Last night it was the third time Gyllene Tider played Ullevi. First time it was in 2004 when 58980 people went to see them, second time was in 2013 with 42223 people in the crowd. In 2019 the show was originally planned to be held at Slottskogsvallen, but right after the tickets went on sale it turned out to be a too small venue, so it had to be changed to Ullevi. Appr. a month ago it was on the news already that the Golden 5 sold more than 40k tickets for their 3rd Ullevi concert, so we estimated the number of visitors would be 50-55k. The final number is 54340! How amazing!
There was a live sound check at 4 pm, but only Det hjärta som brinner, Vandrar i ett sommarregn and Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång were rehearsed, so this meant to me there are no more new additions to the setlist.
The stage was set up the same way as in Stockholm. The part where the band members’ fix places are was the same size as usual, just the sides were longer. Meaning Mr. G could run his marathon during the gig again. Haha.
There were 2 support acts this time. The first was Christof Jeppsson, a Halmstad troubadour who we could already see in Halmstad. He was on stage from 19:30 for appr. 15 minutes. One of the songs he played was a Bruce Springsteen cover and since The Boss is quite big in Sweden and Gothenburg, he got a very loud sing-along from the crowd. The second support act was Chris Kläfford at 20:00. If you ask me who could warm up the crowd more, I would say it was Christof. It would have been great to have him on the whole tour. His musical style is closer to GT.
What I realized while we were already inside the venue was that there were many more mics on the sides of the stage. The ones you usually use when you are filming a show. Then we saw the cameras in the front and in the back, so we could be sure that Ullevi was to be filmed. So cool!
The crowd showed its sing-along side already on the Bruce cover and their clapping style we could witness during the crowd pleaser playlist. Well, Gothenburg never disappoints and the audience didn’t stay quiet during the almost 2-hour-long GT gig either. They were fantastic! They were singing along so loudly that you could hear their voices more than Per’s vocals. But you shouldn’t imagine it in a disturbing way. I mean it was not because there was any technical hiccup and the sound on stage would be low. Not at all. It was just that the voices of more than 54k people resulted in a beautiful vocal addition to the whole gig. The crowd was not only active when it came to singing. They were also clapping along and put and kept their hands in the air quite many times. I was standing next to a guy who was even headbanging during the show. Before the gig we talked and he mentioned he is a tram driver in Gothenburg and played GT during the whole week for the passangers. He already saw the guys and girls on several shows on this tour. Cool thing!
The band was in top shape, even if they had no day off after their Eskilstuna show. The fact that the concert was recorded probably made them excited anyway, but the huge crowd and their activity probably added even more to their already higher than 100% energy level.
The athmosphere was really awesome inside Ullevi. You have to experience it in person to be able to imagine it. When even the security supervisor is dancing and singing along you can be sure you are at the best party place in town.
Micke Syd took a selfie from the stage while he presented his intro talk to Låt denna trumslagarpojke sjunga! Actually, they should have taken a group selfie, the 5 boys and 2 girls. When in Ullevi. It was also funny that Micke Syd looked at the guys who wrote the lyrics on a sheet for him in Eskilstuna and his gestures asked: no lyrics this time? Haha. The crowd already put on their mobile phones’ lights during Micke’s song and they were also on during När alla vännerna gått hem, of course. It looked beautiful in such a huge stadium. After Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, Per let the audience shout ojojojojojojoj and oh-ohohoh-ohoh for a longer time. The band was amazed at the crowd reaction.
The setlist was the same as in Stockholm, which means 23 songs, including Tylö Sun and Billy. Yay!
Åsa (who is celebrating her birthday today – happy birthday!) was there of course and we saw her a few times in the front (dancing and singing along too), but I guess she was filming more from another spot during the show, because it was a bit too busy in the front due to the pro filming of the concert. Micke Syd’s wife, Helena also came to the front to film a bit towards the end of the gig.
Anders Roos, the band’s house photographer set his cameras all around the stage last night too and he was ready to take pictures of the gang from the back when they were taking a bow. He took some when all 7 of them were on stage, but Per must have been so impressed and excited that after the girls went off stage and he threw some guitar picks from his mic stand and waved goodbye, he started walking off the stage too. Anders, Micke Syd and Göran were still standing there for the 5 of them taking a bow, but MP was following Per and since they went off stage, the 3 guys decided to follow them too. Haha. A pity, but well…
Love it when my ranking of the best concerts has to be changed when I see an actual gig. What can I say? Ullevi just became my No. 1 show on the tour! And if you ask me, if it wasn’t the exact same day as when Pink played Stockholm, GT’s 3rd Ullevi gig would have been even closer to sold out. Not that more than 54k people are too few. And hey, we heard the DJ who was the support to Pink played Sommartider in Tele2 Arena. 😉
Now a day off and on Monday GT play Kalmar!
P.S.: Aftonbladet wrote a review again. 4/5 for last nite’s show. Nice!
Setlist
- Skicka ett vykort, älskling
- Juni, juli, augusti
- Det hjärta som brinner
- (Hon vill ha) Puls
- Flickorna på TV2
- Vandrar i ett sommarregn
- (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän
- Det kändes inte som maj
- Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
- Tuffa tider
BAND PRESENTATION
- Låt denna trumslagarpojke sjunga!
- Kung av sand
- En sten vid en sjö i en skog
- Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
- Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly
- (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet
- Tylö Sun
Encore 1
- Billy
- Det är över nu
- Gå & fiska!
Encore 2
- När vi två blir en
- Sommartider
- När alla vännerna gått hem
All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.
ULLEVI HERREGUD! Man tappar ju faktiskt orden när man ska förklara hur det känns att ta emot all den kärlek som vi får hela tiden genom vårt avlånga land, inte minst i Göteborg! Vilken fantastisk kväll det var igår. Vi trodde det inte gick att toppa de tidigare Ullevi-giggen men frågan är om inte detta var det vassaste. Det känns så. Vilken underbart galen publik!!! Än en gång, TACK alla 54.000+ för skönsång, handklapp och spännande danssteg. Träningsvärk idag?
Per & Co. entered the stage at 20:30 and rocked big time with the opener The Look. After TL, Per told the crowd it’s always, always fun to be in Göteborg. I have to agree with him. I only remember fab shows in this city. PG said it wasn’t so long ago when he played in Gothenburg. It was last year. He asked if we were there. He got a loud yes as a reply from the audience. Christoffer and Magnus also said into the mic they were there. Haha. Then Mr. G said it’s bizarre that he has been writing songs for more than 40 years. The most songs he wrote for Roxette, so he thought to dive deep into that catalogue and play a few favourites, but he also sneaked in some of his solo songs to be on the safe side. The crowd was cheering for him and he asked them to sing along.
Mr. G said what a fantastic evening it is. The last time he had a fantastic evening, or better said a good day was in 1990. He said he woke up and found a note on his piano saying ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). It was left there by his then girlfriend, now wife, since he had to marry Åsa after such a cute note. After writing Joyride in the morning, it was still only 11 am, so PG had a little break and after lunch he wrote another song, SMT. Per was talking so much about Joyride that he even picked a white medium plectrum off his mic stand. The thing is that he plays the acoustic guitar (for SMT) with a thin red pick. We were wondering when he would change it. He was probably also distracted a bit by the fact that his power chord finger started bleeding again. Not as much as in Linköping, but it was visible. So one could get hold of some bloody picks this time again. 😉 While Chris and Malin-My were playing the intro in the front and Per was standing in the back, he might have realized he had the wrong pick in hand, but still hadn’t changed it. He was looking at his finger rather. Then Helena started singing and when Per came to the front, he was playing the guitar with the medium pick, then when he went towards the back of the stage, he threw the white medium pick away, towards his ginger tea-holding trolley and picked a thin red plectrum off his guitar, licked it to have it stuck to the finger (however, the blood would have done it, haha) and played on. Helena was singing beautifully, for which she got a huge applause from the audience again.
Then came the intro talk to IMHBL. Per said he sent the band 96(!) songs to rehearse for the tour. Magnus said they learned to play 102! They overdelivered. Haha. Per said it’s fake info. He said he was thinking about skipping one song, because there are so many others, but then came Magnus and actually, he has only 3 favourite songs. One of them is ”Livet är en fest” from Nationalteatern, the other is ”Happy Nation” from Ace of Base and the third one is what they are going to play right now. Magnus said to the crowd ”thank me later!” Haha. The crowd loved IMHBL. It would have been a big mistake not to include it in the setlist.
The crowd was loud, clapping and shouting, so Per and the band came back on stage, PG thanked the crowd and said what a fantastic evening it is. They performed QOR, one of Per’s favourite Roxette songs and of course Helena was cheered after the song. Then it was time for a little Joyride. How Chris and Per were teasing each other in the intro part was again much fun! During the song both Chris and Ola got on their knees and were playing their guitars like that. It was so cool! Helena sat on the edge of the stage in front of us and animated the crowd from there. She’s so good at that (too)! She had a tambourine in her hands and rocked using it. At the end of the song she put it on her head, like a crown. Looked so great! Haha. Then off they went.
PG & THE Band came back for the 2nd encore. Per thanked once again and he put his hand on his heart to emphasize how he wanted to absorb all the love they got from the crowd. Then he said: ”A Friday night in Göteborg! That would be a good song title actually.” Haha. They played LTYH after this and it sounded wonderful. The crowd’s sing-along was the loudest at this song. Great! Before they played the very last song, Per said it’s a special night, because this is the last concert on the European tour. He thanked the band and also the crew for their fantastic job, he thanked Live Nation that made the tour possible and also thanked the people that came to the shows and he mentioned those separately who came to several shows. Then he switched to English and said: ”Thank you very much, you know who you are! Thank you!” And he showed thumbs up and looked at those fans in the front row. He is so amazing! Ojojoj! The bittersweet goodbye was getting closer. TSHTSG, the closing song that probably became everyone’s favourite earworm during the tour in this new arrangement. Another MUST BE RELEASED (on CD and DVD) song! Just saying! 😉 Since I somehow wanted to thank Per and the band for the whole tour right there at the last concert, being fortunate enough to have seen 15 shows out of 20, I prepared 
Lots of fans (even from Brazil!) were waiting outside the park which closed at 3 pm because of the concert and the gates opened again at 6 pm. This time we had to try if our running shoes were still working fine, since both entrances opened at the same time. Still all hardcores could find a decent spot in front of the stage.
The next song was På promenad genom stan and Göteborg let its voice heard. Heavy sing along on this one and dancing even in the back.
The set ended with Småstadsprat and the audience cheered the band while they were saying goodbye.
