Per Gessle mangles Cirkus

Written by tevensso on May 10, 2009 to Live and Per Gessle.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - Spring is certainly in the air as the fans start lining up outside Cirkus in Stockholm. "Super fan" Erik Johansson has been there since the night before and is first in line — again. He feels it's his duty. When this reporter arrives at around 4:30 pm, there's quite a few people there already. Cirkus runs a very tight ship and everyone there has a number on their hands, and these numbers are checked regularly. The mood is nice and the video crew interviews people here and there. This reporter notices a longer stay at the Brazilian… or was it the Argentinian camp. Other nationalities noticed are Brits, Russians, Germans, Scots… and a few Swedes thrown in for good measure.

Per steps on stage a little after 8 pm, and the crowd goes wild. Per is all smiles for the whole hour and a half. The band is in absolutely top shape, and you can hear this is a band that is having fun! While shooting photos in front of the stage during the first three songs, this reporter could hear Per's shoes banging on the floor when he does his trademark Per "dance moves."

"The beautiful Cirkus-venue, a very relaxed band and crowd-pleasing setlist and… of course… a mind-blowing audience that makes life so sweet for us!" says Per.

There are, as far as this reporter can tell, no changes in the setlist this evening; it goes from A to Z like a freight train, even though the band jokes and starts playing Gyllene Tider's old hit "Sommartider" after Per yelling "Did I hear 'Sommartider'??" Chris also falls into The Knack's "My Sharona" in the intro of "Do You Wanna be My Baby?"

This is a great concert, the sound is more or less perfect, and it's understandable that they chose Cirkus to be the place for the video shoot. Marie Fredriksson didn't show up, but is expected to make a guest appearance this evening for the last concert. Will it be better tonight? We will definitely see. Stay tuned.

And for those who wonder, the two Stockholm concerts are being shot in hi-definition.

Update: Per lets us know that there won't be a Meet & Greet tonight (Sunday) since there'll be too much going on after the show.

SET LIST:

Dressed for Success
Drowning in Wonderful Thoughts About Her
Stupid
Party Pleaser
Wish I Could Fly
She Doesn´t Live Here Anymore
7twenty7
I Have A Party In My head
Late, Later On
Listen to Your Heart
Do You Wanna Be My Baby?
Opportunity Nox
Doesn't Make Sense
Church of your Heart
Dangerous
Joyride

Encore

C'mon
Are You an Old Hippie, Sir?
The Look
It Must Have Been Love

2nd Encore

Hey Mr. DJ
(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
Sleeping in My Car
Queen of Rain

40 comments

Emil__BG said on May 10, 2009 09:00:

They MUST shoot video TONIGHT as well !!
It would be such a bad and irreverent mistake if there no at least 1 song with Marie on that dvd!!!

ettexor said on May 10, 2009 09:13:

I wanted to be like them!!!

ncurran said on May 10, 2009 09:16:

I’m gutted Marie wasnt there last night, as i cant go to the show tonight...back at work tomorrow I’m afraid. Despite that, still a great night, and worth queuing up since 10am for....i’m obviously not hardcore enough to be queuing overnight!! Loads of international fans last night, in some respects too many as there was a lot of pushing around at the front, and I was being squeezed from both sides and had a sweaty argentinian practically humping me from behind. Was a great atmosphere down at the front though. Waited around for the meet and greet, and got my PC album signed. Didnt say much to Per....he said hi, I said hi then I said thanks when he signed it...though I don’t think those kind of signings are a great place to start a conversation though anyway. I also got one of my Brainpool albums signed by Chris as well and he seemed really nice. I must say, Ive only seen 2 gigs on this tour but I am a converted fan of Christoffer. He rocks on that guitar! I liked Brainpool anyway, but I suppose Jonas was always the traditional Roxette guitarist, but I think Chris has won over a lot of Roxette fans on this tour.
By the way Thomas, sorry I didnt get a chance to speak to you. I didnt even realise who you were until you were in front of the stage ready to take pictures, but I didn’t think that was the best time to start a conversation....and after the gig and my whole tour experience was over I wasnt really in the mood to talk to anyone!
Roll on NOTP!

ncurran said on May 10, 2009 09:18:

Oh and Emil, they are shooting both nights for the DVD, so in theory they could include 2 versions of The Look and IMHBL with and without Marie, though they dont necessarily have to....it is a Gessle tour after all

ncurran said on May 10, 2009 09:19:

I also like how I got a special mention in the article, unless there were other Scots there I don’t know about? :)

tevensso (moderator) said on May 10, 2009 09:20:

No problem Neil, I didn’t see you at all! I didn’t see anyone but Erik and Felicity! :S Too many faces around.
Edit: They told me you were there... ;)

Emil__BG said on May 10, 2009 10:34:

It”s “man from ROXETTE” tour and not including the comeback of lady from ROXETTE in the dvd will be disrespectful to her and to all Roxette fans.

Lennon said on May 10, 2009 11:45:

I would really like to have the Gessle-Versions of the songs, cause this was the special thing on this tour: to present Per Gessle’s songs from his point of view. I have so many Rox-Live-Versions already of IMHBL and TL, that I find it more interesting to get these songs in their new version on this disc.

Nevertheless, the “Roxette”-Tracks of the concert would be great for the bonus-section of the DVD.

RobS said on May 10, 2009 12:53:

I agree with Lennon. If Marie was in all the shows it’d be fine. But it’s Per’s tour and I think his versions should be the “main” ones.

But the Roxette tracks should definitely should be included as a bonus though. Actually either way works, so long as there is both versions on the disc.

Can’t wait for it :-)

Any idea when we might see it based on when the previous ones were released?

Jud (moderator) said on May 10, 2009 14:43:

great night yesterday!! Met some people I hadn’t seen for many years, some I only knew internet.. great to see you all :)
The show was great, even though Swedes were quite boring!! The only ones who were clapping and singing along up at the seats were... international fans ;)

Can’t wait for tonight.

DVD: it will be what it has to be. On one hand, of course everybody wishes Marie is on the DVD, but this is a Gessle tour, and it will be a Gessle DVD, so I would understand if he wants to have IMHBL or whatever song Marie will perform sung by him on the DVD cos I think either now or never. So.. maybe The Look? or maybe as a bonus? maybe nothing? anything will be fine :)
___________________________
Marie Fredriksson Online
Be strong, speak true

clerk said on May 10, 2009 14:54:

Shot in HD?!

Hope it will be released as Blu-Ray aswell!! The perfect way to relive the show!!:)

zlatyvoci said on May 10, 2009 15:21:

Does somebody know, how many people came to Halmstad or Stockholm? ;-)

abysmo said on May 10, 2009 16:11:

We’ll see tommorrow probably. Aftonbladet and Expressen will come with Tour statistics for sure as they always did.
This is great year by the way. New albums from Depeche Mode, A-ha and now Roxette’s one on the way. God bless 80’s. ;-)
______________

RoxRoom.wz.cz

tevensso (moderator) said on May 10, 2009 20:23:

No video tonight. Marie was superb!!!

Roxryder said on May 10, 2009 20:43:

same songs?

Never imagine you Thomas expressing that way about Marie! Hahaha Happy she conquered again!
————————————————————————–
like magic and love lots of forgotten words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmA-ar3wNFw

gloubibou said on May 10, 2009 21:04:

Marie did join Per on stage tonight!
It Must Have Been Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsE9SPiM-KQ

Emil__BG said on May 10, 2009 21:39:

The so called Per “management” didn’t say to the last minute for some stupid reason on which show will be Marie and now they even didn’t film her performance as a bonus to this DVD???

Another “genius” move.
No suprice that this tour is financial flop.

It’s not just stupid -it’s disgraceful to all Roxette fans.

Marie and Per on Circus arena together again for the first time after so many years.

How could you not film that?
You have hearts of stone.

Emil__BG said on May 10, 2009 21:44:

Now we must watch youtube instead of HD.

But on the other hand - it would save us some money cos there no reason to buy this dvd anymore .

andi11 said on May 10, 2009 21:54:

@Emil: Are you UNABLE to read properly? How many times does it have to be mentioned that BOTH concerts were shot? Read before you complain... tztz

tomos85 said on May 10, 2009 22:18:

Nope, there was NO cameras tonight, unfortunately. Don’t know why but that’s how it was. So there WON’T be any HQ Marie’s appearance on DVD. Anyway - show was just A M A Z I N G !!

Roxerally said on May 10, 2009 22:37:

Yeah Tomas is right tonights show was not shot for the DVD, no camera’s at all so you’ll have to make do with home made videos of Marie which I am sure will appear on YouTube soon!

It was an amazing end to a fabulous tour, Marie was fantastic as ever and tears were shed again!

Gabriel giving Per the flowers at the end was just so cute... :)

abysmo said on May 10, 2009 22:42:

No filming the final gig? No filming Marie joing Per on stage? ??? I’ll better no comment this.
______________

RoxRoom.wz.cz

emilio said on May 10, 2009 22:51:

I just want to say that the show was amazing and i wanna add that Cristoffer is not just the greatest guitar player i ever seen he is an amazing guy and together with Magnus make this tour unforgetable for me.

Finally i wanna say that im happy i met so many cool people like you, thomas and like ted, the brazilian “garotas” jajaj, the other guys from my Argentina, mexico, spain and cecilia from sweden.

I am in an endless state of happiness

Emilio from Argentina

chrissie78 said on May 10, 2009 22:52:

I was there aswell. Sorry for not saying hi though.
Maybe you remember... tall girl coming to speak to Erik just a little while before the doors opened.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I think it was sad that Marie didn’t come to the show on saturday night, but I’m so happy for those who got to see her tonight instead. Unfortunatelly I had to go back home, so I couldn’t be there... I guess it’s just not ment to be. I missed Maries appearance together with GT back in 1996, I missed Pers appearance with Marie in 2000, and now I missed the most important guest appearance ever by Marie..... What kind of a fan am I really? *rolls eyes* oh well... thank God for YouTube!

tevensso (moderator) said on May 11, 2009 00:16:

Aha! OK, I remember!

Anyways, the information given about both shows being taped was apparently incorrect. Nothing whatsoever to do about that. The show wasn’t (video) taped, and it never will be.

Hotblooded said on May 11, 2009 01:51:

That’s a little disappointing that they didn’t film Marie’s apperance but what can you do?! Great that she was awesome again, looks like I’ll have to settle with watching the YouTube stuff, better than nothing I guess :)

Hotblooded said on May 11, 2009 02:10:

Wow I just watched Marie on You Tube and she was BRILLIANT!!! Still got the words a little muddled at the end, God love her ;) Vocally she sounded brilliant!!! Her voice is so much better than a decade ago, I feel like she is getting back to her best and that makes me really excited to hear her live again! What a pity this wasn’t filmed :( Nice of Helena to go up to Marie and reach her arm out to her, both of them are great :)

Roxerally said on May 11, 2009 06:20:

All the band have been utterly fantastic coming out for signings and pictures... finally got to say hello to Martinique last night and got a photo with him, waiting all the tour for that, made my evening... that guy is adorable! ;)

Magnus, Pelle, Clarence, Chris and Helena, thumbs to all of them... they are so great with the groupies and such a laugh to talk to, promised Magnus the real Beatles tour if he ever makes it to Liverpool! :)

Fantastic few weeks.... best start saving for the next joyride, Per can take a six month break then do it all over again!!!!! :)

marcusvandeursen said on May 11, 2009 07:05:

So, just back from Stockholm after a MAD weekend... first time seeing Marie live on stage since ’94 and well, what can I say, better than anything i’d ever expected... also the atmosphere before and after the shows. just brilliant. Indeed no M&G and no video shoot the second night with P&M - but plenty of chitchat and photo opportunities with the band members and matinique before the last bunch standing ended up singing roxette songs outside while the whole P, the band, M had afterparty in the bar nextdoor to cirkus... :o) Marie even stopped the taxi afterwards when she left just around the corner to let someone take a photo with her. Can’t wait for NOTP... better start saving :o)

@Thomas... managed to get some more shots with Marie on stage too... or really needed to hand in camera after first 3 songs?

tridy said on May 11, 2009 07:13:

As about DVD, they should make 2 bonus tracks, something like “Roxette Corner” or “featuring Marie Fredriksson”, so the tracks with Marie would be there but as bonus material.
-= tridy =-

Per Gessle mangles Cirkus

Other articles with the same topic

40 comments