UTRECHT - Last week, D.H.T.’s “Listen To Your Heart” (Unplugged version featuring Edmee), was selected as superclip for Holland’s biggest music television station TMF. Besides this version, the original D.H.T. remix is now being played as well.

  On the Billboard Hot 100 the song is still falling, but slowly; last week “Listen To Your Heart” was at #16. This week it’s at #17, after 18 weeks on the chart. Faithful readers may remember its peak position of #8.

• Billboard Hot 100

STOCKHOLM - “Sommartider” has been voted Best Swedish Pop Classic through all times by the Swedish people. The results were shown in the TV-show Folktoppen (People’s Top), where “Sommartider” also was performed by gay comedian Jonas Gardell in a semi-gospel version.

1. Gyllene Tider - Sommartider

2. Ulf Lundell - Öppna landskap

3. ABBA - Waterloo

4. Ted Gärdestad - Sol, vind och vatten

5. ABBA - Ring Ring

6. Tomas Ledin - I natt är jag din

7. Lisa Nilsson - Himlen runt hörnet

8. Eva Dahlgren - Vem tänder stjärnorna?

9. Freestyle - Vill ha dej

10. Magnus Uggla - Varning på stan

• The performance of “Sommartider”

SAINT TROPEZ (UPDATED) - “Son Of A Plumber… are you nuts?” I say to Per over the phone. “Ha ha,” he says, “yes it feels like it.” Per is in Saint Tropez to finalize the mixing of his new album, and another tradition he has is to finish off in Saint Tropez. “But it’s been raining until ten minutes ago,” he reports.

  The album title will indeed be “Son Of A Plumber” and will initially be released in Sweden only. If the record is well received, it may be delivered “worldwide” in January, with a European/Swedish club tour to follow.

  Per & Company have recorded no less than 26 songs, and when this reporter asks for a double album Per seems intrigued, especially if there’s a vinyl edition. “Vinyl? Great idea! A double vinyl album? Son Of A Plumber’s white album! Ha ha!”

  The album sounds very diversified; country, pop, ballads, instrumentals et cetera. “We’ve recorded three, four 50-second instrumentals that we want to include,” Per divulges. “Sort of like soundtracks to movies. We have pan flutes as well!”

  There will be a single off the album out in the middle or end of October, but the single has yet to be decided. Per decides to share some info about some tracks:

• Substitute (For the Real Deal)
• I Have a Party in My Head (I Hope it Never Ends)
• Keep the Radio On (This is the Perfect Song) - “A newly recorded version taken from The Lonely Boys’ album.” Although it started out as an unreleased Gyllene Tider-song.
• Making Love Or Expecting Rain - “It is
  a line from a Bob Dylan song, no need to speculate guys!”
• Hey Mr DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song) - “A country duet with Helena.”
• A nine-minute medley including a falsetto blues and “Are You An Old Hippie, Sir?”
• I Never Quite Got Over the Fact that the Beatles Broke Up - “This one makes you happy, possibly an album closer, we have a few.”
• Drowning in Wonderful Thoughts About Her - “Probably the first track of the album”.

  “My thoughts regarding this project was to sort of start a one man band, like Badly Drawn Boy. And also, we recorded no demos for this project. I played the songs for Christoffer and Clarence, and they were like the evil jury in [American] Idol. They then said if they liked the songs or not. If they didn’t - we didn’t record it.” Per tells TDR. He also mentions that they had somewhat strange recording techniques making this album. They would tell Helena to sing something and if she asked how or what, they would say “improvise.” This has given some strange, but great results, with lots of “la la la la la” but also other interesting effects.

  Regarding the sleeve, Anton Corbijn took the pictures this time around, just like he did with Per’s previous solo album, “Mazarin.” Most of the pictures are taken in Christoffer’s garden and some in London, while the sleeve pic itself is taken in London.

  The only thing Per didn’t tell us was how the guitars really were tuned after all…

  Update Sept. 30: The album has been delayed one week due to technical issues. The new date is November 23.

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - In just two months, there is a new Per album coming! The Daily Roxette has just received the press release stating that the album indeed will be in English as predicted, and a “debut”…

  On the album musicans as Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Helena Josefsson and Jens Jansson partake. “Without Clarence and Christoffer none of this would’ve existed. I could never have done this on my own.” The project is called “Son Of A Plumber.” The album will keep “Per’s full musical heritage,” according to the press statement.

  “Gessle” and “debut” are two words very seldomly paired, what happened, Per Gessle? “Wow, I don’t know what has happened! Somehow it’s taken me 46 years to dare to make this album. And to be ABLE to make this album. Son Of A Plumber has become some sort of a musical purification bath for me. The album contains all of my musical heritage. I don’t know why that happened, maybe it’s because I bought my first mp3-player this winter.” Per tells us. He continues: “I’ve spent half this year transfering my old records to the computer and rediscovered so much great music I love but had forgotten. It’s been a journey back to Furet and Simlångsdalen where I grew up, into the 70s, stuff we listened to in Gyllene’s first rehearsal studio.”

  Yesterday evening EMI Svenska held a presentation for their partners. They showed a video greeting in which Per spoke briefly about releasing a new album and told it will be out in November. He also showed a piece of paper saying “Son of a Plumber” to the camera, but didn’t tell more about its meaning. “I discovered that if I work under a different name, I don’t have to ’follow up’ Roxette, ’Mazarin’ or Gyllene Tider. Incredibly nice! Here’s something new; Son Of A Plumber! My dad was a plumber. I have become a debutant,” Per says.

  Originally, “Son Of A Plumber” (or Son.Of.A.Plumber) is a studio in Stockholm where some of the demos for, for instance, the “Have A Nice Day” album were recorded.

  “I’ve gotten great self confidence and a lovely boost from the last years’ huge response from the audience. I suddenly dare to trust myself and my capacity in a totally different way than before. Therefore it feels like a ’debut’!” concludes Per.

STOCKHOLM - Per was appointed “Artist of the Decade” at Metro’s “Concert of the Decade” in Globen last night. “It is a fantastic distinction, but I have had a great successful decade with Roxette, “Mazarin” and Gyllene Tider, so it’s actually right,” he says laughingly to Metro’s reporter Axel Björklund.


  Eva Dahlgren opened the show with her new single “När jag längtar” and the well-known “Ängeln i rummet” and was followed by Per and his band, who performed “Gå & fiska!” and “Juni, juli, augusti,” and joined the stage again at the end of the show with “Här kommer alla känslorna” and “Det hjärta som brinner.”

  As reported earlier by The Daily Roxette, Per has been recording various things in the past year, and he is not sure what his new project will be, he claims. It might be a “three-chord pop” album, in English, Swedish or even French, or a soundtrack “it’s one of my dreams to do a full soundtrack to a film, it could maybe be in Swedish, I don’t know,” he explains. It isn’t sure if it will be on a national or international level, or both. “I am 46 and don’t
feel so much like repeating what we did in 1989-91, when we flew 260 days a year. I’m not ready to give that much up for a new international career.”

  Whatever the new release will be, he says he’s not planning to tour in 2006, “but when you look at U2 at Ullevi, it’s all coming back to me. When one has been there, one wants to go back.”

  Yesterday’s concert featured both new and older/established artists, of which Per is more familiar with the latter. “I bump into Håkan [Hellström], The Cardigans and The Ark professionally, like this concert, Grammisgalan or Rockbjörnen. Since we do the same thing, I consider us sort of colleagues. I only know Eva [Dahlgren] privately. I have never met Darin, for instance… Maybe you meet them in the hallway and shout ’great album woohoo’ or something.”



Additional photos by Tobbe Joneby.

• Metro
• Eva Dahlgren

BERGEN - On Saturday September 3, as previously reported, Per Gessle and band performed an exclusive concert for the staff at Hydro in the Grieg Hall in Norwegian town Bergen. It was a special invitation gig only, with an audience of about 1,500 happy Norwegians.

  Mazarinerna consisted this time of MP Persson, guitar; Jens Jansson, drums; Clarence Öfwerman, keyboards, Helena Josefsson, backup vocals; Magnus Börjesson, bass guitar and Christoffer Lundquist, guitar. Per comments the gig: “Bergen was a gas! Very heavy! This band composition is the most fun I’ve ever played with…”

  The Daily Roxette has gotten its hands on the setlist:

1. En sten vid en sjö i en skog

2. Juni, juli, augusti

3. Gungar

4. Det hjärta som brinner

5. (Hon vill ha) Puls

b a n d p r e s e n t a t i o n

6. Här kommer alla känslorna…

7. Segla på ett moln

8. Kung av sand

9. Födelsedag

10. Ljudet av ett annat hjärta

11. Gå & fiska!



Extras



12. Tycker om när du tar på mej

13. Det är över nu

14. Sommartider

  “’Sommartider’ was a huge hit in Norway as well, one could tell…” Per says happily.




All photos courtesy of Per Gessle, photographer unknown.

NEW YORK - D.H.T. is back at #1 with “Listen to Your Heart,” although this time it’s the Top 40 Mainstream chart. Evan Lamberg, EMI Music Publishing New York, comments: “It’s the #1 most played song in the US at Top 40 radio this week…” The single has been on this particular chart for 13 weeks.

  On the Billboard Hot 100 it’s still a top 10 hit, at #10 for the second week in a row. “Listen to Your Heart” has been on the Hot 100 for 15 weeks now.

HOUSTON - Yes you heard it, “Pretty Woman” is out on DVD - again. This is the fourth time it’s been released on DVD. First the regular one, then the “director’s cut,” after that the “10th anniversary edition” and now the “15th anniversary edition.”

  “Pretty Woman” (at first called “$3,000”), danced in $463 million worldwide (€390 million) at the box office, and Julia Roberts was Oscar-nominated as best actress.

  On this new edition, there is yet another commentary track with director Garry Marshall, where he says that the fairy tale of “Pretty Woman” didn’t have to be believable, it was enough if the viewers wanted to believe it, writes the Houston Chronicle. This time around there is a blooper reel, travelog vignettes and a video from the wrap party “Live From the Wrap Party.”

  The previous edition of the DVD had 15 minutes of deleted scenes that are missing from this edition, what is there instead is the music video for Natalie Cole’s “Wild Women Do” - that barely was in the movie. Houston Chronicle writes that the big hit of the movie was Roxette’s ballad “It Must Have Been Love,” and continues to write about Roxette instead of the “Pretty Woman” DVD:

Though the Swedish duo hasn’t been on a major label in the U.S. in a decade, it’s been huge on the world stage, especially in Asia and South America long after “It Must Have Been Love” drove the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack to 9 million sales. “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits — The Complete Video Collection,” a new DVD sporting 37 songs and two one-hour documentaries, is a great introduction — or reintroduction — to the band.

  If anything, Roxette’s best work has come since its U.S. heyday, with the albums “Have a Nice Day,” “Room Service,” “The Pop Hits” and “The Ballad Hits.”

  The videos on “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits” are a mixed bag of styles and gimmicks, but the music is consistently hook-heavy, polished and emphatic. Call it lightweight commercialism or call it pop genius, but Roxette’s songs are catchy wonders, from the energized, infectious pop-rock of “Stars” and “Real Sugar” to the soaring, stirring balladry of “Anyone” and “Salvation.” America’s music biz may have missed that boat, but for those willing to search, it’s still setting sail.

• Article in the Houston Chronicle
• Buy it at Amazon.com

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle will participate in a concert the free tabloid newspaper Metro is organizing to celebrate its 10th anniversary on September 7.

  The event, “The Concert of the Decade” as Metro not-so-humbly calls it, will take place at the Globe Arena, Stockholm, and – along with Gessle – will feature The Cardigans and Petter among others. “I thought I’d air out the band,” Per tells TDR, “Nothing big, maybe four or five songs…” TV3 will broadcast the concert the very same week.


  One thousand tickets will be given away via Metro, TV3, Rix FM and NRJ. They can be also purchased via Ticnet, regular price 250 kronor (€29), for Metro club members 125 kronor.

  Update Jul 26: Three more acts have been revealed: Eva Dahlgren, Eric Gadd and Robyn.

  Update Aug 28: Swedish TV3 will broadcast the show September 10 at 17:30 CET. Also, The Hives and Darin have been added to the bill

  Update Aug 29: The final two acts are The Ark and Håkan Hellström. Today, nine days before the concert, TicNet still shows availability “green” and you can still get tickets reserved for Metro members only. MTG (owners of Metro) has made tickets available for other MTG members as well, like Club Rix FM.

Daniel Alvedahl and Tobbe Joneby contributed to this article.

• Ticnet/BiljettDirekt
• Article in SvD (in Swedish)
• Eva Dahlgren
• Concert of the Decade

BERGEN - Norwegian oil company Hydro is celebrating their 100-year anniversary and “Per Gessle & band” have accepted an invitation to play for the staff in the northern town of Bergen on September 3.

  Hydro’s celebration starts today in Oslo with Norwegian popgroup a-ha giving a free concert in Frogner Park. a-ha, who recently performed at the Live 8 concert in Berlin, will premiere some of the music on their latest album. The group will also play an already sold-out gig at New York City’s Irving Plaza on September 12, their first US concert since 1986 and almost exactly 20 years after the hit “Take on Me” soared to the top of the charts worldwide.

  Per tells The Daily Roxette that he will play Bergen and Stockholm in September to keep his band Mazarinerna in good shape.

  This isn’t the first time Per has played company gigs, Roxette played for the OM group a few years back, beer giant Carlsberg has had a visit as well, and now last summer Swedish operator Tele 2 had Gyllene Tider visit them.

Elisabeth Mathisen contributed to this article.

• Hydro