TV

Per Gessle on Top 2000 in the Netherlands

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There was a short interview with Per today about The Look on Top 2000 (Dutch music program). The program is available in the Netherlands only, but hopefully, they will soon upload it to their YouTube channel as well.

The interview was done on 19th November at Baggpipe Studios (the old EMI studio) in Stockholm. Per tells they recorded a lot of Roxette songs there and shows the place where e.g. Jonas Isacsson was sitting, playing the guitar, where the drums were, etc. Per says it’s a magical place for him.

Mr. G thinks Pearls of Passion was a good album, but he wanted Roxette to be a bit more programmed, digital and modern. There was a conflict between him and the original producer of Look Sharp!, because the producer wanted to use his favourite musicians. Per was lucky in the end, because their engineer broke his leg and they got another engineer. He was an amazing porgrammer and digital guy. He, Per and Clarence wanted Roxette to go to the computer world. Per bought a synthesizer with a sequencer and started learning how to use that. He wrote The Look on it. 3 chords, 1 finger. It was written for Marie, that’s why he was singing ”he’s got the look” in the demo. Marie liked the demo, but said she can’t sing it, because there is no melody. It’s almost like rap. But then she said ”I can sing the nanana part and I can do the answering in the choruses”.

Per was against releasing it as a single, because the whole idea behind Roxette was that Marie was going to sing the songs and Per was the main songwriter. So in Per’s world it didn’t really make sense to release it as a single.

In 1988 there was an American exchange student in Sweden and he became a big Roxette fan. He moved back to Minneapolis and on his favourite radio station, KDWB there was a show where listeners can call in and ask for their favourite songs or they can leave their records there. He went there and gave them the Look Sharp! album. It was lying around for a couple of weeks and he went back to pick it up again. The program director was there at the reception and thought that’s a really cool album cover. Because it looks like a magazine. So he put on the album and the first song was The Look. He thought this is an amazing song. He put it on air and as soon as he did so, the phone started to ring and people were asking what’s that. They rush released the single because it was all over the radio and it took 8 weeks until it became No. 1. It changed their lives of course.

Per explains all the Nordic countries have great traditional melodies. That’s in their DNA. If you listen to old classic Swedish songs from the 19th century, it’s very beautiful melodies and they grew up listening to that kind of music. You can hear it in ABBA’s music, you can hear it in Per’s music.

That particular Roxette sound was created in the old EMI studio, in Stockholm, with Swedish people. EMI in the US wanted them to move to Los Angeles or at least to New York or at least to London, to be part of the international music scene. But they said no, because if they moved to Los Angeles, they would have sounded like Richard Marx or what was happening at the time in the US. Roxette sounds special because it was made in Sweden.

Still is from the interview.

Thanx for the technical support, Ludo van Denderen! (Until the original video is available on the Top 2000 YouTube channel, you can watch Ludo’s recording of it HERE.)

Update on 13th February 2020: Top 2000 a gogo uploaded the video to YouTube.

Gyllene Tider – avskedsturnén documentary on TV4

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During the tour we could already sense there would be a GT40 documentary later because of the filmings at each concert and with more cameras out at Ullevi and in Kalmar. Gyllene Tider – avskedsturnén (Gyllene Tider – the farewell tour) premiered on TV4 on 26th December. The story about a pop band that conquered Sweden. Again. And again. And again… 1979-2019. Unfortunately, as usual, it is available only in Sweden, but here you can read an English translation of it and see some screenshots.

The documentary is of premium quality both recordings and soundwise, as well as in terms of content. There is a lot of footage from the GT40 tour, interviews with the Golden Guys done by the mighty Sven Lindström, footage from the rehearsals before the tour and the studio in France, old interviews, photos and private videos, Pappa and Mamma Syd, as well as Micke Syd’s then girlfriend talking about the old days, Niklas Strömstedt, Lasse Lindbom, Kjell Andersson, Marie Dimberg also talking about Gyllene Tider’s greatness. Grumpy Productions did a fantastic job once again.

The documentary starts with Per telling it was Micke Syd who came up with the idea to finish GT with this latest tour, because with their habit of doing a tour every 6-7-8 years, who knows how they would be next time when they are 67-68 years old.

 

It’s amazing to see cuts from the 1981 Parkliv version of songs and the 2019 tour next to each other. It’s the same energetic band as ever.

Right at the beginning when Per talks on stage about Harplinge and Micke Syd’s mom who had a hairdresser salon, a part of the Mamma Syd interview is cut in where she says when Per was there for the first time, he had a long coat and a hat on. He looked a little special. And she laughs. Sven asks Per about the period when he became a teenager. Mr. G says he was a music and pop nerd. He never thought he could play anything, but he just started writing lyrics or rather poems. MP says when he first heard about Per was in the first grade at high school.

Anders says the first time he met Micke was when they started playing football together. Micke Syd says those who lived in Harplinge went to school in Halmstad. Göran says he asked his music teacher if he knew anyone who played in a band and got the phone number to Anders. He called him and asked what they were up to.

 

Mr. G’s classmate, Peter played the bass in MP’s band. They met more and more times and Per and MP became best friends. Micke and Anders were best friends too, Mamma Syd says. They listened to albums together and went to the record store every day. Anders and Micke decided to get more involved in music and left football. Their trainer told them they would never succeed.

 

Per describes his experience of hearing MP’s band, 4 guys playing at the rehearsal studio in Harplinge as a fantastic noise. He felt he also wanted to play in a band.

Pappa Syd visits the old Tits & Ass studio in Styrdal. Someone else is living there now, but he lets Ingemar in and he shows which room the recording studio was. It has changed a lot, but the the studio window is still there. Per says he spent a lot of time on sending out cassettes to all possible places: local radio, journalists, newspapers, etc. When they recorded their yellow EP, it went out to all record labels. Kjell Andersson (EMI) says when he heard Billy, he got stuck to it, because the singer reminded him of a young John Holm who was his favourite those times. Lasse Lindbom says he and Kjell were running around Stockholm clubs and listened to punk bands and they realized the guys in GT knew what music was about.

Sven asks MP if he would thought when they recorded their first album that they would become one of Sweden’s greatest pop bands. MP says not at all. When they were there in the studio, they were not thinking like this, but there was a supernatural driving force in all of them. They were dreaming with the songs, they rehearsed a lot to become better.

Per says that in January 1979, Kjell from EMI called him. He lived at his mother’s then. Kjell says Per’s mom picked up the phone and said his son was still sleeping, but she could wake him up, it was 12 am after all. Micke Syd says when Kjell called them, it felt like winning the lottery, the Nobel Prize and becoming the father of 4 at the same time. Lasse Lindbom went down to Halmstad to see if they could play. Lasse met Per at motel Hallandia and says Per was quite nervous, he had sweaty hands. Micke says of course they were nervous. Recording an album at a big record label with Lasse Lindbom! Per took Lasse to their studio and when they were there altogether, they became more confident. All other bands who rehearsed there went to see Lasse Lindbom. Pappa Syd says Lasse listened to the guys in the cellar of the old nursing home. Lasse then went back to Stockholm and told Kjell he wasn’t totally convinced. He was a little sceptical about the singer’s pop star status. But there was something in Per’s lyrics and how they could perform their songs. They were talented musicians.

Per says it was magical that they could record an album, but still no one knew who they were. As small town boys they felt quite lost in the big city. In the ’70s all record labels were in Stockholm. Those days there were only 2 TV channels and 1 radio that played pop music. Laila Berger, a childhood friend says the guys didn’t have an image. They came from the countryside, in clogs, jeans and T-shirts to EMI in Stockholm. Lasse says the first to get out from the taxi was Göran. He was showing the receipt and asked if he gets money for that. At that moment EMI probably didn’t think of them as future pop idols.

They recorded the album at EMI’s little studio 2 in Skärmarbrink. The studio was so small they could hardly fit in all five of them with the instruments. Micke says they got the small studio because Björn Skifs was recording in the big one. Per says there was something magical in all this. No one knew them, they didn’t have any success, they just wanted to record their album. They went home at nights and shared a room. Per, MP and Anders were in a triple room. They were sitting there and listened to the cassettes to hear what they recorded during the day and they thought that was the best they ever heard. Revolver upp, Sista gången jag såg Annie, those songs. Mr. G says he thinks the record label didn’t really know what they wanted to do with them when they recorded their first album. They picked Himmel No. 7 as the first single with Flickorna på TV2 on the other side. Lasse Lindbom says they had to change the sides and re-release it. Kjell says it was Niklas Strömstedt who first saw the qualities of Flickorna på TV2. In the summer of ’79 he was a DJ at Atlantic, a club in Stockholm where all the hip people were going. Niklas says his first impression of GT was that they were quite curious, nice, a little clumsy guys from the countryside.

The first time MP went to Atlantic he was wearing clogs. The security guy was so nice to him he said he can lend him his private shoes so he can change his clogs and pick them up when he is leaving. After this, MP’s clogs were left home for good. Susan Hübel, Micke’s then girlfriend says Anders and Micke went to Ullared and bought the most awful clothes ever. Göran says he was only 17 and he went to clubs like Atlantic and Victoria.

Per says they had to learn how to handle fame. Even if one thinks it’s cool to become famous and have fans, they were not prepared for it. It was very strange. They were super happy of course, but also surprised that it happened so fast. Teenage girls were screaming and fainting, it was hysterical. They did only 6 live performances in front of an audience before they became No. 1 with Flickorna på TV2. Micke says they suddenly had everything they dreamed about. Attendance records, screaming girls, guys were showing their middle finger to them while girls were falling in love with them.

Pappa Syd enters Börjes konditori where the GT guys were hanging around a lot to eat or drink something, but also to meet friends. He says Harplinge was a vivid town, but after the railway disappeared in 1986, the town became kind of dead.

Per still lived with his mom and says when they were hanging out his washed clothes they got stolen by fans. But not only that. Anything that could be moved was gone. Even the registration number plate from the car. Mamma Syd confirms that girls were totally crazy. They were sitting in the ditch outside the house and were waiting for Micke to come home. Susan remembers she once received a pillowcase from a girl with a letter to ask Micke to sleep on it and send it back to her. Micke was so nice that he did sleep on that pillowcase.

Lasse Lindbom says he was surprised by the monumental success of GT, but not because he didn’t believe in them, but because one never thinks that something can become so huge. These things just happen. Kjell also says he never thought they could be so huge. At least not that fast.

Niklas thought that the guys could accompany him on his first album in 1980, but GT became so big that they didn’t have time for that. So he had to find another band.

When Per had his 22nd birthday in 1981, he received more than 3000 letters in 2 big bags that were waiting for him in front of his mom’s house.

Even if the guys became famous, they weren’t popular in Harplinge and Halmstad. People were shouting at them not to think they are now something and ”you fag!”. Göran says it was just jealousy. For Anders it was so hard to deal with the reactions that he moved to Stockholm quite early.

Micke says that after their break-through, there came a 2-year-long touring. Per says when you have such a huge succes, you lock yourself into your job. Of course, people recognized them when they fuelled the car or outside the hotels it was filled with people when they were touring, but they worked even more focused.

Micke says he started playing the drums when he was 5. He took a pair of knitting needles and played on an ashtray. Then he built a drumset from O’boy cocoa and coffee cans and played on them. Lasse says Micke wanted to be a pop star. That was his thing. Niklas says to say that Micke is a photobomber is an understatement. He likes to be in the front, in the middle of attention and he is not ashamed of it. Marie Dimberg says Micke Syd is a bit of an all-over-the-place guy. He is doing 800 things at once. Lasse says he was driving a truck and was a pop star at the same time. He could cope with it. Mamma Syd says Micke had his first job as a truck driver and when he was eating together with the others, he was constantly drumming. They told him he should stop drumming, otherwise he can’t eat together with them next time.

 

MP says back in the days there were only 3 radio stations, P1, P2 and P3. 95.4 was the highest frequency, so he thought to use the frequency somewhere between 99 and 100. He used a tape,  so he had 45 minutes to borrow his dad’s Amazon and put the radio on and listen if he can hear what he put on and it worked. Then he was driving around in Harplinge to check the range. Niklas says MP is one of the most musical people he has ever met. According to Lasse, MP is a musical genius, but also a very odd character. He was the one Lasse thought of the least that it could work outside Halmstad. Kjell says that one night on a tour MP knocked on Per’s door. Per opened it and MP told him he had solved the riddle of life. Then he closed the door and in the morning he couldn’t remember anything.

Göran tells that they had a pump organ at home and he played it when he was 4 years old. He always liked music. He was wild and always happy. He had a lot of energy. He was selling beer and soft drinks at the age of 14-15. Niklas says Göran likes to be on stage. It’s fun to see him now. He doesn’t look like he did in 1979, but he is the same on the inside.

Per says he was much of an introvert. The world of pop was very interesting for him. More exciting than his real life. He was ranking all songs on LPs, band members as well. He had lists of the nicest covers, best hairdos, coolest clothes, etc. Susan says Per was a pop star right away. He was the first guy she saw using nail polish and eyeliner. Per says he was selling Christmas magazines and stuff like this and bought records from the money he got. When he was 10, he already had 100 LPs. Kjell says Per has always been the engine and the driving force in all this. Marie Dimberg says he is a leader, a quite responsible leader. He is hard-working, pedantic from head to toe, meticulous, professional and organized. He has a good sense of humor and knows what he wants. And even if he is a world star, he is incredibly down to earth. It’s only his cars that are extravagant.

 

Anders says he bought his first bass guitar in secret and was hiding it under his bed so that his father couldn’t see it. He and his father worked at the same place, but Anders left the job when Gyllene Tider had their first show in Kalmar. He thought his father would die. His dad had never said anything regarding GT in his life. He wanted Anders to have a real job. When Anders was in Nashville with Per to record an album, he found some clipping from a newspaper that his father had kept and it was bewildering. Niklas thinks Anders is a divinely gifted pop bassist. According to Kjell, together with MP they are probably the most skilled musicians.

Per says that everyone who is coming from a small town eventually doesn’t want to come from there, because there are no possibilities. There is only one common dream: get out and succeed with your music.

After a couple of successful years they thought the next step should be to release an album in English to be able to hit the international market. They sold a lot of albums, so the record label invested money in them and they could do whatever they wanted. MP says they lost the grip, he doesn’t know why they recorded an English album. They thought they had already done what they could, so they had to find something else. Anders says it was a flop in all senses, productionwise as well. Lasse says an English album was not what anyone wanted from Gyllene Tider. Micke says they wanted to succeed abroad too, but with this they went away from what they actually were. But they didn’t know it back then. Anders felt that something would happen because they were getting far from what the direction in the music world was. Duran Duran came out with Girls on Film which was hypermodern and they were standing there asking how the hell they are doing it.

The guys had a tour that wasn’t too successful. Nothing really worked and it was the first time since their break-through. Then Per had the idea to get back to Swedish. The 5 of them had a dinner at restaurant Svea, in Grand Hotel, Halmstad. Per had a list with him of what they should do. Per presented it, but Anders said they can do it, but without him. No one expected it to happen, that Anders would leave the band. There had been no signs of it before. They weren’t pop stars anymore. It was hard to deal with it in the beginning. Everything you were so far disappears. Göran didn’t know what to do, Micke didn’t know it either. All they knew was that they didn’t want to go on with the band without Anders. It wouldn’t have been the same without him.

Anders got a job in a music store in Stockholm. Suddenly there were cheap computers and sequencer programs, so one could make music with synthesizers in a simple way. So he learned everything about it.

Per started working with Marie. Here comes a part of an old TV show from 1983 where the reporter asked him if Marie was his new support in life. Per said of course and kissed Marie on the hand. Per continued to work and write songs together with MP and recorded all his demos with Mats. They wrote together Listen to Your Heart, Spending My Time and Queen of Rain. Anders became producer for Roxette together with Clarence Öfwerman when they recorded The Look.

When Listen to Your Heart became No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Per called MP to come over because they had to celebrate something. MP was surprised because there were journalists and cameras all around. It happened so fast and it was hard to take in for MP.

When Roxette went on tour, Anders became member of the band and he was programming all they needed and played the bass. Per says he didn’t escape from the GT guys. Göran and Micke were less around, but he worked together with MP and Anders.

Per remembers he was sitting in a dressing room in Tokyo and wrote Det är över nu for Gyllene Tider, because they were to release a compilation album, Halmstads pärlor and they needed new songs for that. He wrote Kung av sand for that too. Both songs became big hits. Per was free after the Roxette tour and they decided to do a tour in 1996 with GT. They also decided for recording an EP for the tour. There was Gå & fiska! and Juni, juli, augusti on it and these songs became big hits too.

Sven asks Anders what makes Gyllene Tider sound like Gyllene Tider. Anders says it’s like a secret sauce. Why is a chocolate cake better than the other? Micke says you can set 10 drummers with the same drumset to play Gå & fiska!, but it is only him who sounds like that. And it’s not about how good Micke is. There is some kind of chemistry among them one can’t explain. Per says he can’t put his finger on it. They learned it all together. Niklas thinks GT could manage to create some kind of mix of commercial pop and humorous lyrics, fun arrangement and pop they could never hear in Sweden before Gyllene Tider.

Sven asks Per if they know why they became so big. Per says he has no clue. They didn’t sound like anyone else. They come from another planet and have another DNA in their sound. Per thinks his songwriting is special and MP’s input too. Micke and Anders are a bit younger and come from another route. And Göran too. It became a hybrid that could sort out what they were good at, so it became a special sound.

While they are in the studio in France, Per says they had been a power pop band from the very beginning. Then they tried to develop their own sound while they wanted to keep their identity. But on the last album they wanted to take a step back. They wanted to record clean guitars like on Moderna Tider. They thought there was no reason to find out something new at the age of 60. So Samma skrot och korn became nostalgic and sad. Even in terms of the lyrics. Per wanted it to sound like this band had been together for 40 years. They grew up and they love pop and this is what it has become when they are now around 60.

 

 

 

Marie Dimberg is asked about how GT can always succeed with their comebacks. That they can be away for 10 years and then make success again. Marie says it’s exactly because of that. Because there is this ”How can we miss you when you won’t go away?” thing. They go away and let people miss them. At the same time, their hit catalogue finds new audiences every time. And they are associated with tons of lovely things, including summer.

Sven asks when they will come back for a next farewell tour. Per says in 4-5 years maybe and laughs. They are in the peak of their lives, so they are doing a little finale now. One can never know. Marie Dimberg is also not sure that it was the last time last summer when they were on stage together. It felt like that in the very beginning though. Micke says there are people who still can’t believe it was their last tour, but he still thinks it was. Göran says it was the last time, because they decided it. MP says the same. Niklas thinks one can’t just stop. Maybe there comes a day when they think, shit, we have all these songs. Wouldn’t it be fun to play them again?

Towards the end of the documentary, when När alla vännerna gått hem is playing, there are cuts of the song from Parkliv 1981, Återtåget 1996, GT25 2004, DATPR 2013. And when the 1996 part comes, it’s Marie singing for a few seconds and you just can’t hold your tears back.

 

 

Micke Syd says the pride stays with them, but he will miss being on stage knowing that only they can do it together. MP says a better tour than this was can’t be done. One couldn’t feel in their playing that it was a farewell tour. It’s just an absolutely incredible feeling. Göran will miss the fans the most. They are the reason why GT existed at all. Why they became so big. Without the fans it wouldn’t have happened.

Most live footage is from Ullevi (but there are cuts from e.g. Dalhalla and Piteå as well) and it’s amazing to see the band and the crowd in those parts of the docu. I miss hearing the songs in complete and the flow of a complete gig, but I assume, we will get that on a DVD later. Would be just awesome!

 

All stills are from the documentary.

Thanx for the technical support, János Tóth!

Update: there is a YouTube upload of the docu.

Det svenska popundret – The Swedish Pop Phenomenon

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2 months ago SVT broadcast a documentary about modern Swedish music’s journey around the world. I just had the time now to watch it and since many fans asked for translation, I thought I would summarize it for them. The part with Roxette in it has a more detailed summary, of course.

The documentary consists of 6 episodes and one can follow how the music industry, music consumption, production and spreading music changed over the decades. It’s a real high quality docu including a lot of information not only about Roxette, but many other Swedish artists and worldwide hits.

The 6 episodes on SVT’s website are available to watch only in Sweden, but the extras can be watched even outside Sweden. The episodes are up on YouTube though, so you can watch them from any country.

Part 1 – En magisk afton i april – A magical evening in April

This episode is about the ’60s and ’70s. I picked a couple of interesting parts of it. One of them is when the reporter asks several Swedish artists (Dr. Alban, Neneh Cherry, Jonas Åkerlund, Björn Skifs, Per Gessle among them) if they know who the first Swedish artist was that entered the US Billboard Hot 100. Even Per couldn’t guess it right. It was Siw Malmkvist with Sole Sole Sole in 1964, peaking at No. 58. When the reporter hands over the single to Mr. G he says it has a wonderful cover. He immediately takes out the vinyl from its sleeve and smells it. Haha.

Another interesting fact was that the first Swedish No. 1 on Billboard was Blue Swede’s cover of Hooked On a Feeling. Blue Swede was Björn Skifs’ band back then. What is more interesting is that the song became No. 1 on the same day when ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. 6th April 1974.

ABBA, still being Sweden’s biggest music export, was the first band that could make an international breakthrough not coming from the US or the UK.

Paul Gambaccini (known as The Professor of Pop) from BBC says they learned that if you get music from Sweden, you should at least listen to it.

Part 2 – “Today Sweden, Tomorrow The World”

Yes, this is the episode about Roxette, the ’80s mainly, but also a few words about the ’90s. It is worth watching this episode even if you can’t speak Swedish. It shows a lot of footage from concerts, studio sessions and old interviews.

In one of the old interviews Marie and Per say their dream is to break through not only in Sweden, but also internationally.

First, the reporter is talking about Gyllene Tider with Per. After a while he shows the English version of När vi två blir en (Beating Heart) to Mr. G on YouTube. Per’s facial expression says it all. Many artists tried their luck in the ’80s. They were singing in English to have better chances for their breakthrough.

Per shows The Heartland Café album that was released in 1984, one year after he released his first solo album. Then he suddenly shows another sleeve which says Roxette as the band’s name. That was the US version. Per tells he remembers he was at Tower Records in Los Angeles and found their album next to Roxy Music and it made him very happy. But they sold only a few hundred copies of that record. The Heartland Café didn’t sell good in Sweden either.

About Marie, the reporter says a girl showed up with a better voice than the best singers had. Per says Marie and him thought they could do something together and one day break through abroad. Mr. G says it was a better period for Marie when GT failed with The Heartland Café. She was an artist on her way up with a bright future. For Per, it was the exact opposite. He released another solo album that was a flop.

Per always wanted to work together with Marie and do something in English. Mr. G wrote Svarta Glas for Pernilla Wahlgren, but she or her record company never got back to Per. Then this song was just lying around and when the head of EMI heard it, he told Per he should translate it into English and record it with Marie. It became Roxette’s debut single, Neverending Love. There was no picture of Marie and Per on the cover not to risk Marie’s career. If the single flops, there is no harm done, they thought. But the single became a hit in Sweden, so they went to the studio to record a complete album. They had a video camera with them and extreme ambitions. They even printed ”Today Sweden, Tomorrow The World” on their T-shirts.

There was another Swedish band back in the days that was really successful, Europe. The reporter asks Per if they were envious of Europe. Mr. G says of course they were. Of their hairdo. Haha. After we get to know more about Europe’s breakthrough, Per says they envied the success of the guys, but at the same time it was awesome. Europe showed that it works even after ABBA. They managed to succeed in the US.

Roxette’s debut album wasn’t released abroad even if it became double platinum in Sweden. EMI in Germany said they should write a Christmas song, so it might be on the radio. Per went home and wrote It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted). It was a big song in Sweden in 1987, but it wasn’t even released in Germany.

The reporter says, if you come from Halmstad, there is only one way to go, forward. Per started writing songs for another Roxette album and they were soon back in the studio. With less musicians, more machines and of course, Marie’s magical voice.

Per thinks that their 2nd album, Look Sharp! is still magnificent. The reporter asks what people thought about the album abroad. Per says it had a nice response, but many other artists had good albums. The reporter asks if they were disappointed. Mr. G says he was disappointed because he knew it was a fantastic album, they all felt it was a strong record, so they thought it’s difficult to go forward when you don’t have success with such an album.

In 1988 another Swedish artist broke through internationally. It was Neneh Cherry with her Buffalo Stance single. Per says it’s an awesome one. He knew that Neneh Cherry was Swedish, but many thought she was e.g. from Brooklyn.

Then comes the story of Dean Cushman. As we all know, he brought his copy of Look Sharp! to the radio station in Minneapolis. Program leader Brian Phillips says it picked his curiosity, but didn’t put it on on his CD player. The album was lying around on his table among other music. Then Dean popped up again to ask his album back, so then Brian felt guilty and thought he would listen to it. The Look came up and Brian thought the intro was great. He thought the whole song was great. ”This is terrific pop. I remember hitting the false ending in the song and it picked back up again and then I got goosebumps. Oh boy… this is…”

Per says they sent it to other stations too and got the same response. Everything exploded after that. The Look became No. 1 on the US Billboard 100 on 8th April 1989. In an old interview Per explains what it means to have an US No. 1. It can open the doors to other markets, like Europe, Japan, everywhere.

Per tells the story of soundtrack to Pretty Woman. He was asked to write a soundtrack song for a movie called 3000 Dollars in the beginning. He didn’t have the time to write a new song, but thought It Must Have Been Love could work with that. And the rest is history. 6 months later Pretty Woman became one of the biggest movies of all time and IMHBL became Roxette’s biggest song. The reporter asks how the song worked in Germany. Per says it became a hit there too. It was No. 4 on the charts the reporter confirms.

The reporter gives Per a piece of paper with numbers written on it. 1, 14, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2. Per guesses it right, it’s the list of Roxette’s singles’ peaks on Billboard. The Look, Dressed for Success, Listen to Your Heart, Dangerous, It Must Have Been Love, Joyride, Fading Like A Flower. Per says the more time goes by, the more unbelievable it feels.

To emphasize how amazing it is, there were 7 Swedish No. 1’s on Billboard and 4 of them are Roxette songs. Roxette had more US No. 1’s than e.g. the Queen.

Swedish No. 1’s

1974 Blue Swede – Hooked On A Feeling
1977 ABBA – Dancing Queen
1989 Roxette – The Look
1989 Roxette – Listen To Your Heart
1990 Roxette – It Must Have Been Love
1991 Roxette – Joyride
1994 Ace of Base – The Sign

Part 3 – Hitkrattan och Cheirongubben – Exploring hits and the Cheiron guy

This episode is about the ’90s, the disco and dance floor era. DJs and music producers talk, but also Dr. Alban and Ace of Base, as well as American artists who came to Sweden to record their songs. Denniz Pop and Max Martin also appear in this part of the documentary, who wrote and produced songs for e.g. Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Part 4 – “Generation Blockflöjt” – Generation Recorder

This episode is also about the ’90s. The Wannadies, Atomic Swing, The Cardigans, Meja are talking among others, but also Jonas Åkerlund who directed tons of music videos. Roxette’s Fingertips and June Afternoon, as well as Per Gessle’s Kix is shown in the docu for some seconds, but he directed videos also for e.g. The Prodigy, The Cardigans, U2 and Madonna.

Part 5 – Ett paradis för pirater – A paradise for pirates

This episode is about the 2000s. It’s about how the computers and the internet changed the music industry. Basshunter, Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and his manager, as well as Daniel Ek (VD Spotify) talk among others in this part of the docu. Most of this episode is about Avicii.

Part 6 – Må bästa låt vinna – May the best song win

In this episode we can see again the question about who the first Swedish artist was on Billboard. Then another question is asked from several artists: Which song is the biggest hit? Being for the longest time on several charts, not only in the US. In the vinyl era: ABBA – Dancing Queen; CD era: Ace of Base – The Sign; streaming era: Avicii – Wake Me Up; written by a Swede: Lady Gaga – Poker Face (co-written by RedOne).

Most of this episode is about Max Martin and Johan ”Shellback” Schuster. Martin has 22 No. 1’s on Billboard Hot 100. Only John Lennon and Paul McCartney have more. Justin Timberlake says Martin is great at making earworms. Adam Levine, Pink, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift are also talking about him. Martin together with Shellback produced tons of worldwide hits.

Extras

Hitlåtens historia på 2 minuter – Roxette – The Look

It’s the song’s story in 2 minutes. Most of it is repeating what you could hear and see in Part 2 of the docu about the song. In addition it is mentioned that the recording technician who would have originally been in the studio broke his leg, so Anders Herrlin came to record with Marie and Per. He brought computers, synths and some other stuff. Roxette found their sound. Also, they are talking about the song, what the lyrics mean. There Per explains he wrote the lyrics to remember the rythm. If you want, you can find a surreal logic in the text.

Per + Marie = Roxette

Per says he thought he was good at writing songs, but he didn’t like his own voice. He thought his voice set a limit to his material. He didn’t want to sing, but wanted to work with someone who could. When Marie started singing she made Per’s songs so much better. In the end they became a duo and Per was singing too. He says it’s effective. It’s the same as in Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles or The Beatles. You can customize the song after you wrote it. He wrote The Look for Marie, but it didn’t fit her, but it suited Per. The big ballads he wrote for her, Queen of Rain, Listen To Your Heart, It Must Have Been Love, Marie made them big anthems. When he listens to his demos of these songs he can hear they are rather boring. It’s Marie’s capacity that lifted these songs. Per says they were a good combo. Match made in heaven. They were good at different things, but when they added them together, 1 + 1 made 5.

Fönster mot TV-världen del 2: Roxette tar över Argentina – Window to the TV world (part 2): Roxette takes over Argentina

Per talks about their first tour in South America 1992. He says there was extreme poverty and Michael Jackson cancelled his tour, Guns N’ Roses too, Madonna as well. It was clear they wouldn’t earn money on that part of the tour, but they still wanted to play there. Whole South America exploded. They had to move their shows from places with capacity of 7000 to football stadiums with capacity of 48000 in Buenos Aires, 65000 in São Paulo, 55000 in Rio de Janeiro. Same in Lima and Santiago. After the first Buenos Aires concert they had to do another show and they sold the rights to broadcast live to one of the 2 TV channels in Argentina. The other TV channel was broadcasting their Zurich show from half a year before. So that night for about 90 minutes Roxette was all around Argentina.

 

Stills are from the documentary.

Gyllene Tider’s Sommartider is the best Swedish summer hit

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As we already informed you in May, Gyllene Tider was to be on a Swedish TV program, Sveriges Bästa. It was broadcast last night on TV4. Title of the show was ”Sveriges Bästa sommarplåga” (Sweden’s best summer hit). The recordings took place on 22nd May and it was Per, Anders and Micke from the band who were guests among other musicians on the show, GT being one of the top 10 candidates for providing Sweden’s best summer hit. I don’t think anyone would be surprised by who won the award. I can tell you it’s enough to watch the first seconds of the show where you would get to see the guys backstage for some moments and then fast forward to 35:07 to see them talking after we could see some old photos and footage from past tours. Of course, Sweden’s No. 1 summer hit is Sommartider, soundtrack to Swedish summer.

Per, Anders and Micke represented the band and program leader Gry Forssell handed over the award to PG. After he thanked for it, he did some weight-lifting exercises with it. Haha.

Gry asked the guys how Sommartider was born. Per told the story that they were recording their 3rd LP, Puls and their record label loved the album, but didn’t find any first singles on it. Per got pissed, went home and wrote Sommartider. Gry was surprised that the happiest song was written out of anger, but Per told her it’s not the only one. He wrote Sleeping In My Car the same way for Crash! Boom! Bang!. It was the same record label that couldn’t find a first single on that album either. Micke Syd said it’s a good recipe for creating hits.

Per said from the beginning they thought this song should be a drum-based track. He was also joking that the song came out in 1982 when they were 12-year-olds.

Gry asked how it feels to play Sommartider. Anders said it’s very cool to play in front of an audience, but they never rehearse it. Per said it makes no sense without a crowd. It’s not because they are tired of it, but the song is built on the energy and communication with the audience.

Gry asked the guys if they could share any secret memory from GT’s many summer tours. Micke Syd said they are real worthless rock idols. The worst thing he did was smashing a mirror with an extra bed at the age of 20 and he thought it would bring 7 years of bad luck. He also mentioned an after party in Lysekil in 1980-1981 when they sprayed something on the walls and threw out a bag saying ”shrimps on the roof”.

Footage of some early live performances were shown, big hits from the past and the guys laughed at how they looked. Per also shared the story that they had 6 live performances before they became No. 1 with Flickorna på TV2. Per was the oldest, he was 20 then, Anders and Micke were 17-18. Anders said it was quite brutal. Per mentioned Anders was voted Sweden’s most good-looking guy in 1982 and Micke Syd added he was voted for Sweden’s kindest pop idol.

The funny thing is that the recording of this program was on 22nd May, so well before the tour started, but Gry asked the guys how did it feel to do a farewell tour after such a long time. The guys laughed and Per said it was nice, Micke Syd said they are sitting here and are happy. Per said it’s unbelievable that so much time passed and it’s also unbelievable that so many people were still following them. There was a short footage from Ullevi 2019 when Gyllene Tider and the crowd were singing Sommartider together and then Gry congratulated the guys on their career and winning the best Swedish summer hit award.

Stills are from the show. It can only be watched in Sweden HERE.

Thanks for the technical support to János Tóth.

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.