NEW YORK - Laura Branigan, a Grammy-nominated pop singer who recorded a Roxette cover but is best known for her 1982 platinum hit “Gloria,” has died. She was 47.

  Branigan died of a brain anuerysm Thursday in her sleep said her brother Mark Branigan. He said she had complained to a friend of a headache for about two weeks before she died, but had not sought medical attention.

  “Gloria,” a signature song from her debut album “Branigan,” stayed atop the pop charts for 36 weeks and earned her a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocalist, the first of four nominations in her career.

  Laura was also known for her recording of Roxette’s “The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye.” Her cover of the song appeared on her “Over My Heart” album released in 1993. It’s been said that Laura also wanted to record a cover of “Queen of Rain.”

  After the death of her husband in 1996, Branigan stopped performing but returned to the stage in 2001. In 2002 she starred as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical “Love, Janis,” which earned her rave reviews.

  Funeral services are scheduled for Monday.

• Laura Branigan website

STOCKHOLM - Gyllene Tider performed last night at Swedish phone operator Comviq/Tele2’s kick-off event in Alvik outside of Stockholm. About 650 employees from Comviq attended. “This has been planned for a while,” Göran Fritzon, keyboards, explained to Aftonbladet.

  Comviq have been trying to get Gyllene Tider to play at one of their kick-off events for years. They succeeded this time because they were a major sponsor of the GT25 tour.

  hstd99 contributed to this article.

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)
• Expressen’s story (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams’s new album “Room Service” will be released later this fall. Not only is the title Roxette-ish, but the album itself is like Roxette’s “Tourism” – songs recorded in hotel rooms and such.

  When Expressen tells Bryan this he replies “I had no idea Roxette had done this before. It certainly wasn’t my intention to steal anything! Tell Per and Marie that I’m sorry. I just thought it was a really neat idea.”

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)
• Bryan Adams

HALMSTAD - The weather wasn’t exactly the best in the Halland area this summer and it affected many of the happenings in Halmstad and nearby cities. Except for Gyllene Tider: their three concerts in Halmstad were seen by 75,000 people, not counting the 10,000 to 20,000 people watching the final concert at Stora Torg.

  Björn Nohlgren of Nöjet AB worked as a producer for many of the summer’s successes. In addition to Gyllene Tider’s summer tour, he worked on Tältprojektet (“The Tent Project”, a tour with Magnus Uggla, Sweden’s Eurovision Song Contest winner Lena Philipsson, Robert Gustafsson, Cecilia Frode and Johan Rheborg) and Rhapsody in Rock (a special combination of classical music and rock arranged by pianist Robert Wells). Tältprojektet had four shows in Varberg and Rhapsody in Rock one in Falkenberg. All concerts were sold out, but the number of attendees were far from Gyllene Tider concerts.

  “Gyllene Tider’s summer tour is not on the map. Nothing like it has ever happened in Sweden and nothing like it is likely to ever happen again,” Nohlgren said to the local newspaper Hallands Nyheter.

• Hallands Nyheter article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Gyllene Tider thanks all the people that attended the GT25 tour, all 492,252 of them. A post-tour advertisement appearing in several newspapers reads “Thank you all who made GT25 the biggest tour in Sweden through all time!”

  The ad goes on to proclaim a sold-out tour, and that “Finn 5 fel!” has sold more than 210,000 copies so far, and “GT25” (Greatest Hits) more than 65,000.

  The photo in the ad, featured both in Expressen and Aftonbladet, bears a striking similarity to the one published in ’96 after Återtåget, also used on the “Återtåget” VHS/DVD sleeve.

HALMSTAD - This is it, this is “The End.” “The End” is what the last concert was called at Örjans Vall in Halmstad, Gyllene Tider’s final concert this tour. In total, over 492,000 (499,000 according to some sources) people have seen GT this summer during their 21-gig-long tour. This reporter assumes that the Gyllene boys are tired, because it was damn hard covering the tour!

  When The Daily Roxette came to Örjans Vall it was pouring cats and dogs, the rain started trickling at 5 and escalated to a downpour at 7, when The Latin Kings entered the stage. TDR had a little talk with Per Gessle at 7:45 (see below). During the interview, Mats “MP” Persson allegedly got sick of the rain and told the others that he would stop it. So MP sticks his hands in the air and shouts. The rain stops immediately. When TDR comes out from the interview at 8 the rain is gone!
  While the setlist didn’t contain any surprises, the concert itself did. Gyllene Tider’s members became “honorary citizens” of Halmstad 2004 for being such great ambassadors for the town for so long. Another amazing thing that happened was that Micke “Syd” Andersson confessed that he’s been lying the whole tour through…

  The lie? He has been telling each and everyone that he’s been traveling with his wife. Now he came clean and told us that she merely was his girlfriend! So Micke brought Helena on stage and proposed to her. Helena said yes! After that they sang “Min tjej och jag” together, although renamed “Min fru och jag” (“My Wife and I”), the proposal was a huge success.

  After the concert Sweden’s Princess Madeleine came backstage and congratulated Gyllene Tider on a great show. Then the Golden Lads entered the semi torn down stage and had cake and champagne before the press. Anders sprayed the photographers with champagne…

  All in all… a great end to a great tour, by a great band.

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - While The Daily Roxette waits to see Per Gessle before the final Gyllene Tider concert, it rained, rained, rained… I don’t think there has been more rain in Halmstad ever.

  When we finally get backstage, Per greets us with a smile – he has just met a bunch of foreign fans. TDR gets right down to business and asks Per about the “end of Roxette” story in Aftonbladet.

  “The rumors are not true. My sentences were taken out of context totally. If Marie wants – and can – we will certainly continue with Roxette,” Per says. “Of course, we won’t aim to conquer the US again… but why not a smaller tour, like the one in 2001, that one wasn’t longer than this tour for instance,” he continues. “We also still have a contract with EMI, I don’t remember how many records, but…”

  How about the time out? “I haven’t said that either, I will disappear from the limelight, but I won’t stop doing things, as per usual… all I want right now is to get out of sight for a while. ”

  The Daily Roxette inquires carefully about Marie Fredriksson’s condition. “There’s not much to say really, it’s more or less the same, she has her good periods and her bad ones. She needs time. It’s also a lot about how motivated she is about moving around. She’s been recording her album for a long time now, but I really don’t know much about it.”

  That said we go on to other business. The new Gyllene Tider single, “Solsken,” will likely be out in September, with some “Finn 5 fel!” demos as b-sides. The song “Choklad, vanilj, jordgubb” is not yet finished so it won’t be used. In connection to this, The Daily Roxette inquired about other future releases. “There will be the DVD, hopefully out before Christmas. The footage is shot mainly in Gothenburg, and the sound will be the best possible. We recorded all the concerts,” says Per. “In addition we may release a new live CD, but that hasn’t been decided yet.” Per also mentions that the old remastered albums will be released without the bonus tracks (as single CDs) mid-priced, and they are thinking about releasing a b-sides CD with unreleased demos. “I’m really against releasing these demos, but on the other hand, they are a part of our past so why not,” Per tells The Daily Roxette.

  SF (Svensk Filmindustri), is at the moment restoring the original 16mm film of Parkliv manually, frame by frame, so it can look its best on DVD when it finally is released.

MALMÖ -   Brainpool’s latest project “Junk: a Rock Opera” will be out in the stores this Thursday, August 19th. The double CD – which will also be presented live with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (MSO) during the Malmö Music Festival on the same day – contains a total of 28 songs in English.


  The band, consisting of Jens Jansson, David Birde and Christoffer Lundquist, celebrates its 10th anniversary with this release, which is the first since 1999 when they released “You Are Here.”


  The live version of Junk with the MSO will naturally differ considerably from Brainpools CD-version, which is being released by Playground Music. The group has worked on the recording off-an-on for about four years, in between other projects. Most recently, Lundquist – who has played with Roxette – co-produced Gyllene Tider’s “Finn 5 Fel” album.

  Some of the songs from “Junk” are available to listen to on the band’s official website.

• Brainpool’s official website
• Malmö Festival (in English and Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - According to Aftonbladet, Per Gessle says he doesn’t have the fire that’s needed to keep Roxette running.

  Although Per doesn’t specifically say that Roxette is over, he gives very little to hang your hope on.

  “I don’t feel the urge to go out in the world anymore, back then it was an enormous force to make it abroad,” says Per. Even if Marie Fredriksson gets well enough to continue, Per is doubtful.


  andersb contibuted to this article.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

SUNDSVALL - Next year Per Gessle will disappear from the limelight. “It’s a promise I’ve given my wife, Åsa. That’s all there is to it,” Per states in Expressen. He will be gone at least a year, during which he will be doing “absolutely nothing.” This is not due to Per being worn out, he claims. “Last year I did my solo tour and I was everywhere. This summer has been absolutely crazy with Gyllene. I can feel a fear that people might get sick of Per Gessle. Hence it’s better to stop and step off for a while.”

  One thing he’s planned for the leave though… he wants to see Madonna’s European tour, either in London or in Paris. “She’s a great performer!” Per says to Expressen.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)