STOCKHOLM - Per's latest little project Bad Hair Day has struck again! This time Per wants to present his fans with a little Valentine's Day gift, so he has "released" a "single" consisting of the only two Son of a Plumber demos ever recorded.

  Per presents it himself like this:

St Valentine’s day, Feb 14 – 2006

Friends… let’s celebrate this wonderful and important day with some new jolly music! The only two existing Son of a Plumber-demos are at your service!!

P.

• Download here (Son of a Plumber.com)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - The latest single from the hit album “Son of a Plumber” (sold more than 102,000 copies so far), “Hey Mr DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song)” enters the official Swedish top 40 chart at #12 today. The single is marked as “newcomer of the week.” Per comments this as “How fun!!!”

  According to TDR’s sources the remix single is out to radio stations today.

  Further info about the European releases is that Germany will release the album at the end of April, “EMI Germany seems very enthusiastic and wants to do lots of radio with this,” Per comments. He also tells TDR that “Jo-Anna Says” will be the first single in Germany, with “C’mon” as the B-side. The rest of Europe (excluding the UK which has not responded) goes with “Hey Mr DJ,” but only as a promo single for starters. While EMI UK has not responded to the album EMI Canada has, and they will also release the album.

  According to EMI Sweden the singles to be released down in Europe will be digital only unless they turn out to be “super radio hits,” then EMI will quickly produce physical singles.

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle revealed today in a new message on his website that “Hey Mr. DJ” will be the first single in most European countries. “Son Of A Plumber” is scheduled for release in Europe on March 6, so the single is expected to start airplay a few weeks before this date.

  Per and his band will shoot a music video for the song, to be directed by Daniel Börjesson, in two weeks. There will also be a video for “Jo-Anna Says,” since EMI Germany “fell in love with that one!!!” Per explains.


  In addition, since he says so many people seem to like them, the “Hey Mr. DJ” remixes – which initially were planned to be featured on a promotion single for radio stations only – will also be released commercially.

• Son Of A Plumber

STOCKHOLM - Per has found a few new demos for his Bad Hair Day project. These are the “missing” demos of “Smakar på ett regn” and “Spegelboll.” Per comments “Yea yea yea!, nobody’s perfect! I found this on a, believe it or not, worn-out old fashioned music-cassette with chewing gum on it! This low-fi recording was made in the middle of the night minutes after the song was written in the kitchen at the Aerosol Grey Machine studio, late January 2003. It was extremely cold outside but Christoffer’s and Ylva’s cat was purring and we all needed another uptempotrack on the record…. so this idea came up (I re-wrote the chorus the next day)….. sorry to keep you all waiting but… here we are at last…. the completed Mazarin.”

• Gessle.com

STOCKHOLM - When The Daily Roxette announced a contest to win one of two “After the Change” books from Marie Fredriksson’s art exhibition, we didn’t anticipate how difficult it would become. TDR was approached by Petter Lindskog of Musicshop.se who asked if we wanted to raffle out two of the books; and if so, he would donate them, including shipping to the winners. It was a very generous offer, and of course we accepted

  That’s when the problems started. Just as we were drawing the winner’s names, Musicshop.se apparently went under and Mr. Lindskog disappeared. We haven’t to this date been able to make contact with him. We were actually in the process of writing to the winners to offer them alternative prizes when, through a twist of fate, we were in touch with Micke Bolyos (married to Marie Fredriksson). To make a long story short, the two of them donated two signed books to our winners. The books, plus something extra, will be shipped to the two lucky winners: Maria Laura Osorio from Argentina and Kamila Lesniewski from Germany, next week.

  The Daily Roxette sends its warmest congratulations to our winners and we wish to thank everyone who entered. Last and foremost, a huge thanks to Marie & Micke Bolyos who stepped up for the fans!

STOCKHOLM - The next single off “Son of a Plumber” is, as previously reported, “Hey Mr. DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song)” (3542742) with the b-side “Plumber in Progress #1.” The single was sent to Swedish radio stations today, with a commercial release slated for February 1.

  “Jo-Anna Says” is back at #2 on the official Top 40 chart (with Agnes as the new #1) and “Son of a Plumber” was the third most sold album in Sweden 2005, even though it was released at the end of November.

• EMI’s campaign site

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per’s new “project” Bad Hair Day released an album last Thursday. The album is called “Mazarin demos” and consists of 12 songs. Those 12 songs were downloaded no less than 42,041 times in total the first 24 hours. That amounts to roughly 96.44 GB data transfered…

  “Mazarin demos” is reviewed as an actual album by Anders Nunstedt in Expressen, where it gets four stingers out of five. Nunstedt says that Per writes on sonofaplumber.com [and on TDR] that “I guess it’s basically for the hardcore fan,” but that it certainly isn’t. He continues the review by mentioning that this album is like a “Mazarin unplugged” minus the audience background sounds and applause. The production is splendid and in the naked arrangements songs like “Sakta mina steg” and “Varmt igen” grow several sizes (while the monster hit “Här kommer alla känslorna” actually gets weaker).

  Nunstedt comments that this album, had it been released “for real,” would almost certainly have been able to top the charts.

Update Jan. 16: Per has found yet another demo; he comments on it himself:



  ”Oooops!”, look what I found in the drawer!! I totally forgot about this one! Looking back, I remember I didn’t feel very comfortable with the lyrics and I definitely thought I could write a better and more interesting melody line.

  But I did like the guitar riff and the overall Blondie-feel to it. All in all though, it’s quite terrible!!!”



  The Plum, Jan 16, 2006



  The song he’s talking about is “Jimmy’s gitarr” which was further developed and recorded as “Spegelboll.” It is now available for download as a bonus track to “Mazarin demos” at sonofaplumber.com.

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider, Roxette, The Lonely Boys, Son of a Plumber and now… Bad Hair Day! Bad Hair Day releases a totally secret album - tomorrow, (on his birthday). The album is free of charge, and can be found for download, together with a printable sleeve, at Per’s official site. More surprises to follow.

  Per’s own comment: “I’ve got boxes and drawers of so many songs & ideas & rubbish lying around my house and I just felt like sharing all this with you guys out there! I guess it’s basically for the hardcore fan, but still, it’s kinda interesting if you’re into the mesmerizing enigma of songwriting…..
I start with “Mazarin” because I made lots of demos for that particular album. However, a few songs were written in the studio so no demos exist for the two colourful and epic statements “Smakar på ett regn” & “Spegelboll”…
Yeehaa!”


  The tracklist is as follows:

1. Vilket håll du än går
2. Om du bara vill
3. På promenad genom stan
4. Gungar
5. Födelsedag
6. Sakta mina steg
7. Tycker om när du tar på mej
8. För bra för att vara sant
9. Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)
10. Jag tror du bär på en stor hemlighet
11. Varmt igen
12. Mazarin

  Per has written no less than 651 songs according to STIM during his career - so far of course. Per’s career has lasted about 28 years now, so that makes a new released song every two weeks. You have to admit that he’s been quite productive.

• Per Gessle.com
• Son Of A Plumber

Read more…

2005 was a year full of good news and exciting projects, thanks primarily to Per Gessle’s workaholic nature. But, without a doubt, the biggest news item of the year was the triumphant proclamation by Marie Fredriksson that she had survived her battle with cancer, and was able to declare herself “healthy again!”

  There are many internationally-known female recording artists, but few are as beloved as Marie Fredriksson. When the news spread of her condition back in September 2002, the outpouring of support, prayers and get-well wishes that followed – from around the world – served to prove this point. Thus, for many, Marie’s renewed health is seen as an answer to all those prayers. Marie’s victory over cancer is a personal one, but it’s a victory we all feel like celebrating.

  It was indeed a busy year. Per himself said in Roxette’s Christmas message to the fans: “2005 turned out to be a quite normal (= extremely busy) year with an art exhibition, a plumbing album and a few exciting live performances.”

  So what really happened? Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Per writes on Son of a Plumber.com today that the next Swedish single will be “Hey Mr DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song)” with an anticipated radio date of mid-January. The b-side is a “rehearsal medley” so to speak, called “Plumber in Progress #1.” “This will feature Gabriel and me jamming on ’Substitute,’ lousy guide lyrics beyond belief to several songs, etc etc.,” Per comments.

  The in-store date is yet to be decided by EMI, but “they are all still busy eating Christmas pudding and drinking ale,” according to Per.