P, C & C lay down some harmony (III): Mazarinerna twice

Mazarinerna is back! And twice. Better than once.

On Saturday September 3, Per Gessle and his band performed an exclusive concert for the staff at Hydro in the Grieg Hall in Norwegian town Bergen. It was a special invitation gig only, with an audience of about 1,500 people.

Mazarinerna consisted this time of Christoffer Lundquist, guitar; Clarence Öfwerman, keyboards; Jens Jansson, drums; Helena Josefsson, backup vocals; Magnus Börjesson, bass guitar and MP Persson, guitar.

According to The Daily Roxette, this was the setlist in Bergen. It includes hits from Mazarin and Gyllene Tider:

1. En sten vid en sjö i en skog
2. Juni, juli, augusti
3. Gungar
4. Det hjärta som brinner
5. (Hon vill ha) Puls
b a n d p r e s e n t a t i o n
6. Här kommer alla känslorna…
7. Segla på ett moln
8. Kung av sand
9. Födelsedag
10. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
11. Gå & fiska!
Extras
12. Tycker om när du tar på mej
13. Det är över nu
14. Sommartider

Per Gessle was appointed “Artist of the Decade” at Metro’s “Concert of the Decade” in Globen last night. Eva Dahlgren opened the show with her new single “När jag längtar” and the well-known “Ängeln i rummet” and was followed by Per and his band, who performed “Gå & fiska!” and “Juni, juli, augusti,” and joined the stage again at the end of the show with “Här kommer alla känslorna” and “Det hjärta som brinner.”

Gessle has been working in a new album. Per Gessle speaks about it to the press.

LJdM

Bergen was a gas! Very heavy! This band composition is the most fun I’ve ever played with… ’Sommartider’ was a huge hit in Norway as well, one could tell…

Artist of the Decade? It is a fantastic distinction, but I have had a great successful decade with Roxette, “Mazarin” and Gyllene Tider, so it’s actually right. I bump into Håkan [Hellström], The Cardigans and The Ark professionally, like this concert, Grammisgalan or Rockbjörnen. Since we do the same thing, I consider us sort of colleagues. I only know Eva [Dahlgren] privately. I have never met Darin, for instance… Maybe you meet them in the hallway and shout ’great album woohoo’ or something.

I am not sure what my new project will be. It might be a “three-chord pop” album, in English, Swedish or even French, or a soundtrack. It’s one of my dreams to do a full soundtrack to a film, it could maybe be in Swedish, I don’t know. I am 46 and don’t feel so much like repeating what we did in 1989-91 with Roxette, when we flew 260 days a year. I’m not ready to give that much up for a new international career. I'm not planning to tour in 2006, but when you look at U2 at Ullevi, it’s all coming back to me. When one has been there, one wants to go back.

Per Gessle

Mazarinerna is the band (VII): Mazarin International

Monday Sept. 8th the second single, “På promenad genom stan”, was released to the radio, and it has already entered the Rix FM’s chart “Topp 6 at 6”, at #5. Official release was Sept. 17.

After 11 weeks of being the solid #1 in Sweden, Per Gessle’s album “Mazarin” finally folds for Britain’s heavy metal band Iron Maiden on 12th September.

Due to the success in all Scandinavia, Per Gessle and Mazarinerna have also played in Norway and Finland.

• 23/09/2003 Rockefeller Oslo Norway
• 25/09/2003 Tavastia Helsinki Finland

Why Helsinki? Per says to The Daily Roxette that it felt empty when the tour ended - uncomplete. There were no more places to play in Sweden. “So we thought about Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen. Copenhagen didn’t work out, but the other two did.” He also mentions that it’s good for the press coverage and good for the local record company branches. “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a big place or not. The important thing for me is to play. It will be a little bit like the release party gig [in Halmstad], only longer, and better,” Per adds, smiling.

Per calls this the “shortest world tour ever”. It started in Oslo on Tuesday and now ends in Helsinki. He feels wonderful, he says that if he’d known what kind of impact this album would have had, he may not even have dared recording it, at least not in the way he did record it. “People stop me in the streets just to tell me how much they love the album, it’s weird! And even one of the air hostesses told me she listens to the album everyday. It seems to mean so much to so many. I had no idea that people would be so touched by my thoughts!”

Gessle mentions that after the delightful problem of interlacing the release of “På promenad genom stan” with the previous single “Känslorna”, there will almost certainly be a third single. “’Tycker om’ is such a nice song, most people have that as a their favorite.", he adds.

TDR asked if there are left-overs from “Mazarin”. “Ummm, not really. There’s ’Mannen med gitarr’ which Monia Sjöström got, I have a demo of that. And then there’s this other song… I forget the title right now, but no, not really, a few maybe,” Per says thoughtfully.

“We are about to talk about Gyllene Tider’s 25th anniversary. We haven’t yet. What’s pro this is that it’s an anniversary that doesn’t come back and that it’s very good for me, time wise. I have nothing planned. What’s against this is that, for me, if it will happen then everybody must be very motivated. I mean, Göran [Fritzson, keyboards] doesn’t even play anymore. I don’t even know if he plays at all,” Per tells TDR. He continues: “It has to sound damn terrific, the attitude has to be right. The reason must not be that we want to go on the road again to cash in on our fans. If it’s so then maybe we shouldn’t bother, and do something else instead. It’s a lot about checking the mood among the guys. A follow-up question is: Will we release something new together with a possible tour? A single, an EP, an album? Who will record it? Things like that…” TDR asks how a hypothetical tour will look, an “Återtåget 2” for instance. “No I don’t think so, I don’t know really but maybe a shorter tour with bigger gigs? Maybe sell out the Gothenburg stadium, I mean if Robban [pianist Robert Wells] can do it, why couldn’t we,” Per grins. “What’s the bottom line, it has to be good. But it feels good, the five of us haven’t met in a long time, but the good vibes are in the air!”

LJdM

P, C & C order room service (VII): Chris Lundquist with Roxette in Finland

Per and Marie have been in Helsinki, Finland, today to promote their new album, Room Service.

Marie and Per have been backed by Clarence Öfwerman on keyboards, Pelle Alsing on drums and Christoffer Lundquist on the bass. Per has played the guitar. They also have had a Finnish string section of four people. They played “The Centre Of The Heart” (twice), “Milk And Toast And Honey”, “Wish I Could Fly” and “Real Sugar”.

Maybe the forthcoming Room Service Tour band could include:

Per Pelle Alsing (drums). Jonas Isacsson (electric guitars). Christoffer Lundquist (bass). Clarence Öfwerman (keyboards).

Christoffer Lundquist has been interviewed by The Daily Roxette and also aswered some quick questions to the Swedish band The April Tears. The April Tears will release a new album in January 2002, produced by Christoffer Lundquist.

Chris is an all-around musician on Roxette’s two latest albums and in the band Brainpool (“discovered” by Per’s company Jimmy Fun Music). He speaks about Roxette and Brainpool. Brainpool's last album, “You Are Here” (1999), was their first without Janne Kask, who left the band’s lead singer position in 1997. The album was a flop, but Brainpool are working in a new project.

LJdM

I have enjoyed working with Per and Marie. They are really nice people. It doesn’t bother me that Per and Marie grab all the attention of fans. I have been able to walk out from the studios without being surrounded by autograph hunters. That’s the way it is. The decision to mount another major Tour has already been reached. Per and Marie want to have a proper tour, and I’m in the band.

And Brainpool is working on a new album. It’s a rock opera and it will sound something like our previous album. Kask back in the band? We don't want to work with him anymore.

• Born: January 16, 1970
• Lives: In the countryside in southern Sweden.
• Favourite April Tears songs: All Good Things, Hong Kong and Model, Actress, Whatever.
• Favourite Songs: Beach Boys - Surf's Up, Scott Walker - No Regrets, The Who - Getting In Tune, Yes - Awaken, Van Der Graaf Generator - Man-Erg (including Cog), The Beatles - Rain, Genesis - In The Cage, George Harrison - I'd Have You Anytime
• Favourite cities: None. I don't like cities.
• Favourite Drink: Guinness
• Favourite Food: At the moment pancakes with strawberry jam.
• Christoffer's favourite link: http://brianwilson.cjb.net

Christoffer Lundquist
- Junk Musik