Roxette is now in South Africa, where the band will play 7 concerts until the 17th of May. It was the 19th concert on the tour.
(C) Ingrid Sinclair and Celeste Saville
Setlist
01. Dressed for Success
02. Sleeping In My Car
03. The Big L.
04. Wish I Could Fly
05. Only When I Dream
06. She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)
07. Perfect Day
08. Things Will Never Be the Same
09. It Must Have Been Love
10. Opportunity Nox
11. 7twenty7
12. Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)
13. Stars
14. How Do You Do!
15. Dangerous
Band presentation
16. Joyride (no traditional tune)
17. Watercolours in the Rain
18. Spending my Time
19. The Look
20. Way Out
21. Listen to Your Heart
22. Church of Your Heart
Photos
Heidi’s Flickr, Vittorio D’Amico, Capetown.travel, Michael Ashley Currin, Msn.com
Videos
Misc
- Christoffer asked which song to play before “Joyride” on his Facebook page for the very first time during this tour. It was the second gig on this tour – beside Minsk on March 12, where Christoffer did not play any traditional song as there was no time for rehearsals.
- Roxette was a trending topic (TT) on Twitter yesterday while they were playing in Cape Town!
- 7,000 people attended the gig
Reviews
IT IS easy to see why organisers of Roxette’s South African leg of their Charm School world tour had to add an extra gig to their Cape Town schedule. The Swedish popsters had fans rocking to a number of their old hits and a smattering of new material.
The first concert took place yesterday in Cape Town, Grand West Arena, and Heidi van Rensburg has sent us a report of the show. Have a nice read!
My fascination with Roxette started when I was 12 years old back in 1989. When I received a ticket for their C!B!B! show in Cape Town for February 1995 I was ecstatic! With South Africa that became a democratic country as recently as 1994, we had no international bands come to our shores before, but Roxette had the determination and courage to visit here. And what a show it was!! I could not believe that they were actually performing live on stage in front of me.
Unforgettable and priceless….I remember Marie asking the crowd in the stadium of about 30 000 people to sing Happy birthday to Per as it was his birthday on that day. After that show I promised myself that if I ever had the opportunity to see Roxette live again, I would grab it with both hands!!
When Per announced the world tour dates on 2 November 2010, I had to read twice to realise that they would include South Africa in the tour. I was beside myself and bought my ticket within the first 5 minutes of release. With the tour dates growing my amount of concert tickets also grew. I ended up with tickets for 4 out of the 7 shows in South Africa. My opportunity finally came in 2011 to see my favourite all time band live again.
Here is a snapshot of my concert experience.
8 May 2011: Roxette live in Cape Town.
Excitement was in the air. Sound check alone through locked closed doors sounded amazing. Per and Marie with the Roxette band played to a sold out show of 7000 tonight. All the classic Roxette songs were played like at the other shows so far, with “Stars” replacing “Silver Blue” as in South America.
The 3 new songs “Way out”, “She’s got nothing on” and “Only when I dream” were performed and sounded really fantastic live. The same energy as on the album is somehow also carried through to the live concert. With a front row spot I really were treated a professional pop/rock concert. The almost two hours flew by way too quickly. Ms Fredriksson’s performance was exceptional. I refuse to post a live clip of the concert as no live clip will ever do justice to Roxette live on stage.
A Swedish camera team were recording some of the songs (and I don’t know how confidential this is) and we were told that they are making a Roxette Comeback documentary and they are planning on recording one of the upcoming live shows later in the year for a live DVD release.
My evening just got better when two of my girlfriends and I had the opportunity to meet the whole band as well as Per and Marie after the show just as they were about to depart back to their hotel. Totally unexpected and by chance this happened. It was great to meet these legendary superstars in person.
One thing is for sure: the band is in top form and are really fit. I as a 30 something struggled to keep up at their pace! I really applaud Marie for doing this after so many years away from the world stage. It must have been such a daunting challenge to make this comeback. And what a comeback!
Per Gessle has this amazing gift to write really great music and together with Marie they just create and deliver something called “Roxette-ism addiction”. I’ve been an addict for 22 years and I can’t seem to kick this habit. Per and Marie, I hope you are thinking about the follow up to “Charm School” because this Joyride is far from over!
Ok, one day to rest and then back for concert no 2 in Cape Town!
. We will consider all comments written until the 15th of May, 2011, 23:59 CET time.
