Patrícia Peres

Roxette XXX Tour – Bucharest, Romania (Arenele Romane) – May 17 – #29

by

After 2 days off, Roxette played in Bucharest tonight. The gates had been announced to be opened at 7 pm and the first support act, The Amsterdams to perform at 7:40 pm, then it would have been Eskobar’s time and Roxette would have hit the stage at 9 pm. The weather decided to rewrite the whole agenda though. Gates opened later and there was a long queue for about an hour to enter the open-air venue. When The Amsterdams were on stage, a heavy hailstorm arrived to Bucharest and changed everything. People started panicking and many of them ran towards the exit. Even the security guys told the people that because of the storm the show would be cancelled. Thank God, most people sticked to their places and wanted to see Roxette live, so they prayed for the storm to leave the Romanian capital and hoped for the show not being cancelled in the end. When the situation needed some explanation, Per himself posted this on Roxette’s Facebook page:

RAIN IN BUCHAREST: The Rox show is slightly late due to the heavy rain and the majestic thunder but will start very very soon. Have to get rid of the water from the mixing console, light projectors etc. And we needed a hairdryer to get Pelle’s snaredrum back in shape! It’s all coming to place now. Thanx for waiting, folks! /P.

Some left comments under Per’s post that it would be great if they could cancel the show and do it tomorrow. Hello? It doesn’t work like this… I mean it’s understandable that the heavy storm made a lot of people leave, feeling the situation was dangerous and they were afraid of the storm itself, but the rest of the crowd was still there waiting, holding on tight to their plans to see their beloved band. No storm could stop them waiting for experiencing a great concert. The crew did their best and they made it possible for Roxette to charm the audience with their performance. Hats off, guys! Unfortunately, after all the delay and damage, Eskobar didn’t have the chance to play, but they enjoyed watching the Rox gig from the crowd.

The closest followers of Roxette got a fab surprise from Marie and Per: they appeared in white outfits on stage. This time Marie wasn’t barefoot, but she was wearing a pair of white shoes. She was still freezing, though, as it was quite cold after the thunderstorm. Per had 3 different shirts with PER, ROX and XXX written on the left arm, but he missed buying some more fitting shoes, so he had those ones he is wearing with his black outfits. They both looked awesome anyway! White is the new black! Keep those clothes for the next shows, Ms Effe and Mr G!

All in all, it turned out to be a night to remember for those who waited patiently and were partying to Roxette’s greatest hits. One could think the setlist got shorter, but no. The band played all 17 songs they performed on their past 2 gigs.

Per & Co. after the show:

BUCHAREST: Oh yea! After all that rain came shine! Great crowd, a band on its toes, all in all a fab evening. Thanx everyone for a wonderful happening. Vids to follow. Cheers, P&Co.

 

Next gig is on Tuesday (19th May) in Budapest, Hungary.

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7;

Dragos Stoica
infomusic.ro
Alex Chelba Photography

Videos

Instavideos:
It Must Have Been Love
Listen To Your Heart
How Do You Do!

 

Setlist

roxette_in_bucharest
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

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Thanx to all who kept us updated during the waiting time and after the show.

Roxette XXX Tour – Madrid, Spain (Palacio Vistalegre) – May 13 – #27

by

After a most awesome opening gig in Milan last Sunday, the European tour leg’s second show happened in Madrid. Many started wondering if Spain can beat Italy. People are loud there, too, but it felt like Milan was a tough act to follow. Not that it makes sense to compare one concert to another, since each gig is special and unique. The venue in the Spanish capital was a much bigger one, appr. 6000 people attended the show. The concert wasn’t sold out, but the arena looked quite packed.

Lots of fans had been waiting all day outside the venue to be the first ones to enter Palacio Vistalegre in the evening. This was the first Euro show with the support act Eskobar. (Read the interview Judith did with them some days ago.)

Roxette was to hit the stage at 21:30, but the show started only appr. 30 minutes later. Mañana (=tomorrow) is a frequently used word in Spain, they love taking it easy, but you shouldn’t be late when there is another show mañana in another city. Fans started worrying about the setlist being shortened because of the delayed start and they were right. 17 songs were played, the band skipped Almost Unreal.

The most common expressions regarding the concert used by the Spaniards are ”grandes” and ”conciertazo” meaning the band was absolutely great and it was an awesome concert. Per was extremely energetic, jumping and stomping even more than in Milan and joking all the time. Marie and Dea charmed the audience with a perfect Watercolours In The Rain performance. Magnus and Chris were so much on a high that at a point Magnus even fell on his bum and Chris dropped his guitar. Haha, pure rock & roll! Christoffer played ”Viva España” as the intro to Joyride and it worked very well with the cheering Spanish crowd.

Spanish fans never disappoint, they were singing their hearts out during the whole show and all the international fans who also attended the concert joined them. They were onehelluva loud crowd! As usual, Spanish hardcore Roxers prepared some fun. Instead of wigs this time they were wearing chicken hats. It surely made the band smile and we’ll probably get to see them in some short vids on Roxette’s Facebook page.

Per & Co. after the show:

MADRID! OH YEA! Fab gig tonite in front of the loudest crowd since I don’t know when! We had a blast and even did a jam session at the very end of Listen To Your Heart. Unexpected. Even for us!!! Thank you everyone who made this an everlasting memory for all of us!!!! Vids tomorrow. Barcelona as well. Cheers! /P&Co

Next gig is on Thursday (14th May) in Barcelona, Spain.

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14;

diariovasco.com
es.noticias.yahoo.com
mercadeopop
Live Nation ES
hola.com

Videos

It Must Have Been Love
Watercolours In The Rain / Paint
Fading Like A Flower

Instavideos
Sleeping In My Car
Spending My Time
The Look

The bow

 

Setlist

roxette_in_madrid
Pics by Tiina Pitkänen (1; 2)

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

Extra:
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Thanx for the contribution, Nina Wolfframm.

Roxette XXX Tour – Milan, Italy (Teatro Arcimboldi) – May 10 – #26

by

The long-awaited European leg of the XXX tour kicked off in Milan last night. Good sign to start a tour leg with a sold out gig, isn’t it? First the band, then Marie and Per arrived to the venue for a soundcheck in the afternoon. They were all smiles, so one could see they loved the fact the tour continues. After the F1 race had ended, they got on stage and did a more than 1-hour long soundcheck with the following songs: 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, Fading Like A Flower, How Do You Do!, Dangerous, Almost Unreal. So we could be really happy that they kept Crush On You.

When we were all checking our seats and it was almost show time, we realized the organizers took some VIP people to the very front, to the orchestra part of the theater. This way they were like in 0 or -1 rows. The show was to start at 9 pm, but there were a lot of people entering the venue late to take their seats, so Roxette got on stage only a bit later than 21:15.

Italy doesn’t get a Roxette concert each day, even Per mentioned it during the show that the last time they played in Milan was in 1989 at the Rolling Stone club. He asked if anyone was there from the crowd and said there were like 40 people or maybe 70. So it was extremely exciting to have the band playing live in Milan during the actual tour. Even if the venue was quite small (appr. 2300 people), it felt like we were in a huge arena. Believe it or not, the whole audience (even the VIP people) stood up even before the concert started and they didn’t really want to use their seats at all. The only song where the crowd was sitting was Watercolours In The Rain / Paint, but it changed quite fast with the next song, Fading Like A Flower when all people were on their feet again.

The audience was so active and loud! Everyone knew the lyrics to almost each and every song and was singing along all the time. The band, seeing all the happy party people in the audience put even more energy into the opening gig of the European tour. All of them were on a high. Marie was sitting during the whole show, but this didn’t stop her dancing on her chair and acting with the audience. Per was so happy to hear everyone singing along that he jumped and ran around the stage so much. Once he even ”kicked” Chris in the ass while playing the guitar. Chris went so crazy during The Look that he ran off the stage to the front row of the crowd and played the guitar there. Magnus joined him in some seconds and they went wild down there.

There was a funny conversation between Marie and Per before It Must Have Been Love about how Marie felt herself, if it was warm and that they didn’t really like the song in the beginning, but then it changed quite a lot in their lives. When IMHBL started, Marie was singing, then there was the crowd sing-along part and Marie liked it so much she asked the audience to sing more. She shouted into the mic several times ”I want to hear you sing!” Not only during It Must Have Been Love, but also during Listen To Your Heart. At the latter song, she had some problems with the lyrics and asked Dea to come closer to the front, so she could support her even more. Dea came to the front and they were singing together. Sounded fab! Actually, all songs sounded wonderful. All voices were in top shape and everyone on the stage was just shining. We loved seeing how the band enjoyed themselves and it was awesome to be part of such a fantastic crowd. Italy rulez!

Before we could enter the venue, we saw lots of firemen. Now we know they had to be there because they were afraid of Teatro Arcimboldi being burnt down. Gosh! Roxette put the theater on fire and it was burning from the very beginning till the very end.

After Joyride, the band went off the stage, but the crowd was shouting loud: Roxette! Roxette! and clapping and whistling and doing everything to get them back on stage. We didn’t have to wait for a long time. They happily got back to us and further entertained us with the 3 extra songs.

When Marie stood up at the end of the concert, she got a standing ovation. The crowd didn’t let them go off stage and it seemed like Marie and Per wanted to stay there forever. Then they started walking off and Marie looked at and waved back to the audience before they disappeared in the dark.

Åsa was filming a lot and even Micke grabbed the iPhone to take some videos, so we surely get some video updates on Roxette’s Facebook page.

Regarding the merchandise, a new item is a phone charger for 45 euros. One of the VIP presents in Oz was a similar equipment and Per liked it so much he promised to try to have it in the merchandise. Now there it is.

Per’s comment on the concert:

MILAN UPDATE: Thanx everyone for making the XXX Euro Tour start so good! The opening show in Milan was a blast!!! Wonderful crowd and a very jolly band enjoying every second of every song. We love Italy, we certainly hope we can come back to do some gigs here!! Thanx for making this happen, y’all! Grazie, P&M&Co
PS. Vids tomorrow…

Next gig is on Wednesday (13th May) in Madrid, Spain.

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6;

demotix.com
jaymag.it
lifestyle.tiscali.it
onstageweb.com
cubemagazine.it
impattosonoro.it
tuttorock.net
flickr – Alberto Pezzali
flickr – Francesco Prandoni
flickr – Mairo Cinquetti
flickr – Sergione Infuso

Roxetteblog Photo album on Facebook

Videos

Fading Like A Flower
Spending My Time
How Do You Do!
The Look

Video clip from Notorius

Setlist

roxette_in_milan
Pic by Patrícia Peres

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

Extra:
Almost Unreal
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Roxette Diaries – a movie coming soon!

by

You might remember that a bit more than a year ago, April 2014 Per posted updates (1; 2) about a cooperation with Jonas Åkerlund involving old video tapes related to Roxette. This was what he wrote back then:

MONDAY UPDATE w/ EXCITING NEWS: Going through loads of old Hi-8 and DV videotapes (mainly shot by Åsa) from 1988-2001 with Jonas Åkerlund and his gang.
Backstage, in the studio, video shootings, photo shoots – you name it. Have an idea to make a proper film out of it. What do you think? Cool or what? /P.

It seems the project is now very close to take form of a movie. Cool or what?

A trailer has been shared by the movie’s editor, Emma Backman. (Update: the trailer has been set (back?) to private. Probably, it was too early to publish it.) The film is directed by the most awesome Jonas Åkerlund and this fact itself guarantees a most amazing result. But that you’ll see already from the trailer.

The film will include tons of forgotten home videos and real behind the scenes of video clip shootings, photo and studio sessions, interviews, concerts, etc. More than you could ever think about! As Per says, all videos are from the years 1986-1995, so the quality of them is not compatible with the 21st century. But who cares, really? It’s so fantastic to have that many funny and magical moments documented in the past and now we will have access to them. Speechless is the word!

This is what Per says about the project:

Everything (and more) happened to Roxette between 1986 and 1995. This was the era where a videocamera wasn’t something you saw every day. The technical quality you would get was so-so but today I’m really happy we covered hundreds of hours of film from these magic years.

The ambition was to shoot everything. Studio-sessions, back-stage-parties, rehearsals. My wife, Åsa, was the commander-in-chief when it came to capture promo- and TV-shows as well as the extensive touring all over the world.

All in all I gave about 180 Hi-8/VHS-tapes to director Jonas Åkerlund and asked him if he and his team could do something special with it. Maybe create a movie that captured the spirit of Roxette in the early days as well as being honest, silly and fun to watch. Hey, I think they succeeded. Enjoy the Roxette Diaries.

Huge thanks to Åsa for filming so much over the years and that she still hasn’t got tired of it, using the camera for shooting more and more magic! We highly appreciate it!

As you can see, Jonas got appr. 180 tapes, a huge amount of material to go through. I’m sure there would have been many volunteers to help Mr. Åkerlund. The first updates were about tapes from 1988-2001, but now Per says what you’ll see in the movie is from 1986-1995. Does it mean it’s just a first part and later on there will be a vol. 2 with 1996-2001 videos? Then a 3rd part? Who’s in for a neverending movie?

Release date is unknown yet, but the film is coming soon! Whose soon? Hopefully, not Per’s. 😉

Roxette_Diaries_trailer_stills_rs

Stills are from the trailer. (Update: the trailer is set to private now, probably, because it was too early to publish it. Business as usual. 😉 )

Thanx to Roxette Diaries for googling “Roxette Diaries” and finding the trailer!

Update: So it’s Per’s soon. 🙂

ROXETTE DIARIES. Yep, it’s done. Waiting for subtitles. Release date? Soon! Cheers, P.

 

Marie’s biography as an audio book

by
Marie_Fredriksson
Pic by Patrícia Peres

As you already know, Marie Fredriksson’s long-awaited biography is planned to be published later this year. Well, Ginza, Bengans and CDON have already listed the book, so we can see the title will be Kärleken till livet (= Love for life). What is incredibly interesting is that it is listed as an audio book, CD with mp3 sound format. Wow! Wow! And once again: Wow! That’s what you call exciting! I have to add that CDON has a hardcover edition listed, too.

This is what CDON writes about the book:

“I just want to talk about it as it is. No fuss. Just simply and straightly about how it has been.” Marie Fredriksson presented her book idea to author Helena von Zweigbergk with these words.
Marie’s life has included a lot of drama. Growing up in poverty in the countryside in Skåne. Her family suffered from severe sadness when one of her sisters died in a car accident. Major breakthrough as an artist in Sweden and then an international career with Roxette. And then the disaster. The brain tumor that came as a death sentence. Marked by her illness, she stands on the stage today. Right now she is out on a world tour with Roxette again.
In the book about Marie Fredriksson she and her closest will talk. It is a story of great love, sorrow, incomparable success and revenge against all odds – thanks to the love for life.

Publishing date is 7th October 2015. Yee-haa!

 

Thanx for finding the listing at Ginza, Nicol Zentai.