GOTHENBURG (UPDATED) - According to an article published on Göteborgs-Posten’s web site the tickets to Gyllene Tider’s Gothenburg concert at Ullevi Stadium are already sold out. EMA will release some more tickets but with blocked sight.

  GP also writes that “Gyllene Tider’s web site” claims that the tickets were sold out in less than 40 minutes, but The Daily Roxette has not been able to verify that information, as there is no info at either GylleneTider25 or EMA Telstar’s sites. At any rate, this is a new Swedish record. The total amount of tickets sold are now 50,000. Ullevi’s limit is 53,000.

• GP’s article (In Swedish)

VÄXJÖ (UPDATED) - For those who appreciate nature, Evedal would have been a beautiful setting, situated as it is in a pine forest just outside this city. But… it just wasn’t big enough. The July 30th concert is moving instead to Värendsvallen, the local soccer stadium. Last Thursday, 7,000 additional tickets were released – and have since sold out.

  During the past few weeks, the local organizers of the concert in Växjö (Hovshaga AIF, an athletic organization) discussed the possibility of moving the concert in Växjö with EMA Telstar, the tour operator.

  With approximately 24,000 tickets sold, this concert easily beats Gyllene Tider’s own record achieved in ’96. Many believed this record would tumble, but nobody expected it to be by so much.

  “So many tickets have been sold… the response has been incredibly high. We have to try that as many as possible get a chance to see Gyllene Tider,” said Hovshaga AIF spokesman Roland Östberg to Smålandsposten last week.

  “With so many people, a place like Evedal can create safety concerns. Värendsvallen is a much better alternative,” he added.

Judith Seuma contributed to this article.

• Article in Smålandsposten

STOCKHOLM - “We want to do something nobody else has done,” says Per Gessle on Expressen. Per and his pals in Gyllene Tider want to break the record number of attendees in Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg. The record was set by Bruce Springsteen on June 8, 1985 when 64,312 people saw “The Boss” perform there. “We want to draw the bow now that we have the chance,” says Per.

  In Göteborgs-Posten Per tells that even though it’s still months before the tour starts, he’s already working with it all day long. “But first we have to get the album done. It must be ready in the beginning of May. In June we’ll have the rehearsals, but I can already say it will sound great,” Per promises.

  Expressen also reveals that a Gyllene Tider documentary - probably the one that was shown to the press on Wednesday - will be shown to the fans before each concert during their summer tour.

  The fans who bought tickets to Slottsskogsvallen will automatically get a field ticket to Ullevi concert. The extra tickets - 25,000 of them - will go on sale on Wednesday.

  (Editor’s note: Our reader Christel Johansson noted that with the additional 25,000 tickets the attendance reaches 50,000 which is still a long way from the record. It wouldn’t be the first time Expressen misquotes people, but here at TDR we still hope there will be a need for another set of extra tickets so that Gyllene Tider would actually break the record.)

• Expressen article
• Göteborgs-Posten article (in Swedish)
• Ullevi attendance records

STOCKHOLM - As reported earlier today, Gyllene Tider is celebrating the release of “GT25 - Samtliga Hits” album today. The big news is that they are actually celebrating the release of two albums: June 2 they will release their brand new album with brand new songs, titled “Finn fem fel” (“Find Five Errors”). The album is being recorded in Christoffer Lundquist’s studio in Vollsjö, Skåne, the same studio that baked “Mazarin”.

  The first single out of this album has the working title “Sitter på en sten vid en sjö i en skog” (“Sitting on a Rock by a Lake in a Forest”). The sound of the new album is close to the debut album’s sound, or as Anders Herrlin - bass guitar, puts it “It sounds like how we wanted to sound in 1980…” Anders also adds that most of the songs (“16 so far”, Per interjects) were recorded in less than half an hour. “We also decided that no other instruments were to be used than our own. The synthesizer sounds are actually all made by the Farfisa, for instance.”

  Also, the documentary “Återtåget ’96” will be released on DVD this summer. Details are at this point unknown.

  All the Gyllene boys are very happy with the celebration of their anniversary. Micke “Syd” - drummer: “This is so big that we cannot comprehend what’s going on. We are truly overwhelmed.”

  It was also revealed that the opening acts during the GT25 Summer Tour will be Pugh Rogefeldt (the man who introduces Gyllene Tider on the EP “Swing & Sweet”) and rap group The Latin Kings. The Gothenburg gig will be moved to Ullevi Stadium, instead of adding another concert. Ticket sales at the moment are up to 225,000, compared to the 301,256 tickets Återtåget generated in total.

  The press conference opened with manager Marie Dimberg giving out the good news, after that Kjell Andersson and Lasse Lindbom talked about their memories of Gyllene Tider, and finally a short film was shown, showing Gyllene Tider during their career. “Weird that we even had a career looking like that!” Micke “Syd” Andersson said afterwards.

• Official Gyllene Tider Website (In Swedish)
• Official Pugh Rogefeldt Website

There are exceptions, of course, but most of the international fan base for Gyllene Tider is a result of Roxette fans discovering Per Gessle’s previous involvement with this group. The Daily Roxette takes great pleasure therefore in congratulating GT, on behalf of our readers, on 25 years of making great music - and great memories - for all of us!

  With sold-out concert dates already on the calendar, the members of Gyllene Tider have already had reason to celebrate, but the “official” start of the 25th Anniversary celebration is today. There’s a release party this afternoon, in Stockholm, for the GT25 Greatest Hits album. TDR will have a reporter in place to bring you the inside scoop.

  Interested readers should check back for updates to that story once it’s published. Look for a possible announcement of additional tour dates, along with other exclusive content.

HALMSTAD - As anticipated, The Daily Roxette has learned that EMA has indeed decided to add a second night in Halmstad to the Gyllene Tider tour schedule.

  The tour begins in Halmstad on Wednesday, July 14th, and when tickets were first released, this premiere concert sold out quickly. Örjans Vall had originally been reserved with an optional second night, and “due to the extremely high demand for tickets,” the Thursday night concert (July 15th) has now been added.

  “Fun!” said a spokesperson for the group.

  Tickets will go on sale tomorrow (Friday).

  Update March 19: This concert is now sold out, and was sold out almost faster than the first.

STOCKHOLM - The historic Polar Studios in Stockholm will close its doors on May 1st after 26 years of operation. Nearly every major Swedish artist has recorded at Polar, including Roxette, Robyn and the Cardigans. Owners Lennart Östlund, Marie Ledin and Tomas Ledin have failed to reach terms that would allow them to continue leasing the facility’s space.

  “We have been in long negotiations with the private landlord but have not been able to reach an agreement, so we have to shut down the so-called ’ABBA studio,’” Marie Ledin says. “For us and many in the music world, it is the end of an era.”

  Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson bought the building and opened the studios in 1978 to consolidate recording for ABBA and other Polar Music artists in one location. Several artists worked there before ABBA, including Led Zeppelin, which used the studio to record its album “In Through the out Door.”

Article by Jeffrey de Hart for Billboard magazine. Publicity photo from December, 2000, shows Roxette (Marie, Ronny Lahti, Per, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist) at Polar Studios working on the “Room Service” album.

• Polar Studios

Read more…

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - This morning at 9 a.m., Gyllene Tider’s summer tour tickets went on sale. And on sale they went! Reports from several Daily Roxette readers able to access the Ticnet site, indicate that the premier concert in Halmstad sold out within an hour. Both Ticnet’s telephone lines and the Internet booking system have been jammed during most of the day.

  EMA Telstar, the tour promoter, says that 100,000 tickets were sold in less than three hours. The concerts in Halmstad, Helsingborg and Gothenburg are sold out and ticket scalpers such as Biljettnu.se are already offering tickets at an inflated price.

Update:  The Daily Roxette has learned that additional tour dates are under consideration, including the addition of a second concert in Halmstad.

Lissie and Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this story.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Roxette is sentenced to pay 3.6 million kronor (€400,000) in taxes after a tour in Germany.


  “We will appeal,” says Per Gessle.
Per is among the top tax payers in Sweden, with
taxes around 10-15 million kronor each year. “He could avoid a lot of it, but that’s not the way he wants it,” says Per’s financial advisor Mats Nilemar.


  The county administrative court sentenced Per and Marie to pay about 3.6 million kronor in unpaid taxes.
“They have to pay taxes for what they have not declared,” says
Bo Ryding, who has been handling this errand at the IRS.


  This issue has its ground in the German part of the
Crash!Boom!Bang! tour in the mid ’90s. Altogether, Roxette
did 19 gigs in Germany (a country known for their harsh
tax laws).
“The artist tax was not very advantageous,” says Bo Ryding.
By acknowledging themselves as employees of EMA Telstar,
Per and Marie were able to avoid the tax and get their
salary directly from the company.


  They would then get 640,000 SEK each for all the German concerts. This unproportionately low wage made German tax officials suspicious. “They found the amount unrealistic,” says Bo Ryding.

  The alarm from Germany led the Swedish IRS to start an investigation. The investigation showed that the wages have not been paid. Instead, compensation had been sent directly to Per’s and Marie’s company, Roxette Productions.
This income, says the Swedish IRS, has not been declared.


  Per and Marie’s lawyer has appealed against this.
He claims that an employment could not be proven, and that
the money therefore not could be taxed as income from a
service. The process has been going on since the end of the ’90s.


  But Per and Marie have not given up.
“We still claim that we’re right, and we will appeal,” says
Per Gessle.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Sixteen tour dates were announced today as the schedule for this summer’s Gyllene Tider 25th Anniversary Tour were finally made public:

Jul 14 Halmstad, Örjans Vall - Sold out

Jul 15 Halmstad, Örjans Vall - Sold out

Jul 17 Lysekil, Pinneviken - Sold out

Jul 18 Helsingborg, Sofiero Castle - Sold out

Jul 20 Norrköping, Idrottsparken

Jul 21 Sunne, Rottneros Park

Jul 23 Stockholm, Stockholm Stadium - Sold out

Jul 25 Falun, Lugnet

Jul 28 Skövde, Karstorps Fritidsområde

Jul 30 Växjö, Värendsvallen

Jul 31 Malmö, Mölleplatsen - Sold out

Aug 4 Örebro, Eyravallen

Aug 6 Jönköping, Elmia

Aug 7 Gothenburg, Ullevi Stadium - Sold out

Aug 11 Eskilstuna, Sundbyholm Castle

Aug 13 Sundsvall, Park Arena

Aug 14 Skellefteå, Torget

  The tickets will go on sale on Friday, March 12, at 9 a.m. CET. The price will be 325 kronor (about €36) plus a service charge of 25 kronor. Children under 10 need only pay a service charge of 10 kronor.

  Gyllene Tider’s comment: “This will be a great adventure! We feel younger and better than ever before!”

  The celebration of Gyllene Tider’s 25th anniversary will continue all through 2004, and “officially” starts March 24th with the remastered releases of Gyllene Tider’s first three albums, and a new greatest hits album.



  Please note that even if a show is “sold out”, tickets still may be available later on.

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)
• TicNet/Biljett Direkt (Phone # +46-(0)771-707070)
• Halmstad (Check out for accomodations)
• EMA Telstar (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - This week, “Tycker om när du tar på mej” climbed to #1 on the official Swedish radiochart (Music Control) after being #2 for three weeks in a row.

  “Här kommer alla känslorna,” the first single from “Mazarin,” also reached #1 on the chart while “På promenad genom stan” managed to climb to #2.

  Tomorrow, the popular Swedish radiochart show Svensktoppen is aired. Per is at #5 this week with “Här kommer alla känslorna” and has stayed around that position for several weeks now, while “Tycker om när du tar på mej” is at #2. That means that “Här kommer alla känslorna” has been on the charts for 39 weeks on Sunday, which gives Per a spot on the record list for Svensktoppen. He will enter the list of “longest runs on Svensktoppen” at #10 together with the Swedish singer Per Myberg’s hit “Trettifyran” (“This Ol’ House”) from 1964.

  If he stays on the list next week, he will share the #9 spot with the Brandsta City Släckers’ song “Kom och ta mej” (“Come and Take Me”), and the week after that he will have the #8 spot all by himself.

HALMSTAD - For some time now, it’s been widely reported that the upcoming Gyllene Tider 25th Anniversary tour would kick off some time in the mid-July. In addition to that, a person familiar with the negotiations with Örjans Vall, a soccer stadium that will serve as the opening venue, was quoted as saying it would be about a week before a scheduled soccer/football match there. That narrowed the potential opening concert date down to about a 4-day window of possibility. But what will the exact date be?

  Today, this TDR reporter called Örjans Vall to ask when Gyllene Tider would play there.

  The man on the other side of the phone line didn’t have any problem answering the question, and said that the date would be July 14th.

  Obviously, this is not an official announcement. The Daily Roxette expects there will be a press conference to announce the tour dates within the next week or so, with tickets possibly going on sale as early as March 12th.

GOTHENBURG - Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten reports that Gyllene Tider’s 25th anniversary summer tour will visit Gothenburg on August 7. The tour plan is not yet disclosed, but the paper says the concert - or one of the multiple concerts in Gothenburg - will be at Slottsskogsvallen on that day. Göteborgs-Posten also repeats an earlier rumor of the premiere in Halmstad to be held in mid-July.

• Göteborgs-Posten article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - The Fre brothers, a Swedish duo performing soul music, are going to record their version of Marie Fredriksson’s 1996 hit ballad “Tro.”

 “We’re making an album of older Swedish songs that we like and which we perform our own way. Sort of like our own interpretations,” says Henok Fre. “Our version sounds very good. We’ve given it our own touch; our voices, our own choir arrangements and an unbelievable grand background with strings and all. Although it’s natural for a soul production.”

 Other artists whose songs are on the yet untitled album are Mauro Scocco, Peter LeMarc and Bo Kaspers Orkester. Bo Kasper and his company are even performing on the album. “It would’ve been so nice if all the artists were singing with us, but we haven’t had time to organize it. We would’ve loved to sing with Marie Fredriksson, but we didn’t want to ask out of respect for her now that she’s been so ill.”

 Marie isn’t the only Roxette member the brothers admire. “Per Gessle is cool and I really like ’Tycker om när du tar på mig’, but it’s probably too new to make a cover song.”

• Sundsvalls Tidning article (in Swedish)

HALMSTAD - Beda Hallberg, the woman who came up with the idea almost a hundred years ago of selling small paper flowers on May Day to raise funds to fight tuburculosis, was declared the ’Halland Resident of All Time’ last night in a contest in which Per Gessle had also been a finalist. The contest, sponsored by the Museum of Halmstad, was designed to draw attention to a special exhibition that opened yesterday.

  This museum is the very same that will mount the Gyllene Tider exhibition this summer.