The Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reports today that Per Gessle, along with Meja and Jonas Åkerlund, is going to invest in a Swedish company called “Hidden Dinosaur” that makes computer and video games.

On todays Top100-Germany, “The Centre of the Heart” lost over 20 places from a moderate #31 down to #55. Trend Charts made by MediaControl (a German tracking service) are still showing a falling trend.

  The good news, however, is that TCOTH climbed the European charts up to #17. Last week it was #23.

Two of the songs Roxette performed at Café Opera in Stockholm Sunday night are currently showing on the Mr. Edmundo entertainment website. “Dressed For Success” and “The Centre of the Heart” are both available for on-demand viewing. The site uses RealPlayer 8, and the quality is exceptionally good.

• Mr. Edmundo

“Seldom, if ever, has Café Opera had so much people in at the same time,” writes Aftonbladet’s reporter Klas Lindberg of yesterday’s Roxette show in a club in Stockholm. About 550 invited guests saw Roxette’s first live concert in their home country since 1996.

  After the gig, Per felt very pleased of the concert. “We haven’t really played in clubs before. And it’s always special to perform in Sweden and in Stockholm. Many old friends are also here tonight,” he told the Aftonbladet reporter.

  The concert was promoted by radio station NRJ. They have a set of photos from the concert available on their website.

• Aftonbladet’s article
• Pics at NRJ.se

Both Aftonbladet and Expressen have published reviews of Roxette’s new album “Room Service”.

  Expressen rates the album 3 out of 5. Expressen’s Anders Nunstedt titled his review (roughly translated) “Effective songs and stupid lyrics”. In his opinion Roxette is strong in making single tracks, but weaker in making albums. He admits that Roxette has not been in the critics’ favor, but that the band still gets a lot of airplay. “And no-one can still tell us how that happens,” he says. “The most recent example of this is of course ’The Centre Of The Heart’ which is #1 on both Trax and the single chart.”

  The lyrics of the songs on the album don’t please this critic. “’Room Service’ is as merry as the surface of the album booklet, and as flat as the plastic it comes in. Though you won’t have a problem in singing along the songs for the rest of the year,” Nunstedt finishes his review.

  Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman, who is known for his previous anti-Roxette comments, rates the album only 2 out of 5. He writes that “Roxette isn’t finished… but the end is near”.

  “Real Sugar” and “The Centre Of The Heart” are his favorites from the album, as well as “Milk And Toast And Honey” which he praises as “their strongest ballad since ’Listen To Your Heart’ and ’[It] Must Have Been Love’.” But then, “everything else on the album feels like Gessle’s creativity has gone dry.”

  (Helge contributed to this article.)

• Aftonbladet’s article (includes album tracks for download)
• Expressen’s article

Today is the official release date of “Room Service” in many parts of the world. In Finland, for example, as in many other countries, the album was already in the shops over the weekend.

  “We’re #1 on the saleschart, #1 on the videochart Voxpop – which is a total suprise – and #1 on the Tracks radiochart, all in Sweden,” said Per and Marie to The Daily Roxette today. “Needless to say, we’re extremely happy! And it’s going well in the rest of the world too.”

  The release date may vary in some countries. Typically, Roxette albums have not been released at the same time all over the world. Artists such as Madonna and Oasis have used worldwide release dates as a teaser to get everyone in the record stores on the same morning. This, however, would require tight cooperation between Roxette’s record company’s local offices around the world. Roxette’s record company worldwide, except for the USA, is EMI.

  Confirmed later release dates are April 30th for Australia and May 15th for Canada.

Roxette on Friday reached the top of the weekly MuchMusic video countdown chart, based in Argentina. Is the best position for Roxette since “Sleeping in My Car,” the first single from “Crash!Boom!Bang!.”

  Hundreds of fans, however, are wondering why “The Centre of the Heart” hasn’t appeared yet on the MTV Latin America airplay rotation.

Today Roxette went to #1 with TCOTH on Swedish national radio station P3’s “Trax” program. The host of the show said that it’s been decided that “Real Sugar” will be the next single.

A full-fledged website by EMI Austria and an updated Roxette artist page by EMI Canada are two new destinations on the Internet intended to promote sales of “Room Service” and generate interest in Roxette.

  EMI Austria is offering a Flash-enhanced site, with a look and feel quite similar to the site Fame Studios designed for the “Room Service” campaign at www.roxette.se. Apparently, there was some collaboration, but EMI Austria’s site was designed by a Vienna-based company called Motune. Fans looking for a German-language forum will find one on this site, along with other “fun” features. Marie and Per “sign in” on the blackboard when the Flash animation first begins.

  Meanwhile, in Canada, things are beginning to thaw out again, and EMI Canada has updated their Roxette artist page with a “Room Service” theme.

• EMI Austria’s Room Service site (In German)
• EMI Canada (Roxette link on home page)

STOCKHOLM - “Centre of the Heart” immediately entered the singles chart here at the #1 spot today, making this Roxette’s first #1 single since “Sleeping In My Car.”

  Per had hinted that Roxette would enter the Swedish singles sales charts at #1, and now that it’s happened, it becomes only their third song to top the Swedish sales chart. “Joyride”, in 1991, was the other. “Wish I Could Fly” peaked at #4 in 1999.

  With this news to celebrate, The NRJ-sponsored showcase concert here in this city Sunday at Café Opera should be all the more fun.

Thomas Evensson and Chris Oriet contributed to this story.

• Chart on Swedetown (Online retailer)
• Chart on Grammotex (Swedish recording industry site)