“ATAY” continues to soar up the charts!
Written by PerFanatic on November 1, 2002 to Sales & Charts.
As the fifth week of “A Thing About You” appearing in the charts draws to a close, it is becoming more and more apparent that this is a huge hit for Roxette.
Despite the fact that sales figures for the single have been somewhat sluggish, ATAY continues to impress on radio charts throughout mainland Europe. This is evidenced by this week’s biggest jump in new chart appearances to date. Last week, ATAY appeared on some 65 charts, which is not bad for its 4th week. However, in week #5, ATAY jumped through the roof, appearing on a total of 94 charts (see full week-by-week details below).
ATAY will almost certainly eclipse the 100 mark next week, possibly by a significant margin. Based on this data, it certainly appears that ATAY will achieve at least the success of Roxette’s last two leading singles, “Wish I Could Fly” and “Centre Of The Heart.” Read more…
Bonus ballads to be on EP in Canada
Written by roxtexanet on November 1, 2002 to Releases.
TORONTO - The initial pressings of the Canadian version of “The Ballad Hits” will feature the bonus four-song EP along with the standard 15-track CD, just as in Sweden. The album will be released on November 12th, one week later than in the rest of the world, and not on the 26th, as previously reported.
Swedish press picks up on US release news
Written by Jud on November 1, 2002 to Roxette.
STOCKHOLM - Tobias Lindner, a reporter from the Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet, was at yesterday’s press conference in Spain and heard TDR’s reporter, Peter Mills, ask about the US release of “The Ballad Hits” in February. Picking up on that, he filed this report in today’s edition:
Now they try the USA – again
Hits compilation should give Roxette revenge
Now the land in the west will be conquered. Again.
Roxette´s compilation The Ballad Hits” will be released in the USA.
“It’s the simplest way to come back there,” says Per Gessle.
About 10 years ago USA capitulated totally. Per and Marie conquered the big country with hit after hit.
Just as an example, “It Must Have Been Love” has been played over 3 million times on American radio while the album Joyride from 1991, has sold about 9 million copies in the US.
Per visits Spain on promotion tour
Written by PeterGm on October 31, 2002 to Roxette.
MADRID - As part of the promotion surrounding the release of “The Ballad Hits,” Per Gessle is visiting Spain this week. He arrived in Madrid Tuesday night with his wife and son, and drove directly to the hotel.
Yesterday, Wednesday, he gave a press conference at the Hotel Villamagna with about 25 reporters and photographers present.
Walking into the room with someone carrying a poster of “The Ballad Hits” behind him, he posed for the cameras as flash after flash went off. Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager, and her assistant were sitting together with Åsa, Per’s wife, on chairs placed at the right side of the room.
The reporters started to shoot the typical questions. To the “How is Marie?” question, he gave an answer now familiar to readers of The Daily Roxette.
“Considering the circumstances, she is doing fine,” he said. “It is a very delicate situation for her and to the people around her, and we still are very shocked after the first day when we knew about her fainting. However, Marie is a very positive person, and she’ll get well soon. She’s a survivor..”
Hits since 1987
“We started to think about this project last year when we were on tour,” said Per. “First we thought of releasing a double-CD, but in the end we decided to release it separately. First the ballads and then the power-pop songs.”
Per isn´t sure of what the future will bring. “We are a live band and we love going on tour, but right now we aren’t sure of what will happen next.”
When he is asked about a new solo album, he says that Roxette has always worked fine because both himself and Marie have given each other the freedom to release solo material, even in the most successful time for Roxette. “I am going to release solo albums in the future, and Marie will do so as well.”
Bonus tracks on same CD in Japan
Written by roxeteer on October 31, 2002 to Releases.
“The Ballad Hits” album’s Japanese version will be similar to the German one: it will have 15 tracks and 2 bonus tracks on one CD. Just like in Germany, the bonus tracks will be “The Weight Of The World” and “It Hurts”.
It’s unusual that EMI Electrola in Germany releases a Roxette album that differs from the European edition, but in Japan it’s not. Toshiba-EMI often adds bonus tracks to the Japanese editions to boost the sales. The Japanese editions can be more expensive than imported ones, because the record company has to print special covers for the localized Japanese editions.
“The Ballad Hits” will be released in Japan on November 7th.
Stefan Schönhacker contributed to this story.
Interview with Per to be broadcast today
Written by Jud on October 31, 2002 to Roxette.
MADRID - As part of his promotion tour, Per Gessle is visiting Spain this week. In addition to a press conference and meetings with various media, he was interviewed by the Spanish radio station Los 40 Principales yesterday afternoon.
The interview will be broadcast today on their program “Lo + 40” that runs from 17.00 to 20.00 CET.
The program is also available as a webcast through the radio station’s website.
A first part of the interview was already broadcast at around 17.20. There will be more in the next 2 hours of the program
- Los 40 Principales (Click on “Player” button on the top-left corner to listen to the program)
Roxette to re-enter US and UK markets; “ATAY” to be Valentine’s Day single
Written by steven on October 28, 2002 to Releases.
STOCKHOLM - Great news for American and British fans! According to EMI Sweden, there are plans to release Roxette’s “A Thing About You” in both countries simultaneously in February. They intend to release the single on or just before Valentine’s Day, 2003 – and to market the “Hits” albums as well.
The Daily Roxette previously hinted at the possibility that something might happen in the US again, telling our readers recently that there was a proposal under consideration.
That proposal, made to Capitol Records in the US, an affliate of EMI, met with a favorable response. “They’re all for it,” confirms Li Eriksson of EMI/Capitol Sweden.
Americans have not enjoyed a release since the US version of the greatest hits album two years ago on the now-defunct Edel America Records label. In conjuction with the promotion for that, “Wish I Could Fly” was released, but only as a promo single for radio and TV. Meanwhile, Britain last had a record release in September 2001 with “Milk & Toast & Honey.”
New album produced by Mats MP Persson
Written by Jud on October 28, 2002 to Gyllene Tider.
STOCKHOLM - 
Expressen reports today that Ben Olander, 52, is releasing an album produced and co-written by Mats “MP” Persson next month.
Olander is a well-know Swedish artists and has been during 53 weeks in the Swedish charts “Svensktoppen” and has got 6 hits during the past two years.
The album, “Insikter”, that is out November 11th, has been recorded in Per Gessle’s studio, Tits&Ass.
“Everything started when I moved to Halmstad, Sweden’s Liverpool,” says Olander to Expressen. “It feels just great. Now I just hope to get another kind of audience to listen to my work. But of course, I want songs from this album to reach the Swedish charts.”
After the release Olander plans to tour Sweden. He hopes that Micke “Syd” Andersson joins him on stage, which would mean that half of Gyllene Tider would be touring in short.
Olander started his career as musician at the age of 48, when Janne Bark, who has previously worked with Gyllene Tider and Per Gessle and is currently Ulf Lundell’s guitar player, convinced to start as a professional in the music business.
“I started a bit late, but not too late,” he states.
Love, peas and copy protection: Per talks with TDR
Written by tevensso on October 27, 2002 to Exclusive.
STOCKHOLM - 
It’s a neatly dressed but slightly hung over and tired Per Gessle who meets The Daily Roxette at Hotel Lydmar at Stureplan here in central Stockholm. The reason for his tiredness is Bruce Springsteen’s sold-out concert at Globen last night, and the requisite bar hopping that occured afterwards.
“I was out with Clarence. The man never quits!”
He’s wearing almost the same clothes as in the recent promotional photos, and the room at the hotel is large and comfortable. He offers me a Coke.
It’s a day full of interviews with the reporters from various newspapers, and Per’s not quite sure who’s who.
“The Daily Roxette? Good! I read that all the time,” he says with a smile. “It’s even the home page of my browser. I always get annoyed over ’SmallTalk’ though; there are sometimes really weird ideas… that I want to correct.”
I wonder if he’s serious, and he claims he is. “Whenever I need to find out what I’ve been doing lately, I consult TDR,” he says with a laugh.
But the question on the mind of our readers is: how is Marie?
“Marie is fine, as fine as can be,” Per says. And Per should know: he visited with her Saturday at her home just outside of Stockholm and they enjoyed dinner together. “She looked healthy and is active. She’s just like she usually is again. The surgery went well. The entire tumor was removed, and no others were found. She’s on medication now.” Asked directly, Per said he doesn’t know if the tumor was malignant or benign. “I haven’t asked her really,” he said.
What disturbs Per is that the hospital staff leaked information to the press even though there was supposed to be heavy security. “The whole press thing got totally out of hand,” he says. Refocusing on Marie, he mentions that the doctors were very pleased with the results of the three-and-a-half hour long operation.
“I don’t think I’ve fully realized what happened yet; we’re all in a state of shock still,” Per says as he leans back into the sofa he’s sitting on and clasps his hands behind his head. Read more…
ATAY goes on climbing the charts
Written by kibkalo on October 25, 2002 to Roxette.
TDR’s ’Small Talk’ section is – as always when a new Roxette single is released – full of messages from our subscribers talking about the success of the single on the charts.
Last weekend, “A Thing About You” reached the top at major Russian station Maximum, after a week of voting. It was followed by Madonna’s new single.
In Sweden, it entered the single charts at #14; while in Germany it’s at #37 and in Austria #39.
There are two TDR subscriber-reporters keeping track of this activity in an organized fashion. One, “RoomService”, is posting chart info on his website “Roxette Charts”. You’ll find “PerFanatic”’s info as this article continues.
(Christos Skendras, joyrider and Daniel Alvedal also contributed to this article).
- Austria
- Roxette Charts (In German)
- Russia
- Sweden
