Roxette chatted for a moment on the Internet. As I feared beforehand, Aftonbladet’s “unique multimedia chat” was way too ambitious to be usable. At least in IE5/Windows 98 there was no sound in the streaming video interview and some of the pages were unreachable. The previous Roxette chats have also suffered from technical problems.

In the text chat there wasn’t anything new. “Kikki” (probably Per with wrong user name) said about the US record deal that “Take it easy. It will happen eventually. Trust us.” Per said his favourite solo track is “Stupid” and Marie said her favourite is “Tro”. There wasn’t more than 26 questions in total.

• Chat log
• Video interview (requires RealPlayer)

The UK version of “Stars” single has been released as a 2-CD set. I’m not sure if the tracklisting I published earlier is the real one, because there’s at least one change: CD #1 contains “Stars” video that wasn’t mentioned in the listing.

On September 29, 16pm CET Per and Marie will be chatting in an unique live chat on Aftobladet’s web site. The chat will be unique because there will be simultaneous live video stream with sound and text-based chat. Per will be by the keyboard with his “furious fingers” while Marie answers fans’ questions in front of a video camera.

To join in, be sure to have Netscape 3, Internet Explorer 4 or newer with RealPlayer G2. You may also have to register to KlubbPuls (Aftonbladet’s online club).
The information is only in Swedish.

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish info page

“Have A Nice Day” album has sold 250,000 copies of in Germany and thus Roxette received a gold record. At the same time they also received double platinum for “Look Sharp!”. This means that 1 million copies of the album has been sold in Germany.

Expressen also mentions that the magazine Fono has awarded “Wish I Could Fly” as “Continental No 1 Hit”.

• Expressen’s Swedish article

The Swedish rock musician Pugh Rogefeldt releases his new album in October. One of the guests on the forthcoming “Pugh maraton” will be Per Gessle. This time Per won’t be singing - instead he’s playing harmonium on the track “Gammeldags tro” (“Old-fashioned faith”). Per had troubles finding a suitable harmonium, but finally found one in Laholm.

• Expressen’s Swedish article

According to Per’s message to the Swedish “Ask Per” section at www.haveaniceday.nu, there will be a special Gyllene Tider boxset released in February-March 2000. The boxset will contain “a lot of goodies from the vault”. Per also says there will be a cook book by Micke Syd “with smell of sauce”, but I think that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

• www.haveaniceday.nu

In www.haveaniceday.nu’s Swedish “Ask Per” section, there is also an interesting question concerning Roxette’s touring. Per answers that they are going to start recording a new album early next year, so there won’t be time for a tour now. However, according to Per, there may some surprise gigs here and there on Christmas. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

• www.haveaniceday.nu

Per tells in his brief answer that the video for “Salvation” will be probably shot in Rome, Italy.

EMI is going to release a special edition of “Have A Nice Day” album for the Spanish markets. The special edition will contain the 3 tracks from the album in Spanish:

• “Alguien” (“Anyone”)
  
• “Lo Siento” (“Salvation”)
  
• “Quisiera” (“Wish I Could Fly”)
  

The Spanish edition will be released in Spain, Latin America and probably in Portugal around October this year.

The next single release from “Have A Nice Day” will be “Salvation”, just as expected. The video will be shot at the beginning of October. Further details will follow.

The publisher of Roxette discography book has announced that the book is due to be out on November 15, 1999. The book will be reviewed in TDR as soon as it’s out of the press!

• Premium Publishing

EMI has put online an official statement about some rumours that have been going around on the Internet:

This message is to inform everyone that there is NO TRUTH WHATSOEVER to the rumour that Roxette is to perform in Tylösand, Sweden on New Years Eve 1999. Also, Roxette does not have a tour planned. EMI Sweden

Another rumour has it that Roxette’s next album will be called “Flowers of the Ocean”. This, of course, is not officially confirmed.