Great news from Sweden! Marie’s new complation album “Äntligen - Bästa [1984-2000]” went straight to number 1 on Swedish charts. The lead single, also entitled “Äntligen” (“Finally”), hasn’t had as much success: it’s on position #43 on Swedish single chart. This isn’t so much of a surprise, because both of the tracks on the single are also on the album, as Chris Oriet mentioned on the Roxette mailing list.

• Svenska Topplistan

This message, sent by Stephen Shelton to the Roxette Mailing List was so great that I had to put it here!

• The latest 2-CD Roxette single was scheduled to be released next week in the UK, but radio stations have yet to get the promo single from EMI. Also, the single has not appeared in any music store databases so it appears the single will be delayed.
   

• Per and Marie are working hard on their US record deal situation. It appears that the latest album will be released in approximately 6 months!
   

• No word yet on whether or not the latest release will appear in Australia. Phone calls to EMI-Oz have not been returned.
   

• After releasing the new single in <country> with absolutely no promotional support from EMI-<country>, the single failed to chart. Executives at EMI-<country> are stumped.
   

• Roxette’s latest video has been censored by MTV and will not be seen on TV. It really doesn’t matter because the video sucks anyway. It is unknown whether or not this is just an excuse not to air Roxette material.
   

• Per is taking this month off for some well deserved rest and relaxation and will be ready to promote the new single next month.
   

• The album has just been released in <country>, but the album isn’t even being displayed in the new CD section, it is being placed in the “R” section. It seems like EMI-<country> is not planning on promoting the album.
  

ROTFL! Why would we need updates anymore?

“Almost 50 years after the song group Gnäggers from Halmstad immortalized their tune ’Jag har min häst, jag har min lasso’ (’I have my horse, I have my lasso’) on an old 78 record, was Stora Torg the location for the decade’s mega concert with Gyllene Tider.”

A friend of Per, Lars Nordin is making a TV documentary on Halmstad’s music life. Halmstad is the home town of Per Gessle and Gyllene Tider, Per’s former band. Nordin will be assisted by Larz Lundgren, the co-author of “Roxette The Book”, the official biography of Roxette (released only in Swedish and German).

They are looking for any interesting footage that people have. So if you were there when Per and Marie sang together for the first time, send your tapes to Nordin and Lundgren!

The documentary is going to be broadcasted on the last day of the millennium, on December 31.

EMI UK won’t anymore release singles for the artists who have sold fewer than 80,000 copies of their latest singles. “Britain’s biggest record company is planning to stop paying some its most popular performers for releasing the traditional single in a move that is likely to be copied throughout the industry”, says The Sunday Times.

One of the artists mentioned in the article is Roxette. However, Roxette is not alone: other artists who have not reached the 80,000 limit include the two Spice Girls Mel C and Mel G, Cher, Will Smith, B*Witched and the grand-old of rock’n’roll, The Rolling Stones.

The reason for this all is of course money. “Industry analysts say that most [record companies] lose money, and the total loss to the industry from competing in the British charts is estimated at 60m GBP each year.”

• The Sunday Times article

EMI Svenska has postponed the launch of their own website. Earlier this year the first page of www.emi.se said the site would be opened in “autumn of 1999”, but now it says “This site is scheduled for take of… Next millennium… Welcome!”.

• Future home of EMI Svenska

The Swedish government has decided to give a permission for one international-sized casino in Sweden. Per’s hotel, Hotel Tylösand, is one of the candidates. Now rumour from Sweden has it that Tylösand is one of the six finalists in the competition for a casino.

According to our reader Maria Bonet from Orlando, Florida, Roxette is featured in Epcot Center’s Millennium Village. Epcot Center is part of Walt Disney World. She tells: “[…] the point is that Per and Marie are in the Sweden half of the village. There’s a large wall of artists and important people from Sweden and Roxette is in it!!! I was very impressed and amazed to see them there. They had life sized pictures and a little screen where you could watch videos, but the Roxette video didn’t play for me…”

A new site dedicated to Marie Fredriksson has been launched. The site, titled Gun-Marie’s Guys and Gals (Marie’s full first name is Gun-Marie), is also the “home of Marie’s one and only Fan group”. The site also contains a huge discography. Check it out!

• Gun-Marie’s Guys and Gals

Lars-Erik Olsson from New York has an interesting rumour to share with us: in the future Roxette will be represented by a new lawyer in the US. This means that the contract with their current lawyer, Robert Thorne will end. You may remember that Mr. Thorne was recently hospitalized because of severe illness and this was one of the reasons behind the delay of the US album release. Official Roxette Fanclub told about Thorne and his disease in June.

Per reveals at www.haveaniceday.nu information on the forthcoming “Salvation” single. The b-side will be an unreleased song called “See Me”, which is an outtake from the “Crash! Boom! Bang!” sessions (there seems to be more and more tracks from that time!). The maxi single will contain also a previously unreleased version (the original one) of “Crazy About You”. If you don’t remember, “Crazy About You” was released as a b-side of “You Don’t Understand Me”. Maxi single will also contain the “Stars” video.

• www.haveaniceday.nu