The UK division of the official fan club has launched its own web site. The site is huge and it looks great, too.

“Turning 40 doesn’t mean me a shit”, says Per, 40. “The important thing is that your life has contents.” Per thinks that when one is tired and fed up everything’s lost. “I was about to become like that. I was fed up with the future and tired of the music business. I felt like Pete Sampras, burned-out and discouraged.” Fortunately, an angel saved him. The angel is called Gabriel and he’s the 17-month-old son of Per and Åsa. “Suddenly I noticed that I needed something to my life. After Gabriel was born I felt like a totally different person. I’ve got my purpose: a family.”

Per doesn’t think the new album would be a of test of Roxette’s popularity. “This is the best [album] we’ve done. […] Marie sings better than ever. I feel myself super cool, I don’t think anyone’s going to ask ’why did you still make an album?’ It’s just the opposite, I think we’re going towards a very intensive period.”

Per isn’t afraid of the criticism even though the new single hasn’t get very good reviews. “We have written 40 songs, recorded 19 and 14 are on the album. Five of them are strong single candidates. It’s entirely a matter of chance which will be the first single. You can’t know if it’ll be a hit, you can’t see it in advance.”

“[My singing voice] is an absolute disaster. But I have to admit that I sing quite well on the new album…”, says Per. He would like to have the voice of John Lennon or Otis Redding or Steve Marriot (Small Faces).
Per is asked on Aftonbladet how he’s going to spend his birthday. “Åsa has arranged something, I have no idea what it is going to be.”

Five questions to Per:

• Drugs
  
  “I’ve never been a teetotalist. But I’m also a little shy to try anything new. I’m the kind of person who likes to have the control. It can be useful in this business.”
  
• Abba
  
  “A definitive role model. They were naturally superb, I can see it now. But I didn’t like them when they were pop. I specially hated ’Waterloo’.”
  
• Picasso
  
  “The greatest artist of the 20th century. […] He gave the impulse for my interest in art.”
  
• Diapers
  
  “Changing diapers is overrated entertainment. But a Nobel prize to the one who invented the T-shaped diapers!”
  
• Plastic surgery
  
  “Hmm, I think it’s time for a liposuction soon.”
  

The “Picture of the Day” in Aftonbladet is a funny picture of Per and a champaigne bottle. (Maybe he does need a liposuction, what do you think? :-)

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article
• Dagens bild

The track listing of the new single is not a rumour anymore as it’s also available on Boxman’s site.

Cheaper single (probably in a cardboard sleeve)

1. Wish I Could Fly
   
2. Happy Together
   

More expensive single (probably in a plastic cover)

1. Wish I Could Fly
   
2. Happy Together
   
3. Wish I Could Fly (demo)
   

According to Aftonbladet, Per’s fortune is 200 million SEK which - of course - makes him one of the richest men in Sweden. Per also pays a lot of taxes: 17 million SEK in 1997. Per owns the copyrights to all his songs - 250 in total, he says.

Per’s wealth isn’t all exactly his own, because most of the business he does is run through several companies. A Swedish newspaper called Månadens affärer said in 1995 that his fortune would be as much as 500 million SEK, but Per said later in an interview that it’s totally made up.

Gyllene Tider’s Återtåget tour in 1996 brought 60 million SEK to Per. His albums has sold about 40 million copies around the world and the new album is going to increase the number with “at least 4 million”, says EMI Svenska.

Aftonbladet has made a list of Per’s companies:

• Gessle Music
  
  Sales: 12 860 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 4 069 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 100 %
  
• Music For Money
  
  Sales: 52 043 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 8 402 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 100 %
  
• Jimmy Fun Music
  
  Sales: 80 283 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 12 707 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 100 %
  
• Happy Accident Music
  
  Sales: 1 847 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 82 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 100 %
  
• Tres Hombres
  
  Sales: 2 700 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 35 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 33 %
  
• Funbag
  
  Sales: 1 766 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 46 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 100 %
  
• Roxette Produktions
  
  Sales: 12 230 128 SEK
  
  Profit: 516 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 50 %
  
• Tylösandskompaniet
  
  Sales: 34 337 000 SEK
  
  Profit: 83 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 40 %
  
• Tylösands havsbad
  
  Sales: 62 661 000 SEK
  
  Profit: -91 000 SEK
  
  Per owns: 40 %
  
• Roxette Recordings
  
  Sales: no information yet
  
  Profit: no information yet
  
  Per owns: 50 %
  

This is how Per spends his money (according to Aftonbladet):

• Has a 27-million-SEK villa (500 sq metres) in Halmstad and luxury apartment on Strandvägen in Stockholm.
  
• Has a Ferrari, Harley Davidson motorcycle and an Indian Big Chief jeep, but they are not in use. The family Gessle uses two Mercedes, a 420 and a 600.
  
• Collects art. First piece of art in his collection was a sculpture from the 60’s by Fernandez Arman bought in 1981. Per has masterpieces by Picasso and other famous artists.
  

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

The Swedish promo site for “Have A Nice Day” has been updated again. This time you can find the lyrics of “Wish I Could Fly” and a new picture of Roxette. There’s also a link section which features links to the official fan club’s site and to Jimmy Fun Music site.

• www.haveaniceday.nu

Here are the lyrics of “Wish I Could Fly” from haveaniceday.nu site:

Halfway through the night

I wake up in a dream

Echoes in my head

Make every whisper turn into a scream

 

I dreamed I could fly

Out in the blue

Over this town

Following you

Over the trees

Subways and cars

I’d try to find out

Who you really are

 

In the middle of the night

Cool sweatin’ in my bed

Got the windows open wide

Thinkin’ about all the things you said

 

I wish I could fly

Out in the blue

Over this town

Following you

I’d fly over rooftops

The great boulevards

To try to find out

Who you really are

Who you really are

 

I wish I could fly now

Wish I could fly now

Wish I could fly now

 

I wish I could fly

Around and around

Over this town

The dirt on the ground

I’d follow your course

Of doors left ajar

To try to find out

Who you really are

 

To try to find out

Who you really are

Words & Music by Per Gessle / Published by HipHappy. All rights reserved. © 1999 Roxette Recordings

• www.haveaniceday.nu

The first article of Aftonbladet’s series tells about Per’s childhood, school and earlier bands.

Per was the youngest of three children and that’s why he was a bit sissy. He liked to read, paint and - most important - listen to the music. Aftobladet tells about his first album, Kinks’ “Kontroversy” which he bought from his brother and which is still in his record collection. Per also used to read all the American and English music charts very carefully.

Aftonbladet writes about his poor success in school. Per got a 1 (the worst grade) in maths, but “little did he know that he would ’get a 1’ in the USA”. The only subject he was really good at was music. It wasn’t a surprise he started his own band, first called Grape Rock, but soon the name was changed to Gyllene Tider.

Per met Marie first time in the early 80’s. Gyllene Tider and Marie’s band Strul shared a rehearsal room. “First time I saw Per I thought he looked unbeliavably stylish. I had a little doubt, though. We were more like hippies and he was an elegant and well-raised young man. […] After all we became quite a good friends”, Marie tells on Aftonbladet.

Then the article tells about Åsa Nordin, the woman who Per was to marry and about their son Gabriel Titus who was born in 1997. After Gyllene Tider had split up in 1985 (the article says 1983…) Per wasn’t really remembered anymore. However, in 1986 a duet with Marie Fredriksson brought him back to the spotlights. “Neverending Love” became a massive hit in Sweden. But for the international success they had to wait until 1989 and for the album “Look Sharp!”.

“After all this he hasn’t really changed much. He is still the same boy, only spoiled with millions. One gets so much stuff and money and the habits change”, says Rolf Nygren, ex-managing director of EMI Svenska. He believes in Roxette’s future. “Per won’t ever give up, it’s not his style.”

Tomorrow Aftonbladet is going to inspect Gessle’s million imperium.

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

Per turns 40 next Tuesday. To celebrate his birthday the newspaper Aftonbladet has started a series of articles about Per’s career “from 1 [the worst grade] in maths to #1 in USA”. There will be an article about him every day until January 12.

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

Last year’s (and maybe this year’s, too) megahit movie in Sweden, “Fucking Åmål” (that’s English, no need to translate :-), has been nominated for five Guldbagge awards. The categories are best film, best director, best manuscript, best actress and best supporting actor. Rather strange is that the stars of the movie, Alexandra Dahlström and Rebecca Liljeberg, are nominated together in best actress category. “Fucking Åmål” features old Gyllene Tider tune “När vi två blir en”.

EMI Electrola’s web site tells that “Wish I Could Fly” will be heard in Germany already on January 18, when the Australian Open tennis tournament begins. “Wish I Could Fly” is going to be the theme song of the tournament on German TV channel ARD. Thanks everyone, I got about 20 translations of the German article :-)

• EMI Electrola