Tour

Roxette XXX Tour – Durban, South Africa (ICC Arena) – February 2 – #63

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Yep, #63. You might be wondering why our numbers differ from what Mr. G gives the shows. It’s not that we have problems with Maths. It’s that we give numbers only to real XXX concerts, while Per also counts corporate gigs. There were 2 of them last year, so that’s why Johannesburg was #64 and Durban #65 for him. In the Tele2 corporate gig article we wrote more in details about it, so check it out, if you want to understand our point of view. We stick to our numbering system, so sorry for any inconvenience it may cause.

Now about the show in Durban, regardless the number it got. The arena wasn’t completely full, but it was quite packed with people representing all generations. It was again a seated event with some better looking chairs than those in Johannesburg. Unfortunately, the system was almost the same in Durban. The audience got stuck to their seats being hesitant about standing up. No, standing up at a Roxette gig is not dumb. Not at all! At least the magic uptempo hits got many people on their feet. Also, it can never go wrong with the clapping choreography in Dressed For Success. The crowd was in for fun this time as well and from Joyride on they didn’t sit down, but people were even more reserved than in Joburg. Hey guys and girls, after Joyride there are only 2 songs left… Next time start the party already at the first chord in Sleeping In My Car!

The show had its effect on the audience anyway. They loved the great sound, the fab lighting and what Roxette is about live: 100% live music + 120% energy (on stage). The whole band was rocking, Marie inspired the crowd with her voice, strength and presence and Per was bouncing around much, hitting the right strings, playing the correct chords. People lost their voices by the end of the concert and The Look was definitely a highlight. It’s still the best closing song, I would say.

Mr. Griesel’s thoughts after the show:

DURBAN UPDATE: Oh yea, a great evening with loads of ppl in a very hot and sweaty Durban. Lovely crowd and a very focused band made this night one to remember. We had a blast. Thanx everyone for showing up and singing along. Vids by Åsa coming up tomorrow. /P.

Next stop is Port Elizabeth on Friday (5th February). Let’s see what happens at a show-with-no-seats-around in South Africa! C’mon people, time to start partying! It’s only 3 gigs left in your country.

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12;
Big Concerts photos: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6;
Julian Carelsen Photography
Underground Press review
Jed Kenny Photography

Videos
Instavids:
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

Setlist

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
The Heart Shaped Sea
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Suikerbossie)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Roxette XXX Tour – Johannesburg, South Africa (Ticketpro Dome) – January 31 – #62

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5 months passed since the last XXX gig happened in Drammen and now Roxette found themselves in South Africa. The band is there to perform 5 shows. How great it is to start the real XXX anniversary year with a sold out gig in Johannesburg!

It wasn’t the first time Roxette played in the city. First they appeared there during the Crash! Boom! Bang! World Tour in 1995 and played for 60000 people. Fortunately, that concert was filmed and the Crash! Boom! Live! video was born. However, we would still love to have it as a DVD release. The 2nd time the band performed in Joburg was in 2012. Now 4 years later Roxette was back at Ticketpro Dome to entertain 13000 people.

Some hours before showtime Mr. G posted a pic on Instagram from backstage to show us all the boxes of their gear. He then posted on Roxette’s Facebook page about his virtues:

JOHANNESBURG UPDATE: Great long soundcheck. Loads of mistakes from yours truly. Will I ever learn the chords to Dangerous??? Time will tell. See you soon, folks! /P.

Dea and Mister Magnus also shared pics on Instagram (Dea, Magnus) of what they saw during soundcheck from the stage. And after the show Dea posted a nice collage of the preparations on her Facebook page.

roxette_in_johannesburg_pic_by_Johan_Breytenbach
Pic by Johan Breytenbach

Families, couples, friends gathered at the venue, different generations attended the concert to fulfill their childhood dream or check something off their bucket list. First the crowd saw Watershed on stage, they were the support act. The audience enjoyed their performance, which is good, because they will open for Roxette at the next 4 shows as well. Roxette hit the stage a bit after 21:15 local time.

The arena was fully packed as it was a sold out show. There were two big screens on the sides to make sure no one in the very back misses what happens on stage. Funny how the seats were tied to each other. We thought it was useless, since no one would have wanted to use them. Oh well… Security guys were the least cooperative and they didn’t let people stand up. They were asking people (not too politely) to sit down all the time. Big Concerts should work on it at the remaining seated shows and tell them to let anyone stand up. When it’s boogie time, it’s boogie time, you know. It was this time only from Joyride on when everyone was on their feet.

Marie, Per and the band were in top form like there was no tour break. They were full of energy and charmed their loud crowd. Besides Joburgers and South Africans from other cities, there were Roxers from Germany, Australia, Poland, Russia, Finland, the UK, etc. as well. Always good to have an international crowd!

The setlist didn’t change vs. 2015, so this means all evergreens were performed and also Crush On You was kept.

Blinds seem to be efficient to bring along only in Europe, since they were not present in Joburg. There were curtains in the background instead and the lights were projected on them.

Per’s words after the show:

JOBURG TONIGHT: Yes yes yes, what a crowd. Great evening, band was really tight even though we haven’t played together for a couple of months. Thanx for stopping by and singing along. Always a pleasure to be here, Joburg!!!! Vids coming up. /P.

Next stop is Durban on Tuesday (2nd February).

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16;
Twitter: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8;
Big Concerts photos: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6;
Gallo Images
rexfeatures.com
Getty Images
El Broide’s review
DK Expressions
ourfriends.co

Videos

Instavids:
Dressed For Success
Joyride
Dangerous
The Look

Setlist

roxette_in_johannesburg_pic_by_Sandra_Knospe
Pic by Sandra Knospe

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Scatterlings of Africa – Johnny Clegg)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

More tour dates for 2016 announced

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roxette_in_drammen_04
Photo: Patrícia Peres

Here’s a list of the summer schedule so far:

30.06 Zimny Stadium O, Bratislava, Slovakia
02.07 Burg Clam, Klam, Austria
15.07 Sparkassen Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany
21.07 Zitadelle, Berlin, Germany
23.07 Schlossplatz, Emmendingen, Germany
09.09 Ice Hall Arena, St Petersburg, Russia
11.09 Crockus Hall, Moscow, Russia

They were pouring on us like rain today – more tour dates for the neverending RoXXXette tour. In the middle of the night German newspaper “Rheinische Post” announced on their website that Roxette would be back in Germany in 2016 – with four concerts in total and one of them in the county of Nordrhein-Westfalen. The show is in SparkassenPark in Mönchengladbach on 15th July.

Some hours went by and we got one more date – surprise: Roxette will also be back in Russia for another show: On 11th September they are on stage in Moscow, Crocus Hall! We waited for the official press release all morning, but nothing happened, until Per kind of confirmed the former dates by sharing the news and telling us that there was more to come SOON.

More hours went by and more dates came – two more shows suddenly popped up on the LiveNation website: 21th July, Berlin, Zitadelle and 23th July, Emmendingen, Schlosspark.  All German shows are open air. The tickets for Emmendingen seem to be on sale from TOMORROW already – that’s what the LiveNation site says.

At the same time the second Russian date appeared: 9th September, St. Petersburg.

20 minutes after we shared the news on our Facebook page the press release from “Team Rox” finally found its way to Facebook and mailboxes. Surprise – they actually only confirmed the dates we had found during the morning hours. The press release clearly states that “more dates are to come”.

And here we are, still waiting for the dates for South America (shows which are supposed to be during April) and hopefully some dates for North America and/or Canada. And in case the “Rheinische Post” was correct there is still missing one date for Germany.

Exciting times!

Update: Added date in Austria.

 

Roxette in Bratislava, Slovakia 2016

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As Slovakian news sites informed about it on Friday, Roxette will perform in Bratislava on their XXX tour in 2016. Save the date, 30th June! Everyone was expecting the South American dates to be announced at last (rumor has it the band is there in April) and then bang, a European date for June leaked out. We love such surprises though! The concert will be organized at Zimný štadión Ondreja Nepelu, a stadium primarily used for ice hockey and has the capacity of 10 200 for concerts.

We expected Roxette to play in Europe only at festivals next year, so it’s a fantastic surprise for all European Roxers. It’s not yet known whether it’s only one show on the continent for 2016 or there are more dates to be announced soon. We hope for some more of course!

Eventim also confirmed the news. Tickets for the Bratislava gig go on sale at 10 am CET on 18th November.

Roxette_in_Bratislava

Facebook event of the show can be found HERE.

Roxette XXX Tour – Vasa, Finland (Wasa Open Air) – August 15 – #60

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Roxette’s 60th gig on this tour happened in Vasa, Finland last night. This time there were 2 ”support acts” to warm up the crowd. No, unfortunately, Eskobar wasn’t one of them. The first was Frida Andersson at 18:00, then came Alphaville at 20:00. Yes, Alphaville. Do you remember the ’80s? It wasn’t only the decade of Milli Vanilli, Modern Talking and Roxette with shoulder pads and great hairdos, but it was also the brightest era for the band that constantly asked if you really wanted to live forever, forever young.

roxette_in_vasa_01
Pic by Mari Pudas

If they succeeded with the warming up? Well, it took a bit of time for the crowd to clap along, but after Roxette came up on stage at 22:00 and kicked off the show with Sleeping In My Car, the audience did feel the heat.

The concert was expected to be sold out, but there were still some Golden Circle spots and standing tickets left. All in all, the planned number of visitors was 11,000 and in the end more than 10,000 people came to see Roxette and party to their evergreens. Nothing to complain about.

It was an open air show and it was windy and cold, so many had to wear jackets. Of course, Marie was among the freezing ones and she was wearing a jacket, a scarf and gloves, plus she had the already well-known heaters turned on. Nevertheless, she had much fun on stage, smiling during the whole show and was singing perfectly. Per was on a high. While showing how fit he is, as usual, he hit the right strings on the guitar and his singing did the magic, too. The band showed their best as well. Dea joined Marie with a neverending smile and brilliant vocals, Chris and Magnus joined Per in going wild and Pelle and Clarence were rocking in the back.

The crowd appreciated Roxette came to visit them and realized they still rock. People were loud with their sing-alongs and were clapping hard. Those who were standing in the back could watch the 2 side screens, so they were charmed well enough, too. The crowd left the venue in high spirits. No other option after hearing an ass-kicking version of The Look.

On a side note, it was so windy in Vasa that at the end of the concert, while waving goodbye Per just showed his six-pack. This pic is by Evgeny Perekopskiy, but similar photos (even official ones) appeared here and there of this unique moment. Yeah, 10 minutes at the gym every other week still pays off. In a way. 😉

Per after the show:

VASA, FINLAND UPDATE: A great summer evening, nice temperature, beautiful sky light you’ll find up in the north, splendido people everywhere, a band eager to please. What can go wrong? Nothing! We had a blast. Thanx Vasa for taking care of us. Love to come back and play for you guys & dolls!!!! Anytime. Cheers, P.

Next stop is Elvefestivalen in Drammen, Norway on 22nd August. Can you believe that only 1 gig is left for 2015? Impossible! BUT the tour goes on and on and on next year! South African tour stops are out and surely, not much time left until we get to know even more dates.

 

Articles and photos

Beauty pics by Teppo Kangas Photography on Wasa Open Air Facebook page (you can play with the panorama pic on Virtual Finland)
Iltalehti.fi
Vasabladet (another article is available if you subscribe)
Pohjalainen: 1; 2;
svenska.yle.fi
Niclas Glasberg Photography

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25;

Videos

Stars
Crush On You
Fading Like A Flower
Joyride

 

Setlist

roxette_in_vasa_02
Pic by Evgeny Perekopskiy

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride (intro: Säkkijärven polkka)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Thanx for the help with the setlist, Evgeny Perekopskiy!