Sven Lindström

Marie Fredriksson tribute on Nordic Rox #2

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As Sven promised in the first episode, here is the next Marie tribute on Nordic Rox, Sirius XM. Per and Sven start with Crash! Boom! Bang! Per tells they were recording the album in Capri for 6-7 weeks. Per always loved this song, because it’s so fragile and it’s so much Marie for him. Marie singing these big ballads is just mesmerizing. It’s a perfect Roxette song. Sven asks Per if he knew he would write it differently because of already knowing how Marie can deliver such songs. Per replies that he has always been a melody guy, so he could expand the melody a lot when he knew that Marie was going to sing it. For all the songs he wrote he made demos, singing them himself and some of the demos he had a really hard time to do, but it was piece of cake for Marie. If she liked them. Sometimes she didn’t like a song, then they didn’t record it. It’s natural. You have to really like what you are doing. CBB is like a trademark Roxette song. Sven says it also became a centerpiece on the live shows. According to Mr. G it’s a beautiful song and great production as well. It still sounds cool.

After CBB, the guys are talking about Roxette’s first two world tours. Sven says the CBB world tour (1994-1995) was not as big as Joyride (1991-1992), but almost. Per says it was big enough. It was different. The first world tour was when the band exploded and the tour got extended on the go. CBB was only like 100 shows. Here they start laughing. Sven says that was the first time when Roxette performed in South Africa. Per remembers they played big football stadiums. He also tells that the Crash tour was amazing for him, because they built up a great catalogue of hits, so they could make really wonderful concerts. Marie was amazing and they had a great band. They worked for basically 7 years in a row and those were the last 2 years of that period. They had their little peak there, Per thinks.

Sven asks Per if he knew in advance that Marie was such a rocker on stage. Mr. G says he doesn’t think so. Even Marie herself didn’t realize it before either. It just happened when they started making videos. When she performed her own songs with her own band, she was pretty boring on stage. She was sitting by the piano, like a singer songwriter. But suddenly, she just exploded on stage in the early videos. She always had this acting ambition. She felt very comfortable in front of the camera and eventually, she became an amazing performer on stage. That is also one of the reasons why Roxette became so big. They could deliver live as well, not only in the studio. They were a great live band, great musicians, Swedish guys and girls, all of them and of course, Marie as a centerpiece of everything. In the pop world it’s never been natural that even though a band has hits, most of them can’t deliver on stage. It takes a certain sort of quality to be able to perform for 55,000 people and have them entertained for 2 hours.

The next song they are talking about is Wish I Could Fly. Sven tells his special memory from later, from the Night of the Proms tour in Germany. The symphony orchestra was playing a piece to introduce Roxette and that was a Scandinavian piece which turned to WICF and Marie entered the stage from the floor, rising from there. When people realized that this classical piece turned into Roxette and saw Marie entering the stage through the floor, everyone stood up and started cheering. It was in 2009. Per explains Marie became ill in 2002 and she had a break for 7 years, so NOTP was the first comeback tour they did.

When Per wrote the songs for Have A Nice Day, he had a couple of years writing songs in different directions. Dance tracks, guitar tracks, electro music. Wish I Could Fly was just different to anything else. He was very surprised that the record label picked it as the first single for the album, because it was so different to what they had done before. Looking back now it feels like it’s a great part of te Roxette puzzle. Per really likes the song and Marie of course delivers it so well. Mr. G likes the lyrics and the way Marie sings it, as well as the arrangement. It’s so 90’s to him with the drum loop that goes on and on. It’s got a great riff too, almost like a Led Zeppelin riff. Sven adds that the song has also got an atmosphere to it that suits Marie’s voice so perfectly. She adds something magical to it. Per agrees. He says it’s a tough song to play live though, because it’s based on that machine loop that goes on and on and it’s hard to play it if you are not using sequencers and stuff like that. You can cheat a little bit if you want to, but they never did. The guys are laughing again.

The next song is from the album that could have been the last Roxette record, as Sven says. Milk And Toast And Honey from Room Service. The album was recorded in 2000. Marie was doing a solo album in Swedish and touring in the summer. She was planning to make more music with Micke. Per adds he is a great piano player. So Marie wasn’t really into making a new Roxette record, but Per wrote a lot of songs and they started to work on the album. Per personally thinks that Room Service contains some of their greatest works. There are some really outstanding songs on it. Sven agrees. He thinks it sounds great and it’s got a cool vibe to it. Mr. G says they used a new engineer, so they got a little bit different sound to it. They had basically the same players though. Jonas Isacsson plays amazing guitar. Marie sounded amazing especially on MATAH. According to Per, this is the best track on the album, because it’s a ballad, but not like a typical huge Roxette ballad, like Spending My Time or Listen To Your Heart. This is like a tiny little ballad that Marie just delivers and it’s beautiful.

By this time Marie already had 2 kids and family was much in focus for her. She wasn’t really interested in touring the world or promoting. She wanted to be at home with her family. Who could blame her for that? They had been doing it internationally for 12 years at that time, so Per thinks she wanted to have a break. The album was done very much by Clarence Öfwerman and Per and then they did a big European tour with that album as well.

Sven mentions the story of Marie arriving to the recordings of MATAH with a taxi and leaving right after recording her vocals. Per tells Marie’s vocals had been recorded already before, but he wanted her to do some different takes on the last chorus to change the melody, to bring the song home. So he called Marie and she came by taxi and kept the taxi waiting outside the studio, sang those 3 lines and she was out again, in the taxi and back home. Per is laughing while he is telling this story. Sven thinks it’s quite cheeky, but Per says that’s the way it was. Marie delivered, then Per and Clarence summed it up and finished the record.

After playing MATAH, this part of the tribute is over.

 

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to add a direct link to the program, but search for Nordic Rox and go some ”shift forwards” into the show to hear Sven and Per talking.

Thanx for the technical support to János Tóth.

Marie Fredriksson tribute on Nordic Rox

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Sirius XM made some programs available online and a little Nordic Rox is also among those free programs now. Sven Lindström and Per Gessle recorded a Marie Fredriksson tribute for Nordic Rox. They did that in Stockholm in Live Nation’s office. They were sitting in the ABBA room and Sven was joking that it’s because everyone else wanted to be in the Roxette room, so they couldn’t go there.

Sven and Per are talking about Marie with mixed feelings. Per tried to pick songs that for him represent what Marie was all about in Roxette. It’s a big palette of knowledge that she gave to the band. Sven says Marie and Per are a bit like opposites to each other. Per says they shared rehearsal studios, Per was in a band, Gyllene Tider and Marie was in another band. She was screaming and shouting and she was a little bit like a hippie. They were pretty different. Per was very organized and ambitious while Marie was an ”anything goes” type.

Sven asks Per if he remembers a specific moment when he realized Marie’s potential. Per says it was day 1, when he heard Marie singing. She was singing like no one else, even back then. Per’s band took off and became successful pretty quick and they invited Marie to sing on a Christmas song for them. Later Marie left her band and started a solo career and she ended up at the same record label as Per and his band were at, EMI Records in Stockholm. Sven tells Marie had several bands before her solo career. Strul and MaMas Barn. He says Marie and Per socialized in Halmstad. Per says they were very good friends. They never had a romance, they were more like sister and brother. Marie looked up to him because he was successful and in the music industry and Per liked her because she had this voice and she was a wonderful, very generous person. They were just hanging out, watching Dynasty on TV in Per’s apartment, playing the piano and the guitar and started writing songs together. In Roxette they very rarely wrote together, but in those early days they wrote together. They were both based in Halmstad, but Marie moved to Stockholm pretty quick. She started a relationship with GT’s producer, Lasse Lindbom and they started writing songs together and that became her first two solo albums in the early 80’s.

Since Marie and Per were very good friends, they shared this dream to do something together one day. Maybe do something in English together, because they both wanted to work internationally. So eventually, in 1986 Per wrote a song and they released it in Sweden and it became a big song for them in the summer of ’86. It was Neverending Love. They released it under the name Roxette that is coming from a Dr. Feelgood song. Because Neverending Love was a big success, EMI wanted them to make an album, so in no time Per translated 12 of his songs he had written in Swedish. He intended to release those on his third solo album which didn’t happen in the end. That became the first Roxette album. I Call Your Name is the song Sven and Per play on Nordic Rox and Per says the original Swedish title of it was Jag hör din röst (I hear your voice). It was one of the first tracks they recorded for the album. For Per it was like a turning point, because then he realized that something was happening to his music. They had a new producer Per never worked with before, Clarence Öfwerman. Per says Clarence made his songs danceable and groovy. Per comes from the power pop scene and it’s always been a lot of guitars, but it suddenly became different. And also the way Marie was singing, it was like a totally new chapter for Per. Mr. G thinks I Call Your Name is a really cool song. Their ambition was that Marie would sing and Per would write, but they also had the idea that both of them sing in songs. Most of the songs became duets this way. Which is sort of the Roxette trademark.

After ICYN Sven tells Marie and Per had T-shirts with the slogan ”Today Sweden, tomorrow the world”. Per says they were pretty ambitious. With the shirts they were having fun. They always liked slogans like what Stiff Records, an indie label in the 70’s had. E.g. ”If they’re dead, we’ll sign them.”

The guys get back to Marie’s vocal abilities. Per says he always felt very limited by his own voice. In Gyllene Tider he was the lead singer and it sounded OK, but he just felt that he could write bigger songs than he could sing himself. So to write songs for Marie was liberating from a songwriter’s point of view. The more the years went by, the more he customized his songs for Marie’s abilities, e.g. It Must Have Been Love.

The next song they play is Fading Like A Flower. Per says it was a big song for them and he chose this because it’s a typical example of a standard song. It’s Marie who makes this song work, the way she sings it. Also how it’s produced. Per thinks it’s not the best song in the world. When he sings the demo, it’s boring. Marie had this enormous capacity that she could sing the telephone book and make it interesting. It’s very rare. Per says he was very lucky as a writer to have that voice to work with. Looking back now, they did 10 studio albums and he wishes that Marie would have sung everything with Roxette. Per was singing a lot of songs with Roxette as well, but Marie was such an amazing singer. Especially in the early days. They were not thinking about keys or modulations, they just did it and she was singing it.

After FLAF Sven asks Per if there is a way to describe Marie’s qualities as a singer. Per says she was a very complete singer, she could basically sing anything. It’s very rare that you can find a singer who can deliver a power pop song as well as a huge ballad. Some people are really great ballad singers, others are amazing for pop music, but it’s very rare that you find both ways. Marie could do anything. Per tells when they did MTV Unplugged, Marie was singing Aretha Franklin, but on tours they also did covers of other bands’ songs, because Marie could sing anything. Per was much more limited. From a writer’s point of view it was liberating for Per to be able to write songs like The Look, Joyride or Sleeping In My Car, which are basically 3-chord power pop songs, as well as to be able to write more sophisticated songs like Listen To Your Heart or It Must Have Been Love. Marie could do anything. Per says that compared to him, Marie also had a great pronounciation. One couldn’t really tell that she wasn’t English or American. Per adds that Marie was not inspired all the time, but when she was, everything went very quick. She just made the song her own and made the lyrics her own and you could identify with her immediately. It was just a pleasure.

The next song is Stars. Sven says it was an unusual direction, because if he thinks back, Marie was more of a blues girl. Per says she loved blues and jazz. Sven jokes that Per doesn’t have many blues notes in his body. Per laughs and says he comes from the world of The Beatles, The Monkees and Tom Petty, the 3-chord pop songs and new wave. But he thinks that was the good thing that Marie took his songs and gave them a new vitamin injection. She came in from a different angle.

Getting back to Stars, and the album, Have A Nice Day, Per says they had a couple of years off after touring and promoting for 7.5 years. Marie had her second child, Per made a solo album and worked with Gyllene Tider too. Then he started writing for HAND which was recorded in Marbella, Spain. Time went by and the whole dance music scene has changed a bit, so they tried to do different things. They used different musicians. Stars is a little bit more dancey, Pet Shop Boys-ey. Sven says Europoppy. Per says it’s like the European dance scene at the time, which was pretty far away from the classic Roxette sound, but Marie could deliver that too. Mr. G says he loves that song because it got a great melody and Marie is just the greatest on this one. Sven says the song has a fun, unusual, special video to it. Per tells it was the first time they worked together with Anton Corbijn and shooting the video was hilarious. Regarding the album Per adds that he wrote so many songs in different directions, so HAND got dance songs, rock songs, acoustic songs, a little bit of everything. He thinks it’s because he spent so many years writing, he couldn’t really decide. Haha.

After Stars, this part of the Marie tribute program is over on Nordic Rox, but Sven says they will be back with more episodes.

 

Unfortunately, I can’t add a direct link to the program, but search for Nordic Rox and go 5 ”shift forward” into the show to hear Sven and Per talking.

Gyllene Tider – GT40 Live – New Year’s Eve on Swedish radio P4

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On New Year’s Eve, Swedish radio P4 broadcast Gyllene Tider’s Ullevi concert recorded on 3rd August 2019 on the guys’ 40th anniversary tour. A pre-recorded studio talk with Per and Anders, as well as Sven Lindström was also on air.

In the beginning of the program Sven tells it was Per and MP who started a band first, Grape Rock. Per says they realized it quite early that they needed more people for a band. Then came Micke Syd and Janne Carlsson and that was the first setup of Gyllene Tider. Later Janne was changed, Anders and Göran joined them and they were complete.

Sven asks the guys what made them so special. Anders says it was a magical chemical mix. Per says 40 years is a long time, it wasn’t the same in their heydays, but when they later reunited, they became better and better every time, in 1996, 2004, 2013. That chemistry became more and more special and more and more magical. Now everyone thinks their 2019 tour was the best both musically and also in terms of how much fun it was.

Sven introduces the Ullevi show and says the stadium was cooking and it was a really special gig.

The guys don’t talk in between each song, so one can enjoy the live music as if we are there at the concert. In Ullevi, at the best show on tour.

After Puls they are talking again. Sven says it’s probably a dream for everyone who starts a band that they one day perform in Ullevi in front of 60,000 people. Per confirms it’s magical to play there and Anders also thinks it’s powerful and since Ullevi is not a usual stadium, the construction makes you feel that it’s even more full than it actually is. The first time Anders was at a concert in Ullevi it was David Bowie (1983). Per saw The Rolling Stones there first (1982). For GT it was the third time they played the stadium. The first show they did there was in 2004. Anders remembers that it was a pure energy shock. Almost 60,000 people were standing in front of them and all their love and energy was floating towards them on stage without any filter. He says it puts one into tears. Per says he is not as sensitive as Anders, he doesn’t really experience it being different to be playing at Ullevi or at Brottet in Halmstad in front of 11,000 people. One is focusing the same way and you work the same way, but at the same time, everything is bigger. It’s always magical to play at Ullevi though.

Before Flickorna på TV2 is playing, the guys are shortly talking about Gyllene Tider’s record contract Kjell Andersson (EMI) offered them in 1979. Per explains they had only 6 gigs before they became No. 1. with Flickorna på TV2. After their breakthrough it was still difficult to organize concerts, not knowing how good it would work out and it was a tough job for tour leaders too to find out what is right and what is wrong when it came to organizing. It was a learning by doing case. Flickorna på TV2 became a hit anyway and GT became Sweden’s hottest band. The guys say they were so young and it was strange that suddenly girls started screaming and they were stalking them in their gardens.

Before Kung av sand the boys are back again. Sven says there are 2 songs that defined GT in the ’90s, Kung av sand and Det är över nu. Per says Kung av sand became their big ballad, like Listen To Your Heart is for Roxette. Earlier they didn’t have such a big one. They of course had När alla vännerna gått hem and Honung och guld, but those were smaller. Kung av sand is majestic and it was fantastic to play it live again. The song’s energy spreads out to the crowd and it comes back from the audience. It’s wonderful.

Before the 1st encore, Sven, Anders and Per are talking about Tylö sun, which is the Swedish version of The Rivieras’ California Sun (1964). First the guys recorded it for a compilation album. It became a real summer hit for them, they Gyllene Tiderized it. Göran’s Farfisa fits it so well. Anders says he thinks there is a nice organ sound in the original as well, but Per can’t remember it. Sven says they check it after the program. (There is organ in The Rivieras’ version too.)

Per says the beginning of the ’80s was a very special period for them. They were 20-21, Göran was 18 and they got a huge attention. Sven says what happened with Gyllene Tider didn’t happen in 10-15 years in Sweden. Per says in 1980-81 they didn’t really realize what a big thing it was. It was the same with Roxette, they just didn’t realize it. Only now when they are looking back at the numbers and films they can get it.

The guys are getting back to the live show and after that, the concert plays till the end without a break. När alla vännerna gått hem is the last song. Sven, Anders and Per say goodbye.

There is only one hit they skipped in the broadcast: (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän. If there weren’t news at 8 pm, they would have probably played that one too.

Setlist

1. Skicka ett vykort, älskling
2. Juni, juli, augusti
3. Det hjärta som brinner
4. (Hon vill ha) Puls
5. Flickorna på TV2
6. Vandrar i ett sommarregn
7. (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän
8. Det kändes inte som maj
9. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
10. Tuffa tider

BAND PRESENTATION

11. Låt denna trumslagarpojke sjunga!
12. Kung av sand
13. En sten vid en sjö i en skog
14. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
15. Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly
16. (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet
17. Tylö Sun

Encore 1

18. Billy
19. Det är över nu
20. Gå & fiska!

Encore 2

21. När vi två blir en
22. Sommartider
23. När alla vännerna gått hem

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Quotes + pics around Europe in 2018

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When the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour ended in 2018, I wrote this as a closing thought in my last concert review: ”Now fingers crossed for a fat tour photo book full of beautiful pictures, a live CD and a DVD! AND an announcement of any PG-related tour in the not too far future! GT40, anyone?” Oh well… except for a live CD everything else is there to enjoy. Haha.

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Quotes + pics around Europe in 2018 is a photo book consisting of 144 pages which also includes the whole last show of the tour (in Gothenburg, Sweden) on DVD. Together with Anders Roos’ amazing pictures you’ll find interviews with Per and all band members. The edition is limited to 1000 copies, all of them signed by Per Gessle. The book comes in the size of an 7” inch single, 17 x 17 cm. Each book also holds a piece of the printing press plate which makes every book unique.

The book looks beautiful already on the outside. I like the color choice of it, as well as the Per photo appearing on the cover and hey, there is Mr. G’s signature too. It’s actually a box and inside you will find the book. The book’s binding is a bit strange. I’m not a pro in book binding, so I don’t know how this type of bindery is called, but it’s used creatively, the way Per Gessle’s Roxette is printed on it. On the cover of the book you can see another wonderful Per Gessle shot and on the back cover you can see the number of your limited edition copy. Your number / 1000. Don’t be surprised if you bump into an edition that has XXX/1000 written on the back. Some extra copies were printed above the 1000 limited edition for reviewers, give-aways to friends, etc. All those are marked by XXX/1000. The rest is divided among several resellers. So from the official resellers you will get a book with a number / 1000 upon order.

When I first got to know about what would be included in this limited edition goodie, I thought I might have misunderstood something. A piece of the printing press plate. I thought there would be a print-out pic, similarly to the RoXXXette On The Road’s Roxers edition, but it turned out I read it right. It’s indeed a piece of the printing press plate. Nice addition! It’s glued inside, under the cover. Be very careful when you open the book, because this part is sticked together with a velcro fastener. The DVD is in the back of the book and there you also have to be careful when opening it, because the same type of velcro fastener is used on the inside of the back cover too.

As the title says, the book contains quotes. Sven Lindström asked Per and all band members and they shared their thoughts on the tour, the preparations, song choices, the creative process and they also talked about how they had got asked by Per to join him on tour. This is first of all a photo book, so of course there are many pictures of Per and all band members, the crew, taken backstage, at the rehearsals, on stage, in town, in hotel lobbies, on the bus and other strange places. Anders Roos obviously had an all access pass, so he could follow the guys and girls anywhere. This is how we can now see fab photos of Per and Co. in places where we would otherwise never see them. 144 pages make the book thick, but one can flick through very quickly. I would happily flick through at least another 144 pages full of such great pics.

Do you remember? The first song on the setlist was The Look! When the DVD starts and I hear the intro, I suddenly want to be there again, in the front row and listening to those magical Roxette hits live. The DVD contains the complete last show (16th November 2018, Gothenburg). Complete gig is not really true though, because the talking parts are not in there, at least most of them. No band presentation either. It’s all focusing on the songs themselves.

I remember several concerts where Anders Roos was present, taking pictures and I saw him fixing cameras here and there and everywhere. Now one can check out all camera angles on the DVD. Cool thing! The whole vibe of the shot material helps to relive our memories. There are far-away recordings, close-ups, moves that turn into slow mo, as well as shaking camera during uptempo songs while Per is doing his trademark left leg stomping. Lovely to see the interactions between the band members and Per and how they all pay attention to each other. Hopefully, one day we can see them all again on tour with Mr. G.

A trailer is available for the DVD HERE!

The book is officially out on 1st July, but you can already pre-order it e.g. HERE or at Ginza or Bengans. Don’t wait until it’s all sold out!

Per Gessle – Nio i topp is back!

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The so far last part of Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio P4 was broadcast on 25th December 2017. The program is back from 30th June! 9 more episodes will be on air and available to download and it’s of course again Sven Lindström joining Per to discuss Mr. G’s choice of songs. A must-listen-to podcast for all nerds!

The 9 new episodes will be the following:

  1. Gyllene Tider’s nine best songs (Part 1)
  2. Nine songs that have shaken my world
  3. Nine songs of which the cover became bigger than the original
  4. Nine best debut albums ever recorded
  5. Gyllene Tider’s nine best songs (Part 2)
  6. Nine singer / songwriters who reached all the way to Halmstad
  7. Nine best double albums of all time
  8. The nine best songs from 1971
  9. Nine Swedish hits

Don’t forget to tune in on Swedish Radio P4 this Sunday, 30th June at 12.03-13.00!