TDR INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Caveat Emptor. It’s a latin phrase that should be stamped on every eBay auction page that involves the selling of an “autographed” item. It means “let the buyer beware.”

  And it’s definitely a phrase to keep in mind when dealing with Jeff Summers, a young man in North Hollywood, California, who along with his girlfriend Cathy Cuccia is in the business of selling autographed memorabilia on eBay – using the nickname of 99-1. “Roxette signed this acoustic guitar at Virgin Records in New York City,” Summers wrote to describe a recent item he had put up for bid. “Wow! Look at the duo with the guitar at the actual signing. This was signed after the free show that they put on in the store. They played, “The Look” and “It Must Have Been Love” and a couple of others as well. It was great. If you are a big fan of this reclusive group, you would do well to win this awesome guitar. Good Luck!!”

  The problem is – as people who were at the event can attest – there was only one guitar signed there that evening, and that guitar belonged to RoxNorthAmeriFAN Alex Faraldo, who now has it hanging on the wall in his bedroom.

  Alex had gotten the idea of having Per and Marie sign an actual guitar shortly before the show. Borrowing the extra money he needed from another fan, he ran up a few blocks to a musical instrument store he had passed by on his way to Virgin Megastore in Times Square.

  The photo on the eBay auction site that was offered by Summers as “proof” that what he was selling was genuine, was actually a photo of Alex getting his guitar signed. Summers cropped Alex’s head out of the picture, but still identifible is Alex’s bag… from his job at Disney World.

  “I was very upset,” remarked Alex in a telephone interview this evening. “I went through a lot to get my two guitars signed (he had another guitar – the one shown in the photo that accompanies this article – signed in Seattle) and Jen and I both were really disturbed by this.”

• eBay auction for this item (Achieved page showing “cropped” photo of Alex Faraldo)

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NEW YORK – MP3.com said Wednesday it would pay up to $30 million to music publishers in a preliminary pact that would give it the right to use more than 1 million songs as part of its Internet-based service.

Under the terms of the deal, trade group National Music Publishers’ Association will allow the songs to be used as part of a service called My.MP3.com, which allows users to store music digitally and then retrieve it using any computer.


The service relies on a database of more than 80,000 albums that MP3.com initially created without the permission of the music publishers or the world’s largest record labels that also own the rights to the music. Roxette tracks are not currently available on the site, but that could change with this agreement. Read more…

Update: “It Must Have Been Love” was dropped out of the release at the last minute. Read this article for more information.

The first DVD to feature a Roxette live performance will be released at the end of this month. “MTV Unplugged: Finest Moments” includes, among performances by other artists, an acoustic rendition of “It Must Have Been Love” from the Roxette “Unplugged” session. This compilation was previosly released on VHS in 1999. The DVD version will be released on October 31.

Up to this point, the only other DVD’s that contain Roxette’s music are the two Richard Gere/Julia Roberts movies, both directed by Garry Marshall: Pretty Woman (“It Must Have Been Love”) and Runaway Bride (“It Will Take A Long, Long Time”). As far as the editorial staff at TDR knows, the infamous Super Mario Bros. movie (featuring “Almost Unreal”) hasn’t been released on DVD.

The Official International Roxette Fanclub has placed a 30-second video clip from Marie’s latest “Det Som Var Nu” video on their Website. The video includes live scenes from Marie’s summer tour. “Det Som Var Nu” is a duet with Patrik Isaksson and was first released on Marie’s highly successful greatest hits album, Äntligen, last spring. It is also available as a single.

• Official Int’l Roxette Fanclub

It’s not The Billboard 200, but Roxette fans can take solace that their favorite Swedish duo is back on a Billboard chart. “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus - Greatest Hits” (Roxette/Edel America) debuts on the Top Independent Albums chart at No. 42. As you all know, Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson signed with Edel America after a long run on EMI.

The last Roxette album to appear on The Billboard 200 was “Tourism” in 1992.

• Billboard Online

Boxman, the Swedish-founded online record store, ceased its operations on Wednesday in an attempt to avoid bankrupty. According to chief executive Tony Salter, the company has until October 23 to find $29 million to be able to continue their business. Another possibility is to find a company which would buy Boxman and its operations – pretty much like CDNow which was bought by Europe’s largest media company Bertelsmann AG for $117 million just after the company would have found itself without cash.

Per and Marie both are among Boxman’s 500 shareholders – along with other Swedish music business insiders, such as members of Ace of Base. According to Hallandsposten, Per has invested 3 million SEK (approx. $303,000) and Marie about half of that. They both made their investments through their holding companies: Music For Money (Gessle) and Amelia Music (Fredriksson). They both still own most of the shares they bought back in 1997.

“Unfortunately,” said Mats Nilemar, one of their business advisors.

A freshly remixed “Wish I Could Fly,” intended to generate interest in the U.S. release of the “Don’t Bore Us…” Greatest Hits album, was commissioned by Edel America (EAR), but it is now uncertain whether it will be released, even as just a promo.

While the identity of the remixer is undisclosed, it is a dance version intended to be distributed to dance- and CHR/Rhythmic-format radio stations, club DJs, and directly to some nightclubs. The remix is finished, TDR has learned, but was sent back for some minor, last-minute “tweaking.”

As previously reported here, the remix could also possibly be included on a U.S. commercial (retail) version of the single, should the song pick up steam again, and make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 list. Per and Marie’s promo tour, set to conclude today, was expected to produce a major blip on chart and playlist activity, but time will tell about that.

In the meantime, over 70 radio stations have added WICF to their playlist, and the RoxNorthAmeriFans’ “Roxattaq USA” campaign – supported by this e-newspaper – continues to ask for your help, especially in making telephone calls. The goal is to call stations already playing the song, and get them to play it more often.

• Roxattaq USA

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RoxSpain represenatives appeared on national radio station “40 Principales” Friday evening where Äntligen was given a “nice song” comment by the well-known DJ. The fans talked about Marie’s album and recently completed tour, the US album and promo tour, and the fan meeting they had planned the next day.

Fifteen fans showed up for RoxSpain’s first fan meeting on Saturday in the center of Madrid. RoxSpaniard Agus successfully attempted to slip Do You Want to Be My Baby? into the “background music” of the place they were at. According to Peter Mills, one of the leaders of RoxSpain, “she had to lie and say it was part of the show.” The music was played so loudly that some of us were astounded (or even embarrased) by it.”

Here’s how Peter described the rest of the day: “Music shops, walk (tour round some parts of the city), lunch, walk, park, walk, sit in a terrace bar, walk, have supper, divide ourselves, walk, search for some pub/disco (no luck)…walk (fans dropping out little by little)…search for a taxi… I think every who attended would agree that it was a very good (and tiring) experience. We all had a marvellous time and enjoyed meeting each other very much.”

• RoxSpain

Aftonbladet’s video interview with Roxette is now available on their website. The interview is in English and was recorded during their in-store appearance at Virgin Megastore, New York. While the videostream is under three minutes long, you can still see short clips from their live performances of “Wish I Could Fly” and “It Must Have Been Love” – as well as hear Per and Marie comment on the new US compilation, the fans and the Internet.

Editor’s Note: TDR’s own interview with Roxette, conducted “on the road” during their ongoing U.S. promo tour, will be appearing here shortly – complete with some astonishing information from a relaxed and at-ease Per Gessle, and exclusive images from TDR’s own photographers. – LEO

• Aftonbladet’s Webb TV: Roxette interview (RealPlayer required.)

Edel America (EAR) and Roxette Recordings have entered into an agreement with EMI Sweden whereby EMI companies worldwide will have the opportunity to release the unique, U.S. version of the greatest hits compilation, “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus.”

Many EMI operating companies – including obviously EMI Sweden – have decided to release this compilation, with some of them doing so as early as this Monday, October 9th.

As TDR readers already know, one of the “new” tracks on the album is the single “Wish I Could Fly”. The song was a pretty big hit in Europe and has found a warm welcome in the States from both radio and press. It continues to slowly gain airplay on U.S. radio stations, with the current promo tour expected to spike that – at least a little bit. Ryan Urcia, a spokesperson at EAR, told TDR that the label “really appreciates fans calling the stations right now to request the song.”


(Sascha contibuted to this article)

• EMI Sweden’s announcement (Select “Releaser > Album > N‰sta vecka”)
• RoxAttaqUSA (Request Lines)