Stockholm

Gyllene Tider – Hux Flux – Stockholm – 28th July 2023 – #12

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After one day off, Gyllene Tider visited Stockholm. The band had a real soundcheck in the afternoon where they tested Flickorna på TV2, Vandrar i ett sommarregn and Sommartider.

The doors opened at 17:30, Uno Svenningsson came on stage at 19:30 and GT started at 20:55. The biggest difference vs. other gigs on tour regarding the stage was that this time the sidedrops were changed to screens. In the front, a guy filmed the audience and the band for the screens, but also there were cameras for this reason in the back. The Hux Flux sign above the stage was well visible in the front rows as well.

In the crowd we saw Clarence and Staffan Öfwerman, as well as Lasse Lindbom. Anders Roos placed his cameras all over the stage and Fredrik Etoall was also taking photos this time. He used a plastic glass as a filter, so it will be exciting to see the end result of his shots.

The security team was quite active during the whole night and it was rather because of some troublemakers in the middle of the audience. The ambulance also had to intervene, because someone fainted in the crowd.

Chrissie didn’t show up in Stockholm and Billy also decided to stay away.

Before Tuffa tider, PG said the ukulele is the world’s sexiest instrument and in winter you can bump into Micke Syd on Costa del Sol while he is playing Här kommer alla känslorna on ukulele. Micke said it works very fine with old Spanish ladies and dogs. Haha. The cables had to be rearranged by Micke N-S after Per moved around a bit with the ukulele. When the song was over, PG gave the ukulele back to MNS holding it in his hands behind his own back.

During the first part of the band presentation, Micke Syd went off stage. He put on the T-shirt with the collage of him and his wife, Helena printed on it. So lovely! When Micke introduced Mr. G, he said Per is the one with the greatest ball-sense in the band, Strandvägen’s Maradona. Haha.

Before Min tjej och jag, Micke said his ex-wife is here and he has his wife on his T-shirt. He would dedicate the song to them and to their kids.

The songs that worked best with the audience last night were Puls, Kung av sand and När vi två blir en.

Next stop is Rättvik, Dalhalla on Saturday.

Setlist

1. Gyllene Tider igen
2. Juni, juli, augusti
3. Det hjärta som brinner
4. Skicka ett vykort, älskling
5. Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig
6. Flickorna på TV2
7. Vandrar i ett sommarregn
8. (Hon vill ha) Puls
9. En sten vid en sjö i en skog
10. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
11. Tuffa tider

Band presentation

12. Min tjej och jag
13. Kung av sand
14. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
15. Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly
16. (Kom så ska vi) Leva livet / (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän / Tylö Sun medley

Encore 1

17. Det är över nu
18. Gå & fiska!

Encore 2

19. När vi två blir en
20. Sommartider
21. När alla vännerna gått hem

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos in the article by Patrícia Peres

Per after the show:

Thx for a truly amazing Stockholm experience!!! Had a blast tonight!! Love to you all!

Ännu doftar kärlek – tribute concerts to Marie Fredriksson in Stockholm

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You might remember that Malmö Live Konserthus organized a tribute concert to Marie Fredriksson during the theme year ”100 women, 100 years” in Malmö in March, 2022. Conductor Christoffer Nobin came up with the idea back then and now he arranges the concert in Stockholm as well. You can buy your tickets for the 3 concerts at Berwaldhallen on 19th, 20th and 21st October 2023 HERE!

Ännu doftar kärlek, the concert will contain songs from Marie’s solo career, as well as Roxette hits. Just like in 2022, Helena Josefsson, Amanda Bergman and Emil Svanängen (Loney Dear) will join Christoffer Nobin to perform the songs together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Christoffer Nobin says:

Her songs and lyrics have been able to describe what I myself have not been able to describe, and her voice has aroused an ecstasy and admiration that only few others can achieve. This world artist, at the same time a mysterious rock star and down-to-earth Scanian girl, has reached hearts all over the world with her unique singing voice and genuine expression.

Photo is from the 2022 press release.

Roxette on MTV Unplugged – 30th anniversary

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MTV’s acclaimed music series, MTV Unplugged premiered in 1989 and it showcased top artists in the industry performing acoustic versions of their songs. Roxette was the first non-native English speaker band invited. It was a fantastic opportunity for Roxette to show their qualities as a live band to a large audience worldwide. They recorded their show live at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden on 9th January 1993 and it was broadcast during MTV’s Roxette Weekend on 20th and 21st February, then on Swedish TV a week later.

Per says in the Att vara Per Gessle book:

It was good for our self-confidence to do the songs acoustically. The sound on the studio versions was based almost exclusively on production technology, but it was still quite easy to strip the songs down and play them in a natural way. And that probably affected the way we approached the new record [Crash! Boom! Bang!]. We wanted to tone down some of the technical stuff and find a more organic sound.

The gang

Lead vocals: Marie Fredriksson
Acoustic guitar & lead vocals: Per Gessle
Drums, percussion & Samsonite suitcase: Pelle Alsing
Backing vocals, accordion & mandolin: Vicki Benckert
Acoustic bass: Anders Herrlin
Acoustic guitar: Jonas Isacsson
Piano & pump organ: Clarence Öfwerman
Backing vocals, percussion & glockenspiel: Staffan Öfwerman

3 songs from the set – Joyride, The Look and Dangerous – were released on Roxette’s Rarities album in 1995, but for the rest we had to wait until their 20th anniversary in 2006 when they released the entire performance on a DVD in The RoxBox / Roxette 86–06 box set.

The 53-minute-long concert – 12 tracks + 3 short interview parts – on the DVD was what anyone could watch on MTV. The 8 bonus tracks weren’t on TV, they saw the light of day only on the 2006 release.

Setlist (they played the songs in this order originally)

  1. Dangerous
  2. Hotblooded
  3. Spending My Time
  4. The Heart Shaped Sea
  5. Fingertips
  6. Cry
  7. I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (Aretha Franklin cover)
  8. Heart Of Gold (Neil Young cover)
  9. Surrender
  10. It Must Have Been Love
  11. So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star (The Byrds cover)
  12. Watercolours In The Rain
  13. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
  14. Here Comes The Weekend
  15. The Look
  16. Perfect Day

ENCORE

  1. Listen To Your Heart
  2. Church Of Your Heart
  3. Joyride
  4. Queen Of Rain

There would have been a second encore with Things Will Never Be The Same, The Big L. and So Far Away, but unfortunately, it never happened.

DVD setlist on the RoxBox

  1. The Look
  2. Queen Of Rain
  3. Hotblooded
  4. Interview
  5. I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (Aretha Franklin cover)
  6. It Must Have Been Love
  7. Fingertips
  8. Interview
  9. Heart Of Gold (Neil Young cover)
  10. Church Of Your Heart
  11. Listen To Your Heart
  12. Interview
  13. Here Comes The Weekend
  14. Joyride
  15. So You Wanna Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star (The Byrds cover)

BONUS TRACKS

  1. Dangerous
  2. Spending My Time
  3. The Heart Shaped Sea
  4. Cry
  5. Watercolours In The Rain
  6. Surrender
  7. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)
  8. Perfect Day

Now, 30 years later, it would just be amazing to have this gem on streaming services. Both as audio and video. Maybe one day?

Stills are from the DVD.

Photo from the press conference shows Brian Diamond, MTV Europe Executive Producer and Monica Eek, Head of Entertainment at Swedish TV next to Marie and Per.

Per Gessle performed at the fundraising concert for Ukraine

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Per Gessle performed at the fundraising concert in solidarity with Ukraine at Avicii Arena, Stockholm tonight. The almost 3-hour-long Hela Sverige skramlar show started at 20:00 CET and could be watched live not only on spot, but thanks to the organizers, also on SVT and other online channels (TV4 Play, Aftonbladet, Expressen). Swedish Radio also broadcast the event. The show will be available online for two months to watch on SVT, HERE.

The evening was filled with unique performances of some of Sweden’s foremost artists (Per Gessle, Eva Dahlgren, Peter Jöback, Wilmer X among many others) who showed up for free. Ticket revenues go in full to six different organizations in their work to curb the humanitarian crisis and promote human rights and democracy (International Red Cross, Proliska, UN Women Sweden, Fight for Right, Civil Rights Defenders and The Media Initiative for Human Rights).

As Per said earlier in a press release:

What is happening in Ukraine is undemocratic, indefensible and inconceivable. Difficult, if not impossible, to understand. You would think that no one in our modern times would have to experience such situation. I played a lot both in Russia and in Ukraine and the people of both countries are absolutely amazing. I have unforgettable memories from there that I saved deep in my heart. How could this happen?

Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA opened the event with a wonderful speech about peace and freedom.

Emma Molin and Fredrik Skavlan were the program leaders and after 4 performers they announced that 16 million SEK had been collected until then. While they talked, you could see Per and the band in the background, the crew changing the set for them. Mr. G entered the stage together with Helena Josefsson, Clarence Öfwerman, Magnus Börjeson and Ola Gustafsson to perform the 5th song at the gala. Listen To Your Heart sounded beautiful in that full arena!

All other artists also gave their best at the event. Even performers from Ukraine took the stage. Don’t miss Maria Sur singing Survivor (Destiny’s Child). So powerful!

Thank you, Per & Co. and all appearing on and providing support off stage, as well as everyone using Swish and any other ways to support Ukraine! At the end of the show it was announced that more than 60 million SEK was collected. [Update on 4th April: Contributions continued to come in on Sunday and the total collected is currently 75.805.615 SEK.]

Stills are from the gala video.

Per Gessle at the fundraising concert for Ukraine

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A fundraising concert in solidarity with Ukraine is organized in Avicii Arena, Stockholm on Saturday 2nd April at 20:00 CET. The evening will be filled with unique performances of some of Sweden’s foremost artists who show up for free and the ticket proceeds go to six different organizations in their work to curb the humanitarian crisis and promote human rights and democracy. Ticket revenues go in full to International Red Cross, Proliska, UN Women Sweden, Fight for Right, Civil Rights Defenders and The Media Initiative for Human Rights.

Per Gessle is one of the participating artists, but also Eva Dahlgren, Peter Jöback, Wilmer X will be there, just to mention a few big names.

From the press release:

The country’s booking company gathers to arrange a fundraising concert with Sweden’s artist elite. This time in solidarity with Ukraine and with three major thematic themes in focus; humanitarian crisis, human rights and democracy.

Humanitarian Crisis:

More than one million people are on the run and many of them are children. At the same time, even more people are stuck in cities and towns in Ukraine and are affected or risk being affected by the war, either directly by military force or indirectly by famine and disease. We must help people in need.

Human Rights:

There are few things more incompatible with human value and life as war. We receive a lot of information about serious violations of human rights and violations of international law in the ongoing conflict, from indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas to denial of basic needs such as food, sleep and healthcare. We must fight for human rights.

Democracy:

Democracy in Ukraine is under direct attack, while we are seeing increased repression in Russia and Belarus. The small space left for free independent media and civil society in Russia has been brutally shut down. Since the outbreak of war, we have seen the great popular opposition to the war and how the brave voices that stand up to the Putin regime and call for peace are being systematically silenced. We must stand up for democracy and freedom in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Per Gessle says in today’s press release:

What is happening in Ukraine is undemocratic, indefensible and inconceivable. Difficult, if not impossible, to understand. You would think that no one in our modern times would have to experience such situation. I played a lot both in Russia and in Ukraine and the people of both countries are absolutely amazing. I have unforgettable memories from there that I saved deep in my heart. How could this happen?

Tickets for the event are available HERE.

Thank you, Per, for supporting Ukraine!

The almost 3-hour-long concert can be watched worldwide live online HERE and it will be available at the link for a month.