HELSINKI - Per Gessle starts his first-ever European solo tour in Helsinki tonight. Per is performing at Tavastia Klubi where he also performed during his "Mazarin" tour in 2003. Per's gig will start at 10pm EET.

Gessle will be supported by Martinique, aka Martin Josefsson. Martin is also the husband of Helena Josefsson who sings in Per's band. Martinique will start playing at 9pm EET.

Per has started his tweeting career enthusiastically. He has already answered dozens of fans' questions using his @PartyPleaser Twitter account and revealed some nice tidbits about the forthcoming tour.

The most interesting piece of information so far has been that Per has discussed with Marie about performing with him on the tour. "[S]he might pop up somewhere, we've talked about it," Per wrote in his tweet.

Another revealed fact is that the Stockholm concerts on May 9 and 10 will be filmed, and "most likely" there will be a live DVD available after the tour.

"Silly Really" has entered Sirius XM Satellite Radio's biggest station, Sirius Hits 1's chart at #27. This by requests only. Per comments to TDR: "Exciting!!!" Sirius XM has 22 million subscribers. The song is reviewed in Billboard magazine.

(Updated) - Head over to Gessle.com to see new photos and yet another video message from Per and his Heavy Metal Kids.

(Updated) - Per revealed a big surprise today; instead of playing his own songs on the Party Crasher tour, he's going to perform mostly cover tracks. Instead of an all-Gessle set list, Per and the band are going to perform only three Gessle-penned songs! Per sent us this message:

hola every-1! to celebrate my 30 years in pop music me and the heavy metal kids are going to play the greatest pop songs ever for you guys and gals! it's gonna be so cool to play 'eye of the tiger' and other favorites on stage!!!

and hey, don't forget to send your suggestions for songs! we still haven't decided which three songs will be the mr gee songs we play!!!!

luv, p.

We also received a preliminary set list:

1. Let's Dance
2. Send Me A Postcard
3. SOS
4. to be determined
5. Livin' On A Prayer
6. Poison
7. To The Moon And Back
8. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
9. California Sun
10. Eye Of The Tiger
11. Take My Breath Away
12. to be determined
13. Ever Fallen In Love
14. Every Breath You Take
15. Manic Monday
16. Friday I'm In Love
17. Carrie
18. Pour Some Sugar On Me
19. Born In The USA
20. Don't You (Forget About Me)
21. Wish You Were Here
22. Africa
23. You
24. Words Of Love
25. to be determined

The missing songs will be selected from the ones fans have requested.

Editor's note: As many of you already know, this was an April Fool's joke. Per's set list still remains a secret…

(Updated) According to a press release sent out today by the Göteborg Opera, Marie Fredriksson will perform in a gala for the World Childhood Foundation on May 18th.

The foundation was founded by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden in 1999 and in order to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Göteborg Opera has organised this gala, which will be attended by the Royal Family. Other artists such as Peter Jöback, German violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter and mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus will participate in the gala as well.

World Childhood Foundation's work is aimed at the most marginalised children. "The goal is to promote the right of every child to its childhood and to work for better living conditions for children in danger. We must fight against the extreme  material, social and emotional poverty in which they livea," writes H.M. Queen Silvia on the foundation's homepage. Currently the foundation supports more than 100 projects in 14 countries.

All revenue from the gala will be donated to World Childhood Foundation.

Update April 2: According to the Göteborg Opera homepage, tickets will be on sale on April 6th at 12:00 CET. The tickets cost 1700 SEK and can only be purchased at the Opera Box Office personally (not over phone or email) since a personal ID must be show at the time of purchase. Maximum amount of tickets per person is two. Dress code is smoking or dark suit.

(Updated) - Per and the gang are having a blast rehearsing. "7Twenty7 has never been this loud!" Check out gessle.com for more photos.

Per is also asking for songs to play:

Hey you gals & guys out there. I'm in the middle of rehearsals and having a blast trying out songs I haven't played live before!! Just for the fun of it, would you mind requesting a couple of tracks you want us to perform? 3 per person would be great! I won't promise we'll play your favorites but you'll never know. The band is certainly in a good mood and we all look forward to this trip!!!!

Thanks so much for your participation.

 

Lots of luv from Mr Gee & The Heavy Metal Kids

 

On the evening of March 28, 1989, the telephone rang at Per Gessle's home in Halmstad. When Per answered, Roxette's manager Thomas Erdtman screamed down the other end that "The Look" was #1 on the U.S. Billboard chart!

Swedish radio P4 Retro celebrated the occasion with an hour of Roxette Special with a few rare demos!

Per talks quite a bit about Roxette in this telephone interview conducted by Petr Vizina, audio editor for the newspaper HN in the Czech Republic.  Among many other things, he talks about Marie and how her life changed after her illness, but that she likes to sing on stage again and that he's sure — not now, but next winter or next year — that Roxette will be ready to come back.

Vizina, who comes across as being very knowledgable and seems obviously be a Roxette fan himself, speaks — in English — with Per for about 24 minutes. He eventually gets around to asking about the upcoming "Party Crasher" tour and Per readily admits that "people don't know who I am."

"This is my 50th birthday present to myself," he says. "I'm not going to plug 'Party Crasher' to death, I'm going to play a compilation of what I've been doing for the past 30 years." The interview appears on the newspaper's online edition (iHNed.cz).

As announced earlier this month, Marie Fredriksson performed last Thursday in Café Opera, Stockholm, in an event called "Still rocking in the free world".

Together with Lasse Lindbom, Niklas Strömstedt, Mats Ronander, Annelie Rydé, husband Mikael Bolyos and son Oscar Bolyos, she remembered those great times in the '80s on Café Opera's stage. Marie covered Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man", "El Paso" and sang her own hit "Ännu doftar kärlek". The big surprise of the evening was however Marie's 12 year old son Oscar Bolyos, who performed Lenny Kravitz's "Stand By My Woman" and the Rolling Stones's "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

Videos and photos of the event can be found on Expressen, Aftonbladet and Hotgossip.