HALMSTAD -

January 1959

Per Håkan Gessle is born Jan 12.



February 1959

Mats Arne Persson joins the world February 26.



March 1961

Micke “Syd” Andersson sees the light of day March 12.



September 1961

Anders Herrlin does the same on September 17.



April 1962

Göran Fritzon, the youngest of the golden herd, is born April 28.



March 1967

Per starts his first pop group in Furet – Pepcis – that lip-syncs to The Animals and Tages. Sticks and kitchen utensils form the “instruments.”



August 1969

MP starts playing the trumpet and joins the Youth Guard.



During 1972

Per writes his first lyrics and dyes his hair red like idol David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. Göran joins a classmate and starts taking organ lessons at the Hagström music school. A few years later, he also takes lessons in classical music from Bert Möller who tells him about Anders and Micke’s group. Read more…

HALMSTAD - Anders Herrlin

Age: 43

Family: Jennie and Victor, 14.

Lives: In an apartment in Stockholm.

Car: No.

Hobbies: Yoga.





What is the most important album in history?

Gyllene Tider’s first album of course!



First album you bought?

“Razamanaz” by Nazareth.



What record purchase are you most ashamed about?

I don’t know, but there was an embarrassing incident once at a Statoil gas station. I had produced two songs on a Carola album and suddenly saw the cassette at the gas station. I didn’t have one myself – why I don’t know – but I got this preposterous idea to shoplift the cassette. Of course they caught me so I was thrown out and banned from the gas station. I’d call that an embarrassing record purchase.



What is your biggest concert experience?

Pink Floyd at Earl’s Court.



Which is the best party album before going out?

Bob Marley, “Chant Down Babylon”.



What’s the best day-after album?

To have my iPod set on shuffle so that it mixes all the songs, all the albums, all the artists.



Your best memory from Återtåget?

Stockholm Stadium… the gig was magical. And the closing concert in Halmstad of course.



What do you remember from the Gyllene Tider hysteria during the 80s?

Delight mixed with horror. Everything went so incredibly fast; we became super famous overnight. Personally, I didn’t like that time very much.



Which Gyllene Tider song do you refuse to play today?

Everything from “The Heartland Café” – probably the worst album on the planet.



What web sites would you want to promote?

I usually only visit real music technology nerd websites like www.sonicstate.com, so I don’t really have any recommendations.


Read more…

HALMSTAD - Göran Fritzon

Age: 42.

Family: Jenny; Emma, almost 14; Erik, 11; Victoria, 7; Oscar, three months.

Lives: Villa Tomtebo, Oskarström.

Car(s): ’97 Mercedes E420T, ’97 BMW S23, ’88 230 CE, ’66 MGB Tourer.

Hobbies: Food, movies and diaper changes, that’s all I have time for.





First album you bought?

One of the first was Sweet’s “Desolation Boulevard” (1974).



What record purchase are you most ashamed about?

It’s got to be a record by Michael Bolton…



What is your biggest concert experience?

Springsteen, May 1981, Johanneshov. “The River.”



Which is the best party album before going out?

“Finn 5 fel!”



What instrument would you like to learn how to play?

The piano.



Your best memory from Återtåget?

Many great memories, but one concert that beats most things was Stockholm Stadium.



Your worst memory from Återtåget?

When Per showed up in Lysekil. His back hurt so bad that he couldn’t even stand. We were three millimeters from canceling the show. The hours before that concert were probably the worst.



What’s the best song on “Finn 5 fel!”?

“Tuffa tider.”



What ring signal do you have on your cell phone?

Digirain… some standard signal.



What web sites would you want to promote?

www.gyllenetider.se and www.swemd.com.


Read more…

HALMSTAD - Mats MP Persson
Age: 45.
Family: Live-in girlfriend Åsa-Caroline and bonus dad to Mikaela.
Lives: A house in Halmstad.
Car/MC: One of each.
Hobbies: Car/MC.

What is the most important album in history?
John Holm’s “Sordin.”

First record you bought?
“Ett litet rött paket” by Sven-Ingvars.

What’s your biggest concert experience?
The opening act to Black Sabbath 1978 at Olympen in Lund: AC/DC.

Which is the best party album before going out?
No album, but a good day in the studio.

Your best memory from Återtåget?
Stockholm Stadium.

What do you remember from the Gyllene Tider hysteria during the 80s?
The open-air folk park tradition at its best.

What Gyllene Tider song do you refuse to play today?
“Upphetsad.”

What’s the best song off “Finn 5 fel!”?
“Tuffa tider.”

What ring signal do you have on your cell phone?
“Knaswobbel.”

What household chore can you manage?
Turning on the dishwasher and changing the dust bag in the Volta.

Read more…

HALMSTAD - Per Gessle

Age: 45.

Family: Wife Åsa; Gabriel, 6.

Lives: House in Sandhamn, apartment in Stockholm.

Car(s): Predilection for the Italian ones.

Hobbies: Art, racing.



What is the most important record in history?

In the big picture, probably “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley. But for me, I think it was “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” by The Beatles, which was the flip side of “Yesterday.” John Lennon’s voice changed my universe. And for God’s sake, don’t forget the guitar riff in the same song. Help me, that’s great!



First album you bought?

“The Kink Kontroversy” by The Kinks for five kronor (from my brother who needed money to buy cigarettes in secret…)



What record purchase are you most ashamed about?

Never regret a record purchase! I have both Peter Holm and Metallica in my collection.



What is your biggest concert experience?

Pugh & Rainrock at Folkets Park, in Halmstad 1974 I think. Pugh had just shaved off all his hair…. “Bolla och rulla” was the album. Then there are of course a lot of other goodies. Motörhead in London 1977, U2 with BB King in Melbourne 1989, Paul Simon here and there, Tom Petty is the best of all sometimes, Rolling Stones last year at Cirkus in Stockholm. I wept three times… And Hep Stars in Karsefors 1966. “Surfin’ Bird” was great.



Which is the best party album before going out?

Anything by Sweet. Glamrock is extraordinarily underrated!



What’s the best album to have in a car?

Right now I have The Beatles’ “White Album”, but I like mixing it with R.E.M.



Your worst memory from Återtåget?

My slipped disc that almost ruined it all for us. It was at its worst in Lysekil. Ugh!



What do you remember from the Gyllene Tider hysteria during the 80s?

Ugly Esso Motor Hotels! It was obviously very much fun, we never understood how it happened that we got so popular. But usually we stayed on our own, we were pretty insecure back then, we were very young.



What’s the best song on “Finn 5 fel!”?

There are several that I’m very fond of: “Nere på gatan,” “Jag borde förstås vetat bättre,” “Ordinärt mirakel,” and “Varje gång det regnar.” I like all the songs of course… otherwise they wouldn’t have been recorded! But the band really has really impressed me. They all have become “specialists” in their individual field lately. It sounds incredibly cool.



What’s your worst vacation memory?

I was very disappointed with Mauritius this winter. It didn’t suit us at all. Thankfully, I had a happy guitar with me so I wrote some songs to “Finn 5 fel!” there.


Read more…

STOCKHOLM, SKANSEN (UPDATED) - Gyllene Tider will perform in tonight’s episode of “Allsång på Skansen,” shown live on SVT 1 at 20:00 CET, as TDR reported earlier. The Daily Roxette’s reporter, Robert Thorselius, was on site. With elbow-to-elbow crowds, the audience record of about 32,000 is believed to have been broken.

  At the rehearsals, Gyllene Tider performed “En sten vid en sjö i en skog” and “Sommartider”. After “Sommartider,” rain broke out. Naturally these were the songs they performed during the show.

  After the show went off the air, Gyllene Tider continued by playing “Flickorna på TV2” and “(Hon vill ha) Puls” before a screaming audience.

  Update July 7: The audience record wasn’t broken, but 24,000 souls showed up in the pouring rain, the record was set in beaming sun, so Skansen is more than satisfied with the attendance.

• Article in Expressen
• Article in Aftonbladet

HALMSTAD - Micke ”Syd” Andersson

Age: 43.

Family: Helena, Dennis 15, Eddie 11, Emil 14 and Louise 11.

Lives: An apartment in Södermalm in Stockholm, summerhouse in Haverdal.

Car: Citroên Berlingo

Hobbies: The family, different exercises.





The first record you bought?

“Wig Wam Bam” by Sweet.



Which record purchase are you most ashamed of?

A few symphonic rock records I bought in my teens, and when I listened to them a while ago, they stood out as big question marks in my record history.



What’s your biggest concert experience?

Springsteen at Ullevi ’81, Bonnie Raitt at Konserthuset in Stockholm, and Joni Mitchell at the same place.



What’s the best record to have in your car?

Songs that feel like they’re made for cars – like “Solsken” from “Finn 5 fel!”.



Your best Återtåget memory?

When I saw the thousands of bikes outside of Sofiero in Helsingborg and I realized they were all there to see us. Then of course I’ll never forget Stockholm stadium and the last gig at Brottet.



Your worst Återtåget memory?

The first gig at Brottet… because we had a “discussion” during the afternoon sound check that resulted in me leaving and staying to myself before the gig. It wasn’t our best gig that tour, if you catch my drift.



Which Gyllene Tider-song do you refuse to play today?

Most of the songs from “The Heartland Café”.



What ring signal do you have on your cell phone?

I change it frequently, but I liked the old monophonic ring signals better. The phones are too damn noisy these days.



What web site do you want to promote?

Yogayoga.nu.



What’s your worst vacation memory?

When Helena and I got stuck in New York on our first trip together, and our luggage went back to Stockholm.


Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Swedish financial industry newspaper Dagens Industri (Today’s Industry), writes this week that Gyllene Tider’s summer tour will generate a turnover in excess of 150 million kronor (€16,339,000). Experts in the business claim that Per Gessle will get a third of the turnover himself. 420,000 tickets have been sold to date.

  EMA Telstar does not want to talk about how the money will be divided or how much profit this will generate. “That’s a trade secret and I don’t discuss that with the media” Leif “Blixten” Henriksson says to DI.

HALMSTAD - Gyllene Tider have been rehearsing in Halmstad for a while now. Before they go to Stockholm to continue rehearsing and to take part in the Allsång på Skansen television program, the band will perform a few songs tonight at Leif’s Lounge, Hotel Tylösand.


  The performance is scheduled at around 22:00 CET. Leif’s Lounge’s standard cover charge of 100 SEK will apply; minimum age is 23 years old.

  A similar “sneak preview” occured at Beach Club, next to Leif’s, just before the Återtåget tour in 1996.


  Update July 3:
  The five members entered the stage at around a quarter to eleven and played for about 45 minutes. Classics like “Sjömän”, “Det hjärta som brinner”, “Ljudet av ett annat hjärta”, “Leva livet”, “Sommartider” and new tracks from “Finn 5 fel!” such as “Solsken”, “Tuffa tider”, “En sten vid en sjö i en skog” and “Ta mej… nu är jag din” could be heard last night at Leif’s Lounge.

• Gyllene Tider official website
• Article in Göteborgs Posten
• Article in Hallandsposten
• Article in Expressen I
• Article in Expressen II
• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Gyllene Tider’s new album, released yesterday, went double platinum - 123,000 copies - in 22 hours! Gyllene Tider comments “We are overwhelmed, happy and touched! Retouched!”

  At Folk & Rock in Malmö approximately 1,000 people lined up to get their records signed. The Daily Roxette’s reporter, David Björnström was there and met the guys. There was no time for a formal interview but at least we got some nice pictures for you.

  Gyllene Tider will sign at Åhlens City in Stockholm at 17:30 CET today. TDR expects a chaos, Åhlens has even told people not to bring any other records to the signing.

  Update June 13th: Pictures from all the signing sessions in Halmstad, Malmö, Stockholm and Göteborg are now available on Gyllene Tider’s official website.


  David Björnström contributed to this article.

• GylleneTider.se