HELSINKI/LJUSDAL/UTRECHT - TDR reviews another album, this time it’s Per’s new album “Son of a Plumber,” an album made with the same musicians as Per’s Swedish hit album “Mazarin,” but now in English and as a double-CD. Enjoy!

Visa: This time in our review team we have three Gessle fans: Thomas Evensson, TDR news editor from Ljusdal, Sweden; Colin van der Bel, TDR forum moderator from Utrecht, the Netherlands; and myself, Visa Kopu, TDR editor-in-chief from Helsinki, Finland. Unfortunately Judith Seuma wasn’t able to join us this time, since she’s visiting the home country of the plumber and his son.

Thomas: Wow, so finally it’s here. And a double too. I take credit for the vinyl. Ha ha! At least Per sounded genuinely intrigued when I mentioned it to him. But who knows, he may have had the plan already.

Visa: Funny about this double-CD thing… Per says he wanted this album to feel like an old-time LP where you had to switch the side in the middle. With the CDs, it’s totally artificial since the whole album, all 24 songs and the bonus tracks, would’ve fit on one disc.

Colin: 2 CDs, well I guess it brings back the vinyl experience back a bit, though a double-sided disc would’ve been even more effective for that (though not that practical). Still, the vinyl version is a double set… should it have been four CDs then? Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Win a Fender Stratocaster signed by Per Gessle! Yes, it can be yours if you enter this auction to benefit a program called Adopt-A-Minefield. Per has signed and donated the bone-white guitar that is being auctioned on the Internet.

  Adopt-A-Minefield is a campaign of the United Nations Association of the USA, which engages individuals, community groups, and businesses in the United Nations effort to resolve the global landmine crisis. The Campaign helps save lives by raising funds for mine clearance and survivor assistance and by raising awareness about the landmine problem.

   The site describes the item like this:

“This Fender Stratocaster was signed by Per Hakan Gessle the songwriter and male lead singer of the Swedish bands Gyllene Tider and Roxette.

• Charity Folks (auction site)
• Adopt-A-Minefield
• Roj-En-Mina (Swedish Adopt-A-Minefield site)

Read more…

UTRECHT - This afternoon, the songs from the new album “Son Of A Plumber” appeared on the the Kazaa p2p file sharing network. However, they all contain sections of silence like the first online MP3s of “C’mon” and “Jo-Anna Says” did. The files can be found in a wide range of different qualities (from 54 to 320 Kbit/s), and even in ogg-format.

  TDR suspects this is an attempt from EMI or another institution trying to prevent the songs being easily available for download. If a “normal” version of the album would be put on the Kazaa network (or similar), it would be practically impossible to find it. A brilliant move in that case.

STOCKHOLM - On the official Son of a Plumber website, two signing sessions have been announced:

  Per will be at Bengans in Gothenburg, November 24 at 17:00 CET, and also at Åhlens City in Stockholm, November 25, this time at 16:00. Per lets us know that he will stay until 18:00 in Stockholm.

• The official Son of a Plumber website

HALMSTAD - November 24 there will be a major Roxette auction in Halmstad. Hallands auktionsverk, where the Gyllene Tider-auction was held last year, will auction out a large Roxette/Per Gessle collection, with rarities like the 12” single “Spegelboll,” “Look Sharp!” as a picture LP and CD, the German edition of the “Chances” 12” single and many more. The collection includes basically everything released by Per Gessle and Roxette, from “Per Gessle” to “The Pop Hits,” on CD, LP, 3”, 7”, 12”, MD, DCC, MC et cetera, all in all over 400 items.

  The Daily Roxette has been in contact with the seller, who wishes to remain anonymous, and asked why he sells off his rare material. “I don’t know really, I just realized it was Gyllene Tider I wanted to collect. And I also think that I can never get a complete Roxette collection,” he says. Included in the auction are LPs, CDs, singles, cassettes and video tapes. All original and in great condition of course. Many items will be bundled, and the starting prices are kept low on purpose. “Yes, for instance the single of say ’Fading Like a Flower’, it isn’t worth all that much and was released in so many countries, so we bundled items like that.” Other things, like the very rare Mexican “Milk & Toast & Honey” promo CD will be sold separately.

  You don’t have to be physically there to bid; you can bid via e-mail, telephone, fax and regular mail. The only thing you have to think of is to bid before the auction starts. There is also the option to be on the phone during the auction, doing that adds a hefty fee to the bid and is probably not worth it in this case.

• Hallands auktionsverk (In Swedish)
• The list

STOCKHOLM - Swedish TV3 will air the 13 min long film shot by Daniel Börjesson for Per Gessle’s Son of a Plumber project. Previews have been available on Son of a Plumber’s site and also on Aftonbladet. The film will be broadcast on November 27 at 19:45 CET.

SYDNEY - D.H.T.’s rendition of Roxette’s “Listen to Your Heart” was released to Australian radio in the past week or so, with Sydney radio stations adding it to their playlists. The single is commercially released November 21. It’ll be interesting to see if it enters the Top 50 singles chart and whether it’ll spark interest in the original version.

Mr. Sandman contributed to this article.

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle as Son Of A Plumber will participate in this year’s edition of “Fotbollsgalan” on November 14.


  The event will take place at Hovet, Stockholm, and will feature, besides Gessle, The Cardigans and Andreas Johnson. The organizers are also hoping to get Madonna to perform live. Swedish television channel TV4 will broadcast the gala live from 20:00 until 22:00 CET.


  The gala is organized yearly by the Swedish Soccer Association to pay tribute to the best Swedish soccer players of all times. The nominees to the different categories will be announced in some weeks.


  Tickets for the event can be purchased via Ticnet at the price of 220 SEK (excluding the surcharge).

• Fotbollsgalan 2005
• Ticnet.se

NEW YORK (UPDATED) - While being in New York with his wife Åsa, son Gabriel and manager Marie Dimberg, Per gave an exclusive interview to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman. In this interview he mentions that his new album Son of a Plumber is a very personal album that he sees as kind of last will and testament.

  Per and co. are in New York to get a decent Roxette collection released in the US. And while being there he also checks the interest in Son of a Plumber. Per Bjurman, Aftonbladet’s man in New York, likes what he hears. He says that these lyrics sound very personal. “Yes,” Per says, “I really wanted to do an album that’s me. The lyrics are mainly about me and my life and they feel very important. At least to me.” Per continues, “We never had a target group in mind when we did this album, and that was very liberating.”

  Bjurman asks if Per wants to go back on a big tour now that he’s reconquered Sweden, twice. “Let me put it like this; if I hadn’t made this album in English I hadn’t made it at all. Because another summer in Sweden wouldn’t have worked. But now when it’s done, it’s of course nice if someone outside of Sweden wants to hear it.”

  Regarding a possible tour Per says the same thing as he said to TDR. “We’ve discussed it. If the album is received well abroad it would be nice to do a little club tour. We would play a little bit of everything. No Roxette stuff though, that wouldn’t work without Marie.”

  Per also mentions that he won’t push Marie into working. They haven’t had time to talk but he has read that she’s fine and that she may want to work with Roxette again. “Great to read that. I won’t stress her though.”

Thomas Evensson contributed to this article.

• Aftonbladet (In Swedish)

Read more…

Now that the new singles from the “Son of a Plumber” project are about to be released, Swedish newspapers have started to review them. Aftonbladet gives “C’mon” ++++ and “Jo-Anna Says” ++. Expressen has a review, but so far only in their paper edition. TDR will add reviews when we find them, meanwhile enjoy our own analysis of the single, by reporter Colin van der Bel.

When I first heard the new titles for the Son of a Plumber single, my first thought was that “C’mon”
would be an uptempo song á la “The World According to…”, and “Jo-Anna Says” an English version of Gyllene Tider’s “Jo-Anna Farväl,” so when I heard them I was quite surprised!



“C’mon”:

The intro immediately reminds me of the Beatles, and then the falsetto singing starts. At first it seemed a bit strange, but after hearing the song a few times you get used to it. The typical Gessle-ish handclapping, tambourine and a very catchy chorus: it sticks to your mind immediately! Don’t know if this song can be an international chart breaker though. Maybe too much ’60s?



“Jo-Anna says”:

The song starts off with a moderate, steady beat, with Per and an acoustic guitar. Then the chorus kicks in pretty fast. It’s extremely catchy, and reminds me of the ’60s and ’70s, but it clearly has that fresh Gessle sound to it.

  Instant hit! Maybe this should’ve been the only A-side because this song is much better in my opinion, and has the potential of becoming an international hit if it is sufficiently promoted.

Judith Seuma, TDR News Editor, would like to add that initially when she heard “C’mon” would be sung in falsetto she was rather nervous but she likes “C’mon” now that she’s heard it a few times. “Jo-Anna Says” is her darling though.