Lena Philipsson

Joakim S Ormsmarck did an interview with Per Gessle for Cityliv magazine in Halmstad. Read the original Swedish article HERE!

Roxette is back on stage in Halmstad. With two sold-out concerts, the city is once again filled with fans from all over the world who want to experience Gessle’s treasure trove of songs here at home where it all began. But it is a tribute to Roxette – not a new Roxette – that is now taking the stage.

It has been 36 years since Roxette last performed at Brottet. The pop duo’s breakthrough was still quite fresh at the time, and the concert at home kicked off the Look Sharp Live! Tour, which was to last until the end of the year with all stops from Hunnebostrand to Milan and Brussels. A lot has happened since then, not least the fact that Marie Fredriksson is no longer with us. But Roxette is still Per and Marie, Per makes that clear when he talks to Joakim.

It’s not that I’ve restarted my band with Lena, but the tour we’re on now is a tribute to the song catalogue. Roxette is me and Marie, but since she can’t be there, this is simply a variation. A bit like Queen with Adam Lambert or like Jon Stevens in INXS… Stevens was actually our opening act at some of the shows in Australia and he played a lot of INXS songs, it was fantastic.

Joakim has managed to do this interview during a break on the tour and Per is home in Halmstad for a few sunny days before it’s time for the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland before the summer tour ends with two shows in Gothenburg and two in Halmstad.

Joakim is curious if it is nice to have a break or if it disrupts the rhythm.

Good question actually. It’s both. You lose a bit of that flow that you get when you play every other day and we haven’t played that much together yet. We have only done eighteen shows so we’re still working on getting to know each other on stage. At the same time, it’s really nice to have a few days off for the sake of your throat, plus it’s great to land here when the West Coast is at its best.

The tour started in February in Cape Town, South Africa, Australia and parts of Europe have been completed. After the gigs in Sweden this July, there is a break. Among other things, Per will be working on the musical based on Roxette’s song collection, which will be staged in the autumn at China Theatre in Stockholm. But after that, it’s the tour that counts again.

Joakim wants to know if touring is still as much fun after all these years.

It’s actually more fun now than it was at the beginning. With Gyllene, you were terrified at first. We had done six gigs before we were number one on the charts, so we were constantly fighting against people’s expectations. We learned the hard way, you could say. It was really only during the Roxette era that I started to relax more on stage. With Gyllene, I was the one who would be at the front singing, but with Marie we could share everything.

To the question how he feels the tour he is on now is different from the previous ones, Per replies:

The big difference is that we are not trying to be number one on the list with a new album, but this is a tribute to the Roxette catalogue. We are playing a fantastic treasure trove of songs that very few artists can put their fingers on and that makes it special. We don’t want to promote new music, but play the old.

If Roxette releases new songs:

No, I don’t think so actually. I would like to make more music with Lena, we released “Sällskapssjuk” together last year and I would like to continue that collaboration, but it will not be under the Roxette label.

However, there is a lot of material that Marie and I did that has never been released, studio and live recordings. So there will be more from the original Roxette.

On this year’s tour, Per has gathered musicians who have played and worked with both Roxette and Gyllene Tider, as well as his solo albums. Among others, Jonas Isacsson, who was already on the first albums, is back as a guitarist.

When Jonas plays his solos on “Listen To Your Heart” or “Queen Of Rain”, it’s like time has stood still. It sounds exactly as it did before. It’s pure pleasure.

Joakim asks Per how he puts a band together for a tour like this. If he sits down with the phone book and starts calling around.

It’s a bit like that, actually. The idea of Lena as a singer came when we recorded “Sällskapssjuk” in the studio. She has exactly the power in her voice that Marie had, but in a different way. So we had a meeting and I told her my thoughts. We tested a few songs and when she decided, I started thinking about who I should include in the band.

Per says that his aim was to include as many of the original band members as possible. Jonas Isacsson and Clarence Öfwerman have been with them from the beginning, Christoffer Lundquist was already on the “Have A Nice Day” album in the late ’90s.

Pelle Alsing is no longer with us, but Clarence and Christoffer suggested Magnus Norpan Eriksson, because they thought he played quite like Pelle. I don’t agree with that at all, but he plays really good pop drums and that’s exactly what we need. Especially in songs like “The Big L.” and “How Do You Do!”.

Joakim is curious about how long Per has contracted the band and if there will be Roxette in 2026 as well.

Yes, there is a big world out there with South America, Asia, North America and so on. What has been said now is that we are doing 2025 and 2026, and then we will see. It could be that we do the spring and then we skip it or it will be spring, summer and autumn.

But before that, two packed concerts at Brottet are ahead, and there is no doubt that Per is looking forward to delivering here on home ground.

It is of course special to play here in Halmstad and at Brottet where we have played with Gyllene in recent years, but Roxette has not played there since “Look Sharp!”. So it will be really fun.

All interview text is written by Joakim S Ormsmarck for Cityliv Magazine in Swedish. Here it is a translation by RoxBlog.