Thanks primarily to the work of Steven Howlett (who happens to be in the U.K.) there is now a site set up to coordinate the efforts of fans to promote Roxette in the United States. A spokesperson at Edel America Records, the U.S. label, says they “welcome the effort.”


Located at www.roxette.net, a URL previously used by Steven for a Roxette news site, the U.S. “RoxAttaq” — as these efforts have become known — will be an ongoing project that is just getting off the ground. The first objective will be to help gain airplay for “Wish I Could Fly”, which is being widely released to U.S. radio stations.


Besides Steven, Judith Seuma from Spain and TDR News Editor Lars-Erik Olson make up the original team of coordinators.


“We’re looking for fans from all over the work to help us, and we’ve tried to make it easy for them to do so,” Judith said.

What could make this an interesting activity is that the coordinators have been planning these internet-based activitites in conjunction with EAR. There will be cooperative efforts between EAR and the site.

• U.S RoxAttaq (launches this week)

Judith and Jenny’s digicam have brought us a very nice set of pictures from yesterday’s Allsång på Skansen. The pictures were taken of an actual TV screen, so they really are “screenshots”.

• Marie at AllsÂng p Skansen

Today’s Expressen praises the duet of Marie Fredriksson and Patrik Isaksson performed during the Allsång på Skansen TV show yesterday. The show, which is extremely popular in Sweden, has it’s target group in middle-aged and older people, but Marie brought in a younger audience as well. On the show, Marie didn’t forget to once again express her feelings about the forthcoming tour:

“I think it’s going to be wonderful and fun to perform for the Swedish public this summer on my tour. This is something what I’ve been longing for,” she said.

• Expressen’s Swedish article

Managing director Per Bengtsson is leaving Hotel Tylöhus, owned by Per Gessle and entrepreneur Björn Nordstrand. According to Bengtsson, there’s no schism between him and the owners. “No, I’ve just given my notice and now I’m looking forward to my first real summer holiday in ten years,” Bengtsson says in Hallandsposten.

Bengtsson worked at Hotel Tylöhus for ten years, five of them under Gessle and Nordstrand. Per didn’t want to comment, but said that “it is sad to hear this”.

• Hallandsposten’s Swedish article

Marie will sing live this evening at “Allsang på Skansen”. Patrik Isaksson will join her on stage to sing “Det Som Var Nu”. The show will be broadcast live at 20.00 on SVT 1 and will be repeated July 2 at 15.00 on the same channel. Skansen is an open-air park/museum just outside of Stockholm.

• AllsÂng p Skansen

Marie’s compilation album “Äntligen [Bästa 1984-2000]” has now been on the Swedish album chart’s Top 10 for 12 weeks. The album has sold double platinum in Sweden and 160,000 copies altogether.

“Unbelievable,” says Marie. “I do still have many of my old fans, so I thought the album would sell well. But double platinum…”

This summer Marie won’t have time to rest. The rehearsals for her summer tour started yesterday, today she’ll be on Allsång and the 19-concert tour will begin on July 12. “It’s going to be exciting. And it’s nice that [the tour] is so intensive, and one can focus on one thing for a short period of time.” (Thanks to efvorna)

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

As we reported earlier, Per was asked to write music for the opening of Öresundsbron, the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark. The inauguration of the bridge will be on Saturday, July 1, and the instrumental track “View From The Bridge”, written by Per with help from Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist, will be performed at the conclusion of the ceremony.

According to Aftobladet, Per’s song will be quite different from the usual verse/chorus-type of music — it will be more like a combination of Brian Wilson’s sling guitar and Ennio Morricone’s pomposity.

Even though Per says that it has been fun to try out in a new genre, he’s not interested in big productions in the future. “Actually, I’m kind of glad when this is over. I am more of a rock’n’roll guy,” he says.

Per himself won’t be performing in the ceremony — the 8-minute musical piece will be performed by the Orchestra of Malmö Music Teather and Denmark Radio Pops Orchestra. “We’ve worked on the composition on computers and I haven’t even heard it performed with real instruments yet,” says Per in Aftonbladet.

The opening ceremony will be broadcasted live on SVT1 and TV4 and via satellite on SVT Europa. (Thanks to norb)

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

The Official Roxette Fanclub has contacted Per, because there have been rumors circulating over a new Gyllene Tider release. Here is Per’s reply:

Good morning.

No, it’s not true. However, there will be a “new” GT CD out in mid-July called “Konstpaus - samtliga inspelningar från 90-talet och lite till…”. As you might understand from the title, the album consists of all the material GT recorded in the 90s plus the “Per’s Garage” recordings, freshly squeezed by Michael Ilbert (new mixes). This is the running order:

1. Småstad

2. Gå & fiska!

3. Det är över nu

4. Kung av sand

5. Juni, juli, augusti

6. Jo-anna farväl

7. Om hon visste vad hon ville

8. Vandrande man

9. Det är blommor som har fångat dig

10. Faller ner på knä

11. Ny pojkvän

12. Oh yea oh yea (oh oh)

13. Harplinge

14. Ingen går i ringen

15. Solens vän

 

Nice of you to ask me.

P.

This album has been listed, apparently by mistake, in several online record stores with the name “www.Gyllenetider985.com”. The domain gyllenetider985.com has not been registered.

A group of people from the English-language Roxette mailing list have started a mailing list for all Spanish fans. The list will be a mixture between a mailing list and a Spanish “Roxattaq” (campaign run by fans to promote Roxette). One of the first discussions will be how to get Roxette songs played on the air again.

• RoxSpain

Promotional copies of “Wish I Could Fly” are being sent to U.S. Top 40 and Adult Contemporary radio stations with the target “hit” date of July 18th.


It is uncertain at the moment, however, if Edel America (EAR) will be releasing a commercial version of the single. Their original press release indicated that they would release the Todd Terry remix, and a dance/club single is still being actively considered.


It is possible that EAR plans to wait and see if the song begins to take off on radio, and if it does… will rush a single into production and to retail.


Fans, even outside the United States, have already begun to gear up for what’s become known as a “Roxattaq” to help gain airplay for the song both on radio and TV. Such coordinated campaigns have been successful in many parts of the world, including (to pick a North American example) Toronto, Cananda.

The URL of The Daily Roxette is now more convenient: www2.dailyroxette.com. All the old links will still function, but please update your bookmarks anyway. You can access any feature of The Daily Roxette by replacing “visakopu.net/dailyroxette” with “dailyroxette.com”. For example, SmallTalk can now be found at http://www2.dailyroxette.com/smalltalk/.

Please note that because of the domain change, the automatic login doesn’t work until you’ve saved your Preferences once and thus created a new cookie file.

Everything should be working OK already, but if you notice a glitch somewhere, please contact us.

The Official Roxette Fanclub members who ordered their tickets from the fanclub’s exclusive service and paid for the delivery, are not going to get tickets mailed to their homes. Here is the message that was sent to the orderers:

Dear all of you,

 

This is to let you know that recently you have ordered tickets from the official roxette fanclub.

 

Because of the time-limit sending the tickets we have decided not to send you tickets by mail.

 

Once your payment is received you do not have to worry and you can go to the concert, since your name will be on the “FANCLUB GUEST LIST” of EMA Telstar, which is available at all venues.

 

Please make sure that you have a proper identification with you and ask the ticket boot (which is at each venue) for the fanclub list, you will get your tickets there and can go to the show.

This is probably the most convenient way to handle the situation and should have been considered in the first place. However, it seems that the 8-10 euros (7.60-9.50 USD) charged for postage won’t be refunded.

• Official Roxette Fanclub

Billboard’s columnist and well-known friend of Swedish music, Fred Bronson, commented on the importance of Roxette’s new US record deal in his weekly online Chart Beat Chat. David Di Troia asked Fred’s opinion on Roxette’s decision to sign to a small record label and release “Wish I Could Fly” as a single. This is what Fred replied:

edel is a major record label throughout Europe, and the biggest hit to date on edel America is “Crush’ by Jennifer Paige — so the label is certainly pop-oriented. I think it’s a good fit for Roxette, which instantly becomes the best-known group on the American label’s roster.

Given the current climate of Swedish production success in the U.S., the time may be right for Roxette to return to the U.S. charts, and the duo’s recent appearance on the World Music Awards may have helped pave the way.

Editor’s Note: I have to say — as a European — that I’ve never heard of Edel Records before Roxette’s announcement. The subsidiary labels of Edel (such as Mega Records) are known in Europe, but Edel itself isn’t. (roxeteer)

• Billboard Chart Beat Chat

Fans have wondered why Edel America Records hasn’t yet mentioned Roxette on their Website. This is what their spokesperson has replied:

Not to worry! At the moment the new Edel America website is under construction and is set to launch this July, this will also include the new US Roxette Website, in time for their Greatest Hits album release!

• Edel America Records

According to Expressen, the band Brainpool has been working on a rock opera for 6 months already. “The opera will be set in the present and will satirize and criticize the economy-centered society that has grown so strong during the last 12 months,” says guitarist David Birde in Expressen. Birde is also responsible for the opera’s libretto. The rock opera is due to be ready next year. The band is hoping that Philip Zandé would be the director. The music of the opera will be first released as a CD.

Brainpool is a guitar-pop band coming from Lund, southern Sweden. Brainpool was first “found” by Per’s record company Jimmy Fun Music. Brainpool’s members, especially bassist Christoffer Lundquist, have been co-operating with Per and Roxette since Per’s solo album in 1997.

• Expressen’s Swedish article
• Brainpool

The Daily Roxette finally managed to get some more information on the band Sverige which will be the opening act on Marie’s summer tour, as we first mentioned in an earlier report.

Their official biography from their record company Universal Music says that the band was founded on a winter evening in 1999, when Peder Ernerot (aka “Pedda P”) and Johan Forsberg were listening to Johnny Cash in a local pub. They noticed that no-one had done a good Swedish country album, and decided to make a good one themselves. When Peder’s brother Markus said that he already had some song ideas and Gustave Lund (aka “Gurra G”) came in, starting up a band became reality.

It was Johan who came up with the name Sverige. All the band members immediately thought that it was a great name, but then they became unsure. What if the name is misunderstood as a nationalistic statement? Peder, however, said that the fear of misunderstanding leads to great art, so the band decided to keep the name.

Later, bassist Thomas Lindberg, drummist Stefan Carlsson and keyboard player Joakim Uddling joined the band. After some practicing and purchasing a banjo, the band had a great premiere on stage in Tantogården. Johan Norberg told the band that he was interested in producing their album. Sverige’s debut album “Som Landet Ligger” was released in April this year.

In Swedish newspapers the album has got rather good ratings, but according to the papers, the album is “missing catchy songs.”

Image courtesy of Universal Music.

MP3s, Napster, and other Internet file-trading programs were supposed to cannibalize retail music sales and destroy the recording industry.


But thanks in part to clever Internet marketing, just the opposite has happened — at least in some cases. The music industry has smashed several retail sales records during the last few months.


Eminem fans last week flocked to the store to purchase 1.76 million copies of the rapper’s new album. Britney Spears’ May 13 release sold 1.3 million copies. And boy band ’N Sync’s album “No Strings Attached” moved an amazing 2.4 million units in April to become the highest first-week selling album of all time.


Insiders are attributing some of the retail success to Internet-based promotions. And now, with Per’s recent investment in Cell, it’s possible for Roxette to mount the same kind of campaign should they, and their management, decide to take advantage of that capability. Read more…

Marie’s successful duet with Patrik Isaksson, “Det Som Var Nu,” will be released to radio on July 19th, and available in stores at the end of July.


In an effort to promote the single, Marie will appear as part of this year’s premier program of “Allsång på Skansen” on June 27th. Skansen is an outdoor park just outside Stockholm, and the show is broadcast live on Swedish TV. She’ll be joined onstage by Patrik to sing “Det Som Var Nu” live. On the same program, she’ll also sing “Tro” together with the Duvemåla choir.

Marie is currently the Artist of the Month (Artister > Månadens Artist) on EMI Sweden’s Website. The feature includes Marie’s comments on the various tracks on the album.

• EMI Sweden

The following paragraph is part of a news column written by C. Bottomley that appeared in the “The Wire” section of VH1.com:


Roxette are back! They’re finally getting around to releasing their European greatest-hits set, Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus, with a few tracks from Have a Nice Day. The 1999 Day album was never released in the U.S., following a dispute with the group’s record company. Said Marie Fredriksson, the cute one, “We have to work with promotion in America and really show the Americans that we are back and that we never quit. It’s really important to show our fans - if there are any still [laughs] - that we are here for them.”

• VH1 column

The site that was originally used to mount a successful campaign encouraging Marie to go on tour, has now evolved into a kind of “tour guide.” The site intends to help fans with their travel plans, and especially be a place where fans interested in meeting other fans can post their messages.

• MarieF Tour 2000 Guide

TDR’s mobile edition for Windows CE handhelds, Pocket PC’s and Palm Connected organizers is now available. Using technology provided by AvantGo, you can download the latest articles to your handheld — optimized for the small screen. Using AvantGo and TDR’s mobile edition is free.

• TDR to your PDA

Edel America Records (EAR) has announced a U.S. licensing deal for Swedish pop duo Roxette. The band remains affiliated with EMI in other territories. The first release under the deal will be the compilation “Don’t Bore Us — Get To The Chorus,” which has sold more than 4 million copies since its international debut in October 1995.

A Todd Terry remix of last year’s international release “Wish I Could Fly” is being added to the U.S. version of the compilation. EAR expects to release a new studio album by the band in May 2001.

Editor’s Note: Billboard got this wrong. An EAR spokesperson told TDR that the remix will not be on the album. (Lars-Erik)

• Billboard article

Billboard magazine reports that the record label interests of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (now called Newscorp Music Group, NCM) and Edel Music have signed an alliance to work on recorded music and Internet opportunities. NCM labels like Festival, Mushroom and Rawkus, (the first 2 mentioned are big labels in Australia) will license through Edel in countries outside of Australiasia, North America and the UK. In Australia and New Zealand, NCM and Edel will form a joint company, and NCM chairman James Murdoch is tipped to join Edel’s supervisory board. Rumour of the week is that Festival Mushroom Group is to change its name to News Music or Newscorp Music.

Editor’s Note: This transaction does not appear to affect Roxette in any way, as their recent deal with Edel is limited solely to the United States. (Lars-Erik)

Marie’s album “Äntligen [Bästa 1984-2000]” dropped 4 spots to #5 on the album sales charts in Sweden this week. The new #1 is Iron Maiden with their latest album “Brave New World”.

• Svenska Topplistan

roxette.org has been re-opened after 3 weeks of maintenance. The site has a new design and a new search engine. Some services are still down, but the visitors and users can expect good modifications.

Editor’s Note: And, of course, one of the most important changes is that there are now latest TDR headlines on the frontpage! (roxeteer)

• roxette.org

The members of Gyllene Tider tell about the recently published old demo tracks in Aftonbladet. The tracks, “Nu går det bara av farten” and “Cilla, 16 - söt som socker”, were refused by the record company. “You can easily figure out why,” says Per. “The main reason was my pathetic lyrics.”

Or what do you think? Gyllene Tider in 1980: “Det går av bara farten, vi har sex mitt i maten och struntar i durex-automaten.” (roughly translated: “Now we need to hurry, we have sex in the middle of lunch and we couldn’t care less about the condom machine.”)

Both tracks are from the same demo cassette, dated on June 18, 1980. Per has transferred all the demos on DAT tapes which he keeps in a fire-proof safe. “If everything else burns down, these demos will be left. What a fortune.”

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

The Swedish singer Eva Dahlgren celebrates her 40th birthday today. According to Expressen, Eva and her closest friends, including Marie Fredriksson and Marie’s husband Micke Bolyos, will have a big birthday party tonight “in a secret place”.

• Expressen’s Swedish article

EMA Telstar has announced the opening act for Marie’s summer tour concerts: Sverige. Sverige (which is “Sweden” in Swedish) is a rather unknown band, which released their debut album “Som landet ligger” last spring. The album was put together very quickly, as the band has only existed since last winter. Many of the band members are familiar from a group called Just D. Sverige consists of Peder Ernerot (guitar, vocals), Markus Ernerot (guitar, vocals), Gustave Lund (percussion), Johan Forsberg (vocals), Thomas Lindberg (bass guitar), Stefan Carlsson (drums), Ludde Widegren (steel guitar, mandolin) and Joakim Uddling (keyboards).

“I really like Sverige,” says Marie in EMA’s press release. “Especially their lyrics. I appreciate that they sing in Swedish. Musically, their music and my music are a good combination.”

The transcription of Gyllene Tider’s yesterday chat is now on Aftonbladet’s website. They have also published a new, but very blurry photo of Gyllene Tider.

In general, fans were very disappointed with the chat. The questions the moderator let through were rather stupid and the band answered in their usual joking style.

• Gyllene Tider chat log

The Daily Roxette met recently with Steve Johnson, art director for Edel America Records (EAR). Steve has created the cover for the upcoming EAR release of “Wish I Could Fly,” and is also working on the new “Don’t Bore Us… Get to the Chorus” album.

His design for the single, shown here in an exclusive preview, is a complete departure from the approach Karl-Magnus Olsson took with the “Have A Nice Day” album and singles. The photos Steve has used were taken by Jonas Linell for the original “Don’t Bore Us…” album, but he’s used a computer image manipulation program to combine two of them in a fresh way.

As of this writing, the CD packaging is at the printers, and the staff at EAR is eagerly awaiting the first advance shipment.

Image courtesy of Edel America Records.

EMI Sweden’s long-awaited Website is finally active. Standard “press release”-type information is included about Roxette and Marie Fredriksson.

• EMI Svenska AB (English pages not yet active)

The European Commission is coming under increasing pressure to conduct a full antitrust investigation into a proposed $20 billion merger between Warner Music and the EMI Group. Composers from five Nordic countries have lodged formal objections with the commission against the venture. They believe Warner-EMI would control nearly 50% of all music publishing in Sweden and 70% in Finland.

Warner-EMI would be the world’s largest music company with combined revenues of $8 billion, 2,000 albums released annually, and more than 2 million song copyrights.

The chat with the members Gyllene Tider has begun on Aftonbladet’s site. To access the chat, type your name in the text field and press “Börja chatta” button. Everything is in Swedish, but they will probably accept your questions also in English. The chat is moderated.

Gyllene Tider’s old demo songs are now available on Aftonbladet’s site in Real Audio format. The songs are “Cilla, 16 - söt som socker” (“Cilla, 16 - sweet as sugar”) and “Nu går det av bara farten” (someone please translate :-)). Both tracks were written for “Moderna Tider” album, but the record company decided not to release them. Some other unreleased tracks written for the same album are “Min tjej läser Playgirl” (“My girl reads Playgirl”) and “Gå hem innan du lägger dig” (“Go home before you fall”).

All five members of Gyllene Tider, Per Gessle, Mats Persson, Anders Herrlin, Micke “Syd” Andersson and Göran Fritzon, will be participating in the live chat.

• Aftonbladet’s Gyllene Tider Special

Two songs by Gyllene Tider never released before will be available for download on Aftonbladet’s web site this afternoon. The songs have been picked up from Gyllene Tider’s old demo tapes.

Gyllene Tider will be also chatting live this evening.

• Aftonbladet’s Gyllene Tider Special

Gyllene Tider will be chatting live on Aftonbladet’s site tomorrow at 5pm CET (UTC+1). Please note that Sweden is observing daylight saving time which means one added hour to normal time.

More information will be posted as available.

• Aftonbladet

This August, look for Roxette on VH1’s “Where Are They Now?” where the group discusses their career in the 90’s and their future plans for America. They’ll also be showing the “Wish I Could Fly” video. VH1 is owned by MTV Networks.

Former chart-toppers try to rebuild U.S. following
By Michael Ansaldo
Rolling Stone

“When the greatest hits album came out in Europe in ’95, we decided not to have it released in America because we didn’t really have any communication at all with EMI,” says Roxette guitarist/vocalist Per Gessle. “So we just decided to hold it back and see what happened.” Read more…

According to Expressen, Per will be one of the co-owners in a new Swedish company concentrating in live music broadcasts over the Internet. The company, Cell, established by “IT baron” Christer Sturmark, has some very well-known co-owners to help in the start-up: ex-ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus and singers Peter Jöback, Tomas Ledin and Meja Backman

• Expressen’s Swedish article

After dropping to #3 on the Swedish chart, Marie is back at #1 this week. Britney Spears wasn’t able to hold her first place more than one week.

Marie’s album has now been on the chart for nine weeks, for eight of them as #1.

• Svenska Topplistan