Tour

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour – #2 – 6th November 2021 – Norrköping

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What I have to tell at the beginning of my report is that last night’s show was the best unplugged gig so far. Norrköping rulez!

The video of building the stage recorded by Anders Roos, shared by Per during the day was a great teaser for the evening.

The concert started a couple of minutes after 19:30 and already at the beginning you could hear that it would be a fantastic crowd. You could tell by their first reactions (clapping, cheering, singing-along, shouting) that they would keep the spirits up during the whole show. And that’s what happened.

The acoustics of concert halls are fab anyway and when a crowd is active, its very enjoyable. The crowd took it seriously when Per said after greeting them that they should sing along either if they know the lyrics or they don’t. No doubt they knew all the lyrics.

Before Min plats now PG had a little trouble with the capo, it was difficult to fix it on the guitar. So he mentioned it’s a low budget tour and joked that he could call Ulf Lundell. Per mentioned they have a double bass on stage and asked Magnus if it was his. Magnus clarified that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, so PG asked Chris why he has a double bass at all. The answer was to be able to give it to Magnus to play it on this tour.

The crowd just loved Helena. Not only after Tycker om när du tar på mej, but after all songs she was singing she got an extremely loud applause from the audience. Well-deserved! After a while Per thanked the crowd and said „how kind you are!” and someone shouted „better than Linköping!” Haha.

After Det hjärta som brinner, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage, but before they did that, Chris saw Per had some problem with fixing the capo again and asked him if he could help, but PG told he would sort it out. He got prepared for Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and started twice to get the right intro. Amazingly beautiful this song is in this arrangement, I won’t stop mentioning it! After the LAEAH ended, all band members came back, Mr. G stood up and went to Clarence to high-five with him. Chris told Per it was quite OK, but it’s better with Gyllene Tider. All laughed.

During the band presentation Per told he works together with Clarence since 1986 and he produced almost all of Per’s music since then and all Roxette albums. The crowd gave a loud applause to Mr. Öfwerman and Per told „yeah, it’s really worth the applause… that I have endured with him”. Everyone laughed. Then he remembered Europe’s Final Countdown was out the same year, 1986 and with Chris they organized a little 1986 „fight” mentioning other songs from that year, but Chris only mentioned Genesis songs. Haha. When Per got to Magnus, he said he is the newcomer in the gang, they haven’t been working together for so long, only for 16 years or so. Magnus said it feels like yesterday. Mr. G added that Magnus is from Malmö, but he is nice anyway. PG also mentioned that the sound technician is Mats MP Persson from GT.

Huge part of the audience stood up after the band went off stage before the first encore and didn’t sit down until the guys and girl didn’t come back. At this point and some more times during the concert someone shouted Billy. But there was no Billy on the setlist. Maybe sometime later? Would be cool! The setlist was only slightly different vs. Linköping. När alla vännerna gått hem was not the fourth song in the first encore, but the last song of the concert, kicking Om du bara vill off the setlist.

When you thought there would be no bigger change at this show, the gang on stage surprised you with standing up from their seats, Chris and Per set their own mics to the right height before När vi två blir en and performed it standing. It must have been a strange feeling to stand after so many shows sitting, but it was so cool! At this point, the crowd only stood up at the end of the song, when the gang said goobye and went off stage. They didn’t stop shouting „en gång till” until the band wasn’t back.

When Per & Co. were on stage again, they sat down and the crowd sat back to their seats too. Vid hennes sida was played this way, but then came Sommartider and rebel Per thought he goes spontaneous and stands up. He said he has to stand up for this song too and if he wants to stand up, he stands up. Haha. Chris couldn’t join him because of the instrument on his lap, but Magnus followed the leader. Then you couldn’t hold back the audience either. We all stood up and stayed standing from then on. Fab feeling it was!

During När alla vännerna gått hem, the mobile phone lights were up in the crowd. Looked great! This concert also ended in a standing ovation and yeah, Norrköping really beat all unplugged shows so far.

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går

Band introduction

14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning

Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en

Encore 2
19. Vid hennes sida
20. Sommartider
21. När alla vännerna gått hem

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the show:

Norrköping Yea! Helt underbart gig, fantastiskt att få spela för er. Tack alla för att ni kom förbi med all denna positiva energi, tack band och crew för att vi har så kul ihop hela tiden. Längtar efter att få spela mer! Ha en fab söndag, y’all!

Amazing gig in Norrköping. Still breathless. Thanks! ??

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour – #1 – 5th November 2021 – Linköping

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In summer, Per Gessle & Co. had 10 very successful, sold-out gigs at Hotel Tylösand and when the last show ended on 3rd August, we all hoped there would be more concerts of this format. We didn’t have to wait for too long until the announcement of an unplugged tour. On 30th August Per announced he would go on tour around Sweden in November-December, playing at concert halls and theatres to keep the intimate atmosphere. Tickets went on sale on 2nd September and they were selling like hot cakes. 3 extra gigs had to be added to the originally planned 12 shows, because several were sold out already the first 1-2 days. So altogether there will be 15 gigs this autumn.

The premiere happened in Linköping last night. And what a most awesome first show it was!

The concert was set to start at 19:30 and the entrance to open at 19:00. When we got to the venue it was nice to meet some familiar faces we already met in summer and of course at other Rox World-related shows.

First we checked out the merch stand. For this tour there are black T-shirts with 3 different designs, all 3 of them having the concert dates on the back. There is a tote bag and a poster with the tour dates as well. Earlier we could see Per posting different designs and white T-shirt too, but it’s only these 3 in the end that got produced.

When we entered the concert hall we could see the stage set which was very similar to the Hotel Tylösand set, but the stage here was bigger, so the decoration and the lights, the bulbs had to be adapted to this bigger space. It looked magical. Designed by Åsa Gessle of course.

While waiting for the concert to start, we could listen to a new mix tape. When the sound of it turned off, the lights on the audience went down and the band came up on stage at 19:45. They got a very loud applause and cheering. Per greeted the crowd and told „if you know the lyrics, sing along, it’s fun. If you don’t know the lyrics, it’s even more fun.” Haha.

The set started just like in Tylösand, with Kung av sand, På promenad genom stan and Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång. After this came a little surprise with Magnus standing up, picking the double bass – which until then I thought was part of the decoration. Småstadsprat was played like this and it sounded fab! Actually, hearing the first 4 songs and anecdotes I started thinking there wouldn’t be too many changes vs. summer, but then Mr. G asked Magnus if it was hard to play the double bass. Magnus said it was very hard and they laughed. Then PG said they would play another Nashville song. He didn’t start with the correct chord though and said „I have to find the right chord first”. Haha. He managed and the next one was Min plats, which is a new song on the unplugged setlist. It also turned out that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, however, Per thought it was his. Chris joked that it costs 2000 SEK per gig.

Tycker om när du tar på mej was next in the set and Helena got a very loud applause from the audience for her performance.

Then came a Gyllene Tider segment, with Det hjärta som brinner as the seventh song on the setlist. After DHSB, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage and only Per and Clarence stayed. Here came the biggest surprise and the absolute highlight of the show. PG told he wrote a song on the tour bus in 1981 during the GT tour. Back then they didn’t have time to rehearse, so they did that on their soundchecks, like how you can see it in Parkliv!, directed by Lasse Hallström. The guys performed Ljudet av ett annat hjärta. It has left me – not only me – absolutely breathless. The crowd appreciated this extremely beautiful version of the song with loud applause and cheering. Mr. G stood up after that, went to Clarence and they high-fived each other. They got even more cheering and the crowd didn’t want to stop showing their happiness. Helena, Magnus and Chris came back on stage and they were clapping their hands too.

Per took the capo off his guitar and provided us with another big surprise: Varmt igen! What can I say… Another highlight of the evening!

Micke N-S brought Per his ukulele and we all knew it’s Tuffa tider’s time. PG told he remembers he bought his first ukulele right after he saw a film about George Harrison. He bought it with Sven Lindström in Stockholm.

Fortunately, Juni, juli, augusti – which for me was the biggest highlight during summer, to hear it in an acoustic arrangement – was kept on the list.

It Must Have Been Love came next with the story of how it was refused by the German market while it was a success in Sweden and later how it became the soundtrack of Pretty Woman. The performance got a very loud crowd reaction, we loved it!

If you think there were no more new songs on the setlist, you’re wrong! Getting back to the Mazarin era, Vilket håll du än går popped up last night! The band introduction came after this song. When Per got to Clarence, he was joking that Mr. Öfwerman doesn’t have a mic in front of him, which is actually quite nice. They laughed.

Just like during the summer sets, Här kommer alla känslorna and Min hälsning followed the band intro and after MH, the gang went off stage. The audience was incredibly loud, didn’t stop clapping their hands and making noise with their feet on the concert hall floor. And so Per & Co. came back on stage after a while.

How to start the first encore? Why not adding a new track here too? They did! Födelsedag was an interesting choice of song and it sounded quite cool in this arrangement.

The gang remembered Marie Fredriksson and Pelle Alsing and dedicated Listen To Your Heart to them. It was also a big favourite of the audience.

Do you think adding more songs that haven’t been played on the unplugged gigs yet was over? Ha! No!!! Per introduced the next one by telling there are lyrics which you can only write when you are very young. He said he was thinking about Flickorna på TV2 for example. He laughed and the audience laughed as well. He said it wouldn’t be too politically correct in 2021, but it was fun in 1979, coming from a 20-year-old guy. There are other songs like this in his song catalogue. He started playing När vi två blir en and the crowd was singing along and didn’t want to stop applauding the band after the song. Per said it’s hard to top.

När alla vännerna gått hem was the last song in the first encore. The whole crowd stood up when the band took a bow and went off stage and they still waited for the gang to come back with some more songs. Of course they came back! You just had the feeling that you don’t want this night to end.

Vid hennes sida opened the second encore and don’t be afraid, Sommartider was there too with amazing crowd reactions.

Someone shouted Dangerous before the last song, but Per & Co. closed the gig with Om du bara vill. The audience gave a standing ovation, Per and the band had a wide smile on their faces. We all had. Such a fantastic premiere gig it was!

There were missing hits vs. the last summer set, e.g. Pappa, Ömhet, Vandrar i ett sommarregn and Honung och guld, but it was so worth to include these 6(!!!) additional songs. Let’s see how the setlist changes from gig to gig during the next 14 concerts!

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går

Band introduction

14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning

Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en
19. När alla vännerna gått hem

Encore 2
20. Vid hennes sida
21. Sommartider
22. Om du bara vill

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the show:

Wow! Thx for an amazing nite in Linköping. Loved every second of it. I’m blessed having a crowd like this! Norrköping tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Wow! Tack så mycket för en helt makalös kväll i Linköping. Vilken fantastisk stämning, vi älskade varje sekund. Hoppas ni är inte hesa imorgon!!!! Syns i Norrköping om några timmar. Love, P.

 

The songs fans ask Per Gessle to play on tour

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Per Gessle asked his fans the other day on his social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to suggest songs they didn’t play at the summer sessions at Hotel Tylösand in July and August.

Of course, fans were happy to share their favourites and asked Per to include those in the setlist. If Mr. G wants to play all of them, he will have to extend the hours of playing a bit. And we wouldn’t mind! Haha.

One must love those comments that he could play any track from the Mazarin album. So true! Altogether there were 256 different songs asked for, counting only those that really weren’t played in summer. I’ve tried to eliminate duplications, i.e. if the same person asked for the same songs on more than one channel. So, here is the Top20 list of those hits.

Graph is based on the analysis of comments related to the topic. Pic of PG is taken by Patrícia Peres at the PG Unplugged sessions at Hotel Tylösand, 2021.

I find it interesting that there are some more mid- or uptempo songs missing in the Top20. In the sense that it’s going to be an unplugged tour, it’s understandable in a way, but if I think back to last summer, Juni, juli, augusti was such a fab surprise, how it sounded in an acoustic arrangement that it would be great to hear some more mid- or uptempo songs in a similar version.

In the Top5 we can find 2 Gyllene Tider songs (Chrissie, hur mår du?, Billy), 2 PG solos (Blå december, Viskar) and 1 Roxette ballad (Vulnerable) we’ve always been longing to hear live one day. Will we get lucky and hear it live this autumn? Let’s see what happens!

Among those songs that were played in summer, the most favourites – judging by the comments – seem to be Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång, Tycker om när du tar på mej, På promenad genom stan, Kung av sand and När alla vännerna gått hem. HERE you can check the setlist of each summer gig AND buy your ticket(s) for the autumn tour!

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour around Sweden in autumn!

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According to today’s press release, Per Gessle, one of Sweden’s greatest artists and songwriters, will go on tour in Sweden in November and December 2021 with “Per Gessle Unplugged”. After sold-out concerts in Tylösand this summer, the whole country can now join Per Gessle in an acoustic and intimate live environment – where classic hits from his career as a solo artist, Gyllene Tider and Roxette are to be expected!

Per Gessle’s rich song catalogue is undoubtedly one of Sweden’s most successful and most appreciated treasures. Now Per goes on a journey with a band consisting of Roxette musicians Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Magnus Börjeson and singer Helena Josefsson. The tour extends over larger parts of Sweden starting in Linköping on 5th November.

Per says:

An acoustic “unplugged” tour is new to me! My band and I did 10 wonderful gigs this summer at Hotel Tylösand and it tuned us to have lust for more. Seated audience, personal and live “for real” where anything can happen.

Aftonbladet writes: “Per Gessle performs on an unusually small and acoustic scale, but the format suits him surprisingly well.”

Göteborgsposten writes: “Musically, Per Gessle has always been crazy not only about power pop and arena anthems but at least as much for this type of acoustic folk pop. It’s not hard to imagine that he had pleasant difficulties in selecting songs for the concert.”

Per continues:

We will play songs from my entire career; Gyllene Tider, Roxette and as a solo artist. Old favourites are mixed with new ones. My ambition is that there will be fantastic evenings that light up the autumn darkness. See you around beautiful Sweden.

Dates:

5th November (Friday) – Linköping, Konsert & Kongress – TICKETS
6th November (Saturday) – Norrköping, Louis de Geer – TICKETS
14th November (Sunday) – Gävle, Konserthuset – TICKETS
19th November (Friday) – Stockholm, Filadelfia – TICKETS
20th November (Saturday) – Uppsala, Konsert & Kongress – TICKETS
22nd November (Monday) – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern – TICKETS
23rd November (Tuesday) – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
28th November (Sunday) – Halmstad, Teatern – TICKETS
29th November (Monday) – Halmstad, Teatern – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
8th December (Wednesday) – Karlstad, CCC – TICKETS
9th December (Thursday) – Örebro, Konserthuset – TICKETS
10th December (Friday) – Örebro, Konserthuset – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
12th December (Sunday) – Malmö, Slagthuset – TICKETS
14th December (Tuesday) – Jönköping, Konserthuset – TICKETS
15th December (Wednesday) – Kalmar, Kalmarsalen – TICKETS

Tickets for the Per Gessle Unplugged Tour go on sale on Thursday, 2nd September at 9.00 am CET via Livenation.se.

Watch the promo video for the tour HERE!

Press photo by Anders Roos was taken at Hotel Tylösand on 3rd August 2021.

Update on 2nd September 2021: Due to high demand, 3 extra concerts are added: 23 Nov – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern, 29 Nov – Halmstad, Teatern, 10 Dec – Örebro, Konserthuset. Tickets are already on sale. The list is updated above.

Per Gessle Unplugged – Hotel Tylösand – #10 – 3rd August 2021

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We have reached the final destination. Per Gessle Unplugged – Hotel Tylösand – final gig. The weather was nice all day: a bit windy, but sunny. Before the entrance there was a 5-10-minute-long heavy shower, which was followed by a beautiful rainbow above the hotel. From then on, it was sunny again.

The mood was great on and off stage again. The crowd was rather clapping along, but towards the end, the sing-along got stronger too. I think at this show Tycker om när du tar på mej, It Must Have Been Love and Sommartider were the best songs.

After the band presentation, Per told it’s the last gig they play at Hotel Tylösand and thanked to the hotel staff, as well as General Manager Elisabeth Haglund (who by the way always personally greeted the arriving guests in Solgården before each gig) and Food & Beverage Manager Jonas Karlén. He thanked to the band and the crew, as well as BoJo and Åsa who was responsible for the stage design. He thanked MP for the sound. He of course thanked the crowd too. Then he switched to English and said he knows there are so many people coming to the shows from abroad. He greeted the international fans: „Hello everyone! Thank you!” and got a loud cheering from the audience.

After Min hälsning the gang went off stage, but the crowd wanted them back and so in a couple of minutes they popped up on stage again for the first encore.

After När alla vännerna gått hem the band got flowers as a thank you for this unplugged series. We held up some TACK signs at this point. They were printed on leopard background, because we hoped for PG to appear in his leopard shirt again, but this time it was only his shoes with the leopard design. Anyway, when the crowd got the TACK signs before the gig, they were happy to cooperate in this little flashmob. Actually, the plan was to hold these paper sheets up after the very last song, but after we saw the flowers, we thought that would be the right time, so giving a green light to all behind us, we held them up. Both Per and the band appreciated it. Then they decided not to go off stage, they stayed there, put the flowers down to the stage floor and chairs and played the second encore.

The anecdotes and stories were much fun at the show, but there was another fun thing that topped it all at the last gig. After Per introduced Honung och guld with the Tom Petty story and they started playing it, suddenly the sound and the lights went off. There must have been some problems with the electricity, maybe a cable was pulled out of a plug by accident or a wrong button was hit, but Per certainly didn’t realize it – because of the in-ear system –, since he was still singing the song. Some of us were singing along, but since Honung och guld is not the strongest sing-along song, the crowd wasn’t too loud. Actually, from the band Christoffer seemed to realize it first that something was not OK. Then I could see Per reading the prompter, Micke N-S probably wrote a message that there is no sound. Haha. Then they stopped playing and Per spoke into the mic while smiling, but we couldn’t hear what he was saying. The crowd was cheering and clapping, Per sipped into his ginger tea and we all waited for a solution. Per was laughing and they were joking with Chris. Then some bulbs started shining again, but the band was still in darkness. Christoffer started playing Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and the crowd joined in with the lalalalalala melody. It was awesome! Then some more lights came back, then the sound too and they started playing Honung och guld again. After a while, all lights came back. When they finished the song, they got a veeery long applause and cheering from the audience. Per laughed and asked if we want more. The cheering went on until Per showed thumbs up and they played Om du bara vill as the closing song.

Is that possible that this 10-gig-long journey has just ended??? Time flies indeed when you are having fun… Approximately 2 months ago we had no expectations for any live music events at all, then Per suddenly announced in a video message that he would play at Hotel Tylösand this summer. It would have been 4 concerts, but they were sold out so fast that became 8 and then 10. Due to the pandemic, it was unfortunately very chaotic for fans outside Sweden to plan travelling and quite impossible for all fans outside the EU. Thankfully, the regulations partly changed from July 1st for EU citizens, but still it was quite difficult to organize everything on this short notice. Anyway, many international fans popped up at the shows to represent the hardcore fan base. It was great to meet again. Next time hopefully all will have the chance to travel and see Per & Co. play live, because that is really one of the best things in life and I consider myself very fortunate that I had the chance to attend several gigs on this tour, which wasn’t really a tour. Why do all good things come to an end?

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Tycker om när du tar på mej
6. Det hjärta som brinner
7. Tuffa tider
8. Juni, juli, augusti
9. Pappa
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Ömhet

Band introduction

12. Här kommer alla känslorna
13. Min hälsning

Encore 1
14. Vandrar i ett sommarregn
15. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
16. Sommartider
17. När alla vännerna gått hem

Encore 2
18. Vid hennes sida
19. Honung och guld
20. Om du bara vill

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the concert:

Wow!!! What a trip this has been! TEN UNPLUGGED GIGS under the belt. Such a blessing to be part of this! Thanks everyone once more for joining the acoustic joyride at Hotel Tylösand. I’m so happy to recieve so much love + positive feedback from soooo many people. It’s crazy. And it’s such a treat to be able to perform songs I don’t “normally” do, songs that matter to me, tiny lighthouses in my journey as a songwriter and artist. More to come, folks. That’s a promise! Cheers, P.