Gyllene Tider

Gyllene Tider is a famous Swedish pop group. The name "Gyllene Tider" means 'Golden ages' or 'Golden times' in English. Few Scandinavians would not recognize the band's most famous song "Sommartider", often played on the radio during late spring and early summer. The band is well-known for its catchy choruses and light-weight lyrics about summer and life in a small town, and they have been described as a Swedish equivalent of the Beach Boys. In the text below, the Swedish names of the songs are written in italics, with the English translation in parenthesis.

In 1977, Per Gessle met Mats Persson, a member of the band Audiovisuellt Angrepp, forming the duo Grape Rock. Later Micke Andersson, Anders Herrlin and Göran Fritzon joined and the quintet was born. The group's name was changed to "Gyllene Tider".

In the following year, the band had become a group of local celebrities in Halmstad for their Christmas concerts. They took advantage of this and released their quite rare vinyl EP, "Billy". They sold about 900 copies.

In 1980, the LP "Gyllene Tider" was released, becoming a huge success in Sweden. "Flickorna på TV2 (The girls on TV2)" was the biggest hit on that album.

The second album was released in 1981 under the name "Moderna Tider (Modern age)" and also enjoyed huge success. It was followed up by a national tour. The next year "Puls (Pulse)" was released with the hits "Sommartider (Summertimes)" and "Flickan i en Cole-Porter-sång (The girl in a Cole Porter song)".

The group tried to break through to the American market in 1984 with the album "Heartland" (a six track mini version of the album "The Heartland Café" released in Sweden) under the name "Roxette". But it failed and the album flopped after selling about 8,000 copies. The name Roxette was later used by Per Gessle to name his successful collaboration with Marie Fredriksson.

In 1985 Gyllene Tider officially broke up. But in the following years a few "Greatest hits" albums were released and a few reunions took place, in particular the immensely popular "Återtåget" tour of 1996.

In 2004 the band celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with the first new album after 20 years and a big summer tour in July and August. The tour, called "GT25", was a huge success, being the biggest tour in Scandinavia ever and the second largest of all time in the whole of Europe, gathering large crowds all over Sweden. When they performed at Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg on August 7 2004 during the "GT25", 58 977 fans watched the concert live, and the performance was later broadcast on TV4.

Album discography

*1978 Gyllene Tider (EP) (aka "Billy" and "the yellow EP")
*1980 Gyllene Tider
*1981 Moderna Tider
*1982 Puls
*1984 The Heartland Café (six of the tracks from this album were released in the United States as "Heartland" under the name "Roxette")
*1990 Parkliv (Live 1981)
*1997 Återtåget Live! (Live 1996)
*2004 Finn 5 fel!
*2004 GT25 Live! (Live 2004) (also on DVD from Ullevi)

Greatest Hits and similar

*1989 Instant Hits + Pers Garage
*1993 Samlade Tider (nice price)
*1995 Halmstads pärlor
*1997 Ljudet av ett annat hjärta/En samling (nice price)
*1997 Återtåget Live! - Gyllene Tider live!
*2000 Konstpaus - samtliga inspelningar från 1990-talet och lite till...
*2004 GT 25 - Samtliga hits!
*2004 GT25 Live!

DVD

*1997 Återtåget (documentary from TV4, live and interviews )
*2004 Karaoke Hits!
*2004 Parkliv (concert/documentary from 1981 filmed by Lasse Hallström, released on DVD 2004)
*2004 GT25 Live! (live at Ullevi 2004)

External links

* [http://www.gyllenetider.com/ Gyllene Tider.com - Elektroniska Tider ] (With full discography and info)
* [http://forum.runtoroxette.com/index.php?board=7.0 R2R Forum]
* [http://www.dailyroxette.com The Daily Roxette] (Latest Gyllene Tider news)
* [http://www.gyllenetideronline.com Gyllene Tider online] (Official)
*