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Old 21 Aug 2010, 20:09   #1
Andreas
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7 Concert in Gävle (Sweden), Aug 2010

Forever Young 2010 in Gävle (20 August)

Summary: I am happy to have attended the event!

Instead of starting in chronological order, I start with the review of the Alphaville concert.

Set list:

1. Dance with me
2. Monkey in the moon
3. A victory of love
4. Sounds like a melody
5. Summer in Berlin
6. Carry your flag
7. Big in Japan
8. The jet set
9. Forever young

Encore:

10. Apollo

Some of you might recognize the set list. It was the same as at least in Varberg.
Marian Gold was in a good mood during the whole show and jumped around a lot at stage. The crowd seemed very pleased when he said “Tack så mycket” almost without any accent after one of the first songs. Also after “Forever young” everyone seemed very pleased, but it seemed as “Apollo” dragged down most – but not me. After that song almost no one shouted “One more time/ En gång till”. For me who now saw them for the 15th time, the concert was naturally good. But two things could and should have been better. To start with, it was way too short. And actually there was a break with no music for 20 minutes after Alphaville. I found it very strange that they (probably) hadn’t been informed about it. Then they could have sung their new single and my favourite live song, “Dance with me unplugged” and maybe even one more song. The other thing I found very different and much worse than most of my concert with them was the guitar. Its volume was way too loud so at very many times you couldn’t hear Marian’s voice or the nice synthesizer melodies. A thing that Alphaville couldn’t help was that at this stage people were starting to get drunk. “A victory of love” was totally destroyed for me and my sister and a girl standing beside us because of a violent and drunk woman of about 1,85 m and 45 years. I won't go into any details what she did. But when the song was over she vanished, luckily. But still I would give the concert 5 sunny stars out of 5. Best song of the evening: “Dance with me”. Worst song of the evening: “Monkey in the moon”.

OK, let’s go back to the start. I got to the concert with my sister who never had seen Alphaville before, but like many of their songs a lot. At the place of the event we teamed up with some of my friends in front of the almost empty Ultravox stage, in the middle of the Jakob Hellman concert. For those who doesn’t know, Jakob Hellman comes from the very north of Sweden and released one album in 1989. That album is loved by the reviewers and some of them call it the “best ever Swedish album”. I don’t agree at all, even if I just heard two songs of him when it was released. After this album he never released anything (apart from a duet with Perssons Pack some years later) and some weeks before these tour series he did a come back on Swedish TV. Rumours say that he has been scared of standing on stage. I can’t say if it was true, but he for sure didn’t make such a confident impression. His music is quite calm, melancholic and guitar based and he is not so sure in hitting the correct notes. What I heard/saw of the concert strengthen what I thought about him in advance. I give this concert 2 weak stars out of 5. Best song of the evening: Must be his biggest hit, “Vara vänner”. Worst song of the evening: Any other.

The next band was Ultravox.

Set list (I might remember something wrong about the order):

1. Passing strangers
2. Reap the wild wind
3. Hymn
4. Sleepwalk
5. All stood still
6. Mr X
7. Vienna
8. One day
9. Dancing with tears in my eyes
10. Love’s great adventure
11. The voice

I saw them in Stockholm in April at a very good concert, so my expectations were very high. And they delivered again, the concert was really good and the highlight of the evening (sorry Alphaville). They look even older in daylight, but the music doesn’t sound old. Midge Ure has still a great voice and they seem to enjoy playing live. Most people in the crowd seemed to like best when Billie Currie took up his viola, which he did twice. It would be wonderful if they would record a new album, but I suppose they won’t. I give the concert 5 bright stars out of 5. Best song of the evening: Hard to choose, but I choose “Dancing with tears in my eyes”. Worst song of the evening: “Mr X”, but exactly like on the Beatles concerts in the 60’s, there must be a song for the drummer at every concert :-)

The next band was Lustans Lakejer from a suburb to Stockholm. Apart from the singer Johan Kinde, they looked very young to have been playing music in 1981 when the band was formed. Not so strange, since the other four were new in the band just for these series of shows. The drummer Carl Delorean, guitarist Lotus and keyboardist Nico all play in the synthpop group Kamera and the bassplayer Julian Brandt was the singer in the dissolved synthpop group Bobby. These two groups I like a lot and consider them the two best groups starting during the 21st Century in this genre, so I would much rather have seen them instead… The best with this concert was actually the talking between the songs, which at times was very funny. Here Kinde seemed to improvise a lot, for example when he “revealed for the world” that the other band members are his sons with four different persons – Sophia Loren, Jennifer Connolly, Jane Birkin and Marlon Brando – it took namely very long time for him to find out which lady/man the mother should be for the different sons… He also had to improvise one time when he the synthesizer was wrongly programmed – they started the song all over again after pressing some keys. The music and singing was something between good and okay, so I give the concert 3 improvised stars out of 5. Best song of the evening: “Diamanter är en flickas bästa vän”. Worst song of the evening: One I don’t know the name of…

The next band was Reeperbahn from somewhere around Stockholm. They never had any hits in the 80’s and were for me only known for playing a terrible band in the cult movie “G” from 1983 and the only song I ever heard by them was a horrible song from that movie, “Hundarna brinner” (translated “The dogs are burning”). The singer, Olle Ljungström, is though well-known for (according to the reviewers) writing good lyrics, not being so good in reaching the correct notes and for (according to rumours) having serious alcohol and mental problems in the past. When they were playing we were the whole time waiting in the middle in front of the upcoming Alphaville stage, where we i.e. met Forum member Tommie Svensson (it was very nice meeting him). OK, back to Reeperbahn. The voice of Olle was not at all good, according to him because of his astma. I should say that it might have sound worse because of it, but it would still not have been good at all. Olle’s moving scheme was occasionally very interesting and the by far most interesting at that concert. It was hard to hear what he was singing, but something I heard at least. So here is a proof of his great lyrical skill: “Bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam” x 10. Anyway, parts of one of the songs I found okay melodically, but the rest was simply terrible and it’s extremely strange that professional reviewers have given this band the best grade out of the bands at Forever Young 2010. I give this concert 1 small star out of 5. Best and worst song of the evening: All.

The next band was Alphaville and they have already been reviewed. So then it was only one more band to play, Human League. Here there were quite many people in front of us at start, but during the concert many people left and the more who left, the closer we came to the stage and the closer a seriously drunk or drug affected man came to us. This person had btw a bracelet where it said “VIP” and looked somehow familiar. Anyway, back to Human League.

Set list (I probably have got them in the wrong order somewhere):

1. Sound of the crowd
2. Mirror man
3. Love action (I believe in love)
4. Open your heart
5. Heart like a wheel
6. Seconds
7. Human
8. The Lebanon
9. All I ever wanted
10. Empire state human
11. (Keep feeling) Fascination
12. The things that dreams are made of
13. Tell me when
14. Don’t you want me

Encore:

15. Being boiled
16. Together in electric dreams

The lead singer, Philip Oakey, looked still to be in good physical shape and did some good vocal performances. The female singers Susan Sulley and Joanne Catherall also sounded equally good as on the records, which means not that good. In “(Keep feeling) Fascination” it was partially very bad. But it was also better than expected in a few songs. Here I was happy and surprised that they played my favourite song by them, “Heart like a wheel”, and I also found some parts in their lyrics I never had thought about before which are really good. One funny thing they should have credit for is their change of costumes. Oakey had four different outfits and the females had three. Anyway, the concert was good and would have been worth seeing even if Alphaville or Ultravox hadn’t been there. My grade is 4 fine stars out of 5. Best song of the evening: “Heart like a wheel”. Worst song of the evening: “(Keep feeling) Fascination.

Summary again: I am happy to have attended the event! Thanks to all who made the event a great one!

By Andreas “Andreas” Engfeldt
Last edited by Krapplund; 22 Aug 2010 at 17:07.
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Old 23 Aug 2010, 14:36   #2
Krapplund
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Thanks for a great review Andreas!!


"Alphaville ohne Bernhard ist wie eine Apfelstrudel ohne apfel"
17'04'2003
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Old 23 Aug 2010, 14:46   #3
Andreas
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You are welcome![sonar]
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