Now the final chapter has been closed, and there to help closing it Anders Roos, photos, and Jan-Owe Wikström, texts have been. Not one, but two books (albeit physically one) have been released – Gyllene Tider 2.019 – en sista refräng and Gyllene Tider – genom tiderna. Obviously the former is about the final tour and album and the feelings around that, while the latter is the general story about the band, told once again. I find the books very entertaining. There are many introspective thoughts by the band members and of course there are tons of great photos by Anders, although there aren’t as many as I thought there would be. Still the mix between photos and text feel well thought out. Jan-Owe, who is a longtime Gyllene follower, since day one basically, has done a good job ending this long and lovely story.

In April 1981 three people were trampled to death at a Gyllene Tider-concert in Kristianopel. That hit the band really hard, and in the book Micke’s wife Helena tells the story how Micke couldn’t even go to the town Kristianopel for years and years, but finally she convinced him they should go there, so they did. When they got there they entered the festival area and it was abandoned, but everything was left like it was when it was open. A very eerie feeling. However, it feels like Micke got some closure on the subject there and then. It was hard reading about it.

The book contains fan memories sent in by lots and lots of people. Some of them funny, and some of them very heartfelt. They didn’t all fit even! It also has a shorter interview with yours truly, two longer ones with die-hard fans Sandra Knospe from Germany and Bradley Coverly from Australia. While Sandra talks about her love for touring and how she sacrifices more or less everything in her life just to be on tour, Bradley talks about how he has no other vices than Per Gessle and that he’s happy he has a wife who actually lets him travel to Sweden to see this band.

While I’m still sad that they quit I’m still happy they went out with a bang and not with a whimper. Yes it’s clearly stated in the book that it’s definitely over.

One cannot not laugh reading Per’s quote “Damn, if I’d known we’d be this great I wouldn’t have accepted Micke’s deal…”

And from that, let’s present the winner of the book:

Congratulations to Ilya Volkov! The answer to the question Who’s featured on the yellow EP’s sleeve? is Stefan “Oakie” Ekberg and Ilya knew that. Sorry to those who put “a friend of Per’s” as your answer, npt quite close enough…

My best Gyllene Tider memory is from the most famous concert in Halmstad on 14th Aug 2010, when they came to the stage after Roxette warmed the crowd up for GT, after which I met Micke Syd in Hotel Tylösand and he was kind enough to sign my t-shirt and to allow my friend to make a great picture of us. Very happy and proud of that until today! <3