Clarence Öfwerman

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Halmstad, Sweden – 27th October 2018 – #12

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Per Gessle arrived home! The 12th gig on tour he played in his beloved hometown, Halmstad. That was the show held in the biggest venue, Halmstad Arena having the biggest crowd on tour so far. It was quite cold in jolly Halmstad, so the queueing was different vs. when there is a concert in the summer. The security team was nice, they let people inside the arena until they really had to arrange the entrance, so then everyone had to go outside again. Everyone was relaxed, we walked all the way to the stage when we were finally let in.

There was a big space left for the standing crowd in front of the stage and there were seats as well, in a usual arena setting. There were big screens on both sides of the stage and cameras set at several places. It seems they were only using them for the screens, not for recording the gig.

The support act, Nano played for appr. half an hour. He was one of the Melodifestivalen contestants and he has a nice voice.

Before the show started, we could see Åsa welcoming guests at the seats that were closest to the stage on both sides. Friends and family. We could spot some familiar faces, Mats MP Persson was among them.

PG & Co. didn’t prepare a different setlist for Halmstad, they performed the usual 20 songs, spicing them with a little Gyllene Tider here and there in the intros. The biggest difference vs. the other shows was that Per of course talked in Swedish in between the songs.

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

The Look was a great starter in the arena, however, it’s always difficult to animate a Swedish crowd. They weren’t too loud and they left their boogie shoes at home. Business as usual. Anyway, we had much fun in the front.

After The Look Per talked to the audience and told this is the first time he plays Halmstad Arena. He was there to watch table tennis and handball matches, but never performed there. He asked the crowd to sing along if they know the lyrics, because they love it. He asked Christoffer what he thinks and Chris said yeah, he often sings along.

After MATAH I went live on our Facebook page, so you could hear Per told the audience it’s a European tour and this is the first gig in Sweden. Then he talked about the 6-week-long recording adventure in Capri, the place of most expensive pizzas. They performed CBB then. After the song Mr. G mentioned that the title was inspired by Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

Per asked: ”Are you sitting? I can’t really see it.” It was time to speed it up and play DFS. Then came SGNO with a short Ljudet av ett annat hjärta intro and with the fab drum solo at the end and Chris losing his hat. The crowd was… hm. As I said, no boogie shoes on their feet.

PG said the last time he had such a good day as today was in May 1990. He woke up in the morning, probably on Torsgatan in Halmstad, found a note on his piano: ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). It wasn’ left there by his mother, but his girlfriend, now wife. The day wasn’t over yet, he bought some meatballs at Regnbågen and had lunch. Then his good friend, MP came over and they wrote another song together which they play now. Per said MP is certainly sitting in the crowd now somewhere. So they performed SMT and then came IGYC. Per said he wrote it for the Party Crasher album, but it was released later on a Roxette album, he can’t remember on which, there are so many.

Before STT, Mr. G said he always had the dream of going to Nashville and record with those fantastic local musicians there. Per said they play a song which the crowd surely knows in Swedish, but now they play it in English. When Malin-My started playing the violin on this one, the crowd realized what song Per was talking about and the reactions were ”aaaw!” and loud applause. Småstadsprat is still often played on Swedish radios.

Then it was the turn of Swedish hillbilly music, IHAPIMH and then in the intro talk to IMHBL Per said he gave 72 songs to the band to rehearse and there was one he didn’t really want to play, but it turned out to be 1 of Magnus’s 3 fave songs. The other 2 are Mickey by Carola and Hej hej Monika. The audience was singing along to IMHBL, but even if the arena was huge and the acoustics could have been nice there, it wasn’t too loud.

OppNox + TBL, my fave party session was not as much of a party in Halmstad. It wasn’t the band’s fault though. The crowd was just too lazy.

Before FLAF, Per asked Magnus if he likes the ’90s. Magnus said he IS the ’90s. He was born in 1991. Haha. Per asked Magnus about his ’90s girlfriends too, but they didn’t talk too much about the topic. After FLAF Helena got a huge applause. She thanked in Swedish. Her family was also there in the crowd.

DMS sounded cool in the arena. Chris got back to the bleeding routine. Poor guy, his finger started bleeding again and had to get some plaster.

Then came the band presentation and Per said he has a wonderful band. He introduced everyone one by one and when he finished Chris said: ”Who is the man in the middle? Vocals, guitar and many many good songs: Per Gessle!” The crowd cheered him.

Then came HDYD and Per tried the teaser, but since the crowd didn’t start singing, he went on with his version. Dangerous was the last song before the gang went off stage.

The audience was shouting and clapping, but I would have liked to hear some more typical Swedish cheering from them. The band came back anyway and Per said they were only halfway into the set. We wished… Haha. They performed QOR and Joyride. In the intro to Joyride, Chris played a little När vi två blir en.

Before the 2nd encore, the audience was a bit louder and yes, they started singing Sommartider. Per came up on stage and showed thumbs up and danced a bit to the tunes. But of course, they didn’t perform Sommartider, but LTYH instead. Then TSHTSG closed the set and Per thanked for a fantastic evening.

Mr. G after the show:

HALMSTAD! Yeehaa. Thanks for doing our very first gig at the Halmstad Arena such a pleasure. Lots of familiar faces around. Nice!!!! We’ll be back. Russia next! /P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Utrecht, the Netherlands – 25th October 2018 – #11

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Now less shows left than how many we could already see on tour. The 11th gig happened in the Netherlands, at a cozy venue, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht. Besides Dutch fans, there were fans mainly from Germany, but also from Australia and Argentina, as well as Hungary, Belgium and probably some other countries. Regarding the queueing, we can’t complain. We were let inside already in the morning, so we didn’t have to wait outside in the cold all day. We weren’t sure about the setup at the venue, if there were seats or a standing area. When we bought our tickets in March it was said to be standing in front of the stage and seated at the upper levels. It was confirmed also the day before the show at the ticket office. Then it suddenly changed into unnumbered seats down there in front of the stage. But it probably worked better this way. There was no mess, because here you could decide yourself where you want to sit. I mean everyone had the same general admission ticket and you could decide on place where you would want to sit.

The support act… oh well. It was Bottles of Love, they started at 19:45. Ehm, first it was even hard to recognize the language the singer used, then it turned out it was English, but with a very strong Dutch accent, so it was hard to understand what he was singing about. We missed Lee a lot. It would have been far much better to have him as a support act during the whole tour. Let’s see how the support will be in Sweden.

PG & Co. hit the stage at 20:45 and this is what they prepared for us:

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

The Look had its effect, everyone stood up immediately. However, mainly those remained standing during the whole show who were sitting in the front of stage area. One funny thing, when they take a break during The Look and pause for some seconds, now the whole gang point at each other. Who’s got the look? Haha.

After the first song Per talked to the audience and told this is the first time he is playing in U-track. Haha. At least this is how it sounded when he pronounced Utrecht. He asked the crowd to sing along if they know the lyrics.

MATAH sounded absolutely wonderful. After the song Per talked into the mic: ”Milk And Toast And Honey, make it sunny, in a chair.” Then talked about the most expensive pizzas and cheapest wines in Capri and they played CBB. Helena got cheered after the song.

Then came DFS to speed the tempo up a bit. Per asked: ”Are you sitting down? Standing up?” We shouted standing up, he said it’s a good move. Then came the cool live version of SGNO and Per asked Chris in the intro how he felt, Chris said he was happy. The drum solo at the end was outstanding as usual. Christoffer lost his hat again while rocking during the song, but went to pick it up while Per was talking about the next song.

After the first 5 songs we got to hear about Per’s good day in 1990. He woke up in the morning, found a note on his piano left there by his girlfriend: Hello, you fool, I love you. Per said he couldn’t resist but marry her. And it had to be a song, Joyride. He got a shout-in: well done! He showed thumbs up. He had lunch and ate Swedish meatballs, then he felt full. Watched 3 Ingmar Bergman movies on VHS and then he wrote the next song. SMT. Despite the soar throat, Helena sounded beautiful on this too. Actually, Per must have problems with his throat too, since he is drinking a lot of ginger tea during the concerts (already since the first gig), more than usual. And he must be chewing on some tiny bites of ginger in between the songs. At least I can’t imagine him chewing a gum, so it’s rather ginger. But who knows. The 2 soar-throated sounded fab on IGYC. Per said he wrote it for the Party Crasher album, but it wound up on an a Roxette album in the end.

Before STT, Mr. G said he went to record in Nashville and brought some friends along. Chris said into the mic ”I was there!”, then Helena also said ”I was there!”. I really can’t wait to have this live version mastered and released! Amazing!

The very typical Swedish hillbilly music, IHAPIMH turned out to be a unique one in Utrecht. Actually, the third verse became so beautiful, surreal that it was a blackout version. Per sang a little blablabla instead of the lyrics and it sounded too cool. First I thought he would remember the lyrics after the first line in the verse, but it stayed as it is. If anyone has a recording of it, please, share! It was really adorable! We love such ”surprises”! Per just smiled after he finished the song and said ”Thanx, I have a party in my head, all the time!” Haha. I hope it never ends, Mr. G! 😉

Here I went live on our Facebook page, so you could see how the intro talk to IMHBL went and you could also listen to the song and watch what’s happening on stage. This time it was 77 songs Per gave the band to rehearse. Magnus said: ”And we reherased 12. Per wasn’t very glad. So we rehearsed 112. And then he was glad again.” Per: ”Yes, I’m easy.” Magnus: ”Easy to please!” Per said there are a couple of songs that Magnus can’t really live without: Radar Love by Golden Earring, Venus by Shocking Blue and the next one they play, IMHBL. Beautiful live version. Magnus can be happy.

OppNox + TBL, the best part without a doubt! However, I was a bit disappointed that those who were sitting up in the seats were rather lame and stayed seated even during the party songs.

Before FLAF, Per asked Magnus about the ’90s and his ’90s girlfriends. Magnus said he’s happy it’s over with those many girlfriends. Helena got a huge applause after FLAF and she thanked the audience both in Dutch and in English.

While getting prepared for DMS, PG asked if we were having a good time. Yeees! Then something didn’t want to work with the capo and Per said: ”Me and technical stuff…” Magnus was kidding him and Per asked him if he saw his YouTube video on how to put a capo on the guitar. It’s 47 minutes. Haha. We are glad to see any tutorials on GessleHomeVids, feel free to share. The song anyway was fantastic in Utrecht too. Chris went wild at the end, but this time his hand fortunately wasn’t bleeding. However, he asked for a plaster, so his finger still must be aching.

During the band presentation Per said he has the greatest band. He introduced the members one by one and when he finished it he said that’s it. Then Chris said: ”You forgot someone. Vocals, guitar and many, many songs: Per Gessle!” The crowd cheered Per and he thanked kindly. He said he didn’t expect that, that Chris knows his name. Haha. Chris said: ”Surpri-i-ise!”

Then came HDYD and Per said now it’s the crowd’s turn to sing. The intro started and the audience started singing and didn’t want to stop. And just like in Cologne, Per let us sing until the very same line as at the previous show. Mr. G was dancing to our singing and was happy to hear we knew the lyrics. He said: ”Beautiful! Well, the rap section didn’t go that well… Sounds great, thank you very much! So join us on tour! Well, you do, some of you!” Haha. Love these spontaneous reactions. To both HDYD and Dangerous we could party hard and the band was on fire.

Then the gang went off stage and the audience wanted to have them back of course, so they came back and Per said: ”It’s been a great evening, thank you very much. Thanks for having us!” Then they played QOR first, then Joyride which became a little balloon party. Chris couldn’t handle the plaster on his finger anymore, so with the help of his mouth he took it off and threw it away. Some of the balloons ended up on stage while the audience were playing with them and either Per or Chris or Magnus kicked them and they got back above the audience. It was cool to see!

After Joyride the band said goobye, but the crowd didn’t get quiet. We wanted more and we got more in the 2nd encore. When Per was standing in front of his mic stand and got prepared to talk about LTYH a bit, someone shouted ”Hey Mr DJ!”. Per: ”Hey Mr DJ? That was song No. 78.” Haha. I really loved this spontaneity. And his sense of humor is top! So they played LTYH which was awesome and then Per asked the crowd if it’s always like this on Thursdays here. Then he said they do one more song, just for us, because they love us. So it was time for TSHTSG. Another song I’m looking very much forward to having mastered and released on a live CD.

At the end of the gig Per thanked the audience and from a fan he got a balloon on a stick. The balloon was an emoji, the heart-eyed one. He was laughing. Then before they took a bow, he gave it to Malin-My. Then the balloon fell off the stick, Mr. G played with it a bit, pushing it up into the air, then Andreas kicked it, but then Per felt sorry for it and grabbed it up from the stagefloor again and left the stage with that little fellow! Great idea it was from the girl who brought that balloon.

At the merch stand this time there were 2 drumheads, one with Utrecht’s skyline and another with the design of what’s on the T-shirts. Both drumheads were transparent. They put a used pair of drumstick on sale as well. What’s next…?

Here is Mr. G’s opinion about the gig:

UTRECHT, HOLLAND. Oh my God!!! In spite of sore throats and kinda weird acoustics the gig at the Tivoli in Utrecht became WUNDERBAR!!! Jeezus, what have we done to deserve a crowd like this? Amazing! Thanks for all your wonderful voices + keeping this band on its toes! We had the time of our lives tonite. Tomorrow we fly back home for a gig in jolly Halmstad before hitting Russia. But we’ll keep the Utrucht one alive forever! Cheers from Per & Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Cologne, Germany – 23rd October 2018 – #10

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Can’t believe that we already reached the halftime of the tour. The 10th gig meant the last gig in Germany. At least on this tour. There was no day-off between Warsaw and Berlin and then no break between Berlin and Cologne, so concerts for 3 days in a row. I was wondering how tiring it might be, but when we talked to Chris at the airport and asked him about how it feels doing 3 shows in a row he said that actually, the vibe and mood don’t really get low during the whole tour. The only difficulty is when the hotel rooms are not ready by the time they arrive and they can’t take a short rest before they go on to the venue.

The organizers at the venue in Cologne were not too well-prepared for the entrance. They opened the doors at 7 pm, but put the signs (which entrance accepts which tickets) on the doors only 1 hour earlier. So those who had been waiting there for quite a long time and were standing at the wrong door, they had to rearrange themselves. The inlet wasn’t too smooth, but in the end, fans found a good spot in the front, close to the stage.

Support act Lee MacDougall started his session at 8 pm. This was the last time when Lee was the support act. I will definitely miss him during the rest of the tour. He is touring Germany and Austria early next year, so if you saw him live now, go and see him again. If you didn’t see him live, check out his songs online and maybe it will convince you to go. Great music! Best of luck to him!

Mr. G and his band hit the stage right after 9 pm and sticked to the already known setlist.

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

Loved that The Look started with Per counting in German again, ”eins, zwei, drei, vier!”. He could do this little change in each country, counting in the language used there. It’s fun! Let’s see if he tries it in Russia, for example. 😉 The opening song was already quite energetic, so you couldn’t tell this gang is now doing their 3rd show in a row.

After the first song Per told the audience that the last time he performed in Cologne was in the summer of 2015. At least Christoffer told him it was in summer. Then off he went to take a deep dive into the big bucket of Roxette songs and they played MATAH. Then came a little Capri talk and it was CBB’s turn. Helena has some problems with her soar throat now, it’s too cold in Germany, but the way she was singing, you couldn’t tell she had any issues. Wonderful!

The speed up section of DFS and SGNO was a blast! After the hat fell off Christoffer’s head, Per went and picked it up to put it back on Chris’s head while he was playing in the front with Ola. The drum solo ending presented by Andreas was fantastic again!

Before SMT Per told the story of his good day in 1990. He woke up in the morning, had nothing to do, then his wife, then girlfriend left a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. Per asked ”isn’t that cute?”. He said he just had to write a song and it became Joyride. Then he was very pleased with himself, had lunch with Swedish meatballs, took a break then watched 3 Ingmar Bergman movies, then stood up, went to his piano and wrote the next song. Helena got a huge applause after performing it in Cologne too.

After IGYC Per talked about Nashville that he went to record there with local musicians and a few friends, no names. Chris said in the mic ”I was there.” Per reacted: ”We had a good time anyway.” Haha. Then they performed STT’s beautiful PG-CL live duet version!

Then the experts of Swedish hillbilly music played IHAPIMH and before the song started, Per told the audience ”please pay attention to flute ladies!”. The flute ladies were fabulous, as usual and the audience loved the song. Per thanked the crowd in German.

This time Mr. G said he presented the band with 76 songs (it’s btw getting more and more from show to show! 72-74-76… 😉 ) he wanted them to learn. Magnus said ”And we learned 120. Some Stones songs, some Beatles songs… You’ll hear them later at the show after the show. But you have to have T-shirts from the stand as well.” PG: ”Not my idea.” Magnus: ”It was mine!” PG: ”Blablabla.” Haha. We all laughed at Per’s blablabla reaction. Then came one sentence by him from which we could hear he IS tired. His tongue didn’t want to cooperate, so the words came out were a little strange, but adorable. The essence of his thoughts was of course not being sure about playing IMHBL or not, because it’s Magnus’s fave song besides 99 Luftballons by Nena and Wind of Change by Scorpions. Magnus said 99 Luftballons is his No. 1. So he got one more blablabla from Per. Haha.

Then came OppNox and TBL and since Åsa joined the gang on tour again, she came and filmed these songs, also the crowd partying. When this section ended, the audience shouted and were clapping loud, it was awesome. PG showed thumbs up and started to talk about the ’90s. He asked Magnus how his parents were. Magnus said they were very fine people and actually they ARE very fine people since they are still alive and they were living in the ’90s as well. Everyone laughed. Per started counting on his hands how old they might be. FLAF was the next song and Helena did great on it, so the crowd cheered her.

Then came a crowd favourite, DMS. No blood this time, but you could see on Jakob’s face when he handed the guitar over to Christoffer that he was prepared for everything. Haha.

The band presentation was much fun again, all musicians got huge applauses and at the end Per said he is surrounded by talent. Then came HDYD and while Mr. G was preparing for it he said ”let’s see if you know this one… let’s see if I know it…”. Haha. Then came the intro and the whole crowd started singing. This time it was even more aaawesome, because Per let us sing much further than usual, until here we are cracking jokes…  He made fun of us instructing the crowd, then looking at his (non-existing) watch. He laughed and liked the whole thing a lot, the band too. Party, party also during Dangerous!

       

During the break before the encore the crowd was shouting ”Roxette, Roxette, Roxette”. This was the first place where it happened. So far it was rather ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle” or we want more or anything else.

The band came back on stage to perform QOR (which is kinda cool according to Per) and Joyride. Helena was perfect on QOR, the audience loved her. Joyride was much fun with tons of balloons thrown by members of the crowd.

During the break before the 2nd encore, people weren’t silent and it paid back, the gang came to play 2 more songs. Before that, Per said it’s been a wonderful evening and asked the audience if this is like an ordinary Tuesday evening in Cologne. Before LTYH, which of course sounded beautiful again, he said he wrote it in the ’80s for a friend. He said ”I had friends then”. Haha. Before TSHTSG Per asked the audience the usual question ”one more for the road?”. The audience shouted yeees and then he turned to the band members and asked what they think. They all agreed. The ending was fab in Cologne. I think the crowd sang along TSHTSG the most loudly here. No clue if it has anything to do with Thomas Anders’s release of the hit in the ’90s.

Anders Roos took pictures during the whole show and probably also recorded it. There was a fun moment when Åsa was singing along and started filming Anders who was also singing along. Let’s see if we get to see the result of it.

The lights were again a bit late every now and then and some stayed in the dark while they should have been illuminated. Probably, it’s local technicians at each place, which is strange in a way, because even if they get the script of the show, it’s not too easy to follow the gig with the lights if you don’t know exactly what’s happening and when. Even seconds count.

Per’s thoughts after the show:

COLOGNE: Five shows in six days! How about that! We managed thanks to you beautiful people at the E-Werk in Cologne. One word sums it up: WOW! Super crowd + band in top shape (even new dress on Malin-My! – lovely!) so nuthin’ could go wrong. Thanx so much for showing up and having a ball. And thank you Cologne for hosting the last show in Germany for a while. But we’ll be back. Trust me!!!! Cheers from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Berlin, Germany – 22nd October 2018 – #9

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The show in Berlin happened in Admiralspalast. It was a seated gig again and oh what a gig it was! So it really seems to be guaranteed that a seated concert can’t go wrong on this tour. I mean when it’s planned to be seated from the beginning.

The support act was Lee MacDougall as on every other German date. He was great in Berlin too and we had much fun listening to his stories and music. After he finished his unplugged song and stepped back, he tumbled over Per’s mic stand and said ”Sorry, Per!”. Haha.

Anders Roos was there and set all his cameras around the venue. The real deal started a bit after 21:00, with no setlist changes.

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

The show hasn’t even started when everyone was already on their feet, so we could rock to The Look which started with Per counting ”Eins, zwei, drei, vier!” Helena was on a high too and she even hi fived fans in the front row. Woohoo! Mr. G said it’s always a pleasure to be in Berlin and he played there with Roxette in 2015. Of course, many from the audience were there 3 years ago. Magnus too. PG said he would do a deep dive into the bucket of Roxette songs. He also said he sneaked in some of his solo songs, as we know him. He asked to sing along if we know the lyrics, to help them out, they love that.

When Per said thank you after MATAH, someone shouted from the crowd ”you’re welcome”. He laughed. Then he let us know that the most expensive pizzas you can find in the world are still in Capri, where Roxette went to record CBB.

Before DFS Per asked if we were ready for them speeding it up a bit. Yeah! Party party party that got even wilder during SGNO. Andreas’s drum solo ending was so cool in Berlin too. After the song Per said ”it felt good!” Oh yes, it did! Ah, as per the drums… Now it seems you can buy a drum head at the merch shop, customized to the actual city. There is a design related to the city, there is the Per Gessle’s Roxette logo and the name of the city on it. What else? It is signed by all band members and Per himself. From what I know, it was sold in London first, but there seems to be only 1 drum head like this per each city. Let us know if you know someone who got hold of the drum head in any other town. 😉

Before SMT Per talked about his good day in 1990 when he woke up in the morning, had nothing to do, but found a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. It was written by his wife, then girlfriend and he thought it was kind of cute, it just had to be a song. So he wrote Joyride and then he was exhausted, ate Swedish meatballs, watched 3-4 Ingmar Bergman movies just to get in the mood to write another song. Spending My Time. Helena singing it, she got a huge applause from the audience.

STT was loved by the audience. Chris got his well-deserved extra applause on it.

Then came Swedish hillbilly IHAPIMH and the party never ended until the show was over.

Per mentioned he started with 74 songs for the tour and asked the band to learn those songs. Magnus said and they did. Every verse, every chorus, every intro, every outro. It’s hard work. There was only one song Per wasn’t sure about playing, but it turned out to be Magnus’s all time fave song besides Kraftwerk’s The Model and the collective works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. IMHBL was the top. Per said Magnus is weird. The sing-along was the strongest on this song last night.

Then came the OppNox-TBL partytime. Nothing can beat it! Per and all the band members were like Duracell bunnies during both songs! Love Ola’s rocking solo in OppNox and also there is a tiny little detail I adore, an Ola-Magnus move in TBL after ”lonely at night”. So cool! After these 2 songs Per said ”that felt good too” and ”danke schön” and was cheered by the crowd.

The usual ’90s discussion was next between Per and Magnus. Magnus joked he had a flat in Prenzlauer Berg (part of Berlin) and spent all his life at the Panorama Bar, it was years and years of party. Then Per saved him, he got a phone call to come back to Sweden and play with Roxette and he said yes. Per said ”one saved soul”. Then Mr. G mentioned the next song went up to No. 2 in the US, didn’t make it to the top, but it’s a nice one from Joyride. FLAF was it, of course and Helena did great. What I love very much in this version of Fading Like A Flower is how Malin-My is plucking the violin. I don’t know if this is the right expression though. It’s when she’s not using the fiddlestick, but her fingers. Sounds wonderful!

DMS was the song of Duracell bunnies too. A real highlight on each gig. When we met Chris at the airport (flying from Warsaw to Berlin), we of course had to ask him how his hand was doing. He said it’s OK. In Brussels his hand was bleeding because of the fact that some part of the guitar fell off and under it there was a metal part which hurt his hand, since he didn’t pay attention when that part of the guitar flew away. Then in Warsaw he had no clue what hurt his hand why it started bleeding. He had quite deep wounds on both fingers that were bleeding during the concerts. He said the plaster isn’t really good for him, because then he can’t really hold the guitar pick. What’s your guess? Was his hand bleeding in Berlin? Haha, a real rock star!

After Per did the band presentation, he said ”that’s it and everything else is on computers”.

HDYD was also party on top. Its intro worked completely fine in Berlin too.

Before the first encore, the crowd didn’t stay quiet. We wanted more! And we got more! First QOR, then Joyride in which I love the intro part where Chris and Per are approaching each other and playing around.

No silence during the 2nd break either, the audience wanted the gang back on stage and oh they came back. Per thanked for it and said ”so many songs, so little time”. They performed LTYH that was awesome and the audience made their voices heard. Then as usual, TSHTSG closed the event and left us with the earworm again.

The only problem I had was with the lights. I don’t know what happened, but most of the time not the right happening and people were illuminated on stage. Sometimes Per’s face was half in shadow half in light, horizontally… Things like that. Sometimes it stayed even dark on stage. Strange. I hope the light technicians will do their job right next time, because those who were on the balcony last night also said that there were parts which they didn’t see clearly, because of being too dark.

Per’s comment after the concert:

BERLIN: Oh yea, back in Germany. Wonderful crowd in a beautiful venue. Thanx so much for all the singalongs + balloons + good vibes. We had a blast. Always special to play Berlin. Hope to be back soon with more music for you Berliners!!! Lots of love from P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

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Per Gessle’s Roxette – Warsaw, Poland – 21st October 2018 – #8

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The 8th gig on tour turned out to be a fab one! The communication between Per & Co. and the audience was so far the best! People started queueing in front of the venue quite early and by 4-5 pm there were already more than 40 people waiting. The doors to the club opened only after 6 pm.

There was no support act at the show and Per was to start at 19:30. Before he could get up on stage, he had 2 interviews (1 for a Polish TV program, 1 for TDR) and a fan meet & greet. The latter one started at least half an hour later than planned and it was quite short, since there was not much time left after the interviews. A bit after 19:30 the gig started.

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

Once the gang entered the stage you could hear the crowd was there to have much fun. They were loud already at the very beginning. The Look was a perfect opening song in Warsaw too. After it ended, the audience didn’t stop shouting ”Per Gessle, Per Gessle, Per Gessle!” Per thanked it and said he was at the same venue 9 years ago. He asked the crowd if anyone else was there too and many shouted yes. Then Magnus and Chris also said they were there too and Per replied it’s good he wasn’t there alone. When he mentioned he sneaked in a couple of solo songs in the setlist, someone in the audience started singing Gå & fiska! PG laughed and the guys in the band started to play the song. A very short version of it though. Per asked the crowd if they know the lyrics, please sing along, they love that.

After MATAH, Helena got a huge applause and the crowd shouted ”Helena, Helena, Helena!” She was so happy about it. Then the crowd went on cheering Malin-My, calling her Malinka. Haha.

CBB became a loud sing-along and ”Helena, Helena, Helena!” was also cheered at the end of the song. Helena formed a heart from her hands and showed it to the crowd and also thanked for their kindness in Polish.

DFS and SGNO made the crowd party. We were very much into these 2 songs. At the end of SGNO Ola and Chris came to the right side of the stage to go wild. Christoffer’s hat fell on to the stagefloor and Per came to pick it up while Andreas was putting his drumset on fire. After they finished SGNO, Per put the hat back on Professor Lundquist’s head. That was cool! Per was amazed by the crowd reaction and said it was getting hot up there on stage. Oh well, I can tell it was hot off stage too.

Before SMT Mr. G asked the crowd if they are happy: Yeaaah! and if life is good: Yeaaah! Then he said he had a good day in 1990. He woke up one morning and found a note on his piano saying ”Hello, you fool, I love you”, so he had to write a song. He didn’t want to, but he did. Then he had lunch, Swedish meatballs, then he was full and watched 3-4 Ingmar Bergman movies and then he had to write another song. SMT. Helena got her loud applause here too and the loud sing-along was present during this song as well.

IGYC had a longer intro this time, because Mr. G stood there at the fan to get some fresh breeze. The audience loved the song.

Before STT Per told the crowd he had this dream for a very long time to go to Nashville and work with his core people and with local musicians. After Malin-My’s violin intro, Per stepped to his mic and started to sing his part, but he was in a bit too early. At least it sounded so. Anyway, it turned out to be wonderful again. When Chris stepped in, he got a huge applause from the audience. As Per said, they record all shows, so we will for sure get this PG-Chris Lundquist duet on a live CD one day.

Then came the Swedish hillbilly music, IHAPIMH. Per said it was released on Son of A Plumber which came out in ”2005-6-7-8-9-10”. Haha. The audience almost didn’t stop clapping during the whole song and after the song shouted ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” He said: ”Thank you, you’re very kind!”

Before IMHBL Per said when they started rehearsing, he presented the band a DAT tape. He wasn’t sure if anyone knew what a DAT tape is. There were 72 songs he wanted the band to learn to play. Magnus said, they didn’t have a DAT player. That’s the problem, but Per sorted it out, he copied them to cassette. So the next song is Magnus’s fave song of all time. Even better than The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. IMHBL sounded fab and the crowd’s loud sing-along was heartwarming on this one too. Helena thanked the audience in Polish.

OppNox and TBL were successful party songs tonight too. The ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” shouting started again. Per went to Chris with his towel in his hands and by the help of it, he provided Chris with some fresh air. Helena did the same with Malin-My. Someone in the crowd shouted: ”We love you, you fool!” Per smiled and replied: ”I heard that before! I have a family.”

FLAF brought another ’90s stand-up comedy talk by Per and Magnus. Magnus said he doesn’t really remember the ’90s because he was born in 1991. Of course… Haha. After their discussion Per said: ”Can’t live with him, can’t kill him!” FLAF became a huge sing-along song as well. After she finished FLAF, Helena told the crowd in Polish that it was beautiful and thank you. Per asked if we were having a good time and he got a loud ”yeah” and a ”we love you, Per” as a reply.

Then they started DMS which – as usual – rocked big time. Would you be surprised if I said that Christoffer’s hand was bleeding again? Gosh, this guy is amazing! He wanted to throw his pick he played on this song to the crowd, but because of the blood it sticked to his hand so landed not so far from him. Jakob came and took Christoffer’s guitar and took care of his bleeding hand too.

The coolest band presentation happened in Warsaw so far. Each band member got his and her name shouted by the audience many times one after another. E.g. ”Ola, Ola, Ola!” They were happy about it. Per said Clarence produced most of the Roxette songs, all the hits, all the flops. When Per finished the introduction with Helena and the audience shouted ”Helena, Helena, Helena!”, someone shouted: ”And who are you?” LOL! Everyone laughed! Christoffer said: ”His name is Per Gessle.” The audience shouted ”Gessle, Gessle, Gessle!” Then he looked at his monitor where MNS probably wrote him how to say ”thank you” in Polish, but Per was uncertain. Magnus also encouraged him he should tell those words and Helena too. Then Per said he’s not sure how to translate ”thank you”. The crowd shouted ”dziekuje” and then Per read up the words from the monitor ”dziekuje bardzo” (”thank you very much”). MNS showed him thumbs up an the crowd cheered him. Well done, Mr. G! Haha. Per said it’s like being in X Factor. Magnus said ”You’ve got the talent!” Per said to the audience: ”Let’s see if you’ve got the talent!” And he started the intro to HDYD. Of couse, we’ve got the talent! We started singing the song and then partied hard to HDYD and Dangerous.

When the gang went off stage, some started singing Sommartider. Then the shouting and clapping didn’t stop and ”we want more” was heard in different languages, in Swedish too. The band came back for the first encore and played QOR and Joyride. There were quite some balloons and some of them are simply landed on stage. Joyride was fun, Magnus danced a lot during the song and actually, he was on a high during the whole gig.

When PG & the band came back for the 2nd encore, Per thanked for the wonderful evening. LTYH became another sing-along song, while TSHTSG became a clap-along closing song. BoJo put his boogie shoes on and he was dancing on the side of the stage during TSHTSG. It was too cool! After the band took a bow and another and another and another, the crowd started shouting ”Dziekujemy, dziekujemy, dziekujemy!” (thank you). And Per threw the last picks off his mic stand to the crowd.

Wonderful it was indeed! The whole show! As we heard, the gig was filmed. What a good choice to film this one! Let’s see if we get to see the result of it. A DVD would be perfect!

After the concert I bumped into 2 Swedish guys from Örebro and they said they were 6 and came to Warsaw for the weekend. The Per Gessle concert was a good excuse for them to organize this trip. They will probably attend a Swedish show too, because they liked what they saw and heard. Very cool!

Oh one more thing. Per had a photo session with Anders Roos in the old town of Warsaw in the afternoon. Let’s hope those pics were taken for a fat tour photo book. 😉

Per’s words after the concert:

OH MY GOSH!!!! Warsaw – we love you! What a gig! Outstanding crowd + a decent band = neverending love!
Had such a great time. Hope Anders Roos managed to get some pix from this extraordinary gig. Anyway, we got the recordings!!! See ya next time. Berlin tomorrow. No rest for the wicked! Love, P&Co.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

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