Per Gessle’s Roxette – Leipzig, Germany – 9th October 2018 – #2

Last night PG & Co. performed in Leipzig, Per coming back to town for the first time since 2011, when Roxette played there. The gang arrived to the venue at appr. 5 pm for a short soundcheck where they mainly rehearsed The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye, but we could also hear SGNO. So we knew these 2 songs have a safe place on the setlist last night again. But what’s with the rest? We were curious.

This time the support act was Lee MacDougall, the guy who would have been the support to Roxette in 2016, when the tour got cancelled. Good he had the chance this time. He is a great musician with a nice voice, so we enjoyed him performing. His sense of humor is fun too, so it was a great 30 minutes, him being on stage. He got introduced to Roxette when he was appr. 8 years old, via Baywatch, Pamela Anderson. There he heard The Look in a commercial and got hooked. He says he is the biggest Roxette fan in England. We will see him several times on tour, since he is the support in Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich, Berlin and Cologne as well. Just a funny moment: Lee goes unplugged on one of his songs and while he walked around the stage with his guitar, he stepped on PG’s already sticked-on-the-floor setlist and stayed there for a while. Haha. Thank God the songs to be played were still visible after.

Per and the band hit the stage at 9 pm. Different running order of PG’s shirts meant different running order on the setlist too. Slightly different though. They skipped The Finest Prize for reasons I can’t understand and also Silver Blue. Silver Blue’s spot got occupied by Doesn’t Make Sense and the encores were changed a bit too.

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
19. Listen To Your Heart

Encore 2
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

This time there were some technical hiccups, which somehow made us feel the gang got a bit distracted. Even some word changes in the lyrics happened by Helena. All this caused a bit lower energy level on stage in Leipzig than in Prague, but the audience’s loudness and sing-alongs made Per & Co. very happy and they got confirmation again that what they are doing is just fab.

I love how the band members interact with each other on stage, changing their places, kidding each other, singing towards each other, etc. They are so good together!

I was happy The Look stayed first on the setlist, because it really gets you into the Roxette party mood right from the beginning and it can define the whole show. I think I didn’t mention it in my Prague review, but there is a little pause in The Look, which adds to the excitement.

Per talked to the crowd after they finished the song that he was there in Leipzig 7 years ago and it’s fantastic to be back. He also told they would do a big dive into the box of Roxette songs. He also sneaked in a couple of solo songs just for good measure.

Before Crash! Boom! Bang! Per told they went to record the album in Capri, where the world’s most expensive pizzas and the cheapest wine are sold. They took full advantage of that. The song sounded wonderful and the crowd appreciated it with a loud applause.

During She’s Got Nothing On, Helena and Malin-My came to the front and animated the audience, it was cool. They were full of energy, and also Chris was going wild on his guitar and involved Ola in the madness too. A real party song this one is.

Before Spending My Time Per mentioned he wrote 2 songs on one crazy afternoon in the spring of 1990. One of them was Joyride. The audience shouted woohoo and Per said not bad actually. Helena got a huge applause for performing the song.

This time during I’m Glad You Called there seemed to be less acting. But it’s always a bit strange to see Per without his guitar. He sometimes doesn’t know what to do with his hands while singing without holding any instruments. It’s fun though when he is demonstrating the lyrics. And while Per and Helena walked away from each other for the non-singing part, we could enjoy the music Malin-My, Chris and Ola played for us. This song was a success too. Per commented after the song, it’s music for old people. Haha.

Small Town Talk was a highlight in Leipzig too. Wonderful to hear it live and Chris joining Per in the duet is just amazing. Can’t get enough of it!

During the intro to I Have A Party In My Head the audience burst out into loud clapping. It sounded awesome! Really a great crowd it was! Per said he is always so surprised that people recognize tracks from Son of A Plumber, because he doesn’t. The audience burst out laughing.

Mr. G told the crowd he tried to avoid playing the next song, but it’s actually Magnus’s favourite, so he couldn’t skip it. Magnus said he would be very disappointed and he would hit Per if he didn’t play it. Yep, it was It Must Have Been Love’s turn. The crowd loved it!

It was lovely that the setlist remained the same at this point, when Opportunity Nox and The Big L. followed IMHBL. Party time guaranteed!

Before Fading Like A Flower they, I mean Magnus and Per were again joking about the ’90s, talking about their favourite bands from that decade. Besides Roxette, Milli Vanilli popped up, as well as Beagle and Brainpool.

Doesn’t Make Sense was very welcomed by the audience, they were clapping a lot during the whole song and it seems it wasn’t working only in Prague that Chris and Andreas went wild on this song towards the end, but in Leipzig as well. It rocked big time!

During the band presentation Per started with their own little guitar God, Chris (sweating plus drinking after DMS), Ola who plays everything with strings on, even shoes, Andreas the drummer, Clarence got a long long applause, being the producer of Roxette songs, Magnus the stand up comedy guy, the most talented Malin-My and last but not least, Helena Josefsson on vocals.

The crowd didn’t stop clapping and shouting when the band went off stage and it took some more time for the gang to come back. They certainly enjoyed the audience’s reaction. It was so loud and wonderful! The first encore now started again with Queen Of Rain, but as Doesn’t Make Sense was moved, Joyride and Listen To Your Heart came to the first encore. Joyride started with a tiny little intro, where Chris was standing in front of PG with his guitar and they were kidding each other. It was much fun! After the song PG said ”well, we can play all night…”. Oh well, you know, Per, you really could! We wouldn’t mind! 😉

After LTYH, the crowd was loud again, wanting the whole gang back on stage and so they came and played the last song. The 2nd encore now contained The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye only. When Per and the band came back, someone in the audience shouted ”gott nytt år” (= happy new year) , so Per repeated it in the mic. Then someone else shouted ”tack” (= thank you). A real Swedish lesson. Haha. TSHTSG, what can I say? It’s absolutely awesome how this song sounds now live. I could listen to it 24/7. Actually, this one is playing on one’s head for a long time either after the show during the whole night or the day after. Top earworm!

Åsa wasn’t there this time, so we’ll see how many videos were shot, if any at all. We could already see a backstage video Per shared. Let’s hope we can see more of such vids.

As you read Per’s comment on the gig, it makes you curious what changes they plan in the setlist in Hamburg. Fingers crossed the number of songs gets back to 22 at least and won’t be decreased by even more songs.

Per after the show:

Leipzig = Wow!!!! Haven’t been in this city since 2011 and hey, do I love to play here! Great crowd as always.

We tried a different running order tonight to get the perfect flow. Got a few more things to check out in Hamburg. That’s the way it should be, every gig should be different. That’s why we play everything 100% live. No tricks.

Thanks everyone for showing up and making that typical Roxette noise!!! Love it! See y’all soon again. Cheers, P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

More photos & TV reports:
regioactive.de
radioSAW.de
Brisant report (starts at appr. 27:40)

 

World Tour 2011: Leipzig, Germany – June 15 #38

Comment from Per Gessle

Leipzig! Thanks for an astounding evening. More than 14000 ppl showed up and what a beautiful noise they made!!! We certainly had a great time, I hope you did too! Marie in top shape. Pelle as well. See y’all soon. Cologne tomorrow, dears!

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. Perfect Day
08. Things Will Never Be The Same
09. It Must Have Been Love
10. Opportunity Nox
11. 7twenty7
12. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
13. Silver Blue
14. How Do You Do!
15. Dangerous
Band presentation
16. Joyride

17. Watercolours In The Rain
18. Spending My Time
19. The Look

20. Way Out
21. Listen To Your Heart
22. Church Of Your Heart

Articles and photos

LVZ online, LVZ online Gallery, Radio SAW, Radio SAW Gallery, Freie Presse Online

German concert tickets selling very well

Our reader Thorsten asked the German tour promoters about Roxette’s ticket sales. Here’s what he found out:

Out of curiosity I contactet the German concert agency that organizes Roxette’s German concerts and also the local organization staff for each
of the 4 German concerts in Cologne, Leipzig, Berlin and Oberursel. I got official confirmation today from Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (mlk.com)
that the Berlin gig is definitely sold out with 10.000 tickets. The
Hessentag staff responsible for the concert in Oberursel just e-mailed me
that by the end of December 5.000 tickets had been sold. By today ticket
sales have surpassed 10.000 already for the Roxette gig. Additionally they
let me know that the Hessentags-Arena will hold a capacity of 30.000
people for the Rox concert and that I should better hurry to buy tickets.
The agency responsible for the Cologne gig at Tanzbrunnen (DBE) wouldn’t
tell me the exact sales figures. But after I asked if the rumor was true
that already more than 5.000 of the ca. 10.000 tickets had been sold, the
reply was “we recommend to buy tickets soon!“. So I figure a substantial
number of tickets has already been sold. I’m still waiting for a response
for the Leipzig concert and will let you know what I heard if that is of
interest to you and this news site.

Thanks for the investigations, Thorsten! Of course all the other readers are invited to share interesting stories and news as well via our contact form or comments!

Meanwhile the recently added concert dates in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm appear to be deleted from roxette.se’s tour plan, while still part of Livenation’s. That doesn’t have to mean they are cancelled as we learned from the re-appearance of the Dubai gig. So let’s wait for the next tour update that Per indicated recently.

Room Service Tour 2001

Room Service Tour 2001.

Live in Munich, Germany on September 28, 2001 at Olympiahalle (9,592 spectators)

Live in Stuttgart, Germany on October 1, 2001 at Schleyerhalle (6,529 spectators)
Sweepi: I have something from Stuttgart 2001, but then it’s only those 3 tracks (the intro + “Crush On You” + “Dressed For Success”) which were broadcast on German TV and made available by RoxBytes.

Live in Oberhausen, Germany on October 2, 2001 at Arena (4,975 spectators)
Part 2
Source: previously available from RoxBytes

Live In Kiel, Germany on October 5, 2001 at Ostseehalle (3,895 spectators)

Live in Leipzig, Germany on October 6, 2001 at Messehalle (8,367 spectators)

Live in Prague, Czech Republic on October 9, 2001 at Paegas Arena (6,252 spectators)

Live in Brussels, Belgium on October 22, 2001 at Forest National (8,503 spectators)
Sweepi: It was originally broadcasted by Belgian radio, 7 tracks plus 2 interviews by Marie in Belgium.

Live in Barcelona, Spain on October 24, 2001 at Palau San Jordi (7,262 spectators) EXCELLENT QUALITY (soundboard)
Part 2

Live in Dortmund, Germany on October 28, 2001 at Westfalenhalle (5,646 spectators)

Live in Frankfurt, Germany on October 30, 2001 at Festhalle (6,296 spectators)

Live in Vienna, Austria on November 2, 2001 at Stadthalle (4,728 spectators)

Live in Moscow, Russia on November 7, 2001 at Olimpiiski (12,900 spectators)
Part 2

Live in Stockholm, Sweden on November 16, 2001 at Globen (14.289 spectators)

Live in Gothenburg, Sweden on November 17, 2001 at Scandinavium (10,690 spectators)

If you have more concerts from that tour, please upload them on SendSpace or Rapidshare and share with us!

Thanks to Roxmarie, sweepi, bianca, Raëlian, @ R2R.