Whatever works – but does it work? My take on Per Gessle’s Roxette tour

Per Gessle has started his European tour last Sunday, October 7th in Prague, Czech Republic in front of nearly 1,000 people. It’s the first time since 2009, where he hits the bumpy roads of Europe again and is going to visit 20 cities in the coming weeks.

This time he is no longer the man from Roxette as 9 years ago, the project is labelled “Per Gessle’s Roxette”. He admitted in our exclusive RoxetteBlog interview back in April that it’s a great name: “since it’s exactly what it is. This is my personal version of Roxette. I play Roxette-songs I’ve written, music that still is such a big slice of my life. In the perfect world Marie would have been by my side to sing and perform, but that won’t happen anymore. I have to live with that. You do too. The options I have are to perform the songs without her or not perform them at all. I chose the obvious one.

When I was compiling the potential setlist predictions back in June, I was thinking this is going to be something similar to the Party Crasher tour. Back then – meaning 2009 – we still didn’t know exactly what good and bad future would bring, but we were happy to get these very personal interpretations of Roxette’s vast catalogue from Gessle. This year I truly felt coming back to Roxette music with a mix of Nashville vibes and 2017 band (big hand to new additions to the band: Andreas, Ola and Malin My) would be a fantastic way to introduce these songs in a new & exciting way. Per already tested the ground during 2017 Scandinavian concerts – several Roxette tracks were played and got ovations from the crowd generating even more unforgettable sing-a-longs.

How the setlist looks like in the end? There are some surprises, which always is a surprising thing at the Per Gessle concert, wink-wink. We actually got a track that was never performed live before though recorded 28 years ago. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye was performed by Per on the lead and Malin My & Helena doing the chorus. Gessle has always been highlighting this as a forgotten gem among other pearls from the early 90s. For understandable reasons. It also a nice way to end up the concert, instead of a worn-out Church of your heart closer. Hope it stays in the setlist as long as possible.

You might have been expecting to hear more tracks from English solo albums as it’s a solo concert after all. Well, no, not really. There was nothing off The World According To Gessle, which left many unhappy about that decision. Still, I Want You To Know could’ve found its way as a modern country version. I have a party in my head and Doesn’t make sense re-appeared in the set, which already was kind of unexpected as the latter one was never a single and I have not predicted Son of a plumber would find its way among all those Roxette tracks. There were 2 songs off Small Town Talk, though the second single, Being With You, was left out for the reasons one could only wonder. It reminds me the time when Party Crasher’s Silly really was omitted due to “being impossible to perform live”. It must have been a different thing with an accoustic song this time. Small Town Talk is my absolute highlight of the evening in which Per Gessle pairs with the band’s own Christoffer Lundquist for an amazing duet. We need more of Chris’ singing at the concert! The Finest Prize is as powerful as it was last year with Helena Josefsson taking over the second verse, so scrapping the song in Leipzig is definitely a miss.

Was the Roxette part of the setlist unexpected? Well, im Westen nichts Neues (all quite on the western front). There was The Look to start with which is a wise move as it brings everyone in this very party mood that stays throughout the concert. Then Joyride for the end with 3 lonely fan-brang balloons flying over the audience. Did they change anything in the arrangements? Very little if you ask me, but I might be deaf as well. Adding pedal steal or violin here and there is a little bit too little to say it’s been a major change.

Per Gessle performed 10 songs on his own, where e.g. “Milk and toast and honey”, “It must have been love” or “I’m glad you called” were 50:50 duets with one-of-a-kind Helena Josefsson. She is one of the most talented persons Per has worked with anyway. She was switching constantly places – from being in the back next to Malin My to the front position between Per and Magnus. And she owned both positions superbly.

What I have really mixed feeling about is actually leaving some of the most prominent tracks like “Spending my time”, “Queen of rain” or “Listen to your heart” to Helena herself. She’s a very talented singer – if I haven’t highlighted that already enough  – and I absolutely adore her in many songs during the concert (“I’m glad you called” acting-game for instance), but some of Roxette arrangements weren’t particularly friendly to her voice. I feel like “Fading like a flower” in a slower arrangements doesn’t do the justice to this somewhat wonderful power ballad. If you expect Per would do all songs himself, that’s not the case this time. He is really presenting new versions of Roxette songs now; this is how he now imagines the Roxette world where Marie cannot longer perform. Does it mean female voice is essential for those songs to survive? Would Per’s interpretation be worse than Helena’s versions? How would it sound if they had replaced this with a duet? There are so many questions and so little time. You need to hear this yourself to be able to judge.

In a certain way I feel like calling this a Per Gessle concert is misleading and I do not mean anything negative here (there’s too much of that childish shit over social media now). It just doesn’t really do the justice for the concert itself. For my part it was Per Gessle AND Helena Josefsson concert with Roxette songs in the focus. Helena plays the vital role to Per’s 2018 concert as the starting riff to The Look. I really miss his versions we’ve all known from 2009 as I preferred a male narrative, it gave a totally new dimension to the lyrics and the accoustic arrangements back then were to die for. If I was to compare “Listen to your heart” anno domini 2009 to 2018, I would definitely go for the Party crasher version. But hey, it seems like – for the reasons I can only guess – this is not what works for Per any longer.

Is there a space for a change? Limited. From the Leipzig gig it seems like the band plays 2 songs less – “Silver blue” and “The Finest Prize” were kicked off the field. We might hear “Sleeping in my car” or something already performed in the past like “7twenty7”, but obviously it’s always tricky to predict the future.

This new concert is definitely not something everyone can approve. Though I have a lot of mixed feelings about the arrangements and songs picked up to perform, the audience reaction was rather positive, which makes me think this can have a future as a long-going set of different performances in clubs all over the world.  Whatever works and it seems actually to work, no matter if you like it or not.

If you feel like reading more about the Prague concert, here’s the Patricia take on it.

(c) Tomasz Wysocki

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Prague, Czech Republic – 7th October 2018 – #1

Another year, another tour! The Per Gessle’s Roxette tour premiered last night in Prague, Czech Republic. Being it the first show, Mr. G & Co. did a longer soundcheck. They started at appr. 4 pm and it lasted for about 1.5 hours. We could hear the gang playing Spending My Time, Listen To Your Heart, The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye, Fading Like A Flower, Opportunity Nox and The Big L. and since the doors were closed, we sometimes could just hear noises we couldn’t recognize. Haha. It was a nice teaser for the gig anyway.

The gates opened a bit after 6 pm. The first thing we could check was the merchandise. I already shared some pictures on our Facebook page, so you could see there are T-shirts mostly, also ones that include the dates. The correct dates and places this time, woohoo! There is a gym bag which is new, Small Town Talk CD and the rest we know from past tours (RoXXXette power bank, PG’s tour photo book from last year, Roxette’s 30 Biggest Hits CD, The RoxBox CD, PG cards from the tour last year).

The security guys told us 900-1000 tickets were sold as far as they knew. It was a cozy place and it was very hot inside. There was a support act, Robin Mood and before and after him we could of course listen to Per’s mix tape, which didn’t change much vs. the last one. Great songs to get into the mood. When the setting up for PG & Co started, I could have a glimpse of the setlist while the technicians put it to each band member’s spot. Running through it I was happy with all the songs and even the length of the setlist, however, I missed 2 songs badly: Vulnerable and Name You Beautiful. I hope they pop up later on this tour.

The show started at appr. 21:00. The setlist was as follows:

1. The Look
2. Milk And Toast And Honey
3. The Finest Prize
4. Crash! Boom! Bang!
5. Dressed For Success
6. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
7. Spending My Time
8. I’m Glad You Called
9. Small Town Talk
10. I Have A Party In My Head
11. It Must Have Been Love
12. Opportunity Nox
13. The Big L.
14. Fading Like A Flower
15. Silver Blue
Band presentation
16. How Do You Do! (in a medley with No. 17)
17. Dangerous

Encore
18. Queen Of Rain
19. Doesn’t Make Sense

Encore 2
20. Joyride
21. Listen To Your Heart
22. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

 

The Look: After seeing the opening song, I was quite surprised. It’s not the obvious choice of starting the shows with, but it’s definitely a great direction. Start with a huge uptempo hit and grab the audience already at the very beginning. It worked totally fine! I decided to go live on our Facebook page with the tour opening, but I couldn’t keep my camera steady after a while, I got too much into the mood, so stopped filming in the middle of the song. I realized it only after the live stuff started that Facebook changed some settings, so landscape doesn’t work for live videos. Sorry for that. Haha.

After the first song, Per talked a bit to the audience, mentioning it was the opening gig on their European tour and that he likes Prague, because it’s a beautiful city. He also recognized some familiar faces. He also mentioned he’s been writing songs for more than 40 years, which is crazy. He said most of the songs he wrote for Roxette and during the night they dig very deep into the Roxette box of songs, but he also sneaked in a couple of his solo songs.

Milk And Toast And Honey: One song Per mentioned during the interviews lately, that it’s among his choices, because he loves it and they never played it live before (which is not true, we all know, but well… time flies). It sounded great in this arrangement and it was nice to hear Per singing in it. He said after the song that it felt good.

The Finest Prize: Last year we could hear the Swedish version of this song live, Första pris and somehow it felt obvious they would include the English version on the setlist. Love it, no matter in which language, and it sounds fab live!

Crash! Boom! Bang!: After TFP Per talked to the audience again and told about their journey to Capri in 1993 to record CBB. He said there were very expensive pizzas and a very drunk producer, haha, he said he is just kidding, it was the drummer. Per started singing it, then Helena sang the other half of the song. Sounded beautiful! Only one person shouted ”Marie!” during the song, but that was the only one occasion during the whole show.

Dressed For Success: Speeding up a bit, Per asked to tighten our shoelaces. And we needed it! Great party song and the clapping coreography still works.

She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio): To go on in party mood, PG’s left leg stomping at its best and swaying his hips during the whole song. This song is still great both on the radio and live! After playing it, Per asked the crowd if we were having a good time and we shouted yeees! He said he trusts us. Haha.

Spending My Time: Before they started performing it, Per said it’s a very special song for him, he wrote it on the same day as Joyride. It turned out to be one of the songs Helena was singing alone. Which was a bit strange, we expected it being divided half-half between Per and her. It’s also a very special song to fans, a real Marie-song, so probably this could have been the hardest part of the show for Marie hardcores, but the arrangement was so different vs. how Marie sings the song that it makes no sense to compare. It became a totally different song and Helena sang it beautifully. She got a huge applause from the audience and she was so happy about it. Once you would think the song was over, but they went on playing it after some seconds of pause. By the way, Helena is standing in the back with Malin-My and is singing into a mic on a stand, but when she sings in the front, she holds the mic in her hands.

I’m Glad You Called: This was probably the most hilarious part that we could eye-witness during the show. Everyone has to see it live! Per acting! Haha. Singing a duet with Helena, without the guitar in his hand, standing there (and walking away!) like a schoolboy. So lovely! For this song, Magnus, Clarence and Andreas went off stage and only Malin-My, Ola and Christoffer stayed there to play behind Per and Helena.

Small Town Talk: Per told the audience he went to Nashville to record his latest solo albums and now they would play the title track of the English album. Malin-My started with her wonderful violin-playing. So beautiful! Then PG went on with the first verse and I thought it would be Helena singing the rest, BUT: a huge surprise in this one! The part sung by Nick Lowe on the album is sung by Chris live. It was amazing! He has such a beautiful voice and together with Per this song sounded fabulous! We were all very happy that Christoffer got THIS moment during the concert (instead of playing a local song again 😉 ). The crowd loved it to the full and he got a huge applause, he got distracted, he said after the show when we congratulated him.

I Have A Party In My Head: LOL! Another hilarious moment! When the intro started to play, it sounded like Opus’s ”Live Is Life”, so Per sang: Na Na Nana Na. It was so cool! The crowd just laughed out loud. 🙂 Then came the flutes, the flutes! Of course, on this song. One could guess it during the rehearsals when Per posted a picture of Helena and Malin-My. Sounded great!

It Must Have Been Love: Per introduced the song as one he wrote during the soundcheck earlier yesterday. Haha. I would say it was in the very same arrangement as during Per’s tour last year and the crowd loved to sing-along.

Opportunity Nox: If you ask me, THE best part of the gig started here for 2 songs. We wished so much to hear OppNox live again and we got it! And it’s still rocking! Wonderful party song!

The Big L.: Party on! Malin-My came to the front next to Chris and rocked her violin.The whole song was superb, we were jumping so much!

Fading Like A Flower: Per said let’s stick to the ’90s a bit. The ’90s were great. He asked Magnus what he thinks and Magnus said he hardly remembers, he was very young. Per asked him about the girls, Magnus said they were great. Then Per joked and asked about the boys, haha, Magnus asked if there is something else Per wants to know. Then the song started. This was the only song that didn’t really work for me in this arrangement and it was another song sung only by Helena. She sang beautifully and all, but this song is living in its rocky version. Hard to beat.

Silver Blue: Per and Helena were singing it half-half. Sounded beautiful.

Band presentation: Per said he wants to introduce his amazing band whom he bribed to join him. Magnus said it wasn’t cheap. Haha. This time the introduction started with Christoffer, then came Ola, then Andreas (straight out of prison, haha). Then Per said that’s it. He was kidding and turned to the other side to introduce Clarence (the Mozart of Hammarby), then Magnus, then Malin-My (on violin and flutes and platform soles, haha) and ”last but not least, Helena Josefsson on lead guitar”. Haha. Per got used to introducing Chris as the last but not least, that he just added the lead guitar automatically. Helena’s reaction was she played air guitar. Haha. Per said it’s getting late for him. 🙂

How Do You Do!: One of those 3-chord songs again. The crowd went crazy and started clapping so hard. It was great to hear it live again!

Dangerous: How it was a medley during the Roxette tour, it was arranged the same way this time again, right after HDYD. After this song, the gang went off the stage. The crowd was shouting Gessle, Gessle and clapping and whistling too. It didn’t take much time until the band and Per came back on stage.

Queen Of Rain: The first song of the first encore, another song from the ’90s. Per said he wrote it for the Joyride album, but it didn’t make it, because they had too many ballads. They kept it for later and it became a single. The crowd was happy to hear it. Another song that was sung by Helena.

Doesn’t Make Sense: What a fab song this still is! It was wonderful to hear it live again! Chris went absolutely wild on this one, together with Andreas. The gang went off the stage again to come back for the 2nd encore 2 minutes later.

Joyride: Per came up on stage and he said they had a wonderful evening and hoped we did too. The first song of the 2nd encore was Joyride. There can’t be a show without it. And Per turning around and around and around with his guitar during this one is still a must. Haha.

Listen To Your Heart: It was in the same arrangement as last year, Helena singing it. She got a huge applause in the end.

The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye: Great closing song, awesome to hear it live! Nicely arranged version that gives the song another life. Loved it!

 

Regarding the stage set, on the background Per’s drawings were proyected and sometimes videos and also the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour background during the band presentation. So a bit of a mix, but I have to see another concert or even more 😉 to be able to pay more attention to the background as well.

The stage clothes are very nice and I like how they all fit each other. Now everyone is in the same style of clothes. I can’t identify with the platform boots of Malin-My and Helena though. Haha. And hey, there is no nail polish for Mr. G!

Åsa was there and filmed a lot, so the vids will surely pop up on Mr. G’s sites soon. One thing I can tell, the videos don’t give it all back. You can only judge how a concert is when you are there. I know many fans were skeptic about the whole thing and it’s mainly hard for Marie supporters to deal with this, but with all my love towards Marie, I have to say this concept worked. No one wanted to replace Marie, no one wanted to act or sing like Marie. The songs got another life, different arrangement, different style. And all sounded great. Even Per and the band were quite nervous in the beginning, you could see it, but with each song they got the confirmation that what they are doing is good and they enjoyed it to the full. So give it a chance and attend a show to be able to judge yourself. You can still get your tickets HERE.

 

Per about the premiere show:

THANX ALL YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO SHOWED UP AT THE PRAGUE SHOW. OPENING NITE = NERVOUS ARTIST + MUSICIANS. IS THE SHOW TOO LONG? TOO BORING? TOO MANY BALLADS? TOO MANY SINGALONGS?

YOU MADE US FEEL THAT WE HAVE A GREAT CONCEPT AND CONCERT IN THE CAN FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY OVER THE NEXT SIX WEEKS OR SO. THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK AND FOR BEING THERE!

WE CERTAINLY HAD A BLAST . EXTRA SPECIAL THANX FROM ME TO MY OUTSTANDING BAND WHO MAKES MY MUSIC SOUND INTELLIGENT AND SPECIAL AND PROBABLY BETTER THAN IT ACTUALLY IS.

SEE Y’ALL IN LEIPZIG!

P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

More photos:
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Videos:
Dressed For Success

 

Marie Fredriksson’s Czech book release party – a fan’s report

As you all know, Marie Fredriksson’s autobiography, Kärleken till livet was published in Sweden in 2015. All fans had been longing for at least an English version as well, but instead of it being published in English first, 1 year after the Swedish release, the book was published in German. The German edition, Listen to my heart: Meine Liebe zum Leben contains an extra chapter and some additional photos vs. the Swedish edition. Another surprise came when we heard the book would be translated into Czech and would be published in the Czech Republic this year. Listen to my Heart: Moje láska k životu has been published just now and there was a big party for its release. The event happened at Hard Rock Café in Prague on 3rd October. Longtime fan, Valeria Zvarova was there at the party and wrote her report on it. Please, read her story below. She also shared info on the difference between the Czech and the German edition of the book.

Event – The RockSet live at Hard Rock Café and christening of the Czech version of Marie’s book

3.10.2017 in Prague

As you may know, because of the event held at Hard Rock Café back in 2015, prior to the real Roxette gig at O2 Arena in Prague, there is a really great Rox revival band in Prague. It’s the singers Zuza Nová and Ondra Gorcík with their band, they call themselves The RockSet – the World Roxette Tribute band. If you want to learn more about them, click HERE.

From Hard Rock Café and publishing house Dobrovsky, which released the book in Czech, this band got an invitation to represent Roxette and christen Marie’s book at a live concert on the stage of Hard Rock Café. There are several of us Roxers here in Prague, who are friends with this band and we follow their gigs and try to help a little when possible. This time the band recorded an invitation video which we shortly translated and equipped with subtitles and posted on Rox-related Facebook sites and groups. And even Per himself shared the information posted by RoxetteBlog!

We were sure, this would be a real event for all of us fellow Roxers and yes, there were many of us there yesterday evening, and even some friends from Sweden, who really enjoyed the show with us, dancing close to the stage!

Before the concert, we picked up a bunch of white roses and the cake, a suitable one in the form of a book – and we managed to get good places at the venue. Before the start, the screen rolled down in front of the stage, showing a short video with the information about the event, about Marie, nice pictures from the book and this event was also joint with the Charity foundation Mamma Help, supporting patients suffering from breast cancer. If you bought the book there, from the price of 299 CZK /approx 10 EUR/, 100 CZK went to charity.

When the concert began, we all gathered at the stage – which is not so easy because of the fact that there is a bar placed in the middle of the venue, directly in front of the stage. During the performance, some of us gave a white rose to Zuza after our favourite songs.

The concert went on and the band was simply great on stage – as Per would say maybe – Zuza was in top shape.

The first break was filled with the christening act itself. The publisher couple Dobrovsky, representatives of Hard Rock Café and charity Mamma Help gathered on the stage. The cake was brought on a table and champagne was ready at the edge of the stage.

Zuza was presenting the event, talking about the charity and about the fact that the book was released by Dobrovsky publishing house in Czech as the third language worldwide – a fact which is truly unbelievable… and also about their cooperation with Hard Rock Café.  Zuza was talking about Marie, her life and also, this was very touching, she thanked the Czech Roxers for the support they get – we are honoured… Then they poured a little champagne on the book, we handed over some more white roses and the event was soon ending.

The concert continued with the second part. There were many Roxers cheering, having fun, dancing and singing along…  also the tourists went wild. I know, yes, you may say, it’s just a revival. Yes, we know that – and we do not consider them being Rox – but this is so close to Rox you can get, with full power on stage like before, great voices, performing and acting sometimes the way Rox did – even though they do not know the shows by heart like we do, in fact they have hardly seen them! And visually, yes, sometimes you get the feeling like it was really her… it’s almost unreal, we would say. And they are all great friends, since several years we have known them.  We hope they will continue bringing us Rox music and the feelings being 14 again for many years to come! Especially since we know, we would never see Roxette live together again…

We from the Czech Roxette fanclub would also like to express our thanks to the singers Zuza Nová, Ondra Gorcík and all of the members of the band.

There will be some videos and photos done by Lenka Kohoutová as well. All in all, it was a great evening and we hope for more to come!

Setlist:

  1. Dressed For Success
  2. Perfect Day
  3. How Do You Do!
  4. Fading Like A Flower
  5. Wish I Could Fly
  6. Almost Unreal
  7. It Must Have Been Love

Then christening itself on the stage.

  1. Joyride
  2. Things Will Never Be The Same
  3. Crash! Boom! Bang!
  4. She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)
  5. Run To You
  6. Spending My Time
  7. June Afternoon
  8. The Big L.
  9. Dangerous
  10. Fireworks
  11. Hotblooded
  12. Listen To Your Heart
  13. The Look

* extra Sleeping In My Car

Some facts about the Czech version of Marie’s book:

The Czech version is slightly different to the German one – mainly in colour. The Czech one is published with light blue cover at the back and inside. The title remained yellow.  That was probably because of keeping the Swedish colours – well, fine for me.

Photos are the same as in the German version, as well as the chapters.

The book is a bit smaller vs. the German version – with every language, it becomes smaller somehow – but anyway, it is a unique fact that the Czech version got released earlier than a possible English or Spanish edition or in other more important languages… it was a real surprise for us all and another confirmation of the fact how big Roxette are in our country.

And just one mistake we found, looking roughly  – a picture of the Look Sharp! era is captioned with year 1998.

So, each year there is another language release, maybe one day we will see an English version as well. 😉 Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

Pictures in the article by Lenka Kohoutová and Valeria Zvarova.

Thank you for your report, Valeria!

Roxette XXX Tour – Prague, Czech Republic (O2 Arena) – May 21 – #31

From Budapest, Roxette travelled to Prague for their 31st gig on the XXX tour. The O2 Arena is huge and we already knew there would be appr. 16-17000 people attending the show, so many fans decided to go to the arena early, to have a chance to reach the best standing places. No one expected the security check being stricter than at any airport and scanning the tickets 3 times at different check points makes no sense at all. Mainly if the guys at the third point don’t know the technique of scanning or the scanners don’t work. Then those hostesses could practice at home how to put the wristbands faster on people’s arms. Many got hold back at the last checking point this way and could enter the venue only 5-6 minutes later, which meant the best places at the standing area were already occupied, of course. Well done, O2 Arena security team. Good luck to all the Madonna fans in November!

roxette_in_prague_03
Photo by Patrícia Peres

After a disastrous entrance, all I can say about the gig tonight is purely positive. After Eskobar left the stage, Roxette’s crew started to prepare everything for the show. When Micke N-S checked Per’s mic stand, it seemed to be quite unstable. He and 2 other guys from the crew started jumping like Per would and they saw it had to be fixed, otherwise it wouldn’t survive Mr G’s stomping. They managed to make it stable in a short time.

The concert started at 21:15 and we could see Åsa was there with the iPhone in her hands. While the photographers were in front of the stage during the first songs, she stayed on the right side of the stage and she was even dancing while filming. Too cool! When it came to Crash! Boom! Bang!, she started shooting Micke N-S and it was quite funny how they were singing the song to each other. That video I guess we won’t get to see on Roxette’s Facebook page, however, it would be fun.

This time there were 2 screens on the 2 sides of the stage to make it possible for everyone to see what was happening on stage.

Marie was in an extremely good shape. Not only her jacket, but she herself was shining and smiling all the time, interacting with the crowd, as well as with Magnus, Chris and Dea. Oh and yes, with Per, too. Mr G was in b-b-b-b-bouncing mood all night. His guitar fights with Chris and their playing next to each other were just amazing! The picks sticked too much to Per’s fingers that he sometimes threw the picks even behind himself, not to the crowd. Too funny!

Prague audience was singing along all night and their clapping was fantastic. The crowd reaction to Chris playing a local song was great. When the band left the stage after Joyride, they could hardly stop clapping, whistling and shouting Roxette! Roxette!

Before playing Spending My Time, Per talked about playing in Prague 4 years ago and asked who was there back then. Many shouted they were there and he said it’s great to see so many familiar faces. Then asked the crowd to help them out if we knew the lyrics.

roxette_in_prague_02
Photo by Patrícia Peres

The real surprise came before they played Crush On You. Per started the usual conversation about Magnus’s fave Rox album, but tonight Magnus decided for someone else telling what her fave album was. He picked someone in the audience. Someone, who had her birthday today and it was Sandra Knospe, who is close to having her 200th concert anniversary. The whole happening you can watch in THIS video. It was undescribably amazing! What a birthday present! Per also greeted Sandra on Facebook before the show and at the end of the gig Pelle also came to her and gave her a drumhead (see the pic). Pure awesomeness!

Witnessing this whole thing I can say it would be fantastic if the band could keep this kind of spontaneity at the shows. I don’t mean wishing happy birthday to someone at each concert, but today this, tomorrow something else that fits. It would make the gigs even more enjoyable and interesting.

The setlist changed vs. the previous concert, but only at 1 point: they played Almost Unreal again. So it’s again 18 songs on the setlist.

 

Per after the show:

PRAGUE UPDATE: Yea, fab gig tonite. 16.200 wonderful people took the concert to new heights. We had a blast, love to come back to this beautiful city. Vids to follow in due time…. Cheers, P.

Next gig is on Saturday (23rd May) at the Jelling Festival in Denmark.

 

Articles and photos

Instagram: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5;

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ireport.cz
Live Nation CZ
O2 Arena
musicserver.cz
play.iprima.cz
kultura.idnes.cz
nowinky.cz
cas.sk

Videos

Intro & Sleeping In My Car
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Intro to Joyride
Crush On You & She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)

 

Setlist

roxette_in_prague_01
Photo by Patrícia Peres

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

Extra:
Almost Unreal
Listen To Your Heart
The Look