlin) and spent all his life at the Panorama Bar, it was years and years of party. Then Per saved him, he got a phone call to come back to Sweden and play with Roxette and he said yes. Per said ”one saved soul”. Then Mr. G mentioned the next song went up to No. 2 in the US, didn’t make it to the top, but it’s a nice one from Joyride. FLAF was it, of course and Helena did great. What I love very much in this version of Fading Like A Flower is how Malin-My is plucking the violin. I don’t know if this is the right expression though. It’s when she’s not using the fiddlestick, but her fingers. Sounds wonderful!

DMS was the song of Duracell bunnies too. A real highlight on each gig. When we met Chris at the airport (flying from Warsaw to Berlin), we of course had to ask him how his hand was doing. He said it’s OK. In Brussels his hand was bleeding because of the fact that some part of the guitar fell off and under it there was a metal part which hurt his hand, since he didn’t pay attention when that part of the guitar flew away. Then in Warsaw he had no clue what hurt his hand why it started bleeding. He had quite deep wounds on both fingers that were bleeding during the concerts. He said the plaster isn’t really good for him, because then he can’t really hold the guitar pick. What’s your guess? Was his hand bleeding in Berlin? Haha, a real rock star!

After Per did the band presentation, he said ”that’s it and everything else is on computers”.

HDYD was also party on top. Its intro worked completely fine in Berlin too.

Before the first encore, the crowd didn’t stay quiet. We wanted more! And we got more! First QOR, then Joyride in which I love the intro part where Chris and Per are approaching each other and playing around.

No silence during the 2nd break either, the audience wanted the gang back on stage and oh they came back. Per thanked for it and said ”so many songs, so little time”. They performed LTYH that was awesome and the audience made their voices heard. Then as usual, TSHTSG closed the event and left us with the earworm again.

The only problem I had was with the lights. I don’t know what happened, but most of the time not the right happening and people were illuminated on stage. Sometimes Per’s face was half in shadow half in light, horizontally… Things like that. Sometimes it stayed even dark on stage. Strange. I hope the light technicians will do their job right next time, because those who were on the balcony last night also said that there were parts which they didn’t see clearly, because of being too dark.

Per’s comment after the concert:

BERLIN: Oh yea, back in Germany. Wonderful crowd in a beautiful venue. Thanx so much for all the singalongs + balloons + good vibes. We had a blast. Always special to play Berlin. Hope to be back soon with more music for you Berliners!!! Lots of love from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

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Per Gessle’s Roxette – Warsaw, Poland – 21st October 2018 – #8

The 8th gig on tour turned out to be a fab one! The communication between Per & Co. and the audience was so far the best! People started queueing in front of the venue quite early and by 4-5 pm there were already more than 40 people waiting. The doors to the club opened only after 6 pm.

There was no support act at the show and Per was to start at 19:30. Before he could get up on stage, he had 2 interviews (1 for a Polish TV program, 1 for TDR) and a fan meet & greet. The latter one started at least half an hour later than planned and it was quite short, since there was not much time left after the interviews. A bit after 19:30 the gig started.

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Once the gang entered the stage you could hear the crowd was there to have much fun. They were loud already at the very beginning. The Look was a perfect opening song in Warsaw too. After it ended, the audience didn’t stop shouting ”Per Gessle, Per Gessle, Per Gessle!” Per thanked it and said he was at the same venue 9 years ago. He asked the crowd if anyone else was there too and many shouted yes. Then Magnus and Chris also said they were there too and Per replied it’s good he wasn’t there alone. When he mentioned he sneaked in a couple of solo songs in the setlist, someone in the audience started singing Gå & fiska! PG laughed and the guys in the band started to play the song. A very short version of it though. Per asked the crowd if they know the lyrics, please sing along, they love that.

After MATAH, Helena got a huge applause and the crowd shouted ”Helena, Helena, Helena!” She was so happy about it. Then the crowd went on cheering Malin-My, calling her Malinka. Haha.

CBB became a loud sing-along and ”Helena, Helena, Helena!” was also cheered at the end of the song. Helena formed a heart from her hands and showed it to the crowd and also thanked for their kindness in Polish.

DFS and SGNO made the crowd party. We were very much into these 2 songs. At the end of SGNO Ola and Chris came to the right side of the stage to go wild. Christoffer’s hat fell on to the stagefloor and Per came to pick it up while Andreas was putting his drumset on fire. After they finished SGNO, Per put the hat back on Professor Lundquist’s head. That was cool! Per was amazed by the crowd reaction and said it was getting hot up there on stage. Oh well, I can tell it was hot off stage too.

Before SMT Mr. G asked the crowd if they are happy: Yeaaah! and if life is good: Yeaaah! Then he said he had a good day in 1990. He woke up one morning and found a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”, so he had to write a song. He didn’t want to, but he did. Then he had lunch, Swedish meatballs, then he was full and watched 3-4 Ingmar Bergman movies and then he had to write another song. SMT. Helena got her loud applause here too and the loud sing-along was present during this song as well.

IGYC had a longer intro this time, because Mr. G stood there at the fan to get some fresh breeze. The audience loved the song.

Before STT Per told the crowd he had this dream for a very long time to go to Nashville and work with his core people and with local musicians. After Malin-My’s violin intro, Per stepped to his mic and started to sing his part, but he was in a bit too early. At least it sounded so. Anyway, it turned out to be wonderful again. When Chris stepped in, he got a huge applause from the audience. As Per said, they record all shows, so we will for sure get this PG-Chris Lundquist duet on a live CD one day.

Then came the Swedish hillbilly music, IHAPIMH. Per said it was released on Son of A Plumber which came out in ”2005-6-7-8-9-10”. Haha. The audience almost didn’t stop clapping during the whole song and after the song shouted ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” He said: ”Thank you, you’re very kind!”

Before IMHBL Per said when they started rehearsing, he presented the band a DAT tape. He wasn’t sure if anyone knew what a DAT tape is. There were 72 songs he wanted the band to learn to play. Magnus said, they didn’t have a DAT player. That’s the problem, but Per sorted it out, he copied them to cassette. So the next song is Magnus’s fave song of all time. Even better than The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. IMHBL sounded fab and the crowd’s loud sing-along was heartwarming on this one too. Helena thanked the audience in Polish.

OppNox and TBL were successful party songs tonight too. The ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” shouting started again. Per went to Chris with his towel in his hands and by the help of it, he provided Chris with some fresh air. Helena did the same with Malin-My. Someone in the crowd shouted: ”We love you, you fool!” Per smiled and replied: ”I heard that before! I have a family.”

FLAF brought another ’90s stand-up comedy talk by Per and Magnus. Magnus said he doesn’t really remember the ’90s because he was born in 1991. Of course… Haha. After their discussion Per said: ”Can’t live with him, can’t kill him!” FLAF became a huge sing-along song as well. After she finished FLAF, Helena told the crowd in Polish that it was beautiful and thank you. Per asked if we were having a good time and he got a loud ”yeah” and a ”we love you, Per” as a reply.

Then they started DMS which – as usual – rocked big time. Would you be surprised if I said that Christoffer’s hand was bleeding again? Gosh, this guy is amazing! He wanted to throw his pick he played on this song to the crowd, but because of the blood it sticked to his hand so landed not so far from him. Jakob came and took Christoffer’s guitar and took care of his bleeding hand too.

The coolest band presentation happened in Warsaw so far. Each band member got his and her name shouted by the audience many times one after another. E.g. ”Ola, Ola, Ola!” They were happy about it. Per said Clarence produced most of the Roxette songs, all the hits, all the flops. When Per finished the introduction with Helena and the audience shouted ”Helena, Helena, Helena!”, someone shouted: ”And who are you?” LOL! Everyone laughed! Christoffer said: ”His name is Per Gessle.” The audience shouted ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” Then he looked at his monitor where MNS probably wrote him how to say ”thank you” in Polish, but Per was uncertain. Magnus also encouraged him he should tell those words and Helena too. Then Per said he’s not sure how to translate ”thank you”. The crowd shouted ”dziekuje” and then Per read up the words from the monitor ”dziekuje bardzo” (”thank you very much”). MNS showed him thumbs up an the crowd cheered him. Well done, Mr. G! Haha. Per said it’s like being in X Factor. Magnus said ”You’ve got the talent!” Per said to the audience: ”Let’s see if you’ve got the talent!” And he started the intro to HDYD. Of couse, we’ve got the talent! We started singing the song and then partied hard to HDYD and Dangerous.

When the gang went off stage, some started singing Sommartider. Then the shouting and clapping didn’t stop and ”we want more” was heard in different languages, in Swedish too. The band came back for the first encore and played QOR and Joyride. There were quite some balloons and some of them are simply landed on stage. Joyride was fun, Magnus danced a lot during the song and actually, he was on a high during the whole gig.

When PG & the band came back for the 2nd encore, Per thanked for the wonderful evening. LTYH became another sing-along song, while TSHTSG became a clap-along closing song. BoJo put his boogie shoes on and he was dancing on the side of the stage during TSHTSG. It was too cool! After the band took a bow and another and another and another, the crowd started shouting ”Dziekujemy, dziekujemy, dziekujemy!” (thank you). And Per threw the last picks off his mic stand to the crowd.

Wonderful it was indeed! The whole show! As we heard, the gig was filmed. What a good choice to film this one! Let’s see if we get to see the result of it. A DVD would be perfect!

After the concert I bumped into 2 Swedish guys from Örebro and they said they were 6 and came to Warsaw for the weekend. The Per Gessle concert was a good excuse for them to organize this trip. They will probably attend a Swedish show too, because they liked what they saw and heard. Very cool!

Oh one more thing. Per had a photo session with Anders Roos in the old town of Warsaw in the afternoon. Let’s hope those pics were taken for a fat tour photo book. 😉

Per’s words after the concert:

OH MY GOSH!!!! Warsaw – we love you! What a gig! Outstanding crowd + a decent band = neverending love!
Had such a great time. Hope Anders Roos managed to get some pix from this extraordinary gig. Anyway, we got the recordings!!! See ya next time. Berlin tomorrow. No rest for the wicked! Love, P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

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Per Gessle’s Roxette – Zurich, Switzerland – 19th October 2018 – #7

Per and his band had no break between the concerts in Vienna and Zurich. Many fans went to see the gang either for the first time or for the one and only time to Zurich. They were excited about the show and to see how Per Gessle’s Roxette works. What they didn’t expect was that their ticket they bought for the standing area of the venue, which was clearly stated on the seatmap to be in front of the stage wouldn’t be valid for that place anymore, but to the back, behind appr. 20 rows of seats. I mean, what??? The organizers, most probably the production company decided to reorganize the whole venue last minute, not sharing any info previously. When people could enter the venue at 18:30 they wanted to go inside and enter the standing area in the front, but the staff didn’t let them enter the front part. There was a seperated area of appr. 20 rows of seats and the staff told those are already taken. That wasn’t shown on any seatmap before.The seats were not unnumbered,  but actually the balcony seats were moved to those front of stage places. So those who had tickets for the balcony could get close to the stage and sit there, while those who bought their tickets exactly because they wanted to stand as close to the stage as possible, they had to go behind all the seated people. What a mess! And there was no one to talk to, to get an explanation at least. At the venue, everyone blamed someone else. The staff said it was the artist’s management that wanted the venue to be rearranged, however, others said it was the production company’s decision. Of course the hardcores tried everything possible and some of them got ”lucky” being able to change their tickets to the new seated area. And it wasn’t front row, but mostly 3rd row and more to the back. Fans were totally disappointed, for an understandable reason… And can you imagine the disappointment of those who were not able to change their tickets and had to be standing in the back? A nightmare! It might have been the suggestion of the artist’s management to make the floor seated, but they confirmed they weren’t aware of the issue mentioned above. Probably, they thought it could be sorted out in the way they changed 2 Swedish venues from standing to seated already. Seated, but with unnumbered seats, so first comes, first serves. And that was announced weeks before the concerts will take place. But it seems that in Zurich the price of the balcony tickets were 10 CHF more expensive than the standing tickets and the organizers probably thought the only fair thing is to offer them the front of stage seats. But they didn’t think about being fair to those who bought their tickets for the standing area, in front of the stage. We all started worrying that if it could happen in Zurich, it can happen at any other venue during the rest of the tour. The management said they would keep an eye on it and make sure this would never happen again.

So that’s how the excitement of fans was partly killed in Zurich. Lee MacDougall was the support act there too and those who saw him for the first time say he was fun and he is a great musician. He really knows how to grab the audience’s attention and make them interested in his music.

Per didn’t change anything in the setlist. It was the (now usual) 20 songs.

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Mr. G and all the band members were in top shape, they put all their energy into their performance. They for sure didn’t even realize something was wrong in the audience area. They tried to animate the crowd, showing signs to get up or clap, but it worked only partly. Never mind, their joy of being on stage made many magic friends still very happy and those who wanted to join the Joyride, just did so and had much fun. Tthere were lots of balloons in the air. They were probably coming from those fans who got stuck behind the newly added seats. It would have been nicer if they could throw the balloons in the air in the front.

People were standing up from their seats during the uptempo songs, but not all of them. During the ballads and talking they were sitting. No surprise. Those who originally bought their tickets for the balcony wanted to sit anyway…

Fun thing is that a few people requested Sommartider. In between the songs when it was quiet there were people shouting out for it here and there.

Åsa was there filming a lot during the concert and as I mentioned in my Vienna review, Anders Roos is coming to take pictures to 8 shows, so he was there in Zurich too.

 

Oh well… I said that after each seated gig on this tour so far that if those concerts are such a blast, I want more seated shows. But not the way it was arranged in Zurich. Hopefully, such a mess won’t ever happen again.

Per after the show:

T H A N K U Z U R I C H

Wow! What a great Friday night! Thanks so much for showing up and making all that glorious noise!!! Seventh gig of the tour and now this show is starting to make sense for real!! Love this band, Helena is truly amazing, Malin-My as well. Ola + Andreas are bringing their own magic and mix it with the gold stuff I’m so used to from my old war heroes Clarence, Chris + Magnus. What a privilege to play with these people. Lucky me. Day off tomorrow. Warsaw on Sunday. See y’all there! Badabam from P.

Pics in the article are taken by Sandra Knospe. Thanx for sharing them and also for all the info about the gig and management confirmation.

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Per Gessle’s Roxette – Vienna, Austria – 18th October 2018 – #6

The 6th gig on the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour, the 3rd seated show happened in Vienna. The venue being seated, we didn’t have to rush, we could take our time until we entered Stadthalle. First thing was to check the merchandise again. Actually, you can be lucky and at some venues you might find something new included. This time it was Per’s guitar picks. Only the black ones he uses on this tour, but all 3 of the black ones. You could buy 2 picks for 5 EUR. Just so you know when you see them on eBay or Tradera later. 😉

The venue wasn’t too big, but what felt really big was the space between the front row and the stage. There was even a cordon to keep you at least 2-3 meters away from the stage and between the cordon and the first row there was another 1 meter distance. Then we could see 4 security guys in suits and ties. They looked too serious, so the thinking about standing up in a seated area started again… How would they react if we stand up…?

Before the gig I met Anders Roos whose first stop on this tour was Vienna, but he will take pictures of the concerts and the band backstage during 8 shows altogether. Vienna, Zurich, Warsaw, Berlin, Cologne, Utrecht, Halmstad, Göteborg. To me it seems there is a high chance we get a tour photo book about the Per Gessle’s Roxette trip. Fingers crossed!

First we had Lee MacDougall again as the support act. This time he mentioned his Baywatch – The Look story again and also told he heard that Roxette fans love buying CDs, so he invited us to buy his at the merch stand. He also said Roxette has the best fans in the world. We love to hear that, don’t we? HERE you can see and hear Lee performing my most fave song of his, The Devil & The Rolling Stones. So catchy!

Showing that the main act was to start and we should occupy our seats again, bells started ringing. It’s always The B-52’s “Love Shack” that is the last song on PG’s mix tape before the show and that already gets the audience into the mood. Here is what the gang played after. (Nothing changed.)

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

You won’t be surprised if I write that already during the first seconds of Per & Co. playing The Look, everyone was right up on their feet? So cool! Another seated show that couldn’t go wrong! The security guys let us be standing, but only in front of our own seats. Some tried to come down the stairs to get closer to the stage, but they sent them back. All good, that’s the way it should be.

So, the party mood was guaranteed and people stayed standing during the uptempo songs, but at least the sides were more into sitting during the ballads and talking.

Per was happy to be back in Vienna. He told the crowd if we know the lyrics, help them out, they love that. Capri is still the most known for its most expensive pizzas. At least PG referred to it before playing CBB in Vienna too.

SGNO got a different ending vs. past shows. Andreas went totally wild on drums and it sounded just fantastic. After last year’s Sommartider intro by him, I can say we missed something like this from him. Now we got it. It could be longer or more! Just saying. 😉

When Micke N-S brought Per the guitar he switched from SGNO to SMT Per told the crowd this is Mikael (pronouncing it like Michael) and he said he found him on Tinder. Then Chris said ”he locked him in the basement”. LOL. Then Per started talking about his good day when he wrote 2 great songs in one day in May 1990. He said his wife, then girlfriend left a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. Per said: ”What could I do? I wrote a song!” Haha. He said then he took a break, had some Swedish meatballs and watched an Ingmar Bergman movie. Then he wrote this one. Yep. SMT followed. There were some technical hiccups during the song. Some strange sound was heard. For me it was funny, because during SMT there are birds flying in the background and it sounded a bit like shooting those birds. Even Per went to the side of the stage to ask the technicians what was going on. The guys were fast and sorted things out, so the sound was soon great again. I must say SMT gets stronger and stronger each time. Probably Helena is getting more and more secure when singing it and she gets braver and braver, so the song sounds now more powerful than at the premiere gig for example.

I only realized now during IGYC that when Per and Helena are singing ”look around, look around, look around” together, to me it sounds a bit like Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue in Where The Wild Roses Grow.

When Per introduced STT as the coming song, the title track off his latest English album, the audience gave him a loud applause and woohoo. And yes, it was magical on October 18th too.

IHAPIMH was a success too. The crowd was clapping along from the beginning of the song.

Before IMHBL Per mentioned the 72 songs he wanted the band to rehearse, but they refused. He was thinking about doing this next song or not, but it turned out to be one of Magnus’s Top3 fave songs among Vienna by Ultravox and Rock Me Amadeus by Falco. Haha. The crowd loved IMHBL, the sing-along was loud and clear.

Party time! OppNox and TBL! One can’t get tired of hearing and jumping to these two songs. After TBL Per asked the audience if we were having a good time out there. He got a l.o.u.d. YEEEEAH in response.

After PG & MB’s ’90s talk, the gang played FLAF, which the same way as SMT gets stronger each time. I remember how I found it a strange, weak version of this power ballad, but now it gets more and more power from Helena each time.

Before DMS Per said he had to teach the band to play this song, because they didn’t know the Party Crasher album. He had to teach them from scratch. Chris said Per was totally lying. Love love this song! And actually, every time I’m there at the concert and hear it, I can fully identify with the lyrics, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

How the crowd reacts during the band presentation, giving a huge applause and shouting and woohoos to each member is always amazing. Even if most of the people in the crowd see them for the first time, their reaction makes it clear they realize how good musicians they all are. Heartwarming!

The teaser to HDYD worked perfectly in Vienna too. Just like the whole song, followed by Dangerous. These 2 songs of course put everyone on their feet and the clapping and shouting didn’t end for a second while waiting for the guys and girls to get back on stage for the first encore.

One of the fun highlights on each gig is PG and CL kidding each other while playing their guitars in the intro to Joyride. Love being close, because you can even see their facial expressions, how much they also enjoy it. One thing happened for the first time during this tour, probably because this was the first venue where there was enough space for that. Chris and Magnus came down to the audience and played there for a while, running from one side to the other. It was so cool!

The 2nd encore… Oh well… this part reminded me of stupid people going to the theatre, not waiting for the actors to come out again for the next round of applause, but rushing to the wardrobe instead… OMG! Some really didn’t think they would come back on stage again? They rushed out. Maybe they ran back when they heard PG’s talking and the crowd’s reaction. Haha. Anyway, their bad if they missed LTYH and TSHTSG because of that.

PG’s opinion about the show:

VIENNA: Gig #6. Thank you so much for making this evening At the Wiener Stadthalle truly remarkable. So many fans, so many nice voices. Wonderful feedback. We loved it so much!!!! Can’t wait to come back and play some more for you! Lots of love from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

More photos:

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