Per Gessle

Sven Lindström and Per Gessle started a new series in the November episode of Nordic Rox. They count down the Top30 ’90s songs from Sweden. The guys recorded this show in Stockholm before Per started the rehearsals for the autumn leg of the Roxette In Concert tour.

Per thinks the ’90s was a fabulous decade. Sven agrees. It’s actually one of his favourites, apart from the ’60s, the ’70s, and the ’80s. Haha. PG says, if you look back to the ’90s, it’s sort of grown on you over time. Sven says they are going to focus on the Swedish pop and rock stuff, which excelled during the ’90s. A lot of bands are coming up, not least a band called Roxette, which Sven can guarantee we will hear later on. Not today, because they are going to focus on positions from number 30 to 26 this time.

Sven asks Per what is happening with him, with Roxette. He says they are rehearsing for a new leg on the tour. They have been touring this year, they started in South Africa and Australia in the spring, and then did a big summer tour in Europe. And now they are going back to Europe again, playing the arenas. Starting in Budapest, Hungary, and going all over the place. 16, 18 shows before Christmas. Per says it feels good, starting rehearsing next week. They are getting the band together and seeing if everyone is alive. Sven will meet them up and check out their top shape at Wembley Arena in London. The band is playing there on 1st December. Per says Sven is most welcome and he can join Per on stage. Haha.

The kick off song on the program is a song that could be a theme song for the upcoming Nordic Rox shows, Back In The ’90s by the band Melodic Fluke. They are from Halmstad, Sweden, Per’s hometown. PG says they played Halmstad on the Roxette tour this summer and Melodic Fluke was their support act. They actually made a new album, and they sent it to Per. Mr. G listened to it and he thought it was really, really good. So he asked them to become the support act for the show. Sven says that’s what happens if you are lucky and send your new album to Per Gessle.

Hawaii Mud Bombers by Johanna Beach is next, one of Per’s favourites. Per thinks that it’s a great song. It’s like a surf, ghost punk. Sven adds that they got signed by Wicked Cool Records, Stevie Van Zandt’s record company. Stevie Van Zandt has this Sirius XM show Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Then comes Dark Moon by Johnossi and Mon Amour by The Plan.

It’s time to check out the ’90s list. On position number 30 they have a female artist called Dilba. I’m Sorry from 1996 was a big hit single, a big radio single from Dilba’s debut album. PG thinks it’s an amazing song, such a great track. It stood the test of time for sure. It’s produced by Eric Gadd.

And Eric Gadd happens to be next in line with a song called Do You Believe In Me. It was his breakthrough song. He debuted in the ’80s, but this track is taken from his third album, which came out in 1991. The album was called Do You Believe in Gadd? Haha. Sven didn’t know, but interestingly enough, Do You Believe In Me was a dance hit in the Philippines. Per is curious how Sven knows it. Sven has got connections. Haha.

On No. 28, the guys have an amazing song that Per really likes. Precis som du, which translates into Just Like You, by a singer called Irma Schultz. She had a pretty big career in Sweden with her sister, Irma and Idde Schultz. But this is a solo single written by Mauro Scocco, who is a great songwriter. Sven says they had the pleasure of focusing on Mauro as a guest here on Nordic Rox a couple of years ago. He is a singer and songwriter in a band called Ratata, but he is doing solo as well. He is still around. He wrote this song, and this is a very typical Mauro Scocco song, and with a very typical ’90s production. Sven asks Per what a typical ’90s production is. For PG, it’s very much the style of the drum loops. Drum loops were used in a very special way. You can tell that this is like the ’90s. They did that themselves, with Roxette. They made the Have A Nice Day album, and the Crash album in the ’90s. Especially in the late ’90s, it was very much the drum loops.

No. 27. is Fishtank by a great little band called This Perfect Day. Typically ’90s. The song is from 1997, so this is where power pop, guitars, loud guitars, everything to the fore. It was a pretty big hit in Sweden in 1997, it topped the so-called tracks chart that year, which was the most important chart in Sweden at the time. The band is from the north of Sweden, and the song is taken from their third and last album. It’s called C-60. Sven asks Per if he remembers C-60 and C-90. PG remembers those were cassettes. The album surely came out on CD, the guys are not sure about vinyl. It’s a great song, Per thinks. If you happened to be in Sweden in 1997 and you turned on the radio, you couldn’t escape Fishtank.

The guys check out the debut album of Caesars Palace. They were called Caesars Palace when they started out and then they dropped the „palace” thing. Sven thinks there was a lawyer from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, calling them up and say, they were there first. Haha. They changed their name to Twelve Caesars, but nowadays it’s just Caesars. They had a big song, Jerk It Out, a couple of years later on, but the song that Sven and Per picked is the opening track of their debut album from 1998. It’s called Sort It Out and the album is called Youth Is Wasted On The Young. Per thinks it’s a great track. It’s ’90s with a sort of garage touch to it as well. They are a very charming band, easy to like. They are featuring two future, or maybe they were current back then, members of the Teddybears. Klas and Joakim Åhlund. And Klas, of course, went on to become a great producer for Robyn, for instance. He is a songwriter and producer. He is also working with Ghost and he even wrote the lyrics to Piece Of Me by Britney Spears. Nice CV.

That concludes this show’s dive into the ’90s.

The guys still play 4 songs on the program, first Electric by a band from Sven’s old hometown, Växjö, Melody Club, then I Believed by Maria Jane Smith and Poetic by Seinabo Sey. The last song on the show is T-T-T-Take It! by Per Gessle from his solo album, The World According To Gessle released in 1997.

Sven and Per say goodbye and thank the listeners for joining them. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.

Photo by Anders Roos.

Thanks for your support, Sven!