HALMSTAD - As reported earlier this week, Per Gessle has been nominated as “Hallander of All Time” (Tidernas Hallänning). This contest-of-sorts is being promoted by both of the newspapers serving the Halland region. It is designed to create interest in a new exhibition on the cultural history of the region that will open at the Museum of Halland on February 29th. This is the same museum the will house a Gyllene Tider exhibit this summer.

  The six nominees are:

• Bockstensmannen (1300’s, first half) A man who lived in Halland in the 14th century. His well-preserved corpse was found by a farmer in Varberg in 1936.

• Olof Von Dalin (1708-1763) Journalist, historian, poet and illustrator.

• August Bondeson (1854-1906) Doctor and writer who portrayed the lives of common people.

• Beda Hellberg (1869-1945) Created the May Day flower campaign to benefit tuberculosis treatment and research.

• Ernst Wigforss (1881-1977) Politician, professor and writer.

• Per Gessle (b. 1959) Artist and songwriter.

  Among the finalists nominated, Gessle is the only one still living, while the nominee who dates back the furthest is “Bockstensmannen,” a man who lived in the early 14th century and whose well-preserved remains were discovered in a local bog in 1936 by a father and son out on a hike.

  Ballots have appeared in the newspapers, with readers encouraged to mail in their selection to the museum. The winner will be revealed at the opening reception.

  When Mårten Samuelson, Hallands Nyheter’s reporter contacted Per just over a week ago, he was involved with the recording of Gyllene Tider’s new record and in a very good mood.

  “He he he, what a gang!” says Per when informed as to who the other nominees were. “It is of course flattering to be named along with the Bockstensman. The others I’ve heard about, but who is Beda Hellberg?”

  Ted Holgersson and Judith Seuma contributed to this article.

• Museum of Halmstad (Limited content in English)

Read more…

MORA - Micke “Syd” Andersson, the drummer of Gyllene Tider, is taking a break from their current studio work to tour with his band S.O.S.

  The band, originally named Stars of Snäck, was formed to be the house band at Hotel Snäck on Gotland island during the summer months. Now that they are performing also in the other places, they decided to use the acronym S.O.S. They play only cover songs – including, apparently, some of the old Gyllene Tider hits.

  “This is the band’s winter edition,” says Micke Syd. S.O.S. is performing today in Sälen and tomorrow in Falun.

  Micke has been working with the other members of Gyllene Tider to record songs for the new record. “We’ll see what we get out of it. The single is a summer song – Gyllene Tider is always Gyllene Tider – but if we get more songs done, maybe it will sound a little different,” he says. Asked why he’s in Sälen instead of Halmstad, he comments “We haven’t played together for eight years, but it took us two minutes to get back to work. The studio work is very relaxed.”

• Mora Tidning article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - This summer’s upcoming 25th Anniversary Gyllene Tider concert tour is expected to be so popular, that the fees the band rakes in will probably reach record levels. Per alone, according to a report in today’s edition of the Swedish newspaper Expressen, might earn almost one million Swedish Kronor (SEK) [US $138,000] – per night.

  The two hottest acts in Sweden this summer, according to this report, will be Gyllene Tider and the gigantic Diggiloo tour package (many well-known Swedish singers appearing one-after-the-other on the same stage; a touring version of a popular SVT television program).

  Previously, the artists demanded a certain amount for every gig. But this summer, there will most likely be huge crowds attending. In other words, guaranteed blockbusters. As Expressen’s reporter put it: “We’re talking 10,000 people per concert. At least.”

  Nowadays, the production companies themselves rent the big venues. They estimate an audience where each pay an entrance fee of about 300 SEK. That adds up to 4.5 million SEK if there’s a minimum of about 15,000 in the audience. The production company takes 80 percent (3.6 million) of the total amount.

  “Yea, there’s a great deal of money involved and I don’t deny that the artists gets quite a bit of it. But there’s a bunch of other people splitting it as well,” says Patrik Krall of 2entertain, producers of the Diggiloo tour.

  At EMA-Telstar, no one wants to comment on the money issue. But according to numerous sources, the thought process there is the same as at 2entertain.

  With Gyllene Tider however, there are considerably fewer sharing the cake. This means that Per could earn up to a million SEK for one single gig.

  “Yes, that’s the way it is,” says an [unnamed] arranger who is involved in Gyllene Tider’s fee negotiations.

• Expressen’s Article (In Swedish - with photo of Per)

HALMSTAD - The Gyllene Tider 25th anniversary exhibition at the Museum of Halmstad that we first reported last summer, will open on June 6th.

  “We are planning a great exhibition with lots of things, documents and music never before shown to the public,” says the museum’s website. “It will be a real “eldorado” for Gyllene Tider’s many faithful fans.”

  The exhibit is being curated in close cooperation with members of the band.

• Museum of Halmstad

HALMSTAD/STOCKHOLM - Hallands Nyheter, the local newspaper for the Halmstad area, interviewed Per last week after he was nominated as the “Halland Resident of All Times.” Per was surprised, but he doesn’t want to be compared with historical persons. “It’s like trying to compare Picasso to the painters a long time before him. You can’t really do that,” he said to Hallands Nyheter’s Mårten Samuelson.

  Per also told the reporter that on his birthday, he and his family visited Mauritius. “I isolated myself for a couple of days and wrote four songs there. But on my birthday we went out on a catamaran ride. It was a huge difference compared to the cold weather here!”

  Currently, Per is working in the studio with Gyllene Tider. “We have been here for two days,” Per says. “We are still trying to find the sweet and airy sound. We just played a song, but it sounded too good. It can’t sound like that with Gyllene Tider!”

  “I have written a lot of songs and we’ll see what happens. Our goal is to accomplish a single or – if we’re extra lucky – an EP. An album is still a dream, although we do have enough material. If we are to record a full album it needs to follow a red line at least.”

  Per doesn’t know the exact dates for the Gyllene Tider summer tour yet. “It’s EMA that sets up the tour plan, but of course we’ll be performing here in Halmstad and along the west coast. The premiere will be in the middle of July and then we’ll keep going until the middle of August.”

  In a related story, Dagens Nyheter recently interviewed Kjell Andersson, a man who had a huge impact on Per and Gyllene Tider’s success and is considered “an institution” in the Swedish music industry. He worked at EMI Sweden for 30 years and signed Gyllene Tider to the record company in 1979. Andersson has also had a hand in designing many Roxette (and related) record covers.

  His collaboration with Per has continued over the years and he says that he’s currently working on Gyllene Tider re-releases that are slated to come out before this summer’s tour.

  Starrox contributed to this article.

• Hallands Nyheter article (in Swedish)

OSLO (UPDATED) - According to a report in today’s edition of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Roxette might be one of the headline acts performing live during a festival in Oslo in June 2005.

  Norway is marking the 100th anniversary of their independence from Sweden on June 7, 2005, and the celebration will culminate in an 11-day long culture festival.

  The organizers of “Norge 2005” (Norway 2005) are making plans to have both Roxette and the Norwegian band a-ha appear that day on the outdoor stage that will be constructed in front of Rådhuset, a major governmental building in the center of Oslo.

• Aftenposten article (in Norwegian)

STOCKHOLM - Per got one out of four nominated awards at Radio NRJ Awards in Stockholm tonight. He won “Best Swedish Male Artist” but lost “Best Swedish Song” to Lisa Miskovsky and her “Lady Stardust”, co-written by Jocke Berg of Kent. Both of his “Nordic” nominations went to The Rasmus. Per also performed a lip-sync version of “Här kommer alla känslorna”.

GÖTEBORG - Per Gessle was nominated in two categories in Sweden’s national radio’s “P3 Guld” awards. This time he wasn’t lucky enough to get any trophies home. The public voted Moneybrother as the male artist of the year with his “Blood Panic” album. Moneybrother also received two other awards. In the other one of Per’s categories - the song of the year - the winner was rapper Timbuktu with “The botten is nådd”.

• Svenska Dagbladet article (in Swedish)
• P3 Guld

HELSINKI - As we previously reported, Mats “MP” Persson wrote a song for the Finnish selection of Eurovision Song Contest 2004. The song did make it to the national final, but not to the European final. The winner was Jari Sillanpää with his ill-titled song “Takes 2 To Tango”.

  The song contest will continue with semi-final on May 12 and final in Istanbul on May 15.

HALMSTAD - Per Gessle can flash his well-known V-sign. There will be a summer concert with Gyllene Tider at Örjans Vall in Halmstad.

  Halmstad’s local governing body (kommun) has given the go ahead for one, possibly two, concerts in July and thus Gessle’s dream can be fulfilled: to break the attendence record at his hometown football (soccer) arena.

  It’s been held so far by Per’s favorite team, IS Halmia, when on October 13, 1962, a night game against Landskrona Bois was seen by 20,381 people.

  Gyllene Tider can also count on breaking their own Halmstad record which originated from a concert at Stora Torg in June 1995 when around 15,000 attended the group’s first real reunion.

  It will be the first time Örjans Vall will be used as a rock arena. Earlier proposals have been rejected because of concern over damage to the grass during the Swedish soccer season.

• Hallands Posten’s article (In Swedish)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - All of the publicity surrounding the success with Per’s “Mazarin” has propelled the album back to the top of the Swedish album charts. The album ended its 11 week run at the top in September and has remained in the top 20 since it was released in June of last year.

  Meanwhile, on the singles chart, “Tycker om när du tar på mig” is at #11 in it’s 6th week, doing much better on the charts than “På promenad genom stan.”

Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this article.

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle killed all opposition when he collected no less than three Rockbjörnar (Rock Bears) tonight at Cirkus on Djurgården in Stockholm. The Rockbjörnen is Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet’s award and it turns 25 years this year.

  Per was nominated in the best male artist, best song and best album categories. “2003 was a fantastic year and 2004 has started off really well,” Per says to Aftonbladet. When receiving the grandest award of them all - best male artist - Per says “Sweet Jesus, thank you all again! See you this summer with Gyllene Tider!”

  Over the years Roxette has received six Bears, Marie Fredriksson five, Gyllene Tider two and now Per Gessle three.

  Last year’s record of 480,000 votes was broken with some margin; 760,000 votes this year!

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)

Per Gessle’s “Mazarin” solo album and the single “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)” were major hits last year. You can see that clearly now when award nominations and yearly charts are announced.

  Today were the nominations for the Swedish Grammis awards revealed. Per is listed not less than seven times: artist of the year, male artist of the year, album of the year (“Mazarin”), song of the year (“Här kommer alla känslorna”), composer of the year, producer of the year (together with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist) and lyricist of the year. The awards gala is on February 9 and it will be broadcast on TV4 the next day. News agency TT Spektra tried to contact Per for a comment, but “he was in Africa”.

  Other Per’s success stories were: 30 weeks on Svensktoppen charts with “Här kommer alla känslorna”, 22 weeks at #1; Most played song on the Swedish radio; Most sold album of the year (240,000 copies, four times platinum); Third most sold single; Second most sold DVD (“En mazarin, älskling?”).

  Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this story.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)

HALMSTAD - Per turns 45 today. We know that normally the 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th … anniversaries are the ones that get special attention, but since 2003 has been such a great, special, amazing year for The Man, we just thought he deserved some special attention, and also remember other special moments in Per’s life.



January 12, 1959 Per is born.

1978 First record ever - The “Billy” EP.

1979 Gyllene Tider’s first single on EMI - “Flickorna på TV2”.

1979 First #1 on the Swedish charts - “Flickorna på TV2”.

1983 Per’s first solo album, “Per Gessle” is released.

1986 Roxette is born, first single “Neverending Love” is released.

March 28, 1989 “The Look” goes #1 on Billboard and breaks Roxette worldwide.

1993 Roxette plays MTV Unplugged at Cirkus in Stockholm.

August 21, 1993 Per marries Åsa.

1996 Gyllene Tider reunites for Scandinavia’s biggest tour ever.

1997 Per’s first solo album in English, “The World According To…” is released.

August 5, 1997 Per and Åsa’s son, Screamin’ Lord G (Gabriel) is born.

June 16, 2003 Per releases “Mazarin” and creates a mass hysteria in Sweden.

2004 Gyllene Tider turns 25 years, a new album and a tour is in the pipeline.



A huge Happy Birthday, Per, from all of us at The Daily Roxette! Here’s to many more!

STOCKHOLM - Be it the new single, “Tycker om när du tar på mej”, or the need to get a great Christmas present - “Mazarin” climbs back to #6 on the Swedish album charts this week. At the same time “Tycker om när du tar på mej” enters the singles charts at #9, which is a lot better than the previous single. It is getting an enormous amount of airplay in Sweden.

Update Jan 10: “Mazarin” climbs to #3 this week, and “Tycker om när du tar på mej” shoots up from #21 to #12! It is also still doing great on the airplay charts.

HELSINKI - Antti Tuisku, a semi-finalist on the Finnish “Idols” contest, sings “Spending My Time” on a new CD put together of the songs performed during the TV series. The series is based on the very popular international format first shown in the UK with the name “Pop Idol”. In the series a hard-worded jury judges the performances and unmercifully throws out the contestants with not-so-good voices. Tuisku did very well in the series, as he was ranked third and had to go just before the final battle.

  The “Idols” final is broadcast live on the Finnish MTV3 channel tonight. The CD is published by BMG and its release date was also today.

• Antti Tuisku Fanclub (in Finnish)

STOCKHOLM - The year of 2003 was a huge success for Per Gessle. The hit single “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)” was the most played song on Swedish radio stations, both on SR (Sveriges Radio) and commercial stations, during 2003. It’s the first time since Music Control started this list in 1996 that a Swedish artist is #1 on that year list.

  At second place came Robbie Williams with his song “Feel”, and at #3 Blue and Elton John’s hit song “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word”. All in all four Swedish songs were on the top ten.

• TT in Metro (Page 18, in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - After preliminary voting by the readers of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Per Gessle’s name shows up as a final nominee in three categories for this year’s Rockbjörnen awards.

  Per is a finalist in all of the three categories that he could have been nominated in: Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Album (“Mazarin”) and Best Swedish Song (“Här kommer alla känslorna”).

  Update Dec. 20: The gala will be televised on Swedish TV3 with a two hour delay, at 21:00 CET. Artists performing include Broder Daniel, The Rasmus, Moneybrother and Per Gessle.

  Update Jan. 8: The gala is held at Cirkus in Stockholm Jan 18. The tickets are for sale on TicNet. Phone # +46-(0)771-707070.

• Aftonbladet’s “Rockbjörnen” site (In Swedish)
• BiljettDirekt/TicNet (Get your tickets here)

ST. PETERSBURG - Russian EMI representative Gala Records Inc. has recently released special low priced CDs. Among those are Roxette’s “The Ballad Hits” (5975512) and “The Pop Hits” (5975492). The releases are copy protected, have no bonus tracks and no bonus EP. The price will be approximately $8.

  There is also a special red label on the sleeves - inserts, not booklets - saying “For distribution in the Russian territory and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). Except for Moldavia and Ukraine.”

BRUSSELS - Copy protection of CDs is illegal, claims the Belgian consumer rights organization Test Aankoop, who sued EMI, BMG, Sony and Universal for copy protecting their CDs. The companies will have to defend their position regarding copy protection in court. “This kind of protection violates the consumers’ statutory right to copy. The words ’copy control’ do not free the record companies of the law,” the organization says in a press release.

  According to Test Aankoop today’s CD protection misses the target when it comes to hacking and record piracy, while it undermines the consumers’ rights to use the CD as they want for private purposes.

  Their Norwegian counterpart Forbrukerrådet follows the case closely. “We find it positive that the question has been asked, and we’ll monitor the upcoming lawsuit with excitement,” Paal Bjönness, legal councelor of Forbrukerrådet says. “This will probably not be the last lawsuit of this kind,” Bjönness continues.

  Last year both a French and an Australian consumer rights organization sued record companies.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Capitol Records Sweden will release a new low price series of CDs, presumably to fight piracy. Among these CDs are Per Gessle’s “The World According to Gessle” (1997) and Marie Fredriksson’s “Efter stormen” (1987). The price of the CDs will be 65 Swedish kronor ($9), and they are packed in cardboard sleeves.

STOCKHOLM - After having spent Christmas with his family in Halmstad, Per Gessle says it’s now time for him to work on the new Gyllene Tider record that will be released to coincide with this summer’s upcoming 25th Anniversary tour.

  “It’s important so that the tour isn’t only a retro thing, even if we will be playing the old hits,” says Per.

  Per won’t comment how far along the recording process is. “Then you won’t have anything to write about the next time,” Per said to Expressen’s Per Hägred.

  The article claims that the comeback was planned – or at least considered – as early as 1996, during Återtåget. The tour will start in July, local venues are being booked now, and the only worries are that they might not sound good or that it will rain. The new record and the summer tour are presents from Gyllene Tider to their fans.

  The only thing that hasn’t gone the way Per would prefer lately is his receding hairline that tells him he’s reached middle age. “I thought this was something that only happened to one’s father,” he says.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish, with full-size photo shown here as thumbnail)