STOCKHOLM - One of Marie’s close friends, Louise Nordfors, reveals in a report published in today’s Expressen that Marie feels fine after the operation, which was conducted Monday.

  “Marie thinks that it feels great now,” says Louise. “Yesterday, Marie dared to step on her feet and walk a bit without help. Of course, she is still feeling dizzy and she will have to rest and take it easy for some months.”

  According to the newspaper report, a lot of friends and relatives have been visiting Marie at the Karolinska Hospital since the operation.

  There is an extra bed in Marie’s room for Micke, so he can be close to her, while Josefin and Oscar, who have visited Marie in the hospital, are staying home in Djursholm with their nanny.

  “The children miss their mom,” says Louise. Of course, Marie also misses them, as she wants to go back home already this weekend, to be with them.

  Everybody feels relieved now because the operation went fine and the tumor is totally removed. It’s a matter now of waiting for the doctors to get the lab report back indicating whether the tumor was benign or malignant. This will determine whether any further treatment is necessary.

• Expressen’s article

Per will be interviewed by the Swedish radio station Rix FM tomorrow (Friday). He will take part in the radio station’s morning program “RIX MorronZoo”, that runs from 6:00 to 10:00 CET.

The program is also available as a webcast through the radio station’s website.

• RixFM (Click on GO - button to listen)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to a report published in today’s Expressen, the operation to remove Marie’s tumor was conducted on Monday. The operation took several hours, but it went well and there were no complications. “She feels pretty fine now, but you have to remember that she’s just been operated on,” said a friend of Marie anonymously to Expressen. “It will take some time before she’s fully recovered.”

  Marie’s family - her husband Micke and children Josefin, 9, and Oscar, 5 - were able to meet her on Tuesday. For mainly security reasons, Marie has a private room in the hospital with an extra bed for her husband.

  “Marie is a fighter. She will be back on her feet again,” said Per in a previous comment to Expressen.

  Marie fainted and hit her head dangerously at her home on September 11th. On the 15th, she was diagnosed with a tumor in the back of her head.

  Update: Aftonbladet also runs an article about the operation. The doctors are now examining the tumor to be able to decide upon any future treatment. According to Aftonbladet, the whole section of the hospital is closed to the public for Marie’s security.

  Update: Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager, confirmed these reports, telling The Daily Roxette that “the surgery took almost four hours and – as the medical team was able to remove the entire tumor – the operation was very successful.”

  “Marie is, under the circumstances, very well and wishes to thank all of you for the encouraging letters and e-mails that she has now received. Marie will spend the remainder of the year at home and she is looking forward to a full recovery as quickly as possible,” Dimberg said.
  The tumor itself has been sent to the hospital’s laboratory for biopsy testing. Whether or not Marie will require further treatment – radiation or chemotherapy – depends on whether the tumor was malignant or benign.

(TDR photo by Lars-Erik Olson)

• Expressen article
• Aftonbladet article

STOCKHOLM - Previous reports about the tracklisting for the upcoming collection of slower-tempo songs, “Roxette: The Ballad Hits,” have created a certain amount of confusion, especially when EMI Germany published a tracklisting on their site (now determined to be partially inaccurate) indicating they would be releasing the “limited edition” as a single CD, and TDR used that as the basis for an article.

 
  Seeking to clarify the facts, The Daily Roxette has learned that in order to keep the retail cost down in an increasingly price sensitive market, EMI Germany has indeed decided to put the “limited edition” version of the album out on a single CD.

  The “Ballad Hits” album itself, to be released November 4th, will contain the following songs:

1. A Thing About You (2002)
2. It Must Have Been Love (1987)
3. Listen To Your Heart (1988)
4. Fading Like A Flower (1991)
5. Spending My Time (1991)
6. Queen Of Rain (1992)
7. Almost Unreal (1993)
8. Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994)
9. Vulnerable (1994)
10. You Don´t Understand Me (1995)
11. Wish I Could Fly (1999)
12. Anyone (1999)
13. Salvation (1999)
14. Milk And Toast And Honey (2001)
15. Breathe (2002)



Bonus EP

  It’s the bonus tracks that have created confusion. On the EP, which will be bundled with the “Ballad Hits” CD everywhere but Germany, these four tracks will appear:

1. The Weight Of The World - Bonus Track (previously unreleased)

2. It Hurts - Bonus Track (previously unreleased)

3. See Me - Bonus Track (B-side)

4. Every Day - Bonus Track (previously unreleased).



   In Germany, EMI will be releasing a limited edition album that has 17 tracks on the same CD. This German release will include the 15 tracks listed above and two bonus tracks: “The Weight Of The World” and “It Hurts.”

  After the limited edition/first pressing albums are gone (limited edition, in this case, will equate to the first pressing of the CDs made in EMI’s various manufacturing plants), the second pressing of the album will contain the core 15 tracks (in Germany and everywhere else).

FELDKIRCHEN - Dirk Hohmeyer of PSE Germany has announced that Cutting Crew will be the other “very special guest” to replace Roxette on stage during the German leg of the Night of the Proms concert series. Their hits include “I’ve Been In Love Before” and “(I Just) Died In Your Arms.”

  They will appear along with Simple Minds and the other previously announced acts.

NEW YORK - It was exactly two years ago that Roxette, having signed a record deal with Edel America Records (EAR), were here in the United States on a two-week promotional tour that took them across the country.

  Among other appearances during their time here, the band played the sold-out MixFest outdoor concert in Boston, at Virgin Megastore Times Square in New York, and at the Experience Music Project in Seattle (designed by Frank Gehry, who was also the architect of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain).

  There was even a new fan club, RoxNorthAmeriFANS, formed with the support of Steven Howlett’s Roxette.net and TDR. The club worked closely with EAR to promote “Wish I Could Fly” on US radio stations.

  While this was supposed to be Roxette’s US comeback, it wasn’t long thereafter, however, that trouble appeared. Encountering financial difficulty, EAR did not release “Room Service” and since then, has gone out of business.

  A glimmer of hope still exists to see Roxette marketed in the US. Their hit songs continue to be played regularly on the radio, and it would make sense to have at least a Greatest Hits album available. TDR has learned that a proposal similar to this is under consideration.

• NorthAmeriFans archived site (Steven Howlett and Judith Seuma put this site together for RNAF)

Roxette’s lastest offering, the single “A Thing About You,” appears to be gaining ground with increasing airplay on radio and music video channels in various spots around the globe, despite what appears to be a lack of interest this time around from fans to mount any kind of coordinated campaign to help promote the record.

  In Moscow, Radio Maximum’s Hit Parade shows Roxette’s “A Thing About You” at #2! This single will chart on this week’s Hit List and seems to have a chance to beat “Milk & Toast & Honey”’s record.

  In Germany also, Roxette went straight to #2 in the chart of station FFH. “Herbert Grönemeyer is quite big in Germany, at least at the moment, so #2 is fab!,” wrote Andreas Kämpf.

  The Daily Roxette’s SmallTalk forum has several mentions of ATAY being played on radio and TV, and we can expect similar information to be posted as comments to this article.

  Previous “RoxAttaqs” have met with mixed success. While some have been clear victories, others have – because of the SPAM factor – only served to anger the music directors of particular radio stations.

(Junkie contributed to this article.)

EMI Music Canada has published a news story on The Ballad Hits album on their website: “[…] Roxette have collected their big ballads on one album. Songs that people all over the world relate to. Their seductive mix of tongue-in-cheek pop and sweepingly romantic ballads sound as fresh and effective as when they first stormed the airwaves.”

  The ballad compilation will be released in Canada on November 5. While the story refers to “A Thing About You” as a single, it is uncertain if that’s actually the case in Canada, as the text is based on a press release from EMI Sweden.

  (Rob McIntyre contributed to this story.)

• EMI Music Canada: “Love is in the air…”

STOCKHOLM - Dagens Industri, a Swedish newspaper that focuses on financial news, has recently mapped Per’s business empire. DI claims he’s good for half a billion Swedish crowns (almost 54 million USD).

  In one interesting item, Per is quoted as saying “Today I own the rights to all my songs but one.” That ’one’, TDR has learned, is “From One Heart to Another.” It’s owned by Sweden Music.

  Here’s an overview of his various enterprises:

• Roxette - self explanatory. Sold more than 55 million records.
• Music publishing - Owns the rights to GT’s and Roxette’s material, plus the works of many other successful Swedish songwriters.
• Artist consulting - Owns 8 percent of Desert Business Management in Örebro and 38 percent of d&d Management.
• Hotel - Owns 40 percent of Hotel Tylösand, plus 1/3 of art gallery Tres Hombres, with one of Sweden’s largest art collections including, among others, Ernst Billgren, Peter Dahl and Anton Corbijn.
• Financial investments focusing on IT/Music - This is where many of Per’s more or less failed attempts to connect music with IT are. He recently took over the company Noteheads together with Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA.

  Examples of other businesses Per owns (at least in part): Roxette Productions, Roxette US Inc., Roxette Recordings, Gessle Music, Gessle Records, Hidden Dinosaur (computer games), Fame Studios (Internet consultants), People’s Front (Internet consultants), Tom Bone (Music publishing), and Jimmy Fun (Music publishing).

  Gessle declined to comment on his businesses. “Right now I’m on my way to the studio to record two new Roxette-demos… now that is real fun!”

MUNICH - Due to the high demand, an additional matinée concert has been organized on Sunday, December 8, at 2pm here in Munich (this, in addition to the concert at 8pm).

  PSE has now updated their German page, wishing Marie all the best and announcing Simple Minds and a yet-to-be-named surprise act (from the US) as replacement for Roxette during the German segment of the series.