Per Gessle’s Roxette – Helsinki, Finland – 12th November 2018 – #18

The Helsinki gig last night was actually a delayed concert. The Per Gessle’s Roxette tour would have reached Finland already on the 3rd November, in Espoo, but the date had been rescheduled 2 months before, end of August and the venue had also changed to the culture house in Helsinki. You could exchange your tickets for the rescheduled date. I remember I was very disappointed, because I had already booked everything (flights, accommodation /non-refundable, why not… 2 month before the date nothing can go wrong…/) just 2 or 3 days before the announcement was published. It was my decision to book everything the way I did, so no one to blame for it. Then I thought, oh whatever, I could still add the new date (12th November, Helsinki) to the list of shows I could attend, a bit more losing on other flights I had also already booked for the Swedish shows after the original Finland date and the Oslo-Göteborg leg of the tour, it would still be worth booking. Then a long long long long long ”discussion” with Ticketmaster started regarding exchanging the tickets. First of all, when you don’t live in Finland, it’s very difficult to reach them. No direct phone number, no direct e-mail address. So you turn to social media, send them a message on Facebook and get an automatic reply including a phone number. Winning! Then you call them, but the number doesn’t work. You try to contact them on social media again, but all the time you just get the automatic message with the same content. Then for the xth time when you write, they get back to you and ask ”How did you hear about this? Did you receive a message of the reschedule? Did you have any instructions? There is no information in the event info.” Facepalm. THEY sent out the e-mail about the change with almost no information on how to exchange the tickets and they don’t know anything about it. Awesome. Some more messages exchanged and we finally get to the point. They realize that the date had indeed been rescheduled so they suggest me to reach the nearest outlet. Hello! I live in Hungary, bought my ticket online, the nearest outlet is hundreds of kilometers away from me. Any other suggestion in the 21st century? Oh yes, you finally get an e-mail address to which you have to send your order number and they exchange the ticket. Great! All discussed regarding the seat I had for Metro Arena in Espoo. That was the very first ticket I managed to buy right at the very first minute the ticket sales started. Front row middle. They assure that I can get the same seat in the new venue. Fab! Then I send the e-mail with my order number. Days pass, no reply… I get back to them on Facebook. Any news? Yes, I should receive my new ticket shortly. Great. I get an e-mail one day later with the new ticket. In the 4th row. Aha. Back to them on Facebook telling them there might be a misunderstanding, they promised to exchange the ticket for the same front row middle seat as I had for the original venue. And that shouldn’t be a problem, given the new venue is even wider than the originally planned arena. Sorry for the inconvenience they say and send new ticket 1 more day later. To the very side of the front row. I know, I know… First world problems, but once you agree on something I hate it when they don’t keep their word and think you’re stupid or something. I tell them it’s still not the same ticket. They say that’s the best they can offer. I then realize Helsinki doesn’t want to cooperate with me and tell them I would rather ask for a refund then. I thought then they might change the ticket to the one we agreed on, but no, they said OK, they send my money back. Oh cool. See the best lesson on how to lose a customer. You would think it happened only to me, but no. Once the event was rescheduled, they didn’t show the seatmap on the website, you could only see the ”best available ticket” option which was 3rd row. Those who live in Finland and went to an outlet to exchange their tickets they said that the first 2 rows in the middle were greyed out. So Ticketmaster simply kept those tickets reserved for who knows whatever reason. Similar issue we had in Stockholm regarding the seatmap. No seatmap available, only best available ticket option and since the very first minute the tickets went on sale in March many fans were checking the website daily, even several times daily to see when they would release the front row tickets in the middle section. It happened only a few days before the concert. Who understands that? Anyways, I’m just a marketeer, not a sales person, but I would certainly change the customer care system and some other things in the business model at Ticketmaster.

Sorry for the long intro. Longer than what I’ll be able to write about the show itself. 😉 The doors opened for the concert in Helsinki at 7 pm and the gig started at 8 pm. There was no change in the setlist, so the gang entered the stage and started to play The Look. The crowd left their boogie shoes at home, they all remained seated. Actually, 2 girls stood up, but the security team then asked them to sit down. Still, one could feel the audience had much fun listening to Roxette’s evergreens and Per’s solo gems. They were clapping very loud and singing along too. You could clearly hear them doing so during IMHBL. This is also a way one can enjoy a gig and still show a high level of enthusiasm. It was only during Joyride when slowly but surely everyone stood up and from then on they didn’t sit back and waited for PG & Co to get back on stage for the 2nd encore. Yaaay!

The stage was very low and it was also very close to the front row, you could reach the band members who by the way were in top shape. Lots of smiles and interactions among the ladies and gents on stage. Åsa joined Per for the Finland trip and she also recorded some parts of the gig. DFS is already online on GessleHomeVids. Hope to see some more footage. Evgeny recorded TSHTSG.

Now only 2 shows left! Get your tickets if you haven’t seen this wonderful gang on tour yet! 😉

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

Per after the concert:

HELSINKI. Yes, this band is still groovin’ better and better for every gig!!! Thanx everyone for showing up this cold and rainy Monday night. You certainly brought a lot of sunshine!!! No blood on stage this time (hahaha) + got a couple of days off before Oslo on Thursday so my finger will surely mend. See y’all there!!!! Cheers, P.

 

 

Roxette 30th Anniversary Tour: Helsinki, Finland – November 28 – #14

In my Tallinn review I wrote that gig made it to my Top3 best Roxette concerts ever. What can I say now? It got easily replaced by Helsinki last night! What a show it was!

The support act, Costello was on home turf and to our biggest surprise, they performed their songs in Finnish tonight. Except one song that they kept in English. We almost learned some of their lyrics and now they changed them to Finnish. OK, no sing-along then.

Roxette was greeted by an international front row this time again. Now some more Roxers joined us, so there were even more countries represented. Per was happy to see the familiar faces, he already mentioned us in his first speech, which you can watch HERE. I was very happy that while we were waiting, a younger girl from Finland joined us. It turned out that she started liking Per Gessle and Roxette after she heard Per’s Mazarin album 4-5 years ago. She was too young for her parents to let her go to any concerts years ago. Today was her first show. I love it that Roxette can still engage new fans.

Before the show everyone was thinking about Marie, if she was fine, if she would be sitting on stage or if not, then was everything fixed for her to be safe on stage or if she decided for standing during the whole show. Apply the latter one. She was standing all night and showed us how strong she is! She acted like she would really want us to see everything is alright with her. She even stood for some moments without holding the mic stand. This time the stand was fixed to the floor indeed. Even BoJo came up on stage and checked it with his own eyes. Marie was singing her heart out and enjoyed it to the full. It was just amazing! Perfect Day got a fab respsonse. Marie was satisfied with the crowd’s reaction and she showed Clarence a thumbs up and Clarence showed thumbs up, too. Some fans brought cardboard hearts with different texts on them and held them up during The Heart Shaped Sea.

The concert was so powerful and sound-wise it was awesome as well. Everyone acted so much during the whole show. Marie was smiling at the crowd all the time, showing some funny facial expessions, swaying her hips; Per and Chris played their guitars in several poses, e.g. leaning against each other’s back. That was a cool one! Per even took a round around Marie with his guitar. It was during The Big L., if my memory serves me right. It was so funny. What surely added a lot to Per’s mood tonight is that Åsa is here with him. She filmed a lot. Gabriel was also there, as well as Micke and Christoffer’s daughters. It’s good when the families are around, that’s clear. The band puts even more energy into the gig then.

Despite the fact that Christoffer’s intro to Joyride didn’t really catch this audience, the crowd was loud enough and Per said several times we sounded terrific. I haven’t filmed Chris’s solo, just the band presentation before that. You can watch it HERE. The Look got everyone on their feet, of course! Now the setlist was full, they didn’t leave out any songs this time. Introducing Real Sugar it turned out that yesterday Magnus’s fave Roxette album of all time was Baladas en español. Yeah, sure.

Per’s thoughts after the show:

HELSINKI UPDATE: Yea! Fab evening in Suomi! We’ve been playing this place so many times and it’s always a treat! Thanx for stopping by and help us out with the lyrics! See y’all next time! How about tomorrow in Turkku??? /P.

Hell yeah! Next gig (last one in 2014) is on Saturday (29th November) in Turku. See you there!

 

Articles and photos

iltalehti.fi
Tiia Santavirta Photography:1; 2; 3;
iltasanomat.fi; 2; 3;
rexfeatures.com
eastnews.pl
turkulainen.fi

 

Videos

Sleeping In My Car
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Dressed For Success & Dangerous
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Stars & Spending My Time
How Do You Do!
It Must Have Been Love

 

Setlist

Photo by Patrícia Peres

Sleeping In My Car
The Big L.
Stars
Spending My Time
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Real Sugar
She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
The Heart Shaped Sea
Perfect Day
Fading Like A Flower
How Do You Do!
7Twenty7
It Must Have Been Love
Dressed For Success
Dangerous
Joyride

Extra:
Watercolours In The Rain
Listen To Your Heart
The Look
Queen of Rain

World Tour 2011: Helsinki, Finland – November 8 #71

Comment from Per Gessle

Thank you Helsinki for a superb evening! We had a blast, felt that you had it too! See ya around!


Setlist

01. Dressed For Success
02. Sleeping In My Car
03. The Big L.
04. Wish I Could Fly
05. Only When I Dream
06. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
07. Soul deep (medley with SGNO)
08. Perfect Day
09. Things Will Never Be The Same
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. Opportunity Nox
12. 7twenty7
13. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
14. Crash! Boom! Bang!
15. How Do You Do!
16. Dangerous
Band presentation
17. Joyride (introduced with “Säkkijärven polkka”)

18. Watercolours in the rain
19. Spending My Time
20. The Look

21. Listen To Your Heart
22. Church Of Your Heart

Articles

Suomenkuvalehti.fi (gallery)
Stara.fi (gallery)
Seiska.fi (arriving to the venue)
Dome.fi

New Helsinki show added in November

Roxette World Tour 2011 has been expanded with one more dates in November
2011.11.08 – Hartwall Helsinki, Finland

Tickets will go on sale at 8 am on August 29.This concert was revealed in the beginning of April in the first Roxette newsletter, but up till now it has not been confirmed. You can see the full Roxette World Tour 2011 plan here.

Source: Live Nation

Thanks to Evgeny Perekopskiy for information.

Live from Helsinki & Stuttgart

Live in Helsinki, Finland, September 4, 1991 (Join the Joyride! tour premiere):
Fading like a flower (TV broadcast)

Live in Stuttgart, Germany, October 22, 1994 (bootleg):
Sleeping in my car
Fireworks
Almost unreal
Dangerous
So you wanna be a rock’n’roll star?
Crash!Boom!Bang!
Listen to your heart
The first girl on the moon
Harleys and Indians (Rider in the sky) / Lies
The rain
I love the sound of crashing guitars
It must have been love
Fading like a flower

Dressed For Success, The Big L, Joyride, Spending My Time, Cry, The Look, Love Is All [Shine Your Light On Me] and Go To Sleep are still missing.

Thanks to esperominombre for uploading.