Tonight at 1:30 a.m., VH-1 Europe will broadcast another classic Greatest Hits show featuring six or seven of Roxette’s catalogue of hits. VH-1 choses the videos themselves, but it’s probable that “The Look”, “Joyride”, “Listen to Your Heart” and “It Must Have Been Love” will be on included in the set. It’s also quite probable that the last Roxette hit single, “Milk and Toast and Honey,” will also be shown.

ANTWERP - The upcoming new single, “A Thing About You,” is not scheduled to be performed during Roxette’s time on stage during the Night of the Proms concerts, at least not at the moment.

  According to a spokesman at PSE, the group that organizes and promotes the very popular concert series, the song is not presently on the NOTP playlist.

  On the German NOTP messageboard, Dirk Hohmeyer of PSE-Germany writes that he recently heard “A Thing About You” and that it absolutely will be another big hit for Roxette. Jan Vereecke, one of the founders of NOTP, agrees. He told TDR that “the well-known Roxette hit-potential is there again.”

Will the girls on the moon get along?

  Fans attending the concerts in Germany in December will get to see Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner perform two to three of their songs backed by the symphony orchestra. While “I Want To Know What Love Is” is a sure bet, “Girl On The Moon” will probably be avoided.

• Night of the Proms
• Foreigner’s site (“Girl On The Moon” clip available on their Jukebox)

STOCKHOLM - Jonas Åkerlund is referred to as Roxette’s third member in Sunday’s edition of the Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet because when Per and Marie release a new album, Jonas seems to always somehow be involved.

  Along with this interview with Jonas, the newspaper published several photographs taken during the video shoot in Stockholm this past week.

Click on “more” to read TDR’s translation of the entire article.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish - with photos)

Read more…

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The pop music biz has developed a nagging headache, and it’s not going away. So claims Mark Jenkins, who reviews music and film for the Washington Post and National Public Radio. His commentary was published this week in “Slate,” an e-zine that’s now part of MSN.

  TDR reader Sheba Agarwal (Kachina008), who recently recently returned to Europe after living in the U.S., found Jenkin’s viewpoint interesting and suggested our subscribers might like to read his column. While much of what Jenkins has to say was written for a U.S. audience, we agree with Sheba that his perspective on the state of the music industry will be of interest to our readers worldwide.

  Simply click on the link below, read the article on MSN, and then use your browser’s back button to return to The Daily Roxette.

• Hit Charade: Slate column by Mark Jenkins (Hit back button to return to TDR)

STOCKHOLM - Having tweaked the idea a bit, Roxette and EMI have changed the title of the second of the two upcoming compilation albums.

  The CD with the best uptempo songs will be titled “PowerPeas – The Pop Hits” and not “PopPeas – The Beat Hits” as originally announced.

Additional concert dates continue to be added to the “Night of the Proms” tour, making this the biggest year yet for this concert series:

• Wednesday, 20 November, Rotterdamn (Ahoy)
• Thursday, 19 December, Dortmund (Westfalenhalle) (chairs only)
• Saturday, 21 December, Cologne (Kölnarena) (chairs only)
• Sunday, 22 December, Hamburg (Color Line Arena) (chairs only)

For a complete list of tour dates, see the Night of the Proms website.

STOCKHOLM - EMI Sweden and Roxette’s management issued this release today (somewhat strangely, in Swedish). Here’s a full translation:

ROXETTE COLLECT THEMSELVES… this autumn when they come out with the record ”LovePeas – The Ballad Hits”. As the title reveals, Roxette have collected their biggest ballads on one album. These are songs that people the whole world over have a strong relationship to. ”It Must Have Been Love” is still today one of the world’s most played songs. In the USA alone, it’s been played over 3 million times on the radio since it came out in 1990. From Roxette’s lastest two albums ”Have A Nice Day” and ”Room Service” there have been such hits as ”Wish I Could Fly” (one of Europe’s most played songs in 1999), ”Anyone” and ”Milk And Toast And Honey” (that even after one year, still resides on radio lists around the world).

New material!

  Roxette has been in Polar Studio and recorded two brand new ballads, the first single ”A Thing About You” that will be released on October 14th and “Breathe.” In addition, the first edition of the album will include an EP with four songs, of which three are previously released.

  ”PopPeas – The Beat Hits” will follow up ”LovePeas – The Ballad Hits” in the spring. As part two of this project, it will include further new material along with all of the collected pop tunes.

Jonas Åkerlund directs

Jonas Åkerlund is highly involved in everything from ideas to packaging, photos to advertising spots… so naturally he’ll be directing the video for the first single ”A Thing About You”. Jonas has previously directed no less than 14 Roxette-related videos.

  In a world where it’s hard to hang on for 15 minutes in the world’s spotlight, 15 years is almost unreal! Per and Marie got their big breakthrough in 1989 with the tune ”The Look” and followed that up with the multi-platinum album ”Joyride” in 1991. In principle, they’ve been at or around the top of some list or another… someplace in the world… ever since then. They’ve sold over 40 million albums and 15 million singles. Their latest disc ”Room Service” sold 1 million and the European tour last autumn was seen by 200,000 people.

(The illustration is not a depiction of the actual album cover.)

STOCKHOLM - The tracklisting for the new compilation album, which will be titled “Love Peas: The Ballad Hits,” was released by EMI today and published on Roxette’s own website.

  The tracks are: 1. A Thing About You; 2. It Must Have Been Love; 3. Listen To Your Heart; 4. Fading Like A Flower; 5. Spending My Time; 6. Queen Of Rain; 7. Almost Unreal; 8. Crash! Boom! Bang!; 9. Vulnerable; 10. You Don’t Understand Me; 11. Wish I Could Fly; 12. Anyone; 13. Salvation; 14. Milk And Toast And Honey; 15. Breathe

  And on the Limited Edition EP: 1. The Weight Of The World; 2. It Hurts; 3. See Me; 4. Every Day.

HALMSTAD - “Night of the Proms” aside, Per Gessle wants to take Roxette out on tour again soon, probably next summer, according to a report published today in several Swedish newpapers.

  “It would be really fun to do a summer tour and play in Sweden. We played in Göteborg and Stockholm the last time, and it would be great to make a big Greatest Hits tour. But this can only happen if there´s a possibility to do it abroad as well,” Per said to Mikael Forsell, a reporter for Swedish news bureau Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT).

  “Roxette seem to have a renewed energy,” Forsell wrote. “What turned the spark on again was the tour this past autumn.”

  “It was fantastic to do that tour, and to be able to sell 8,000-10,000 tickets in those cities and still have an audience,” said Per.

• Hallandsposten article (In Swedish)

HALMSTAD - Roxette is coming out soon with two compilation albums, but Per Gessle is thinking of releasing a solo album too.

  “I would like to do something in Swedish again, I havent done it for a while. There´s something ’cooking’ - something getting ready,” he said in an interview published in Swedish newspapers today.

  The article states that Gessle has worked hard this summer. He has worked a lot in the studio, to write songs and record them - not only for Roxette, but also for other artists and himself.

  “I have written for both Swedish and foreign artists. I can´t say anything else now, but I think you will hear them soon, ” he said with a laugh.

  Some years ago he released a solo album in English, the report continues, but this time he wants to write it in Swedish, and release it in Sweden.

  “I’m a bit tired of all the German TV shows,” as he expresses it.

  Musically, the album should sound like “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” his version of the Ramones classic for the tribute album that was released some months ago.

  “It´s a great style of mine and I would like to go on working with it with a small band. Some of the songs I have written for Roxette are in that style. Power pop like ’Sleeping in My Car,’ but a bit more ’alive’ or ’pushing.’

  “The record company was nagging about a compilation album. We have so many songs and have been aroud for so long that we thought it would be nice to
separate the slow from the fast songs,” explains Gessle.

  “I have written so many songs, and if we had
thought about it - organised it a bit - we could have really released a new album instead.

  “I think it’s funny, since in the pop business there are many artists who come and go. It´s proof of a kind of ’substance’ to be able to do such an album and
besides be able to divide the two albums. It’s more like knocking on the door to say ’Hello, don’t forget that we’re still here.’”

• Metro article (In Swedish - PDF format - see page 17)
• Hallandsposten article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - “Breathe” is the title of the other new song that – along with “A Thing About You” – will appear on Roxette´s upcoming compilation album, “The Ballad Hits.” The album is set to be released on November 4th.

  In addition, a bonus EP containing four songs, three of them new, will be bundled together with the first edition (pressing) of
the album.

(Lissie and Judith contributed to this article.)

• Metro Article (In Swedish, PDF format, see page 15)

STOCKHOLM - According to Per, the new ballad from Roxette, “A Thing About You”, will be untypical for Roxette. “It has an acoustic guitar and a cello. And I’m singing. Usually it’s Marie who’s singing ballads.”

  The video for the song will be shot in Stockholm about two weeks from now. It will be directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who has directed many of Roxette’s previous videos, including “Wish I Could Fly” and “The Centre Of The Heart.”

  “A Thing About You” will be served to radio stations on September 9th, and available in retail stores on October 14th.

• Aftonbladet article

STOCKHOLM - In addition to the ballad compilation in the autumn of this year, Roxette is releasing a collection of their greatest power pop songs in the spring of 2003. Both compilations will include two new songs and an extra EP with previously unreleased songs. According to Per’s comments in Aftonbladet, the new pop songs featured on the forthcoming compilation will be in the style of “Sleeping In My Car”.

  Per and Marie haven’t had any plans to release an all-new studio album for a while. “The previous album, ’Room Service’, was released last year. We’re 43 years old, for heaven’s sake, so we’re going to take it a little easy,” says Per.

• Aftonbladet article

STOCKHOLM - The listeners of Swedish radio station Mix Megapol have voted “Sommartider” as the best summer song in Sweden ever. It’s the same radio station that declared “It Must Have Been Love” to be the best song ever.

• MixMegapol Summer Hits Chart (In Swedish)