EDITORIAL – We’re about to see the “Room Service” tour formally announced this upcoming week. With tickets already on sale for certain venues, and Per himself disclosing the Austrian dates, the fact that Roxette is indeed going on tour has been a badly kept secret. The Daily Roxette has, however, decided to hold off publishing further detail about the tour on our Front Page until the actual announcement. Until then, readers who “just can’t wait” will find rumors and factoids in our SmallTalk forum.

  In thinking about this tour, we wonder whether Marie would have toured Sweden last summer if there hadn’t been an online petition urging her to do so? Maybe so. But at the very least, the petition provided her management with a very good PR “hook” to give reporters to use when they announced the tour. They were able to say, “Marie’s fans are demanding it!” Such a hook played well in the Swedish press, especially in the tabloids.

  There was risk-taking involved in getting the trucks rolling for a “Room Service” tour. Obviously, there were many other factors that weighed more heavily than whether a core group of fans would enjoy seeing Roxette on tour again. This tour has to attract thousands upon thousands of people – people who would not necessarily consider themselves to be “fans.” Many others had to “buy in” to the idea of a tour besides Per and Marie, as the financial risks of a concert tour like this are high (as are, of course, the potential rewards).

  We know that Per skimmed through the petition that Sofia Björk and Judith Seuma created online and read some of the comments. Now that he, Marie, and all the other vested parties have decided to mount a tour… they’ll once again be able to point to the demand from fans… as part of the “hoopla” needed when the tour is announced. TDR appreciates the involvement of our readers, most of whom took the time to “sign” this petition. We think it was a worthwhile endeavor, and like the way that fans come together to support “causes” like this.

  While it may be a little geographically spotty, one only has to look at other articles on our Front Page to see that Roxette has other plenty of other successes to point to when announcing the tour. The Daily Roxette wishes them well, and looks forward to providing our readers with full coverage of the entire “Room Service” tour.

“The Centre of the Heart” is this week #1 on the 40 Principales chart, the best-known Spanish radio station. The song was #3 last week and entered the list at #7 a few weeks ago. Over 3 million people listen to 40 Principales a day.

• 40 Principales “Lista 40”

SAINT PETERSBURG - Roxette’s “Centre of the Heart” reached the top spot this week (#5 last week) on ’Europa Plus’, Russia’s most popular FM station. According to the station’s statistics, over 16,000,000 people listen to this station every day.

  The station’s DJs were predicting that TCOTH would reach #1 back around April 15th when it was at #19.
(Junkie contributed to this article.)

• Europa Plus’ Chart (In Russian)

“The Centre Of The Heart” is #5 on the Radio Express World Chart as of May 26th. The chart is based on the playlists of about 365 radio stations from all over the world.

  After two previous weeks at #6, it was expected to drop, but TCOTH picked up airplay to move up a notch into the top five.

• World Chart

The Netherlands, home to the individuals who run Roxette’s International Fan Club, is being passed over on the upcoming tour. The OIRFC is reporting today that a spokesperson at EMI Netherlands has told them that Roxette will not have a “Room Service” concert date in Holland. They also will not be releasing “Real Sugar” as a single, deciding to wait for “Milk and Toast and Honey.”

• OIRFC

Roxette will have their first live concert in Estonia on November 10th, two days before traveling 80 kilometers north to Helsinki. The concert will be one of the first to take place in Tallinn’s brand new sports and concert complex, the Saku Suurhall, which is in its final stages of construction.

  The Daily Roxette will have a comprehensive list of concert dates for the forthcoming European tour on Tuesday. The dates revealed so far are:

Oct 22 Brussels, Belgium, Forest National

Nov 1 Innsbruck, Austria

Nov 2 Vienna, Austria

Nov 10 Tallinn, Estonia, Saku Suurhall

Nov 12 Helsinki, Finland, Hartwall Areena

• Tickets (in Estonian)
• Tickets (in Latvian)

Usually, it works the other way around.

  But, in today’s edition of the Swedish newspaper Expressen, there’s an article in which they cite this “net newspaper” – The Daily Roxette – as their information source!

  The article, written by Olle Berggren, talks about the upcoming tour and Roxette’s probable visit to Brazil.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - “Roxette has changed style. In the new video “Real Sugar” they’re both tougher and funnier than before,” reports Aftonbladet in today’s edition.

  The Daily Roxette reported in a previous article that the video features Muppet-like puppets that look like the Ramones. They are the house band on “Dick Latka’s Late Night Show,” a classic American-style talk show where all are puppets except for Per and Marie.

 “The video is supercool. Warm, rough and tough,” says Per. “We’ve never done anything like it, and it was really cool to play with the Ramones,” he said with a laugh.

  “After 39 singles, it’s not that easy to have fresh ideas… but I think we’ve done it. This is one of our best videos,” Gessle stated.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Aftonbladet has updated their article to include both RealVideo and Quicktime versions of the full-length video. Caricatures’s of David Letterman (initials D.L.), host of the “Late Show” on CBS, always emphasize his big teeth. Seems director Jesper Hiro had Letterman in mind when creating Dick Latka (initials D.L.).

• Aftonbladet’s updated article INCLUDING VIDEO links

Roxette is not starting their European tour in Helsinki, as they’ve done on all of their major tours so far. Instead, the tour will start in Germany in September.

  Roxette’s Helsinki concert will take place at Hartwall Areena on November 12th. According to Welldone, the company organizing the concert, the doors will open at 6:30 pm and the concert begins at 8pm.

  Ticket sales will start on May 29th at 9am. Advance sales for members of Welldone Events Club has already started. The price of tickets ranges from 225 FIM to 245 FIM.

• Welldone press release (in Finnish)

Per and Marie’s current album “Room Service” reached Gold in Germany after six weeks! The album sold more than 150,000 copies even though it stayed “only” one month in the top 10 with a peak at #3.