Unplugged

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour – #2 – 6th November 2021 – Norrköping

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What I have to tell at the beginning of my report is that last night’s show was the best unplugged gig so far. Norrköping rulez!

The video of building the stage recorded by Anders Roos, shared by Per during the day was a great teaser for the evening.

The concert started a couple of minutes after 19:30 and already at the beginning you could hear that it would be a fantastic crowd. You could tell by their first reactions (clapping, cheering, singing-along, shouting) that they would keep the spirits up during the whole show. And that’s what happened.

The acoustics of concert halls are fab anyway and when a crowd is active, its very enjoyable. The crowd took it seriously when Per said after greeting them that they should sing along either if they know the lyrics or they don’t. No doubt they knew all the lyrics.

Before Min plats now PG had a little trouble with the capo, it was difficult to fix it on the guitar. So he mentioned it’s a low budget tour and joked that he could call Ulf Lundell. Per mentioned they have a double bass on stage and asked Magnus if it was his. Magnus clarified that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, so PG asked Chris why he has a double bass at all. The answer was to be able to give it to Magnus to play it on this tour.

The crowd just loved Helena. Not only after Tycker om när du tar på mej, but after all songs she was singing she got an extremely loud applause from the audience. Well-deserved! After a while Per thanked the crowd and said „how kind you are!” and someone shouted „better than Linköping!” Haha.

After Det hjärta som brinner, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage, but before they did that, Chris saw Per had some problem with fixing the capo again and asked him if he could help, but PG told he would sort it out. He got prepared for Ljudet av ett annat hjärta and started twice to get the right intro. Amazingly beautiful this song is in this arrangement, I won’t stop mentioning it! After the LAEAH ended, all band members came back, Mr. G stood up and went to Clarence to high-five with him. Chris told Per it was quite OK, but it’s better with Gyllene Tider. All laughed.

During the band presentation Per told he works together with Clarence since 1986 and he produced almost all of Per’s music since then and all Roxette albums. The crowd gave a loud applause to Mr. Öfwerman and Per told „yeah, it’s really worth the applause… that I have endured with him”. Everyone laughed. Then he remembered Europe’s Final Countdown was out the same year, 1986 and with Chris they organized a little 1986 „fight” mentioning other songs from that year, but Chris only mentioned Genesis songs. Haha. When Per got to Magnus, he said he is the newcomer in the gang, they haven’t been working together for so long, only for 16 years or so. Magnus said it feels like yesterday. Mr. G added that Magnus is from Malmö, but he is nice anyway. PG also mentioned that the sound technician is Mats MP Persson from GT.

Huge part of the audience stood up after the band went off stage before the first encore and didn’t sit down until the guys and girl didn’t come back. At this point and some more times during the concert someone shouted Billy. But there was no Billy on the setlist. Maybe sometime later? Would be cool! The setlist was only slightly different vs. Linköping. När alla vännerna gått hem was not the fourth song in the first encore, but the last song of the concert, kicking Om du bara vill off the setlist.

When you thought there would be no bigger change at this show, the gang on stage surprised you with standing up from their seats, Chris and Per set their own mics to the right height before När vi två blir en and performed it standing. It must have been a strange feeling to stand after so many shows sitting, but it was so cool! At this point, the crowd only stood up at the end of the song, when the gang said goobye and went off stage. They didn’t stop shouting „en gång till” until the band wasn’t back.

When Per & Co. were on stage again, they sat down and the crowd sat back to their seats too. Vid hennes sida was played this way, but then came Sommartider and rebel Per thought he goes spontaneous and stands up. He said he has to stand up for this song too and if he wants to stand up, he stands up. Haha. Chris couldn’t join him because of the instrument on his lap, but Magnus followed the leader. Then you couldn’t hold back the audience either. We all stood up and stayed standing from then on. Fab feeling it was!

During När alla vännerna gått hem, the mobile phone lights were up in the crowd. Looked great! This concert also ended in a standing ovation and yeah, Norrköping really beat all unplugged shows so far.

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går

Band introduction

14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning

Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en

Encore 2
19. Vid hennes sida
20. Sommartider
21. När alla vännerna gått hem

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the show:

Norrköping Yea! Helt underbart gig, fantastiskt att få spela för er. Tack alla för att ni kom förbi med all denna positiva energi, tack band och crew för att vi har så kul ihop hela tiden. Längtar efter att få spela mer! Ha en fab söndag, y’all!

Amazing gig in Norrköping. Still breathless. Thanks! ??

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour – #1 – 5th November 2021 – Linköping

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In summer, Per Gessle & Co. had 10 very successful, sold-out gigs at Hotel Tylösand and when the last show ended on 3rd August, we all hoped there would be more concerts of this format. We didn’t have to wait for too long until the announcement of an unplugged tour. On 30th August Per announced he would go on tour around Sweden in November-December, playing at concert halls and theatres to keep the intimate atmosphere. Tickets went on sale on 2nd September and they were selling like hot cakes. 3 extra gigs had to be added to the originally planned 12 shows, because several were sold out already the first 1-2 days. So altogether there will be 15 gigs this autumn.

The premiere happened in Linköping last night. And what a most awesome first show it was!

The concert was set to start at 19:30 and the entrance to open at 19:00. When we got to the venue it was nice to meet some familiar faces we already met in summer and of course at other Rox World-related shows.

First we checked out the merch stand. For this tour there are black T-shirts with 3 different designs, all 3 of them having the concert dates on the back. There is a tote bag and a poster with the tour dates as well. Earlier we could see Per posting different designs and white T-shirt too, but it’s only these 3 in the end that got produced.

When we entered the concert hall we could see the stage set which was very similar to the Hotel Tylösand set, but the stage here was bigger, so the decoration and the lights, the bulbs had to be adapted to this bigger space. It looked magical. Designed by Åsa Gessle of course.

While waiting for the concert to start, we could listen to a new mix tape. When the sound of it turned off, the lights on the audience went down and the band came up on stage at 19:45. They got a very loud applause and cheering. Per greeted the crowd and told „if you know the lyrics, sing along, it’s fun. If you don’t know the lyrics, it’s even more fun.” Haha.

The set started just like in Tylösand, with Kung av sand, På promenad genom stan and Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång. After this came a little surprise with Magnus standing up, picking the double bass – which until then I thought was part of the decoration. Småstadsprat was played like this and it sounded fab! Actually, hearing the first 4 songs and anecdotes I started thinking there wouldn’t be too many changes vs. summer, but then Mr. G asked Magnus if it was hard to play the double bass. Magnus said it was very hard and they laughed. Then PG said they would play another Nashville song. He didn’t start with the correct chord though and said „I have to find the right chord first”. Haha. He managed and the next one was Min plats, which is a new song on the unplugged setlist. It also turned out that it’s Christoffer’s double bass, however, Per thought it was his. Chris joked that it costs 2000 SEK per gig.

Tycker om när du tar på mej was next in the set and Helena got a very loud applause from the audience for her performance.

Then came a Gyllene Tider segment, with Det hjärta som brinner as the seventh song on the setlist. After DHSB, Helena, Magnus and Chris left the stage and only Per and Clarence stayed. Here came the biggest surprise and the absolute highlight of the show. PG told he wrote a song on the tour bus in 1981 during the GT tour. Back then they didn’t have time to rehearse, so they did that on their soundchecks, like how you can see it in Parkliv!, directed by Lasse Hallström. The guys performed Ljudet av ett annat hjärta. It has left me – not only me – absolutely breathless. The crowd appreciated this extremely beautiful version of the song with loud applause and cheering. Mr. G stood up after that, went to Clarence and they high-fived each other. They got even more cheering and the crowd didn’t want to stop showing their happiness. Helena, Magnus and Chris came back on stage and they were clapping their hands too.

Per took the capo off his guitar and provided us with another big surprise: Varmt igen! What can I say… Another highlight of the evening!

Micke N-S brought Per his ukulele and we all knew it’s Tuffa tider’s time. PG told he remembers he bought his first ukulele right after he saw a film about George Harrison. He bought it with Sven Lindström in Stockholm.

Fortunately, Juni, juli, augusti – which for me was the biggest highlight during summer, to hear it in an acoustic arrangement – was kept on the list.

It Must Have Been Love came next with the story of how it was refused by the German market while it was a success in Sweden and later how it became the soundtrack of Pretty Woman. The performance got a very loud crowd reaction, we loved it!

If you think there were no more new songs on the setlist, you’re wrong! Getting back to the Mazarin era, Vilket håll du än går popped up last night! The band introduction came after this song. When Per got to Clarence, he was joking that Mr. Öfwerman doesn’t have a mic in front of him, which is actually quite nice. They laughed.

Just like during the summer sets, Här kommer alla känslorna and Min hälsning followed the band intro and after MH, the gang went off stage. The audience was incredibly loud, didn’t stop clapping their hands and making noise with their feet on the concert hall floor. And so Per & Co. came back on stage after a while.

How to start the first encore? Why not adding a new track here too? They did! Födelsedag was an interesting choice of song and it sounded quite cool in this arrangement.

The gang remembered Marie Fredriksson and Pelle Alsing and dedicated Listen To Your Heart to them. It was also a big favourite of the audience.

Do you think adding more songs that haven’t been played on the unplugged gigs yet was over? Ha! No!!! Per introduced the next one by telling there are lyrics which you can only write when you are very young. He said he was thinking about Flickorna på TV2 for example. He laughed and the audience laughed as well. He said it wouldn’t be too politically correct in 2021, but it was fun in 1979, coming from a 20-year-old guy. There are other songs like this in his song catalogue. He started playing När vi två blir en and the crowd was singing along and didn’t want to stop applauding the band after the song. Per said it’s hard to top.

När alla vännerna gått hem was the last song in the first encore. The whole crowd stood up when the band took a bow and went off stage and they still waited for the gang to come back with some more songs. Of course they came back! You just had the feeling that you don’t want this night to end.

Vid hennes sida opened the second encore and don’t be afraid, Sommartider was there too with amazing crowd reactions.

Someone shouted Dangerous before the last song, but Per & Co. closed the gig with Om du bara vill. The audience gave a standing ovation, Per and the band had a wide smile on their faces. We all had. Such a fantastic premiere gig it was!

There were missing hits vs. the last summer set, e.g. Pappa, Ömhet, Vandrar i ett sommarregn and Honung och guld, but it was so worth to include these 6(!!!) additional songs. Let’s see how the setlist changes from gig to gig during the next 14 concerts!

Setlist

1. Kung av sand
2. På promenad genom stan
3. Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång
4. Småstadsprat
5. Min plats
6. Tycker om när du tar på mej
7. Det hjärta som brinner
8. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
9. Varmt igen
10. Tuffa tider
11. Juni, juli, augusti
12. It Must Have Been Love
13. Vilket håll du än går

Band introduction

14. Här kommer alla känslorna
15. Min hälsning

Encore 1
16. Födelsedag
17. Listen To Your Heart (dedicated to Marie Fredriksson & Pelle Alsing)
18. När vi två blir en
19. När alla vännerna gått hem

Encore 2
20. Vid hennes sida
21. Sommartider
22. Om du bara vill

Photos in the article are taken by Patrícia Peres.

Per after the show:

Wow! Thx for an amazing nite in Linköping. Loved every second of it. I’m blessed having a crowd like this! Norrköping tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Wow! Tack så mycket för en helt makalös kväll i Linköping. Vilken fantastisk stämning, vi älskade varje sekund. Hoppas ni är inte hesa imorgon!!!! Syns i Norrköping om några timmar. Love, P.

 

Per Gessle interview by GöteborgDirekt

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Kai Martin from GöteborgDirekt did an interview with Per Gessle. He asks Mr. G when the idea for the gigs in Tylösand, then for the upcoming tour was born. Per says the idea came from the pandemic situation. Musicians and technicians had no job due to tough corona regulations. He tried to think positively, take advantage of the opportunity and do something special at Hotel Tylösand. The challenge of playing acoustically for a very small and seated audience was exciting for him. They had done Late Night Concert for TV4 without an audience at Cirkus in November 2020 so he knew he had a great band with good composition and high ambition.

The reaction and response from the audience was absolutely overwhelming, so I felt I couldn’t stop now. This is much fun anyway.

To Kai’s question regarding what it was like to meet the audience, even if they were seated Per replies:

Wonderful and very special for me because it was such a small format. There were about 475 people in the audience every night, everything felt close and intimate, sometimes we answered a question that was asked between the songs, sometimes someone came to the edge of the stage with a gift or flower. The surroundings by the beach in Tylösand are fabulous. Nine out of ten evenings we got to experience the world’s most beautiful sunsets. The band thought it was the coolest “tour” we did. Maybe they’re right?

GöteborgDirekt asks Per how much he has been longing for being on the road again. Per tells:

I’m an anxious soul. When I’m in the studio I’m longing for being ont he road and vice versa. But I really like playing my songs, I love touring. There is a pop romance around this that I never seem to stop being fascinated by. Just this summer, it was not so much a tour for me, I live four minutes from the stage…

Kai is curious how Per picks what songs to play, because he thinks Mr. G has an impressive song catalogue and he could actually play every day of the year without repeating himself. Per explains it started with him selecting 30-35 of his songs and recording acoustic versions alone in the studio to find the right key and feeling. He did it live to experience how it felt to play and sing them. Six, seven songs a day for a week. Then he presented about 25 songs for the band that they rehearsed together. From the beginning, the idea was that they would play 45 minutes + 15 minutes extra, but it ended with the concert being 110 minutes long.

Per also tells that you feel immediately at the rehearsals if a song can wear its new costume. Sometimes it fits, sometimes not. Some of the Gyllene Tider songs felt unexpectedly fresh acoustically, such as Kung av sand and Juni, juli, augusti. He wasn’t sure about it before, but all of a sudden, the lyrics got more into focus and it became a different kind of music that suited this setting.

Kai tells Per that it feels like PG’s curiosity he had as a kid for music still shines through in his creation and wants to know how Mr. G maintains it. Per wishes Kai was right, but sometimes he feels like he is losing interest in new pop music.

I have become like my parents in the 60’s and 70’s who always thought that all the pop I listened to sounded exactly the same. Now, finally, I understand them, hahaha! But it goes in waves for me. Sometimes I get extremely bored of my own record collection and all my old favourites and I’m desperately looking for something new to listen to. Sometimes I look for another type of music; Bill Evans, old country, Penguin Café Orchestra. Found them the other day and they are magically good sometimes.

When it comes to my own creation, I usually say that I write as little as I can! When I go into my “writing mode” I usually have a clear idea about what I want. I’ve just finished a new album in English (with the old “Rox gang”). The idea of this album is to become “the missing link between ‘Look Sharp!’ and ‘Joyride'”. And the record really sounds like that.

Kai refers to Gessles nio i topp (podcast of Per Gessle and Sven Lindström on Swedish Radio P4) and asks Mr. G how much of a pop nerd he is. Per replies:

When I look at myself, I’m 100 percent pop nerd. I’m a self-taught musician who has learned everything I can from the wonderful world of pop. That I would succeed with my own lyrics and music in the way that happened is still difficult to understand for me. But… the more time passes the more comfortable I become in my role as a musician and artist. I probably had not “dared” to do such an unplugged tour ten to fifteen years ago. Now it just feels obvious.

GöteborgDirekt is curious about Per’s creation process. PG tells:

I’m super focused and disciplined when I have a project going on. Then I work mentally around the clock. I go into my bubble and prefer to stay there until I’m done. I become very sad, antisocial and a very unnecessary person.

Kai tells that they who were born in the late 50’s see their role models and idols go out of time. He is curious if it affects Per’s creativity and desire to play in any way, if Per is anxious to take advantage of his time. Mr. G tells you of course get affected by it, but when it comes to his own creativity, it’s mostly an ego thing.

I write and play primarily for my own sake. I actually know nothing else. That there has been an interested audience here and there on the planet for over 40 years is as surreal as Halmstadgruppen*.

[*Halmstadgruppen is a group of six artists that collectively followed and developed avant-garde modern art movements such as cubism, post-cubism, purist, futurist and surrealism in Halmstad. /PP]


Press photo used for GöteborgDirekt’s article by Anders Roos was taken at Hotel Tylösand on 3rd August 2021.

The songs fans ask Per Gessle to play on tour

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Per Gessle asked his fans the other day on his social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to suggest songs they didn’t play at the summer sessions at Hotel Tylösand in July and August.

Of course, fans were happy to share their favourites and asked Per to include those in the setlist. If Mr. G wants to play all of them, he will have to extend the hours of playing a bit. And we wouldn’t mind! Haha.

One must love those comments that he could play any track from the Mazarin album. So true! Altogether there were 256 different songs asked for, counting only those that really weren’t played in summer. I’ve tried to eliminate duplications, i.e. if the same person asked for the same songs on more than one channel. So, here is the Top20 list of those hits.

Graph is based on the analysis of comments related to the topic. Pic of PG is taken by Patrícia Peres at the PG Unplugged sessions at Hotel Tylösand, 2021.

I find it interesting that there are some more mid- or uptempo songs missing in the Top20. In the sense that it’s going to be an unplugged tour, it’s understandable in a way, but if I think back to last summer, Juni, juli, augusti was such a fab surprise, how it sounded in an acoustic arrangement that it would be great to hear some more mid- or uptempo songs in a similar version.

In the Top5 we can find 2 Gyllene Tider songs (Chrissie, hur mår du?, Billy), 2 PG solos (Blå december, Viskar) and 1 Roxette ballad (Vulnerable) we’ve always been longing to hear live one day. Will we get lucky and hear it live this autumn? Let’s see what happens!

Among those songs that were played in summer, the most favourites – judging by the comments – seem to be Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång, Tycker om när du tar på mej, På promenad genom stan, Kung av sand and När alla vännerna gått hem. HERE you can check the setlist of each summer gig AND buy your ticket(s) for the autumn tour!

Per Gessle Unplugged Tour around Sweden in autumn!

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According to today’s press release, Per Gessle, one of Sweden’s greatest artists and songwriters, will go on tour in Sweden in November and December 2021 with “Per Gessle Unplugged”. After sold-out concerts in Tylösand this summer, the whole country can now join Per Gessle in an acoustic and intimate live environment – where classic hits from his career as a solo artist, Gyllene Tider and Roxette are to be expected!

Per Gessle’s rich song catalogue is undoubtedly one of Sweden’s most successful and most appreciated treasures. Now Per goes on a journey with a band consisting of Roxette musicians Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Magnus Börjeson and singer Helena Josefsson. The tour extends over larger parts of Sweden starting in Linköping on 5th November.

Per says:

An acoustic “unplugged” tour is new to me! My band and I did 10 wonderful gigs this summer at Hotel Tylösand and it tuned us to have lust for more. Seated audience, personal and live “for real” where anything can happen.

Aftonbladet writes: “Per Gessle performs on an unusually small and acoustic scale, but the format suits him surprisingly well.”

Göteborgsposten writes: “Musically, Per Gessle has always been crazy not only about power pop and arena anthems but at least as much for this type of acoustic folk pop. It’s not hard to imagine that he had pleasant difficulties in selecting songs for the concert.”

Per continues:

We will play songs from my entire career; Gyllene Tider, Roxette and as a solo artist. Old favourites are mixed with new ones. My ambition is that there will be fantastic evenings that light up the autumn darkness. See you around beautiful Sweden.

Dates:

5th November (Friday) – Linköping, Konsert & Kongress – TICKETS
6th November (Saturday) – Norrköping, Louis de Geer – TICKETS
14th November (Sunday) – Gävle, Konserthuset – TICKETS
19th November (Friday) – Stockholm, Filadelfia – TICKETS
20th November (Saturday) – Uppsala, Konsert & Kongress – TICKETS
22nd November (Monday) – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern – TICKETS
23rd November (Tuesday) – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
28th November (Sunday) – Halmstad, Teatern – TICKETS
29th November (Monday) – Halmstad, Teatern – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
8th December (Wednesday) – Karlstad, CCC – TICKETS
9th December (Thursday) – Örebro, Konserthuset – TICKETS
10th December (Friday) – Örebro, Konserthuset – TICKETS (EXTRA DATE)
12th December (Sunday) – Malmö, Slagthuset – TICKETS
14th December (Tuesday) – Jönköping, Konserthuset – TICKETS
15th December (Wednesday) – Kalmar, Kalmarsalen – TICKETS

Tickets for the Per Gessle Unplugged Tour go on sale on Thursday, 2nd September at 9.00 am CET via Livenation.se.

Watch the promo video for the tour HERE!

Press photo by Anders Roos was taken at Hotel Tylösand on 3rd August 2021.

Update on 2nd September 2021: Due to high demand, 3 extra concerts are added: 23 Nov – Göteborg, Lorensbergsteatern, 29 Nov – Halmstad, Teatern, 10 Dec – Örebro, Konserthuset. Tickets are already on sale. The list is updated above.