Frida, the brunette of ABBA, will re-release her 1982 album “Something’s Going On” June 20, at least in the UK. The album was originally produced by Phil Collins, who kept Per Gessle’s arrangement of the song “Threnody,” which is featured on the album. It was also the flip side of the lead single off the album.

  “Threnody” is a poem by American poet Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) that Per Gessle used as lyrics for music he wrote. The new album release contains two bonus tracks.

  Frida has kept quiet the last few years, the last thing heard from her was “Djupa Andetag,” released in 1996, where Marie Fredriksson appeared as a collaborator.

  “Threnody” was once written for the mystical group Modern Times (Gyllene Tider’s first name for a hesitant international career), but was sent to Frida instead. Later it was released by Gyllene Tider on an EMI compilation: “Radio Parlophone 2.”

• Eil.com

HALMSTAD - The record label Westcoast Studios in Halmstad wants to show the politicians and record company moguls that you can get a big hit without marketing budgets in the million krona range. Therefore they have recorded a summer hit (?), with the band Solsting (Sun Stroke) called “Nu är sommarn här igen” (“Now Summer is Here Again”). The song is available for download at the homepage, in two versions, all for free. The lyrics and the chords are also available on the site “for your bar-b-que parties.”

  TDR has listened to the song and finds it very Halmstad, very summery and it even has a little Gyllene Tider feel to it.

• Solsting’s homepage (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Today our dear Marie Fredriksson turns 47. We hereby want to congratulate her on Her Day, and we hope that she will get many more!



  All the best, Lars-Erik, Visa, Thomas & Judith

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reports today about Gyllene Tider’s “secret deal;” the income resulting from last year’s tour, summarizing that Per Gessle earned 20 million Swedish kronor (€2.2 million), while the rest of the band got a mere two million kronor (€220,000) each. Göran Fritzon, keyboardist in Gyllene Tider, says to Aftonbladet “It was a good summer. I don’t like discussing money.”

  The numbers in the article are to be taken with a huge grain of salt, according to TDR’s sources.

Leendv contributed to this article.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

“It was actually your beloved Per Gessle who initiated the compilation,” said Brainpool’s David Birde in an exclusive interview with The Daily Roxette regarding their forthcoming greatest hits album.

  “Apparently he was at home, listening to our albums and was once again struck by how good we were,” David tells TDR. “He started to mail us, coming up with a running order for the album. Eventually he wore us down and we said: ’OK, you’ll get your compilation if…’

  “’If what?’ was Per’s instant reply.

  ’If you write the sleeve notes.’”

  Per agreed and so the album, titled “We Aimed To Please,” will have an introduction written by him.

  The members of Brainpool, including the former lead singer Janne Kask who left the band in 1997, are very happy to be able to present such a huge bulk of material. For example, there will be all of Brainpool’s videos on a bonus DVD that also contains the demo tape recording that gave the group their deal with Jimmy Fun Music, Per’s record company. It will also contain “the horrible ’Bandstarter’ demo recorded in a hotel room in Stuttgart during the Roxette tour and much more,” muses David. Brainpool was Roxette’s supporting act during the Crash! Boom! Bang! tour in 1994.

  “The actual CD contains all our singles, plus the songs that would have been singles if we had released more,” David continues. The compilation will be sold at the price of a regular CD. All songs are commented by David and Janne and the artwork by John the Fisherman is, according to David, “an orgy of Brainpool nostalgia!”

  David also tells us that the two new songs, “A Different Life” and “Let Me Win,” were originally written for Belinda Carlisle in 1995 but never made it to her album. “They have been hidden away in Jimmy Fun’s vaults until now, so they are very exclusive.” Read more…

There’s a new Roxette track out there. This time it’s not played by Roxette, but by Ginestrakvartetten (The Ginestra Quartet) and it’s a beautiful seven and a half minute long medley of “Vulnerable”, “It Must Have Been Love”, “Dressed for Success” and “The Look”. Ginestrakvartetten is a classical quartet so the medley is therefore performed gracefully with classical instruments.

  This track is from an album that is a bonus CD to the book “Smak av Halland” (“A Taste of Halland”), a cookbook – and more – about Halland, the county that Halmstad is the capital of.

  “Smak av Halland” is written by Tomas Tengby and Stefan Holmström, while the photographs are taken by Bruno Ehrs and Lasse Åkerström.

  ICA, the publishing company, describes the book like this: “Book idea: A cookbook with the raw material of Halland as a basis. Additionally what’s unique for Halland is presented in the text and the photos. Some history, health, food, music and nature.”



Examples of recipes featured in the book:



Small potato pancakes

Potatoes au gratin spiced with blue cheese

Fillet of beef in a string

Salad from Ugglarp with horseradish dressing



  All in all there are about 50 recipes and 60 color photos in the book. ISBN: 91-534-2636-3

Per-Axel Månsson contributed to this article.

• FORMA publishing group (In Swedish)
• Musik i Halland (In Swedish)
• Ginestrakvartetten (In Swedish)

CDON lists a Brainpool greatest hits album due out on June 1. The album, titled “We Aimed To Please,” contains various unrelased songs and single b-sides as well as a bonus DVD. The band’s website has not yet been updated to contain information on the new release.

  We reported earlier about Christoffer Lundquist’s record company Junk Musik which releases singles only in digital format over the Internet. They have revealed on their blog that they will release a “lost” Brainpool single next Tuesday, on May 17. The song was recorded while Janne Kask was still the band’s lead singer. He left the band in autumn of 1997.

  Brainpool’s main figure is Christoffer Lundquist who has participated in the production of many recent Roxette, Per Gessle and Gyllene Tider releases. Their drum player Jens Jansson has also played with Roxette and Per Gessle.

  Update (May 15): Junk Musik informs on their website that their music is now available on iTunes Music Store. The first album available for purchase is Brainpool previous release, the rock opera “Junk.”

  Arn_ contributed to this article.

• Junk Musik: New Releases! May 17!
• Brainpool

Read more…

Today Apple’s very successful legal downloading service iTunes opened its gates in Sweden. It features all of Per Gessle’s solo work, some of Gyllene Tider’s, some of Roxette’s and quite a few Marie Fredriksson songs.

  This first day only one related album was found among the top 100 and that was Gyllene Tider’s “GT25 Live!” at #68. “Finn5fel!” isn’t available, at least not yet.

• iTunes Music Store Sweden (in Swedish)

HALMSTAD - Hotel Tylösand (Tylöhus to the locals) made a nice profit of 20 million kronor (€2.2 million) last year. Owners Per Gessle and Björn Nordstrand bought the hotel ten years ago for a “very low price,” as it was close to going into bankruptcy.

  The odd business partners have plowed down about 200 million kronor (€22 million) into the hotel, and the latest plan is a glass-covered spa with an ocean view for 25 million kronor (€2.3 million).

• Aftonbladet (In Swedish)
• Tylöhus

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to Capitol Sweden, the third single from Marie Fredriksson’s “The Change” will be “A Table in the Sun”, which will hit the stores on May 18.


  Previously released singles from “The Change” are “2nd Chance” (October 6, 2004) and “All About You” (December 1, 2004).


Update April 29: The B-side will be the orchestral version of “The Change”.

• Capitol Sweden