Per Gessle

2 books written by Per Gessle to be published in autumn

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PG_SydsvenskanWe could already read about it in the press release of The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting that there will also be two books related to the project. Now Sydsvenskan informs that both books will be quite fat.

One will be in Swedish, containing approximately 150 of Per Gessle’s Swedish songs with Gyllene Tider and from his solo career. This book is said to be 300 pages long and will probably have the title: “Texter, klotter och funderingar”.

The other will be in English and is about the English songs, mainly from Roxette. Its title will probably be: “Songs, Sketches and Reflections” and will be approximately 400 pages long.

There are books about Per, but now these two books are written by himself. He gathers his notes and thoughts on songwriting over the years. The books will be richly illustrated with Per’s notes and sketches, as well as with private and so far unpublished photos. Even the lyrics will be featured, some printed and some in the form of original notes Per had taken. As we know, Per is always doing sketches, drawing and takes many notes while writing songs. Now all these will be in the books next to his thoughts and stories related to the lyrics. How exciting is that!

And if it’s not enough, each book will contain an interview with Mr Gessle about songwriting. In the Swedish version it’s Tomas Andersson Wij who does the interview, in the English version it’s Sven Lindström.

The publisher of the books is Roos & Tegnér, the same company that published the fabulous book “Alla tiders Gyllene Tider” last year. So, we can be sure that these two books will be of very high quality not just in terms of content, but also in their appearance.

According to the article, both books will be launched at the Gothenburg Book Fair during the last weekend of September 2014. It’s not yet known if Per will be there at the book fair, but looking back at the past book launches related to him – last time in 2013, one month after Sven’s “Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” was published –, it’s quite predictable he’s going to be there.

September is going to be a fantastic month this year, isn’t it?

P.S.: The box-set “The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting” is out on 24th September and as Per informed yesterday, the first two volumes are available digitally on Spotify in May. Vol. 1: 16th May, Vol. 2: 23rd May. This includes “The Conversations” (open hearted comments on each and every track = PG interviewed in English by Sven Lindström).

P.S. #2: Until September you can go and read Per’s thoughts about his songs here, on RXB. This is the collection of Mr G’s thoughts and info on demos, songs, videos, etc. he shares on Roxette Official.

 

Update: info from Per about the books:

P G B O O K S U P D A T E :

2014 is the Annus Mirabilis Overdose Year!
Two books on steroids will be released in September 2014.

1. 204 English lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + long interview (Sven L) about songwriting etc. This book is in English.
2. 153 Swedish lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + two long interviews about songwriting (different journalists…) etc. This book is in Swedish.

Both are, as expected, totally humour-free and will be available as two different items but together they will make a happy marriage. Especially with The PG Archives-box on your lap. /P.

 

 

Contest: win a copy of Per’s and Roxette’s Record Store Day special vinyls!

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KIMB_LC_Per_GessleRoxetteBlog is turning five years old today and we are happy to run a special competition to celebrate this!

In cooperation with Per’s and Roxette’s management D&D, we are giving away one copy of Per’s “The Per Gessle Archives” 7″ single and one copy of Roxette’s “The Look” special 25th anniversary 7″. Both singles were released on April 26th for the Swedish Record Store Day and are very limited editions (500 and 1000 copies each).

In order to participate simply answer the following questions:

– When and where did Per and Marie celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Look” reaching #1 at USA charts?
– The “Per Gessle Archives” 7″ is an advance of an exclusive box-set that will be released in Septethelookmber 2014. The release focuses on three parts of Per’s career, which ones?

Send an email with your name, home address (so we can send the single) and the answer to the questions to [deleted] until May 6th 23:59 CET. The 2 lucky winners will be announced a few days later.

Good luck!

And thanks D&D for this!

Update May 14th: winners are Travis W. from Australia and Kelly M. from Canada.


And here is the small letter, contest terms and conditions
– In order to participate, you have to send an email to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and answer to the 2 questions. We will consider all emails we receive until the 6th of May 2014, 23:59 CET time.
– 2 winners will be picked up randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answer, prize (either the Per Gessle or Roxette 7″ vinyl) will also be chosen randomly.
– As it is usual, you can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by standard mail only once (so basically, if the envelope gets lost.. we won’t be able to send a replacement)!
– Winners will be announced on this website and will also be notified per email. You’ll be required to answer to the email confirming your address.
– Roxetteblog.com will not enter into any correspondence regarding the result of the contest and is not liable for any damages, loss or expenses that may result in connection to the prize.
– All submitted data will only be used for the purpose of the contest and, in case you are one of the lucky winners, to send you the prize.

The Per Gessle Archives – limited edition single is out!

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KIMB_LC_Per_GessleI’m not sure how many of you could get hold of Per’s limited edition vinyl (500 copies) yesterday, on Record Store Day in Sweden. There was some info from here and there that the single has never reached some record stores. Most probably, it was not sent to all of them in Sweden, so online ordering seems to be the most secure way to get your copy. CDON and Ginza had it for some days online, but I think they sold the number of copies they had very fast, so they took the item off their websites already. Bengans announced it will be available at them (the remaining copies after Record Store Day) at 3 pm CET on 28th April. Be fast with your order on Monday, because it will work like first come, first served.

Now getting down to the songs. Kvar i min bil (AGM, 28th April 2007), an outtake from En händig man album (as Anders Nunstedt mentions), ending up in Tomas Alfredson’s film, “Låt den rätte komma in” (= “Let the Right One In”) we could already hear earlier in the movie, as well as e.g. on YouTube and the lyrics to it were already available. I love the fact that now this great 60’s party song is released.

Loud Clothes, which was written for Have A Nice Day in 1998 is the B side of the single. To me it’s no surprise it was left off the album. Somehow it really doesn’t fit the HAND tunes. One falls in love with this song (T&A Demo, 30th August, 2002) in a second. How fabulous Gessleish lyrics again! I’m always amazed at Mr G’s songwriting skills. How can one come up with such words and lines? Ringa-linga rama-lama joy. Haha. My favourite! Sounds too cool! The whole song might remind you of Substitute (For the Real Deal). At least this melody came to our minds when listening to it. Instead of faded and fading clothes we get loud clothes. Here you have the lyrics to the demo:

 

Loud Clothes
Words & music by Per Gessle

She puts on loud clothes
She looks like a ringa-linga rama-lama joy
She puts on loud clothes
She talks when she walks blowing kisses through the noise
She puts on loud clothes
She looks like you wanna put your fingers on her skin
You can’t stop lookin’
She moves through the common people pulling every string

She really knocks you out
She really blocks your mind
It feels like you knew her
From somewhere back in time

She brings silence
Her lips never mention what you really wanna hear
She brings silence
You can’t find the words when you’re dying to get near her

She really knocks you out
She really blows your mind
It feels like you knew her
From somewhere back in time

To be here makes sense to be
To be here makes sense to me
She’s got loud clothes

 

After listening to these 2 songs, you are just longing for hearing more. As it was announced, the first 2 volumes of the total of 11 vol. of The Per Gessle Archives will be available on Spotify in May, but to hear all the almost 200 songs (172 to be more precise) we have to wait until 24th September 2014, when the complete box-set is released in form of CD and vinyl. Bring on September!

 

Almost 200 Per Gessle songs to be released until September

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Cosmos Music Group announced today in a press release that about 200 songs written by Per Gessle will be released on Spotify and later in a box set until September 2014.
The project is called The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting and will consist of 11 volumes including nearly 200 songs from Per’s archive, most of them previously unreleased.
There will be three parts of Per’s career:
Demos & Other Fun Stuff is mainly unreleases stuff from GT, Roxette demos, solo and side projects that Per created throughout the years

The Roxette Demos will be Per’s early versions of Roxette’s many hits.

Solo with Mazarin and En händig man demos in separate albums.

Per Gessle will comment on each songs in interviews by Sven Lindström for the digital version of the release.

The first two volumes will be out in Spotify on May 2nd and the box will be out on September 24th. The box will include the 11 volumes on CD or vinyl and is designed by Pär Wickholm.

Two books with Per’s lyrics will be released by Roos & Tegner. One will be in English and the other one in Swedish and will contain comments, drafts and more.

A single off the box will be releases on Record Store Day on April 26th.

Another surprise for Record Store Day

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As Per posted about it on Roxette Official some weeks ago, a surprise was coming for Record Store Day. When it was announced some days ago that a limited edition ”The Look” vinyl will be released on Record Store Day in Sweden, we thought that it’s a great surprise for us Roxers. But now it turns out that besides the beautiful, limited edition, 25th anniversary ”The Look” red vinyl (1000 copies) there is another surprise for this year’s RSD. We are spoiled and we love it! Per Gessle also releases a limited edition 7” vinyl called “The Per Gessle Archives”. So limited that only 500 copies will be available!

Finnish Record Shop X states that the limited edition PG vinyl is in their stores from 19th April (Record Store Day everywhere except Sweden…, where it is 26th April), but on CDON you can see it’s available from 26th April. Ginza states no date, Bengans hasn’t listed it yet.

KIMB_LC_Per_GessleThe vinyl is featuring 2 songs from a forthcoming box set:

Side A – Kvar i min bil
Per wrote this song for Tomas Alfredson’s film, “Låt den rätte komma in”(= “Let the Right One In”). It has never been released, but is loved by all Mr. G fans. Listen to the song here.

Side B – Loud Clothes
For a Roxette album Per writes about 25 songs and then selects those that fit. “Loud Clothes” was written for “Have A Nice Day” in 1998. An interesting thing is that in May 2010 a fan asked Per on Facebook what’s up with some of the never released songs listed under his name in the BMI repertoire and “Loud Clothes” was among them. Per replied LC is a pretty decent one. “I/We might use them some day.” Now he is using it. Yay!

So, who knows what else shows up on the box set! According to Ginza, the title of the box set is “The Per Gessle Archives” and will be released on 24th September 2014, but both pieces of information haven’t been confirmed yet. It’s not yet known whether it’s going to be a vinyl box set or it will be available in CD version, too. Fingers crossed for all fans who want to get hold of these limited edition goodies.

 Update by Judith: as one can see on the Finnish website, the single will be released by Cosmos Music Group, you may remember Per became co-owner and board member of the company about a year ago.