LONDON - EMI is to be one of the six “most recognizable and influential brands” featured in a new BBC documentary series called “…And Me,” that will be televised over the coming weeks.

  The series examines brands like, EMI, Marks and Spencers and Ford and attempts to show their effects on the British culture and also how the UK has changed the way they have had to operate.

  The screening date for the EMI segment is set for November 27th on BBC2.

• BBC’s “…And Me” series

STOCKHOLM - The promotional effort to support the launch of “The Ballad Hits” is in full swing now, with radio interviews in Sweden last week and a two-week promotional tour beginning this Friday.


  As The Daily Roxette previously reported, Per Gessle will be doing this promotion tour on his own, while Marie Fredriksson is recovering from the successful operation she went through in late September to remove the tumor she had in her head.


  The promotion tour will take Per to Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark and begins with a series of interviews Friday in Stockholm where Per will meet with, among others, reporters from German and Polish newspapers. Other countries may be added to the PR tour, as TDR is aware of a request from EMI Finland to get Per to do promo there.


  The tour schedule (subject to change) is as follows:


Oct. 25  International Press Day in Stockholm

Oct. 29-31  Spain promotion

Nov. 4  Belgium promotion

Nov. 5  Switzerland promotion

Nov. 6  Denmark promotion

Often when a new album is released, the record company releases promotional items to advertise and promote the album. Such is the case with Roxette’s forthcoming ballad album. This time, the record company has decided to make the items tie in with the cover pictures of the new releases featuring raspberries in milk. EMI Svenska has sent a list of availble items to the local EMI offices so that they can decide what to order. TDR was told that list included items such as “raspberry-red fleece blanket, raspberry-red fleece scarf, a ski hat and raspberry-flavored bubble bath”.

  These items won’t be available for sale, and will mainly be given out in competitions or as premiums to retailers.

DARMSTADT - German portal T-Online has posted full versions of The Ballad Hits album bonus tracks on their website. You can listen to “The Weight Of The World”, “It Hurts” and “Every Day” in Windows Media Player format.

  In an email received today, T-Online apologized for the delay in making the new songs available on time. Originally they were supposed to be online on October 15th.

  At press time, the T-Online website was acting very slowly. Have patience. Also note that clicking “The Weight Of The World” plays the song “Every Day” and vice versa.

• T-Online Roxette Special

UPDATED - Marie Fredriksson’s voice has been praised for its power and range. But can it crash a computer?

  In Sweden, the answer is “kanske.”

  In a record-company effort to thwart the increasingly common practice of making duplicates of CDs, EMI/Capitol Records will implement copy-protection technology on Roxette’s forthcoming release, “The Ballad Hits.” This is part of a program wherein all new releases from the label will contain this protection scheme.

  But fans may find out that not only is it difficult to make copies or download songs onto the Internet, the discs may not even play in their computers.

  In fact, users who disregarded warnings on some of the copy-protected CDs released already – to avoid putting the copy-protected discs in their computers – were faced with costly repairs. Apple has posted a warning on its Web site that some CDs can wreak havoc with its Macs. And some of these new-generation CDs will not play on car systems.

  Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips, co-creator of the CD-format, has balked at this concept and a class-action lawsuit was filed in California against the major record companies over these new-generation CDs.

UPDATE: A spokesperson at EMI, commenting on the technology they are going to use, tells TDR that the CD will definitely play on computers, car CD-players, and DVD players. However, you cannot digitally extract data from it. That is, you cannot make copies of the disc or create MP3 files of it. Read more…

LONDON - It’s now a period of anxious waiting for Stephan Malmsted and Per Gessle. Closing arguments were heard yesterday in the “stolen record” case. A decision from the judge is expected next week.

  If Malmstedt were to win, he could receive a very large monetary award and it would place into jeopardy the further release of any Roxette album that contains “Sleeping in My Car.”

  Malmstad appeared quite satisfied after his closing comments in which he again claimed that the Roxette hit is a copy of his song “Jenny and I”.


  But Per says he is not worried.

  Manager Marie Dimberg says “We guess that the decision of the judge will go according to what is the truth – that Per never heard that demo. Music experts have testified that the there isn’t any likeness.”

  After four days in the High Court of Justice, it is expect that the judge will take Roxette’s side, writes Expressen.

• Expressen’s article

LONDON - A songwriter went to court on Tuesday claiming Swedish pop group Roxette stole one of his songs, robbing him of potential earnings and causing him “seven years of emotional trauma”.

  Stephan Malmstedt, a Swede living in London, told Britain’s High Court his compatriot Per Gessle, Roxette’s songwriter, copied the tune of the band’s 1994 hit “Sleeping in my Car” from one of his own songs, “Jenny and I”. He appeared in court without a lawyer, and cross-examined Per Gessle himself.

  Malmstedt says he sent a copy of “Jenny and I” to Roxette’s record label EMI in 1991 and that it must have found its way into Gessle’s hands.

  Gessle, who formed Roxette with fellow Swede Marie Fredriksson in the mid-1980s, denies the charges.

  The judge was treated to recordings of both songs in the normally austere courtroom in central London.

  The case continues.

Daniel Zimmerman, the administrator of roxette.org services, reporte a couple of weeks ago that roxette.org might face its end due to financial constraints. In his new message to the Roxette Mailing List, he says:

  “It’s going to cost around $100 a month just to pay for server space and bandwidth to keep the web hosting operation running.” He also says that only having the mailing list at roxette.org and shutting down all other services would be easier and cheaper for now, but probably not for long.

  To be able to have roxette.org in the future, Dan has arranged two different mechanisms for donating money to roxette.org:

• Amazon Honor System
• 
  oxette.org+hosting+fund&no_shipping=1”>PayPal (preferable for U.S. users)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - For one of the first times since Marie’s operation, Per talked about his friend and partner on a Swedish radio program. After a hard time, the Roxette-star is feeling better.

  “She is up and in in good spirits,” said Per to Radio Sweden.
As TDR readers are aware, Marie underwent surgery on September 30th. The doctors removed a tumor that had appeared in the back of her head.


  For the first time since that operation two weeks ago, Per gives a vision of the time before, during and after the operation.

  In the interview with SR’s program “S-Märkt,” Per explains that Marie is feeling better and better.


  “Marie feels quite fine. She is up and in good spirits, but of course dazed by what has happened,” says Per.

  “It is something she has come over now, I think. Now they have operated and it went fine. But it has been a hard time for her, of course, and for all of us.”


  He explains that the operation was planned long before it was known.

  “It wasn’t a flash operation, I knew that she would be operated before others got to know,” says Per.


He got to know about Marie’s accident when he was on his way to a press conference in Belgium, about the planned autumn tour with Roxette.


  “I got to know about it when I was in the taxi on my way to Kastrup. I was near Halmstad then and I didn’t understand a thing. I decided to go to Kastrup and wait for more information. And then I got it, so when I got to Kastrup I decided to stay.


  “It was hard news, of course. But I didn´t know how bad it was. (tumor…). I don´t really get it now either. It’s been a very hard time for all of us,” says Per.


  “Besides that Marie feels better, I will go on working with promotion work around the world with this album. Then we will work in the studio too. We hope to have some more stuff ready by Christmas or January, says Per in the interview.

“My personality and Marie’s work really fine together. We fight very seldom and we are like brother and sister. We complete each other so well - even at a human level - and that has helped us a lot.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was picked up by Reuters, so expect to see it appear in English-language newspapers around the world. It already appears on Yahoo!’s news page, for example. – LEO

• Aftonbladet’s article

LONDON - Per Gessle is once again accused of stealing ”Sleeping in My Car”. Stephan Malmstedt wrote the song ”Jenny and I” and sent the demo to EMI. When he heard ”Sleeping in My Car” on the radio, he believed that Gessle had stolen his song.

  Malmstedt has already taken the matter to court in Sweden twice. STIM thought there were some similarities but that it wasn’t enough so the complaint was rejected.
Now Malmstedt has moved to England and he will take the case to the High Court of Justice. “If I didn’t think I had a chance at winning, I wouldn’t bother,” he said.

  Gessle says through his manager Marie Dimberg that he’s not worried.

  “There’s really nothing more to say. The song has already been checked twice and both times it was rejected. I assume that the same thing will happen this time,” Dimberg said.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)