Marie: “This tour is for my fans”
Written by roxeteer on July 11, 2000 to Misc.
The Swedish newspaper Metro has an interview with Marie who is preparing to leave on her summer tour. The tour begins today in Borgholm.
“My fans launched a website where people could write messages to me,” Marie tells. “There were people from South America, USA, England and other countries who wrote that I ’must go on tour in Sweden’. And that’s what made me to do it. This tour is for my fans.”
The compilation album “Äntligen” has already sold over 170,000 copies. “It’s fantastic. In fact, I haven’t fully understood it yet. It’s an enormous number of records these days when the record sales in general are reducing, partly because of the Internet. It feels like this is the album that many people have been longing for,” says Marie.
Marie’s previous solo tour was in 1992 with only indoor venues. This summer tour will consist of only outdoor venues, but for Marie it’s routine after Roxette’s huge world tours. “I’m used to perform in big arenas where you have to be prepared to stand out,” she says.
Marie’s band on the tour will be Mikael Bolyos, Staffan Astner, Christer Jansson, Mats Persson, Frank Ådahl and Katarina Millton.
- Metro’s Swedish article (nice pic!)
- Metro’s page in PDF (requires Acrobat Reader)
Roxette accused of tax fraud
Written by roxeteer on July 10, 2000 to Misc.
The Swedish tax authorities are accusing both Per and Marie of fraud for avoiding 2 million SEK each (approx. 226,000 USD) in taxes. The authorities raided the EMA Telstar office and discovered that the company never paid the agreed royalties for the German part of the band’s Crash! Boom! Bang! world tour (max. 4,500 USD/concert) to Per and Marie. Instead, EMA paid their company, Roxette Produktion AB, 5,6 million SEK (633,000 USD). The tax authorities claim that Per and Marie had an employment contract with EMA Telstar, but they didn’t make the appropriate report of the income. Now they have to pay the income tax and a 40% penalty, making the total 4 million SEK.
A legal representative of Roxette, Mats Nilemar, has announced that the band will appeal the decision. According to Nilemar, it’s even unsure which country the taxes — if there are unpaid taxes — should be paid to.
Tracklisting for US compilation confirmed
Written by roxeteer on July 10, 2000 to Misc.
Roxattaq USA website at www.roxette.net has published the confirmed tracklisting for the revised US version of “Don’t Bore Us - Get To The Chorus!” compilation.
- Wish I Could Fly
- Stars
- The Look
- Dressed For Success
- Listen To Your Heart
- Dangerous
- It Must Have Been Love
- Joyride
- Fading Like A Flower
- Spending My Time
- Church Of Your Heart
- How Do You Do
- Almost Unreal
- Sleeping In My Car
- Crash! Boom! Bang!
- You Don’t Understand Me
The album is due to be out in September. This will be the first release by Roxette’s new US record label, Edel America Records.
Gyllene Tider and Marie in Aftonbladet
Written by roxeteer on July 9, 2000 to Misc.
Just to let you know about two articles published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
The members of Gyllene Tider were interviewed by Aftonbladet’s weekly extra Puls. “Gyllene Tider is the soundtrack of the Swedish summer,” Frida Lindqvist writes. Gyllene Tider, especially because of their smash hit “Sommartider” (“Summer times”), has become a synonym to “summer” in Sweden.
By the way, according to Aftonbladet, the original Gyllene Tider “EP” (the yellow one) is worth 5000 SEK (approx. 560 USD) “among the collectors”.
Marie was interviewed on Friday’s Aftonbladet. She’s enthusiastic to go on tour. Her family will be traveling with her for the whole tour. Micke Bolyos, Marie’s husband, will be the tour’s bandleader.
Pictures of Marie interview posted online
Written by roxeteer on July 6, 2000 to Misc.
Judith and Jenny have been kind enough to put online some screenshots of Marie’s interview on Swedish TV yesterday. The pictures were taken of an actual TV screen.
EMI-Warner merger in trouble?
Written by ditroia on July 6, 2000 to Misc.
Has the Time Warner/EMI Group merger hit a snag? London’s ’Financial Times’ reported on Friday that there may be a
counter-offer by a consortium of three unnamed U.S. record companies. Some EMI shareholders are concerned with the
Warner deal, because European authorities have launched a four-month antitrust probe, worried that the amalgamated
company would have too much concentration of power, control the largest number of copyrights in the world and dominate
digital downloading.
Marie to accept award from Halland Academy
Written by roxeteer on July 5, 2000 to Misc.
Halland Academy, an organization set up in part to promote the Swedish province of Halland, will be presenting special awards to three people for helping to make the province famous. One of these people is Marie Fredriksson, who is going to receive an award of 100,000 SEK (11,300 USD) during an official ceremony in Varberg on August 27.
The other two awardees are professor Carl-Gustaf Andrén and the former prime minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt.
“Marie Fredriksson has for the whole of her successful career had a strong connection to the province. From her home in Halmstad in her youth and working with the Halmstad band Strul - to the world tours with Roxette, and to her present solo performances that include also her own production. Marie Fredriksson is one of the most successful rock and pop singers of today. Remarkable to her singing is the deep emotionalism, strong musicality and a great sense of style,” the Academy jury said in explaining their decision.
Aftonbladet: Marie’s compilation this year’s #1 album
Written by roxeteer on July 4, 2000 to Misc.
Aftonbladet has listed the top Swedish albums of the first half of year 2000. They aren’t very impressed. “It can’t get much worse than this,” Tore S. Börjesson writes. According to Aftonbladet, Marie and her compilation “Äntligen” (156,000 copies sold so far) is clear #1 of the list. But, as Börjesson says, Marie’s album “is a compilation, songs we’ve already heard”.
Number 2 is Lisa Nilsson with “Viva” and #3 Di Leva with “Älska”.
Gyllene Tider cover uncovered
Written by roxeteer on July 3, 2000 to Misc.
Online record store Boxman has published the cover of the forthcoming Gyllene Tider compilation, “Konstpaus”. The album will gather all the tracks that Gyllene Tider has recorded during their short reunions between years 1989 and 1996.
- Boxman product info (incl. sound clips)
Per recalls Gyllene Tider concert after Roskilde incident
Written by roxeteer on July 2, 2000 to Misc.
Expressen interviewed Per after tragic death of eight people in Roskilde Festival on Friday. Per knows what it feels like to be on stage when something like this happens. In Kristianopel, in 1981 three people suffocated to death in Gyllene Tider concert.
“It was an awful weather and everyone waited for the last minute before coming to the area. And nobody thought that several thousand people would force their way in at the same time,” Per tells.
In Rio de Janeiro, one person died in Roxette concert on one of the band’s world tours. “Though there was a knife involved.”
Per stresses that arrangers’ most important area of responsibility is security. “Big assemblings contain security risks. One has to be aware that there can be things that haven’t been thought before, especially in concerts where people try to get as near the stage as possible.”
8 people died and over 20 was injured in Roskilde, Denmark on Friday during Pearl Jam concert. This year’s festival had over 70,000 visitors. Oasis and Pet Shop Boys cancelled their gigs to express their sympathy to the friends and families. “I don’t play on cemeteries, and that’s what this place is now,” said Liam Gallagher of Oasis on Finnish TV.
