Sony Entertainment Television Latin America, one of the most popular cable TV channels in Latin America, is airing a segment about Roxette. It is a regular section that airs between shows (Music news preview). The segment, which has aired quite often, lasts about three minutes and combines scenes from “The Centre of the Heart” video with parts of the “Room Service” interview from the media press kit.

Once again, the VH-1 music channel in the UK will broadcast the Roxette “Greatest Hits” program. During July, as previously stated here on TDR, VH-1 presented a greatest hits show with some of Roxette’s best videos. On August 18th, it is scheduled to be shown again.

  The videos shown include “It Must Have Been Love,” “Joyride,” “The Look,” “Dressed For Sucess,” “Listen to Your Heart,” plus “The Centre Of The Heart” and the latest one “Real Sugar”.

  “Wish I Could fly” and “Sleeping in My Car” were shown on previous GH shows on VH-1/UK

HALMSTAD - The birthday party got off to a early start already yesteday evening. They surprised Åsa with a real summer party at Hotel Tylösand in Halmstad, given that her 40th birthday isn’t actually until Saturday.

  Around 100 people were invited. The event was very private with the emphasis on family and relatives. But some close friends were personally invited.

  Roxette colleague Marie Fredriksson was in a party mood as was friend Niklas Strömstedt who came with his former wife Efva Attling and her new partner Eva Dahlgren.

  The nearest days hold additional surprises for the birthday girl. And later, on August 21st, Per och Åsa Gessle celebrate their 8-year anniversary (not their 13th, as Aftonbladet reported).

MEXICO CITY - Roxette’s “Room Service” and their singles have been doing well here in “taco-land.” EMI Mexico released the album on April 3rd, only a few days after the worldwide release date.

  The first single TCOTH was not welcome at all. With no airplay, no TV promotion, and finally no support by local or cable channels (MTV/LA).

  The second single continues to grow in promotion and airplay time. “Real Sugar” has been played on several radio stations (like MixFM 106.5, and Azul 88.9 FM) but of course, EMI Mexico has no plans to release an official CD single since they never do this for any artist at all. The video for Real Sugar is being played regularly on the MuchMusic, HTV and TeleHit cable channels.

  The third single, “MATAH”, is a whole different story. The video is being played on TeleHit at least five times a day. The song gets played two to three times a day on a single radio station. Cable channels have noticed the RS album, since interviews with Per and Marie are broadcasted by Sony-LA, HBO-LA, and some others. They basically talk about the nice experience it was to record RS, Per comments that the album is their most commercial work since Joyride, and Marie loves TCOTH since its a duo (very rare on a Rox album) and basically live.

  The Latin America tour is tentatively scheduled for early 2002 and TicketMaster (a place for ticket sales via phone or internet) is already aware of this as well as EMI Mexico, with reports that the most probable place for the concert would be the national auditorium (Auditorio Nacional) with dates to be confirmed.

Gay & Company, the promoter of the Roxette tour in Spain, found a new place for Roxette’s concert in Madrid, after the fire that destroyed Palacio de los Deportes. G & C confirmed that the concert will take part in La Riviera, a venue with a capacity of 2,500 people. The concert will take place on October 25th. Tickets will be available from next Monday at Fnac, Madrid rock, El Corte Inglés and Servicaixa, with a price of 6,000 pesetas (36.06 euros). Tickets will be also available through internet at www.elcorteingles.es and www.serviticket.com.

• La Riviera
• Pics from La Riviera

Russian national music channel Muz-TV announced during a news break that Roxette have asked for 50 kg of ice, which they will need during their concert in Moscow’s Olympiisky, which is to be held on November 8, 2001. Why do they need the ice? No one knows…

MTV Brazil said that the video for “Milk and Toast and Honey” will have its premiere on that channel on Monday, July 23.

Last week Wednesday, Marie attended the Sanne Salomonson concert in the Tylösand hotel’s “Solgården”. They’ve been friends for years, and many TDR readers will remember Sanne from Badrock.

  Then, on Thursday, she was in Penny Lane (a local entertainment venue) with her family enjoying the concert of their friends Nalle Bondesson and his wife Camilla.

  First, Nalle asked Micke Boylos to come on stage and play the keyboards, like in the good old days of Sugarcane. Later on, Camilla asked Marie to join her on stage. They sang two songs together, one of them a song from John Lennon. It was apparant they had rehearsed.

  Marie seemed happy to see all her old friends again. The pub was far from full – just some friends, a reporter or two, and a single, lucky fan (Anja Löffler). At the end of the concert, Camilla asked Marie to come on stage again for the last song. This wasn’t planned and Marie was reluctant at first, but together they sang Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry.”

By Daniela van Pallander (with thanks to Anja).

Per Gessle, in a telephone interview with a Mexican publication, has indicated that the forthcoming “Room Service” tour will include Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in January and/or February.

  Speaking with Reforma’s reporter from Stockholm, Per talked about the new album and the state of “pop” music.

  “If with ’Have A Nice Day,’ Roxette experimented with electronics, with ’Room Service’ we decided to return to the sound that granted us world-wide popularity one decade ago, in a spontaneous way,” Per said (subject to translation).

  “I believe that this disc has a much warmer sound and reflects a happier state,” he said. He feels there are many things in common with ’Look Sharp’, because fundamentally they were made under the same idea: to enter the studio and to see what happened. “At least two songs undeniably have the sound of Roxette in the ’80s,” he recognized.

  The musician explained that the return to their classic sound does not mean that the group has not evolved, but that they did not want to hide their “trade name” (sound), because it would be in opposition to the idea of the pair to create honest music.

  Roxette has had experience recording in Spanish but, in the opinion of Gessle, they will not be singing again soon in that language. “It was something pleasant, but many fans know what each word that we sang in Spanish means, and I must recognize that we didn’t speak that language very well,” he said.

  “When we recorded those versions, we trusted the translation, but we thought that each language has its rate, its peculiarites, and perhaps in those covers we did not say exactly what we wanted. Nevertheless, Spanish is a wonderful language, and if we don’t do anything for ’Room Service,’ perhaps we will for the next disc of Roxette,” he added.

• Reforma.com article (In Spanish)

Spanish TV2 broadcast an hour-long Roxette special at 6:30 this evening. The program featured an interview and six songs performed by Per, Marie and the band. The songs were: “The Centre of the Heart,” “Real Sugar,” “Milk and Toast and Honey,” “Looking for Jane,” “Wish I could fly” and “The Look.” The program was recorded on April 4th when Roxette was in Spain doing promotion.