Face Of Cheam

So my birthday weekend concluded with a gig from Per Gessle from Roxette. He hasn't played here for 15 years. Despite this and being a big Roxette fan as a teenager I was put off by the £30.00 plus asking price, and so were a lot of people as the show was downsized from Shepherd's Bush. However after the show I was glad of the decision (partly of the offer of as a birthday gift too) to go. A large amount of Roxette songs were played, though all sung by Per rather than the female backing singer in the band. Again the promotion for this suggested the band was Roxette with this person replacing Marie Fredrikkson. However, this was not the case. The pop rock of Dressed For Success opened the show, and was followed by a few solo tunes, all had the Swedish poppy motif. He then played two songs from a folk album he put out called Son Of A Plumber. Let's just say they deterred me buying it from the merchandise stall, and gave an opportunity to visit the bar. The last half of the main set was pure Roxette and started with an acoustic version of Listen To Your Heart that nearly had me in tears! Church of Your Heart had people bouncing and when he went off after Joyride you felt you were jsut getting started. The encore included an extended version of The Look (nananananah!) and a cover of the Monkee's I'm Not You're Stepping Stone, (actually they covered it too!). The show ended with Queen Of Rain two hours after he came on just before ten. This allowed us time to get to Borough Market (near London Bridge for the last train) for a celebratory birthday beer in the Market Porter.

Set - Dressed For Success / Drowning In Wonderful Thoughts About Her / Stupid / Party Pleaser / I Wish I Could Fly / She Doesn't Live Here Anymore / 7 Twenty 7 / I Have A Party In My Head / Late, Later On / Listen To Your Heart / Do You Wanna Be My Baby / Opportunity Nox / Doesn't Make Sense / Church Of Your Heart / Dangerous / Joyride /// C'mon / Are You An Old Hippy Sir? / The Look / It Must Have Been Love / Sleeping In My Car /// I'm Not Your Stepping Stone / Queen Of Rain