tomos85 said on January 17, 2009 18:52:

For some Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland and Scandinavia is the whole wide world, so I just can say “yes, PC goes international” ;)

Txiqui said on January 21, 2009 15:34:

Spain follows the party too :)

According to BBVA website the album will be out the first week of march.

http://soy.bluebbva.com/2009/01/per-gessle-de-roxette-publica-su-album-p...

ncurran said on January 21, 2009 18:59:

I’d be quite surprised if EMI UK agreed to release it actually. They’ve never really been big supporters of roxette....a shame really, as I dont think the live date in london that was mentioned for april will actually happen unless they do agree to release it. There would be no point really

ncurran said on January 21, 2009 22:31:

Actually their star was fading in the UK LONG before HAND was released, and I think it actually had a lot to do with EMI UK’s lack of interest. I even missed their 1995 concert in London because of that bloody company. I had read about it in Music week and was really excited, and phoned EMI to check for details (this was only a few weeks before the actual concert). I phoned EMI in London and as usual got put through the dept that was responsible for Roxette promotion (as I used to regularly do in the 90’s, to ask when their next single would be released, etc....in the days before the internet). The lady on the other end of the phone said she knew nothing about the concert, and she didnt think it was happening, despite the fact that I had seen a full page advert in music week for the GH which mentioned a one off gig in London. You can’t imagine how pissed off I was when I found out after the fact that it has actually happened.

I think they actually did push roxette in the look sharp/joyride days to an extent but for some reason (I can only imagine they had other priorities) they seemed to lose interest in the mid-90s. To maintain success in the record industry (at least in the UK) you really need successful pluggers from your record company to go out and promote your music to the media and radio. That side of it was already a mess by the mid 90’s but after that it only got worse. Yes, WICF had reasonable success but HAND pretty much flopped here.....and room service....well the way the record company handled that release was beyond a joke. For the first time in years Roxette were being talked about on Radio 1 which can actually make or break an artist in the charts, and one of the DJs was saying that he had heard their new single (TCOTH) and it was the best thing they had done in years. That single actually had a chance of doing well in the UK....so what did EMI do? They never released it at all! Instead they released Room service without any kind of promotion or even a single to promote it. Of course it entered the charts at something pathetic like #120. They did finally decide to release a single about 6 months too late when they actually released MATAH, and Rox flew over to do promotion on some cable shows that probably got about 50000 viewers at the most (obviously their career was so messed up by then that the mainstream channels didnt want them on any of their shows). The single release was a complete waste of time, and anyone with half a brain at the record company would have been able to work out that releasing a single months after the album was released and flopped is not going to achieve anything! EMI is generally a rubbish record company anyway.....ive seen other similar ridiculous decisions with other artists I like. I know they are happy with the record company in sweden, but I seriously think they could have had a lot more success worldwide if they had signed with Universal back in the day!

anyway....rant over!

chrisjankunas said on January 22, 2009 13:29:

Yeah, I think it’s true that Per would need some serious promotion - especialy if you consider that at this tough financial time even popular artists in the UK are not charting as well as they were expected to.

And... for the record, I still can’t believe that Roxette Hits charted as well as it did !!! I remember buying A Sting record for my Mum at the time - and that charted at 24. I thought “Ut-oh! Where are Roxette gonna chart, then?” Surprisingly they did better !! :)

I would still be all for a UK release though !!

davidc4 said on January 23, 2009 11:16:

What we need is a miracle of epic proportions for even a limted UK release....

even an imported release that costs about 15 quid would do me.

i have it as a download but its not the same as a cd that can fit nicely in my G section