1. My Favourite Game (Stockholm Calling, 2003)
2. For What It's Worth (Nyon Paléo Festival, 2003)
3. Interview with Magnus and Bengt about the Cardigans' musical abilities (Stuttgart, 2003)
4. Explode (Stuttgart 2003)
5. Live And Learn (Popstad Festival, Jönköping, 2004)
6. I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer (Paris, 2006)
7. A Camp - Stronger Than Jesus (with the Sweptaways, Stockholm, 2009)
8. A Camp - Love Has Left The Room (Paris, 2009)
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Late 2002 or early 2003 came the news that the Cardigans had finally got together and painfully managed to record a new album, Long Gone Before Daylight. The album was worth the wait, as it might be, in my opinion, their best. Their “comeback” concert was to take place at a new festival called “Stockholm Calling”, which they were headlining along with Placebo and Zwan. Several fans on the Cardigans’ forum, including me, decided that they would do the trip to Stockholm to see this definitely historical event. So, on May 30th, I drove 800 km to Germany, met Astrid there (a 1st class fan), and we took the cheapest flight to Stockholm and gathered with other fans near the Käknas Tower on May 31st at 12:00. And it was great to finally meet people that I had “known” for years on the forum. The sun was shining, from a distance we could hear the Cardigans rehearse an acoustic version of “Explode” (that they would call “Implode”), before we got into the festival area, near the Sjöhistoriska Museet. As Placebo was playing, we noticed Lasse passing by.
Then, around 8:00, the 
Cardigans started playing, and our little group of fans had managed to be close to the stage.
The Cardigans gradually came on stage with The Road which was an excellent intro. They only played a part of it and got directly into Implode, the uptempo and more acoustic version of Explode. The Cardigans were six on stage, as a woman by the name of Eva Landqvist had joined them for the tour, singing (very well) backing vocals and playing a bit of guitar and keyboards. Seeing the great attitude of the band on stage, I knew it was going to be a great evening ! They were smiling and definitely wanted to do a real good show. They really seemed to enjoy themselves and we couldn't tell they were nervous, as we found out later in the evening.
The Cardigans had decided to play most of their last album, although the fact that it's mostly ballads meant it might not be too appropriate to a yelling festival audience. On the other hand, as Magnus explained, their album was number 1 in Sweden, so they could afford that... But they are to play more uptempo songs for their summer festivals dates to come. Lovefool was on the set-list but they didn't play it because of lack of time.
I liked the little grin on Peter's face when he hit a wrong note during the solo of Lead Me Into The Night. And Magnus's face was so funny, when he sang along the lyrics, looking as serious as he could look. And Nina has been coming on too late into "Hanging Around", missing the frist verse ; this was rather fun too and she didn't seem to take it too seriously either !
Long Gone Before Daylight is an album who was made to be performed live, but a festival might not be the best place. People were yelling even during the slow numbers. Of course it's OK to do this with uptempo rocking songs, but I didn't see the point with songs like Couldn't Care Less or Communication...
So it was a fantastic show, especially as the band took the risk of playing mainly Long Gone Before Daylight songs. They were very nervous, Magnus later told me, but we weren’t, we just enjoyed each and every second of it ! Among the great surprises was the new Black Sabbath cover, Changes, certainly the most beautiful they did. Before the last song, My Favourite Game, Nina told in English “We know from our homepage that many many fans have travelled from far, and we just want you guys to know that we’re really happy that you did this for us”. Awwww... What more could we ask for ? Maybe meeting the band ? Well, we did (kind of).After the end of the concert we hang around near the backstage entrance. We saw Lasse talking with friends or family, but no one of us wanted to bother him. So we waited for a while and then he came to us, spoke a little bit and signed autographs.
Then he went away, listening to the next concert, I think. But before he left he told us "I'll tell the others to come out to see you". Did we really hear what we heard ??? That was certainly not to moment to leave !
Still, it was getting REALLY cold and I had to dance and jump like a madman to keep my vital functions working ! Time was going on, we were still freezing. Then Lasse came back and asked me "Did the others come ?" and I answered "No, you're the only one !" "I told them to come", he said, and left again. And finally a few moments later, we saw Bengt, in a situation where we certainly couldn't disturb him ; and then he recognized Tim, webmaster of the Cardigans' Collector Page, who has followed them on their '99 tour. He spoke a bit with him, then with Astrid, another German devotee, then with me ; when I told him I was from France he asked me where I was living - in French ! Nice surprise. Then he signed autographs, had pics taken and chatted with the other fans.And then it was Nina's turn ! She came with a big "hello" and shook everyone's hand and asking everyone's name. I tried to talk to her but it was very difficult to have a conversation with the loud music. I said that she looked really happy on stage this evening, same as when I saw her with A Camp. Then she moved onto someone else, and we could also see people rushing to her to have their pic taken. Soon it was almost impossible to approach her.
Just as Nina arrived she was followed by Magnus. Then I went to shake his hand and introduce myself, as he knew my name from being a regular on the forum. As both Nina and Magnus seemed not to mind about having pics taken with fans, well, I thought I'd have my pics as well ! And pics and autographs would be really useful to be sure that what happened really happened and that it was not a dream...
After a while Nina said goodbye and left, I think the festival was over at that point and people were leaving. But Magnus stayed and kept on chatting with us. We all had a relaxed chat with him, talked about Long Gone Before Daylight, the 5.1 remix to come, which he found fantastic, a Cardigans DVD (not planned for the time being), a live album, his solo work as Righteous Boy, his mixed feelings when he was recording Gran Turismo, how nervous they all were for this concert... And he thanked us many times for being here, and we thanked him back as much for being here with us too ! I could also see the security people waiting for us to leave, but they couldn't tell us to go, cause we were with Magnus, ha ha !
Finally we left and said goodbye to Magnus. It was the end of a wonderful, an incredible day, where everything had turned right, better than anyone in our group of fans would ever have thought. We had just missed the last bus to the center of Stockholm, but who cared ? We were still tripping high !
We ended up in a café celebrating this incredible day, before going our own way. For me, this meant waiting in Stockholm’s main station for a bus to take me back to the airport. And after the flight, I still had 800 km to drive back home, after two sleepless nights. I had never been so tired in my whole life, and not surprisingly, got ill right after I came back home. But it was soooo worth it !
Since the Cardigans or couldn’t come to play in France as they didn't get any interesting offer from a promoter, I had to travel again (but not so far) to Switzerland, to see them at the Paléo Festival in Nyon, in July 2003. They had changed their set list, it was now more adapted to festival audiences (they got Lovefool back, for example, and removed most slow songs), but it was less interesting for fans (and for them, I guess). In my opinion, the band belongs more to small intimate halls than arenas or festivals. Anyway, after what happened at Stockholm Calling, I couldn’t help feeling that it was a slight letdown. Not much more to say.
I saw the band a third time this year, in Stuttgart (Germany), in November. After another 800 km drive, my then girlfriend and I arrived at the Römerkastell where the gig would take place, around 4:00. There wasn’t much going on, when my girlfriend showed me someone coming near us and told me “Isn’t it Magnus ?” It was. And he was indeed coming to see us, saying he was ready for the interview. What ? Gasp.
Here’s what happened.
A few weeks before, I asked through e-mail to the Cardigans’ management if there was a possibility I could interview them, then publish the interview on my website, “the only French site about the band”, I boasted to make it look important... I didn’t get any answer in the following days, I forgot about it thinking they didn’t even care to answer, then my computer broke down and I didn’t have access to the internet for several days. In the meantime I had received a positive answer, only I didn’t know about it...
That’s what I explained to Magnus, slightly (did I say slightly ?) embarrassed... He said it was OK, don’t worry, relax, we’ll do it anyway. We went to a room and Bengt joined us, and I had to improvise an interview (although I had a few questions “ready”, about things I always wondered...) Fortunately I had my faithful MiniDisc recorder with me and I was able to record the whole thing. Bengt got the opportunity to practice his French (he studied it in school and went to France for a semester in the university), I also practiced my meagre Swedish. For almost an hour, we discussed various subjects, especially about the 1999-2002 period when the future of the band was incertain and their comeback at Stockholm Calling. We also talked about Magnus’s solo album that had been released the previous year. There was a piano in the room and he played a bit of Loved Among Friends, the first single from the album and the best song from it, in my opinion. I took a few pictures and Magnus said it was time for them to go rehearse, but that we would continue the interview after the concert if it was OK with me. It certainly was !
We wandered again near the hall, listening to the Cardigans’ rehearsal that we could hear quite clearly. We heard a full instrumental version of Hanging Around, among other things. The concert was fantastic. It started with an old-fashioned organ intro, played by Lasse's temporary replacement, Robban Crosioe. Then Peter and Nina arrived, then the rest of the band, to open with And Then You Kissed Me, in the same scenery as during the summer festivals tour (chandeliers and old curtains). Nina had changed her hairstyle again, with a big fringe reminding of Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, and dark brown hair. Magnus played barefoot as usual. He spotted me quickly at the first row, and for the first time in a Cardigans concert, I felt like I was not only watching but also being watched from time to time !
The playing was tight, the set-list nearly perfect, the audience was enthusiastic, and they played for over 1 hour and a half, which was at last a reasonable length for a concert ! Before the second encore, Magnus sent a flower in my way ; I tied it proudly on my coat ! He sat on the foldback speaker to play Changes, the Black Sabbath cover. “You won’t stand the speed of that song”, joked Nina, as their cover was, for the first time, faster than the original version, but was nevertheless a quite calm ballad ! Then Nina introduced “the real goodnight song”, which was perfect indeed to close the concert : Lead Me Into The Night. At the end of the show, the band threw flowers again at the audience, and Bengt, recognising us, threw us a couple of flowers. That was nice. I kept the flower for months until it was totally decomposed ! I came out totally amazed by the fantastic concert I had just seen.
At the end of the show, the band threw flowers at the audience, and Bengt, recognising us, threw us a couple of flowers. That was nice. I kept the flower for months until it was totally decomposed !
We then went near the dressing room doors to wait for Magnus, with some German fans. We saw Peter passing by, and then Magnus, who just had a shower, joined us for a chat for a few minutes. Nina came out, signed a few autographs and Magnus introduced me to her as “Yann, the George Harrison fan” (I was, and after having read that Nina especially loved his All Things Must Pass album, I had sent her a CD of unreleased sessions from this album). She told me that he was her favourite Beatles member, that she had a “romantic dream” about him, and that by the way, I looked like him ! Then she left. Magnus told me we could carry on our interview, in the same room as this afternoon. So we spent half an hour talking, then Magnus walked with us out of the building, thanking us for having gone such a long way to see them. Of course we thanked him back, and so ended what was, along with my Stockholm Calling day, my most fantastic Cardigans' experience.
My next Cardigans concert took place in February 2004. The Cardigans were scheduled to play in their hometown, Jönköping, as part of a festival called “Popstad”, on Valentine Day. I was on vacation, cheap flight tickets were available, so I thought, why not ? That was another fan gathering, a smaller one, as it was Astrid from Germany, Erica from Sweden, and myself. (We were also joined by another French guy who became more and more annoying as we got to know him, and we did our best to avoid him as much as we could...) Right after our arrival, we ate at "Papillon", the Cardigans' favourite pizzeria, "a big part of our upbringing", according to Magnus. Then, on our first complete day there, we were invited by another fan, Poa, a ballooning champion, for a trip over the lakes and forests near Gränna, a small town not far from Jönköping. I was afraid to be totally frozen (and I got frozen), but I decided at the last minute to go along and I didn’t regret it.
On the evening of the show, we managed to get rid of the annoying guy and went to the hall where the concert took place :another great one, and we had the privilege to hear the first-ever performance of what would become Good Morning Joan. They played the song at the beginning of the concert, just before it started being broadcasted by national radio. It was just for us ! Another unusual song was Downbound Train, a Bruce Springsteen song that they performed with Nicke Borg from the Backyard Babies.
Before My Favourite Game, Nina announced that she was going to speak English for a while (she'd been speaking Swedish until now, of course). She said, looking at us, "We see there are some old friends of ours this evening as well, thanks for coming over". It goes without saying that it touched our little group of mad Cardifans and that we clapped, yelled and waved back at her !After the end of the concert, we waited for a while in the hall then out out of the hall, hoping that Magnus would come to say hi, whic
h he did. First thing he asked was "What are you doing here ?" He knew we were supposed to come but it probably seemed unbelievable to him the people could actually travel from far away to see the Cardigans in Jönköping during the Swedish winter... We had a little chat about the official website and then the new song : Magnus thought they had played it quite right and said that the working title was For The Girls. On the set list that Astrid got it was called Låt 2 (Rhum & Cola) as one of the Cardigans' crew members thought the song reminded him of another song about rhum & cola, although he couldn't be more precise about which song and which artist it was... We chatted a bit more, and then Peter came along, said hi, shook our hands and went away. So did Magnus, after thanking us for coming and giving us "a little present", a bottle of Corona Beer each !The next day, we had a little tour of Jönköping, saw Cardigans-related places before heading back to Erica’s place, then Göteborg where we took our plane back to Germany. Another 800 km drive and I was back home, extremely tired but once more very happy with the whole experience.
The Cardigans finally went back to France to promote Super Extra Gravity when it was released in October 2005. Unfortunately they didn’t play any “regular” concert, only TV and radio appearances that I wasn’t able to attend. So I had to wait until April 2006 to get another chance (probably the last) to see them, in Paris one more time. They did a fantastic show, the audience was wild (the best of this tour, Magnus later wrote on the Cardigans’ site), and I was happy to be able to go there with my future wife. We were both working the next day and we had a 400 km-drive back home, so there was no way we could try to wait for the band after the concert and say hi or anything. I guess that’s also what you call growing old...
About five months later, the Cardigans gave their last shows in Brazil, and I personally think it’s highly unlikely they’ll play together again.
Fortunately we still have solo projects to look forward to, and I got to see Nina performing live with A Camp twice in 2009. First, in Stockholm, in a wonderful old-fashioned hall called Cirkus. They played Golden Teeth and Silver Medals with the same singer as on the album, Nicolai Dunger (not that I care that much for him, but...) and the best thing of the evening was probably the performance of Stronger Than Jesus with a great choir called the Sweptaways, who did the opening for A Camp. A few weeks later, in a very small hall (“La Maroquinerie”) in Paris, they played a set which was way too short (not even an hour) but I had the delight to be in the first row, right in front of Nina and the others. Unfortunately they didn’t do a signing/selling stuff session like they did in some other places.
With hindsight I’m really happy to have been able to see the Cardigans at so many various points of their career, see them evolving and I guess, growing up too. It’s also very nice to see that people who make music you like so much also seem to be very nice, pleasant and intelligent human beings, as far as I was able to see, and who never got their heads swelling too much. And I can only finish this by thanking them again and again!
