Tour

Where to end the Gyllene Tider farewell tour?

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Most fans are wondering why Gyllene Tider would finish their farewell tour in Norway. It makes no sense at all. I honestly think the last gig won’t happen in Norway and of course I’m not the only one having such thoughts. Göteborgs-Posten published an article today written by Johan Lindqvist. Johan writes in details about why Gyllene Tider should end their last tour in Sweden and he points out where exactly that last show should happen. He asks the tour to be re-planned. Haha. If you ask me, it’s surely already planned, it’s just not known to us. Yet. 😉

Johan highlights Per Gessle is a man who likes good planning and order. He appreciates a great dramaturgy when it comes to writing the story of his bands. He has also read enough rock biographies in order to know how a nice finish should be directed. Therefore, it’s completely incomprehensible that he put his name on a tour plan where Gyllene Tider will celebrate his long career with a gig in Fredrikstad, Norway. I have to agree with Johan.

Johan says he has nothing against Norway, the country has good skiing places, but when Sommartider is played for the last time, it should happen in Sweden.

Public release of tickets for the tour is 9 am on 5th February. Johan doesn’t think the tour will sell out immediately, but the premiere gig in Halmstad and the last Swedish show planned for 3rd August in Gothenburg have a high chance to sell out faster than Per can say ”allsångsfest”. Haha. I have to agree with Mr. Lindqvist again. It would be quite reasonable to change the date of the concert and add it after Norway. But it’s not only the date, the venue should be changed too. To Ullevi, of course. GT made success there before and will do it again. Although many will see the band during summer, there will still be many who want to join in and fill Ullevi to pay tribute to Gyllene Tider during their last night.

Johan checked and Ullevi is booked only for Metallica and Summerburst this summer. So there is surely a chance to add GT in August. He asks Live Nation at the end of his article to make sure Gyllene Tider and the fans get a finale they deserve. At Ullevi.

Oh well. Fredrikstad is on Friday, 9th August. The distance to Gothenburg is only 210 km. So why not a finale at Ullevi on Saturday, 10th August? Or if not 3 gigs in a row, then OK, it can also be Sunday, 11th August. Who else is in for that? Or… Can 60,000 people fit in anywhere in Halmstad? 😉

Pic by Patrícia Peres taken at Ullevi, Gothenburg on 12th July 2013 

Per Gessle and Micke Syd Andersson on TV4 about the GT farewell tour

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Per and Micke Syd appeared as guests on TV4’s Nyhetsmorgon and were interviewed by Jenny Strömstedt about the upcoming Gyllene Tider farewell tour. Watch it HERE!

When Jenny welcomed the guys, she noticed that they were wearing black clothes and asked if it is kind of grieving the ending of the band. Per and Micke Syd said nah, they are tough. Haha. Micke Syd said they were Sweden’s kindest pop band in the 80’s, so they are working on becoming tough.

Jenny asked what the fans think about the fact that it’s going to be Gyllene Tider’s last tour. Per replied that there are a lot of reactions. Micke Syd started singing Här kommer alla känslorna, but Per told him it’s not a GT song. Micke Syd said but it fits. Mr. G continued answering that GT means so much to a lot of people and it’s awesome. Micke Syd joined in and said fans say for example that their songs are the soundtrack to their lives. They grew up with Gyllene Tider. Per said it’s mainly their 80’s songs that he wrote when he was 19-22 years old. Back then he wouldn’t have thought they would be on a 40th anniversary farewell tour.

Then a short part of Parkliv tour film was shown and after that Micke Syd told the story that even if they beeped out the sound when Per told the phone number of Micke Syd’s mum’s hairdresser salon in the film, fans could read Mr. G’s lips and Micke’s mum got angry by constantly getting tons of calls after that. Jenny asked what the fans wanted. Micke Syd said ”talking to me” and Per joked ”having their hair cut”. Haha. Jenny asked how it worked with the fans back then. Both Micke and Per said they all lived with their parents and it was quite strange when fans were hanging around their houses. They were stealing washed clothes for example. Per said when he turned 21 he got 3400 mails, so his mum’s house was full of them. They also mentioned they had to check in at hotels on different names,picking different names each time. But of course, over the years it got calmer and the guys in GT also grew up and could handle it better. Jenny said that everyone tells about GT that they are like everyday people and so nice. The guys agree that they are nice.

Jenny mentioned that back in the days there were 2 big bands, Gyllene Tider and Noice in Sweden. They talked about the differences and Per said Noice was a big town band, while GT was a small town band. Micke Syd said this fact also determined that they had different mentality.

Per told that the band broke up in 1985 and since then they have always been doing something together on project basis. Like in 1996 or 2004 or 2013. The guys said they have a unique sound and when they play together it’s fantastic. They can’t put their finger on what it is about that uniqueness, but it’s like them 5 become 1 then. Per said when he plays GT songs with other musicians, they don’t sound like Gyllene Tider at all. There is a special style they have in GT and it shows up only when they 5 are playing together.

Jenny asked what the roles are in the band and if Per is the boss. Per said nah, he comes always as the last. Micke Syd told things are changing, but there are of course things that haven’t changed in the band. They also talked about how they play a song from 1980 these days. Micke Syd said they become young again on the inside despite the fact that he will soon turn 60. Per’s reaction to that was ”60?! Shit!” Haha. Jenny asked if it is the same feeling to sing about love now, when they are a little bit older. Per said when you sing a song you also act. Of course, when there is a song you wrote when you were 19 and sing it when you are suddenly not 19 anymore the song becomes different, it gets another meaning.

Per said GT is loved by so many people and one can’t take that for granted. It’s awesome to look back on their 40 years history. Micke Syd said there are so many memories related to their songs one can also see that on fans’ faces on the concerts.

At the end of the interview Jenny asked the most important question, if the guys can guarantee that this will really be a last time they go on tour again. Micke Syd nodded and Per replied ”it feels like that”. Jenny said it was quite a diplomatic answer.

 

Gyllene Tider go on a farewell tour and release new album

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We all expected Gyllene Tider to go on a 40th anniversary tour this year and now the announcement is out! It will not only be an anniversary tour, but four decades, four million sold records and several record tours later, at the same time it will be a farewell tour. The word farewell sounds a bit sad, but also promises one last summer full of joy and fun on the road! And hey, the band will live on forever through their music and their name is forever written in Swedish pop history and in fans’ beating hearts. 😉

There will be 17 concerts with the premiere in GT’s hometown, Halmstad and the last show in Fredrikstad, Norway. 15 gigs in Sweden, 2 in Norway. All tickets go on sale at 9 am on 5th February on livenation.se and livenation.no, but if you check Gyllene Tider’s Facebook page, you’ll be able to buy your tickets in a presale. See Live Nation’s promo video HERE!

Tour dates

4th July (Thursday) – Halmstad, Brottet
6th July (Saturday) – Malmö, Mölleplatsen
10th July (Wednesday) – Helsingborg, Sofiero Slott
12th July (Friday) – Skövde, Boulognerskogen
13th July (Saturday) – Linköping, Stångebrofältet
15th July (Monday) – Uppsala, Botaniska Trädgården
17th July (Wednesday) – Lysekil, Pinneviken
19th July (Friday) – Ronneby, Brunnsparken
20th July (Saturday) – Kalmar, Fredriksskans
24th July (Wednesday) – Piteå, Pite Havsbad
26th July (Friday) – Rättvik, Dalhalla
27th July (Saturday) – Stockholm, Sjöhistoriska
31st July (Wednesday) – Karlstad, Mariebergsskogen
2nd August (Friday) – Eskilstuna, Sundbyholms Slott
3rd August (Saturday) – Göteborg, Slottsskogsvallen
8th August (Thursday) – Trondheim (NO), Sverresborg Museum
9th August (Friday) – Fredrikstad (NO), Dampskipsbrygga

 

Per Gessle:

40 years is a long time and it’s absolutely fantastic that we as a band and our music have managed to touch several generations of Scandinavians. I’m fortunate to have been playing with Sweden’s best pop band. Anders’, Micke’s, Göran’s and MP’s expertise has given me endless opportunities to write powerpop just the way I longed for as a teenager.

Anders Herrlin:

I think it’s a perfect opportunity to end now. Everyone in the band is still active musicians and is in many ways better than ever. All of that we can bring in the new album and the summer tour – and say goodbye with all flags still flying.

Micke Syd Andersson:

This tour feels like our thanks to the amazing audience we have had a love story with for so many years. It will feel like a single long birthday party you share with friends and family – the end of an incredible journey you can only be grateful for having been part of.

Göran Fritzon:

It will certainly feel a little sad to go on Gyllene Tider’s last tour, but everything has an end. It’s just so hard to believe that it has been 40 years since everything started. But I have my Farfisa organ close at hand in the music room, so I feel I’m ready.

 

New album in spring

The band chose to record their seventh and last studio album in France.

Mats ”MP” Persson:

This is the first time we go abroad and record, so it will be incredibly fun. Per has recorded fairly simple demos to leave all the doors open for the band to arrange the songs together. Since we all come in with different ideas, quite unexpected things can happen, such as when we tested reggae arrangement for an ukulele song – which became ”Tuffa tider”.

Per Gessle:

We are like five brothers who don’t hang out on a daily basis, but when we meet, something happens that one can’t put a finger on. Personal chemistry? 1 + 1 = 3 theory? I don’t know, but we have always agreed on our love for pop music. With the summer tour we say thank you and farewell and I bend my neck and smile. Thank you all.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Göteborg, Sweden – 16th November 2018 – #20

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It’s over when it’s over. What can I do about it? Cherish this past tour forever. Unbelievable, but another tour has come to an end. Last night Per and his wonderful band performed in Gothenburg. The concert was held in Scandinavium, a big arena. This show had the most people in the audience during the tour. When I last time talked to BoJo some days ago he said they sold appr. 5000 tickets, but the number could be higher by the time we reached the date.

Inside the venue we could hear Roxette songs at the food & drinks area, then entering the arena we could see screens on both sides and of course, cameras as well. They were installed for the screens only, but who knows if the recording (if it was recorded) can be used for any possible future release. What surely will be used is the photos taken by Anders Roos who installed tons of cameras all around the stage again.

Nano started at 19:30 and thanked for the gigs where he could be the support act. He also thanked the job of the crew. The crew then was setting up for Per Gessle. One could see the technicians enjoyed preparing for the last gig, to make sure there is a perfect ending of the tour. They are the best!

Per & Co. entered the stage at 20:30 and rocked big time with the opener The Look. After TL, Per told the crowd it’s always, always fun to be in Göteborg. I have to agree with him. I only remember fab shows in this city. PG said it wasn’t so long ago when he played in Gothenburg. It was last year. He asked if we were there. He got a loud yes as a reply from the audience. Christoffer and Magnus also said into the mic they were there. Haha. Then Mr. G said it’s bizarre that he has been writing songs for more than 40 years. The most songs he wrote for Roxette, so he thought to dive deep into that catalogue and play a few favourites, but he also sneaked in some of his solo songs to be on the safe side. The crowd was cheering for him and he asked them to sing along.

MATAH sounded amazing in the arena and as I could get used to it during the tour, I heard the audience’s loud cheering for Helena. Well-deserved! Then Per talked about Capri 1993, that Roxette went there to record for 6 weeks. They had their families and friends there, as well as tons of journalists. They ate the world’s most expensive pizzas there and drank a lot of wine, but in the end it became a quite OK album. Per said he thought they would play one of the songs off that album and they performed CBB. After finishing the song, Helena and Per hifived each other, just like in Oslo the night before. The crowd was cheering for them. Per said, the title came from Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. He said ”you didn’t know it, huh?”. He got a mix of ”no” and ”yes” from the audience, but the ”yes”-es sounded louder, so he said ”oh yes, you knew it”. Haha.

The photographers could stay in the pit for the first 3 songs, as usual. So by the time PG & Co speeded the tempo up again, they had to go. DFS kicked ass and then SGNO too. As much as I like the ballads on this tour, I just can’t get enough of the uptempo songs. The intro to SGNO was Ljudet av ett annat hjärta a la Chris. The audience was awesome at clapping along. This time when Christoffer’s hat fell off his head, Per picked it up and put it back on Christoffer’s head. It stayed on his head only until he jumped down from the little podium on which Andreas crashes his drum. The ending of the song was as amazing as always, with Chris and Andreas going wild. Per praised Andreas’s drumming after SGNO.

Mr. G said what a fantastic evening it is. The last time he had a fantastic evening, or better said a good day was in 1990. He said he woke up and found a note on his piano saying ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). It was left there by his then girlfriend, now wife, since he had to marry Åsa after such a cute note. After writing Joyride in the morning, it was still only 11 am, so PG had a little break and after lunch he wrote another song, SMT. Per was talking so much about Joyride that he even picked a white medium plectrum off his mic stand. The thing is that he plays the acoustic guitar (for SMT) with a thin red pick. We were wondering when he would change it. He was probably also distracted a bit by the fact that his power chord finger started bleeding again. Not as much as in Linköping, but it was visible. So one could get hold of some bloody picks this time again. 😉 While Chris and Malin-My were playing the intro in the front and Per was standing in the back, he might have realized he had the wrong pick in hand, but still hadn’t changed it. He was looking at his finger rather. Then Helena started singing and when Per came to the front, he was playing the guitar with the medium pick, then when he went towards the back of the stage, he threw the white medium pick away, towards his ginger tea-holding trolley and picked a thin red plectrum off his guitar, licked it to have it stuck to the finger (however, the blood would have done it, haha) and played on. Helena was singing beautifully, for which she got a huge applause from the audience again.

IGYC, the duet of Per and Helena was wonderful with Chris, Malin-My and Ola playing in the background. Per talked about his Nashville adventures and that they would play a song in English that the crowd surely knows in Swedish already. STT was beautiful and here and now I say it again that it MUST BE RELEASED on a live album!

With Swedish hillbilly IHAPIMH I went live on our Facebook page. PG said it’s the only song he wrote for flutes, so that’s why there are 2 flute girls on stage. He said they are outstanding. And he is so right!

Then came the intro talk to IMHBL. Per said he sent the band 96(!) songs to rehearse for the tour. Magnus said they learned to play 102! They overdelivered. Haha. Per said it’s fake info. He said he was thinking about skipping one song, because there are so many others, but then came Magnus and actually, he has only 3 favourite songs. One of them is ”Livet är en fest” from Nationalteatern, the other is ”Happy Nation” from Ace of Base and the third one is what they are going to play right now. Magnus said to the crowd ”thank me later!” Haha. The crowd loved IMHBL. It would have been a big mistake not to include it in the setlist.

OppNox and TBL, the always ass-kicking section in the set! It was a blast last night too! The crowd was clapping along loud and they were shouting too. Then Per asked the audience if they remember the ’90s. He got a loud yes as a reply. He also asked Magnus. Magnus said he was born in 1991, so he rather remembers 1997, 1998 and 1999, then the ’90s was over, so he can’t remember more. Haha. They then played FLAF from the Joyride album. It’s fantastic how much this song has changed in Helena’s performance since the very first show of the tour. She’s such a talented artist and singer! To make any song her own. Hats off!

DMS is always a highlight at each show. What Christoffer is doing during this song is amazing. Every time! He is second to none! This is usually one of the songs when a possible DVD comes to my mind. MUST BE RELEASED! 😉

Per started the band presentation with saying he has a wonderful band with him and it’s now their second tour together. The crowd gave each band member a huge applause. After PG finished his part, Magnus and Chris said into the mic, but who is that in the middle who is always introducing only 7 people out of 8 on stage. Chris said: ”Song, guitar, … technical features … and especially many many very very good songs, Per Håkan Gessle!” At the technical features part Per was showing with his hands ”so-so” and the crowd was laughing. Haha.

Then Mr. G said ”let’s see if you recognize this one!” and he started the teaser to HDYD. How I love this! The crowd was not too loud in singing along, but most of us in the front were singing quite loud, so Per let us sing for quite long on the last gig. He was satisfied, we were satisfied. And then we could party to his version. Haha. The party went on during Dangerous. And oh no, is it really coming to an end? Now only the 2 encores left. Impossible how fast time flies!

The crowd was loud, clapping and shouting, so Per and the band came back on stage, PG thanked the crowd and said what a fantastic evening it is. They performed QOR, one of Per’s favourite Roxette songs and of course Helena was cheered after the song. Then it was time for a little Joyride. How Chris and Per were teasing each other in the intro part was again much fun! During the song both Chris and Ola got on their knees and were playing their guitars like that. It was so cool! Helena sat on the edge of the stage in front of us and animated the crowd from there. She’s so good at that (too)! She had a tambourine in her hands and rocked using it. At the end of the song she put it on her head, like a crown. Looked so great! Haha. Then off they went.

PG & THE Band came back for the 2nd encore. Per thanked once again and he put his hand on his heart to emphasize how he wanted to absorb all the love they got from the crowd. Then he said: ”A Friday night in Göteborg! That would be a good song title actually.” Haha. They played LTYH after this and it sounded wonderful. The crowd’s sing-along was the loudest at this song. Great! Before they played the very last song, Per said it’s a special night, because this is the last concert on the European tour. He thanked the band and also the crew for their fantastic job, he thanked Live Nation that made the tour possible and also thanked the people that came to the shows and he mentioned those separately who came to several shows. Then he switched to English and said: ”Thank you very much, you know who you are! Thank you!” And he showed thumbs up and looked at those fans in the front row. He is so amazing! Ojojoj! The bittersweet goodbye was getting closer. TSHTSG, the closing song that probably became everyone’s favourite earworm during the tour in this new arrangement. Another MUST BE RELEASED (on CD and DVD) song! Just saying! 😉 Since I somehow wanted to thank Per and the band for the whole tour right there at the last concert, being fortunate enough to have seen 15 shows out of 20, I prepared signs in English and in Swedish saying: ”Thanx for a wonderful tour!” & ”Tack för en underbar turné!”, both having 2 red hearts added in the bottom. I was there at the gig with 2 of my friends (Sandra, who saw 16 shows on this tour and Tomasz, also from RoxBlog) and we decided to hold up these signs when the greatest earworm part starts in TSHTSG, namely the ”tütütütürütü” part, sung by Helena and Malin-My. So we held up the signs then and kept them up in the air until the end of the song. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces. They showed thumbs up and thanked, even Per thanked. Before the bows, Jakob (Christoffer’s technician) came up on stage and brought a big bunch of red roses and gave it to Per. Per thanked it and put it on the stage while they were taking the bows. Jakob stayed there with the gang and he also took a bow. Happy band, happy crowd, perfect night! The band was waving to the crowd and went off stage, Per threw some more plecs from his mic stand and then picked up the flowers and waved goobye. Off he went. The crew was fast dismantling the stage. While they were doing their job, we held up our thank you signs for them too. They laughed.

After the concert we were lucky to meet the band and Per and BoJo, so we could thank them for the tour in person too. They also loved the whole journey. When I told Per how I loved the whole thing, he said ”Yeah, it was good!” I said ”Good? It was perfect!” Haha. I love how after more than 40 years of successful songwriting and performing he still can’t really handle compliments. That humble smile on his face was a PERfect ending for me of this tour. THANK YOU ALL!

Now fingers crossed for a fat tour photo book full of beautiful pictures, a live CD and a DVD! AND an announcment of any PG-related tour in the not too far future! GT40, anyone? 😉

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Per after the show:

EUROPE BYE BYE. Yep, this tour ended tonight in style with a most magnificent concert at Scandinavium in Gothenburg. If you were there I’m pretty certain you had a good time. We certainly did!!!!

I have to pinch my arm all the time convincing myself this awesome band actually is playing my songs. My Gosh, they’re so good, I’m not worthy! I’ll cherish this tour forever!!

Thanx also to the adorable crew who’ve been with me working on so many different projects over the years. You’re the best! Couldn’t have made it without you!

And…last but not least… thanks to all of you who supported PER GESSLE’S ROXETTE + this tour from Day One + came onboard to give your love + support (+ voices) to make it happen. Big bold promise: new adventures ahead!!!! No rest for the wicked! Keep it up! Lots of love from P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Oslo, Norway – 15th November 2018 – #19

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We reached the second to last show on this tour so fast. Unbelievable! In Oslo we found the longest queue waiting for the doors to be opened at the venue. One line was waiting for the balcony seats, another line for the standing area. Both lines were really long. The doors opened a bit after 7 pm and you could see most people were heading either to the balcony or to the bars, so we could easily reach the front row downstairs, in front of the stage.

Sentrum Scene is a cosy venue. It was full already at 8 pm, even if the concert started only at 8.30 pm, without a support act. And what a concert it was! Who would have thought that this would be the gig that beats all the shows before?! Norway! You showed how to do it! Awesome sing-along crowd and a most fabulous band headed by PG in toptoptop shape!

The Look was a blast already! Not only Per and the band were rocking on stage, but the audience also rocked big time. Loud sing-along, clapping, shouting. One could feel it would be an awesome show. After TL, Per told the crowd it’s so nice to see so many people and that it was quite long ago, the last time he played in Oslo, he can’t even remember. He asked if anyone remembers and someone shouted 1995. Could be. During his talking, the crowd was cheering him all the time. Amazing!

MATAH was beautiful and the audience was not afraid to cheer Helena and applaud her. Then Per started talking about Capri 1993, but while he was doing that, he started fighting with the plaster on his power chord finger. It looked quite healed, but certainly, the plaster must have been irritating, so it had to go. After he could get it off, he threw it towards Magnus, who picked it up from the stage, walked to Per and threw it on him. It was much fun! Then Mr. G mentioned the 6-week-long recording in Capri and they performed CBB. One must love it when the whole crowd sings along. And so loud! When they finished the song, Helena and Per hifived each other and people in the crowd were clapping and shouting. Per said, if anyone wonders, the title came from Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

After the photographers left the pit, Åsa came and she was filming a lot from the pit, from the sides of the stage, she filmed both what was happening on stage and also the crowd a lot. Then it was time to party, which with this crowd was even better. DFS was the next song and then came SGNO. The whole audience was clapping loud and Chris played In The Hall Of The Mountain King as the intro to the song. The ladies and gents did an ass-kicking performance and the audience was very much a part of it. This is the song where most of the times something extra happens during the gig. This time the supercool extra was that Christoffer’s hat fell off stage towards the end of the song, but Åsa caught it and gave it to Per. Per put it back on Christoffer’s head, but when Chris went to the back, to Andreas, he put it on Per’s head. Haha. Mr. G kept the hat on his head until Chris and Andreas finished the song in their most rocking style. Then Per put the hat on Christoffer’s head while he was still on his knees. Then Per ”styled” his own hairdo a bit with a huge smile on his face. That smile was actually there during whole night.

              

PG then talked about his good day in 1990. Åsa was there sitting in front of him, filming it. He said he woke up one day and found a cute note on his piano saying ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). He had to marry his girlfriend after seeing this note. It was lovely to see Mrs. Gessle’s reactions, how she was smiling when Per talked about her. After writing Joyride in the morning, PG had a lunch break, ate Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes and then he wrote another song, SMT. It was also wonderful and Helena got a huge applause from the audience.

IGYC sounded beautiful, just like STT. Before the latter one Per talked about Nashville. The crowd enjoyed both songs so much, they clapped loud and cheered the musicians up on stage. Per showed thumbs up to them after STT.

Swedish hillbilly IHAPIMH was much fun to hear again. Then Per said he suggested  84 songs to the band to rehearse. Magnus said it was 92. Per said Magnus has 3 favourite songs, I think he mentioned 2 from Norwegian artists/bands and then IMHBL, which he didn’t want to play on tour. The crowd was singing along during the whole song and they were very loud.

OppNox and TBL kicked ass! Then Mr. G asked Magnus about the ’90s. Magnus said it’s hard to remember the first half of the ’90s, because he was born in 1991, but he remembers the second half. He remembers something regarding Per and him and Paul Waktaar and Magne Furuholmen from 1998. Per couldn’t remember anything. And they went on with FLAF, which also became a loud sing-along session.

Then it was DMS’s turn. Fabulousness again! And you could see Christoffer’s shirt might not survive the last gig of the tour, since it’s more and more torn.

The band presentation let the crowd cheer and applaud every band member. Per said they are wonderful people, almost all of them. Haha. After Mr. G finished the introduction, Chris said they are 8 on the stage, but Per introduced only 7 of them, so he went on: ”Song, guitar and especially many many very good songs, Per Gessle!” Then came the teaser to HDYD. We were singing, but Per took over quite early. Anyways, both HDYD and Dangerous were ass-kicking too. It was hard to see the whole gang leaving the stage after that.

The crowd was so loud stomping, shouting, clapping that PG & Co didn’t have any other choice than to come back on stage a few minutes later. Helena was singing QOR perfectly and Joyride was much fun not only to sing-along, but also to see what’s going on on stage. Duracell bunnies all around! Helena sat on the edge of the stage in front of us and was animating the crowd all the time.

The gang came back for a 2nd encore after a very short break. Micke N-S brought Per his guitar and Mr. G was teasing him with getting further and further to the other side of the stage to make MNS walk more before he took the guitar from him. Haha. Per thanked the crowd for the fantastic evening. Then it was LTYH and TSHTSG. Magnus was swinging a lot during these songs, but also the whole band seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

If I have to mention one thing I didn’t like, I say the lights. The spotlight was many times on someone else vs. the one who was singing. Otherwise the whole gig was TOP! I was thinking hard about my priority list regarding the concerts I saw on this tour. I had Hamburg on top of my list so far, but last night it changed. Oslo is the winner! Let’s see what happens in Göteborg!

Setlist:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
4. Dressed For Success
5. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
6. Spending My Time
7. I’m Glad You Called
8. Small Town Talk
9. I Have A Party In My Head
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. The Big L.
13. Fading Like A Flower
14. Doesn’t Make Sense
Band presentation
15. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 16)
16. Dangerous

Encore
17. Queen Of Rain
18. Joyride

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

Per after the gig:

OSLO ALRITE! Yea, amazing gig tonight. Thanx a million to all you wonderful people in the audience. So loud, so proud!! Really beautiful! Could be the best gig so far on this European Tour??? Maybe? Crazy tight band, very relaxed and yet really really powerful. Have to love this! Norway, a treat to be here! See y’all next time. Love from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.