Daniel Zimmerman, the administrator of roxette.org website and the listmaster of the Roxette Mailing List, sent an alarming message to the list. Having a site online can be expensive, and it seems roxette.org’s costs are rising. Dan says he now has four choices:

1. I can continue to run roxette.org out of my own pocket, and pay ridiculous amounts of money.

2. I can shut roxette.org down, including all mailing lists and web sites.

3. I can collect money from individuals who host their websites on roxette.org [to defray costs].

4. If I’m incredibly lucky, somebody…has connections with a colocation provider and can get me a good deal (all that’s required is space for one minitower).

Add your comments to this article if you have any ideas. There are dozens of sites hosted at roxette.org and if it goes offline, so will all of those sites.

• Roxette.org

STOCKHOLM - The following joint statement was just released to the media:

  “Marie Fredriksson has now more or less recovered from her severe concussion. Based on the results of the many tests Marie has gone through, the medical team at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm have decided to remove her tumor through surgery. This operation will take place within the next ten days.

  This procedure will prevent Marie from working for the remainder of this year which, unfortunately, means that Roxette will have to cancel their participation in the Night of the Proms tour which starts at the end of October. Both Marie and Per hope to be able to join the Proms tour another year.

  The forthcoming release of the album “Roxette – The Ballad Hits” will continue as planned. Marie and Per have agreed that Per will carry on working [to promote] the album to whatever extent possible.

  Marie Fredriksson wishes to express her sincere thanks for all the encouraging letters, flowers and gifts she’s received. She feels a great sense of support from her fans and friends all over the world.

  We do hope Marie’s full recovery will be as speedy as is possible and we make yet another plea for respect for the privacy of Marie, her family and friends.”

  The statement released to the press was signed by d&d Management, EMI Recorded Music AB, and EMA Telstar.

ANTWERP (UPDATED) - The organizers of “Night of the Proms” have told the general public now what they reported to TDR a few days ago: Roxette will not be appearing.

  Today, on their website, they published a letter from Per Gessle along with a letter from Jim Kerr and Charles Burchill of Simple Minds.



Dear friends,

  We’re very sorry to announce the following… Due to Marie’s serious health problem Roxette won’t be able to perform at the upcoming Night of the Proms-tour. However, we are truly pleased that the promoters have found suitable replacements in Simple Minds and Foreigner* in this short space of time. Satisfaction should therefore be guaranteed.

  Hopefully Marie will recover very soon and, if possible, we would of course like to take part of the Night of the Proms at another occasion in the near future.



All the best,

Per Gessle, Roxette

[* Bonnie Tyler in the Netherlands]



And this message from Simple Minds:



  Performing at the “Proms” in 1997 was undoubtedly one of the most pleasureable experiences in our 25 year career. So much so that ever since we had indeed hoped to re-unite with the “Proms family”. An invitation to return five years later, albeit in these exceptional circumstances, provides us with the perfect opportunity to create further the magic synonymous only with “Night of the Proms”. Read more…

With a revised packaging concept and title, Roxette’s collection of slower tempo songs, “Roxette: The Ballad Hits,” is right on schedule for release on November 4th.

  Roxette, working with Jonas Åkerlund and their record label, decided at the last minute to drop the “Love Peas” concept in favor of what you see here… raspberries floating in milk.

  As first reported by The Daily Roxette, “Love Peas” and “Pop Peas” were dropped from the names of the two forthcoming ’greatest hits’-type albums. While the raspberry motif is being used for the ballad album, it is expected that some other object that ties in, yet is different, will be used on the up-tempo collection. The end result will be a series that has a coordinated look and feel… two albums and, as originally planned or conceived, a tour.

  The published track listing for the first of the two is as follows:
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)
16. The Weight Of The World - Bonus-Track (previously unreleased)
17. It Hurts - Bonus-Track (previously unreleased)
18. Every Day - Bonus-Track (previously unreleased).

(Birgit Eichler contributed to this article.)

VIENNA - Stuffed with over 1,500 messages from fans around the world, including many from readers of The Daily Roxette, the “e-Wishes” guestbook created online by Judith Seuma has been printed out and bound into a book. It will be airmailed to Marie Fredriksson tomorrow.

  As if to prove the fact that Marie’s career has brought her international fame, the guestbook entries read like a lesson in world geography: Australia, South Africa, Latin America, US, Canada, Turkey, India, Indonesia, U.A.E., Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and just about every country in Europe.

  The cover (see picture) shows a rose and a quote from Emily Dickinson, while the introduction reads as follows:



Dear Marie,

  As you know, you have fans not just in Sweden, but all over the world.

  Enclosed are over a thousand “Get Well” messages sent to you via a Web site created just for this purpose… printed out so that you can read them more easily.



We’re all wishing that soon

you’ll be up and about

and wishing that soon

you’ll be getting out

and

Doing the things

you’re so longing to do

And seeing us all…

who’d love to see you!

With love and deep admiration from ALL of your fans!

ANTWERP (UPDATED) - With the concert series only about a month away, and with Marie Fredriksson’s treatment and recovery plan still undetermined, Roxette has been forced to bow out of their “Night of the Proms” appearances.

  Organizers of the concert series have told Daily Roxette reporters that an announcement to this effect will be made tomorrow (Thursday).

  Simple Minds have reportedly been lined up to take Roxette’s place as the headline act this year and, if all goes well, “Roxette will be at the NOTP 2003 (next year)”, said a spokesman for PSE, the event organizer.

The German branch of EMI has published the cover picture of Roxette’s latest single, “A Thing About You”. The single will include another all-new song, “Weight Of The World”, and the video for “A Thing About You”.

  Thanks to Steven of roxette.net for the tip.
 

  (Editor’s note: This is the article #1000 of The Daily Roxette. Even though for technical reasons we have skipped many id numbers - mainly because all submitted but not published articles have also each reserved an id number - this still means that we have provided you a whole lot of news during our years online. Thanks for stopping by, friends!)

STOCKHOLM - The peas are gone… and possibly, we had something to do with it.

  In a move that is sure to please the multitude of TDR readers who posted comments here and in our SmallTalk forum expressing their dismay – disbelief even – when we first reported that the title “Love Peas” would be given to the upcoming compilation of slower-tempo songs, Roxette and EMI have dropped the “peas” concept and reverted to naming the album “Roxette: The Ballad Hits!”

  The decision to change the title and the packaging concept first came to our attention earlier this month when the listing changed on EMI Sweden’s list of upcoming releases.

  On the cover of the single, “A Thing About You,” the peas have been replaced with raspberries.

EDITOR’S NOTE: It should be made clear that much of what has been written lately in the Swedish press (and used as source material here) is based on speculation, or about patients, in general, who have such tumors. There are no definite results or statements from Marie’s medical team yet.



STOCKHOLM (Updated) – Marie may undergo an operation sometime this coming week, as her doctors will soon have the results of the tests that have been conducted to determine the exact nature of the tumor that exists in the back part of her head. In the meantime, she has been home with her family under the care of a registered nurse.

  Marie’s still suffering from a concussion, caused by fainting and falling last week after jogging. She’s still feeling dizzy at times and has occasional headaches.

  It’s still uncertain what kind of treatment she’ll receive for the tumor, since it hasn’t yet been determined for certain that it is cancerous. “Nothing’s definite yet. We’re still not sure about what kind of tumor it is,” says Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager. “Marie’s in a positive mood,” she added.


  The alternatives would include an operation to remove the tumor, radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy.

  During this past week, numerous tests have been carried out, including another MIR (computer imaging using magnetic and radio waves) and a brain x-ray.

  Karolinska Hospital, where Marie is being treated, is fully prepared and – as TDR reported previously – has a sterling reputation for quality care and cutting-edge medical knowledge.



Operation can take hours

  An operation such as the one being considered can take anywhere from three to 24 hours. In the weeks following that, doctors can administer radiation therapy to prevent a tumor from starting to grow again.

  “The doctors have told Marie to rest at home, until further information arrives. We can only hope for the best,” says Marie Dimberg.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ll have more on this story soon. In the meantime, if you have not done so already, we’d like to encourage you to consider sending a get-well wish to Marie — or joining a prayer circle — by using the links provided in the story below (about how fans have reacted to this news).

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish - with photos)

STOCKHOLM - The Daily Roxette received this message from Per today, who asked us to share it with our readers:



Dear friends,

  On behalf of Marie and myself I would like to thank everyone for thinking/praying/writing/e-mailing good and positive thoughts regarding her illness.

  As you know, what happened Sept 11 (that day again!!) took us by complete surprise and last week has been tumultuous for us all to say the least.

  As I’m writing this, we don’t really know what’s going to happen with the Night of the Proms tour. We do know that the single/video “A thing about you” and the album “The Ballad Hits” will be released as planned worldwide and our ambition is still to promote and take part of that process as much as possible.

  Once again, thanks for your support and let’s keep our fingers crossed things will turn out for the best for Marie and her family.

  Hope to see y’all very soon.



Per G., Stockholm

Sep 19, 2002