Interview

Interview with Per Gessle on Swedish radio P4

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Per Gessle was interviewed today in the Swedish Radio P4 show “P4 extra med Lotta Bromé”.

In the approximately 20 minute long interview Per explained about live on tour, about him being quite picky about certain things, playing with Barbies, “Travelling” and much more. You can listen to the interview – in Swedish of course – on SR’s website here.

Roxette Café has uploaded it on mp3. And Roxette.RO has done a short translation to English of the interview.

Marie Fredriksson for Russian TV: Cancer is a new form of life inside of us

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Marie Fredriksson gave a touching interview for programme about cancer done for a Russian NTV channel. Here are the quotes from Marie translated by Evgeny Perekopskiy and proofread by Celestte. This exclusive interview was shot during one-hour session at Marie’s house in Stockholm in December 2011.

WATCH THE WHOLE PROGRAMME (Marie’s part starts at 39:48)

Narrator:
A slim woman singing about changes in the microphone can actually grab the audience in venues with the capacity of 100 000 people. But when she tries to say the word “cancer”, she still feels insecure.

Marie Fredriksson

I couldn’t learn how to talk about it without worrying. I just sang the song “The Change”. Few people know that this song is about cancer. For some unknown reason I needed this meeting with cancer. It changed me totally. I started to listen to my inner voice, talk to my body. And the main thing is that I started to draw. (Marie laughs)

All that I feel and experience is in these drawings. By the way, this is Madonna (Marie points at her drawing). Not the singer, no. This is the Madonna that I imagine for myself. Who saved me from illness. Who rescued me.

The first drawings I created because of fear. I just wanted to understand what was happening to me. What the cancer was all about.

Narrator:
Looking like an alien, drawing alien subjects, for a while wonderfully Marie Fredriksson created her personal, alien theory of the origin of cancer.

Marie Fredriksson:

I started to think that cancer is somehow a new form of life inside of us. That people having those cells that then will become cancerous are born and live and then those cells wake up. And perhaps in the future people will be able to live with those cells.

Narrator:
In spite of the incredible story, from the scientific point of view, the singer of Roxette is right in many things. To transform cancer in chronic illness that won’t break off life is one of the directions of the modern scientific thought

Roxette will be on tour until August 2012; 50 concerts done, 80 to go!

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Per Gessle reveals in an interview with Hallands Posten that “after Göteborg [concert #50], we still have 80 concerts to go”. The tour will go on until August 2012.  “As soon as we leave a city, the tour promoter wants to book us again, which is the best feedback one can get”, tells Per to Jan-Owe Wikström.

Per also comments on the success of “Radio” on the radio, “we’ve never been played on the radio as much as nowadays.” And it is specially thanks to Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe, “where we are very successful.”

Per also says that he thinks Marie is in a great shape. “Last week in Locarno was the best I’ve seen of her since, right, the 90ies”, says Per.

As we know, the band is working on a new album, “2rism”. They have already recorded 5 songs and have booked more studios around the world.

“Charm School” has sold half a million copies, which indeed is great nowadays.

Some thoughts about the tour dates.

  1. So far they have done 50 concerts.
  2. Per says they still have 80 to go, and until August 2012.
  3. Of these 80, we know already 23 of the dates (July until December 2011).
  4. This means there are 57 (if the 80 is a fix number and not just estimation) dates still unknown.
  5. Conclusion: save the whole 2012 for more! 🙂

Thank you Thomas from Sweden for the link!