Join the Joyride! Tour

The tour was originally scheduled to begin in North America, although Per Gessle later explained: "We were supposed to start the tour in America, but then everything got sort of screwed up because of the gulf crisis. So we started in Europe, and then the whole album just exploded [there]. So we kept on doing that forever."[1] Opening instead in September in Helsinki, the tour saw the band playing to over 1.7 million people during its 100 shows in Europe, Australia and North and South America.[2] Tickets for the tour's Swedish dates sold out within a week of release, with the band performing to 104,200 people there over those fifteen dates.[3] The South American leg of the tour was particularly successful. Beginning on 25 March 1992 in Mexico City, the thirteen dates saw the band performing to a total of 347,000 audience members in Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, with ticket prices across the tour averaging roughly US$20. They played four shows in both Argentina and Brazil, with total ticket sales in those countries exceeding 120,000 and 110,000, respectively. By the end of the tour, sales of Look Sharp! and Joyride in those six territories had risen to almost 1.1 million copies, up 27% from pre-tour sales figures.[4]

The North American leg of the tour received mixed reviews. A review for the Los Angeles Times claimed that Fredriksson was "squandering her talents in pop's low-rent district. She's clearly superior to Roxette's uncomplicated, hook-crammed material";[5] Jon Pareles of The New York Times criticized their show for its "careful mimicry of MTV. On a set painted in Piet Mondrian primary colors, Miss Fredriksson struts, leans on the other band members, makes symmetrical arm motions, pouts and straps on a guitar to take a few chords; she took off her leather jacket and later her long sleeves, like a G-rated stripper."[6]

On 21 August 1992, Roxette released a live video entitled Live-Ism. It contained a shortened version (twelve songs) of their set from their 13 December 1991 performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, as well as music videos for "Church of Your Heart", "(Do You Get) Excited?" and then-current single "How Do You Do!". The latter was the first single taken from the duo's fourth studio album, Tourism, which was released a week after the video. Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms, and Other Strange Places was described by Roxette as a "tour album", and consisted of songs recorded by the band in various locations during the "Join the Joyride! Tour", including live versions of "The Look" and "Joyride" taken from the aforementioned Sydney concert, along with live versions of "It Must Have Been Love" from their 25 April 1992 concert in Santiago, Chile and "Things Will Never Be the Same" from a November 1991 concert in Zürich.[7]

This set list is representative of the tour's opening show on 4 September 1991 in Helsinki, Finland.[8] It does not represent all dates throughout the tour.

• Marie Fredriksson — vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, piano
• Per Gessle — vocals, backing vocals, rhythm guitar
• Per "Pelle" Alsing — drums, percussion
• Vicki Benckert — backing vocals, accordion, mandolin, electric guitar
• Anders Herrlin — bass
• Jonas Isacsson — electric guitar
• Clarence Öfwerman — keyboards
• Staffan Öfwerman — backing vocals, keyboards, percussion