Gry Forssell

True or false game with Per Gessle on Mix Megapol

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Per was a guest on Gry Forssell med vänner on Mix Megapol on 24th October. The program is available as podcast HERE (last 3 minutes), but only a short version of the conversation is online. The program leaders played a „true or false” game with PG. They also shared a short video HERE.

One of the questions was if it’s true that Per has a house (here Per replies immediately that it’s true, haha), a house that moves with the sun. Mr. G thinks it’s a brilliant idea, but it’s unfortunately false. Rumor has it that Per called the municipality of Halmstad and asked them to remove all speed bumps in the surroundings, so that his Ferrari wouldn’t hit them. Per says he has also heard about it and he thinks it’s also a good idea, but that is not true either. He heard this story from his neighbours. Gry asks Per how it feels that there are made up stuff like this about him. PG thinks it’s quite fun. It makes everything a little more confused about him and he likes that.

One of the guys asks Per if it’s true that he picked songs for their Spanish album in which he doesn’t sing, so that he didn’t have to sing in Spanish. PG smiles and says it’s true. He says he sang only one song, Vulnerable (Tímida in Spanish). Mr. G thinks it was a miserable project. Marie was perfect though. She even sang Spending My Time live in Spanish when they played in South America.

Gry says they talked about this with PG before, but maybe things have changed since then. They are curious if it’s true or false that has never bathed in Tylösand. One of the guys asks if there was no swimming this summer. Per replies he was on tour this summer, so no. He has never swam in Tylösand. He tells the story that his father and grandfather were plumbers and they built the whole water system in Tylösand, Frösakull and Ringenäs. It was in the ’50s and ’60s and when Per was a kid, he went with his father to Frösakull a lot. They had a little shed there and Per spent a lot of time in Frösakull. That’s the beach next to Tylösand. So he swam there. The program leaders say that now Per doesn’t bathe in Tylösand, because that’s a story that should live on. Per says he can still bathe there and lie afterwards. Haha.

Stills are from the video.

Per Gessle and Anders Herrlin about Gyllene Tider on Gry Forssell med vänner, Mix Megapol

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Per Gessle and Anders Herrlin were guests of Gry Forssell med vänner on Swedish radio Mix Megapol on 31st May. You can listen to the morning show podcast HERE and listen to the 25-minute-long chat from 30:47 into the recording.

Gry welcomes Per and Anders in the studio after introducing Gyllene Tider’s history in short. Gry asks the guys how they are doing. Per says, all good, it’s Wednesday. Gry asks Per what it means to him. PG says it means that it’s the middle of the week. Gry suggests they should celebrate Wednesday just because it’s the middle of the week. Mr. G says it’s hump day (lillördag). Gry says weekend is getting closer. Per says he is the kind of guy who likes Mondays and Tuesdays, when everyone is back, you can reach anyone and get things started. Anders thinks the same, he says Mondays are the best. The program leaders are laughing. Per says they are from Halmstad. One of the program leader guys says it’s nice to hear that Per states Wednesday is hump day, because they had a long debate in the studio. Gry thinks Thursday is the new hump day. Per says „but you are from Gothenburg”. Haha. Gry says she lived there, but she is from Luleå.

Gry asks the guys how it feels that summer is approaching. Per says it feels amazing. It’s always a pleasure to play with this great little pop band that doesn’t grow on trees anymore. They stand for some rather old-fashioned kind of pop music. Gry says they kickstart every morning at 6 and Leva livet is a kind of kickstart song to get the day going. It’s a song where Per sings he is 21. That’s a completely different period of life. She is curious how GT as a band still manage to get that feeling so many years later. Per thinks life goes on and you become a different person over the years. He wrote Leva livet on his 21st birthday. What a damn birthday party it could have been, the guys are kidding him. They ask Anders if he was there too. Anders says he wasn’t invited. Haha.

Gry plays a little mash-up of Gyllene Tider song snippets here, a little look back on GT hits. Per says they will also play new songs on tour. They start rehearsing next weekend. PG thinks it’s going to be a lot of fun and like he said earlier, it’s a great band and it’s always fun to hang out and play together. The new album, Hux Flux is very upbeat and very energetic, so it will be fun to sink their teeth into some of those songs.

During the whole morning show different GT songs are played. Here Gry plays Dagar att dansa, the latest single. Per says it’s a nice song and Anders plays the bass damn well. Anders adds that Per sings very well. Haha.

After the song is played, Gry asks Anders how it feels. Anders says it feels fantastic. One of the program leaders asks the guys where the band name, Gyllene Tider comes from. Anders says it was from an article Mats Olsson wrote back then for Expressen. Per says they were already called Gyllene Tider when Mats wrote that article. They gave the name after an instrumental song with that title. Anders says he changed his mind. They are laughing. PG says Anders wasn’t even in the band at the time. Gry says there is another song now also called Gyllene Tider that came out a couple of weeks ago. Per corrects her that the title is Gyllene Tider igen.

Here comes the dilemma of the day (a part of the show). It’s about a 23-year-old girl, Sofia who has been dating a man for a year now. The relationship is kept secret from her family, but she feels that she should talk about it. The real dilemma is that the man is her mother’s friend. He is 50 years old. Her mother guessed that she met someone, but not that it is her friend. It’s strange when the man is visiting them, because they have to pretend that everything is as usual. The girl is afraid that her mother will be angry and disappointed because it is him. This man and her mother also have a past, they were together before the girl was born. The guys are thinking and say maybe it’s the girl’s father. Gry says it can’t be. At least she shopes so. She asks what Sofia should do. Jakob, one of the program leaders thinks it’s nothing to build on in this relationship. The man is 50, the girl is 23. He would advise to say goodbye to each other, but later if love conquers, he wishes good luck in that case. Gry says she read that Ulf Lundell’s girlfriend is 33 years old. Jakob says it’s a different case here, since the man was together with Sofia’s mother too. Per says he thinks she should sell her story to Netflix. Haha. It could be a good movie. Or a song. Anders says he has never heard such a story before, but if you meet and fall in love with someone like this, then it must mean something. So in the end the guys think Sofia should follow her heart. Later in this discussion Per throws in one of GT’s song titles, Kärleken är inte blind (Men ganska närsynt) (Love is not blind, but quite nearsighted). Haha.

Gry comes up with the idea of reading a tale about Gyllene Tider, hux flux (all of a sudden). She starts and when she stops, the guys have to finish the sentences. According to Wikipedia, Gyllene Tider is a band that was originally active between 1978 and 1985, but after that, they had several reunions and hux flux when per Gessle reads it, he thinks… PG says „that’s pretty much true”. Gry goes on. The last time Anders Herrlin put his bass on the shelf it was… Anders says „yesterday”. Haha. Gry goes on. But all of a sudden he felt… Anders says „I play a little more”. Gry goes on. The last time Per Gessle was in this studio, he revealed that he has never bathed in Tylösand and he is a man of principles. But the last time he surprised himself, it was when he… PG says „got here on time to the studio this morning”. Gry goes on. Karolina Widerström has seen a lot of films, but maybe she didn’t know that Anders Herrlin produces a lot of music for films. Anders never thought he would write film music, but… Anders says „he did it”. Gry goes on. Yesterday, the storyteller here in the studio drew attention to the mystery of actually owning ugly panties and the most uncomfortable that Per Gessle ever wore was… PG says „probably MP’s old slippers”. Anders laughs it’s good that it wasn’t his underpants. Gry goes on. Singer Dea Norberg, who was on tour with Roxette, but will also be on this summer’s GT tour, says that she wants to go on a horse ride with Per and Anders this summer. Per feels… PG says „Good God! Is that true?” Gry goes on. She is looking forward to it and she is going to make it happen. Gyllene Tider had a big farewell tour, there would be no more tours, but all of a sudden… Anders says „they are back again”. PG says „Micke Syd changed his mind”. With this, the short and intense GT tale ends.

Gry mentions that there will be a GT movie. She asks what the guys can tell about it. The shooting starts in August this year. It won’t be like a documentary, but a feature film about 5 small town teenage guys who, against all odds, succeed in making it. It’s about GT, but it’s not like a documentary about the success story, but it’s about when they started the band and when they broke through. The program leaders ask who will play the roles of the band members. Per says they can’t share the info. Anders says they are not allowed to say anything, but today he is going to meet the guy who plays him.

It’s much fun. Mr. G says the script is very cool, full of laughs and cries. Gry is curious how much the guys are involved in the project. Per says they are very much involved. It actually starts with Per and the time he met MP and they formed a band and then everything else happened. The movie should be out in summer 2024.

Gry gets back to Anders and film music. Anders says he has always been interested in that. It’s very difficult to enter this world, but he had worked with Anders Bagge and he got a foot in. Then he asked Anders and his partner with whom he worked together if they want to help him. So that’s the way it is. So now Anders is making film music every day. It’s his job. Per says: „What a guy!” Haha. Gry says PG also has quite a few side projects besides Gyllene Tider. She asks how it is going with Roxette. Per asks if Gry means PG Roxette. He says they released a new EP a couple of weeks ago. Gry says they talked about it earlier this morning. They have a program point where they try to guess what the most googled term in the last 24 hours is. Jakob guessed that it was Marie Fredriksson, who would have turned 65 yesterday. She was number one on the list of what people have googled the most. It was actually over 20,000 searches. Gry also mentions that SVT broadcast the 2020 tribute concert yesterday and asks if the guys watched it and how it felt. Anders says it was a terrible experience doing that, because there was so much pressure. Seeing all the pictures of Marie when she was young and in her peak. Then they were unprepared seeing all these films that were shown in the background. It came as a shock. You are used to being on stage and conveying energy of joy and all that. But this was like hell. It was very strange, they sat and cried. It was tough. Per adds that it was pretty close after she had passed away. That was a very tough day.

Talking about icons and singers who are unfortunately no longer with us, Gry mentions Tina Turner and she says both Anders and Per met her. She asks the guys to talk about this. Anders says he has a story about Tina. „Tina as I call her.” It was probably somewhere in Germany with Roxette, maybe in Hamburg. Tina would come and see them at the concert. Everyone was very excited. They were up on stage playing and all of a sudden Tina was standing by Anders side. And then she disappeared. After they finished playing, everyone went backstage and asked „what did she say? What did she say?” The organizer said she only said one thing, „I like the bass player”. Haha.

Per also met Tina, but he says he doesn’t have such a lovely story as Anders. He was in her home and had a dinner there. Tina invited them for dinner once in Cologne. She lived there back then. They were 12-14 people there. It was in connection with Roxette’s Crash! Boom! Bang! album. Per remembers that Tina had tons of golden records up on the walls. He thought that was a bit cheesy. Haha. Gry asks Per where he keeps his golden records. PG says not at home. They have a small Roxette and Gyllene Tider museum at Hotel Tylösand, where you can see those records.

Here they play Gyllene Tider igen. Gry asks what the guys could tell about the song. Per says it’s short, but it’s nice.

The last program point while the guys are still in the studio is 5 seconds. It’s a game. Per and Anders have to say 3 things in 5 seconds, replying to a question. Round 1, question to Per: Say 3 things in 5 seconds you do on hump day! PG says „sleep, wake up and eat breakfast”. Round 1, question to Anders: Say 3 things you would like to gild! Anders says „my body, my wife’s body, my son’s body”. Round 2, question to Per: 3 things that are punk. PG says „Anders Herrlin, MP Persson, Göran Fritzon”. Round 2, question to Anders: 3 things that happen on the subway. Anders says „dirt, dirt, dirt”. The program leaders say it’s only one thing, unfortunately. Anders says no, it’s not at all. These are different dirts. Round 3, question to Per: Say 3 Ferrari sounds! Mr. G says „bass, mid-range, treble”. Round 3, question to Anders: Say 3 things that sound like German! Here they start laughing and the 5 seconds are over. So Per wins, but he says Anders got much tougher questions.

The conversation ends with info about the summer tour that premieres on 7th July in Halmstad. Gry says to search in google where to buy tickets. Per says there will be 17 shows in Sweden, 2 in Finland an 1 in Norway. One of the program leader guys asks if there is any gig in Denmark. Per says no, they can come to Skåne. Haha.

Gry thanks the guys for joining. Per says it’s always a pleasure.

   

   

Still’s are from Gry Forssells stories.

Per Gessle on Gry Forssell med vänner, Mix Megapol

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Per Gessle was a guest of Gry Forssell med vänner on Swedish radio Mix Megapol on 30th November. You can listen to the morning show HERE and listen to the 20-minute-long chat from 20:10 into the program.

Gry welcomes Per in the studio by saying he has done everything from tear-jerking ballads in Swedish to international dance music. PG thanks for the warm welcome and to the question how he is, he replies he feels absolutely wonderful and it’s so much fun to be there. He mentions the radio has a nice Christmas tree. Gry explains they play Christmas music now all the way until Christmas to get into the right mood. She thinks it might be considered a bit of a jumpstart with Christmas decorations, but now after the First Sunday of Advent… Per thinks it’s totally fine. Gry is curious if Per has already decorated and the answer is a strict no. Then Gry asks if he will decorate and the answer is no again. Gry asks if Per is the Grinch. Haha. Per says he is bad at that sort of thing, but he thinks it’s kind of cozy. Gry is shocked how someone can make Christmas music and not be a Christmas decorator. She thinks it’s cheating. Per agrees and informs he wrote his new Christmas single in June. Haha.

One of the program leader guys says he found Sweden’s strangest word. It’s „nja”, the mix of „ja” (yes) and „nej” (no). He is wondering how it can be a word, both no and yes at the same time. Per thinks it’s typical Swedish.

Gry asks Per what he is thinking about today. Mr. G replies that it is so early. When he woke up this morning he was wondering what planet he was on. He tells he is not a morning person, but it got better over the years. Gry is curious whether Per stays in bed after waking up or gets up immediately. PG says he is up right away, otherwise it may get a bit too cozy. Haha.

Gry tells the listeners that they will play Per’s new Christmas song, but first she wants to hear about It Must Have Been Love, if it’s true that it’s a Christmas song. PG tells it was written as a Christmas song in 1987. They tried to get abroad with Roxette, also to Germany for example, but they said they couldn’t play anything from Roxette on the radio. They suggested that he should write a Christmas song to make it maybe a little easier then. So he wrote It Must Have Been Love and played it for them, but they didn’t like it at all. So it was released in Sweden only and became quite big at Christmas 1987. Then it was forgotten and later it appeared in Pretty Woman in 1990 and the rest is history.

After playing IMHBL, Gry tells sometimes you have to be happy that a song comes to an end because her colleague asks stupid questions. He asked Per about Gyllene Tider and reggae. Gry apologizes for the question and they are laughing. Per says they tried to make some kind of reggae version of Flickorna på TV2 and När vi två blir en, but it didn’t go too well. It was a bit of Halmstad reggae.

Here Gry reads a listener’s letter who asks for advice. She is 26 and has been going out with a guy since months, but she hasn’t told him about her past that she was a drug addict. The guy made it clear he hates drugs. She asks advice whether she should tell it to the guy or wait with it. Gry and Co. are discussing the topic and think the girl should tell her boyfriend about her past. Per thinks so too and also thinks it sounds like a quite tough relationship. They discuss that the guy thinks how can someone be so stupid to take drugs, but the girl also thinks it’s stupid, because she has stopped taking drugs. So they actually think the same. Attitude towards things is not really that simple that you can judge like that. Per thinks he shouldn’t be a hobby psychologist.

Gry tells it’s completely impossible to find scandals around Per Gessle. She doesn’t know whether Per is not involved in any or he is just hiding them very well. Per says he is very good at keeping his scandals a secret. One scandal Gry heard about, she says. Per says, „shit, what’s her name?” Haha. Gry says her name is Tylösand. She heard that Per has never bathed in Tylösand. PG says it’s true. Gry can’t believe it. Per says he has never gone down and dipped his toes in. He explains it’s because his father and grandfather were plumbers and they worked in Frösakull, so when he was a child in the ’60s and ’70s he was hanging out and bathed there. He had no close relationship with Tylösand. He was around 19, 20, 21 years old when he went down there and went to the nightclub to fool around a bit. It’s also the case that Gyllene Tider became big when he was 21 and after that it wasn’t really possible to just go down to the beach.

Gry asks Per about PG Roxette’s Christmas songs. The B side of the single was a song he wrote in 2013 for a musical that never happened. So it was lying around and matured a bit. It’s a very nice ballad, but then he thought he would write an uptempo song just out of the blue and that’s the one that became a single. Gry is curious how Per got the Christmas inspiration in the middle of summer. Per says you don’t need anything special, just to put on Santa’s hat at home. They are laughing. It’s just that you think and try to write something that is a little bit festive and lovely. Gry thinks it’s sweet that Per thinks about the single as an A side and B side thing, even if he also released it digitally. Per says it’s a sign that he is getting very old.

Gry asks Per what his first vinyl was. It was an LP by The Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy. He bought it in secret from his brother who needed money for cigarette.

The guys also talk about the happy news that Gyllene Tider goes on tour next summer. It’s called Hux Flux. They ask Per if we can expect new songs as well. PG says absolutely, there is a brand new LP already recorded. It will come out in spring and it’s also called Hux Flux. Gry says she doesn’t want Per to get her wrong, but all those who bought tickets and went on their farewell tour and stood at the front and cried and said, „now we’re part of something historic”… Do they ask for their money back now? Haha. Per says no, he hopes they had a nice evening. Mr. G says it’s an interesting discussion, though. What actually happened is that the pandemic came. It was Micke Syd at the time who thought they should do their last tour in 2019. And then when the pandemic happened, all of a sudden it felt like they might come up with something, do something more together and it started then with Per writing a bunch of songs for the band and they recorded them. It turned out to be a damn good record. Now they are going on tour again.

Here they play Wish You The Best For Xmas by PG Roxette.

Gry asks Per to tell a true and a false happening from his life. They will try to find out which one is true. Per says he has prepared a bit ambitiously for this, so instead of a statement he asks the question whether Gyllene Tider has ever been called Roxette or not. Per continues with a little explanation that in 1985 Gyllene Tider was over. It took 9 years until 1996 before the first comeback happened and the last album that Gyllene Tider recorded was in English. It was called The Heartland Café. This album was released in the US and Gyllene Tider was marketed under the name Roxette. True or false? The radio gang finds this question exciting. In 1985 they took a break, then in 1996 they came back. Per says it was with those songs, Juni, juli, augusti and Gå & fiska! Someone thinks it’s true, someone thinks it’s false. Someone thinks it was such a detailed story that it must be true. Per tells in the end that it’s true. Gyllene Tider’s English name was Roxette back then. Gry asks how come she didn’t know about it. Per says because she doesn’t read books about him. They are laughing. Per says Marie and he started Roxette one year later. The idea for the name came from a band Gyllene Tider listened to a lot, Dr. Feelgood, an English pub rock band. They have a song called Roxette that they all loved, so they took their name from that song.

Gry and Co. thank Per for coming to the show and hanging out with them. They wish Mr. G a nice Christmas break. Per wishes the same and thanks for inviting him and for the good sandwiches. Gry wishes Per a nice Christmas in Halmstad and asks him to come back to them before the GT tour.

Still is from Per’s Xmas single teaser video.

13-year-old Gry Forssell interviews Marie Fredriksson in 1987

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Gry Forssell was the speaker on Swedish Radio’s Sommar & Vinter i P1 program today. Gry is one of Sweden’s most popular program leaders. Among many other things, she talked about her great experience related to Marie Fredriksson. LISTEN to the program from 34:28 to 36:40 to hear it.

Marie was on a Club tour when her Efter stormen album came out in 1987 and she also visited Luleå where Gry grew up. There was a program called Himalaya on Swedish Radio. Gry’s mom worked there and her friend was the producer. Gry was there in the radio a lot of times with her mom. She was 13 when one day the producer asked if she wanted to interview Marie Fredriksson. Of course she wanted!

After Gry welcomed Marie to Luleå and she thanked for it and said it was nice to be there, Gry asked her how old she was when she decided to be a singer, an artist. Marie replied:

I was 6 years old. I already knew it at 6 or 7 that I wanted to be a singer or an actress. And I’ve been fighting for that since then actually.

Gry also asked how one can become a famous singer and whether it has to do anything with luck or you also have to be good. Marie told:

Of course you have to be able to sing, but you also have to have self confidence. The best you can do is that you sing as much as possible. Sing in front of your friends. When I was a child, I was singing a lot in front of the mirror. I was miming and acted as if I was on a popular TV program or in a big movie. I was fantasizing a lot about that.

Gry smiles and says Marie replied so patiently to her silly questions. Lovely!

Still is from Jacobs stege 1987.