book fair

Per Gessle at the Göteborg Book Fair – Chapter 1

by

As you already know, Per attended the book fair in Gothenburg today (26th September). Some fans were already there at the Roos & Tegnér (publishing company) stand to wait for him and buy the books before he arrived. When I arrived to the stand at about 2 pm and bought the Per Gessle books, one of the R&T guys, Christer asked me where I’m from. Told him I’m from Hungary, then he said with a big smile on his face: ”You know that… Ah, of course, you know…” Haha. Yes, it was quite evident I knew Per would sign the books at the stand at 3 pm. It was a lovely waiting time, meeting and chatting with familiar Roxer faces and having a little wine tasting. They offered us Per’s Fru Nordin white wine to taste. Benny Mårtensson, the designer of the PG books was also there. He did a great job, that’s for sure. Sven Lindström, Pär Wickholm and Jan Gradvall were there, too. It was first Nisse Hellberg who signed his book at the stand from 2 pm.

Per signing his books at the Roos & Tegnér stand
Per signing his books at the Roos & Tegnér stand

Mr G arrived to the stand with Miss Dimberg and Anders Roos (from the publishing company; photographer of the Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book) almost exactly at 3 pm. He took his place at the signing desk and started signing the books for those who were queueing. He was in a great mood, smiling all the time and joking with those who asked him if they could take a pic together or if he couldn’t understand the name of the one who asked him to sign the book. When I told him the books are awesome, he told they are cool and he could find only 5 mistakes in them. So, count them when you start reading, guys! 🙂 He also mentioned that there will be (a) Roxette concert(s) in Sweden most probably in summer, 2015. Sounds good for our souls.

The signing session lasted for about half an hour, then Per disappeared before getting on stage for the pop quiz seminar with Sven Lindström and Nisse Hellberg at 5 pm. The seminar was quite an entertaining one. They were talking about songwriting, lyrics, bands, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Sven prepared a tough quiz for the guys with pop songs from different eras. After listening to a short part of the songs, Per and Nisse had to say which song they heard, who’s song it was and from which year. You can imagine it was a tough quiz if even Per couldn’t tell all the details of each song. But of course, he doesn’t like to lose and he did his best to win. PG : NH – 6 : 2. When Sven forgot to give Per points, he was ”fighting” for those points. Lovely. He enjoyed the music so much he was even humming the tunes and ”dancing” with his head and legs. Watch it with your own eyes in THIS short video. The audience was also very helpful when The Lonely Boys couldn’t find out which song was heard. I can imagine Per going home after the book fair and checking all the songs he couldn’t recognize.

The quiz should have lasted until 5.45 pm, but everyone was having fun, so it ended almost at 6 pm. We could have enjoyed it for even more hours. After the seminar, Per and Nisse were signing their books outside the congress hall. Until then Åsa arrived as well. She looked wonderful and was very nice to all of us fans, as usual. The signing session lasted again for about 30 minutes and after that Per went ”backstage”. Probably, for an interview. Then Elvis left the building and so did we.

This guy always makes me feel like I had the best day of my life when I meet him. It happened today as well. Chapter 2 on Sunday!

PG_book_fair_20140926_02  PG_book_fair_20140926_03  PG_book_fair_20140926_04

Per, Sven and Nisse doing the pop quiz; Per at the seminar; Per signing his books after the seminar

All pics in the article © Patrícia Peres

 

Articles and stuff related to PG at the book fair:

Expressen
Expressen’s video
Vaja.se
op.se
Bokmässan photos on flickr

 

Per Gessle’s agenda at the Göteborg Book Fair

by
Photo © Anders Roos
Photo © Anders Roos

In an earlier article we wrote about the Göteborg Book Fair that is going to happen this weekend. Per will take part in 2 seminars, one on Friday and another on Sunday. Before and after the seminars he will gladly sign THE books (and probably, anything else you want him to sign, e.g. TPGA box if you haven’t pre-ordered it signed). All the details regarding the tickets and content of the seminars are in that earlier article. Click here to check it!

As publishing company Roos & Tegnér informs, you can meet Per several times during the book fair. Here is the agenda:

Friday, 26th September
15:00 Per Gessle signing his two new books at the Roos & Tegnér stand (B07:21)
17:00 Seminar: Stjärnspäckat Popquiz – a pop quiz with Per Gessle and Nisse Hellberg (ticket required)
18:00 Per Gessle and Nisse Hellberg signing their books outside the congress hall

Sunday, 28th September
13:00 Seminar: Låtsnickare och textmakare – hantverkaren Per Gessle (Per about the books and songwriting) /no separate ticket needed/
14:00 Per Gessle signing his two new books at the Library & Storytelling Stage (Bibliotek & Berättarscen)
14:30 Per Gessle signing session at the Roos & Tegnér stand (B07:21)

Sounds like a fab weekend program, doesn’t it?

P.S.: The books you can buy at the Roos & Tegnér stand at the book fair.

Per Gessle at the Gothenburg Book Fair in September!

by

We already mentioned in an earlier article that Per’s 2 books will be launched at the Gothenburg Book Fair in September. However, it was quite predictable, we didn’t know it for sure back then if Mr G would be there in person. The good news is that you’ll be able to meet him at the book fair! More than that, what do you think about a 3-day-long trip in Gothenburg? Why? Because he will be at not less than 2 seminars! Both seminars are organized by Roos & Tegnér, the publishing company of the upcoming Per Gessle books (and the fabulous Alla tiders Gyllene Tider book).

PG_SL_03One seminar is on Friday, 26th September and it will start at 5.00 pm and last for 45 minutes. The topic sounds very promising. There will be a conversation led by our beloved Sven Lindström, who will have Per Gessle and Nisse Hellberg (you surely know him at least from The Lonely Boys project) as guests. They will talk about pop culture, songwriting and inspiration. Besides this, there will be a pop quiz for the two pop nerds. Sven is going to be a fab moderator of that. Sounds like it’s gonna be much fun, doesn’t it?

The other seminar, which is related to Per’s books, is on Sunday, 28th September. It starts at 1.00 pm and lasts until 1.45 pm. The moderator here will be Jan Gradvall, who is a well-known Swedish journalist and knows very much about pop culture. Per will talk about the books and how the most popular songs came to his mind. He will share his thoughts about songwriting and lyrics and he will tell about his role models and inspirations. Since there was a signing session last year, I think there will be one this year, too, however, it’s not yet confirmed.

The tickets you can buy at the entrance and on Sunday it is valid for the seminar as well. Regular prices for adults: 180 SEK per day. Happy Hour between 9:00 and 10:00 on Sunday: ticket for adults: 130 SEK. For the Friday seminar you will also need a seminar card, which costs 625 SEK if you buy it until 9th August and 675 SEK after that date.

It’s not yet known if the seminars will be broadcast live anywhere, like last year on TV4. Busy month September is going to be!

 

Update on 29th June: the seminar programme has been published. Click HERE to check it!

2 books written by Per Gessle to be published in autumn

by

PG_SydsvenskanWe could already read about it in the press release of The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting that there will also be two books related to the project. Now Sydsvenskan informs that both books will be quite fat.

One will be in Swedish, containing approximately 150 of Per Gessle’s Swedish songs with Gyllene Tider and from his solo career. This book is said to be 300 pages long and will probably have the title: “Texter, klotter och funderingar”.

The other will be in English and is about the English songs, mainly from Roxette. Its title will probably be: “Songs, Sketches and Reflections” and will be approximately 400 pages long.

There are books about Per, but now these two books are written by himself. He gathers his notes and thoughts on songwriting over the years. The books will be richly illustrated with Per’s notes and sketches, as well as with private and so far unpublished photos. Even the lyrics will be featured, some printed and some in the form of original notes Per had taken. As we know, Per is always doing sketches, drawing and takes many notes while writing songs. Now all these will be in the books next to his thoughts and stories related to the lyrics. How exciting is that!

And if it’s not enough, each book will contain an interview with Mr Gessle about songwriting. In the Swedish version it’s Tomas Andersson Wij who does the interview, in the English version it’s Sven Lindström.

The publisher of the books is Roos & Tegnér, the same company that published the fabulous book “Alla tiders Gyllene Tider” last year. So, we can be sure that these two books will be of very high quality not just in terms of content, but also in their appearance.

According to the article, both books will be launched at the Gothenburg Book Fair during the last weekend of September 2014. It’s not yet known if Per will be there at the book fair, but looking back at the past book launches related to him – last time in 2013, one month after Sven’s “Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” was published –, it’s quite predictable he’s going to be there.

September is going to be a fantastic month this year, isn’t it?

P.S.: The box-set “The Per Gessle Archives – A Lifetime Of Songwriting” is out on 24th September and as Per informed yesterday, the first two volumes are available digitally on Spotify in May. Vol. 1: 16th May, Vol. 2: 23rd May. This includes “The Conversations” (open hearted comments on each and every track = PG interviewed in English by Sven Lindström).

P.S. #2: Until September you can go and read Per’s thoughts about his songs here, on RXB. This is the collection of Mr G’s thoughts and info on demos, songs, videos, etc. he shares on Roxette Official.

 

Update: info from Per about the books:

P G B O O K S U P D A T E :

2014 is the Annus Mirabilis Overdose Year!
Two books on steroids will be released in September 2014.

1. 204 English lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + long interview (Sven L) about songwriting etc. This book is in English.
2. 153 Swedish lyrics + drawings + sketches + comments on most of the songs by me + excerpts from my studio-diaries + private pics + two long interviews about songwriting (different journalists…) etc. This book is in Swedish.

Both are, as expected, totally humour-free and will be available as two different items but together they will make a happy marriage. Especially with The PG Archives-box on your lap. /P.

 

 

Per Gessle – Sven Lindström seminar

by

Thanks to TV4 Play we could see Per and Sven talking live about Sven’s book ”Roxette – Den osannolika resan tur och retur” at the book fair in Gothenburg. There was no new info during this seminar – we even knew Per has studio hours booked for October. He starts with them tomorrow, but still doesn’t know (of course… 😉 ) whether it is for solo or Roxette or anything else. They were discussing Roxette’s history, how they achieved their worldwide success, how it was with their comeback and how strong Marie is and always was. All what you can read in the book, too.

Funny part was when the moderator asked Per: ”OK. Marie had a great voice, but what about YOU?” 🙂

So no new info, but it was a great promotion for the book, taking into consideration that there were many people attending the book fair and that TV4 provided this live broadcast and surely makes the video available on their website later. We will provide you with a link to it as soon as it is up.

PG_SL_03

Screenshot is from the live broadcast.

 

Update 2nd October: Unfortunately, TV4 won’t upload the video to TV4 Play, but Chrissie Röhrs was shooting appr. 10 minutes from the whole 45-minute-long session. You can find her videos here: video 1, video 2, video 3

 

Articles:

Göteborgs-Posten

LitteraturMagazinet article; review

Poplight review; article