History
In 1976, 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 local celebrities in Halmstad for their Christmas concerts. Taking advantage of this they released their quite rare vinyl EP, Billy, selling 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 album's biggest hit.
The second album, released in 1981 under the name Moderna Tider (Modern Times), also enjoyed huge success, and was followed by a national tour. The following year Puls (Pulse) was released, with the hits "Sommartider" ("Summer times") 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"; however, the album flopped, selling only 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.
In the following years, however, a few Greatest hits albums were released and a number of 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 in 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, 58,984 fans watched the concert live, breaking the record set by Bruce Springsteen, and the performance was later broadcast on TV4.
Gyllene Tider reunited again on August 14, 2010, as a surprise encore during Roxette's concert in Halmstad, both bands' hometown. They performed a three-song set, featuring the songs "Juni, Juli, Augusti", "Sommartider", and "När alla vännerna gått hem", with Marie Fredriksson and the rest of the Roxette band joining them on stage for the last number.
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