After a few days off, getting closer to the end of the tour, Per Gessle and his band performed in Uppsala. It started as a rainy day, but fortunately, from afternoon it was all good and it stayed fine during the concert too.
Before the support acts came up on stage, we saw Mr. G leaving the backstage area with BoJo. First we thought they just walk around in the botanic garden, discussing stuff, but later when we saw other band members and support acts leaving to the same way, we realized the bathroom area was at a different place than the wardrobes, so they all had to walk a bit. And seeing PG walking back to the backstage area with a toothbrush in his hand, accompanied by BoJo was priceless. Lovely!
We also saw Niklas Strömstedt being there at the gig again. (He saw Per in Stockholm too.) Then while Strandels were performing, Micke Syd appeared on the side and came to the front row. We could sense there was another surprise in the making. Also, at 19:34 on Facebook Micke Syd shared a pic on which he and Per appear in PG’s wardrobe backstage.
Per was again like a Duracell bunny on stage, bouncing around, stomping full of energy and the band were also on a high. Everyone! Ola was jumping more than ever, Andreas went psychedelic on the drums, Chris went wild all the time, Malin-My rocked the violin, Helena was jumping around a lot and singing like an angel on the ballads, Clarence kicked ass behind the keyboards and Magnus was bouncing over more to the left side of the stage, having party with Ola and Chris. The whole show was very energetic, everyone was in top top top shape. Not only on stage, but also off stage. The crowd (8542 people) was loud and partying hard and jumping the most during Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, but also joined a bit the waving choreography for På promenad genom stan and was singing along loudly to almost all of the songs. Småstadsprat was a loud sing-along at the end of the show. I would say at least 70% of the audience let their voice heard.
The first surprise came with Honung och guld when Per told the audience he thought he would ask a little help from Good Harvest, so they joined Per on stage. The girls already rehearsed the song in Linköping and it sounded beautiful in Uppsala. HERE you can watch my video recording of it.
During Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång, while Åsa was filming Per, Mr. G was looking straight into the cam and was dancing a bit. Hopefully, it will make it into the GessleHomeVids collection on YouTube. It was quite cool!
During The Look, Per lost his voice a bit and let the crowd sing one line or so. It was fun and he was smiling at it.
For the second surprise, namely MICKE SYD, we had to wait until the 2nd encore, which since Linköping comes too fast after the gang goes off stage after the first encore. They don’t let the audience wait more than a minute, Andreas comes back and starts his psychedelic intro to Sommartider. This time Per invited Micke Syd on stage and Micke came up with his tambourine. The crowd was cheering him and he shaped a heart with his hands. Lovely! He was bouncing around the stage, singing in the mics of Chris and Magnus and getting close to Andreas as well. He definitely had an adrenalin rush, it was visible. We loved it! Haha. When it was the crowd sing-along part, first Per went to the left side, Micke Syd to the right, then vice versa and they animated the audience from both sides. After they finished the song, they hugged each other and Micke Syd went off the stage. The tambourine fell out of his hand and he was too cool kicking it away. HERE you can watch my video recording of the whole song. The first and last time I recorded Sommartider in its complete, that’s for sure. Next time I rather jump along! Haha.
This gig was also photographed by Anders Roos. Let’s hope we see tons of action pictures from this show, because it was full of such moments.
UPPSALA HEJ HEJ. Grymt gig igår i den sagolika Botaniska Trädgården. Mycket folk, drygt 8500, och underbar stämning för att uttrycka det milt. Vi är ett välsignat band som får all den här responsen och kärleken från publiken varje kväll. Inget att ta för givet. Jag hoppas att vi ger åtminstone en bråkdel tillbaka. Och herregud, visst var Good Harvest magnifika i Honung & guld och plipp-plupp så dök Micke Syd upp! Och var hör han hemma om inte med en gaffatejpad tamburin pumpandes åttondelar i Sommartider. En vacker kväll. /P.
All photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.
Setlist
1. På promenad genom stan
2. Vilket håll du än går
3. Juni, juli, augusti
4. Det hjärta som brinner
5. Segla på ett moln / Första pris
6. Min plats
7. It Must Have Been Love
8. Honung och guld (together with Good Harvest)
9. Kung av sand
10. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång) / Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
12. Spegelboll
13. Gå & fiska!
Band presentation
14. The Look (with När vi två blir en as intro)
Encore:
15. Varmt igen (with Queen of Rain as intro)
16. Tycker om när du tar på mej
17. Joyride
Encore 2:
18. Sommartider (together with Micke Syd)
19. Småstadsprat
Videos:
Juni, juli, augusti
Honung och guld
Spegelboll
Joyride
Sommartider: 1; 2;
Articles, pictures:
Uppsala Nya Tidning
24uppsala.se
Uppsala Nyheter
Per & Co entered the stage some minutes after 9 pm and you could hear the crowd was very hungry to see and hear them. They were already loud before the gang showed up. The band started the concert with På promenad genom stan and the first let’s say 10 rows of the crowd, besides a lovely sha-la-la-la sing-along, were even following the choreography Helena tries with every audience, just waving with one arm up in the air.
The crowd wanted the band back on stage before the encore. Some shouted they wanted to hear Billy, some other shouted Sommartider. The first encore was 1 song less vs. Halmstad. In Linköping they didn’t play (Hon vill ha) Puls. Varmt igen and Tycker om när du tar på mej both sounded beautiful. Always so unbelievable how clearly Helena can sing out all those high notes.
During the day, Lars Winnerbäck turned up in town, so we could sense there was a surprise guest appearance planned for the night. It became 100% sure when we heard Per and Lars rehearsing Småstadsprat and Honung och guld at the soundcheck in the afternoon (from 16:15). We were curious how they would rearrange the setlist if at all, now that Lars joined them for these 2 songs. These 2 songs they rehearsed for appr. 15 minutes and then came Min plats and a little Puls. Woohoo, so we were happy that the setlist might be longer, since Puls got back on it.
The SVT cameras for the show weren’t enough, Anders Roos was also there to take thousands of photos of this hometown show and of course, Åsa was also there filming a lot. This time she just couldn’t come to the front row, because the TV guys were moving there with the cameras too, so they would have bumped into each other. This way she was filming from the sides of the stage (and maybe from somewhere else in the crowd too? We will see when the vids are up on GessleHomeVids, YouTube).
Per’s concert kicked off some minutes after 21:00. To hear På promenad genom stan in Halmstad is a real pleasure, here it made even more sense to start the show with this song. It Must Have Been Love was a success and Helena got cheered loudly. Right after IMHBL came Småstadsprat, so there was the first change in the setlist. For the part which is sung by Lars Winnerbäck on the album, Lasse came up on stage and he was singing it. He got a loud applause from the crowd when he appeared. The song sounded beautiful. No other version sounds as wonderful as the one with the original duet, Per and Lars. What a delight! The crowd cheered the duo loudly during the song too and when they finished it as well and Mr. G told the audience it wasn’t bad. Per and Lasse hugged each other after the song ended. Then Per was talking about the rehearsals and that he tried to find songs which he didn’t play live before and he found there were 470 of such songs. He decided for a song off Gyllene Tider’s 1982 album, Puls. He said he knows Lars likes this song too and so they decided to sing it together. So they went on with Honung och guld. Lasse’s favourite album from GT is Puls and HOG is his favourite song off it. It sounded great in this duet version. After they ended the song, Per and Lasse hugged each other again and Lars went off stage. Per told the crowd it’s hard to top now. I have recorded the whole Lars Winnerbäck guest appearance in Halmstad (not the best quality video because of the smoke and lights, but still you might enjoy it). 😉 Watch it 
For the second encore, Andreas went real wild on the Sommartider drum intro. This caught the audience too. Was cool to watch it on the big screens too!
