STOCKHOLM - In an interview published in Madrid today with the Spanish-language Europa Press, Per claims that Marie Fredriksson will release a new Swedish album in May.

  Per also comments about the new songs that they will record for the Roxette Greatest Hits album due out this fall. “We will record one, maybe two new songs, it all depends on Marie, who doesn’t want to work too much,” he tells Europa Press. “But she is really looking forward to recording with Roxette again,” he adds. “Marie’s life has totally changed, she sees life through different eyes,” he explains, and stresses that she has never stopped singing and recording music. He says she will release a new album in Swedish in May.


  Per also reveals that he has already started to write the first new song for the forthcoming Roxette anniversary album.

  Marie’s manager, Marie Dimberg, didn’t confirm the news about her new album, though. “Nothing is final and nothing is official yet,” she tells TDR.

• Europa Press (In Spanish)
• Pictures of Per in Madrid @ Roxspain

STOCKHOLM - In an exclusive and hastily scheduled telephone interview with The Daily Roxette, an embarrassed Per Gessle confesses he made an error in calculating how many years it has been since he first started working with Roxette. “The 20th Anniversary was actually last year… in 2005,” he admits. “So we’re cancelling the plans we had made for this year.

  “I know there will be many fans disappointed by this, so we wanted you guys at TDR to be the first to know. But we’ll try to make it up to them,” said Per. “And hey, you do get the German EP!”

  “Math has never been my strong point. I almost flunked the subject when I was in school. On the other hand, I did really well with geography (he laughs), and not only do I know we have fans around the world, but I can point to where those countries are on the map! We haven’t forgotten all those smiling faces beaming up at us on stage,” he declared.

  ”Oh well… maybe 25 sounds better than 20 anyway. It does have a nice ring to it, so we’ll just have to wait,” said a disappointed Li Lindebäck at EMI. But manager Marie Dimberg, trying to put a positive spin on the story, said “Look what 25 did for Gyllene Tider. Don’t be too upset, this could be good news. It’ll give us more time to prepare something really big.”

  “For someone with the reputation of being both a good musician and businessman, Per really does have some difficulty with figures and accounting,” said Jan Beime, his business manager at Desert AB. “I suppose that’s why he hired us.”

  It’s unclear at the point exactly what is to become of the Greatest Hits album and the RoxBox collector’s set. Per seemed to indicate that a portion of this material might still be released this year, but he was not immediately available when we tried to reach him again. A press release is expected Monday.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was, indeed, part of our little April Fool’s Day joke … thanks to Per for being a good sport about it. – LEO

STOCKHOLM - Per never ceases to surprise his fans. To promote the Son of a Plumber album release in German-speaking countries, he has recorded five tracks - in German! The first one is a German translation of “Jo-Anna Says,” then there’s a translation of “Måla mitt minne” which was released by Freddie Wadling last year. The other three songs are previously unreleased.

  “Germany has always been a very strong area for Roxette. We have many loyal fans there and in the neighboring countries. This EP is like a gift to them,” says Per. “Most of the new songs were originally written and recorded as demos available for other artists to record. Some are several years old actually. Late last year, when we were having negotiations with the German EMI about SOAP, someone there proposed recording songs in German.”

  Per says that he hesitated at first, if only for the fact that he’s never studied any German. “After Roxette had made ’Baladas en Español’, we were asked to do a similar thing in German. It didn’t feel quite right back then and we didn’t really have the time. I’m easier to get along with these days (he laughs) and they found me this great translator, Dieter Lechner.” The songs were recorded in Christoffer Lundquist’s studio between the tight promo tour schedule in March. The demos were originally recorded in 2002 and 2003, except “Manchmal denke ich nur an dich” which is a ballad from 1996, then known as “Only When I Dream”. The Swedish title of “In diesem Augenblick” is “Måla mitt minne.”

  The EP will be released as a bonus disc in a special 3-CD limited edition version of “Son of a Plumber”. The EP will apparently be also available as a separate release, at least on iTunes.

  The songs to be released are: (English translations within brackets)

1. “Jo-Anna sagt” (“Jo-Anna Says”)
2. “In diesem Augenblick” (“At This Very Moment”)
3. “Vorbei” (“It’s Over”)
4. “Manchmal denke ich nur an dich” (“Sometimes I Only Think Of You”)
5. “Zwischen 3 & 8 [esse ich kein Frühstück]” (“Between 3 & 8 [I Don’t Eat Breakfast]”)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This too was a part of our little April Fool’s Day joke. We’re glad everyone (almost everyone?) enjoyed them. – LEO

The tremendously popular Roxette track that went all the way to #1 in the U.S. in 1990, “It Must Have Been Love,” has been covered by no less than two artists lately. One of them being the British Idol version - The X Factor - runners-up Journey South who has done an acoustic version that’s included on their debut album “Journey South.” The album was released last week and went straight into #1 in the UK with more than 225,000 units sold. It’s expected to stay at #1 (or #2) another week at least.

  Shirley Clamp is the other artist that has covered the song, although her version will be in Swedish when it’s released in April. “The song has been wonderfully translated into ’När kärleken föds’ (’When Love is Born’) by Ingela ’Pling’ Forsman.” Shirley, who indeed is Swedish in spite of her name, will release a new album in April where she covers, or interprets, her favorite songs.

  Other artists TDR knows of recording IMHBL include Polly Esther, Digital Bitch, The Chipmunks and Sanne Salomonsen.

• Journey South on Amazon
• Journey South
• Shirley Clamp (in Swedish)
• IMHBL medley (Extended)

STOCKHOLM - Roxette… multiplied by 20 years, that’s a milestone most bands never reach. How do you feel about it really Per, the best and the worst of these first 20?

  “It feels excellent even though we’ve slowed down some these last few years. The best thing is of course the huge response from our audience, everywhere on planet Earth; different religions, skin color, political values… they all like ’The Look’ and ’It Must Have Been Lunch’. Amazing. The worst things are that time passes so fast… and that I never learn how to play solos.”

  What do you miss accomplishing with Roxette? Roxette has accomplished so much, but maybe you have an unfulfilled dream?

  “No, nothing really, it would be fun to play more concerts and record more albums. We’ll see what happens.”

  So, the RoxBox, can you tell us a little about what will be in it? Remixes, live, demos?

“It will contain the best of what we’ve accomplished so far, plus hard-to-get stuff, (like the Abbey Road Sessions ’95). A DVD with, among other things, hopefully MTV Unplugged from ’93. And possibly a bonus-CD with 20 demos…”

  Benny and Björn (from ABBA) hate releasing demos, you are quite the contrary, why is that?

  “I didn’t know they felt that way. I think demos are interesting so you can figure out how a song came to. I guess I’m a bigger nerd than they are.”
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STOCKHOLM - Marie Dimberg, manager of Roxette, has put out the following message:

After many discussions we have decided not to have an official fanclub. We hope that the existing websites will be sufficient communities for the fans and through these we will do our utmost to supply information and activities to keep everybody happy.



Kind regards,

Marie

  Sites she refers to include Sonofaplumber.com, Roxette.se, Gessle.com and Gyllenetideronline.com. Additionally, Per said in the Swiss chat the other week that they also support The Daily Roxette (which remains an independent news site).

STOCKHOLM - In an ongoing series called “The Greatest,” which introduces some of Sweden’s most eminent figures through time, Radio Sweden has recently asked its listeners to decide if Roxette or The Cardigans are “the greatest.”

On their website, they wrote:

  In the late 1970’s Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle first crossed paths but their own successes meant it wasn’t quite time to get together. In 1986 they merged their music.

  International success came with a stroke of luck… an American exchange student returned to America from Sweden and urged a radio station in Minneapolis to play ”The Look”.

  Lovefool catapulted The Cardigans from cult favourite to international stardom. The song was included on the blockbuster Romeo and Juliet film soundtrack and topped UK and U.S. charts.

  Two Swedish Groups who have made their musical mark both at home and on the international stage …. The 80’s supergroup or the Swedish sweater set? Who’s the Greatest…you decide.

  Roxette’s success story is chronicled, and prominent mention is made during the 13-minute program of the fact that this is Roxette’s 20th anniversary year and that the group is getting back together.

  The program invited Claus Olsson, editor-in-chief of Sweden’s music trade magazine NMB, and Billboard magazine’s correspondent in Sweden, Jeffery DeHart, to serve as commentators.

  “He’s such a master at finding melodies and catchy tunes and hooks that people like, that he’s kind of made it into a sport,” said Olsson of Per Gessle.

  DeHart, who said he’s never been a big Roxette fan, spoke of attending a Room Service concert. “It was amazing, I was really surprised…I didn’t really expect it to be so well polished, but it was. It was flawless. Very professional, great musicianship, very good band. It was very impressive,” he said.

  While both ended up at the end of the program choosing The Cardigans, it wasn’t without hesitation.

  Radio Sweden is the English-language service of Sveriges Radio, available via shortwave radio broadcasts and on the Internet.

• Radio Sweden’s Roxette vs. Cardigans audio program (requires RealPlayer)
• Radio Sweden’s “The Greatest” program page (in English)

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MELBOURNE - The Swedish postal service honored Roxette by issuing a postage stamp with their image back in 1991. But how many Roxette fans have been similarly honored?

  Of course, the King and Queen of Sweden have appeared on a multitude of Swedish postage stamps, and all the members of the royal family are known to enjoy the music of both Roxette and Gyllene Tider, especially Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria. But there’s another fan, from a country well known for their love of Swedish pop, whose image has appeared on a postage stamp.

  The Daily Roxette has uncovered that Olympic gold medalist Michael Diamond, 33, a target shooter from Australia, listens to Roxette. In fact, he recently mentioned the group to Melbourne’s Daily Telegraph as one of his secret loves (along with gardening) when the paper asked several Australian athletes to share their “secrets.”

  Diamond succeeded in winning the Olympic gold medal for trap shooting both in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

MADRID - EMI Spain has announced in a message on the Son of a Plumber website in Spanish that Per Gessle will visit Spain next month as part of his promotion tour, which has already taken him to cities like Cologne and Vienna.


  Per will be in Madrid on April 5 to present “Son of a Plumber” to the Spanish press. “Per doesn’t forget the country that has always welcomed him with open arms and where he has experienced, together with Marie, so many good and happy moments,” reads the note.


  The album “Son Of A Plumber” is out on March 27 in Spain.

• Son Of A Plumber (In Spanish)
• Spanish Roxette Fanclub

VIENNA - The Daily Roxette, along with other members of the media, participated in a round table discussion yesterday with Per Gessle who was in Vienna as a part of his Son of a Plumber promotion tour. Amongst the others present, were reporters from Austrian radio stations Krone Hit Radio, Radio Arabella and Welle1.

  We met a talkative Per at the hotel Das Triest in the center of Vienna to talk about the release of SOAP in Europe, which is being positively received. "I'm really pleased because people like the record a lot!" he says with a big smile.
  He went to explain why he released the album, which is very personal. "It all started when I transfered my album collection to my iPod, it took about six months, and I found many songs I had forgotten about, songs I grew up with, it brought me back to my childhood '60s, '70s… and I decided to make a tribute to that era."

  Why Son of a Plumber?
  "My father was a plumber, his name was Kurt. He has a song on the album, because he was the fastest plumber in the west. I think you have be older to be able to make this album, have to have this history and background behind you. I couldn't have done it like ten years ago, you have to have this experience. I didn't make any demos, I always make these complicated nice arrangements for my demos, here I played songs to Clarence and Christoffer, if they liked it, we worked with it."

  You can hear from the album that you had a happy childhood.
"I have an older brother so I spent a lot of time on my own, listening to pop. I had 100 LPs when I was ten, all the money I earned selling newspapers and such, everything was for records, records, records. Then as a teenager I started to write songs, but couldn't play anything, I had the melodies in my head, then I started to play guitar, and started my first band"

  Did you choose the first single?
  "Actually I let EMI choose which single they wanted to release first. In Sweden it was 'Jo-Anna,' and I think here it is 'Jo-Anna' as well, but other countries chose 'Mr DJ.'"

• Per at Ö3 studios
• Welle1

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