Besides TDR, Hallandsposten was also in a creative joking mood yesterday. Good that I read the article only today, otherwise I would have believed it was true. 😉 They came up with the idea of putting Per Gessle on the welcome sign of Halmstad. “During the last week of July, Per Gessle will be available for a few hours each morning for taking pictures with the Castle in the background.” Haha! They even created a test sign with PG. Lookin’ good, isn’t it? If I were the one who decides on such things at the municipality or the traffic authority, I would definitely go for it! Think about it, you guys there! 🙂 It was a great one, Hallandsposten!
You might remember our last year article about Gyllene Tider becoming the sponsor of IS Halmia and you already know Per is a major sponsor of Halmia since many years. When Roxette became active again, the girls had Roxette as their sponsor, then in 2013, when GT released a new album and went on tour, it was Gyllene Tider printed on their official jersey (already 2 months before their new album, “Dags att tänka på refrängen” came out).
The girls are dressed for success again! Maybe it has nothing to do with any upcoming tours or any new albums and we don’t know what that surprise could be on 26th April, but nice to see this year it’s GESSLE [heart] HALMIA on the jerseys. Heja Halmia!
IS Halmia jerseys over the past years. Last photo with GESSLE [heart] HALMIA is by iaisaksson.
PS: IS Halmia should use the link to Per’s official website instead of what they are using now at the Sponsors. Not that there is any news on gessle.com since last year. No complaint though. We love having Mr G on Facebook each day instead. 😉
David Guetta, Per Gessle, Christoffer Lundquist in the studio – pic was posted on Roxette Official by Per
Since that studio photo of Per and Chris with David Guettawas posted on Roxette Official 2 days ago, tons of fans started discussions about what this new project could be. Well, yeah, we are discussing this topic continuously, whenever PG is in the studio. But is it a remix album in progress now or something completely new? Is it related to Roxette or some Per solo stuff?
Mr G said it even in one of the Nordic Rox shows that it’s easy to get stuck in your own style, so for example, he tries writing in keys that he doesn’t know that well. Why not a new genre then?
You might remember our earlier article about Per Gessle featuring Galavant, a house duo from Halmstad. They were together in the studio on 19th September 2013. It’s still not known what they recorded there, but that work must be also related to this new project.
Sebastian Atas, Per Gessle, Victor Sjöström – pic was posted by the guys from Galavant at their Instagram profile
One month later, on 24th October 2013, Per posted a selfie from a helicopter, saying he ”talked a lot to DJ Balthazar. Such a generous and talented fella.” DJ Balthazar is a Bulgarian DJ, whose music is something unique between techno and progressive house.
Had a big “remix-discussion” over dinner….. Do you like remixes of our songs? If so, any favourites from the jolly and colourful Rox-past?
When it comes to remixes, fans are divided into 2 bigger groups. One part of them likes or even loves most of the remixes, the other part is never listening to them. I’m personally not much into remixes, but my ears say Bassflow did magic to ”The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye”. One thing is sure: almost everyone agrees on that anything can be better than ”Dance Passion” (1987).
So now here is this David Guetta piece of info some months later and we still don’t know what it is all about. I think via remixes, PG’s music can reach and be more appealing to the younger generation, so it’s fine to spread the word that way, too. But who knows if it’s really about remixes?
Surely this is not the only project Per is working on, since he was also posting a lot about vintage synthesizers, studio sessions in AGM and T&A studios and all this DJ info. He said it in interviews that he is also working on a soundtrack for a new Jonas Åkerlund film (which Jonas starts shooting this spring) and we know new Roxette material is also in sight in a near or a more distant future.
Hard to be patient when there are so many exciting bits and pieces of news, but again, Roxers are the best at waiting. Hope to hear the outcome of the project(s) quite soon.
Screenshot is from the ”Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013” docu
As we already heard it from Per, there is a new show on Nordic Rox called Twelve Peaks. The essence of it is Per Gessle choosing 12 songs according to the actual topic and he and Sven Lindström are discussing them. Sven made the first 2 shows available via Evgeny Perekopskiy. Huge thanx for that! You can check them out at the links below.
I encourage you to listen to these shows, it’s really worth it. I always love listening to Sven and Per talking to each other. They always have a very nice, relaxed conversation, a friend to friend discussion about music. All smiles and laughs and jokes and meaningfulness. You just have to love Mr G’s enthusiasm when he is talking about songs and music in general and Sven is a fab partner in that. Magnificent is the word.
The part with Per starts at 50:14, right after Church of Your Heart being played, but because of all the gorgeous music you can hear on Nordic Rox, I suggest you listening to the complete, 3-hour-long programme.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Wizzard: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Bob Dylan: Must Be Santa
Slade: Merry Xmas Everybody
Roxette: It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted)
The Crystals: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Brainpool: The Last Christmas
The Pogues: Fairytale of New York
Elvis Presley: Blue Christmas
Mud: Lonely This Christmas
David Bowie & Bing Crosby: Little Drummer Boy
Nick Lowe: Silent Night
At the Bob Dylan song Sven asked Per how it looks like when Mr G is dancing around the Xmas tree and he replied it’s exactly like what you can see in the hilariously good video of the song. So check it out! 😉
It’s impossible for Per to present a Xmas song list without It Must Have Been Love. Here he tells the well-known story of the song, starting out as a Christmas song, how it became the soundtrack to Pretty Woman, Billboard No. 1., etc.
Nice to see Brainpool’s latest single on the list. Per says it’s a cute little song and it’s very Swedish in a way.
About Elvis Mr G says he wasn’t really an Elvis fan, his sister was. His brother was a Beatles fan.
About Christmas in general Per says it’s nice to have a white Christmas. However, if he didn’t have a big family, he would probably leave for a mild climate place with lots of sunshine during Xmas time, to Miami or LA. But he likes it in Sweden. They are talking about Per not being a winter guy. We know he doesn’t ski, but now it turns out he doesn’t swim in the ocean, because there are fish there. So he prefers the pool. Fish-free pool. 🙂
Sven starts the whole show with telling that Per took his time off while recording his new album with Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman. The part with PG starts at 49:10, just after The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye being played. You, see? As I said, it’s worth listening to the complete, 3-hour-long programme.
To the questions how many songs he has written, he says he doesn’t count them, but he probably has 7-800 registered songs [according to an earlier article in Hallandsposten it’s rather 1000!!!], which means he is getting old, he says. Sven says: ”Or you’re writing fast!” Regarding the question that comes up very often during interviews (how can one write a hit?) he says you have to have the ability to make a good melody, but you have to write music that is appealing to yourself, but it’s always a happy accidence of the timing and luck for it becoming a hit.
Songs he listed are mostly the ones that inspired him when he was a kid, when he was just listening to these hits. Now he is listening to the songs as a professional and he is missing listening to songs as a non-pro. Songs are not in priority order, Mr G just listed these 12 hits. Picking only 12 songs wasn’t really easy for him, he says.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Refugee
Buzzcocks: Ever Fallen In Love
The Who: Substitute
The Left Banke: Walk Away Renée
The Zombies: Time of the Season
Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes
The Beatles: Dear Prudence
The Nerves: Hanging on the Telephone
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood: Summer Wine
Paul McCartney: Too Many People
The Turtles: Happy Together
Dionne Warwick: I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Regarding The Beatles Per says they released approximately 140 songs and he wished he had written 110-112 of them.
When they are talking about Summer Wine, he says you can do so many great things when you use a male and a female voice. It’s like talking to each other. It was the theory with Roxette, too.
As Per informed earlier, there are a zillion ”12 Peaks” shows to come, e.g. his 12 favourite pop drummers and his 12 favourite pop intros. At the end of the Xmas special he was even joking about an Easter special, with 12 songs about eggs. 🙂 Can’t wait to listen to the upcoming 12 peaks!
The letter is about Radio Halland not playing Gyllene Tider often enough, just playing dance bands. He says they wrote quite a lot of letters like this. Radio Halland was special for them, since GT is from Halmstad and they thought the local radio should support local bands more. Per says he didn’t get a reply to that letter back then, he also forgot about it until 20 years later, when one day he entered the building of Radio Halland and saw it at the reception on the wall framed. He remembers they even sent postcards under fake names to have the chance to appear in Poporama (an old radio show).
Per says it was a tough time to make themselves heard, because just like now, the Swedish music industry was very Stockholm oriented. They had to use all the tools they could.
To the question when was the last time he wrote such a letter he laughed and said he stopped doing it now. By the way, some months after this letter had been written they got a contract from EMI Stockholm.
Photo of THE letter by Göran Fritzon
Per says he has always been doing what he loved, writing songs and playing them. He knew it from the very beginning that writing songs for others was not really his thing. He always wanted to play his songs himself.
To the question what was the biggest thing in his career when he is looking back he says it’s Roxette and the 4 Billboard No. 1’s. He says they were pioneers with their tours, touring in South America in the 90’s and also in China. If he thinks about Sweden only, Gyllene Tider is of course still enormous and performing in Ullevi was fantastic, but also their gig in Halmstad in 1995 was magical, then the Återtåget tour in 1996 and playing in Örjans vall in 2004.
As usual, Per says again it’s never clear which song will become a hit or what response you’ll get regarding a song. You have to find your own style and you have to be satisfied with your songs yourself, create them according to your own taste.
Regarding autographs Mr G says he didn’t even have an autograph back in the days, just look at the letter he wrote to Radio Halland, he hadn’t even signed it. Sometimes he did sign Marie’s autographs in the past, at the beginning. George Harrison also signed the others’ autographs in The Beatles he says.
Regarding what he still wants to do before he dies, Per says he wants to work and is looking forward to a new big and long Roxette adventure. Marie is on her solo tour now, but it’s a plan to do more Roxette. To the question if we can see him on stage with Marie during her tour he says he doesn’t think so.
