World Tour 2011

Per Gessle: I’m pretty quick compared to my wife

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The United Arab Emirates gulfnews.com has recently published a short interview with Per Gessle regarding coming Roxette’s concert in Dubai on May 20th.

Do you enjoy playing your old tunes?
To tell you the truth, I hate rehearsing it, but I love to play it for the crowd, because as soon as you have them in front of you it turns into magic.

You’ve been together for so long. What’s your secret to longevity?
We just enjoy working together. The same goes for the musicians we have with us. We have had the same producer since we made the first record and we’re enjoying ourselves.

So, no bust-ups?
We’re human, and of course we have our fights, but at the end of the day we have the same ambition and we just enjoy being together.

Finally – be honest! – how long does it take you to get ready for a night out?
It takes about 15 minutes. I’m pretty quick compared to my wife!

Read more at gulfnews.com

What Having struck an emotional chord with anyone who’s seen Pretty Woman (i.e. everyone), Swedish duo Roxette are coming to Dubai as part of their Worldwide Tour 2011. Expect to sing along to the likes of Joyride and Dressed for Success, as well as tracks from their latest album Charm School.
When< May 20 Where Shaikh Rashid Hall, Dubai World Trade Centre
How Tickets cost Dh300 (silver standing), Dh450 (gold standing), Dh550 (platinum seating). For more information, call 04 447 3863

Thanks to David Di Troia.

94.2 Jacaranda phone interview with Per Gessle

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Have a listen to a nice phone interview with Per Gessle that was broadcasted on 94.2 Jacaranda radio station – one of the media partners of the South African Roxette tour – the other day.

Janina, one of the radio station’s journalists who did the phone interview, is said to be the biggest Roxette fan (I’m wondering what it really means to be the biggest fan…). Her workmate secretly filmed her singing “The look”. Fan’s life is tough.

South African press: Roxette still dressed for success

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Roxette’s Per Gessle opens up about the band’s past, his life-long love of music, singer Marie Fredriksson’s near-fatal brain tumour, and writing hit records.

People love our songs, they seem to be part of people’s lives – which is just amazing. The songs I write are based on the music I listened to when I was very young – music from the ’60s, ’70s – so everything I do is basically melody oriented. I think also it has helped that we’re not American, we’re not English so we’ve always been a little bit offside. We’re a Swedish band with a Swedish manager, a Swedish producer, so we’ve done everything outside the global music industry and I think that’s really helped us out. There have been times when people have said: ‘You have to move to New York or LA, or at least move to London’, but we’ve never wanted to do that.

We always listen to our gut feeling. It was the same when I wrote the new album, ‘Charm School’. My ambition was not to write a best-selling album. I just wanted to write a great album for Marie – these are the songs I want her to sing. If it works commercially, then hallelujah. If it doesn’t, we’ve still done a great album.

When we perform, we’re one of those bands who don’t use computers, vocals on tape, or click tracks or whatever – it’s just 100 percent live, like when we started out. For us that’s so much more fun – sometimes a song goes too fast, sometimes it goes too slow – and every show is unique. We try to make it interesting and enjoyable for ourselves.

More at iafrica.com