The Daily Roxette

Roxette World Tour 2011 schedule

Per & Marie deliver a knock out performance at Cirkus

Written by tevensso on May 11, 2009 to and .

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - It's Stockholm Day 2: the same show, the same songs, the same band, the same fans (well, almost) - but twice the energy. What can I say… this band is among the tightest I've heard since I don't know, Gyllene Tider 1996? [Well, Bon Jovi 2003 was pretty damn amazing too, in front of 68,000 people.] Was everything "just the same?" Not at all.  There was no video crew, despite previous information, and most of all… Marie Fredriksson on guest vocals! Marie, as in Amsterdam, sang "It Must Have Been Love" and "The Look" together with Per and the band. The noise when Per introduced Marie must have made an impact on the Richter scale… or, as a reporter for one of the Swedish newspapers put it, it almost blew the roof off the theater.  Fans cried openly.  Erik Johansson, who we mentioned in yesterday's article, said he hasn't cried this much ever. Marie herself looked quite taken with the situation, and just as in Amsterdam… couldn't help but say "Wow!"

The concert was basically the same as on Saturday, only — so it seemed to this reviewer — much more intense.

When The Daily Roxette talked to Per after the show, he said the band cried backstage, and now they feel all empty inside. But things are in the works "soon," Per said without being specific at all.

Even though most of the antics of the band are rehearsed, it's still kind of fun and cute… especially when Christoffer starts playing "Ljudet av ett annat hjärta" frantically on his golden Gibson/Epiphone, or starts the intro to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in "Do You Wanna…"

TDR can also namedrop some of the event's guests; Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria with fiancé Daniel Westling (with stern Secret Service agents hovering,) Swedish singer Lena Philipsson ("Kärleken är evig" etc.) and famous movie and music video director Jonas Åkerlund… just to name a few.

65 comments

Sascha said on :

Suckerpunch? What does that express? ;-p

Jud (moderator) said on :

it was simply amazing when Marie stepped on stage. People went simply nuts. And Marie ROCKED. It was the best Roxette performance I’ve seen, even topped the Showcase in Barcelona ’01. Micke told me it was even better than in Amsterdam, I cannot compare myself, but for what I saw and heard I am sure he is right :)

And she seemed to have so much fun. Cannot wait till NOTP.

There is a great picture of P&M and nice article on Expressen, not sure if online, at least on paper.

Perfect, don’t regret making the trip at all. Thanks to all who convinced me. It was also great to see you all, Txiqui, Alex, Ktoto, Rosa, Laura, Tev, Kirsten and everyone else :)
___________________________
Marie Fredriksson Online
Be strong, speak true

Sascha said on :

Look forward to watch videos with sound tonight!

It’s logical that Marie gets more secure from performance to performance. Nice! And maybe the thought of Roxette performing at Victoria’s wedding (German Forum...) wasn’t that far off after all! ;-)

Kiwein1 said on :

Best Roxette performance I have ever seen. Nobody needs a superb “show”. It’s all about the music, feeling it, playing with it and getting the crowd to join. They made it all with The Look. Simply fabulous, even better than in Amsterdam, ppl were screaming louder there, though. ;-)

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www.marie-fredriksson.com
www.planet-roxette.com

daniel_alv said on :

Maybe Roxette should make a new song to Victorias wedding and perform it at the wedding. ABBA performed Dancing Queen at her fathers wedding. It would be cool. first ABBA and then Roxette.

tina142 said on :

Am I the only person that isn’t all that bothered about Marie? For me, Roxette is Per Gessle and always will be. Yeah, Marie’s fine but Per is Roxette. I adore Roxette and will be travelling from the UK to see them when on tour but I’d much rather see Helena than Marie. Went to the London show and it was amazin. I’m glad Marie wasn’t there, I paid to see Per after all. Don’t all you Marie fans pull me to pieces because I understand she has her fans and I do like her to a certain extent, but to me Per is the genius and that’s the way it is for me. Just my opinion.

Kiwein1 said on :

And nobody will hate you for it. ;-) It’s just amazing that a woman who had 5% chance to survive a brain tumour is finally back and even better than she was before. And no, Per isn’t Roxette. Per AND Marie is Roxette. ;-) It’s really amazing how they’re still rocking together. It feels “complete” to see BOTH of them on stage. And I really don’t have a personal thing going on with Helena, but she doesn’t sing half as good as Marie does..

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www.marie-fredriksson.com
www.planet-roxette.com

abysmo said on :

About what or who is Roxette. The truth is, that Per is excellent songwriter and Marie is excellent singer. Per´s rate 25% and Marie’s 25% makes Roxette’ s 100%. They extremelly fit together, as a persons, as a musicians, as a pop stars. It’ s simply fantastic to see them both together at one stage again. You can feel the specific energy when Marie comes at the stage and joins Per. Everything is brighter and more coloured.
______________

RoxRoom.wz.cz

tina142 said on :

Suppose it would be boring if we all had the same opinions, wouldn’t it? Marie has done great recovering from her brain tumour and I am really looking forward to seeing Roxette again in the future. I just love Per, that’s all, I know I’m biased, lol.

n_e_1 said on :

@tina142 You are not the only one. But I love Marie anyway.

tina142 said on :

I’m still so happy they’re back together and I like Marie, I do. Hope they do a proper tour next year, NOTP they’re only doing five songs, not that many. Still, it should be great. I’m really not being mean about her, I just want to put across that Per’s amazing, lol. Can’t wait for the DVD!

konstpaus said on :

i totally agree with tina too, per is roxette for me, i would much rather a new GT long player than a roxette one, i suppose we all dont know if there will be a new roxette LP have to wait until NOTP is over, only time will tell, if the is its all good GT can wait after all it was a long time between Puls and F5F!

Breathe8 said on :

GREAT to see Marie on stage again!! I can´t wait NOTP shows!!!

Jud (moderator) said on :

funny. I feel the same as Kirsten. For me the best was when they performed together yesterday. Per did a good job (must confess, better than I had expected) singing Roxette songs alone, but I always missed Marie here and there. For example Dressed for success making people clap (we did it on our own, Per didn’t help here!!) or the guitar stuff at Dangerous, or or or... I guess it would feel the same if Marie would perform Roxette songs on her own. So Roxette is BOTH to me. And that feeling of completeness was 10000% there yesterday. Simply great.
___________________________
Marie Fredriksson Online
Be strong, speak true

pwbbounce (moderator) said on :

Does anyone know any links to yesterdays Marie appearance on YouTube??

ncurran said on :

Per is a great songwriter, no doubt about that, but without marie’s voice he could never have had success on the worldwide scale that he enjoyed in the 90s. Though he has developed as a performer...he’s not a natural showman.Indeed, when I went to the PC gigs I probably spent more time watching Christoffer and Helena on stage, who are more charismatic and also give a lot more eye contact to those of us down at the front! Marie on the other hand, also couldnt have had worldwide success without per’s songs. I also think for fans of Roxette as a group, it is part of the interaction between them that makes them even more special. I noticed at the first gig I went to in London, that although I really like Helena (a lot more than I used to), when she actually moves across and sings to him, he barely flinches. If however you watch the youtube videos of amsterdam, there is still so much chemistry between marie and per. I also like the fact that per seems so protective and caring towards her these days.
I think most roxette fans are more of a fan of either marie or per, and i think its no secret that I am a big marie fan. Per’s solo work has never really excited me (though I do think PC and TWATG are both good albums)......I completely disagree with Tina though when she says that for her Per is Roxette. Neither of them individually can claim to be Roxette, as the magic that is Roxette is only apparent when they are together! They have both had successful careers outside the band, but I consider that to be completely separate from Roxette as an entity.

carpalex5 said on :

These two were the best I could find:
The Look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFQdGAV7Mg
IMHBL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbVOPgkDWI
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www.roxette.ro

kriszta said on :

I totally agree with Kiwein1 !
Per and Marie are ROXETTE!
Per is very fantastic and Marie too,but they together the BEST !!! ROX ON!!!

GT_85 said on :

Great gigs in Stockholm, even though I think the Halmstad gig was a bit better.

ettexor said on :

Roxette is Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson!!!

Per Gessle = solo artist
Marie Fredriksson = solo artist

tina142 said on :

Just wana clarify that I love Roxette and I’m not attacking Marie at all. There’d be no Roxette without either of them but I do think I prefer Per’s solo work or GT, I guess it depends on my mood as to who I listen to. I think Per’s got a more individual voice and I loved his versions of the Roxette songs when I saw him in London that Marie would normally sing esp Listen to Your Heart. It’s great Roxette are back!

PerAndren said on :

I thought Chris was playing Ljudet av ett annat hjärta? Or am I wrong?

Kiwein1 said on :

It definitely wasn’t När vi två blir en.
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www.marie-fredriksson.com
www.planet-roxette.com

tevensso (moderator) said on :

You’re right of course, I’ve been awake too long! :D

first girl on t... said on :

Thank you for the links!!!That was a stunning performance by Marie, her voice sounds fantastic, so much energy!!!Per was great too, don’t know the reason but his voice is so much better than years ago. Great, emotional performance!!!Thank you Marie and Per!!!

Kiwein1 said on :

Well, enough moaning. Nice article! Thank you, Thomas.
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www.marie-fredriksson.com
www.planet-roxette.com

Txiqui said on :

Is the first time that I cry listening to The Look in my life, i don’t know how to explain all the feelings I had while Per & Marie where singing again together last night in stockholm. It was more than great!!!
From my place i could see peoples faces and i can say that most of the front row (including me) where crying while Marie sang it must have been love.
The Look was crazy, the band rocked and Marie sang better than ever! It was great to see them having fun together on stage again.

I’ve uploaded some pics from yesterday: http://picasaweb.google.es/roxspain

PerAndren said on :

Some pics at Rockfoto: http://www.rockfoto.nu/artists/Per%20Gessle

Roxette Holland said on :

On the website op Algemeen Dagblad (www.ad.nl), a big Dutch newspaper is a huge interview with both Marie and Per. The last piece is the most important one. I translate it the best I can:

Fredriksson says she looks to the future day by day, but says she won’t be able to do a full Roxette tour. ,,So that is not going to happen in the near future,” Per says. ,,Although we have offers enough to do so. All came after we announced our comeback. Our manager can plan gigs until we are both 80 years old. Even stadiums want us. To be honest, Marie and I are the only ones who say no to that. A new cd? In autumn we are going to go into the studio together. It is great to be together again, be creative. And if the songs are good, we bring out a cd. If not, we never talk about them anymore.”

Sanglof said on :

great to see and hear Marie, though, in my opinion, her voice is not as strong as it used to be. Not as powerful, and not as clean, but still great feeling.

flowersonthemoon said on :

I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU! to all the band.. Christofer, Magnus, Helena, Clarence, Pelle and of course to Per, for giving us that special moments that we will never forget (and for all the complicity you had with us during the concerts!!).
I have lived probably the best moments in my roxette-related life in the last days.
Roxette are not only Per and Marie... Roxette is more.. the band is Roxette, we are Roxette!: fans who sleep at the door of the cirkus to be in the front row, fans who cry because of the problems with the order in the entrance... we ALL are roxette.

And about Marie... it was such an special moment to see her again... she was quite nervous at the beginning in It must have been love... but when The Look arrived... she was at the top!! (Sorry Clarence, but Marie is our Queen of rain!!) Her voice was perfect!!, do not judge it for the videos (all the fans are screaming and singing), she was really nervous...
I remember that there was a moment that everyone was screaming... and Marie felt that energy, she needs us for Roxette to be back!!

I must say that when I saw Marie in 2007 at Per’s concert in Stockholm I thought that Roxette was over... he could not even walk... but when we saw her in November at the Stockholm’s konserthuset we found her full of energy... and yesterday she was MARIE!!, as she was in the past... with all that magic energy. She started looking at the fans with that special way of looking that she has that makes your heart accelerate when she looks at you... Yesterday I had the confirmation that ROXETTE are back...

Thank you very much to all the people in all the concerts, all the fans, all the band, and all the friends that I have known in every concert! You made it really special to me.
Álex

Sascha said on :

Thanx for the summary! It’s great that they long for good studio work together, to make some really great songs again – that or nothing – instead of rushing out some mediocre songs for the sake of it. I feel they will succeed!

Emil__BG said on :

Marie and Per are Roxette!
And they both make something that is much better than the simple sum of two talented people.
They make the world class duo that touched the hearts of millions.

Marie is superb in both songs!
What a performance!

Thank you Marie for courage and constant faith against fate and all odds !
You are the real model and give us all the strengths to overcome all difficulties in life .
You give us hope that everything is possible.

And i will repeat -What a performance!!!
I start crying every time i watch it.

zlatyvoci said on :

I´d like to correct tevensso´s mistake! Christopher isn´t playing gold Gibson, but Epiphone Goldtop ;-) Brand new one epi with gibson pickups...as he told me :-)

PerAndren said on :

That’s right. But he also plays a Gibson Es-175.

Hotblooded said on :

Whilst I don’t think Marie is singing as technically sound as she did in the late 80’s early 90’s I do believe her voice has improved so much since the RS tour where I really felt her voice wasn’t in the best shape. I think it’s coming back more and more each time (I agree that she sounded even better than Amsterdam) but regardless of technique and power Marie has ALWAYS sung with feeling and sometimes that counts for much more :)

BTW I’m also happy that they want to only release new music if the songs are good enough, I really would prefer nothing than to get songs like OW again! They are both so much better than that.

Lars-Erik_Olson (moderator) said on :

I just loved what FlowersOnTheMoon (Alex) wrote about Roxette being more than just Per and Marie. I couldn’t agree more.

davidc4 said on :

Both Per and Marie obviously make up Roxette. They both have their unique qualities whic they put together to make Roxette.

They even say it themselves......”This is Per and this is Marie and we are Roxette!”

BandL said on :

Flowersonthe moon:
WELL SAID!!
I totally agreed!!

tevensso (moderator) said on :

Well, since 50 years or so, Epiphone and Gibson are the same company.

PerAndren said on :

Yeah, and Fiat and Ferrari are also the same company. Still not the same thing :-)

jasonchong said on :

first of all would like to thank the guy who gave me the per badge during the london concert.
appreciate it.... well... am back in Malaysia, and i must say i was very excited to have been there... well cost me a bomb... but was great to see all the fans there.
too bad i didnt get to meet per.... and was disappointed that marie didnt show up, but at least was there...

anyway... hope to see everyone there again soon !!!!

thanks

tevensso (moderator) said on :

From Wikipedia: “From the early 1970s the Epiphone brand name has been increasingly used by Gibson for lower priced guitars manufactured in countries other than the United States. Epiphone guitars have been made in the US, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and China”

Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957.

Roxerally said on :

Amazing performance... amazing night, amazing to meet so many new and old friends and finally meet people from places like Facebook, TDR and Twitter!

Marie was... perfect and yes I am surprised the roof of the Cirkus didn’t come away!

Also great to say I was just a couple of rows back from the future Queen of Sweden! :)

emilio said on :

Hey Tev don’t care about it, who cares if its an epiphone with gibson mics when Christiffer plays it in the way he does. I don’t like fenders but if he would have played doesn’t make sense with a telecaster or a stratocaster i do love those guitars now!
Anyway your article is great! Erik and you make this site superb

abysmo said on :

Yea, Chris’s solos during tour were great. Would be great to have some guitar riffs like these on the new album. Per and Marie said in one dutch interview that they will go to the studio this autumn and if this studio time leads to good new songs they will be released. If they fail, the songs will never be mentioned again… But is there anybody who believe that they could failed? Just look at Marie how she’ s pleased, just look at Per how he’s happy. I think there´s fantastic album on the way.
______________

RoxRoom.wz.cz

stevier said on :

So...they’ll record again in the autumn! Good to hear...

Link to the article is http://www.ad.nl/cultuurenshow/3211201/Tweede_leven_voor_Roxette.html

Sascha said on :

Yep. Small summary: www.roxetteblog.com

PS. ’Roxette Holland’ already translated the best parts here in the comments.

PerAndren said on :

So a Fiat with a Ferrari engine then! Could be quite wild.

emilio said on :

I really hope that Per keeps these band for tour or studio works. But my highest dream now is to have a second leg of the man from roxette tour!

PerAndren said on :

He will probably keep most of this band for whenever he plays solo again, but for the NOTP it seems like Pelle, Jonas, Chris (bass) and Clarence is his choice. + The orchestra of course.

tina142 said on :

Can’t wait for some new Roxette material and I hope they do a show in the UK when they tour next, if not, I’ll fly anywhere to see Per!

pym2ik said on :

@Jason

It was nice talking to you at the London Concert, nice to see new faces and your sacrifices to come over for the gig. I enjoyed the company of many fans in London and there was that emotional connection, as daydreamers that we shared, singing all these songs with people around me, amazing

tha badger in London

Roxerally said on :

I’ll miss Magnus but it would be great to see Jonas make an appearence!

ncurran said on :

I never thought I’d say it but I’ll miss Helena too. I like her on backing vocals. I’ve never really bothered much about her until this tour but thats probably because I wasnt into Per’s projects that she was involved in (apart from Party Crasher)

claudia soul deep said on :

PLEASE COME TO SPAIN !!!!!

GREAT NEWS !!! MARY ON STAGE AGAIN !!!!!!

zlatyvoci said on :

Tevensso: Yeah, Gibson and Epi are the same company (as well as many other brands in music business), BUT! Epi´s are 8x cheaper and made in China :-) At least this particular guitar.....it´s price is around 350 Euros + pickup change....so what is important - it´s great for EPI to make so good guitar :-)

ncurran said on :

Who is Mary? ;)

tevensso (moderator) said on :

Mary’s the one with the lamb, isn’t it?

Ivanych said on :

OK, lads! Stop it ;)
Every one can make a mistake. It’s natural.
I was there in front of Marie and Helena. And I was (and I am) extremely happy to see Per and Marie onstage.
Staffan Öfwerman was also there. ;-)

rosa_73 said on :

It was great for me too to see you again after such a long time, Jud

rosa_73 said on :

I just have the same feelings, Alex .You have described perfectly what I felt last Sunday and what I feel now .

Roxerally said on :

Mary? *sniggers* shouldn’t but really can’t help but laugh! ;)

tina142 said on :

Just trying to put a face to the name, was it you, Ally, who gave me a party popper at Per’s gig in London? Best night of my life and still haven’t stopped talking about it!

ianukfan said on :

I saw the party poppers lol!

www.ianedwards.net

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