HELSINKI - Per was interviewed this evening on Finnish TV in a weekly series called Popsmart where popular musicians are interviewed for a half an hour. During Per’s interview they also showed clips from Gyllene Tider movie “Parkliv” and from many Roxette videos, as well as the full “A Thing About You” video.

  Per was interviewed in an EMI Sweden conference room that had the walls covered with Roxette gold and platinum records. Per feels himself uneasy in that room. “I don’t have any gold records or MTV Awards at my home,” says Per. “I don’t want to be stuck with the past. I want to look forward.”

  According to Per, it’s hard to make good songs, but it helps to love your work. “Marie and I are the biggest fans of Roxette,” he says quoting ABBA’s Benny Andersson, who once said he’s the biggest fan of his own music. “Marie and I love Roxette and the music we make.” But it doesn’t come easy: Per says he writes maybe one good song a month and 50 bad ones.

  “It’s hard for me to listen to Top 40 music, the same music I write myself,” says Per. “I start to think about it too technically; ’this singing is too anemic’, ’this echo is strange’. At home I often listen to jazz. John Coltrane, Norah Jones… and I love Alison Krauss’ country music.”

  “I would love to make film music. There’s an almost instrumental song on the new album that would make good film score,” says Per. “People have asked me to write a musical, but I won’t. I hate musicals!”

STOCKHOLM - “Mazarin’s” success has made Per want even more. “Of course there will be more solo albums,” says Per to Aftonbladet. Naturally there isn’t yet a schedule set for a follow-up album, but Per seems very confident about working on such a projects.

  “In the end it depends on the song material. When there’s a day that I feel that I have had the time and the opportunity to make an album that feels right… that’s when there will be an album,” explains Per.

  As The Daily Roxette has reported, Per’s solo album “Mazarin” has been a huge success in Sweden. According to Aftonbladet, the album has now sold nearly 200,000 copies. The lead single “Här kommer alla känslorna” has sold over 15,000 copies.

  When summer ends, a discussion awaits with the other members of Gyllene Tider to discuss possible plans for next summer’s 25th anniversary.

  “We have to check and see if we can do something relevant,” says Per, “and not just a reunion tour. We don’t want to grow moss onstage.”

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)

JURMALA, LATVIA - Each year in late July, a contest is held in Jurmala, Latvia for aspiring young pop singers. Called “The New Wave,” this year 12 singers made it to the finals, which started on July, 30. For three days, singers from Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, UK, Uzbekistan, Turkeym Kazahstan, Litva, Armenia, Estonia and Sweden competed.

  Leon, a contestent from Sweden, sang “Sleeping in my Car,” but finished the contest in last place.

• New Wave Stars contest site

GOTHENBURG (UPDATED) - “Will you go to Per Gessle’s concert on Wednesday? Then you may appear on his live-DVD” starts an article published today in Göteborgs-Posten.

  According to the newspaper, Per is looking into the possibility of recording this summer’s success tour on film. “It depends on getting everything to work,” says Per’s manager Marie Dimberg. The goal is to start the recordings in Trädgårdsföreningen (Gothenburg), which is sold-out, and then use the recordings to make a documentary-DVD about Per’s tour. The decision will be made on Friday.


  The music-DVD sales in Sweden has increased about 352% up to 240,000 sold copies in the first half of the year and Göteborgs-Posten believes that a DVD with Per would become a great success and make these figures even better. The DVD that’s outselling everything right now is Tomas Ledin’s “Just då”.

  Update 8/1/2003: EMA Telstar has announced that this concert has been moved from Trädgårdsföreningen to Slottsskogsvallen and, as this is a larger venue, additional tickets will be available today.

• Article in Göteborgs Posten (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Your album “Mazarin” has since it was released in June sold more than 170,000 copies and therefore has helped raising an otherwise lousy first six months for the record business. What does it take to get the record buyers to come back to the stores again?

  “A combination of many things, but basically better albums need to be made,” Per Gessle says to di.se, “Illegal copying and downloading from the Net is of course a problem, but the record industry must blame itself as well. The record companies want fast money and put all their resources in releasing concept artists with only one good song while the rest of the album is just padding, instead of artists that need a few albums to get established.”

• DI.se (In Swedish)

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - The tour premiere went well according to Swedish TV4. The announcer called the concert a “greatest solo hits” performance. 13,000 attended and the place was crowded according to Aftonbladet. The set list:




Kung av sand

Vilket håll du än går

Om du bara vill

Gungar

Inte tillsammans, inte isär

(Hon vill ha) Puls

Speedo

På promenad genom stan

Timmar av iver

Segla på ett moln

Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång

Jag tror du bär på en stor hemlighet

Småstad - with MP Persson as a guest guitarist

Smakar på ett regn

Tända en sticka till

Här kommer alla känslorna

Födelsedag

Spegelboll

Juni, juli, augusti

Gå & fiska!



Extras:

Regn

Tycker om när du tar på mej

Det är över nu

Sommartider



Extra extras:



Billy



 Aftonbladet gives the concert “five plus” (world class). Hallandsposten calls the success “monumental”. According to tabloid Expressen Marie Fredriksson was there and she loved the concert. Expressen also gives it four “stingers”.

  After “Här kommer alla känslorna” Per exclaims “Amazing, we should have filmed this!” Well, it isn’t too late. Expressen says “shoot the whole shebang”. Hallands nyheter claims the new world record for whistling out of tune was set during “Känslorna”.

“Give the audience 15 plus!!” Per says to Aftonbladet.

 

• Aftonbladet’s review (In Swedish)
• Hallandsposten (In Swedish)
• Expressen - Marie (In Swedish)
• Expressen’s review (In Swedish)
• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - According to today’s Aftonbladet, Per Gessle is pepped up for the sold out tour premiere in Halmstad tonight. Pepped up, but nervous. “Before every gig I’m really nervous, but in a positive way,” Per says to Aftonbladet, during a break in rehearsals.

  There’s a “Mazarin” hysteria in Sweden right now, the album is closing in on 170,000 copies sold - tripple platinum soon. “People are touched in a way I never could have imagined,” says Per. People cry, people write letters, people hug him in the streets.

  One of Per’s biggest interests is F1, and that is very suitable, the last few months have been fast like an explosion. Even a scarred veteran like Per has problems to grasp it. “It’s been totally unbelievable.”

  The tour premiere has been sold out for a month, tonight Per plays before 12,000 people, including friends, families, VIP and sponsors. “It’s gonna be a blast! Here come all the friends all at once,” Per says with a smile.

His album “Mazarin” is still #1 in Sweden, and the single “Här kommer alla känslorna” is #1 since three weeks now. And besides tonight, the concerts in Helsingborg and Gothenburg are sold out.

  They surely won’t be the last.

“It feels like everyone likes this, like everyone wants to see it. It’s not like I’m going uphill, really,” Per Gessle says.

  After all the success he’s had with Gyllene Tider and Roxette Per is used to the fans’ reactions.

  He thought.

  Then came “Mazarin”…

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Some weeks ago we reported that the tickets for Per Gessle’s tour premiere concert in Halmstad were sold out just after a few hours they had gone on sale. Some days later Helsingborg got also the “sold out” status. Today EMA Telstar’s site announces that extra tickets have been released for the concerts in these two towns. They can be bought via TicNet or regular sales channels.

• EMA
• TicNet/BiljettDirekt

STOCKHOLM - Swedish tabloid Expressen reports about Swedish summer tours. As we very well know, Per Gessle’s “Mazarin” tour has been a huge success. Many of the concerts have been sold out and according to Expressen, the tour will profit millions of Swedish crowns. “It feels unbelievably cool that the sun is shining on me again,” says Per.

  Not everyone is as happy as Per. A classic Swedish group GES - Anders Glenmark, Thomas “Orup” Eriksson and Niklas Strömstedt - released their second album earlier this year, eight years after their highly successful debut album. Their summer tour was expected to be successful as well, but everything has failed for them. Only 2,000 people appeared to their show in Lysekil, making it the record low for that arena ever and causing a loss of 340,000 SEK. The record high was in 1989, when 24,000 people attended a Badrock concert. According to Expressen the 25 concerts of GES summer tour have mostly been unprofitable and the average loss has been 250,000 SEK per concert.

• Expressen article about GES tour
• Expressen article about Gessle tour (in Swedish)
• Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt

STOCKHOLM - In today’s Aftonbladet Per says that they have plans of letting Marie join on stage to perform “På promenad genom stan”, the song she also sings on on the album. She will not be in Halmstad, which is sold out, but probably later on along the road. “I want to kick off the tour by myself,” Per says. “But you never know with Marie, she may be around in her boat and joins us,” he continues.

  After the enormous success with both the single “Här kommer alla känslorna” and the album “Mazarin” - both are still at #1 - this will be this summer’s big success tour. “It’s you saying that, I won’t say it, yet. But sure, it feels totally amazing,” Per says to Aftonbladet.

  Per also tells Aftonbladet that the situation is a bit weird, after years of having Marie with him, he’s now alone. “I’m very used to having Marie with me on stage, so I can stand around looking at the fans!” he laughs. “I’m all exposed now!”

• Aftonbladet’s article