HOUSTON - Yes you heard it, “Pretty Woman” is out on DVD - again. This is the fourth time it’s been released on DVD. First the regular one, then the “director’s cut,” after that the “10th anniversary edition” and now the “15th anniversary edition.”

  “Pretty Woman” (at first called “$3,000”), danced in $463 million worldwide (€390 million) at the box office, and Julia Roberts was Oscar-nominated as best actress.

  On this new edition, there is yet another commentary track with director Garry Marshall, where he says that the fairy tale of “Pretty Woman” didn’t have to be believable, it was enough if the viewers wanted to believe it, writes the Houston Chronicle. This time around there is a blooper reel, travelog vignettes and a video from the wrap party “Live From the Wrap Party.”

  The previous edition of the DVD had 15 minutes of deleted scenes that are missing from this edition, what is there instead is the music video for Natalie Cole’s “Wild Women Do” - that barely was in the movie. Houston Chronicle writes that the big hit of the movie was Roxette’s ballad “It Must Have Been Love,” and continues to write about Roxette instead of the “Pretty Woman” DVD:

Though the Swedish duo hasn’t been on a major label in the U.S. in a decade, it’s been huge on the world stage, especially in Asia and South America long after “It Must Have Been Love” drove the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack to 9 million sales. “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits — The Complete Video Collection,” a new DVD sporting 37 songs and two one-hour documentaries, is a great introduction — or reintroduction — to the band.

  If anything, Roxette’s best work has come since its U.S. heyday, with the albums “Have a Nice Day,” “Room Service,” “The Pop Hits” and “The Ballad Hits.”

  The videos on “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits” are a mixed bag of styles and gimmicks, but the music is consistently hook-heavy, polished and emphatic. Call it lightweight commercialism or call it pop genius, but Roxette’s songs are catchy wonders, from the energized, infectious pop-rock of “Stars” and “Real Sugar” to the soaring, stirring balladry of “Anyone” and “Salvation.” America’s music biz may have missed that boat, but for those willing to search, it’s still setting sail.

• Article in the Houston Chronicle
• Buy it at Amazon.com

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle will participate in a concert the free tabloid newspaper Metro is organizing to celebrate its 10th anniversary on September 7.

  The event, “The Concert of the Decade” as Metro not-so-humbly calls it, will take place at the Globe Arena, Stockholm, and – along with Gessle – will feature The Cardigans and Petter among others. “I thought I’d air out the band,” Per tells TDR, “Nothing big, maybe four or five songs…” TV3 will broadcast the concert the very same week.


  One thousand tickets will be given away via Metro, TV3, Rix FM and NRJ. They can be also purchased via Ticnet, regular price 250 kronor (€29), for Metro club members 125 kronor.

  Update Jul 26: Three more acts have been revealed: Eva Dahlgren, Eric Gadd and Robyn.

  Update Aug 28: Swedish TV3 will broadcast the show September 10 at 17:30 CET. Also, The Hives and Darin have been added to the bill

  Update Aug 29: The final two acts are The Ark and Håkan Hellström. Today, nine days before the concert, TicNet still shows availability “green” and you can still get tickets reserved for Metro members only. MTG (owners of Metro) has made tickets available for other MTG members as well, like Club Rix FM.

Daniel Alvedahl and Tobbe Joneby contributed to this article.

• Ticnet/BiljettDirekt
• Article in SvD (in Swedish)
• Eva Dahlgren
• Concert of the Decade

BERGEN - Norwegian oil company Hydro is celebrating their 100-year anniversary and “Per Gessle & band” have accepted an invitation to play for the staff in the northern town of Bergen on September 3.

  Hydro’s celebration starts today in Oslo with Norwegian popgroup a-ha giving a free concert in Frogner Park. a-ha, who recently performed at the Live 8 concert in Berlin, will premiere some of the music on their latest album. The group will also play an already sold-out gig at New York City’s Irving Plaza on September 12, their first US concert since 1986 and almost exactly 20 years after the hit “Take on Me” soared to the top of the charts worldwide.

  Per tells The Daily Roxette that he will play Bergen and Stockholm in September to keep his band Mazarinerna in good shape.

  This isn’t the first time Per has played company gigs, Roxette played for the OM group a few years back, beer giant Carlsberg has had a visit as well, and now last summer Swedish operator Tele 2 had Gyllene Tider visit them.

Elisabeth Mathisen contributed to this article.

• Hydro

Third time’s the charm, they say. Let’s hope that’s true, as the third Roxette hit to have been remixed in a short period of time is “Joyride.” There is a white label 12” dance remix out called “Joyride 2005” that no one knows who has remixed.

  According to some rumors on the Internet, it has been mixed by The Tabledancers. That has proven to be incorrect, as they told The Daily Roxette that it was not their work. This 12” vinyl record has been sold on eBay for as much as $57, but is now available through regular webstores for $9.99 or £6.99.

  Per loves the remix, according to TDR’s own sources.

  A “white label” remix indicates that this is an independent project, done without the authorization of Roxette’s own record label. As royalties are not being paid, the identity of the remixer is kept secret.

• Juno records
• DanceRecords.com

NEW YORK - D.H.T.’s climb on the Billboard charts seems to be over for this time. After 14 weeks on the Hot 100, “Listen to Your Heart” falls from its peak position of #8 to #10 this week, and it no longer has a bullet.

  Unsatisfied with the original two videos produced in Europe, D.H.T.’s record label commissioned their own music video to help promote the song here. Released in two different cuts, it was shot at the historic and somewhat notorious Hotel Chelsea on 23rd Street in Manhattan, mostly in the bar located in the basement.

  Full of rock ’n’ roll and literary history – and serving long-term guests – it’s been the temporary home to such well-known names as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, Tennessee Williams, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Milos Forman, Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsberg.

Lars-Erik Olson contributed to this article.

• The Billboard Hot 100
• D.H.T. music videos for LTYH

Christoffer Lundquist, who has worked as a musician and producer on many recent Gessle and Roxette albums, releases a 4-track solo EP on August 22. The EP is called “Major & Minor Songs” and it will only be available for download, first on CDON and later also on iTunes Music Store.

  The EP is published by the record company Junk Musik which is partly owned by Lundquist. On August 22, Junk Musik will also release a new song, titled “Une Histoire”, from Sandy Mouche. The band’s lead singer is Helena Josefsson who is also collaborating on the forthcoming Gessle album.

• Junk Musik
• Sandy Mouche (they also have a clip from the new song)

NEW YORK - “Listen to Your Heart” by D.H.T. holds position at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, still with a bullet. TDR expects the single to climb further as it is quite normal for a single to stand still every other week on Billboard. On the current chart there are three bullets before D.H.T., out of seven tracks.

• The Billboard Hot 100

HALMSTAD - Micke ’Syd’ Andersson reports Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen to the Press Ombudsman. ’Syd’ says to Göteborgsposten that Expressen incorrectly reported that Gyllene Tider had broken up since Per Gessle wasn’t invited to his wedding. Micke feels Expressen used this to fabricate the information. The wedding was a private party.

  As far as Micke is concerned Expressen hasn’t treated him with the respect he himself has for media and he hopes that filing the charges will lead to a discussion about the newspaper’s methods. “After all these years I’m quite hardened in regard to what media does. But I just don’t take any more crap. To intrude upon our private gathering and using my mother and our friends are to cross the line way too far,” Micke says in a statement published on the journalists’ own site Journalisten.nu.

  Per Gessle himself wasn’t too happy about Expressen’s article either. We published his statement earlier. “When Per is confronted with the ’facts’ that he is not welcome at our wedding, of course he replies something cold and just enough sarcastic. How else is he supposed to react? Who wouldn’t think a situation like that is uncomfortable,” Micke comments.

  The Press Ombudsman has this about the complaint process:

When a complaint is filed, PO’s task is to ascertain whether it can be dealt with by a factual correction or a reply from the affected person published in the newspaper concerned. PO may contact the newspaper for this purpose. If the matter cannot be settled in this way, the Press Ombudsman may undertake an inquiry if he suspects that the rules of good journalistic practice have been violated. He will then ask the newspaper’s editor-in-chief to answer to the allegations of the complainant. That person will in his turn be offered the opportunity to comment on the newspaper’s reply. Complaints must as a rule be filed within three months of the original publication.

• Press Ombudsman
• SR P4 Halland (In Swedish)
• Column by ’Syd’ at Journalisten.nu (In Swedish)

NEW YORK - This week the D.H.T. hit single “Listen To Your Heart” climbs two more spots on Billboard’s Hot 100 to #8, still with a gold tinted bullet. This means it’s spent 12 weeks on the chart with two weeks on top 10, and counting.

  The album stays at #3 on the Electronic Albums chart, the single stays at #3 on the Dance Radio Airplay chart and climbs to #4 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, also with a bullet.

• The Billboard Hot 100

D.H.T.’s “Listen To Your Heart” has been getting a lot of airplay on a radio station in Brisbane, Australia. There are no signs of whether the single is going to be released or not. According to radio station Nova 106.9 no record company in Australia has signed D.H.T. as of yet.

  However, a CD called “Ministry of Sound: Clubber’s Guide To America – Volume 1 will be released in Australia on the 15th August 2005, and it will contain D.H.T.’s “Listen to Your Heart.”

  More good news for Roxette fans in Australia: the single “Fading Like a Flower” by Dancing DJs vs Roxette has been released in Australia. Well, not actually the single itself, but the track is available on the CD “Wild Weekends 2005.”

  “Listen To Your Heart” gets airplay in France. It’s not the dance version but the acoustic one which gets airplay on the most important radio station - NRJ. This is the first Roxette song on French radio since “Wish I Could Fly” in 1999.

  Furthermore, in Poland “Fading Like a Flower” is known and played in good Warsaw clubs - clubbers seem to like that remix very much, according to TDR’s sources. The Polish radio station Planeta FM has started to play it as well now.

Krystian and Bibou contributed to this article.

HELSINKI - Dancing DJs’ remake of “Fading Like a Flower” has risen to number #13 on the official Finnish singles chart this week. Meanwhile in the UK the single slips, as anticipated, four spots to #22.

NEW YORK - It’s a considerable feat – a combination of talent, luck and marketing muscle – for a song to do so well as to break into the Top 10 of the main Billboard magazine chart. But it’s a rare occurance indeed when it happens more than once.

  This week, the Per Gessle/MP Persson song “Listen to Your Heart” does just that! D.H.T.’s cover version enters the US top 10 at #10! After eleven weeks it takes the big step – and it’s still gold tinted – meaning it’s expected to rise further. “It makes me really pleased,” Per comments.

  It stays at #5 on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, and it also stays at #2 on the Electronic Albums chart. On the Dance Radio Airplay chart the single falls to #3 from last week’s #2, after 25 weeks on the chart.

Roxryder-V2002 and Lars-Erik Olson contributed to this article.

• Billboard’s Hot 100

GöteborgsPosten (Gothenburg Daily) has an interview with Per Gessle today, regarding the press statement released yesterday. They have gotten some more info about the forthcoming album.

  If the project will be a solo album, a new group name or what language will finally make the cut, Per doesn’t want to go into. However, he gladly mentions the wide spread of material they have recorded. “I have recorded so many different kinds of music, a musical testament if you will. Instrumentals, westerns, horny three-chord pieces, some green country, a nine-minute bubble gum pop medley, spiced with a falsetto blues. We’ll see where we land. Everything is very spontaneous, fun and exciting,” Per says to GP.

  Per estimates that they need another 30 studio days. When the album will be released is not yet determined, however, it does seem to be followed by a tour, Gessle seems eager: “Of course it would be great to meet my possible audience again!”

• GP’s article (In Swedish)

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - The Daily Roxette has received a short statement from Per Gessle regarding Expressen’s article today: “It is not, and has never been, an option to replace Marie in what’s been called a ’new Roxette’. She is – of course – irreplaceable!!! I still hope, and believe, that there are great things in Roxette’s future.”

  Per continues to tell TDR that Helena’s involvement in his new solo album has been on the same level as with “Mazarin”.



Here’s the official press statement:

  On account of Expressen’s strange article today, I will hereby give you some information regarding my current musical project.

  I’ve been hyperactive in Christoffer Lundquist’s studio in Skåne off and on since December 2004 and recorded a whole bunch of songs both in Swedish and in English. Some make you dance, some make you smile, some are instrumentals while others have some lyrics in French. It’s very exciting and we have a very good time – eating and drinking well.


  The musicians I’ve been using are essentially the same as on ’Mazarin’; i.e., Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundqvist, Jens Jansson and Helena Josefsson. The album is recorded in stereo and is thought to be finished sometime this fall.


Not ever has it been my intention to try to create a ’new Roxette’, and Helena Josefsson is thus NOT IN THE CARDS as my “duo partner”. I still hope, and believe that Roxette will continue sometime in the future and I’m also of that opinion that Marie Fredriksson is IRREPLACEABLE!


  As soon as I get closer to a finish of the above mentioned project, I promise to reveal both song titles, sleeve ideas and how we tuned our guitars. Until then, all the best from



Per Gessle in Jolly Halmstad

August 2, 2005

Swedish tabloid Expressen writes today about how 27 year old Helena Josefsson will replace Marie Fredriksson in a new international music project planned by Per Gessle. Nothing of the above has been confirmed, however Helena says to Expressen “Yes, we’ve been in the studio recording some material, but I don’t want to talk about it at the moment.” Also Per’s manager, Marie Dimberg, claims that things are moving but that no direction is set yet.

  According to Expressen’s “deeply involved” source the supposed album will be released this winter or next spring, and a tour is almost certain to follow.

  Helena Josefsson sings normally in the band Sandy Mouche, but is known to the greater mass as the backup singer on Per’s successful album “Mazarin” and tour.

Helene2000 contributed to this article.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)
• Sandy Mouche