NEW YORK - Per Gessle and Sven Lindström to count down the Top 50 Swedish Songs of the past decade on Sirius XM's NORDIC ROX show. A two-part special to showcase a wide-variety of Swedish songs from artists like The Hives, Roxette, Peter, Bjorn and John, Kent, The Cardigans, The Sounds and more. On The Spectrum, SIRIUS channel 18 and XM channel 45

The first half of the countdown will air on Sunday, January 24 at 8:00 pm ET. The second half of the countdown will air on Sunday, January 31 at 8:00 pm ET.

HALMSTAD - Radio Halland's Pelle Hörmander has met Per Gessle for their traditional after-Christmas interview. These are the highlights of the 13 minute interview:

About the new album:

"We're thinking '80s, that immediate in-your-face production. We're looking at 'Look Sharp!' production wise. The songs are short and effective. Clarence calls it "fool proof production" meaning not so many instruments and they all are very clear to hear. I'm trying to think that way when I write [for this album]. It's hard to explain."

- Is it as danceable as 'Party Crasher'?

"No, not at all. Not at all. Maybe next year when we sit here again, the album's out."

"Half of the songs are written for me, half for Marie. Marie hasn't written anything for the album. I'd like Marie to sing it all, but I guess that's not possible so I have to fill in here and there."

About touring:

"I do see Roxette performing again, that's what we want. Why not in Sweden? If not, we'll have to make room for Sweden. This is not written in stone though, but if you had asked me 6 months ago I would have said no."

- Next big Roxette tour, will you take more space on stage?

"Yes I might, since I've been touring a lot solo lately I now feel more comfortable to be on stage."

- Still interested in the US?

"Sure, but that will never happen again. We're too old and vintage. But there may well be a cover of a Rox song that will climb the charts. The songs still have power, not sure that Per & Marie have it anymore…"

About 2010:

"We're in the studio until midsummer for starters. Then possibly rehearsals if we're to do concerts."

"Next year there will be nothing but Roxette."

CURITIBA, BRAZIL - Writer/director Marcos Marques from Curitiba, Brazil, wrote a screenplay based on the Son of a Plumber song "Are You An Old Hippie, Sir?".  With his screenplay he won the 1st place at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation screenplay contest. As a prize he received $ 6,000 to make a movie based on this script. The short movie is titled "Você É Um Velho Hippie, Senhor?" in Portuguese and was shot November 1. It is currently in post-production. According to the movie producer, Priscila Zaruvny Borges (who kindly informed The Daily Roxette about this project), the story is about two guys at a convenience store and an old man that sometimes looks like an old hippie and sometimes like a serious business man. The two guys spend the movie trying to answer the "title" question. Look for the premiere at Curitiba's Cinemateca in June 2010!

Per has just let The Daily Roxette know that the albums "The World According to Gessle," "Son of a Plumber" and "Party Crasher" now are via Tunecore digitally released in these online stores:

# iTunes U.S.
# Rhapsody
# Napster
# eMusic
# IMVU
# Lala
# Shockhound
# LimeWire Store
# iTunes Australia/N.Z.
# iTunes Canada
# iTunes Japan

Additionally the single "Silly Really" is also available on Amazon.com.

LJUSDAL - First there was nothing, then there was "Wings over America." Now there's "Gessle over Europe"! The live CD/DVD combo awaited by many a fan. Was it worth the wait?

Yes. Yes it certainly was!

The CD is amazing, crystal clear sound, heavy bass and with a live feeling that puts you right back into the audience again. If you were there in the first place, that is… Kudos to Christoffer Lundqvist! The packaging is identical to the Roxette re-releases; a high glossy "eco" pack that looks like a small vinyl LP. Speaking of which, the album comes as a double LP with three bonus tracks as well, not reviewed here though.
The tracks on the album come from the best concerts available, and from what I can understand, some concerts were better than others. "Gessle over Europe" isn't mixed together to sound like one homogeneous concert so there are some fade ins and outs. This only affects the crowd noises though.
I won't review the concert again, so if you want to read about that, check that review out here.

In short: This album is a must have. I would recommend it to non-fans even. However, I have to mention some of the better tracks (and this is hard): "Doesn't Make Sense" is out of this world on this album, and so is "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart." I can go on and on, but I'll limit myself to these three. What I keep wondering is if they've cut the last part out of "Listen to Your Heart" as I want to remember it from the concert that Per sings "you tell her goodbye…" yet another time.

Now, Capitol is marketing this as a CD with a bonus-DVD, while I think the audience may see it the other way around.

Read more…

Just to be clear: this isn't an article, this is the promo text from Per's promo folder for the new album. The text is written by Sven Lindström.

 

"Gessle Over Europe - the 2009 club tour captured live!

Since Roxette’s ”Room Service” tour in the fall of 2001, Sweden has been able to keep one of their true pop superstars more or less for themselves. Starting with 2003’s massively successful Swedish solo comeback “Mazarin”, Gessle kept himself busy in Sweden as a solo act or reuniting with his former group Gyllene Tider. But in the spring of 2009, the Roxette songwriter Per Gessle finally took an acclaimed step back to the international scene.

With a back catalog of songs from multi-million selling Roxette albums as well as solo material from his 1997 international debut “The World According To Gessle” to the 2005 double package “Son Of A Plumber” and last year’s “Party Crasher” album, Per had plenty to choose from.

Between April 16 and May 10 fans in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, The Czech republic, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and England could experience a seemingly never-ending stream of Gessle-penned hits in an intimate club environment. They got revamped Roxette classics like ”Joyride” and ”The Look” next to more recent solo material like ”Hey Mr DJ” and ”Doesn’t Make Sense”—all in a new and inspired setting that made even a more than 20 year old-faithful like “Dressed For Success” seem like it was written yesterday.

Read more…

SÖDERHAMN - Gessle.com has posted another teaser for the forthcoming CD/DVD pack, it's subtitled in English and in German. On a sidenote, Per tweeted that the combo will be available at hotel Tylösand in 100 signed copies.

(Updated) - Get your own "Gessle over Europe" poster in high quality PDF format! Courtesy of Per Gessle himself. The latest release date is October 23 now. Bengans has just updated its site and the LP has October 28 as the release date. CD/DVD for 159 SEK (€15) and LP for 239 SEK (€24).

royalball contributed to this article.

STOCKHOLM - Per has kindly delayed his trip to New York to meet with The Daily Roxette… Well, not really, it's actually his wife's stomach flu that keeps him from going, which is great (for us, not her!), since we can interview him instead! And this time around we've gotten the questions from the fans.

So Per, let's fire away: what can we expect from Roxette at the Proms? Did you find any new dimensions in the songs?
- First of all this is a great opportunity for Marie and myself to get back together again without trying to do a full-scale Roxette concert. At this point we'd like to take everything concerning Roxette step by step. Also, of course, it will be thrilling to perform some of our biggest songs (especially "Wish I Could Fly," "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart") with a big orchestra & choir. Clarence's & Christoffer's arrangements are truly stunning. And the idea of having strings on "The Look" sounds very South Park to me. I love it.

Sounds nice. And how will you meet Marie's nowadays more limited mobility on stage?
- Well, like I said, we take everything step by step. Time will tell how much she wants to work the stage. I don't know yet. But I don't consider this to be a problem. Her voice and presence are still magical.

Any advice regarding fans' (un)realistic expectations?
- No. Enjoy the shows. We certainly will.

Is there a possibility to see all the Prom versions get released after the tour? - How about a full orchestral album, like Metallica's "S & M"?
- Hmpff… I'm sure there will be DVD:s released with our Prom-performances. Full orchestral album? Not on the agenda at the moment, no.

How will you spend your spare time on the road? Songwriting, business or simply relaxing?
- We're actually bringing a serious amount of equipment to Belgium & Holland to make some groundbreaking recordings in the hotel corridors… How about that?

Read more…

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - October 24 Swedish radio P4 will broadcast Per's concert from Cirkus this summer. The concert won't be broadcast in its entirety, however there will be an interview before.

Update: The tracklist has been compiled:

P4 tracklist, October 24, 20:00-21:00 CET.

1. Dressed For Success
2. The Party Pleaser
3. Wish I Could Fly
4. Stupid
5. I Have a Party In My Head (I Hope It Never Ends)
6. Listen To Your Heart
7. Do You Wanna Be My Baby?
8. Opportunity Nox
9. Doesn't Make Sense
10. Joyride
11. The Look
12. Hey Mr DJ (Won't You Play Another Love Song)
13. (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone