WROCLAW, POLAND - In what many Roxette fans are sure to consider the worst cover of a Roxette song ever, the Polish heavy metal band Elysium has covered Roxette’s “How Do You Do!,” renaming it “How Do You Die.”

  Their cover song, which appears as a “hidden track” on their last album, starts off with about a 15 second clip of the original version (you hear Per’s voice) followed by their death metal approach. There are incoherrent voices and references to death, murder and knives – and a few more short samples of the original.

  Last month, The Metal Observer reviewed Elysium’s album from 2004 entitled “Deadline.” In the mixed review, they wrote “even the re-lyricized ROXETTE cover “How Do You Die” … does not save much anymore.”

  The link below offers a free download (log in to their mp3 zone with the password and username given, find the album called “Deadline,” and download “How Do You Die”).

Reported by Scott Johnson with additional reporting by Lars-Erik Olson.

• Album review
• Elysium website (Download page has instructions for how to access the MP3)

GOUDA - After more than ten years of serving fans, the Roxette fanclub located in Gouda, Holland is shutting down. “Due to many issues, we have decided in an unanimous vote to stop,” they write on their website today. According to the message from the staff, all pending orders have been sent out and more news will be posted on how to sort other financial issues out.

  Apparently, there are plans to form a new “Fanclub” with the endorsement of the current leadership team. They indicate, however, that “if this new fanclub should start, they will NOT be taking over our fanbase,” in their goodbye message.

• Fanclub’s message on Roxette.nl

STOCKHOLM - Gyllene Tider’s own little drummer boy Micke Syd Andersson has recorded a new single together with Mats MP Persson. The single is called “Du och jag och Glenn Hysén” (“You and I and Glenn Hysén”) and will be released in April, May. Micke describes the song “A little summer ditty with Gyllene vibes. At the age of 45 it’s about time!”

  Glenn Hysén is a Swedish soccer player (center half) that was huge in the late ’80s to the early ’90s. Hysén has played for IFK Göteborg, Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven and Fiorentina.

  Micke Syd’s singing career consists of singing the first version of “Tylö sun” and “Min tjej och jag” on Gyllene Tider’s “Moderna Tider” in 1981 (the two tracks were supposed to form Micke’s first single, but was scrapped), and finally releasing Mungo Jerry’s old hit “In the Summertime” in 1997.

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to a telegram in Aftonbladet today, Marie Fredriksson has, in agreement with Expressen, decided to drop the lawsuit.

  The trial was supposed to be held on Wednesday, but is now cancelled according to Leif Silbersky, Marie’s attorney. “I neither want, nor can tell you why, but we’ve reached an agreement with Expressen on how to handle this,” Silbersky says.

  Otto Sjöberg, editor-in-chief of Expressen, says that there exists no secret deal between the parts. “When Marie Fredriksson decided to not pursue her claim, Expressen chose not to demand compensation for its costs for the trial. That’s the whole deal between Marie Fredriksson and Expressen,” Sjöberg says in Expressen.

  In a press release issued by Marie Fredriksson today she states that even though she’s free from the cancer and much stronger now, she feels that she doesn’t have enough strength to pursue a tedious legal process. Marie chooses instead to focus her energy on regaining her strength, recovering from her illness and her family and the present now.

  TDR readers may recall that Expressen immediately published an apology when Marie Fredriksson reacted negatively to the original article.

• Aftonbladet’s telegram (In Swedish)
• Journalisten.se (In Swedish)
• Expressen (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - According to a message from Per at Son of a Plumber’s site they shot a video for “Hey mr DJ” last night. “The idea was, as always, vague but interesting…. psychedelica meets Alice in Wonderland in a freak show environment,” Per says and continues “Clarence did a great job lifting weights in a silly costume, Magnus got knives thrown at him (scary….) 10 kids, most of them from Gabriel’s school played violins and trumpets and drums, all looking very handsome and jolly…. Helena played a puppet on a string, Christoffer wore a top hat and I wore a tie. And the coffee was good.”

  The video is expected to be ready late next week.

An eBay auction led this reporter to the discovery of a new cover of Roxette’s “Fading Like A Flower” by the German group Discoblaster. The single was released on December 10th 2005 on the EMI/Zeitgeist [Universal Dance] Label:



DISCOBLASTER: FADING



CD 1



01. Fading (radio edit)

02. Fading (the disco boys radio edit)

03. Fading (Steve Murano radio remx)

04. Fading (club mix)

05. Fading (the disco boys remix)

06. Fading (candlelight mix)



CD 2



01. Fading (radio edit)

02. Fading (the disco boys remix)



12” Part 1



01. Fading (club mix)

02. Fading (Steve Murano remix)



12” Part 2



01. Fading (the disco boys remix)

02. Fading (Steve Murano dub remix)

03. Fading (the disco boys dub remix)



  From Universal Dance http://www.udance.de/. Translated from German:



Discoblaster - “Fading” 28.10.2005



Discoblaster, are Fine (17), Justine (19), Samantha (19), Nina (20) and Sandra (16).

• Discoblaster (In German)
• Udance (In German)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Monday February 13 a promotion single of “Hey Mr DJ” will be released, to radio stations only. It will contain the original version of the song plus two fresh remixes. The first remix is called Love-For-Sale and is made by Clarence, Christoffer and Jimmy Monell (aka Shooting Star), the second is remixed by Jimmy and thusly called Jimmy Monell Treatment. While the first remix is very radio friendly, the second will probably do best on the dance floor.

  This single will most probably not be released commercially, however, there is a fair possibility that the remixes will be available as downloads at for instance CDON and iTunes.



In cooperation with Son of a Plumber.com, TDR presents these snippets:

  Update Feb. 20: The single will be released commercially after all, as a physical single (0946 3591432 0) on March 1st and as a digital single on March 13th. The cover art is shown here.

• Son Of A Plumber

STOCKHOLM - Per has just announced that on April 3rd two new digital releases will come out, namely “Son of a Plumber (iTunes Edition)” with three extra tracks added; “Keep the Radio On (This is the Perfect Song),” “A Girl Like You” and “Plonk”, the two latter never before released. Ronnie Lane’s nickname was “Plonk”…

  The second release is the EP “Dancing Plumber Vol.1” with the following line up:



1. Hey mr DJ (Love-for-sale remix)

2. Hey mr DJ (Jimmy Monell Treatment)

3. I never quite got over the fact that the Beatles broke up (Jimmy Monell Short Treatment)

4. I never quite got over the fact that the Beatles broke up (Jimmy Monell Long Treatment)



  While the first release is an iTunes exclusive, the second will be available via other digital stores (at first only in Scandinavia).

COPENHAGEN - SAS Scandinavian Airlines has added “Jo-Anna Says” to its playlist of songs featured on the onboard music system’s “Scandinavia” channel.

  Other songs being played this month include a-ha’s “Analogue,” Eva Dahlgren’s “Snö” and Kent’s “Dom som försvann.”

STOCKHOLM - The album release date for Europe has been pushed back from March 6 to March 27. However, Germany will release the album at the end of April since EMI Germany wants to do heavy radio with “Jo-Anna Says” as the first single. United Kingdom has yet to respond to EMI about the release. It seems Brazil and Argentina will release it, but no dates are known yet, while Japan is uncertain.

  The album has been confirmed in these countries so far (please note that March 27 does not apply to all of them):

• Austria
  
• Germany
  
• Switzerland
  
• Belgium
  
• Canada
  
• Denmark
  
• Finland
  
• Norway
  
• Greece
  
• Holland
  
• Italy
  
• Poland
  
• Russia
  
• Portugal
  
• Spain
  
• Taiwan
  
• Hong Kong
  
• South Africa