Crash! Boom! Bang! Tour
World tour by Roxette
Promotional poster for 15 November 1994 concert at the (now-titled) Royal Highland Showground
Associated albumCrash! Boom! Bang!
Start date6 September 1994 (1994-09-06)
End date2 May 1995 (1995-05-02)
Legs6
No. of shows
  • 48 in Europe
  • 14 in Asia
  • 9 in Latin America
  • 8 in Australia
  • 4 in Africa
  • 81 total
Roxette concert chronology

The "Crash! Boom! Bang! World Tour" was the fourth concert tour by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, launched in support of their fifth studio album Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994).

Box office and commercial recordings

The "Crash! Boom! Bang! Tour" saw the band performing to over one million people during its eighty-plus concerts throughout Europe, South Africa, Australia, Asia and Latin America from September 1994 until May 1995.[1] It saw Roxette becoming one of the first international acts to perform in territories which, in the mid-90s, were not seen as touring markets, including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and China, as well as Costa Rica, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Russia. These concerts attracted some criticism from the European music press – particularly in Sweden – who accused the band of exploiting the people of those countries for financial gain.

Per Gessle dismissed these claims, saying: "There's been some irritation over us going to Beijing and Moscow but, I don't know, we have lots of fans everywhere—we do this for our fans, we don't do it for the money because there's no money there", conceding: "We're not going to be the generation of artists that's gonna, you know, 'cash-in' from the Chinese people. That belongs to the future [generation of artists]." Marie Fredriksson argued: "I get so pissed off with all these people who don't understand that this is a really good thing we are doing. It's for the fans, of course it's for us too, because we learn so much. It's not like 'We have to go. It's a big market. We can sell a lot of albums there.'"[2]

They became the second act to tour in post-Apartheid South Africa, playing four shows to 65,000 people in stadiums throughout the country in January 1995. Whitney Houston was the first act to tour there, and her shows the previous month had been plagued by organisational issues: thousands of ticket holders were unable to find their seats and, due in part to poor security, hundreds of concertgoers were openly robbed outside Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium. In contrast, Roxette's four concerts in the country passed off without incident, which was instrumental in other international acts deciding to perform there soon after—specifically The Rolling Stones and Phil Collins.[3] Their 14 January 1995 show at Johannesburg's Ellis Park Stadium was filmed for the live video Crash! Boom! Live!.[1]

Rarities, a compilation of previously released b-sides, demos and remixes, was issued exclusively in Latin America and Southeast Asia, with its release timed to coincide with dates of the tour.[4] On 19 February 1995, Roxette performed to over 15,000 people at the Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing. The procedure to get permission for this concert had taken over a year, and included self-censoring the lyrics of "Sleeping in My Car",[5] of which Gessle said: "We agreed, but didn't change them in the end."[6] This made Roxette the first Western act to be allowed to perform in China since Wham! in 1985.[7]

Two months later, on 8 April, they performed the first of two scheduled concerts at Buenos Aires' Estadio Ricardo Etcheverry – then called the Ferrocarrill Oeste Stadium – to a sold-out crowd of over 30,000 fans.[8] Approximately 150 attendees were treated for minor injuries at the venue, however, after a reported crowd rush toward the stage during the concert. The second concert the following night was cancelled over security concerns.[2] The tour concluded on 2 May 1995 in Moscow, with Roxette becoming the first act since 1917 to hold a concert on that date—a public holiday in Russia.[1] In 2008, the duo were ordered to pay SEK 4.5 million (approximately US $500,000) in unpaid taxes to the Swedish Tax Agency, for money earned during the German dates of the tour. In court papers, it was alleged that Gessle and Fredriksson paid the revenue into their joint production company, instead of declaring it as taxable income.[9][10]

Set list

This set list is representative of the tour's second show on 9 September 1994 at the Globen Arena in Stockholm.[11] It does not represent all dates throughout the tour.

  1. "Sleeping in My Car"
  2. "Fireworks"
  3. "Almost Unreal"
  4. "Dangerous"
  5. "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" (The Byrds cover)
  6. "Crash! Boom! Bang!"
  7. "Listen to Your Heart"
  8. "The First Girl on the Moon"
  9. "Harleys & Indians (Riders in the Sky)"
  10. "Lies"
  11. "The Rain"
  12. "I Love the Sound Of Crashing Guitars"[a]
  13. "It Must Have Been Love"
  14. "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)"
  15. "Dressed for Success"
  16. "The Big L."
  17. "Spending My Time"
  18. "Cry"
  19. "Hanging on the Telephone" (The Nerves cover)
  20. "The Look"
  21. "Love Is All (Shine Your Light on Me)"
  22. "Joyride"

Notes

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and opening act
Date City Country Venue Opening act
Europe
6 September 1994 Helsinki Finland Jäähalli Brainpool[12]
9 September 1994 Stockholm Sweden Globen Arena
10 September 1994 Norrköping Himmelstalundshallen
12 September 1994 Copenhagen Denmark Valby-Hallen
13 September 1994 Halmstad Sweden Halmstad Arena
14 September 1994 Oslo Norway Oslo Spektrum
16 September 1994 Karlskoga Sweden Nobelhallen
17 September 1994 Jönköping Jönköping Concert Hall
18 September 1994 Gothenburg Scandinavium
20 September 1994 Rotterdam Netherlands Rotterdam Ahoy
21 September 1994
23 September 1994 Kiel Germany Sparkassen-Arena
24 September 1994 Bielefeld Seidenstickerhalle
25 September 1994 Bremen ÖVB Arena
6 October 1994 Berlin Deutschlandhalle
7 October 1994
8 October 1994 Halle Eissporthalle
10 October 1994 Cologne Sporthalle
12 October 1994 Munich Olympiahalle
13 October 1994
15 October 1994 Mannheim Maimarkthalle
18 October 1994 Frankfurt Festhalle Frankfurt
19 October 1994 Memmingen Eissporthalle
21 October 1994 Stuttgart Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
22 October 1994
24 October 1994 Hamburg Alsterdorfer Sporthalle
25 October 1994
26 October 1994 Prague Czech Republic Tipsport Arena
27 October 1994
9 November 1994 London England Wembley Arena
11 November 1994 Dublin Ireland Point Depot
14 November 1994 Sheffield England Sheffield Arena
15 November 1994 Edinburgh Scotland Royal Highland Showground
17 November 1994 Birmingham England National Exhibition Centre
18 November 1994 Brussels Belgium Forest National
19 November 1994
21 November 1994 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion
22 November 1994 Lausanne Halle des Fêtes
25 November 1994 Innsbruck Austria OlympiaWorld Innsbruck
26 November 1994 Vienna Wiener Stadthalle
28 November 1994 Dortmund Germany Westfalenhalle
29 November 1994 Hanover Hannover Messe
1 December 1994 Barcelona Spain Palau Sant Jordi
2 December 1994 Madrid Palacio de Deportes
3 December 1994
4 December 1994 San Sebastián Velódromo de Anoeta
South Africa
6 January 1995 Durban South Africa Kings Park Stadium
9 January 1995 Port Elizabeth St. George's Stadium
11 January 1995 Cape Town Green Point Stadium
14 January 1995 Johannesburg Ellis Park Stadium
Australia
18 January 1995 Perth Australia Perth Entertainment Centre
21 January 1995 Sydney Sydney Entertainment Centre
25 January 1995 Newcastle Newcastle Entertainment Centre
27 January 1995 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre
29 January 1995 Canberra National Convention Centre
31 January 1995 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre
1 February 1995 Melbourne Melbourne Entertainment Centre
2 February 1995
Asia
6 February 1995 Jakarta Indonesia Jakarta Convention Center
8 February 1995 Kallang Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium
10 February 1995 Hong Kong Hong Kong Queen Elizabeth Stadium
12 February 1995 Bangkok Thailand Queen Sirikit National Convention Center
14 February 1995 Manila Philippines Folk Arts Theater
16 February 1995 Taipei Taiwan Taipei County Stadium
19 February 1995 Beijing China Workers Indoor Arena
22 February 1995 Tokyo Japan Nakano Sun Plaza
23 February 1995
24 February 1995 Sendai Sendai Sun Plaza
26 February 1995 Tokyo Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan
27 February 1995 Osaka Osaka Festival Hall
28 February 1995 Fukuoka Fukuoka Sunpalace
2 March 1995 Yokohama Kanagawa Kenmin Hall
Latin America
22 March 1995 Heredia Costa Rica Palacio de los Deportes
24 March 1995 Caracas Venezuela Poliedro de Caracas
27 March 1995 São Paulo Brazil Olímpia
28 March 1995
30 March 1995 Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan
31 March 1995
2 April 1995 Santiago Chile Teatro Caupolicán
5 April 1995 Lima Peru Colegio Roosevelt
8 April 1995 Buenos Aires Argentina Ricardo Etcheverry Stadium
Russia
1 May 1995 Moscow Russia Olympic Stadium
2 May 1995

Cancelled dates

List of cancelled concerts, showing date, city, country and venue
Date City Country Venue
5 September 1994 St. Petersburg Russia —
8 November 1994 London England Wembley Arena
12 November 1994 Dublin Ireland Point Depot
17 January 1995 Perth Australia Perth Entertainment Centre
22 January 1995 Sydney Sydney Entertainment Centre
23 January 1995
3 February 1995 Melbourne Melbourne Entertainment Centre
9 April 1995 Buenos Aires Argentina Ricardo Etcheverry Stadium

Personnel

Personnel taken from the credits of the 1995 tour documentary Really Roxette.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Thom Duffy (29 April 1995). "EMA Telstar Books Roxette Into Moscow To Close Tour". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 17. p. 61. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson, Marie Dimberg, Rolf Nygren, Dave Edwards (February 1996). Really Roxette (Documentary). Stockholm, Sweden: Sveriges Television. EMCJ-6007.
  3. ^ Arthur Goldstuck (11 March 1995). "Concert Status Improves In S. Africa With Stones". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 10. pp. 10, 103. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  4. ^ John Lannert; Marcelo Fernández Bitar (20 May 1995). "Latin Notas". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 20. p. 35. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  5. ^ "Roxette lyrics censored in Beijing". The Albany Herald: 2. 20 February 1995. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Rolling Stones play China". thedailyroxette. 10 April 2006. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  7. ^ Mike Levin (23 December 1995). "Hong Kong Comes Into Focus". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 51. p. 66. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  8. ^ John Lannert (25 March 1995). "Latin Notas: Argentina". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 12. p. 39. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  9. ^ Albin Grahn (15 October 2008). "Roxette förlorade - döms att betala 4,5 miljoner" [Roxette lost – ordered to pay 4.5 million] (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  10. ^ Halstein Røyseland (16 October 2008). "Roxette skylder millionbeløp" [Roxette owes millions]. VG Nett (in Norwegian). Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  11. ^ "Roxette Concert Setlist at the Stockholm Globe Arena, Stockholm on 9 September 1994". Setlist.fm. 9 September 1994. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  12. ^ "Billboard Spotlight | Sweden | Brainpool". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 50. Nielsen Holdings PLC. 16 December 1995. p. 80. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
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