Le Journal des Mouches

Helena´s second solo album is on its way.

2010-11-03T09:37:00.017+01:00

In May I gave up posting here. Nobody seems to keep on writing about Helena and "les mouches", so today I have decided to write a new article. There are some things to write about from May.

Let's begin with TODAY. This is the marvelous message we can read at helenajosefsson's official website:

"Welcome to helenajosefsson.com. Helena´s second solo album is on its way. The site is being updated. Moohhoohaaahaaa ..."

So things are going to happen very soon.

Picture by Sandy Mouche, September 2010

Sandy Mouche's boys (and girl) have been recording a new album this summer 2010 in Per Blomgren's home studio. They even wrote a blog about it: http://sandymouche.tumblr.com/. According to the band, they are "in the proccess of recording new songs" and getting ready for a new gig.

Sandy Mouche guys and girl added: "We're currently recording new material and intend to put up some samples here. Stay put for updates!"

Meanwhile, other "friends", Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist, have been touring and recording with Marie Fredriksson as Roxette. This time, with Pelle Alsing (drums) and Malin Ekstrand (backup vocals). Maybe you remember Malin because she took part in Helena Josefsson's Dynamo solo tour some years ago.

Helena said goodbye to P, C and C last 18th June 2010 at Princess Victoria and Daniel's wedding in Stockholm. Roxette played "The look" with Marie Fredriksson on the stage.

Sadly, Helena Josefsson didn’t have a microphone in the beginning of the song so it was a sad goodbye to the "plumbers".

Finally, Helena takes part in the last single of Arash, "Broken angel".

According to Arash’s facebook, the song was recorded in May 2010 and will be the new single for his upcoming album in 2011.

So good things are going to happen very very soon. And "Le Journal des Mouches" wants to be there, don't you? Keep up with Helena and "les mouches".

Alberto Fuente (aka Lantartida), - LJdM

PS: I am not sure if this article means the come-back of LJdM. I said goodbye six months ago. I don't promise to update this blog usually. Help is still needed. I am sure you can do it better than myself. Does anyone want to write articles or publish his/her opinion in this blog? Thank you in advance.

Updated January 2011: The second album of Helena Josefsson will be released in February 2011. You can find more news in the official websites and in Roxetteblog - HJ.

Goodbye, Mouches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

History: Main sources: helenajosefsson.com; RoxetteBlog; Updated: 8.11.2010: New picture;

Goodbye, Mouches

2010-05-05T12:07:00.005+02:00

Yes, this could be the last article of this blog, unless a new editor or new writers want it to be alive. Does anyone offer himself/herself as a volunteer? Le Journal des Mouches' editor and creator transfers the blog.

Picture by Alberto Fuente

Some days ago, I was in Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK. Well, at least my train and my camera were there, I just continued to London King Cross Station. It's not much for an article indeed, but I didn't want to give up this blog forever without any "goodbye post".

Obviously, this station made me think about Sandy Mouche and Helena Josefsson. As Adela Toplean told me in her blog "Sandy Mouche are – almost – back and Helena herself has made quite a good and danceable album which is (almost) out." Almost back, almost out, ... It explains why this blog has been "almost" a Journal. ;D

Three hundred people (well almost 300, lol) seem to have watched Sandy Mouche's last gig online and we have just got a few comments from the band on Facebook.

"Är i studion och spelar in en av de nya låtarna." - 11.03.2010
"Ännu en torsdagkväll i studion med inspelning - härligt!" - 18.03.2010
"Har varit i studion. En låt färdiginspelad nu..." - 25.03.2010

I am improving my English not far from Sandy, Bedfordshire, so my Swedish is not very good yet, but Google translator is marvelous and let us imagine that the band has been spending March Thursday's evenings at Per Blomgren home studio, recording new songs.

Meanwhile, Helena Josefsson celebrated her 32th birthday last month and received some congratulation message in her guestbook. She briefly answered: "I just want to say thank you for all the birthday-greetings :o)!! I wish you all a happy Easter!".

Easter was over and we (we?: the few readers of this blog and its editor) have been waiting for something new from "Sandy Mouche Camp". Aren't we? I hope the wind could give us more new songs and no more Eyjafjallajökull's ashes.

By the way, in London, I walked by On The Beat, 22 Hanway Street, near Tottenham Court Road Tube Station. It is the record shop that appeared in "Son of a Plumber" album. I could not help thinking about the new plans of Gessle, Lundquist and Öfwerman with Roxette. The new Rox album will be released in 2011, but Roxette will play live this summer. I am happy Marie is back but I miss the sound of "Per Gessle Solo Band", with Chris, Clarence and Helena. I didn't like the last songs of Roxette. IMHO, One wish and Reveal were poor quality and lacked the breath of fresh air that meant "Mazarin" or "Son of a Plumber".

I hope Gessle would decide to record again a personal album without the pressure of what Roxette fans are waiting for. Maybe in 2012, after the Rox fever, P, C & C could join again to record an album in Swedish together. And Helena should be there, of course.

I also miss Brainpool, the band of Christoffer Lundquist, David Birde and Jens Jansson. They recorded new songs in January for their rock opera, Junk, that could be premiered in Stockholm and London very soon. Last 22th April, David and Jens were the DJ's in Kick-Start, in Malmö.

I have decided to stop . The idea of a blog began with the Helena Josefsson's Official Forum. in June 2007, just some months after other of my favourite sites closed (Junk Musik website). I loved Helena Josefsson's forum but I needed more space to write about Helena and "The Mouches". I have tried to do a compilation of news of the story of Helena, Sandy Mouche and Per Gessle's solo band between 1997 and 2010. More or less, this compilation looks like I wanted it to look like 3 years ago. But there is no need to continue with a blog when there is not much to write about. I want to thank you for being patient with an unexperienced blogger that had made so many mistakes (I have always tried to solve them. Sorry anyway).

Maybe I will write again in this blog, maybe not. The only thing I know is that I have more important things to do right now and that writing here without readers is not funny anymore. If you have read this blog and find it useful to understand Helena Josefsson's music, just write a comment, please, anonymous if you prefer. If someone wants to tell me something or somebody wants to become the new LJdM's editor, write me an e-mail: lantartida(at)yahoo(dot)es. It's free! :D

Goodbye and good luck, mouches.

Alberto Fuente (aka Lantartida), - LJdM

Sandy Mouche is back (II): Kickstart my heart

2010-03-05T11:26:00.012+01:00

No Journal without "mouches" anymore. Yesterday night Sandy Mouche was back. It's has been 3 years since the last concert of the band and they offered a vibrant spectacle in a wonderful club in Malmö, Kick-Start (Banco de la Musica, Stortorget). Le Journal des Mouches was not there, but we followed the full concert live in Kick-Start Media website.

According to Patrick, from Banco de la Música's blog in Swedish: "Finally time for the big day. Since Our First Guitar, The Luxe, and Sandy Mouche. And most of all ... we were able to stream the concerts! Past nights we had always had problems with internet. Sandy Mouche came at 17:30 and began to rig up their stuff on stage. At 18:00 it was time for soundcheck. We opened the club at 20:30. 21:30 The Luxe, 22:25 Since Our First Guitar and 23:20 Sandy Mouche. Everything went well. Lots of audience, great sound and lighting and especially rapid changes between bands. That was only two things that went bad. Right subwoofer did not work very well, but the sound still was pretty good. The second thing was that there must be someone connected wrongly to the speaker in the basement. DJ played low but not bands. There will be concerts at the Banco de la Música every Thursday evening until mid-May. So just come!"

At 21,30, the night began with two lovely bands from Malmö, Since our first guitar and The Luxe. Magnus 'Cardigan' Sveningsson, was the righteous DJ boy before and after every band. At 23,00, Martin, Helena, Per and Ola made their appearence and prepared all their stuff before the "kick-start".

A few minutes later, Helena, followed by Martin, Ola and Per, showed up on stage; Helena and Ola, black-dressed, Martin and Per white-dressed. They played 7 songs, 5 were new and 2 previous hits, in a 45 minutes concert. We can summarize the songs of the gig, although we are not sure of the correct titles of the new songs.

1. Follow the Rainbow: Vocals and bass by Martin; vocals and keyboards by Helena; guitar by Ola; drums by Per. A sweet ballad with lots of positive feelings. Most of the parts of the songs are sung by Martinique, but it's a duet in the chorus with a magic music ending.
2. I'll wait for you: Vocals by Helena; backing vocals and keyboards by Martin; guitars by Ola and Per. A rhythmic danceable popsong with Helena singing into the audience.
3. Living in a world: Vocals and bass by Martin; backing vocals and keyboards by Helena; guitar by Ola; drums by Per. The chorus sounds like an American TV Serie theme of the 80s. Really nice ending with a disco touch.
4. Oui, c'est nous: Vocals and keyboards by Helena; bass by Martin; drums by Per; introduced by hand-clapping and a guitar solo by Ola. Their new song in French, a nice pop song with an original chorus.
5. I can't find the fire: Vocals and keyboards by Helena; bass by Martin; guitar by Ola; drums by Per. My favourite new song of the show. Catchy melancholic song. Helena singing really well as always. Per's drums are also marvelous in this song.
6. Spiderweb suit: Vocals by Helena; keyboards by Per Blomgren; percussion by Martinique and guitar by Ola Blomgren. A great version of one of their best songs ever. Touching.
7. Le Mistral: Vocals and bass by Martin; keyboars and backing vocals by Helena; guitar by Ola; drums by Per. Martinique had played it during his European Tour in 2009 and it was a good final song for this gig.

The audience firmly applauded after the show. We will try to update this topic with new pictures and comments. If you were there, tell us your experience in the comments. Don't be shy! By the way, become fan of official Sandy Mouche’s page on Facebook – join here.

LJdM

Picture by Emma Sonesson, administrator of the HJ Unofficial Fanclub
in Facebook (Link clicking the picture)

Yesterday we had a concert after 3 years. See it in Le Journal des Mouches. Oh wow we didn´t know that it was recorded...! Ooops then you also hear that the lyrics aren´t finished yet. The same verse goes round and round and round :o) Some lyric-polishing and than we can start recording and write more songs. And we´re looking for a cover- any suggestions?

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

History:

Main sources: helenajosefsson.com; Kick-Start website; HJ Unofficial Swedish Fanclub in Facebook; Banco de la Música's Blog;

Sandy Mouche is back (I): rehearsing for a new concert on March 4th!!!

2010-02-17T09:58:00.014+01:00

According to Helena Josefsson, Sandy Mouche will perform for the very first time in three years on the club Kick-Start-Banco de la Musica festival on Stortorget in Malmö on March 4th. They have been rehearsing since Christmas and prepared new songs that they would like to perform. Please, become fan of official Sandy Mouche’s page on Facebook – join here.

We have tried to translate the official add of Kick-Start club (read the original one in Swedish in the comments of this article):

March 4th, 2010.
Club Opens: 20:30; On Stage: 21:30; Club Closes: When everybody is happy .
Admission: SEK 60, SEK 40 (Kick-Starts members).
On Stage: Sandy Mouche; Since Our First Guitar; The Luxe.
Evening DJ: Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans)

The concept is just as before. We are presenting the best local live bands interspersed with the occasional interesting live bands from outside. When the Kick-Start was started later (1997-2002) won the live music venue Nöjesguidens Malmö / Lund price and was also named to the 'Net live club " in both the Evening Post and the process.

Sandy Mouche is a pop band based on the joy of music and friendship. The music is a combination of realized and shattered dreams, things that happened and things they hope will happen, hope and a solitary walk in Twin Peaks' wet air. Band consists of two dear brothers (Per & Ola Blomgren) and lovebirds (Martin and Helena Josefsson), resulting in a very dynamic and responsive style of play. Two albums, three children, three-four years since they last test new material before an audience of Kick-Start. Much has been made with their personal development that affects how their music sounds. But the fun is at least as great as when they first started nine years ago! -http://www.myspace.com/sandymouche

Since Our First Guitar is a band with one foot in Malmö and the other in Seattle's Indie-swamp. They are in an old barn in the countryside, where they recorded their debut album, The Sound of Trees. -http://www.myspace.com/sinceourfirstguitar

The Luxe: Once born a child. His childhood consisted of porridge and joy. At his first love taught it to write poems and letters with rhyme and rhetoric. Farther ahead drank champagne and made mistakes, jumping from ledges in hopes of capturing something significant. Eventually realized that it all takes time. Sometimes an entire lifetime. In the end it was no more than skin, bones and scars. Recommended for those who appreciate The Killers, Coldplay and Kent. -http://www.myspace.com/theluxeband

Le Journal des Mouches has not confirmed it, but maybe the concert will be streamed alive through Kick-Start Media website.

LJdM

Sandy Mouche concert! Welcome to Banco del Musica 4/3 2010, Stortorget, Malmö. After 3 years of silence and 3 children richer- Sandy Mouche is back! Since christmas we have been rehearsing and we have a handful of new songs that we would like to try together with an audience! Be Sandy Mouche´s friend on facebook!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

History:

Main sources: helenajosefsson.com; helenajosefsson.com - Guestbook; RoxetteBlog; Kick-Start website

HJ: "Kyss mig" - "One song from the new album"

2010-02-15T09:36:00.011+01:00

The new song of Helena Josefsson is called “Kyss mig” (Kiss me). The video was directed by Cecilia Nordlund (Cilihili) and you can spot Helena’s husband Martin in one of the main roles.

According to Helena herself, there will be more informations on the song and even English translation of the lyrics. It could be the beginning of an album in Swedish. This is the crew of the video featuring in the credits:

"Director: Cecilia Nordlund; Photography: Thomas Busk, Thomas Romlöv; Costume designer / Stylist: Dyvecke Berg; Make up: Sasha Panic, Dyvecke Berg, Johanna Knutsson; Rekvisita: Linda Ceccon; Grip: Pelle Bevmo, Jonas ?
Actors - Sagonymf: Helena Josefsson; Prince: Martin Josefsson; Nymphs: Emelie Persson, Johanna Knutsson, Monica ?; Dancers: Carola Guilheim, Anja Berndin; Catering: Lina ?
Thanks to: Thomas Bekker; Gunnar Berg i Rörum; Gustav Nilsson"

LJdM

Everything is fine! Just a bit baggy under the eyes but having as much fun as possible! I would really like to sing a lot more and have a lot more concerts and I hope one day I will have a break-thru so it can happen! I do my best anyway :o) In the meantime I try to follow my heart and do music and videos that give me and hopefully someone else some joy or inspiration.

I am no good at keeping secrets :o) If I have a surprise I just get so happy and I tell about it too early :o)

One song from the new album! This song is called Kyss Mej! (Kiss me!) The video is directed by Cecilia Nordlund (Cilihili). I was having a lot of fun, both writing the song and making the video, actually it was one of the funniest experiences I´ve had. More info and translation soon :o) I hope you enjoy it!

Have a great time!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Comments by fans:

It’s quite unusual for Helena – she’s rapping there. I’m not a fan of her as a person, but as the artist I give her my big wow and take a bow. I find this what she’s been doing through the last few years as the amazing example of good music. In other words – would love to be on this concert, but don’t feel like meeting her afterwards.
Tomasz Wysocki, from Warsaw, Poland
- RoxetteBlog.com

Very nice song and amazing video!! You sing as brilliant as always, but the music is too much pop.... Can't wait to listen to the whole album, I believe you'd do it perfectly!!!! Thanks a lot and have a splendid Spring!!)))

Ilya Volkov -(a.k.a. Kreecher)

History:

Main sources: helenajosefsson.com; helenajosefsson.com - Guestbook; RoxetteBlog; HJ Youtube Channel;

Helena Josefsson and her plans for 2010

2010-01-15T10:21:00.004+01:00

Some of our few readers could be asking themselves about Helena Josefsson. She is busy like always. Helena answered to a message from Kamila Aleksandrowicz in the Guestbook of the Official website. Read it below. The picture of Charles-Didrik was taken by his aunt Sofia Josefsson.

LJdM

I have been busy, studying in Copenhagen, to become an opticitian like my younger sister! I want to work part-time with it along with music, because as a parent I want to give my family more possibilities. And studying takes a lot of time :) But it is fun to learn new stuff! On top of this we live at my mother´s place because of a large renovation of our flat which is really needed.

About my second album I don´t know, who or when it could be released... But the good part is I am working on more music videos for it with friends, and we have started rehearsing with Sandy Mouche which I enjoy more than ever! Just for fun, like when we first begun playing together. And I am planning for a show with my friend Malin Nilsson the magician.

PS: Help Haiti people by purchasing my music on CDbaby
If you buy music from me, my band Sandy Mouche or anyone through the site CDbaby 1 USDollar will go to helping Haiti survivors of 12th January earthquake.

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

History:

Main sources: helenajosefsson.com - Guestbook; Sofia Josefsson's blog

Christoffer Lundquist's 40th birthday and new plans for the P, C & C team

2010-01-12T03:09:00.015+01:00

Photo by Cornelia Haslinger - Roxetteblog.com - Germany, 12.2009 - NOTP

Christoffer Lundquist will be 40 y.o. this week (btw, just one day before LJdM's editor 's 30th birthday).

Born January 16th, 1970, the producer from Lund was interviewed in December by Judith Seuma and Kirsten Ohlwein, from roxetteblog.com. We want to take some of his words of this great interview about his life and career. Since January 2nd, Brainpool is working together again with Shakina Nayfack in the new arrangements and songs for Junk Opera, that will be premiered in New York soon. Works will finish January 23rd. You can watch the first recordings here: "Writing more JUNK - Part 1" of JUNK: A Rock Opera. Brainpool and Shakina work together to expand the show with 4 news songs and 9 sung scenes.

It's our first post of the year, so we wanted to know more about P, C & C's plans. Today it is Per Gessle's birthday. Per was interviewed in Radio Halland in December (TDR tranlated the interview) and in Expressen today (translated by tomos85, from rb). Clarence Öfwerman also spoke to roxetteblog.com before Christmas about 2010. These interviews are a good source to follow P, C & C team.

Lundquist will work with Brainpool until January 23rd and will begin the new Roxette's recordings with Gessle an Öfwerman the last week of January. Busy birthday, dear Chris, but for LJdM readers it is not a surprise. The mix of snow, cats and musicians is becoming a common situation during AGM Studios' winters.

So far Helena Josefsson is not involved in P, C & C's 2010 projects and fans are still waiting for her second solo album.

LJdM

Picture by Shakina Nayfack - AGM St. - January 2010

MUSICAL INFLUENCES

To begin with, when I was a kid it was a lot of Beatles and a lot of ABBA. I loved ABBA, I still do, I listen to them a lot, I think it’s great music. I was also into all this prog rock stuff, so that was also part of my music information, I listen to that still. But now I listen to pretty much everything. I am not that much into dance music, I don’t get that, I need chords and melody. I sort of discover new music all the time, Per Gessle is such a music maniac, so he is constantly playing new music to us when we are working together, I discovered a lot of new stuff thanks to that. It’s difficult to cover anything. If you really love an artist you can’t take the cover versions. I don’t want to hear Beatles covers. It’s horrible.

I collected albums when I was a teen. I bought a lot of records. But now – it’s not so much fun anymore. I do as everyone else – I have the computer and iPod and sort of stuff. But I bring out the vinyl sometimes. Then I play the music I loved when I was a kid. I prefer CD than digital songs. It’s more fun, but it’s disappearing. I mean, our kids they don’t care anymore. They want the good songs and skip the bad songs. Things change..

I used to go to concerts. Not so much anymore, mainly because I work so much, there’s never time. And when I don’t work I want to be with my family. And then I live kind of off. The place where I live, where the studio is, is in the middle of nowhere. No other people ever. And I have gotten so used to it, I like that so much and when I am home I sort of never leave the little farm. I find it difficult in big cities now. I don’t like it. I feel sad. Everything is ugly and it smells bad. When you don’t know the city you only get to see the bad parts, because you don’t know where to go. So you only see the horrible, tall buildings.. I have a house even more in the countryside, on Gotland. We have a 400 year old storage building there, with just cold water and no shower and we’re there for six weeks every summer. Not checking emails, if possible. I have become more and more like that over the years.

I am not into buying stuff and all the consumer blablabla. I think it’s a sad development. People should have more time and spend more time with their family and less time with making money to buy unimportant things that are made by kids in China. That’s my agenda. We behave very badly. I’m ashamed every day, actually, honestly. It’s really sad. A couple of years ago me and wife counted the objects our kids owned when they were 6 or 3. And I can’t remember the figure, but it made us feel “uuuh, we are bad people, what are we doing to ourselves and the planet”. So we are trying hard to change. But it’s difficult.. All the people who disagree with that must try to do something against it, or nothing will ever change. With cell phones, and getting a new model every year. I have my personal little cell phone fight. Mine is five years old and I am fighting hard not to buy a new one. It’s our whole civilization, I think, that is going into that direction. And I believe that money is the root of it all, that money has become too important, too influental, too much a deciding factor. It doesn’t mean I am a communist, but maybe we should try to listen to our emotions a bit more. And less towards economial-wise.

Picture by Shakina Nayfack - AGM St. - January 2010

AEROSOL GREY MACHINE STUDIO

Becoming producer was a gradual thing which evolved out of itself, and, of course, a lot of luck. For me writing, playing and recording is sort of the same thing to me, the record is the music in my world, so I was really interested in all this stuff, when I listened to music when I was really small I paid a lot of attention to sound, arrangements, all this, so I was always the guy who recorded in Brainpool, and I just slowly started to get requests from small local bands to help them record a demo, and then it just evolved. I have worked with lot of bands. Producing, arranging and recording. I’ve done more than a hundred albums by now, that’s what I do all the time.

I bought the house in 1997, thinking I was going to have a summer house in the country side and a demo studio, but then it GREW. I didn’t have a plan to have a professional studio and be a producer, it just happened. AGM Studio is quite unique, it’s a bit old style in the way that it’s set. Modern music making is people sitting in a small room in front of the computer and doing music on the computer screen. It used to be a lot of people together in a big room, with lots of instruments, inspiration, great acoustics, and that’s what I like and been trying to create, an old style studio with a modern approach. I’ve also got a lot of different instruments, that’s also what makes it special and is rare. Nowadays everything comes out of the computer, and everybody uses the same samples, same drum sounds, leading to a more streamlined, boring, less personality music. I’ve got lots of bookings and I work very hard, since I started. A bit too hard I think. I am trying to have somebody else use the studio without me being there, so I can have a bit of time off. A lot of French artists have been in my studio, a couple of American, Canadian, Norway. But mainly Swedish. I have never thought about working with an artist. When I start working with someone I sort of get into it and realize what it’s about. I haven’t really dreamt about it. I think it would be scary to work with your own idols or something like that. I would probably be afraid.

Photo by Kirsten Ohlwein - Roxetteblog.com - 12.2009

FUTURE PLANS

I finished my first solo album before I went on this tour, I don’t know how I am going to release it, but I will try. I released an EP that I am sort of semi happy with it, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. I enjoy making music so much, but when the music is finished the rest is not so much fun. I am not into working with record companies and all that, so I will force myself to get it released, I really want people to listen to it. I’ve also got a singer singing backing vocals this time, just because I get bored of hearing my voice the whole time.

Picture by Shakina Nayfack - AGM St. - January 2010

Brainpool started with “some kind of punk” and ended up with rock operas! Haha! That’s a huge change, I agree. It was mainly, the three of us who are still in the band. The three of us are like brothers. We continue, it’s still fun, even though it’s more a hobby band now. We try sometimes to meet and play, let’s make a new album, but we need time and money and we are busy with many other things, to support ourselves. But we will again, one day, I’m sure. The Junk rock opera is very much alive. Shakina Nayfack, the American director who did the show in LA with it, two years ago, is coming to my place in January, we’ll write some new songs for it and develop it. They’ve done like 30-40 shows and now he knows what he feels is missing in the plot, so he’s going to tell us “we need to change this here,” or “this character is not clear enough”, so we are going to record some new music in January. I am really looking forward to it. After that we’ll start working on new Roxette music.

Picture by Shakina Nayfack - AGM St. - January 2010

Brainpool in January and then I hope to release my own stuff in the Spring. As soon as possible. I am not sure if I am trying to find a record company. Record companies are no much use anymore. They just want money and don’t release the records. I should try and do it myself, maybe. Yes, you can upload in iTunes yourself. And you can put it on Spotify and everything. But I am an old-style person. I like the records, I want to look at the record and the lyrics and watch pictures and so on. I really want to do that. I always read the booklet, too. And I sort of remember it like “Oh, that guy wrote this one but not that one”. That’s fun. I think you should always write that on records. As much detail as possible. The designers of the covers – they don’t want that. They want it to be clean and beautiful and I always fight them.

Christoffer Lundquist

Picture by Shakina Nayfack - AGM St. - January 2010

We love the AGM studio. In the beginning we used to stay there for like 11 days, now it’s usually three days, we go down on Monday morning and leave on Thursday. So we work three long days, till three in the morning. It’s very intense. It’s impossible to work like that in Stockholm, since you then go home in the evening, or people come in the studio, from the record company, or for interviews. Nobody goes to Christoffer Lundquist’s, it’s too far away from everything. So we usually go down 10-12 times, about 3-4 days each, and then mix the stuff somewhere else, Stockholm most of the times. I used to have my own studio, but I don’t anymore. Now I only have my keyboards and computer to write the movie music I do, then I take it somewhere else to record it, with the orchestra. I write with “fake” orchestras in the computer.

Releasing my own music someday would actually be nice. You know, all these tracks I did for movies and TV. Maybe I could make an album with it, but I have to check if it’s enough, because it’s normally short pieces, and then some of them go together with the pictures, video. But I thought about it, maybe an EP for download. So here’s the exclusive, my movie music will be released in … the near future. And I’ll post on Facebook, and force everyone to follow the link and buy it. Joking aside, I think Facebook is a great tool to communicate. I now got my computer, and every night, I sit and chat with different people. People waking up in Chile or Argentina, they all say hi and ask when we will tour over there. I think the first one on Facebook was Jonas, then I came along. Christoffer joined I think 6 months after me, and Per just joined now. I guess since they heard us talk about it, they found it interesting. But Per always talks about Twitter, I have no clue how that works. I anyway think it’s great to have contact with people. I confirm everyone, in the beginning I was kind of scared, but I realized everyone is kind of normal. Or do you know anybody I should be careful with? I heard about what happened on the chat side on Dailyroxette.

I heard some of Beatles remastered albums, but I still have mixed feelings. I don’t think it’s better when you start to hear things which weren’t there. Christoffer Lundquist played them in the dressing room, and we both reacted on the same things like “that piano shouldn’t be that loud”, we both found the same spots which didn’t sound right to us. I will stick to the remasters from this Japanese guy, he remastered the songs directly from the vinyl, which is as close to the originals as it can get. And those are fantastic. I haven’t listened to the mono box yet. People say that those are better. But I listen to a lot of mp3s currently, the quality isn’t that good as on vinyl, but as long as the music is good, it’s fine. I like to have all songs in one place, which I can take with me. Suddenly you were out of batteries very soon. And if you want to move to a song you have to press the fast forward, and wait. But we actually recorded a lot on tape for “Son of a plumber”, basically drums, which tends to sound better when you record on tape and then you transfer to the computer, it gets a little bit of warmth from the tape, a bit of tape distortion. But we record vocals and other instruments directly to the computer, that’s easier. You can also save a lot of recordings and then pick up what you think is best, and mix it.

The tech guy? Definetely not me. Christoffer Lundquist is mostly taking care of it, he just sits and finds out how things work. I only do it home, I sit with the instructions and see what happens. You always find a solution, but I hate it, especially when you want to work and you sit there, not able to work due to a technical issue. I don’t have a big collection of keyboards, since I don’t have the studio anymore, the keyboards are in the garage. I have two of these red ones, they are Swedish. These are the ones I take on tour, too.

What do I do besides music? I like football. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is great but he doesn’t want to play in the Swedish team anymore. But maybe that’s better, because he’s such a big star and everybody’s looking what he is doing all the time. Not good for the team. He is too big for a team.

And raising kids! Haha! I have three of them, the youngest is three years old. The others are 10 and 12, three girls. They’ve been here sometimes and seen some shows. They go to a music school, where they have lots of singing. It’s a normal school but they have extra hours dedicated to singing. Swedish people aren’t that musical. There are no clubs like the ones we played at in Spring, so it’s very difficult for small bands to go and tour. When I grew up we used to play in schools, during the school hours. We also used to play in youth centers, so you could book a whole tour through schools, and maybe a rock club on Saturdays, but you can’t do that anymore, nobody plays in schools or youth centers anymore. Germany has a big tradition for rock clubs, people can tour in Germany for ever in front of 500-1000 people. I don’t know many German bands, I produced an album with a German band, Throw that beat. They are from Nurnberg. They didn’t sell many records, didn’t hit the charts. Some indy underground stuff. I heard about Tokio Hotel, I never listened to them, only heard about them. I hate Idol artists. I can’t watch them. My kids used to like it. It was the final yesterday – in Sweden. But I haven’t followed it this year but my kids tend to lose interest in it now. I think it’s very strange when they try to make them sound like people who already exist, imitate people and also force them so sing different styles, because nobody can. Like that – Per would never have made it to “Idol”, because he can’t sing in a Michael Jackson-style. I think it’s on for seven or eight years in Sweden. And nothing happens to the people who win. The next year they are forgotten. I remember Modern Talking, I hated it. I think they were in the charts at the same time as Roxette, in the same year. Per writes kind of the same songs all the time, too.. in different arrangements, but the chords are basically the same. Sometimes there are new chords, but he has his own style. And I like that style, so that’s cool. When he presents a new song, it’s like, usually I know the next chord before he takes it. You mostly stick to your harmonies. But Per doesn’t copy other stuff, he copies himself sometimes. Sometimes I have to say to him “You already wrote that one” and he says “No” and I say “Well, yes, you did”. Sometimes he rewrites if I can convince him. That’s a good feature with him, that he doesn’t notice he copies. He just writes and writes and writes. When he presents the songs to us he usually has everything, so I don’t know. We don’t change the text. No, Christoffer and I don’t do anything with the lyrics, that’s up to him, maybe only when it sounds wrong, like the wrong English or something. But he’s better in English than we are. But the meanings of the lyrics stay his.

Clarence Öfwerman

We are aiming to begin – slowly but undoubtedly recordings of new material now in the spring. It will be bloody amazing. We are working with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist in Scania as usual and everyone is eager to start the work. We're in the studio until midsummer for starters. Then possibly rehearsals if we're to do concerts. 2010 there will be nothing but Roxette. I put everything else I am musically busy with on the ice for now and the nearest future. There is no direct timetable. We just record and see what happens. There is no hurry. We're thinking '80s, that immediate in-your-face production. We're looking at 'Look Sharp!' production wise. The songs are short and effective. Clarence calls it "fool proof production" meaning not so many instruments and they all are very clear to hear. I'm trying to think that way when I write [for this album]. It's hard to explain. Maybe in December 2010, the album's out. Half of the songs are written for me, half for Marie. Marie hasn't written anything for the album. I guess we will, as always, base on Marie’s voice and my songs. I'd like Marie to sing it all, but I guess that's not possible so I have to fill in here and there. The most important thing is that we sound like Roxette. We have our own sound and that is the basis for everything else. It feels as if the material is very strong so far but I’m slightly biased… We all think it is great to work with Marie again. She is still terribly good. It is enough for me.

"Night of the Proms" was absolutely huge. Marie got standing ovations every night and we will especially never forget the German gigs. We did 42 concerts and played for over 600,000 people so it was a pretty big deal. We sang our four US number ones each after another and it felt a bit cocky, actually… It would be fun of course to do more concerts but it is up to what Marie wants and copes with. I do see Roxette performing again, that's what we want. Why not in Sweden? If not, we'll have to make room for Sweden. This is not written in stone though, but if you had asked me 6 months ago I would have said no. I might take more space on stage, since I've been touring a lot solo lately I now feel more comfortable to be on stage. US will never happen again. We're too old and vintage. But there may well be a cover of a Rox song that will climb the charts. The songs still have power, not sure that Per & Marie have it anymore… It’s actually quite amazing that it works, as you know it is completely macabre industry that eats people on the right and on the left. And it’s so natural in pop and rock business that people get forgotten. So I pinch myself in the arm every now and then…

Music? I like pretty much everything. I’ve heard Eels, Regina Spektor, Josh Ritter and The Killers today while I was driving as well as The Who’s “Tommy” which I like to listen to from time to time. My birthday party is not so big… I have a small dinner with my loved ones. There will certainly be 70s disco in the early hours.

Per Gessle

LJdM - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

2009-12-25T23:59:00.004+01:00

2009 has been a good year in many ways. We got a new album by P, C & C ("Party Crasher"), with Helena Josefsson, the spring tour with Martinique and Helena's new single in Swedish. However we are still waiting for Helena's new album.

Le Journal des Mouches will be back in January 2010. We just want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy these days with your family and friends!

LJdM

I want to be home to spend Christmas with my little family :o) I hope you will have a wonderful christmas! Helena!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Toodiloo all Roxers! 2009 turned out to be a killer year after all! My small but heartwarming Party Crasher Tour around Europe in the spring was followed by the huge and glorious Rox comeback at the Night of the Proms. Thanks everyone for your support (appreciated!) and for those loud voices in the front row (interesting!).

Also, we started recording a new Rox-album on the road. So far so good but there are, of course, lots more to be done. And for next year we have even more mighty plans. Will let you know what’s goin’ on in Roxville before long. But for now we wish y’all a great xmas och a extraordinarily swell new year. See ya around the corner. Cheers.

Per Gessle

The DollyCamp (IX): En afton med Michael Jackson

2009-12-25T23:52:00.012+01:00

Last December 10th, 2009, the director Jessica Nettelbladt was in FilmCentrum Syd, Malmö, showing sequences from her documentary "Dollykollot" (The DollyCamp), which is currently being cut, and talked about recording this film in Malmö, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Berlin, New York, Nashville, Dollywood and Iceland. The plot of this documentary is simple: four singers and a music producer (Nina Persson, Cecilia Nordlund, Lotta Wenglén, Helena Josefsson, and Gudrun Hauksdottir), met through a tribute to Dolly Parton and become close friends.

Picture by Sofia Josefsson

Debaser Malmö payed homage to Michael Jackson on December 25th, 2009.

Picture by Johan Bävman (sydsvenskan.se)

Fre 25 Dec Inne: 19-03
135 kr + förköpsavgift. Biljetter finns hos Tickster, Skivlagret och hos Folk och Rock.

Forrest & Crispian, Paulina, Asha Ali, Vivian Buczek, Jonas Drejholt and Helena Josefsson took part in the concert. It also features the usual Aftonorkestern, usually with Magnus Sveningsson (Righteous Boy, The Cardigans) on bass, Nathan Larson on guitar and Patrik Bartosch (Eggstone) on keyboards. There is also a show "En afton med Michael Jackson" in Debaser Medis in Stockholm booked for tomorrow December 26th, but Helena will not play there.

Do you want some reviews from the concert? According to Håkan Engström, from sydsvenskan.se, "fast nothing could beat Helena Josefsson tonight". Emma Sonesson (aka BiLLY), administrator of the HJ Fanclub Portal, wrote: "Yesterday was a nice concert :D but I couldn't take a pic! :(".

"En afton med ..." is a project by Debaser Malmö, SVT and Monbio. Visit: www.enafton.com. "En afton med Michael Jackson" (A night with M.J.) is the last show of this project after three years of homages, including nights with Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie or Depeche Mode. Artists like Nina Persson, Tingsek or Titiyo have been doing really good covers of their idols' hits. Helena Josefsson was also in "En afton med Dusty Springfield" (December 2007) and in "En afton med Blondie" (February 2008). Some of the shows were recorded for the documentary "The DollyCamp".

LJdM

Helena Josefsson - Beat It

Helena Josefsson - Ain't No Sunshine

I was in love with Michael Jackson as a young teenager and still love his music and dancing. It will be fun! I have seen Michael Jackson twice, the Dangerous tour and the History tour. And I was so in love with him as a girl, making drawings of him, sending him letters that I wrote in gold :o) I will enjoy singing his music. I think he was amazing, cause he had the voice, the composing talent, the amazing rhythm-feel not to mention his moves!

It is exciting to sing his songs and I will try to do it properly even though it can never be as good as he did it. I will sing Beat it and Ain´t no sunshine with my own Swedish lyrics on them. I was thinking of Dirty Diana at first but someone else got it before me :o) I think my favourite songs are Human Nature, Beat it and Dirty Diana.

I will not play in Debaser Medis, and I haven´t been asked to. It´s good ´cause I want to be home to spend Christmas with my little family :o) I hope you will have a wonderful christmas! Helena!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Picture by Sofia Josefsson

Incomprehensible and terribly sad. A master left us. We will never experience anyone like Michael Jackson again.

Per Gessle

History:

Main sources: Debaser Malmö - Kalender; helenajosefsson.com - News; helenajosefsson.com - Gigs; helenajosefsson.com - Guestbook; En afton med ... Michael Jackson; Twitter; sydsvenskan.se
Related articles: "A night with Dusty Springfield" (LJdM, 28.12.2007); "En afton med Blondie" (LJdM, 27.02.2008); Vokalisternas och glittrets afton(sydsvenskan.se; 26.12.2009)
Links from: HJ Official Forum - Waiting for Helena's second solo album; THJ Society - Wall; RoxetteBlog
Originally published in LJdM: 08.12.2009.
Updated: (1) 2009.12.09: LJdM published this gig the day before helenajosefsson.com did it. Helena confirmed it and answered some of our questions in her guestbook. (2) 2010.01.11: Videos added from Youtube, uploaded by CinnamonWeaver and Fred200008. (3) 2010.01.28: I added more pictures by Sofia Josefsson.

P, C & C and their rox-prom nights (IV): NOTP review

2009-12-21T15:17:00.009+01:00

Night of the Proms finished yesterday night in Dortmund. It is time to review the tour and who better than the musicians that took part in it.

Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman were interviewed by Judith Seuma and Kirsten Ohlwein, from roxette.blog, last week. In their great interviews, they spoke about NOTP and Roxette's plans for 2010. We also add the words of Per Gessle to The Daily Roxette.

LJdM

If I had to choose between the studio or the stage, I’d stay in the studio. But I enjoy playing on stage inmensely, it’s so much fun. And I think it’s the best education for a musician, I think if you want to be good, you have to play for an audience, it teaches you a lot. Music is about communication after all, and only on stage you have this direct connection, you do something and you feel if you get something back or not immediately. Of course, this doesn’t happen with records. So…, I want to have it all!

So far I have it all. But of course, there’s the other side of touring, the travelling, being away from your family. To start with, it’s great, because we have lots of fun, we like being together. Short tours are great, like last Spring, that was great all the way through. This one is maybe a bit too long, we are away from our families for nine weeks, towards the end it feels a bit sad. But of course, it’s great playing live and spending time with the other guys in the band.

In this tour there is less room than ever, mostly because of the orchestra. But for example, we planned last Spring’s tour in a way so that we could have more room for this. We consciously tried to do that, let lose a bit, take a bit more chances than normal and hope for the best. What happens is, when you succeed on that, you become stronger and want to do that more often. The communication with the audience then reaches a peak, everybody is in the same moment. Of course, that’s a risk, and sometimes it’s not that great, but I think it’s good to take those chances, that risk. No risk, no fun.

Of course, you can’t do that during this tour. Well, we added the “Hey Jude” part during this NOTP tour to “The Look”. Marie just came up with it. She just started singing “Hey Jude” so we were all “what?”. It came out of nowhere, and it actually sounds great, so we kept it. She is actually like that, she’s always done such things, she has so much music in her, it’s so natural for her to improvise. I think she always did that live on stage, changing melodies. Of course, if you are that secure with that way of singing, you can get away with mistakes and such. We are all “Wow! What happened?”. Marie Fredriksson is wonderful. She is my idol, I think she is such a hero. After all she’s been through, she still can do this in front of so many people, and she is SO strong, she’s got so much inner strength. I bow my head to her. It’s so much fun when she is happy on stage, we all feel that so much. It was bad when she got the throat thing, that was hard. But still, she simply went for it, other artists would have cancelled the show, I mean, she couldn’t speak at all, had no voice. But she was like “no no, up on stage, let’s do it”. I think she has a new sort of dimension in her voice, maybe because of what she has gone through, what comes out is your collected experiences as human being, and she has had more experiences than most of us, so when I hear her singing now, I think it’s even better than before. There is something new there. Some days ago, I don’t remember which concert, I think I heard the best version of “It must have been love” ever, it was like a new song almost, so fragile, so full of feeling. It meant so much in a way. And when she sings the new songs Per wrote, we are all like “wow!”, it’s so fun to hear the two voices singing new songs together, it’s wonderful.

Cologne was a special night in Party Crasher Tour. But unfortunately the recording from the gig in Hamburg went wrong. So we couldn’t have “Hello Stuttgart” on the record. I would have loved that . The “finally Stuttgart” sign is in the tour bus now. It must be weird for fans from Stuttgart who don’t know it and ask “why is Stuttgart so funny?”. But Per recovered great. He said “it’s great to be here in Stuttgart..and Hamburg, and Cologne.” So he really saved himself in the last minute. But he will hear that for the rest of his life.

Our adventures on YouTube are getting worse and worse I think! Haha! When you tour, a certain silliness enters your brain because there is really nothing else to do. So your mind goes a bit empty, that’s what happens.

The break between the first song and our second part is very long, so we sit there for hours. I think Per counted the hours and realized we are going to sit backstage a total of five full days. It’s so difficult to do anything, you try to read books, but you can’t, you can listen to music, that’s the only thing. It’s the same in hotel rooms, you can’t do anything there, it’s so difficult to concentrate and get going. It’s like… BLANK. And then silliness takes over.

The silly videos are actually only boring, those don’t make it. But that’s Per’s decision, he does that on his own. He also goes around with the camera all the time, so always when he comes in the room it’s like “Hellooooo!” holding the camera, he never stops. He’s got this energy, I don’t know where he gets it from, it’s like an infinite source of positive energy, he’s amazing in that way. I’ve never met anybody who is like that actually. He never gets tired.

NOTP is different from my taste of music and style of performing, but getting to know it all and being part of it made me realize how incredibly well everything is organized and how difficult it is to do something like this. And they have done this for such a long time, and people keep coming. They are very nice and really good at what they do. So I appreciate it a lot.

The audience in Antwerp was great, everybody was dancing, ages ranged between 5 and 80, everybody was totally into it, like a huge family party every night. The audience is very different in Germany, it’s a bit older, but at the same time Roxette has more support here, so for us that’s great.

The artists slowly get to know each other. Our dressing rooms are next to each other, and we also eat together. They are all very nice. But maybe the choice of artists was a bit better in Belgium and Holland. Toots was great, I liked him a lot.

In the German part I am sort of getting into the Alan Parsons project part a bit more. I haven’t listened to it before. The second song is really nice (sings a part of Silence and I). The instrumental section in the middle is nice. Maybe that would be my favorite. And before it was Toots Thielemans. Yes, maybe you shouldn’t listen to him too many times. I think it was a bit long maybe. The film music medley was going on and going on. The Bluesette was great. Jazz is not my thing. I don’t know much about Jazz, but he is a melodic jazz player. He is 87 and plays something new every night. He has had a couple of strokes as well and he comes on stage, improvising, in front of 10.000 people. And he has some Swedish connection. In the 60’s he was working a lot with classic Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, who is fantastic, and also a pair of Swedish comedians, who everybody loves and knows, Hasse och Tage. He wrote music for their films and they made lyrics in Swedish for them. His jazz tunes are very well known in Sweden. He speaks Swedish. He comed and says “hej, hur mår du?” (laughs). And he was in the bar and was singing the theme from Swedish children’s movies that he made the music for. He was fantastic.

Clarence Öfwerman and I wrote the arrangements this summer. And they have an arranger and he added some things here and there. But we wrote the main part. And also they added things for “The Look” and “Joyride”, we wrote less for these and they said that we have to keep people in the orchestra happy, they have to play something, so we added a bit of stuff that maybe we wouldn’t have written to keep people play. But it’s still stuff that we like. That was fun. We actually wrote arrangements for the songs we were supposed to play in 2002, too. They were never used in the end. So there were arrangements for “Crash!Boom!Bang!” and “Anyone”. They were put together to one song for the huge orchestra. I hope we can use that some day. It’s a great song. It’s one of the best songs on “Have a nice day.”

We performed “Junk” with Brainpool and a symphony orchestra once. That was like the concert of my life. I never had so much fun. When we started the project I thought like “oh, this is going to be scary, it’s not going to work” and I remember maybe two or three songs into it it just felt like “yes, this is right, this is how it should be”. But that’s because it is a rock opera. But touring with Roxette or maybe a whole Per Gessle concert with an orchestra doesn’t really make sense. In this context it’s good, but otherwise not. The whole idea “Classic meets Pop” is very rarely successful, I think. A lot of bands have done it, Metallica (S&M, 1999) etc etc. And it feels like something bands do when they get bored. “We have to develop. Let’s get an orchestra”. For me, it’s not my style, but it’s very well done. They use it in a good way, I think, but I prefer Metallica without the orchestra.

I really don’t know how are we going to record the new album of Roxette. We are talking about it all the time, it might be a mixture. This time we might have a bit more or real playing, more than in Party Crasher where we used programmed drums. That was fun to do, we hadn’t done that before, but we’ll see.

I sort of play with my guitar what sounds natural to me. I haven’t listened to so much heavy metal music. No, that’s not my thing. But I like riffs. I like all the riffs Jonas Isascsson plays and that he came up with . I always rememberThe Look intro. That’s brilliant stuff I think. For me that sounds like it comes from The Beatles. It doesn’t sound like it comes from heavy metal. It’s a bit of both actually, but for me it sounds more like a Beatles riff. Jonas is such a great musician, he’s so technical and he can play so many styles. I am not like that at all. He’s just a hundred times better than I am. Jonas does that great. Yeah, Jonas is the best guitarist Alan Parsons ever had. I hope, Alan Parsons realizes it. You can see that he likes it. He’s into it, improvising and having fun. Playing with Jonas is great. He’s so musical, he has such a good ear and listens and adapts and always comes up with great stuff and this is wonderful.

The first couple of nights I got the stomach flu and I was bluaaaaah all over the place and I couldn’t be in the same dressing room like the others, so I wasn’t actually there in the first four nights. I sat in my own little isolation cell, no contact with anyone, no idea what was going on… Yeah, I am getting old. The guy I met in the reception was the back fixer. I haven’t been able to sleep because my arm hurts. It’s hard being a rock musician. I think it’s a combination of playing the bass and stress, maybe. You are tensed and then the muscles and nerves get squeezed..

Christoffer Lundquist

Second and third concerts in Frankfurt were excellent. he first wasn’t that good. Stuttgart was the best so far, and the second in Munich. Dortmund next Sunday is the last one. It’s kind of sad, we’d like to go on forever. At least we had the family come down to us a couple of times in between, so I think it’s ok. All in all it’s great, when you get into it it’s wonderful to be on tour. Soon I will be home with my family, Santa Claus and Kalle Anka.

“The Proms” guys always make jokes. In Frankfurt, during Heaven 17 there is a lot of smoke on the stage, one of the violin guys from the orchestra, had a gas mask on stage, just for the fun. He’s crazy. One day he played with the violin on his back. Patrick is also fun, he’s been doing this from the beginning, he has done about 700 concerts. He is also good getting the audience to participate.

I just put the notes together. I have never studied anything about classic music. In some of my early works as a producer I just tried it out, and I learnt a lot from that. I still don’t know how to do that properly, but it works. Now Christoffer Lundquist and I do it together, none of us is really educated in this direction, so we only trust our ears.

I added the original “Wish I Could Fly” arrangements to the song for NOTP. Then we added some trumpets and stuff. Well, there are some things in “Listen to your heart” which were added by NOTP guys. We did about 90-95% of the arrangements. The Proms guys added the rest, which are mostly wind instruments.

It’s nice to get the response of the audience. It’s wonderful with Marie, she’s stronger and stronger. I think from the 4th or 5th concert it’s just going up. Marie surprised us all being this good, it’s fantastic.

Marie also added “Hey Jude”. It’s actually an old thing, Marie used to add this sometimes in some concerts too. It’s fun she does this again. She fell into it again. One line in “Place your love” is also a bit similar to “Hey Jude”, a small homage. Improvising is what great artists do. It’s difficult to do something every night, but sometimes it just works. It’s also not good to try every night to do something new, because it doesn’t always work. You just have to wait for and feel the moment.

I thought NOTP would be worse with all this waiting, and also the concept, which isn’t much Roxette. And I wasn’t sure about the audience. But I think it’s great. We do our thing, and then we have some time for ourselves. We listened to the other artists a couple of times, but not every night. I would love to do this again, with different songs.

We actually wrote arrangements for “Crash! Boom! Bang” together with “Anyone”, and back to “Crash!Boom!Bang”. It was similar to the “Room Service” tour, but with these arrangements we went back to “C!B!B” again in the end. So it was a bit different. We also did “Dressed for Success”. But I think lots of songs would fit this concept. “Queen of rain”, with Per and Marie singing the chorus together.

We will record new songs again in Bremen and in Cologne. We are just trying out things, keys, who shall sing what part and this kind of stuff. We have some songs with Marie’s vocals, guide vocals, something we can work with, and then we’ll have Marie come to the studio to sing the final vocals. We have no demos for the new Roxette songs. We only have the guitar and vocals. The idea of the songs, but it’s very basic. But I understand that fans like demos so much, I would also like to listen to the Beatles demos, for example.

Clarence Öfwerman

NOTP is bizarre. Very much so. It’s impossible to understand, unless you see it for yourself. You have to really be a part of it to understand it. It’s really hard to describe to friends at home what we are actually doing - it’s fun, it’s great! It’s also a great step. I think it’s a very clever move of Marie, instead of doing a full tour or a full concert. She’s not ready to do those things. With Night of the Proms you share the responsibility with other artists, and you're just doing your four or five songs. And we're doing lots of shows, so she's getting back into the concert mode

Yes, it's amazing to be on tour again. There's absolutely nothing negative about this. Did I believe we'd be together like this again? I never wanted to ask myself that question. It was always up to Marie Fredriksson. And I'm amazed it goes so well. She's missed this, I can tell. She's always been a stage artist, even though she's been great in the studio too lately. Now the fans are crying mostly, a lot of scenes out there. We've recorded 14-15 songs, chosen keys, direction and stuff. Plus we're killing time. The recordings sound great. We're sticking to our Roxette sound, but hopefully updating it so it feels relevant to us and preferably others… It's my songs and Marie's voice, as always. A fifth US #1 wouldn't hurt! NOTP was good, Marie was excellent. Let's say we have a very good time at work. Now there's a huge possibility for a new album, then we'll see. It's a huge step for a real Roxette concert. It's up to Marie. A huge step.

We have started working on a new record, that's the plan. I'm filming a lot of the recordings. But on the other hand, I can't publish them, because I don't want people to hear those songs. So it's like a dead end. But I think it's fun, it's a fun way of communicating and the Internet has made everything so much easier. From a fan's point of view I think it's just fantastic to be able to see what's going on in the studio, backstage or in the tour bus. We only just started the recordings, but I wrote a lot of songs this year after the tour with Roxette in mind. We have started on two songs, but we have like 13. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do, which is the hardest thing. So far so good. After NOTP we are going to start late January. We're recording in Christopher's studio and then we're doing Marie's vocals in Stockholm.

After Night of the Proms I'm going to work on the Roxette album. And then - I don't know. I'm sure there will be another Gyllene Tider tour, and I'm sure there will be another Per Gessle tour in Europe, as well as another Per Gessle album. You know, I'm just writing. Like this summer: we knew that Night of the Proms was going to happen and then I told Marie "let's try to do an album". Then I started working on songs, that's how I work. After that album, who knows? Maybe if we think the time is right for Gyllene Tider to do something, and then I will start working on Gyllene Tider songs. Maybe a summer tour.

The problem that I have with the Party Crasher project is that I have a non-working record company. EMI is really not working anymore. Nowhere. A little bit in England, but in England I'm with Sony. Sony is much better in England. I’ve walked my head into a wall so many times regarding that album. It was the same with Son of a Plumber when that album came out. The response I was getting from the record company was nothing. So I have to find another way. You know, it's a contract thing as well. I have to sort all these business things out. But, of course, I'm very disappointed that there hasn't been a proper American release for Son of a Plumber or Party Crasher. On the other hand, both albums are quite timeless, so eventually something could happen. Maybe if a song from Party Crasher would be in a commercial, then the whole album could happen I think. I'm not really in charge of that, but you know me - my plan is always to dominate the world. It's a tough one, though. In the music industry you’re in between chairs, so to speak. It's really hard to know what's going on and how you're going to work. There's always an opportunity to do an American tour, like I did in Europe, but that costs so much money. Someone has to pay for it, someone has to pay guys like him (Per points at Oskar, the tour manager and tech guy who laughs out loud). But I'd love to do it. The Over Europe tour, the Party Crasher tour, was one of the most fun tours ever made for me. The same goes for the band. Those were great shows, and I love that album. That's why I released a live album. Normally, when you come back from a tour, you feel like: "Yeah, well, that was the tour." But in this case it actually gave some songs new life and it just is a great testament of my catalogue of songs. I just feel very comfortable.

About the demos? Well, I have a plan for the future but it also has a lot to do with the recording contracts. I thought about something like putting my demos on iTunes or whatever. Basically because I think that if you're interested in my music, it's interesting to listen to my demos. And there are so many of them. For up until the Son of a Plumber album, there are demos for basically every song I have written. Of course some of them have been released, I did this Bad Hair Day thing and some Christmas things as well. But there are so many songs, I don't really know what to do with them, so the idea is probably to make some sort of an archive. Like I said, I have to sort out all this with the record company. I do know there's a big interest. I've been doing this for over 30 years now. When you are my age and you have this - I have written more than 1000 songs in my life - I think it's great to be able to have an archive, one that if you're interested you can listen to it. It's the same with the reason why I wanted Sven Lindström to do that book: because it's been a long career. If you wait too long, people are going to forget. Maybe you will even forget it yourself, or the ones you're working with. It's fun to do it when you're still around and you have the motivation to do it.

Per Gessle

Sandy Mouche hides the head in the sand (V): Sommardis - Lions julsoaré

2009-12-05T23:10:00.011+01:00

From time to time, Helena Josefsson and Martin Josefsson sing and play in churches, usually with the pianist Christoffer Andersson. They used the name "Sommardis" before for this trio and it is a good opportunity to see some of Sandy Mouche's members together.

It is Christmas time, good time for another concert. December 5, 2009, they have played with the trumpetist Roger Johansson (Kävlinge Golfklubb's greenkeeper) and a children's choir, in "Lions julsoaré" in Korsbacka church, Kävlinge, Skäne. The concert was arranged by Lions Club Kävlinge, a charitable secular organization.

Erik Johansson, a Swedish fan, was there and was able to buy a CD with Helena and Martin music for her friend Johanna Molander, moderator in HJ Official Forum and HJ Fanclub Portal. Helena and Martin played songs as "Hallelujah", "Pie Jesu" and "Time to say goodbye".

Artists:
Helena and Martin Josefsson, singers
Christoffer Andersson*, piano
Roger Johansson, trumpet
Lucia from Korsbackaskolan and the church's children choir.
Tickets: 150 kr. Under 12 y.o. free.
Buy tickets at: Hellbergs Bokhandel, Kärvlinge
All the money will go to Världens barn / Children of the World.
Place: Korsbacka kyrka.
Time: 16.00 - 2009/12/05

(*Updated: Finally, Christoffer Andersson could not play this time. Martin's brother played the piano)

LJdM

Korsbacka kyrka 16.00 2009/12/05

Christmas concert! Candlelight and children´s choir guaranteed!

Martinique and me sing beautiful Christmas songs, and the children´s choir sings too in a "Luciatåg"!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Helena & Martin - "Hallelujah"

Helena & Martin - "Pie Jesu"

Helena & Martin - "Time to say gooodbye"

Malin Nilsson & Helena Josefsson, magic and music (II): November in Malmö

2009-11-19T13:49:00.006+01:00

For two nights, Malin Nilsson has played her magic show at Teater 23 in Malmö, 13 and 14 November. The show is a mix of magic and music and includes Helena Josefsson's songs. Emma Sonesson (aka BiLLY), administrator of the HJ Fanclub Portal, wrote in her blog: "I was there with Erik and Johanna. We watched a funny magic show. Helena Josefsson was a guest but it was actually very funny, I've never been to anything like that before. Thank you Helena :)".

Photo by Lars Brundin

Malin has summarized the shows in her blog.

"I am lucky. I have got the best friends in the world. Some were in the audience. Otheres were waiting behind Variety Vauduvill’s red velvet curtain waiting to hear their names in the loudspeakers. Before the opening Sweden’s foremost spoken word poet Emil Jensen had said in the paper he writes for that the variety will be a chance to see ”the best singer and the best magician together on the same stage. Everything could happen. And probably will.” And it did. Emil, you were right as usual. The gallery at my website will soon be updated with photos taken by Karl Larsson at bitsize.se . But at the time being our good friend and photographer Lars Brundin has put some of his great shots in his Face Book gallery, check them out here: Lars Brundin's facebook gallery. Untill next time."

Photo by Lars Brundin

We recognize some of the pretty suits that Helena Josefsson's has worn with Sandy Mouche last years.

Malin kindly answered to LJdM's questions in her blog:

"It was amazing! It can’t be described in words. As you might suspect Helena Josefsson was a great success, introducing her to my audience was one of the best things I have done on stage. I love her visual sense and creating magic to her tunes was an amazing process that has just begun … I am new in the blog sphere and haven’t gone ‘official’ with my blog yet, but it is nice to see that you found your way here anyway. Keep in touch."

Photo by Lars Brundin

Helena Josefsson singing 'Ghosts' - Photo by Lars Brundin

We are sure Malin and Helena's fans are waiting for more shows next spring 2010. Meanwhile, if you are in the United States, try to follow Malin Nilsson's shows. It's worth it.

LJdM

I sang two new songs in Swedish and Ghosts and Waterlily Love (while Malin made a rose disappear!)

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Malin Nilsson & Helena Josefsson, magic and music (I): an exciting fusion

2009-10-15T17:08:00.014+02:00

According to her own website, Helena Josefsson will take part in a Magic show with her friend Malin Nilsson in November 2009 and in Spring 2010.

Both Helena and Malin were interviewed by Yvonne Erlandsson in Skånskan.se. The cooperation started when Malin Nilsson was invited by Sandy Mouche at KB in Malmö some years ago in a gig of Helena Josefsson’s band. Helena “wanted someone who created a fabulous atmosphere and Malin fitted exactly”. Malin is used to music in her performances. Malin loves Helena’s music and says “it’s so cool that Helena could think so much in pictures”. “We both want to do something new, something bigger than ourselves. Art, that’s why you get up in the morning”, says Malin. According to Yvonne Erlandson, Helena began to study for becoming optician but gave up because she needed to be musician to feel alive.

As it is said in Malmö Lokaltidningen, Malin Nilsson is going to work in the United States (New York and Los Angeles) this winter. In Spring 2010, Malin and Helena will join again for some gigs together. You can follow Malin's stories in her blog.

The duo combines pop and magic and will premiere at Teater 23 in Malmö, 13 and 14 November, and will continue in March. The singer and actor Emil Jensen says to Efterarbetet.etc.se that it was an opportunity to see the best magician and the best singer together: "Bästa sångerskan och bästa trollkarlen på en och samma scen. Allt borde kunna hända. Och kommer nog att göra det."

LJdM

I am playing with my friend Malin Nilsson, who is a magician (www.malinnilsson.se) and I will be a guest at her show in November!

Malin & Vänner / Malin and Friends

Malin Nilsson (magician),
Helena Josefsson (singer) and Hans-Inge Magnusson (piano).
Guests: Thorsten Andreasen, Jonas Södergren and Helena Kågemark

Fre 13 nov kl. 20:00

Plats: Teater 23, Djäknegatan 7, Malmö
Arrangör: Trollkonst: Stage Art & Production
Onumrerat.
Tillgängliga biljetter: 88 (av 140)

Lör 14 nov kl. 20:00
Plats: Teater 23, Djäknegatan 7, Malmö
Arrangör: Trollkonst: Stage Art & Production
Onumrerat.
Tillgängliga biljetter: 91 (av 140)

Håll dig uppdaterad på www.trollkonst.com

Biljetter www.kulturcentralen.nu

And in spring we will make our very own show, with her magic tricks and my popmusic in an exciting fusion! It is so much fun and it is a dream coming true to me.... When we rehearse dwith the pianist Hans-Inge Magnusson I felt like we were a band.

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Helena's new single in Swedish (V): Fen & Jag

2009-10-14T15:46:00.012+02:00

I have recorded a song and made a video with my family and friends, it is called “Fen & jag”!

While waiting for my second solo album to get released, I have made this song together with Martinique and Per Blomgren from my band Sandy Mouche in Per's garage studio, just for the fun of it and to give something to you who wait patiently! I wrote it and they produced it for me.

It is about how I met a fairy one day who said she could give me a new life, to live my life all over again, so I could erase my mistakes and get released from the sadness I have gone through. But my answer to her is, that I now understand that all the tears and the laughter would lead me to where I am today, and I don´t want to change a thing. It was all worth it. Now that I have managed to get a child and my own, new family. When the vocals were recorded, my baby boy was sitting on the floor playing. You can actually hear him in the song, too! At 1.17!

The new single “Fen & jag” has a cute cover made by Martinique and you can download it at CDBaby.com. Unfortunately my homepage is dead at the moment, but just wait a couple of days and it will be back!

This song is not on the album, it is just a present for you! And some amusement for myself, because I needed to have a little fun instead of just waiting. The video crew is my sisters Sofia Josefsson (photography) and Carolina Josefsson (assistant) and my friends Annette Lindqvist (script) and Jens Jansson (cut)! Recorded in Skanör, on the very south edge of Sweden.

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Comments from the fans:

Per Gessle posted on his Twitter the lastest Helena Josefsson’s video called “Fen & Jag”. Suprisingly, her official website is no longer available, so we know nothing about the release dates. I really like the song, though I expected the second album would be in English as the first one was. But this time she decided to record sthg in Swedish. Sounds fresh, interesting and much Helen-ish!

Tomas Wysocki, from Warsaw, Poland
- tomos85 MySpace

Hej Helena, I've just seen your new video. It looks so lovely in comparison to those clips which we get from MTV. The sea, sand and you having fun on the beach without unnecessary nudity or strange dancing figures. Love it. It's a pity that I don't understand the lyrics but still I'm glad to hear you singing in your native tongue. As far as I can remember once I asked you if you would ever consider singing in Swedish and here's my reply. :) Nice treat after a hard working weekend of mine. Thanks.

Kamila Aleksandrowicz,
from Białystok, Poland

What a great new song. :) Greets, Heike.
Heike Lohrengel - HJ Official Forum

Köpte den där redan för några dagar se =) Blev lite förvånad när jag hittade den att köpa.

Erik Johansson, from Stockholm, SE (aka slowmove)
GT Inofficiellt Forum

Have already downloaded the song from CDBaby a couple of hours ago. The cover is great, can't wait to listen to the whole album!!! Wow, how cool!!!! Your new song is fantastic, amazing, SPEACHLESS!!!!!! ))) Thank you very very much for keeping on, working, dreaming, shearing! All the warmest regards for this October weekend to you, M. & CD! Kram, Ilya.

Ilya Volkov -(a.k.a. Kreecher)- Roxette House

I love your new song! Martinique did a great cover! I have also seen the video on youtube. Nice beach there! Many hugs,

Nicole Breuer - HJ Official Forum

P, C & C and their rox-prom nights (III): dates and recordings

2009-09-25T16:53:00.003+02:00

090909 the Beatles remasters were released today (by EMI), both in stereo and in mono, now EMI is releasing Roxette's entire album catalog remastered, albeit only in stereo… "The Rox Archives." Erik Broheden at Masters of Audio (former Polar Mastering) has remastered the albums. According to TDR, "very nice looking sleeves, quite disappointing booklets and the albums sound terrific in headphones."

Roxette is taking part in the Nokia Night of the Proms 2009 tour along with many other top artists. EMI Germany has released the full list of the NOTP concerts where Roxette will perform. Roxette's band will include Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist (P, C & C), Jonas Isaacson and drummer Pelle Alsing.

Belgium:

October 23, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 24, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 25, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 28, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 29, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 30, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
October 31, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
November 4, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
November 6, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
November 7, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
November 10, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis
November 11, 2009: Antwerp, Sportpaleis

The Netherlands:

November 13, 2009: Arnhem, Gelredome
November 14, 2009: Arnhem, Gelredome
November 18, 2009: Rotterdam, Ahoy
November 19, 2009: Rotterdam, Ahoy
November 20, 2009: Rotterdam, Ahoy
November 21, 2009: Rotterdam, Ahoy
November 22, 2009: Rotterdam, Ahoy

Germany:

November 27, 2009: Hamburg, Color Line Arena
November 28, 2009: Hamburg, Color Line Arena
November 29, 2009: Berlin, O2 World
December 1, 2009: Oberhausen, Arena
December 2, 2009: Mannheim, SAP Arena
December 3, 2009: Stuttgart, Schleyerhalle
December 4, 2009: Frankfurt, Festhalle
December 5, 2009: Frankfurt, Festhalle
December 6, 2009: Frankfurt, Festhalle
December 8, 2009: Erfurt, Messehalle
December 10, 2009: Munich, Olympiahalle
December 11, 2009: Munich, Olympiahalle
December 12, 2009: Munich, Olympiahalle
December 13, 2009: Munich, Olympiahalle
December 15, 2009: Bremen, AWD Dome
December 16, 2009: Hannover, TUI Arena
December 17, 2009: Hannover, TUI Arena
December 18, 2009: Cologne, Lanxessarena
December 19, 2009: Cologne, Lanxessarena
December 20, 2009: Dortmund, Westfalenhalle

Check also these videos posted to YouTube:

May 2009: Marie and Per coming to NOTP press conference, shooting promo photos
May 2009: NOTP official Roxette clip with short interview
September 2009: Per's video message in a recent press conference

TDR interviewed Per Gessle before his trip to New York September 23. Read it.

You can also read the final recording blog of Brandur Enni, the Feroe Islands' artist that has been at AGM Studios this year with Christoffer Lundquist.

LJdM

First of all 'Night of the Proms' is a great opportunity for Marie and myself to get back together again without trying to do a full-scale Roxette concert. At this point we'd like to take everything concerning Roxette step by step. We take everything step by step. Time will tell how much she wants to work the stage. I don't know yet. But I don't consider this to be a problem. Marie's voice and presence are still magical. Enjoy the shows. We certainly will.

It will be thrilling to perform some of our biggest songs (especially "Wish I Could Fly," "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart") with a big orchestra & choir. Clarence's & Christoffer's arrangements are truly stunning. And the idea of having strings on "The Look" sounds very South Park to me. I love it.

I'm sure there will be DVD:s released with our Prom-performances. Full orchestral album? Not on the agenda at the moment, no. We're actually bringing a serious amount of equipment to Belgium & Holland to make some groundbreaking recordings in the hotel corridors… I'm born, raised and bred on 7"-singles. Every thing I create starts off as a "single" in my head. That's the way I am, that's how I work. But the decision what should/shouldn't become a radio-single or the lead teaser for an album is basically made by the various record companies. You have to trust that they know their own markets. At least, that's what you would expect in the olden days when we were having tea with the Queen.

I'm a writer. I love to write songs. Then I love to record them. So yes, I always find myself halfway into a recording situation and it would be lovely to make some new splendid landmarks with the divine Ms. F. We'll see what happens and check our pulses. But yes, we'd love to make some more recordings as Roxette.

Most of the stuff that Roxette's fans are interested in is owned by jolly EMI and at the moment it's really hard to get any answers or directions out of them. They're in a complicated state of business. We're still trying to grab a decent record deal in US for these two up and coming youngsters, Marie & Per. I guess big things will happen in due time. However, we try to be on the case as we'd love to have everything available just as much as you do. Trust me. We all shoot film all the time. We'll use the best parts down the road, like we've always done. I'd love us to do another great album and a world tour again. I won't promise it will happen though. But it certainly would be great fun. I'm sure that a Gyllene Tider reunion will happen one of these years too. It's a great little band.

I only make acoustic demos these days. No arrangements, no intros, no solos, no double choruses. I leave all that to the real studio sessions. It's more fun like that. Much more creative. I love the input I'm getting from C&C.

Per Gessle

My new album ("Sometimes truth needs a lie") was finished Friday night at 10pm - September 11th. It was a crazy feeling... something deep inside me said that this was worth a celebration, but we had worked 24/7 in an almost three-week-race, so Christoffer Lundquist wanted finally to be with his family which I totally understand...so I went down to the little house where I'd stayed, feeling kind of melancholic and proud at the same time - and extremely hungry for some crazy party - the only problem was that I was all by myself in a little house in the middle of a dark forest - not knowing a soul. I drank some bear and put some Swedish "snus" under my lip, what I never do unless something very special's happened...I tried to read a novel, the only one that seemed interesting for the time being, but I got restless and bored. Then I hear somebody's screaming/singing Gasolin songs somewhere in a distance. I go outside and find that my only neighbor is having one hell of party! But I'm too shy to go over and join them...I tell myself that I can't just walk in there if he's having a very personal party. I made pictures of the situation turning creepy with a stranger suddenly turning up. But after walking around my house for half an hour hearing their wild karaoke songs, I felt so alone that I finally built up some courage and grabbed my guitar and went over to introduce myself as the new neighbor! It turned out to be one of the very best parties I've ever joined...the hosts were the warmest people you can imagine...we played and sang all through the night. No club or magical bar could ever compete with that spontaneous garden party!

Brandur Enni

Stockfinster - Dead line

2009-09-09T14:34:00.005+02:00

stockfinster is the artistic name of Sebastian Borg (a.k.a. Batti), a producer from Malmö, Sweden. He writes, plays, arranges and mixes everything, sometimes with a little help from his musical friends. One of them is Helena Josefsson, who has recorded the vocals of some songs in his recording studio, Gula Studion in Malmö.

stockfinster unofficially uploaded three works, Red wood (June, 2004), Sunset (January, 2005) and Car Crash (June, 2009) in Bandcamp.com. He also released his debut album, All becomes music (October, 2005), in Sutemos, an On-line label from Lithuania.

His second official album is Dead line and can be downloaded for free in Sutemos today. The album includes thirteen songs:

[01] Push Push .. 4:02 ; [02] Daypusher .. 7:02 ;

[03] Think Again .. 5:56 ; [04] Poly6 .. 4:52 ;

[05] Knuckle .. 5:39 ; [06] Gold Canyon .. 5:05

[07] Mitglieder .. 7:14 ; [08] Slow Ghost .. 8:36

[09] Don't Point Your Paw At Me .. 5:25

[10] Sailing Through The Bardo .. 5:38

[11] Seventeen Days .. 5:42 ; [12] The Cabin .. 2:50

[13] The Dead .. 8:28

This is what Sebastian Borg himself tells about the album:

"It's been four years since my last release at Sutemos. So what have I been up to? I guess the answer lies in the music you are about to download. My production rate just keeps getting slower and slower and I have reluctantly started to accept that this is just the way I am; I am simply unable to speed up the creative process. I have actually considered to stop making music altogether just to get rid of this frustration, but I know this is not possible. I have no choice but to keep on working and to try and at least finish something... anything ...

So why does it take such a long time? The answer is choices. Every idea, no matter how small, offers an endless amount of new ideas and possibilities that you must either choose to pursue or ignore. Some people are able to make this choice very quickly but I am simply unable to leave any stone unturned. I spend hours, if not days and months, working on a track just to scrap the whole thing and start over from scratch again. This is, of course, a time consuming process, but I can not have it any other way. I have found that if I do not let this process take place, the track will never sit right with me. It will feel unfulfilled and I will most probably not like it. I need to live with a track for a long period of time to be able to decide which direction to go next. So, in fact, it is not that I work on my songs for a long time, I just work on them for a long period of time. There is a difference.

I always try to do everything myself, but often I have to look to my dear friends for help. Without these people, my music would not be the same. Thank you, guys!

All tracks are mastered by Ola Strandh except on tracks 6 and 12.

All vocals are by Helena Josefsson except on track 11 .
01. 'Push Push' (from "Red wood", 2004)
02. On 'Daypusher', the spoken voice is Kerim Arhan. Some extra sounds were provided by Magnus Hedberg. Callin Ohrvall Delmar also contributed a lot to this track.
03. On 'Think Again' (from "Car crash", 2009), the trumpet was played by Petter Lindgard.
04. 'Poly6' (from "Sunset", 2005)
05. 'Knuckle' (from "Sunset", 2005)
06. On 'Gold Canyon', the Rhodes was played by Mats Bengsson. This song was mastered by Christoffer Leary at Melograf Mastering.
07. 'Mitglieder'
08. 'Slow Ghost'
09. 'Don't Point Your Paw At Me' (from "Sunset", 2005)
10. On 'Sailing Through The Bardo', the chord progression was written and played by Markus Slivka
11. On 'Seventeen Days', Callin Ohrvall Delmar is singing
12. 'The Cabin' was mastered by myself.
13. 'The Dead'
So here you have thirteen new tracks. They range from very old to brand new tracks, but I don't think it is obvious which ones are which. As I listen back to this collection of songs I feel happy. There are no stones left unturned. Everything is in its right place. I hope you will feel the same way." Enjoy."

So five songs come from previous works. Helena Josefsson's voice features in most of the tracks that include vocals, although it does not seem she has been in the studio again: many of the original recordings were made between 2003 and 2005 in Gula Studion. Anyway, a great opportunity to listen to Helena again.

LJdM

The DollyCamp (VIII): the trailer

2009-09-03T16:51:00.010+02:00

LJdM readers can remember the story, but there are news and pictures about it.

In 2004, Nina Persson (from the Cardigans) gave Dolly Parton's biography to her friend Gudrun Hauksdottir to read and both grew even bigger Dolly fans then before.

They contacted the director Jessica Nettelbladt and together decided to record a film about five female singers from Malmö: Cecilia Nordlund, Lotta Wenglén, Helena Josefsson, Gudrun Hauksdottir and Nina Persson.

The movie, The Dollycamp (originally, "Dollykollot, Den långa resan till Dollywood"), with the five singers playing themselves, tells their musical love, friendship and music projects connected to Dolly for a time span of 4 years.

The documentary is trying to show what their idol, Dolly, or idols in general could mean to the singers, how it influences these 5 musicians and if you can succeed in "finding" your idol.

The trailer is now in Dailymotion and could be premiered very soon. Watch it, please!

LJdM

Martin is taking care of our baby during the days and I have started studying in Copenhagen. So there are quite some things to get used to time lacking and more love than I could ever imagine a baby could make me feel!

A little sneak-peak at the trailer of the music-documentary that is about to be finished! It´s about 5 female musicians from Malmö, of which I am one! Looki looki!

The movie contains music from me, new and old ones! All of us who are part of the movie have an equal part and all of us have music in it too!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Comments by fans:

The trailer of the movie looks very cool! I know Nina Persson very well, even saw her live in Petersburg in 2007, the Cardigans were fantastic, since I was in school we all sang "My favourite Game" and Cecilia Nordlund was supposed to shot the video for you, right? Hope this story would be released somehow soon, looks fantastic really!)))

Glad to know you're fine and everything goes well. I hope you have a splendid October and see you soon again on tour. The Party Crasher on the Road was fantastic, I saw a DVD trailer and almost cried! The German lives were amazing! How could you make such a brilliant music? ;))

All the best wishes and kind regards,
You're GREAT!!!! ))) Il.

Ilya Volkov -(a.k.a. Kreecher)- Roxette House

During the time while Helenas debut album "Dynamo" was released, when she had her promotion gigs all over Sweden, I notice a girl that was there filming sometimes. It was for a documentary about some Swedish female musicians from Malmö. Now you can se the trailer to the documentary.

Emma Sonesson (aka BiLLY) - HJ Fanclub Portal

P, C & C and their rox-prom nights (II): Latvia and more Roxette

2009-08-30T16:39:00.010+02:00

Roxette’s Per Gessle and noted Swedish music journalist Sven Lindström celebrate the summer season with a countdown of the 50 greatest Scandinavian summer songs of all time on The Spectrum’s Nordic Rox, SIRIUS XM’s Scandinavian music show, July 12. Listeners will hear songs by Peter Bjorn and John, Eagle-Eye Cherry, ABBA, Roxette and more. See the list in the comments of this article.

Roxette performed live at Jurmala, Latvia and the New Wave festival last July 28. It seems Roxette will play the same five songs as on the Night of the Proms; "Wish I Could Fly," "The Look," "Joyride," "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart." And just to be clear; since this was a TV-show Roxette did not perform live, but lipsync. The band included Marie, Per, Clarence Öfwerman, Jonas Isaacson, Pelle Alsing and Christoffer Lundquist.

According to Per Gessle the seven new Roxette remasters (2009 versions) will be released September 28. All physical albums will have no more than three bonus tracks each, except for "Tourism" which only gets two. Per explains on Roxette's own site - roxette.se - that it was neither EMI's nor Roxette's intentions to put out collector's items, but new versions of older catalogue titles and that demos and such will be taken care of otherwise.

Meanwhile, the band from Stokholm [ingenting] has released the first single, HALLELUJA!, off their third album, "Tomhet, idel tomhet" (to be released on September 9, 2009; Labrador Records). The album was recorded and mixed by Christoffer Lundquist at AGM Studios, Vallarum, and produced by Jari Haapalainen. The members of the band are Niklas Lundell (percussion), Christopher Sander (guitar, vocals), Mattias Bergqvist (drums), Sebastian Ross (bass), Tobias Måård (guitar) and Andreas Jeppsson (keyboards).

This is not the last 2009 CL's project as producer. Between 25th August and 11th September, he will be recording new songs for Brandur Enni's upcoming album.

LJdM

For Latvia, we are bringing C&C - Christoffer and Clarence on bass and keyboards respectively, Pelle Alsing on drums and Jonas Isacsson on guitar. I recorded 2 new demos while visiting the ‘Aerosol Grey Machine-palace’ in July. Both are played on banjo. And both are primarily for Roxette for sure. Clarence and Christoffer are currently working on the Night Of The Proms strings arrangies. Songs sounds great. I never knew I had written epic symphonic music!!!

This is my Twitter-Radio of June and July:

July 14: Ruby, don’t take your love to town. Kenny Rogers. Great beard.
July 13: Evil hearted Ada. The Flamin’ Groovies. Used to play this a lot with the GT-lads late 70’s.
July 12: Fleet Foxes are quite good. Sunday treat: Found my old Paperback writer/Rain 7″-single!!! (Info to all you young people: It’s by The Beatles!). My God, it sounds good!
July 11: Cars. Gary Numan.
July 10: It Never Rains in Southern California – Albert Hammond
July 9: Outstanding song of the day: Urge for going. Joni Mitchell. Telstar. The Tornados.
July 7: Forever young. Dylan. Live at David Letterman 1993. It’s on YouTube. http://bit.ly/rq4CX
July 6: Red balloon. Tim Hardin.
July 5: Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood. Did you ever.
July 4: Have you seen her. The Chi-Lites. Magnificent.
July 3: Can’t make up my mind between L’important c’est la rose/Gilbert Becaud & Making plans for Nigel/XTC. Can you?
July 2: Waiting on a friend. The Rolling Stones. Made for the shade.
July 1: Somebody to love. Brad Newman. There’s a Swedish version as well. Någon att hålla i hand. Sven-Ingvars. Almost as good.
June 30: Sweet Tuesday song of the day: Steve Miller Band: Fly like an eagle. Sounds old. And young.
June 29: I don’t like Mondays. Boomtown Rats. Never liked that one. Manic Monday. Bangles. There you go.
June 28: Sunday Ditty of the Day: Sally Simpson by the Who. It’s on Tommy.
June 27: Duncan. Paul Simon. A masterpiece, never liked the flutes, though….
June 26: Billie Jean. MJ. Outstanding. Unbelievably good.
June 25: Hard to handle. Patti Drew. They don’t do ‘em like this anymore!
June 24: Invisible to her. Brainpool. -”And all the boys are goin’ aaaah!”. Brilliant!
June 23: A man without love. Engelbert Humperdinck. You need music like this once in a while.
June 22: Donovan. Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness). AC/DC last nite. Excellent popcorn!
June 21: Fresh strawberries and Bend me, Shape me (American Breed). Flavours of the day.
June 20: Anything by Erik Satie…
June 19: Neanderthal man. Hotlegs. Cheers.
June 18: She’s so high. Tal Bachman. Hated it on the radio a couple of years ago. Love it now. Is there a lesson to be learned from this?
June 17: Watched quite terrible David Bowie-DVD “Plastic soul review” last nite. However, song of the day must be his Young Americans. Superb!
June 16: Rebel yell. Billy Idol. Purrfect. Followed by All the way to Reno. REM. When they’re good they’re outstanding.

Per Gessle

I never listened to The Beatles in mono. When I was kid I was listened to it in stereo. So I don’t care about the mono, even for the albums that are supposed to be mono. I like the band there (points at the right ear) and the voice there (points at the left ear), because that’s what I heard when I was 10 years old, that’s right for me. I am actually so nerdy that…there’s a Japanese guy who got old Beatles records and transferred them to digital without touching them, straight into the computer and sold that as a bootleg. I got those, so I can listen to them .. He turned them into MP3, but good quality MP3, but it sounds more like you’re used to. I prefer that. I bought a couple of the Beatles stereo records and being a total nerd I have listened to them. Clarence Öfwerman and I listened to them in the dressing room and we both reacted the same way: “It’s changed! It’s not the same”. I am really big on that. You should never change a record, you shouldn’t try to improve them. You can’t improve something that is already done. When it’s done it’s done. It’s like you add a new color to Mona Lisa. They haven’t remixed the songs or anything like that. I think they want back generations in the masters, which changes the sound a lot and you sort of hear details that you never heard before. And the levels changed like the piano isn’t that loud.. Roxette remasters are most subtly done I think. Less change… Yes, there is a difference, but it’s not that big. But it’s bad when artists remix their old records or improve them or update them. Don’t change them. They should be as they always were. No new Beatles remastering for me.

All these stuff they put on records for copy protection, that’s bullshit of course, you can’t do that to people. And it’s the same when you buy stuff on the internet. Before you could have a file only on a couple of computers and so on. I mean, come on – you buy it and it’s yours. Like they do with movies – all the region stuff is idiotic, that’s bad and that’s how they are ruining their own life, because people download it illegally then. I think it’s just off the track. There must be a connection between the people who get it and the people who made it, who should get something for it. That’s the only important thing. And downloading is fine, when it’s not 90%. But Spotify is sort of difficult, too. It’s a great great concept and so much fun, but you get something played 4 million times and then you get 1000 Euro for it. I mean, no one can survive. And about the whole downloading discussion. You mentioned people first download and then buy when they like it, that’s true, but the people who suffer the most aren’t the big ones. That people always say: “Oh, we steal from Madonna, who cares , Michael Jackson, Roxette, they have so much money”. But smaller artists just disappear. They earned just enough to be able to make a new record and now they don’t anymore. So you get no new music. That’s really sad. It’s more about the small ones for me.

Christoffer Lundquist

The first session in Aerosol Grey Machine Studios was for one week in March. The producer Christoffer Lundquist had to go on a tour with Per Gessle, so we waited 6 months and I returned to his legendary studio on a warm summer day - August 25th. In July - Jana & Tony recorded a video for Sometimes Truth Needs a Lie, in a deserted mental hospital in Sundvall. The place was very creepy...but it was perfect for the video. you can watch it here:

During the summer I had a few concerts in Stockholm and one in the Faroe Islands as well as being opening-act for some big outdoor concerts in Stockholm, Gränna, Borås, Liseberg - Göteborg , for Sanna Nilssen, Shirly Clamp, Sonja Aldén and Charlotte Perrelli. In August before returning to the studio. I went on an Inter-rail trip together with three friends of mine, down through France, Germany, Schweitz and Italy. I had to keep my voice fit beacuse I was going to the studio directly after the trip. My friend Jonas Molinder and I played on the streets in pretty much every town we visited...we met so many wonderful people out there. When we played in Venice a french beat boxer came to join us, and he was fantastic...everybody gathered around us and we went on for a great while... The pleasure in seeing people stop just to listen felt amazing, 'cause they don't know who you are, they don't even care - they just listen to what they hear and stop if they really like it....no pressure - just some honest music-lovers ;)

Brandur Enni

Helena's new single in Swedish (IV): just waiting for the video to get cut

2009-07-26T11:58:00.005+02:00

In July, I have been on a vacation on the countryside, in the middle of forests and lakes. Soon, the 9th of August I,m gonna record a music video and it´s great to look at other clips to know what was good and what I can do better!

The record takes such a long time before it gets released so I am releasing a single very soon Just for fun! As a little gift. Martinique and Per from Sandy Mouche have produced it for me. There will be a simple video with it, too! Just waiting for the video to get cut.

I hope you are having a good time!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Pictures by Carolina Josefsson, Skanör, August 2009

Two fans from Argentina, Fabián Alejandro Rodríguez and Maxi Martínez, have created a new Helena Josefsson's "Facebook fan group" in Spanish. You can visit it here: Grupo de fans de Helena Josefsson en Español en Facebook.

LJdM

Everybody from The Helena Josefsson Society and everyone that wants to, there is a fanclub at www.helena.forumportal.se. Please help me, if we don't write two topics a month there will no longer be a fanclub. We are 35 members for now. Please join. =)

Emma Sonesson (aka BiLLY) - HJ Fanclub Portal

Sandy Mouche hides the head in the sand (IV): solo projects

2009-06-16T16:57:00.005+02:00

Helena Josefsson in Malmö - Picture by Sofia Josefsson, June 2009

I am not sure what the other Sandy Mouche band members do now, but myself I am having a vacation with my boys visiting cottages, combined with preparing music videos that I will do with the help from my friends. The first one I will do with my friend Cilihili (Cecilia Nordlund) whose music you can find on the internet, by the way. And I am preparing a show together with another friend, Malin Nilsson. Just trying to have fun in other words!

Unfortunately I have to finish the work with the videos and release of my soloalbum before I can move into the new Sandy Mouche album. I wasn´t prepared of that much more creative work with my solo album. It is great fun but I can´t do it at the same time as Sandy Mouche, because I want to use all of my capacity when doing something like that. So I just hope and pray that the Sandy Mouche guys will wait for me.

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Helena Josefsson in Malmö - Picture by Sofia Josefsson, June 2009

According to Helena Josefsson's words, there is no clear near future for Sandy Mouche. Meanwhile, Per Blomgren, the drummer of Sandy Mouche, has recorded a new Swedish EP in his own garage studio of Malmö. You can listen to it in myspace: Per Blomgren's myspace

Per Blomgren - Slätten (EP)
1. 190 (2:21)
2. Precis som nu ... (3:19)
3. Falla leva (3:15)
4. Vikten av ett liv (3:12)
5. Ge mig mod (4:09)

LJdM

Hej Just nu lyssnar ni på Slätten, en EP som jag skrivit och spelat in under våren 2009. mvh Per
Hi! You are listening to Slätten, an EP that I produced and played during the spring 2009.

Per Blomgren
Sandy Mouche

P, C & C and their rox-prom nights (I): Lundquist is back to the school and new plans for Roxette

2009-06-15T17:18:00.009+02:00

According to Sydsvenskan’s article and web report, Christoffer Lundqvist, the man behind Per Gessle’s latest albums, is currently working on a new CD with Östra Torns Montessoriförskola kindergarten’s children’s choir from Lund in Scania, Sweden. All lyrics were written by children themselves and the album will be released just before Christmas. All profits will be transferred to help “Sponsor a child” organisation in Peru. By the way, the Swedish rapper Timbuktu was born and raised in Östra Torn, the eastern district in the town of Lund.

Per Gessle's latest solo album "Party Crasher" finally sees the light of day in the UK today. The UK edition will be the standard 12 track album. However, it would appear that the album is not being sold in shops. As far as The Daily Roxette has heard you can only order from online sites.

Per Gessle has revealed on Twitter that his forthcoming live album will be titled "Gessle Over Europe," resembling Paul McCartney's tour name from 1972, "Wings Over America." There are "no further comparisons," says Per in his tweet. Per's live album will be released as a double-LP as well as a CD included with the DVD. Per seems to be very excited about it. "I received the album masters the other day and they sound terrific" Per says.

Per has also written on Twitter that the live recordings included on the album are from Cologne, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Stockholm (day 2), Warsaw, Halmstad and Munich concerts. The LP will contain three, possibly four, bonus tracks, while the DVD will contain the full Stockholm #1 concert. EMI is working full time to get the material done before the vacations start and Per mentions the albums preliminary will be released early September.

UIT Magazine, a local Dutch lifestyle and entertainment magazine publishes an exclusive interview with Roxette in their June issue. The full page article deals with Roxette’s comeback and performance as headliner at the Night of the Proms concert later this year. Marie mentions that during the Christmas tour in Sweden she discovered she felt great again on stage. She loved being on stage again and decided it was time to continue with Roxette. Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist will play again with the band. It seems Helena Josefsson won't be with them this time.

Per and Marie are reuniting and will perform again as Roxette in Latva this summer. The duo is set to perform for the opening of New Wave 2009 on July 28 in Jurmala. Sirius XM has put up two videos with Per Gessle being interviewed on Nordic Rox on YouTube. One where he talks about the Roxette reunion and one where he talks about the concert with Marie Fredriksson in Amsterdam.

LJdM

When Marie indicated she was completely ready, we could start talking about a reunion. A lot has happened in seven years; we both have changed. Roxette used to be a part of the music industry, trying to be successful. That’s not our goal anymore, we now focus on the things that satisfy us. We will enter the studio this summer. We will not record an entire album, but we will release something new. I hope we can release this to the public before the end of the year. Btw, I have been in NYC in May. Found some great 80's shoes!! And bought a donut and a hat! And "In search of the lost chord" on vinyl. Moody Blues, anyone?

This is my Twitter-Radio of May and June:

June 15: I love the nu Jonas Akerlund-video. Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi. www.raf.se is where it’s at. Don’t know what’s happening but I like the song too. And “Goin’ back”, by The Byrds.
June 14: Sunshine on the westcoast! BBQ and old Jethro Tull. The Sounds new album sounds very good.
June 13: Saturday in the park. Chicago. Ha ha ha ha ……
June 12: Playing “Hold me” from Russell Smith’s first solo album (on vinyl!!!). Produced by Barry Beckett & Co. Brilliant! Barry Beckett dies. Such a shame. Extraordinary musician. Muscle Shoals. Check out, f i, Paul Simon’s There goes rhymin’ Simon. A treat. The Friday Take-Off: Believe I’ve found/Soundtrack Of Our Lives. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Reading a most fab book: “Bob Dylan – The songs he didn’t write”. About the covers he’s recorded & performed. A thrill.
June 11: Can’thelpbutthinkin that Basse Wickman’s Son of Cathy’s Clown is the best Swedish single ever! Such a great voice (nevermindtheKnopflergtr) Anders F. Rönnblom “Jag kysste henne våldsamt”. Pump up the volume!!!!
June 10: “Walking out on love” Paul Collins’ Beat + “Supersonic” Oasis. It’s one of those mornings…
June 9: Just like a woman. Bob Dylan. Live 1966 Royal Albert Hall. Some of the most beautiful music ever made.
June 8: Song of the afternoon: Harley-Davidson, sung with love & affection by Brigitte B. Cry baby cry from The White Album. I never quite got over the fact that the Beatles broke up.
June 7: Never gonna give you up – Rick Astley. The 80’s are underrated!
June 6: BOHEMIAN LIKE YOU The Dandy Warhols. Should be played every Saturday morning!
June 5: “Dizzy” Tommy Roe. Makes you wanna dance with the cornflakes.
June 4: Just came back from Sthlm Stadion. Bruce sounded terrific, he even played Who’ll stop the rain but Gabriel & me were freezing our asses off! “Feel like makin’ love”. Roberta Flack. Awesome.
June 3: Someone is playing “Broken down angel” by Nazareth. Haven’t heard that one for years. Must be this crazy neighbourhood…. Ain’t it strange/Patti Smith Group. Fantastic. Can you believe Gyllene Tider played this -78? I made a Swedish translation. And we played John Cale’s “Helen of Troy”. “Flicka av guld” was the Swedish title if I remember it right… Got it on cassette somewhere..
June 2: “Snow angel” by Ron Sexsmith. Just what we need for summer!
June 1: Peter Bruntnell’s version of “Waterloo sunset”. Just dandy!
May 31: Additonal suggestion: Whatever happened to my rock’n roll. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Makes you wake up. Mothers’ Day. Song of the day: Take your mama for a ride. Lulu. 1976. Swell.
May 30: “Dreams are ten a penny” by Kincade. Great production, great song!
May 29: I just listened to Washington County by Arlo Guthrie. i loved that album as a kid, it still sounds like I remember it. Great sleeve too! Almost song of the day: Dick Mixon’s wonderful remix of “Silly really”. He’s so talented, folks, you wouldn’t believe it! “Everybody’s got to learn sometime” by the Korgis. Beautiful.
May 28: Bo Diddley on the iPod. Oh yea. Forgot about how overwhelming and ass-kicking Bowies’ Ziggy Stardust is! Oh man, play it again, please!
May 27: More Steve M! Check this out & get blown away: http://bit.ly/10KsPJ OUTSTANDING!!!!
May 26: No, haven’t seen Madonna since Paris 200?. However, got tcts to the Gbg show! She was at our gig at the Beacon, NYC 1992!
May 25: Checking out Small Faces on youtube. “Tin soldier” is on my Top 10 best-song- ever-list. There will never be another Steve Marriott!! Mama said by Nick Lowe is from “E.P.” Pretty hard to find these days. Good luck with it. B-fast in the sun, Josh Rouse & Little Richard on the iPod, great Indy race last nite. Awopbopaloo.
May 22: Meetings are up. Headin’ for New Jersey and Springsteen’s hometown-show. Sean Penn in the hotel lobby. We all love him. Brooze in New Jersey last nite was a mesmerizing experience. I like Radio Nowhere for some reason. The crowd was the best I’ve seen. I like Brooze when he’s showing off his pop side. Cover me, Hungry heart, Wauting on a sunny day, I don’t like Rosalita & Jungleland. Sorry.
May 17: Someone next door is playing Dr Hook’s version of “Only sixteen”. What a great idea!!! Xllent choice of music, Gabriel! Kim Fowley’s behind B. Bumble & Co! Kool kat indeed! Keith Urban on the iPod? I met him in the gym at the Bev Hills Hotel a couple of weeks ago. Nice guy, b-ful wife!

Per Gessle

About the Roxette recordings, I don´t know but I do not believe I will participate there. But it was a great moment to sing with Marie Fredriksson in the live situation during the Party Crasher Tour. Actually, the most stunning thing was to witness the love from the audience, amazing. I took my earplugs out when she entered stage so I could hear it well! It was kind of scary to enter the stage after her performance to sing "Hey Mr Dj", and the band was hesitating backstage, just before, wondering if we should do it. But I just felt like, it is a wonderful song so why not? And I think it went well even though it could be a great down fall to enter after a living miracle like she is, Marie getting well from such a serious condition, being able to sing again.

Martin says hi to you and we wish you a lovely summer!!!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Stockfinster - Car Crash

2009-06-01T13:44:00.004+02:00

stockfinster is the artistic name of Sebastian Borg (a.k.a. Batti), a producer from Malmö, Sweden. He writes, plays, arranges and mixes everything, sometimes with a little help from his musical friends. Batti was the co-owner of the recording studio Gula Studion in Malmö, but it seems he has gave up the Studio in the last months.

stockfinster unofficially uploaded his first works, Red wood (June 2004) and Sunset (2005), in Bandcamp.com, including some tracks with his friend Helena Josefsson's vocals. He also released his debut album, All becomes music (October, 2005), in Sutemos, an On-line label from Lithuania.

After four years of silence, Sebastian has uploaded today his new work, Car Crash, in Bandcamp.com. The album includes eight songs:

1.	a crack in time 05:26	lyrics	download

2.	think again 05:56	info	download
3.	duel 05:09	info	download
4.	insekt 03:54	info	download
5.	bystander 06:04	lyrics	download

6.	all becomes music 06:39	info	download
7.	heavy feathers 03:02	lyrics	download

8.	in transit 05:52

This is what Sebastian Borg himself tells about these songs:

"01. 'A crack in time' (from "All becomes music", 2005)

02. In 'Think again' the pad that starts off this track was something I came up with while working on something completely different. The drum loop was created in Fruity Loops – a program I only used for a short while. It is still one of my favourite drum loops. The trumpet is played by Petter Lindgård, an experienced session musician. He actually laid down this trumpet for an old track called ”Homesick” – that originates from the days when stockfinster was still a band – but his part fit perfectly here as well.

03. 'Duel' (from "All becomes music", 2005).

04. In 'Insekt', I came up with this idea when I was working on something completely different and I happened to distort the main output from the soundcard, making the drum loop rather nasty. I nicked the voice sample from a tv show about a couple of girls who were assaulted and raped in their house by a gang. It is a true story, which makes the track even scarier.

05. 'Bystander' (from "All becomes music", 2005).

06. 'All becomes music' (from "All becomes music", 2005).

07. 'Heavy feathers' is probably the only track ever that will feature me on vocals. I do have a lot of acoustic material that I intend to release someday. Some of it is instrumental and some of it is not. I did a version of this track with a melodica part. Ola Strandh – my mastering guy – hated it and convinced me to leave it out.

08. 'In transit' (from "All becomes music", 2005).

Most of recordings were made between 2003 and 2005 in Gula Studion. Helena Josefsson's voice features in track 06, "All becomes music", that was released four years ago with a video.

LJdM

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.15: Stockholm, Cirkus (II)

2009-05-10T11:59:00.008+02:00

10.5 Stockholm, Cirkus

Marie Fredriksson, as in Amsterdam, sang "It Must Have Been Love" and "The Look" together with Per and the band. According to TDR, the noise when Per introduced Marie must have made an impact on the Richter scale… or, as a reporter for one of the Swedish newspapers put it, it almost blew the roof off the theater. The concert was basically the same as on Saturday, only — so it seemed to this reviewer — much more intense. Christoffer Lundquist started playing "Ljudet av ett annat hjärta" frantically on his golden Gibson/Epiphone, and he also started the intro to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in "Do You Wanna…"

If you want to remember all the tour, you can watch the Official videos from gessle.com here:

LJdM

The band cried backstage, and then we felt all empty inside. Roxette's things are in the works soon.

After this astonishing tour, I feel empty!!! It's been the greatest tour ever for me. So intimate, so close with a superb band and a delightful crew, the most pleasant hardcore fans you can ever imagine and a great catalogue of songs to dig into. I've had the time of my life! There will most likely be a package with a CD and a DVD put together. The CD is recorded live all over Europe, the DVD is from Cirkus (day one) in Stockholm and the DVD will also include 100 of the most primitive and hilarious clips from the tour (you've probably seen a few on YouTube already). I'm such a generous guy! No one takes me seriously when I'm behind a camera. It's a fact of life. It's such a shame. And, forchrissakes, there will be a double-LP!!! One comes to the point in one's career when it's time to release a live double-album. Like Kiss, David Bowie, and Peter Frampton. This is the point for me! There will be loads of unreleased versions on Nordic Rox. I'm going to NYC next week to sort things out.

I didn't expect anything from this tour at all. I did it basically for me, myself and I. I consider it to be a nice 50th anniversary present from myself. So I am, of course, flabbergasted when it comes to the reception from the fans and the media. I couldn't ask for more. Thank you.

It felt great performing the Rox tunes. I knew I could handle them. At the same time I wanted them to be different from the Rox-versions. My ambition has never been to "replace" Marie. I just wanted to play and sing these songs because they are dear to me. After all, I wrote them.

The Party Crasher-album is pretty tough to play live. Unless, of course, you want to bring the click-trax and computers in. Which I didn't want at all this time around. I wanted the set to be guitar-based, straight forward power-pop with great vocal harmonies and silly power-chords here and there. The PC-album is totally different. Too early to say about how the PC album is doing in Europe, it's out in Germany while the UK is releasing in June. There is some positive response from the radio here and there but I guess it won't outsell Joyride. Next week I have new meetings regarding a US-release since I'm in New York.

We did a cover, "Steppin' Stone", great fun indeed. I might do a punk rock cover album one of these years.

All of the gigs have been terrific. I guess the band felt that Cologne, Copenhagen and London were triple AAA's. But to me all of them were memorable and gifts sent from god (or John L.)

This band is a splendid mix of Roxette and the "En händig man" people. I love them all dearly. On the stage, in the dressing room, in the bar. Can't wait to hit the road with them again. As long as I'm enjoying what I do I can't slow down. This is in my blood. This is what I do. This is what I love. We promised each other in the dressing room in Stockholm that this should be the start of a neverending tour so I don't have a choice anymore, do I?

Per Gessle

Per Gessle has changed a lot. He developed a new side of him a lot since the Mazarin tour when he had to be the single male performer for the first time, he really grew I think. And last spring I think it was amazing. But that’s a big step. It’s a personality thing to be that open. It might be difficult… you have to feel like that..you can’t do that as concept and pretend, you have to be like that. Otherwise it wouldn’t be good.

I’m glad to hear that some fans liked the new arrangements I did during the Party Crasher tour. That was sort of the idea, to bring the songs back to where they came from, without using the 80ies production. Which I think is great, but we wanted to sound different. So I am happy to hear this, because it’s very difficult for us, you know, when you love a band and they come with the old songs in a completely new way, it’s likely that you are not going to like it “uh, I want to hear the songs as they should be”. It was also fun to play during Party Crasher Tour. Per did that little survey online and asked the fans what they want to listen to. He got a lot of requests for the rocking stuff. The songs we didn’t play where those we didn’t manage to play that well. But we had all the songs we liked in the set list. We tried lots of songs and skipped those which sort of resisted. For example, during Per solo tours in Sweden we tried some older songs from the 80ies, but we only kept a few. We tried Speedo once, but then it disappeared from the set list. During the En händig man tour we put more emphasis on Gyllene Tider songs.

For us Party Crasher Tour was a very special one. I know Per says that all the time about every tour but this time it’s actually true. I hope we can do more of that some time in the future. When I sat down listening and choosing versions from the different cities for the CD I was really surprised to hear that it was a lot different. It was really different. Normally they’re not. You feel the difference when you play it, but when you listen to it it’s normally same same same same..but not this time. It is really good, I think. It was a fantastic moment when Marie came on stage the second Party Crasher show in Stockholm. It was a magic moment. I was standing in the corner crying. Yeah, it was very emotional, really. And for Marie it’s fantastic, of course, to get all that feedback again.

Christoffer Lundquist

Home again after the European tour with Per Gessle. Feels good to be home and my little baby-boy might think so too- sleeping in his own bed, his parents soon not so tired anymore. But I do think he misses his new friends: a bunch of fully grown men with stubble and beards, smelling of red wine, talking baby language, and smiling faces all around (the band and the crew). Especially Åsa licking his feet in Per´s dressing-room saying "Piiii katten!"

I just want to say THANK YOU to you all who I´ve met while singing on this tour. Without you, there wouldn´t be much. I wonder if you can understand how much your support helps.

I already miss you, and I hope to see you musiclovers soon in any way!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Helena, thanks for some great times over the past few weeks... you made us equally happy with your antics on stage, your an amazing artist and we all had fun watching you chase balloons around! ;) I think we all fell for Martin as well... we are all going to miss those evenings of music and laughter but enjoy the rest, it's much deserved!

Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.15: Stockholm, Cirkus (II)

2009-05-10T03:04:00.006+02:00

10.5 Stockholm, Cirkus

The second show in Stockholm was the best show on the whole tour for me. I felt relaxed and everything just felt right. Great audience that gave me nice energy to work with. I could really feel that this was the last night of the tour and it was special.

I had two friends on the guest list this evening and them being there also made this night special to me.

Backstage:

On stage:

The big fans:

Thank you all for visiting this blog. It´s been fun posting for you and getting such support from you throughout the whole tour. Without you readers and show visitors this tour wouldn´t have been as fun as it was. Per´s fans, you are incredible fans I must say and it was a joy talking to some of you.

This is my final post on this blog but I will not disappear. You will find me on my myspace site www.myspace.com/martiniquejosefsson and of course the Sandy Mouche site www.sandymouche.com. We have new stuff going on with Sandy so stay tuned. We are at home resting and Helena and Mr X says hi.

Bye for now…………………–But Mr Bear!??…….–Shut up! Can´t you see i´m watching tv!!

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

I don’t wanna say bye at all, so I’ll say you “see you very soon again!” and of course thank you for the incredible show you created with the other band members!))))) All the warmest and most kind regards to Helena and Mr. X! Rox on!)

Ilya Volkov
-(a.k.a. Kreecher)- Roxette House

Thank you for the blog. For all the fans that could not go to any gig, your blog has been an interesting way to follow the tour. Good luck in all your projects. Kind regards to your family!

Alberto Fuente (aka Lantartida),
from Madrid, ES

*sigh* i’m gonna miss your blog! Thanks for a great tour :) your performances were really great! Don’t be a stranger, love to Helena and Mr X. xxx
Ailsa Plain, UK

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.14: Stockholm, Cirkus (I)

2009-05-09T11:57:00.005+02:00

9.5 Stockholm, Cirkus

Spring is certainly in the air as the fans start lining up outside Cirkus in Stockholm. According to TDR, Per Gessle's and Helena Josefsson's "super fan" Erik Johansson has been there since the night before and is first in line — again. He feels it's his duty. There are Brazilians, Argentinians, Brits, Russians, Germans, Scots… and a few Swedes. Per Gessle 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", says Thomas Evensson from TDR. No changes in the setlist this evening; 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?"

SET LIST:

1. Dressed for Success
2. Drowning in Wonderful Thoughts About Her
3. Stupid
4. Party Pleaser
5. Wish I Could Fly
6. She Doesn´t Live Here Anymore
7. 7twenty7
8. I Have A Party In My head
9. Late, Later On
10. Listen to Your Heart
11. Do You Wanna Be My Baby?
12. Opportunity Nox
13. Doesn't Make Sense
14. Church of your Heart
15. Dangerous
16. Joyride

Encore

1. C'mon
2. Are You an Old Hippie, Sir?
3. The Look
4. It Must Have Been Love

2nd Encore

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

LJdM

Yes sir - back in Stockholm! And what a Saturday night it turned out to be. The beautiful venue Cirkus, a very relaxed band and crowd-pleasing setlist and... of course... a mind-blowing audience that makes life so easy for us!!! You guys & gals in the front row you're the best, sweatin' it out, groovin' along our mood of the day, without you it would be very much harder to do what we wanna do! Thanx! And everything got captured on film, it's gonna be a sensational DVD. See ya tomorrow, same place, same time.

Per Gessle

I remember on the Party Crasher tour seeing the guys every night, I asked one – I forgot who I asked – isn’t it boring to see the same thing every night? And the answer was great. “Well, is it boring to play the same things every night and do the same stupid moves?” And I was: Ooops. And I sort of got it. Music is communication. It’s not a performer and an audience. You are doing something together. If you can listen to a song so many times throughout your life why only see one concert?

Christoffer Lundquist

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.14: Stockholm, Cirkus (I)

2009-05-09T03:06:00.003+02:00

9.5 - Stockholm, Cirkus

Pew, the two last shows are over and the last bit of energy I had is gone. I´m in zombie-mode waiting to wake up. Maybe in a week or so.

The shows went great I think. The first one was a little more nervous because they were filming for a DVD. I don´t know if my performance will be included but still the cameras were there and it effected my playing a little. The good thing is that after 14 shows your fingers work by themselves so although I had a million thoughts running through my head as I performed I managed to pull it off.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Thanks for a fantastic six shows and for appearing last night, I refused to go and get the bus till I had my photo with you, much to the annoyance of my friends! Lol ;) Still it worked… thanks for the photo!

I have some photos from both Stockholm shows that can be found here…

Take care and enjoy the much deserved rest now… love to you, Helena and Mr X!

Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.13: Halmstad

2009-05-08T11:56:00.004+02:00

8.5 Halmstad, Sporthallen

About 2,000 tickets were sold to this evening's "homecoming" concert in Halmstad, Sweden, according to TDR. The show, which was held at the indoor Sporthallen, attacted a crowd from all over southern Sweden (along with the now familiar small groups of fans from other countries) eager to hear Per and his band. After opening with "Dressed for Success," Per approached the mic and shouted out "Hello Halmstad!" The response was an explosion of cheers that reverberated in the echo-prone sports hall.

SET LIST:

1. Dressed for Success
2. Drowning in Wonderful Thoughts About Her
3. Stupid
4. Party Pleaser
5. Wish I Could Fly
6. She Doesn´t Live Here Anymore
7. 7twenty7
8. I Have A Party In My head
9. Late, Later On
10. Listen to Your Heart
11. Do You Wanna Be My Baby?
12. Opportunity Nox
13. Doesn´t Make Sense
14. Church of your Heart
15. Dangerous
16. Joyride

Encore

1. C´mon
2. Are You an Old Hippie, Sir?
3. The Look
4. It Must Have Been Love

2nd Encore

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

LJdM

The audience is always nice and active here. The tour has been the most funny thing I've ever done. The intimacy that we experienced in smaller venues has in some way reminded me why I do what I do.

Per Gessle

Comments by fans:

Helena! Thanks a lot for Gent, Amst and Halmstad! Your appearence on Mr. X's concerts was a combination of beauty and magic voice. I liked it and I hope you did to!

Mikhail Cherkasov (aka Mishka),RU

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.13: Halmstad

2009-05-08T03:07:00.006+02:00

8.5 - Halmstad, Sporthallen

Just home after what was to me the largest crowd I´ve played for on my own. A cool feeling getting up on stage and seeing this sea of people. I´m very happy with my performance. Strange talking Swedish but I managed.

The sound check:

Back stage:

The crowd:

And action:

Earlier today Helena and e managed to squeeze in another gig at Dunkers Culture house in Helsingborg. All in all a great day. Mr X is back on track and so are we. It´s good to be home altough Europe, I´ll never forget you. Ohh look at the time, my make up is flaking but i´m still smiling. Goodnight.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Martinique! Thanks a lot for all of 3 shows I attended (in Gent, Amst & Halmstad), it was amazing to sing along with you. I’ve bought the white T-shirt – it’s just unreal cool! =) And the e.p. is still playing in my ears, very good lyrics! Lycka till med avslutningen av turnen, ha:lsa Helena! Prova ja:rna pepparkakan fra.n Tula (en stad i Ryssland)!

Mikhail Cherkasov (aka Mishka),RU

Hej Martinique! How was today’s show? You’re probably on stage while I’m writing this post. I had a busy working weekend and tomorow I also have to go to work but lots of work at least stopped me from thinking about the tour all the time. It’s so hard to face up the fact that for me the tour was just one concert. Anyway, I’m glad I could attend one concert! It’s something to cherish for a long time until the next tour one day. Are you going to continue writing the blog or give yourself a break? I suggest having a break and devoting more time to family and Sandy Mouche? Lately I’ve been listening to …and poems for the unborn and I must admit I didn’t listen to it very attentively in the past and now I discover some new instruments and sounds and I find pleasure in some songs which in the beginning felt a bit dull. :) “Chimney hole” is fabulous with Helena singing the fragment about the fish. Poetry to my ears. Thank you. I’d like to thank you for writing the blog. I’m really grateful.

Kamila Aleksandrowicz,
from Białystok, Poland

Sandy Mouche hides the head in the sand (III): Sommardis in Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg

2009-05-08T01:06:00.005+02:00

Earlier today Helena and me managed to squeeze in another gig at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg. We sang The Prayer and Hallelujah, both as duets.

When we are not going solo or playing with Sandy Mouche, this is what we like doing for a change. Sing different song in churches and happenings, usually with the pianist Christoffer Andersson. I may post a movie from a church sometime.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.12: Amsterdam

2009-05-06T11:55:00.010+02:00

6.5 Amsterdam, Melkweg

Marie Fredriksson joint Per Gessle on stage at the “Party Crasher” concert in Amsterdam on Wednesday. Before the show, at an official Night of the Proms press conference in Belgium, it was announced that Marie has recovered from the illness that forced them to cancel their scheduled appearance in 2002. Seven years later, Roxette will finally make good on that previous commitment and perform at this year’s series of concerts to be held in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands beginning at the end of October and running through December.

According to TDR: "In Amsterdam, there were screams, wolf whistles, shouts of "Marie!," cheers, hoots, hollers, and just about every other loud sound of jubiliation you could possibly imagine when Per Gessle invited Marie Fredriksson to join him on stage this evening. And yet, if one paused for a moment to look at the people around them, it was rather easy to spot people with tears in their eyes. It was, by all accounts, an extremely emotional moment… and many in attendance at the Melkweg Arena felt they were witnessing pop music history being made." Marie sang lead vocals on "It Must Have Been Love" (view mobile phone video posted by Expressen) and "The Look" (view video from same source).

LJdM

What a nite!!! The show felt fab from the start. Had a tiny technical problem with my earphones but hey... who needs ears when you got Amsterdam at your feet! Great crowd; loud, curious, receptive. Joyride was superb. Christoffer's solo on Doesn't make sense was mind blowing. Then, of course, Marie joined us for IMHBL and The Look. What can I say? She was in terrific shape and it felt like central Europe went nuts!!!! Thanx everyone for your support, we all had a blast. People were holding their cameras and taking photos with one hand, while blowing their noses (from crying) with the other when Marie took the stage in Amsterdam. We are thrilled to finally be able to attend 'Night of the Proms'. It's gonna be the first time we share a live stage together since 2001 and it certainly feels most exciting to do so in front of the huge 'Night of the Proms' audience. We look forward to performing some of our greatest hits and working together with the big Night of the Proms orchestra, which should fit our music very well. We will play our four U.S. #1 hits ("The Look," "Listen to Your Heart," "It Must Have Been Love," and "Joyride" ) along with "Wish I Could Fly." Now we fly back home to greet the Swedish soil. Dinner with mother.

Per Gessle

Marie Fredriksson is an artist extremely loved in Sweden. She is surrounded by a lot of love. On the stage she feels at home. She is fantastic live. It is great to be on the same stage as Marie, because no matter what you do , nobody is watching you, everybody is looking at her. She has a lot of charisma.

Helena Josefsson is so sweet. I don't think she is nervous to sing with Marie on the same stage. It's not about a competition. She is a big fan of Marie Fredriksson. She has all her albums and she is listening them. “

Christoffer Lundquist

Comments by fans:

Sweet Helena, thanks so much for a wonderful evening in Amsterdam, May 6th! And thanks a whole lot for making my evening even better when you threw me that guitar pick from Per :) Dunno if you remember me, the gall in the front row with the lime green t-shirt and green cap (also the one who was waiting inside when you passed us before going to eat pasta :) ). The whole evening was amazing! I am uploading some vids to YouTube and writing a blog about it. Much love and thanks again for a delightful evening. I was sad that I did not had the chance to see you and thank you in person after the gig, but I guess you had a little one to cuddle with :)

Cynthia Deruiter, NL

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.12: Amsterdam

2009-05-06T03:08:00.003+02:00

6.5 - Amsterdam, Melkweg

Ok, posting from Hotel Tylösand actually after being home for one day and resting. And after a nice hour of spa treatment I almost feel like a Duracell bunny again (almost). The show in Amsterdam was for me a good show. Not great but good. Mr X had a tough flight this day and he wasn´t feeling good at all, with fever and throw-ups. So my voice was present during the performance but my mind was with him.

The Amsterdam audience seemed a bit shy but very listening which to me is great. The front row was a usual very supportive and I thank you all. I had some trouble with my in-ear system on the first song. Suddenly I couldn´t hear a thing so I had to take one of them out. Micke fixed it right away and I was safe. These guys are pros.

Tonight Marie joined Per on two songs. I didn´t see it but I was told it was a really fine moment.

The stuard on the plane back to Sweden was a good one. –The flight time today is 1 hour and 20 seconds. And when we were heading for the runway the plain bumbed a little once. – We hope you will Ohh enjoy flying with us today. A smart way of getting everyone´s attention.

The crowd in Amsterdam:

A short video recorded by Cynthia Deruiter from Amsterdam:

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Amsterdam was fantastic last night! Your performance was great, you even laughed through the error with the battery pack… at least I think they were changing your batteries at the start of your performance! ;)

I’ve noted with each show I have watched your confidence has grown on the stage.

Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

Oh, there’s me jumping in yellow coat! Great! I’m on the Net!!! Martinique – champion! =) SPA at Hotel Tylo:sand is really best of all I ever visited. Nice to read you also liked it!

Mikhail Cherkasov (aka Mishka),RU

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.11: London

2009-05-04T11:54:00.009+02:00

4.5 London, Islington Academy

Having recovered from feeling a bit under the weather in Gent, Per Gessle was in top form Monday night when he and his band performed at the Islington Academy in front of a very appreciative crowd, according to TDR. Fans from Brazil — almost all of whom had flown into London just to attend this concert — made up the largest contingent of fans from outside the UK. Having also travelled from overseas, some long-time fans from California (USA) and Canada were there as well enjoying the show. While the set list remained the same, "Hey, Mr. DJ" was moved from it's position in Gent just after the band introductions to become one of the encore songs.

LJdM

I was at Per Gessle’s London show incidentally, and it was magic. My music might be too far removed from Roxette to warrant a posting on roxeblog.com, since I’ve never actually played with Per, but I wanted to keep you in the loop!

This week I am promoting my new animated video for the song Goodbye London which you can find on YouTube. I recorded the song in AGM Studios with Christoffer Lundquist, Magnus Börjeson and Jens Jansson. My wife Dora and I are were getting ready to leave London after spending an extended period of time there and I started to get nostalgic about the place. Pretty much everything in the song is just how it happened. I was running out of money, sick of playing in smoky clubs (this was pre-smoking ban) and Dora had insomnia. I’d just been fined £100 because a CCTV camera had caught the back wheel of my car on the very edge of a zebra crossing when I stopped for one minute at midnight in South End Green to use a bank machine that turned out to be out of order. At least I got a good lyric out of it! I had to balance the hate with the love though, because I do love the place and I can never stay away for long.

I approached Murray with the idea of creating a video that highlighted the bitter-sweet sentiment of the lyric. The only animation reference I gave him was that I had in mind the very frenetic style of animation used in the Rhubarb And Custard cartoons when we were kids. In terms of content I suggested that some of the video be very literal interpretation of the lyric, but that he should feel free to depart from that at will, which I think he did beautifully. He came up with the photo/animation idea and drafted a rough storyboard, most of which wound up in the finished piece. In terms of the techniques, let me quote Murray: “All the stop motion photos were taken around London, and I added the drawn 2-D animation using After Effects.”

I started travelling to Canada in the early 90’s and fate took me back there again and again. I emigrated to Toronto unofficially in 1997 but wound up back in London for a spell in 2006. The song was written at the end of that period. In London I always felt surrounded by people in a way that I don’t here. Life is much more laid back in Toronto. I feel less pressure to work all the time, and perhaps because of that freedom I probably work a lot more. And we have actual seasons in Toronto…you know, really hot in Summer, really cold in Winter… You can’t beat London for cultural diversity though. I was always spoiled as to what to do on any given evening. Not so here, although the Toronto Fringe is on right now which is brilliant. Also, the quality of the food here’s generally not as good as in London. Not so much the restaurants, but the stuff you buy in the supermarket. Similarities? They both have an equal number of fantastic people and idiots, they both have beautiful green spaces for me to walk my dog, and you can’t get a decent bite to eat after 10pm in either town.

I would have to say the most memorable London venue I played at was the old Marquee club on Charing Cross Road. I was still in school doing my A-Levels but was having a lot of fun playing in a band called Vodka Rubber Legs and when we got booked into the Marquee I couldn’t believe it. It was a club I went to all the time to see my favourite bands. We were opening for a couple of well-known bands and the place was pretty packed. Incidentally we had a song called Hampstead Queen which was a lot of fun to play. Last I looked the Marquee was a hip wine bar called The Moon Under Water. More than anything else I miss the record shops I used to go to. Almost all of them are gone now. The internet pulled the rug out from under them…it’s really sad. And Jade Boulangerie in South End Green. It’s changed hands and names…still looks the same but you can’t get the ham and cheese croissant any more. I cry.

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://lukejackson.bandcamp.com/album/and-then-some"&amp;amp;gt;Come Tomorrow by Luke Jackson&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

The entire process of making this album was one of following my intuition. My philosophy was that so long as I could afford to do something, if an option was there I would explore it. I was invited to record at the studio in Sweden by my friends there. That was an incredible opportunity. Some of the ballads called for string arrangements and I’d had some contact with Robert Kirby before (when I mounted an ambitious Nick Drake tribute night a few years earlier), so the option to get in touch with him to write the string parts was there, and I took it. I never thought he’d say yes, but I’m an “if you don’t ask you don’t get” kind of person, so I asked. Robert’s string parts called for nine players, and Christoffer (my producer) frequently uses the young players from Malmo’s Opera Orchestra. So yes, I went to a lot of trouble to make a great-sounding record, but it wasn’t as expensive as you might imagine, and the result was a record I could never have produced working at home with a digital set-up. Do I think it paid off? Absolutely. I set out to make a great record that would reflect who I was as an artist at that moment, that would present my songs in the best possible way and that would stand the test of time. I’m pretty certain I accomplished that. I had no commercial goals when I made this record. I knew I’d probably wind up releasing it on my own label with no support, and considering I’ve done everything on my own, I’ve reached a lot of people. The music industry is imploding on itself right now. It’s like a slow-motion train wreck. People have stopped buying music. It’s not the time to be putting out independent records, and it’s certainly not the time to be judging your self-worth as an artist by how much money your music generates.

Luke Jackson - Popsicle

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.11: London

2009-05-04T03:09:00.003+02:00

4.5 London, Carling Academy Islington

Back at the hotel and waiting for some room service. My belly is at the point where within two minutes it will start doing noices and hurt so lets hope someone knocks pretty soon. Ok the gig then……nice…..very nice. Nice venue with two floors and the floors were pretty crowded tonight giving the whole atmosphere a sweaty touch. Thank you for a very nice greeting when I entered the stage, you are really starting to spoil me ;) and I love it.

Someone said that Justin Hawkins from the group The Darkness was in the audience tonight. I hope so, he is a great singer.

Tried a new song tonight called “My Love” which we added to my set. Sounds a bit different than the others and has a more up tempo feel to it. It´s a shorty though, 1,5 minutes I think but it´s a good 1,5 minutes for me.

Helena was really kind to me today, letting me sleep until 14.00 and really letting me get in touch with my fatigue which I met in one of the dreams I had (pretty nice bloke). So before my performance I was feeling a bit low pulsish like everything moved in slow motion. (–Knock knock room service.) I tried to increase the pulse before entering and it may have worked a little bit. I didn´t fall asleep anyway.

Many guests backstage tonight although not in my movies.

Backstage:

This is how it looked through my eyes tonight:

Neil Curran recorded a video:

Martinique - I heard strange things at night

For the first time in many weeks Helena and I watched a movie together. Like a real long movie with a budget behind it. Not Youtube or a vacation super 8 film or anything like that. Just a plain normal movie in colour with sound. In the hotel here in London we saw Slumdog Millionaire. A really good movie which I recommend to anyone that hasn´t seen it. If you´ve already seen it it´s not the same I believe, but I really don´t know now do I just called to say I love you.

Thank you for all the messages on myspace. I haven´t got the time to be there that much so I won´t be able to answer your questions there i´m afraid. Love lifts us up where we belong …

The day of in London me and Mr X went to look for an electric bass that i´ve been interested in a while now. We went to Denmark street which was packed with guitars and basses. Found some cool Vox guitars and a Vox bass but I didn´t go for it. Waiting for the perfect Fender precision or an early 80s Tokai. No luck this time but it was fun to see all the ladies.

Now come on and sing with me boy!!!

All the ladies in the house come on let me hear you say WEOO!!!?? All the girls in the house come on let me hear you say WE WE OO!!!??

Is there a princess in da house then let me open your blouse and come on and let me hear you say YIIIHAAAA!!!??

In the evening we ate in a classic british pub with Helena. Everything was cool until about 18.00 when the place got crowded in 5 minutes by grey-haired men in suits. Some after work or something so we flew.

Helena had her first ever Guinness (it was my second ever, we´re no beer drinkers). Mr X had his first ever Staropramen.

Helena went to see the play War Horse which she thought was really great. It´s about a boy and his horse. The father sells the horse to the first world war and the ffoy heads off booking for it. I mean the boy heads off looking for it. Really well done and the tears were flowing this evening.

I stayed at the hotel searching for a good club sample cd on the internet. There are quite a few out there folks. And that was about it. Baaaaaaaa.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

You were absolutely fantastic as always ! Great video on the audience btw =)
C ya in Sthlm x2
Erik Johansson, from Stockholm, SE (aka slowmove)
GT Inofficiellt Forum

You were good tonight, and filming the audience was a really good idea! Hope Helena liked the flowers ;) See you Amsterdam.
Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.10: Gent

2009-05-02T11:54:00.001+02:00

2.5 Gent, Handelsbeurs

Per Gessle had a doorbuster of a concert here in Gent last night. And we mean that literally. According to TDR, "It was difficult for the staff to get people intent on proceeding forward to move backwards, so when they did manage to get one door open, there was enough pressure placed on the other door as it was opening to cause the unmistakable sound of cracking wood to be heard throughout the lounge."

The show started with support-act Martinique, who performed (singing, playing the guitar and even doing the elecric-boogie) a number of his songs. Also worth noting is that, in TDR's opinion, the selection of music played before the show and during the intermission was excellent. And then suddenly the music stops and all hear the sound of birds, soon to realise they were listening to an excerpt from the title theme to 'The Sound of Music'. The globe on stage turned a bright orange and then Per and the Kids mount the stage.

In a surprise addition to the set list, "Hey, Mr. DJ" was added just after Per had introduced the band. Helena, with a huge smile on her face, looked out at the audience, then over at Per, and began the song's now-familiar introduction. The crowd of "crazy fans" cheered wildly!

LJdM

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.10: Gent

2009-05-02T03:11:00.001+02:00

2.5 - Gent, Handelsbeurs

One of the best moments on this tour is when i´m leaving the venue with Mr X.

Sitting side by side in the mini bus we head out into the night, in a new unknown town with all of it´s lights flashing by. He looks at me and then he falls asleep holding my thumb. We keep driving. I´m complete.

Many of my fans in forums all over the world…..no………many of you have been wondering about……..no……….some requests have been made and that is why…….no……..I thought it would be a good post to explain what i´m wearing on my left wrist. Well it´s a rosary that belonged to my grandmother. When she passed away it was given to me. So every night when I perform she is with me on stage looking out for me and making sure i´m doing a good job. She especially enjoyed Warsaw since she was born and have lived there.

On her funeral one of her favourite melodies was played. It´s called Il Silencio and has become one of my favourite melodies too. I´m thinking of doing a cover of it.

Sitting in the dressing room in the dark just after my apperence. Great experience this evening. Wow I have never been welcomed like this ever =) You who were there (many from Argentina and Spain in the first row) thank you! You made my night very special and it was nice giving you the high 5 before i left the stage.

Tried a Sandy Mouche song this evening since many of you understand French. It was “Le Mistral” which I thought went well. Someone even shouted Sandy mouche! =) And thank you for all the waving! You make me a much better dancer =)

So tonight me and Mr X are waiting for the band to finish because we are all driving home together since we live in Brussels. Goodnight and thanks again.

Doesn´t make sense + backstage (long, sit down while watching):

Oh but wait, it doesn´t stop there. I´m right now at the hotel in London finishing this post. After the show I went out to meet the fans with Per and the band. Not that I was expecting anyone to ask for my autograph, I thought it would be nice to film a little. But hey hey it´s never to late to become a mega star over one night and that is just what happened to me.

The fans:

There once was a totally normal guy filming in a room, wait for it….

and wipps, he became a mega star:

Some of them tried out a few of my robot-rubber moves, you go go go guys:

I met Lars-Erik, the man behind Daily Roxette and he told me that he reads my blog (Yihahh) and he gave Mr X a nice Winnie the Pooh pin.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.9: München

2009-04-29T11:52:00.004+02:00

29.4 München, Muffathalle

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.

Christoffer Lundquist

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.9: München

2009-04-29T03:30:00.001+02:00

29.4 - München, Muffathalle

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.

Backstage:

Backstage showers:

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.8: Zürich

2009-04-28T11:52:00.003+02:00

28.4 Zürich, Kaufleuten

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.

Per Gessle

Martinique EuropeanTour - Concert Nr.8: Zürich

2009-04-28T03:32:00.003+02:00

28.4 Zürich, Kaufleuten

Metallica played here. The Red Hot Chili Peppers several times. A beautiful venue perfect for Sandy Mouche.

Maybe next time. Miss you guys. Tired.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Miss Sandy Mouche, hope there’ll be a European clubtour for you guys one day…you can ask Per to babysit Mr. X backstage.

Saar Plunkett (aka Sarah den Rara),
from Alkmaar, Netherlands

Miss Sandy Mouche too. Don’t forget to play together again someday. You are a great band.

Alberto Fuente (aka Lantartida),
from Madrid, ES

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
Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.7: Cologne

2009-04-27T11:51:00.001+02:00

27.4 Cologne, Gloria Theatre

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

Per Gessle

Martinique EuropeanTour - Concert Nr.7: Cologne

2009-04-27T03:33:00.003+02:00

27.4 - Cologne, Gloria Theatre

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!!

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Hej! ))) I took some pics of you, and even a video, as well as Helena’s and will upload them and send to you as soon as I return back home by 4 May.

Martinique - I hear strange things at night

I’m in Berlin now and the laptop doesn’t seem to work good…))) Thank you for the performance!!!!!!! Will write you later.. sorry…)

Ilya Volkov
-(a.k.a. Kreecher)- Roxette House

Hi Martin! Two of my photos that I reworked a bit..they’re still big, so …think of that when you open them.

Kirsten Ohlwein (aka Kiwein), DE

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.6: Hamburg

2009-04-25T11:49:00.004+02:00

25.4 Hamburg, Grunspan

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…

Per Gessle

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.6: Hamburg

2009-04-25T03:35:00.001+02:00

25.4 - Hamburg, Grunspan

Hamburg, the town for perfectionists?

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.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.5: Prague

2009-04-23T19:26:00.002+02:00

23.4 Prague, Luccerna Hall

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.

Christoffer Lundquist

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.5: Prague

2009-04-23T03:36:00.003+02:00

23.4 - Prague, Luccerna Hall

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

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

I’ve been there cheering you up, in the front row.

Hope you remember me.

Elena Lenghel, from Romania (aka mixella)

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.4: Warsaw

2009-04-22T19:25:00.003+02:00

22.4 Warsaw, Stodola

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!!!

Per Gessle

Comments by fans:

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.

Kamila Aleksandrowicz,
from Białystok, Poland

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.4: Warsaw

2009-04-22T03:37:00.007+02:00

22.4 - Warsaw, Stodola

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:

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

Do you have any idea how many people were there? Anyway – bought your ep, nice music, man! Especialy “I’m a spiderman”.
Tomas Wysocki, from Warsaw, Poland
- tomos85 MySpace

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.
Thank you once again and hope to see you again.

Kamila Aleksandrowicz,
from Białystok, Poland

Hej Martinique!

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!

Alison Lowther
(aka roxerally), from Bolton, UK

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.3: Copenhagen

2009-04-20T19:24:00.002+02:00

20.4 Copenhagen, Pumpehuset

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... !!!

Per Gessle

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).

Christoffer Lundquist

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.3: Copenhagen

2009-04-20T03:38:00.002+02:00

20.4 - Copenhagen, Pumpehuset

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.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

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!

Saar Plunkett (aka Sarah den Rara),
from Alkmaar, Netherlands

The Party Crasher Tour - Concert Nr.2: Oslo

2009-04-19T18:29:00.002+02:00

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.

Crowd Pleasers “Party Crasher Tour” BEFORE #1!

1. Miss you – Adiam Dymott
2. The wind cries Mary – Jimi Hendrix Experience
3. Jessie’s girl – Rick Springfield
4. Tony the Beat (remix) – The Sounds
5. Son of Sam – Elliott Smith
6. Garden party – Rick Nelson
7. Bernadette – Four Tops
8. Mary Jane’s last dance – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
9. Somebody told me – Killers
10. Dance, Dance, Dance – Lykke Li
11. Steady, as she goes – Raconteurs
12. Rock’n'roll highschool – Teddybears Sthlm
13. All the way to Rino – R.E.M.
14. Jolene – White Stripes
15. Sunglasses at night – Corey Hart
16. What becomes of the broken-hearted – Dave Stewart & Colin Blunstone
17. A girl like you – Edwyn Collins
18. The Safety dance – Men without hats
19. Tainted love – Soft Cell
20. 867-5309/Jenny – Tommy Tutone

Crowd Pleasers “Party Crasher Tour” MIDDLE!!!

1. Mary Anne with the shaky hand – The Who
2. Rock’n'roll girl – Paul Collins’ Beat
3. Tell that girl to shut up – Holly & the Italians
4. Denis – Blondie
5. Mama said – Nick Lowe
6. Harley Davidson – Brigitte Bardot
7. Country girl – Brinsley Schwarz
8. December 1963 (Oh what a night!) – Frankie Valli & Four Seasons
9. Rock your baby – George McCrae
10. Cars – Gary Numan
11. You don’t love me – Gary Walker
12. We’re an American band – Grand Funk Railroad
13. The break-up song – Greg Kihn
14. Shake it – Metro Station
15. Sympathy – Rare Bird
16. Dear Eloise – Hollies
17. Wake up and make love to me – Ian Dury & the Blockheads
18. What is love? – Howard Jones
19. Swing your daddy – Jim Gilstrap

Crowd Pleasers “Party Crasher Tour” BEFORE #2!

1. Rock & roll queen – The Subways
2. Sexy boy – Air
3. Carry on wayward son – Kansas
4. A sad boy – Mascots
5. Dancing in the street – David Bowie & Mick Jagger
6. Yeh yeh – Georgie Fame
7. Tonight, tonight – Smashing Pumpkins
8. Goin’ back – Byrds
9. The letter – Box Tops
10. I was made for lovin’ you – Kiss
11. I love rock’n'roll – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
12. Solitary man – Johnny Cash
13. Sister Surround – Soundtrack of our Lives
14. Go all the way – Raspberries
15. I’ll be your baby tonight – Robert Palmer
16. Lover of the bayou – Mudcrutch
17. Captain of your ship – Reparata & the Delrons
18. Take your mama – Scissor Sisters
19. Day tripper – Nancy Sinatra
20. Go down fighting – Nazareth

Crowd Pleasers “Party Crasher Tour” AFTER!!!

1. Prelude & The Sound of Music – Julie Andrews
2. Dance hall days – Wang Chung
3. Lily of the West – Steve Forbert
4. Never my love – Astrud Gilberto
5. Poor side of town – Johnny Rivers
6. Tous les garcons et les filles – Francoise Hardy
7. Glad to see you go – Ramones
8. I can’t let Maggie go – Honeybus
9. Postcard from a dark star – Merz
10. Pretty dress – Rosie Thomas
11. Spiderweb suit – Sandy Mouche
12. Square One – Tom Petty
13. So alive – Love and Rockets
14. Lay your hands on me – Thompson Twins
15. Lyckliga gatan – Nisse Hellberg
16. Summer wine – Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood
17. Here comes the nice – Small Faces
18. Mickey – Toni Basil
19. Making plans for Nigel – XTC

LJdM

Sunday 19 April OSLO, Norway, Rockefeller

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.

Per Gessle

Martinique EuropeanTour - Concert Nr.2: Oslo

2009-04-19T03:39:00.005+02:00

Sunday 19 April - OSLO, Norway, Rockefeller

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.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

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!

Ilya Volkov
-(a.k.a. Kreecher)- Roxette House

Martinique European Tour - Concert Nr.1: Helsinki

2009-04-16T23:59:00.002+02:00

Thursday 16 April - HELSINKI, Finland, Tavastia Club

The book of the Tour:

The trip Stockholm-Helsinki was good and mr X got his own fan club.

Picture by Evgeny, from Russia, before the show in Helsinki

So, the first real show is over for me and i´m in a nice soft bed at the hotel reporting to you. Tavastia Club is a nice venue with a real rock vibe to it. My performance went well and i´m very happy. I was actually less nervous than at the second production rehersal. The audince was kind to me. Some of them talking of course but many looked to be with me as I went on. Thanks for that. I also got some warm applauses from the guys backstage which made me smile. The Swedish press was there. Let´s see if they write something about little me too..don´t think so.

Per & Co have finished their set by now and are probably heading for the hotel….or out somewhere…..without me…..(i´m a great father). Mr X was as always present and seemed to enyoy all the graffitti and writings on the walls backstage (the wall were covered by them, very rocky as I said before). He is now sleeping as a baby in his baby bed.

Sorry to say that this post doesn´t have any pictures or movies from the show. As i´m not a pro-blogger yet I forgot to check the life in the cameras and when it was time to shoot, the machines were all dead. Better luck next time. I´ll try to post something after each show but I can´t promise you anything, depends on many things.

At every show a man (which I´ve forgotten the name of right now) will sell my merchandise. It´s in the same stand as Per´s merch so look carefully.

What you will find is a super rare Ep with my songs on it that is only printed in the very posh quantity of 200 copies. I don´t know if they will last the whole tour but I really hope that if you want to buy one, you´re able to do so. I´ve pre-signed 20 copies if someone wants a signed one. Since I leave the venues pretty early after my performance it´s difficult for me to sign them in person but you may catch me sometimes when arriving to the venue and I will do my best.

Also available to you are some ultra rare Martinique t-shirts printed in the super posh quantity of 50 shirts. The t-shirts are white with white printed text on them. So when you´re wearing one you are not slamming me in the faces of everyone you meet. This is a t-shirt that only you and your heart knows the value of.

I´ve carefully selected the t-shirt model and it´s of the highest quality and fit. Not the average big tents you usually buy. These I´ve tested myself and i´m using one as one of my regulars. Helena has tested the women´s model and it looks perfect.

These are perfect to sign and I will of course do that if you wish.

Prices:

Ep: 5 € (may vary a little from country to country)
T-shirt: 25 € (the same price as for Per´s)
Sizes: Ep: plastic sleeve, white cd; T-shirts: small, medium, large, x-large (both models)
Size quide: Men´s, I use the size medium; Women´s: Helena uses the size large

So even if you´ve only got money for food left, spend it wisely.

Have a great night and dream of good things.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

European Tour Blog

Comments by fans:

I’ve got Sandy Mouche’s booklet nicely wrapped on my desk waiting to be signed by you but I’d also like to but your EP and have it signed as well. Hope I’ll catch you somewhere before the show or at the airport.

Kamila Aleksandrowicz,
from Białystok, Poland