An unofficial box of news about the singer / songwriter Helena Josefsson, her work with Sandy Mouche and Per Gessle's Solo Band ... and other related projects
(Between 1997 and 2010) - by a fan.
If you need further information, go to the official websites
Every record company from each country can choose to promote or not an album, if they like it or not. It's more difficult now than it was 10 years... Per gets involved in this promotion very much, he finds radio stations, writes emails. But between him and the listener there are so many other people with old ideas about music industry, and it's very difficult to work with them... the record company can choose to launch a record, but if they decide to promote it or not, you can not do anything about this.... The motive for there is no concerts in the eastern Europe is that the promoters don't have a good network... Per Gessle finds very hard to launch his album in the US and he is very frustrated. He doesn't choose to not launch it. He fights for everything. But he doesn't decide. Music industry works like 10 years ago, and it should change.
This tour is too small to gain some money. It is a tour that looses money. Per Gessle looses money with this tour. If there are more concerts , more money he looses. But he wants to do this. I like how some of the Roxette songs turned out. Initially we tried to sing them in the original form, but sounded like we imitated Roxette... So we slowly started to sing them differently... The way we sang resembles the way Per writes them, he composes with the guitar. We play live, but sometimes it sound horrible because of the technologie... it's not your own men to take care of the mixing and you cannot be sure it will sound the way you want.
On the way to München from Zürich we tried some airport yoga to loosen up a little in the neck and back. Try it, you´ll be amazed.
Backstage at tonights show in München:
Not so tired tonight and I went on stage with a smile on my face. A very listening crowd this night it seemed which made me happy. Tried some more robot-rubber moves and I think I pulled it off. Saw some waves out there tonight too and I thank you. Saw a couple staying just a little bit coser on the love song bringing my voice to a little warmer place called the heart or something whatever nothing maybe.
Great sound in my in-ear as every night but it felt extra nice tonight in some way. Many cameras out there, you almost don´t need the stage lights =) or maybe you do. Anton Corbijn visited Per tonight but I don´t think he saw my performance.I have met him once before on the photo shoot of “En händig man”. A really nice man.
Back in cookin' Zürich. I have so many fond memories of this town including great concerts with Roxette over the years and this was no exception. Great crowd and a nice sloppy hard-rockin' band in a beautiful setting, very cool club. We did "Sleeping in my car" today as well and "LTYH" was just magnificent. Thanx for stopping by this overwhelming experience called the Party Crasher Tour!!!!
I am just having a blast. This is one of the most rewarding tours I've done, despite the fact that it's the only tour where I'm losing money. I think there will be more Roxette soon. I think we can still do some more records and events together. I look forward to that if it happens.
The Party Crasher album started out as Son Of A Plumber album, then I realized it was going to be very different than Son Of A Plumber so I decided to use my own name…just to confuse everyone even more. It's a different thing, maybe I'll do some more Son of a plumber, I don't know. Maybe I'll just be myself. The whole idea was to challenge myself as a writer, and start writing songs from different angles. I started with groups of baseloops. First song I wrote was "Silly Really". I realize it's more different for me than for the listener. It's a different sound and vibe to this album, which in itself is different from what we do on stage. On stage we are doing power guitar popset, which is the opposite of Party Crasher.
You have to spend time promoting and touring and I haven't done that in the international market. It's been so easy for me to work in Scandinavia. I sell my ten thousand tickets a night at home. I have a family. If you really want to crack the international market, its takes a long time, I'm not 21 anymore. I don't have any hopes that Party Crasher will be the biggest album of the year internationally. I just want to do this tour as a 50th birthday present to myself, to play my own songs that I've written in English throughout my career. That's why I'm playing a lot of Roxette stuff. I'm just having a blast doing this. This is one of the most rewarding tours I've done. It's the only tour where I'm losing money. You play in so many small clubs. The crew that I hired is expensive. All the shows have been fantastic. Prague was fantastic, and Hamburg was even better.
Every artist has to take responsibility for themselves. You can never take success for granted. We've never done that. Even if Roxette comes back, that doesn't mean we will be successful. You have to make great songs and concerts. One of my favorite artists ever is Nick Lowe, he's the most underrated pop songwriter there is. He produced Elvis Costellos early albums. But he never had a great breakthrough. Just because you write great songs, doesn't mean you are successful. It's very much up to promotion, timing, and you get support from a certain record company or marketing. If you're lucky like me, with Pretty Woman, you get a song in a movie. All these small things that get the ball rolling.
Zurich was great, a fantastic performance from all of you as always… we were all laughing at the crew at the end of the evening loading Mr X’s pram in the van… we knew you had taken Mr X back to the hotel but the crew were rocking the pram pretending he was in there… not sure how many of the fans actually stood outside the back entrance last night actually there was a baby being loading into a van like that!
I took some photos of you in Zurich!
Martinique Josefsson - I'm Spiderman
I have a video as well.
Till London! Thank Helena for signing the banner… I got everyone’s signature on there now except yours! x
Hallelujah!! What have we done to deserve this??? What a gig! What a crowd! This reception is way beyond anything I can remember!!! My-gosh-almighty! Everything was purrfect from the first chord to the last. We've noticed so many familiar faces in the front row so we decided to rehearse "Sleeping in my car" at the soundcheck. It sounded OK so after "Steppin' stone" we thought we'd have a go for you guys upfront!!! Cheers, hope you liked it!!! Switz tomorrow (this tour has become a.... monster... fantastic!!!!) Tired but happy
Just got back to the hotel and feeling not as tired as yesterday. It is good to have a day off. It makes you come closer to your real fatigue. Let say you take a nap for 2h during the day, when you wake up you feel like you´ve been hit by a train and you get sad. But what the 2h actually does is getting you closer to your real fatigue and eating up a bit of it even though it doesn´t feel like it at first. Without these naps you never get rid of it. You just find a working mode that works with it and you´re always tired even though you think Aha!! today i´m not so tired…but yes you are. Take naps.
On to tonights gig then. To me it was the funniest gig so far. I was really happy on stage and I suddenly decided to try my German language skills with the audience and it worked out quite well i hope?? And then for some reason I shouted -You guys rock at the end of the show, very unplanned and very funny and very true. It happens to me when I get a kick out of something. My mind can´t control my mouth or my body so I just spinn loose and hope to land on my feet. Thank you guys that were there for putting me in this mode. I really like it myself and I left the stage with a big smile on my face =)
Cause even though you may not think I see what you are doing down there, I see everything, every little hand-wave (yes I saw you) to every lip sync I see gives me a boost and makes me better and better and more funny I think.
So thank you again for a funny evening in Cologne. You guys really ROCK!!
Awrite! Back in Germany!!! You could tell by the amazing crowd and the turbo charged band. Together we made Hamburg a little louder, a little tighter and a lot warmer. Thanx everyone for your help remembering the lyrics and making the roof disappear!!! An everlasting memory (Chris, it's definitely time to wash that shirt now...).
Hamburg was a great show. It's always been a fab city to play. I have lots of fond memories from very strange places in that town… No details…
We were picked up from the airport by a new german minibus. Very clean.
Everything in this town seemes so clean and perfect and the people are smiling and the street musicians are wearing suits. So we got out from the hotel which is cleeean here in Hamburg and were greeted by a lady: a Lambourghini Murciélago Roadster, not every day you get to see such a fine lady. Then we went on a 2h boat trip in the kanals and saw all the gigantic villas next to the water.
This day a marathon was held in the city. Look at all these indetical perfect water cups.
Grunspan. A little place with a rock vibe. Two levels for the audience that were really packed together which gave the whole concert a nice heat and presence.
My performance went well and i´m starting to try new melodies in the singing on couple of songs. The crowd pomised me that they would have a great night when I shouted -Have a great night, promise me that!!! – Yeahh!!! And as i´ve heard from the band afterwards it was a great night indeed for them. It´s nice to be in Germany.
The perfect backstage for us since there was a little green spot outside on the back of the venue where we got nice grilled food and Mr X could sleep well out in the fresh air, nice.
We managed to squeeze in a work out today to get the pulse up a bit and it felt good. Köln tomorrow, have to sleep sleep.
When I played with my band Brainpool in the opening of Roxette's concert during C!B!B! Tour, after just 2 songs, every Roxette fan raised their tickets to show them that they came for Roxette and not for us: They hated us.
This time, the crowd was better than in Scandinavia, more enthusiastic and energetic, like it was in Poland. Prague's concert has been the biggest venue so far, but yet it was cozy. We talk to Per after the concert, we talk about how it was. So far, one of the best concerts until now.
So i´m slowly beginning to mix the gigs in my head…bbuuöööhhhh….the days are passing fast and i´m just home from the Hamburg gig.
I don´t have the time to write about each gig the night it happens I now understand. But I will write about the Prague gig now.
A very nice venue this one. Old hall with several floors and with an old snirklish touch to it. It was joy being on that stage. And the Prague people did a good job in making me feel like the main act…well almost. Really kind you were to me young jedi masters. They/you gave me an “Ok” for my “Good evening” in your language which I had practiced a few times before entering the hall.
Maybe 800-900 people in the audience gave me a really nice experience on stage. This night I was white on top as well, thanks for the tip Helena, I thought it looked good seeing some photos of it later on. So what to do now, shall I write about the Hamburg gig right now?? Or post some photos taken by Petr Klapper that Neil Curran gave me of the Prague gig?? Yes I´ll do that, post the photos.
Backstage Prague:
A little clip from the side of the stage when Per & Co are playing in Prague:
Tomorrow a nice review of the Hamburg gig will follow among other great stuff. Nighty night for now……ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
Day off in Warsaw. Great town, spring is here, everyone's got a smile on their face... Had a great dinner with BoJo, Clair & Pelle-King-of-Sao-Paulo-Alsing. Nice hotel, however the gym is too small but got friendly staff, Michael Bolton is in the guest book. Life is worth living!
What a night in Warsaw! Thanks a million to all of you who showed up and joined us for this most memorable evening. It turned out to be an amazing gig! We certainly had a blast on stage and I could tell from all the noise that the crowd wasn't too unhappy either... I have to come back to Poland before long... Love it here!!!
Helena, thank you so much again for the concert in Warsaw. It's something which I think about especially now when I'm up to my ears with work. Thanks for the meeting outside the hotel. I thought I wouldn't be able to meet you in person but the big dream came true and I'm 100% satisfied with this tour though I couldn' attend more concerts. Enjoy your time with family. They are the most important but come back soon with more energy and more songs.
We are in Warsaw in a really nice hotel I must admit. By far the nicest so far on his tour. Today we headed out in the ol town of Warsaw to look for the flat my mom grew up in. Helenas American uncle Brad visited us today (he lives in Warsaw partly) and I let him use my camera for a while:
The old town is really a beautiful place and I can´t believe it my first time here….how?? Well i´m here now and it feels great. Just like the TV-show here they try to find your lost relatives or something…you know like a back to the roots feeling. My mom lives in Sweden but she used to live in Warsaw. I was born in Sweden. My Papa lives in Sweden and was born in Sweden. In the north of Sweden. So i´m a mix of hot Polishness and cold Northlandishness. Good combo if you ask me. Anyway here are some films:
Yesterday I played in Warsaw for the first time. I really hope I will come back again soon and sing. It was a great experience for me especially since i´m halv Polish. But this evening however I felt 100% Polish to be honest. I recieved such a warm welcome from all of you who were there and i´m glad you all appreciated me speaking a little Polish to you. This was for me the best gig so far on this tour and I think it will be hard to beat, but then again you never know do you.
The whole Warsaw stay was perfect. Great hotel, great food, kind people and a lot of nice family history. Per has some really lovely fans in Poland and we got to meet some of them/you at the airport and at the hotel. Hope to see you soon again.
A little tour agan backstage:
The view I had when sound checking.
The venue is rather bare and you get the feeling that the concerts here are really intense.
And then I hit the stage (and Helena recorded it):
Thanks to Alison Lowther you are actually able to see my performance the way the audience sees it.
Martinique Josefsson - The Girl From Milan
Martinique Josefsson -I Hear Strange Things At Night
Thank you Alison. If anyone else has videos or pics of my performances don´t be shy, send them over. I will get happy as a little mermaid but like a boy. "Blue Girl" and her boyfriend Wojtek sent these photos from Warsaw:
The location of your hotel is really wonderful. I hope you’ve been to this place on the left (when you leave the hotel) where you can admire beautiful views of Warsaw.
Thank you so much for the photo with you, Helena and your sleeping son and for the autographs of course! I had a few questions which I wanted to ask you but I was a bit too nervous to do it.
It’s been wonderful and unforgettable 24 hours in Warsaw. I’ve seen all of you. It’s like a big dream come true. Now I’m back to reality but this day will always stay in my mind and I’ll come to it when my life gets a bit dull.
The videos are fantastic. Now I got the feeling how it was backstage before the concerte for all of you. It was funny when somenone from the crowd screamed: "Martin, I love you". I'm a Spiderman is my favourite song. The songs will definetley remind me of the Warsaw gig. I’ve been listening to the EP today, very pleasant and relaxing music.
That’s the end of the great day. I’m absolutely exhausted because when I finally got home after 3 hours in the car I unpacked my rucksack, walked the dog and went to school where I work to supervise the students who were giving a concert. I was tuning your songs and Helena’s la la la la in “Hej Mr DJ” to feel the atmosphere of the best concert I’ve ever been to.
Sounds like even Mr X agrees with the “I love you” I can hear him gurgling in the background! I really enjoyed your performance last night in Warsaw! This is really the first time I have had the chance since I got back to the UK today to drop you a line on your blog to tell you! I can’t wait to see you perform again in Zurich on Tuesday! I got the EP it’s already been transferred to the iPod! Very good Polish, although I understood none of it so my Polish friend Kamilla had to translate what you where saying! Lol My first impression was WOW, he was so quick to learn Polish, obviously I didn’t know about the family history!
I had such a incredible time in Poland finally getting to meet up with some friends from forums I use and places like Facebook, despite not meeting them before face to face we still got on like a house on fire. I guess its part of my personality that enables me to just get on with anyone!
I made you a couple of little videos of your performances in Warsaw… “The Girl From Milan” & “I Hear Strange Noises At Night”. See you in Zurich!
Copenhagen was fu##ing fantastic!!! The crowd was sent from heaven and the band was kicking ass like never before. A delight to be on stage! Everything was a gas, maybe - just maybe - Dangerous was bit slow... On the other hand Opp nox was a bit too fast... Yeah!!! Best... so far... !!!
Personally speaking, i like it more in Copenhagen, but i can not compare, too different... very small and intense. The crowd seems so happy, emotional and they seem to know the lyrics better than us. Clothes and style is not interesting for me, i have no idea and i need someone to tell me what to wear... I asked Marie Dimberg , she is good at this, what to wear and i accepted her idea about the straw hat (she is into hats).
Pretty tired after a nice show with fiends in the audience. I will post about the show tomorrow I think, my bed just can´t wait to embrace me…
Last night was a good night for everybody in the team I think. Per & Co had a great time and the croud seemed to be really in to it. I was a little bit more nervous this time since I knew a couple of people in the audience. My dear mother-in-law and her sister and their friend were there for example giving me lots of support just like Erik & Co and many more. It felt really nice and I thank the whole audience for helping me do my best.
Musically I think it went well but inside me I was struggeling to keep my feet on the ground but when leaving the stage I felt satisfied. As a support act you don´t expect much at all from the audience cause they´re waiting for the main act of course so i´m entering the stage ready for tomatoes and buuuus (not really) and i´m not expecting much response at all. But this night I felt the love in the air and I thank you all for that (you know who you are).
Can you believe it, a movie managed to get recorded and it is so kind to me, it´s letting me post it right here on the blog. A little tour of the backstage area at Pumpehuset:
Tomorrow we´ll try and find the flat where my mom grew up near the old town in Warzaw. Then we hit the stage again, can´t wait.
Me and Markus who sells the merch decided today that my t-shirts will now cost around 10 € instead of 25 €. This is the price I wanted from the beginning so i´m glad it could be arranged. All of yo who have preordered t-shirts will of course get the difference back.
Can only agree with my friend Ailsa here, you were absolutely great! We bought your EP and I will finally have time to listen to it tonight, yessssss. Have fun tonight and see you again in Amsterdam!
Tomas Wysockit, from Warsaw (aka tomos85) got Per Gessle’s pre-show (and post-show as well) mixed tape playlists. Anyway, there are different playlists during the tour.
It was a beautiful night in Oslo. Great crowd, great response and some songs felt really really awesome. I particularly enjoyed Stupid, She doesn't live here & LTYH. Tonight it's Copenhagen and it's time for some minor changes in the setlist.
Ilya asked me my birthday: 21/02/1979. Yes, I am younger than Helena (23/03/1978). It means that i´m a little lamb she has taken for dinner.
The rest of the team went home but we stayed another night and left for Oslo in the morning. This gave us a free day in Helsinki and would also give us a free day in Oslo which gives us a chance to get to know the towns and become friends with some local old wise men or a gang of young guys that play in a band or some other people maybe. It´s nice with a day off because it gives us time to rest and get back into shape. We really need it during this tour.
So the day-off in Helsinki we slept a lttle longer than usual and then we went out with mr X now sitting up in his pram. We went to Helena heaven 2 which I must admit is now Martinique heaven too =), It was the Fazer shop and café where we bought ice cream and sat down. We usually don´t see a lot of famous people but we were lucky. Black Adder was sitting at the table behind us, also eating ice ceam:
The day-off in Oslo, we went to the cool opera house where you can walk on the roof and look at the sea. Then we went to a big park.
So I just got home after my performance here in Oslo. Walking the street of Oslo back to the hotel with mr X in my arms and the make up still on after a really good performance is a great feeling. At least I thought it went very well this evening and so did Helena and Bosse too. There were about 600 people in the audience and they were very kind to me. Even when entering the stage they welcomed me really nicely which made me do my absolute best. Of course some people were still talking and drinking but not that many actually so that gave the last song a good vibe i believe.
I´m getting warmer in my clothes now and tonight I could even look some people in the eyes and still remember the lyrics. It´s funny how some of them react. Some smile, others blush and some are still stone faced. I´m very happy with tonigh and I feel ready for the rest of this tour now.
I got quite mad when I got to the hotel because I had filmed some movies and Helena had even filmed me when I was on stage but…………..the stupid camera or card didn´t capture it….*sigh*…..but there will be movies of the shows, I promise. Maybe in Copenhagen???
Until then enjoy this movie of the band sound checking.
Oh Gosh, I’ve said this millions of times, but what a beautiful voice does Helena have!))) Her “Fantom of the Opera” is incredible, sad to realise the track wouldn’t be recorded and released in the near future..)) Seems like you’ve having a great holiday during the tour, you’ll see so much great things!!! Good for you.. Thanks for the video, and consider these support act performances as one more performing experience. How many live concerts did Per give in his life before behave him so calm on the stage, how do you think? ;) Your music differs from Gessle’s – by style, lyrics and music itself, so don’t expect too much from the people who came to his concerts…. The most important thing is that you love what you do, then continue doing it, and getting an experience, like in any profession and in any business now a days. With every one more concert you get stronger, with any one more concert you get BETTER!! Don’t take it close to your heart…. Have a good night! Sweet dreams to CD!
'Le Journal des Mouches' is an unofficial compilation of news made by fans for fans.
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Editor and Publisher: Alberto Fuente, aka Lantartida (from Madrid, Spain - now living in London, UK).
The blog includes articles and opinions of musicians (Helena Josefsson, Martinique, Gessle ...) and interesting words by some fans (thank you all) written in other websites and forums.
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Editor's note: I didn't use others words to win anything. I just wanted to compilate information about my favourite artists. If you find any information or photos that shouldn't be here, don't hesitate to tell me.
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If you wanna be the new LJdM's editor, join or write an article here with your signature, just knock on the door: lantartida (at) yahoo(dot)es. Without help, this blog will be empty.
