Sweden

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Stockholm, Sweden – 5th November 2018 – #15

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Last night it was the second Swedish show on the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour. In Stockholm there are usually several famous people attending concerts and yesterday many of them came to see Per & Co. Just to mention a few: Jonas Åkerlund, Peter Jöback, Micke Syd, Anders Herrlin, Lasse Lindbom, Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden and Prince Daniel. Of course, there were family and friends in the audience too. Gabriel and Åsa were also sitting some rows behind us. It was strange to see Mrs. Gessle sitting (and not going around the venue filming or being backstage), but she stayed at her seat until the 2nd encore. Then she went backstage.

It was the only gig out of 5 in Sweden that was planned to be seated originally. So… you know, the question mark was there if we could stand up. First of all… we are in Sweden. Regarding the seated crowds during the Marie tour we could experience that it’s hard to make them stand up, no matter if the artist him-/herself asks them to stand up. The other thing was the security team. We were afraid they would tell us to sit back. It doesn’t hurt to try, so once PG and the gang appeared on stage and they started playing The Look, the hardcore fans, mainly in the front row, but also some of them on the sides and in the middle stood up. Fortunately, in the front row we could stand one step down in front of our seats, so we were almost the same high this way as if we were sitting. The security team was great! They never asked us to sit back. The rest of the crowd? Oh-oh… Yeah, it’s Sweden. I won’t ever understand them… They all remained seated. During the whole show. Some people thought the concert ended before the first encore, so they were leaving, but the rest of the audience wanted the guys and girls back on stage, so they didn’t keep silent and of course, the gang came up on stage again for the first encore. At least for Joyride most of the crowd stood up at last and then waited for the second encore standing and remained standing during the second encore as well. Happiness! It would have been cool to see Jonas Åkerlund and Peter Jöback standing too, but they didn’t feel the boogie in their shoes. Whatever. We who dared to stand up had a blast and were thankful that we could be standing and jumping and dancing at least during the uptempo songs. We sat back during the ballads. Someone in the crowd in the back shouted a loud ”Tack!” once we sat down. Oh… Message to him: next time you can stand up too! 😉

Anyway, Mr. G and the band were in top shape. The Look was a blast! Really… how can you remain seated during that song?! Everyone on stage was happy to see the familiar faces who were standing. After the song Per asked the crowd ”Sitter ni bra?” (Do you feel good? / Do you sit well?) The audience shouted ”ja!” (yes), but I just had to shout ”nej!” to sit… Haha. Then Per said it’s the first time he plays at Waterfront (the venue) and told the audience he has been writing songs for more than 40 years. He got a huge applause for that. He asked the crowd to sing along if they know the lyrics.

Then came MATAH and there was a little PG mess-up in the lyrics. ”I try not to analyse” became ”Didn’t she blow my mind?”, but other than that the performance was fabulous and Helena also got cheered at the end.

Before CBB Mr. G told the crowd about travelling to Capri in 1993 to record an album and eating the world’s most expensive pizzas there. It was a 6-week-long renewal. Christoffer said he was at primary school then.

Then the gang was about to speed it up a bit. Per asked again ”Sitter ni bra?” There was a mix of ja and nej and then Christoffer asked ”Står ni bra?” (Do you feel good? / Do you stand well?) The hardcores got up on their feet for DFS of course and we remained dancing during SGNO as well. Just like in Halmstad, Chris played a little Ljudet av ett annat hjärta intro before SGNO. It was cool. Both songs kicked ass and as usual, the ending of SGNO with the drum solo a la Andreas rocked big time.

                

Before SMT Per said what a fantastic evening it is and he remembers another fantastic evening, or better said a fantastic day in the spring of 1990. He woke up in the morning and found a note on his piano: ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). It was left there by his girlfriend who he had to marry after such a note. Haha. He wrote Joyride and then he ate lunch, sausage and mashed potatos. And then he wrote another song, why not.

After SMT, Helena, Malin-My, Chris, Ola and Per got prepared for IGYC. You could hear in the mic Helena saying ”ja!” after Per was looking at her asking if she was ready to start. It was a lovely performance of the song.

Before STT Mr. G talked about his dream to record in Nashville and that he did that in 2016 and Chris and Helena joined him there. Chris said he went to high school then. Per told the crowd they would play a song in English which they probably already heard in Swedish. Then came Malin-My’s beautiful violin intro to STT. Despite the fact that it’s now Christoffer’s turn having a soar throat, how he was singing the duet with Per was fabulous.

For Swedish hillbilly IHAPIMH Clarence, Magnus and Andreas came back on stage and during the intro the crowd was clapping loud and we all had a party in our seats.

Before IMHBL Per said he gave 79 (! the most so far… haha) songs to the band to rehearse. Magnus said it was 82 songs, because they added the whole Grape Rock song catalogue. Haha. Mr. G said there was one song he wasn’t sure about to play, but it turned out to be 1 of Magnus’s fave songs besides Bada naken på Sergels torg and Hej hej Monika. So they started playing IMHBL and found the most silent crowd. Usually, there is a loud sing-along to this one when Per let’s the audience sing a short part, but only a few felt like singing last night. Gosh… If not standing up, at least they could sing along. Oj. Never mind! We had OppNox and TBL to get up from our seats (still only the hardcores) and have a blast to those 2 uptempo hits and the crowd was loud at clapping at least. Haha, Helena made a great hairdo for herself during ”for a week I was in love with your hairdo”. Loved it!

We stayed in the ’90s for one more song. Before FLAF Per asked Magnus about the ’90s. Magnus said he just got a note that the ’90s Spice Girls reunite next summer. He said Posh Spice won’t be in the group, but Scary Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice and… (he couldn’t remember Ginger Spice) and Per said ”Magnus Spice!” as the 4th member. Haha. The sing-along to FLAF didn’t happen in Stockholm. Only a few of us were singing out loud. But the clapping was loud, so Stockholm Swedes enjoy themselves more on the inside most probably.

Before DMS Per set his guitar and while doing that he said ”Technical stuff…!” as one of his strengths. Then Chris was setting his guitar and said the same in the mic. DMS was fantastic again last night!

Then Per introduced his amazing band and everyone got a huge applause. After each band member got introduced there was a little pause and Per got his guitar from Micke N-S, then Magnus asked ”And who is that in the middle? Who is that in the middle?” Chris said ”Oh, vocals, guitar, technical stuff and very many very good songs, Per Gessle!” The crowd cheered and applauded him loudly.

Per said in the mic ”Let’s see if you recognize this one!” and started the teaser intro to HDYD. After IMHBL and FLAF we knew we have to be veeery loud since the hardcores would be the only ones singing and we did our best during the teaser and sang out loud while the rest of the audience was ”only” clapping. Both HDYD and Dangerous were great party songs for those standing up. Then Per thanked for the evening and they went off stage.

The crowd was loud shouting and clapping to have them back and the gang did come back on stage after some minutes to play QOR first (watch the live video on our FB page) then Joyride. And yeees! Joyride was the ice melter song when most people finally decided to join the hardcores and stand up. Yay! Thank you! It was great to see.

After the gang came back for the second encore, Per said they can’t leave us empty-handed, so they played an ’80s song he wrote for a friend. Yes, LTYH, which was a great success last night and after the song Helena and Per hugged each other and Helena kissed Per on the cheek, so sweet. TSHTSG was a fab closing. Always a pleasure to hear this song live in this arrangement!

Note to Live Nation: on a next European tour put the Swedish shows to the beginning of the schedule, pretty please. 😉

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

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

PG after the concert:

STOCKHOLM. Yep, debut at the Waterfront for me. Great venue. Had a wonderful time with the greatest band on Earth. Thanks for stopping by, y’all.

Noticed a lot of familiar faces from all over the place attending the show. Appreciate that. You’re the best! And thank you Stockholm for having us and singing along! Always a treat! /P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

 

Per Gessle’s Roxette – Halmstad, Sweden – 27th October 2018 – #12

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Per Gessle arrived home! The 12th gig on tour he played in his beloved hometown, Halmstad. That was the show held in the biggest venue, Halmstad Arena having the biggest crowd on tour so far. It was quite cold in jolly Halmstad, so the queueing was different vs. when there is a concert in the summer. The security team was nice, they let people inside the arena until they really had to arrange the entrance, so then everyone had to go outside again. Everyone was relaxed, we walked all the way to the stage when we were finally let in.

There was a big space left for the standing crowd in front of the stage and there were seats as well, in a usual arena setting. There were big screens on both sides of the stage and cameras set at several places. It seems they were only using them for the screens, not for recording the gig.

The support act, Nano played for appr. half an hour. He was one of the Melodifestivalen contestants and he has a nice voice.

Before the show started, we could see Åsa welcoming guests at the seats that were closest to the stage on both sides. Friends and family. We could spot some familiar faces, Mats MP Persson was among them.

PG & Co. didn’t prepare a different setlist for Halmstad, they performed the usual 20 songs, spicing them with a little Gyllene Tider here and there in the intros. The biggest difference vs. the other shows was that Per of course talked in Swedish in between the songs.

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

Encore 2
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye

The Look was a great starter in the arena, however, it’s always difficult to animate a Swedish crowd. They weren’t too loud and they left their boogie shoes at home. Business as usual. Anyway, we had much fun in the front.

After The Look Per talked to the audience and told this is the first time he plays Halmstad Arena. He was there to watch table tennis and handball matches, but never performed there. He asked the crowd to sing along if they know the lyrics, because they love it. He asked Christoffer what he thinks and Chris said yeah, he often sings along.

After MATAH I went live on our Facebook page, so you could hear Per told the audience it’s a European tour and this is the first gig in Sweden. Then he talked about the 6-week-long recording adventure in Capri, the place of most expensive pizzas. They performed CBB then. After the song Mr. G mentioned that the title was inspired by Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

Per asked: ”Are you sitting? I can’t really see it.” It was time to speed it up and play DFS. Then came SGNO with a short Ljudet av ett annat hjärta intro and with the fab drum solo at the end and Chris losing his hat. The crowd was… hm. As I said, no boogie shoes on their feet.

PG said the last time he had such a good day as today was in May 1990. He woke up in the morning, probably on Torsgatan in Halmstad, found a note on his piano: ”Hej, din tok, jag älskar dig” (Hello, you fool, I love you). It wasn’ left there by his mother, but his girlfriend, now wife. The day wasn’t over yet, he bought some meatballs at Regnbågen and had lunch. Then his good friend, MP came over and they wrote another song together which they play now. Per said MP is certainly sitting in the crowd now somewhere. So they performed SMT and then came IGYC. Per said he wrote it for the Party Crasher album, but it was released later on a Roxette album, he can’t remember on which, there are so many.

Before STT, Mr. G said he always had the dream of going to Nashville and record with those fantastic local musicians there. Per said they play a song which the crowd surely knows in Swedish, but now they play it in English. When Malin-My started playing the violin on this one, the crowd realized what song Per was talking about and the reactions were ”aaaw!” and loud applause. Småstadsprat is still often played on Swedish radios.

Then it was the turn of Swedish hillbilly music, IHAPIMH and then in the intro talk to IMHBL Per said he gave 72 songs to the band to rehearse and there was one he didn’t really want to play, but it turned out to be 1 of Magnus’s 3 fave songs. The other 2 are Mickey by Carola and Hej hej Monika. The audience was singing along to IMHBL, but even if the arena was huge and the acoustics could have been nice there, it wasn’t too loud.

OppNox + TBL, my fave party session was not as much of a party in Halmstad. It wasn’t the band’s fault though. The crowd was just too lazy.

Before FLAF, Per asked Magnus if he likes the ’90s. Magnus said he IS the ’90s. He was born in 1991. Haha. Per asked Magnus about his ’90s girlfriends too, but they didn’t talk too much about the topic. After FLAF Helena got a huge applause. She thanked in Swedish. Her family was also there in the crowd.

DMS sounded cool in the arena. Chris got back to the bleeding routine. Poor guy, his finger started bleeding again and had to get some plaster.

Then came the band presentation and Per said he has a wonderful band. He introduced everyone one by one and when he finished Chris said: ”Who is the man in the middle? Vocals, guitar and many many good songs: Per Gessle!” The crowd cheered him.

Then came HDYD and Per tried the teaser, but since the crowd didn’t start singing, he went on with his version. Dangerous was the last song before the gang went off stage.

The audience was shouting and clapping, but I would have liked to hear some more typical Swedish cheering from them. The band came back anyway and Per said they were only halfway into the set. We wished… Haha. They performed QOR and Joyride. In the intro to Joyride, Chris played a little När vi två blir en.

Before the 2nd encore, the audience was a bit louder and yes, they started singing Sommartider. Per came up on stage and showed thumbs up and danced a bit to the tunes. But of course, they didn’t perform Sommartider, but LTYH instead. Then TSHTSG closed the set and Per thanked for a fantastic evening.

Mr. G after the show:

HALMSTAD! Yeehaa. Thanks for doing our very first gig at the Halmstad Arena such a pleasure. Lots of familiar faces around. Nice!!!! We’ll be back. Russia next! /P.

All pics in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

 

Roxette XXX Tour – Halmstad, Sweden (Örjans Vall) – July 22 – #55

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Last time Roxette played in Halmstad was 5 years ago, so it was high time for them to do their 6th Halmstad Rox show of all time. Many international Roxers thought they would love to see the band playing in their hometown, so some bought a ticket for only this show in Sweden, others are there at more Swedish shows, but definitely didn’t give the Halmstad gig a miss. There were fans from the US, Argentina, Russia, Spain, the UK, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Greece and probably more.

The waiting in front of the venue started in the morning and local people were smiling at us during the day, taking pictures of us, posting it on Facebook and wished us a great evening. Lovely! Even the police guys driving by every now and then showed thumbs up for us from their car. SVT, Hallandsposten and P4 Radio were also there with us. They did some interviews with the fans and shot some cuts. (See links in the Articles and photos section.)

This time there were approximately 100 early entrance ticket owners, but only a bit more than half of them showed up by the time the entrance started. There were also fans who didn’t respect those who were waiting there all day and wanted to do the trick at the inlet. Fortunately, Show Security Sweden was there again to support us and Atli (head of the security team) made it clear how the entrance should work and those who wanted to cheat faced a very correct and fair security supervisor. He got applauded by us for his fairness. The whole security team was very polite and helpful this time, too. Thanks a lot again, Show Security Sweden for assisting us! You rule!

Once we were inside, we found our spots in the front rows and couldn’t wait for the show to start. God was good all day and night and there was no rain at all, but sunshine.

Tonight there were 2 support acts. Besides Eskobar it was Mariette who got on stage first. Her performance started at 19:30. We wished for a far much better crowd in Halmstad than the Kalmar gang and already during the support act performances one could see the audience would be more active than the usually reserved Swedish crowds. Mariette and her band did a great job, the Swedes loved them and yes, I think the international fans liked them, too.

Eskobar hit the stage after Mariette. They communicated even more with the audience than in Kalmar and there were more crowd reactions to their songs than in the previous Swedish city. They enjoyed being on stage and playing for us to the full. Daniel even thanked for the cheering to the ”international guests” before performing Freedom. For Someone New they called Mariette back to the stage and performed the song as a duet. It sounded marvellous!

roxette_in_halmstad_01
Pic by Patrícia Peres

After setting up the stage and instruments for Roxette, those almost 15000 people in the audience couldn’t wait anymore to hear the first tunes of Sleeping In My Car and have much fun during the next almost 2 hours. When Roxette came up on stage you just saw on both Marie’s and Per’s face that it was going to be a fantastic show. Being on home turf, enjoying their home crowd was all written on their faces. The band was in great mood and in top top top shape. Everyone was really on a high. Marie was shining like a real star! She was the pearl and the audience painted their love all over her world. You could feel everyone was grateful to see her on stage and cheered her during the whole concert. Per was very much into being on stage tonight. His presence was incredibly strong with all the Gessle moves and his way of performing. Both him and Marie acted a lot with the crowd, having eye contact with the fans in the front and animating them during the sing along parts which turned out to be very loud tonight. The band was also very active. Christoffer was running around like hell with his guitar, having his cool ”fights” with Per, getting kicked in the ass by Per again. There was now a new funny moment, when Per touched Christoffer’s hat while starting with Crash! Boom! Bang! Magnus was having his Baladas en español moments while charming us with his bass playing. Dea was animating the audience very enthusiastically and she was supporting Marie the lovely way she always does. Regarding Pelle and Clarence, who are always in the background, I just want to mention that without their amazing drum and fabulous keyboard playing this band is just nothing. They enjoyed being there on Örjans Vall’s stage very much.

One of the highlights of the night was It Must Have Been Love with the ’80s band intro from Per, remembering the funny hairdos and shoulder pads from those years, as well as the fantastic bands like Roxette, Milli Vanilli and Modern Talking. Another highlight was Watercolours In The Rain / Paint. Marie and Dea together can only mean a perfect duet!

roxette_in_halmstad_02
Pic by Patrícia Peres

All the international fans brought their balloons, so there were many and people in the crowd loved playing with them during Joyride. After the song the band went off the stage and the only strange thing during the whole show to me was when there were those appr. 5 minutes while they were away. It felt like the audience wasn’t sure they would come back and wasn’t sure they should be cheering. We in the front were very loud, as usual, but it took some time until the rest of the crowd joined in shouting ”en gång till” or screaming. Fortunately, the band heard it quite well, so they got back to us and oh what a Listen To Your Heart performance it was as the first extra song! How Marie ended it was out of this world!

The uptempo songs, mainly How Do You Do!, She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio), Dressed For Success and Dangerous got the audience dance and clap along during the whole songs while singing along loud and The Look at the end left the crowd wanting more. When Per said goodbye at the end of the show, he shouted in the mic in Swedish: ”See you soon again! We are very sure about it!”

Marie got 2 heaters on stage and this time it was again BoJo himself who tested if they worked well. In the end only one of them was working during the whole show. But the weather was really nice and rather warm, so we hope that 1 functioning heater was really enough for Marie.

Many in the crowd expected Gyllene Tider to appear on stage as a surprise, but those who are following Roxette and the related artists closely knew that Micke Syd had to be on stage with his Syd & Ekman project at another place, so it was predictable the fab five won’t be seen together in Halmstad tonight. BUT! We weren’t left without a GT tune! Christoffer played ”När vi två blir en” as the local intro to Joyride and it got a fab crowd reaction. We all loved it!

Per after the show:

HALMSTAD UPDATE: Yea! Very nice show at Örjans Vall. Very nice indeed. This place is so cool, just by the water, and tonight our home crowd was in terrific shape. Around 15000 joined the joyride and made a lot of beautiful noise! Vids tomorrow! Cheers, P.

Next stop is Gothenburg on 24th July.

 

Articles and photos

Hallandsposten:

SVT during the waiting time
SVT concert cuts

Videos

Sleeping In My Car / The Big L.
Spending My Time / Crash! Boom! Bang!
Crush On You
The Look

Setlist

roxette_in_halmstad_03
Halmstad setlist – Pic 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 (intro: När vi två blir en)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Roxette XXX Tour – Kalmar, Sweden (Fredriksskans) – July 18 – #54

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The Swedish tour leg with 5 shows started tonight in Kalmar, where Roxette had never played before. Many posters welcomed us in town everywhere we walked, either the poster of the Kalmar show or the one with all the Swedish dates on it. All 5 concerts are open air gigs, so we prayed for good weather for the start. It worked so-so, because during the waiting time we had some heavy summer showers, but all in all the temperature was fine and the sun came out to shine on us in the afternoon.

You know you are in Sweden when the first thing organized at the entrance is the toilet. Haha. It may sound stupid, but no other country can tell they have a security team thinking about those who are waiting all day in front of the venue. And you know you are in Sweden when Show Security Sweden is in charge, with good old Atli as the head of the team. They are really the world’s best security team! Helpful, patient and kind all the time. Not only the supervisors, but the whole bunch of people they are working together with at the venues. Thanks for all your support, guys!

Swedish shows got a bit different vs. earlier years because of Live Nation’s Early Entrance ticket policy. Actually, today there were approximately 30 people showing up with an early entrance ticket, but most of them just wanted to have a calm walk inside and find a place at the bar, on the grass or at the very side of the venue, more in the middle, not in the front. They first had to register, appr. 1 hour before the inlet and they got their merch stuff which was a tour programme signed by Marie and Per and a Roxette XXX tour bag. Then they were let in 15 minutes before all those with normal tickets. Even if there were hundreds of people waiting for getting let in, everything was calm and no one was really nervous about the entrance. It feels good when after all the inlet mess in other countries you get to experience this.

Eskobar hit the stage a bit later than 19:30 and it was very nice to hear them in their homeland. For me the best they were in Vienna so far, but their tonight’s show comes very close after that. You could feel they were comfortable playing at home, however Daniel, the singer of the band enjoyed the German-speaking countries so much that he used the expression ”ein bisschen” several times.

After they went off the stage, the crew was setting it up for Roxette. While looking around and checking the seats where guests had their places, we spotted Crown Princess Victoria with her husband Daniel and Prince Carl Philip with his wife Sofia, who are on holiday in Öland now. They were sitting in the last row, which was at the highest place. They disappeared for some minutes during the break and as you could see on Eskobar’s Facebook page, they visited them in background. Victoria is a Roxer, so surely, they met Roxette backstage, too.

It’s summer, but Swedish summers are unpredictable, so it was a good option to install a heater for Marie on the stage. BoJo tested it himself to see it was working properly. After all guitars and other instruments were tested, the mics were set to the proper height and Åsa set the iPhone to video mode, it was time for Roxette to come up stage. One of the characteristics of Swedish summer is that the sun goes down quite late, so it was still daylight when they started the show. The intro didn’t have the same adrenalin kick effect on the crowd this way, but still it was very energetic how the band hit the stage.

Being at home, both Marie and Per talked in Swedish. The talks in between the songs were more or less the same as the English version, but one huge difference was that Marie talked much more than usual. She felt very comfortable and it was easy for her to talk. We all loved it so much!

The crowd did well on the sing along parts, but it wasn’t the most enthusiastic audience of all. There were however Roxers from several countries (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Greece, etc.) who made more noise and moves. I tend to believe Swedish crowds are really this reserved most of the time. Or maybe tonight it was because they thought the royal family members were watching them and taking notes of who behaves how. By the way, they showed how to party, during The Look. HERE you can watch Svenska Nyheter’s video about it.

Crush On You was very cool this time again, however, the effect of stopping after ”no Elvis in the leather / I want you now or never” was a bit strange with the sun still being up on the sky. Nevertheless, the crowd reaction sounded the same as in any other country where it was complete darkness at this point.

During The Heart Shaped Sea, in the era of smartphones with flashlight app, someone lit a real sparkler, but as it’s quite dangerous in the middle of the audience, Atli had to take it away.

After THSS Marie and Dea were preparing for Watercolours In The Rain / Paint and Marie started talking. That was the funniest of all. HERE you can watch it in a video. She said (in Swedish):

Now we’re going to play a really really old song. It means so much to me. Micke… ah … no, he’s my husband… it was a little mistake, but Per wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music and I’m so proud of it.

One must love her! It was such a cute little mistake!

I must mention Marie’s talking during another song, too. During Dressed For Success, when it comes to the crowd clapping choreography, she usually shouts into the mic: ”C’mon and clap your hands, everybody!” When she got to this point tonight, she wanted to shout it again in English, but before she did that, she realized she was in Sweden and shouldn’t talk in English, so she just started laughing instead. Then she made the crowd clap along.

After the balloon song, Roxette went off the stage and the audience didn’t want to stop shouting ”En gång till! En gång till!” to have them back on stage. They didn’t let us wait for long and came back with the usual 2 extra songs.

It was a nice first gig in Sweden during the XXX tour with 14612 people in the crowd. Hopefully, the next 4 shows will get the crowd into party mood and it won’t be ”only” the band on fire.

Per’s badabam after the show:

KALMAR UPDATE: Oh yea, the Swedish tour has finally started. Almost 15000 showed up tonite at Fredriksskans and sang along. And no rain in sight. Thank you!!! The band was sooo tight, have to love that!!!! Badabam from P.

Next stop should be Borgholm tomorrow (and for many of us Roxers it will be a sightseeing stop at least), but the next gig is in Halmstad on 22nd July. Can’t wait!

 

Articles and photos

Göteborgs-Posten
24kalmar.se video report from the queueing
24kalmar.se during the concert
24kalmar.se about the concert
barometern.se about the stage
Expressen
TV4
svenskdam.se
vaxjonytt.se review, photos
FotoRoddan blog article; FB album of photos

Videos

Roxette hitting the stage
It Must Have Been Love
Royal crowd members having fun
Most boring audience ever?

Setlist

Roxette_in_Kalmar
Pic 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 (intro: Här kommer Pippi Långstrump)

Extra
Listen To Your Heart
The Look

 

Roxette may set a new attendance record in Kalmar

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Roxette’s first concert in Sweden this year is on 18th July in Kalmar and according to the organizer’s, Nöjet Konsert’s forecast, the gig might be sold out soon. As Östra Småland informs, the attendance record at Fredriksskans stadium was set on 4th September 1949, when 15243 people were there to see a football match between Kalmar FF and Malmö FF.

Gyllene Tider played at the same stadium in 2013 and they almost hit the record with 14946 people in the audience. The organizers expect Roxette to attract around 15000 people, so this way Roxette would hit the number of attendee’s of the GT show.

Talking about Kalmar being soon sold out and seeing that there are 3 gigs of other Swedish artists on the list of Borgholm concerts this summer, but the day after Roxette’s Kalmar show is still free at Borgholm Castle, can’t help dreaming about an extra show being added to the already impressive list of European tour stops. In case you haven’t voted yet, you can still do it in THIS article from last December. Just for fun. 😉 Dream on!

If you don’t have your ticket for the Kalmar concert yet, HERE you can buy it.

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