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

HELSINKI - FST’s (Finland’s Swedish Television) music interview series “Popsmart” returns this summer with a very interesting interview. On August 4th, Popsmart’s Micaela Metso will have a chat with Per Gessle. The 30-minute-long show will be on TV2 at 22.10 EET. It will also be shown at the same time on FST’s digital channel and rebroadcast on the digital channel on August 6th at 19.30 EET.

  Other visitors on the series this season will be Lars Ulrich of Metallica in the first episode, followed by Per, Carola Häggkvist, Eva Dahlgren, Ulf Ekberg of Ace of Base and Ola Salo of The Ark.

• Ilta-Sanomat article (in Finnish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to an article published today in Aftonbladet, both Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are on the guestlist to attend the Rolling Stones’s “Licks World Tour” concert in Stockholm tonight. “Per will definitely go, but Marie isn’t sure. If the weather is nice, she will prefer to go out on the boat [with her family],” tells Roxette’s manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet.


  The concert will take place at Cirkus and is the third the Stones will give in Stockholm. Last 18th they played the Olympic Stadium and on the 20th at the Globe Arena.


  “The tickets for this concert disappeared so fast that it seems you have to be an artist or record business related to get one,” tells a source. Catarina Oscarsson from EMA Telstar, the promoter of the show, claims she doesn’t know, though, who wrote Per and Marie to the guestlist, “There’s actually no guestlist that I know of, we haven’t invited anybody special. Some of the tickets were sold via the [Stones] fan club for instance.”


  The Hellacopters will be the opening act for tonight’s show.


  Update: Aftonbladet has published pictures of Per and Marie at the concert, which they both enjoyed enormously. “Fantastic! This is the best I have ever seen,” said Marie, who was there with her husband Micke Bolyos, Per and Åsa Gessle, to Aftonbladet. “I will go home now and cry with joy,” Per exclaimed. “Give it 15 plus! 15 plus!” he added.

• Aftonbladet’s article (in Swedish)
• The Rolling Stones Official Website
• EMA Telstar
• The Hellacopters Official Website
• Aftonbladet’s article with pictures

STOCKHOLM - According to the site CDON the next single from “Mazarin” will be “På promenad genom stan” (7243-5528782) . Release date and b-side are yet to be decided.

• CDON

STOCKHOLM - Mats Ronander will be Per’s guest and open the shows during the “Mazarin” tour through Sweden. Ronander will offer a different and special performance together with Benneth Fagerlund on the keyboards, while he will play the acoustic guitar. They will perform songs out of Ronander’s repertoire as well as songs from other well-known songwriters.


  Ronander and Fagerlund have recently been on tour in Sweden with their show “Acoustic” during April and May.

• Mats Ronander’s website (in Swedish)

BORGHOLM - Per Gessle was one of the performers invited to the “Grattis Victoria” concert on the Swedish island Öland yesterday evening. The concert was organized to celebrate Crown Princess Victoria’s 26th birthday.

  Per performed two songs from his new album: “Födelsedag” and “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång).” Especially the first song suited the situation perfectly, as its title means “Birthday” in English. Princess Victoria and her father, King Carl XVI Gustav, seemingly enjoyed the show immensely.

  Per and his band Mazarinerna apparently performed the songs “playback”, so that the music came from a tape, but Per sang live.

  Surprisingly, Per wasn’t the only one performing songs written by him. Peter Jöback performed “Varmt igen”, a song which Jöback released on his solo album this past winter and which is also included on Per’s new album.

STOCKHOLM - Aftonbladet has published a story about Marie who’s now working on new songs, as we told earlier this week. “She writes and records songs whenever she’s able to,” says manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet. “She works when she feels like it. Sometimes it’s more intensive, sometimes less. Just like it always goes.”

  “She’s been talking about the album a long time. I suppose she’s now started to work on it,” says Per. “She has a studio at home, so she can record an album in her attic if she wants to.”

  “We decided that we’ll do solo albums after we finished ’Room Service’ in 2001. But after that Marie became ill,” Per sighs. “Lately I’ve been in contact with her quite a lot. She has a house in Halmstad and she’s been here for a couple of weeks now.”

  “Her condition hasn’t changed so much from the beginning of the year. She’s quite alright, spirited and fit, but everything that happened still affects her. All of us, in fact. It’s been a tough year for her, heavy medication and all.”

  Naturally Marie’s album doesn’t have a release date yet. Manager Dimberg also says that it’s not even clear if the album will be in Swedish or English. According to Dimberg, Marie has written songs in both languages.

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - “Mazarin” is #1 for the third week in a row. The single “Här kommer alla känslorna” is also #1 now, after a week at #2 after Sertab from Turkey.

• GLF via Aftonbladet (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - As we reported some time ago, Per Gessle will perform at Swedish Crown Princess Victoria’s 25th Anniversary party on July 14th.

  The event, presented by Pernilla Månsson Colt and Ola Lindholm, is called “Grattis Victoria” (Congratulations, Victoria) and will be broadcast on SVT1 from 21.00 to 22.55 CET. Per is scheduled to appear, according to Aftonbladet, at 21.32 and 22.24 CET. International viewers will be able to view the show on SVT Europa.

  The program will have its re-run on July 19th at 15.05 CET.

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle mentioned a while ago that Marie Fredriksson was working on a new solo album. Sources tell The Daily Roxette that she’s been working on new songs when her strength and recovery permit, as there is no established timetable for this project. According to Capitol, she’s currently on vacation with her family. She will continue working on her solo material this fall.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish phone operator Comviq/Tele2 offers their customers to go to select Gessle concerts for half price if you SMS a certain code to them. You can see more information on their site (see the link below).

  On a sidenote, Capitol Records Sweden told TDR today that the “Mazarin” DVD production has been upped to 9,000 copies due to demand.

• Comviq/Tele2’s offer (For Swedes only)

TYLÖSAND - Norra Västerbotten newspaper publishes today an interview lead by the journalist Mikael Forsell, where Per explains, among other things, that he is not the “summer type.”

Gessle’s music has been, during the past 25 years, a soundtrack to the Swedish summer. Everything from “Sommartider” and “Gå & fiska!” with Gyllene Tider to his new album “Mazarin”. “I don’t know what it is about. I have tried to develop my music style, but it ends up with the fact that I can’t. I sound as I sound,” he states with a smile.


 Per is a synonymous to summer and especially Tylösand and Halmstad where he co-owns a hotel with the nice Laholm bay in the background. An inspiration? “I have never been the summer type. Actually I have never bathed here at Tylösand…” he says surprising the reporter, and goes on explaining “I was over there,” he says pointing some kilometers to the right to the beach called Frösakull, “my dad and mom had a summer house there, which was sold when I was born. But my dad and grandad have laid all the plumbing there.”
  “Then when the Gyllene thing happened one couldn’t be here. It was a myth crushed,” he laughs.


  Gessle has written many of the most loved melodies about the Swedish summer. His last album “Mazarin” was released just at the right time for Midsummer and it went directly to the top of the pre-order charts. The first single “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)” was embraced as the perfect summer of 2003-song - even though it is clearly mentioned in the lyrics that the story takes place during winter.

• Norra Västerbotten’s article (in Swedish)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle is golden right now, the single “Här kommer alla känslorna” is the most played song in Sweden at the moment, and it’s at #1 on the radio show Svensktoppen. The gap, in points, between #1 and #2 has never been bigger.

  And now “Mazarin” shoots directly into the top of the official album charts in Sweden. “I’m speechless, I’ve never ever received such a unified response on an album before!” says Per to Aftonbladet.

  The superstar doesn’t take anything for granted, even though he’s had all his success with Gyllene Tider and Roxette. “Success like this is not common for anyone anymore. The climate is a lot harder and you don’t sell as much.”

  What are the expectations before the tour?

 “It feels like it’s gonna be demanding…” he laughs.



  “Mazarin” is still #1 in Sweden. Per is also #1 on the Aftonbladet “What’s in and what’s not” list. “Här kommer alla känslorna” enters the singles charts at #2 after Sertab from Turkey.

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)
• Innelistan (In Swedish)

HALMSTAD - Next summer, when Gyllene Tider celebrates their 25th anniversary, the Halmstad museum plans to mount a major Gyllene Tider exhibition. The members of GT met with the curators the other day to brood over what should be placed on display.
They were all very positive about the future exhibit.

  Bosse Eriksson, antiquary at the museum, came up with the idea and he tells Sveriges Radio Halland that he expects the exhibit to be well attended – and by a slightly younger crowd than what the museum usually gets.

• Sveriges Radio (In Swedish)