Per Gessle takes his new album on the road. And not just that. He takes a lot of other things on the road:  "I'll play a power pop set with tons of guitars and a snappy snare with very little technology," Per says to The Daily Roxette and continues "We'll do a glorius mess of Son of a Plum (yay finally!!!), Rox (there are so many songs I've written that I've 'never' sung. I sang them on the demos and then the songs 'turned Marie's…' Would be sweet to try out my own versions… plus others that I've sung, for instance '7Twenty7' and'Nox' would be great to try out some gray Tuesday.)

Per Gessle’s new band includes three former Roxette musicians; Clarence Öfwerman on keyboards, Pelle Alsing on drums and Christoffer Lundquist on guitar and vocals. Add to these Helena Josefsson on vocals and Magnus Börjesson on bass guitar and you get a sensational line-up. This band will sound f##king fab!! And Clarence is going to wear a Fez! How about that!" exclaims Per the-excited-Man-from-Roxette Gessle.

The Daily Roxette asks Per if there is a chance for "The World According to Gessle" on the tour… "'World According to'…? That's a bulls-eye for this band!! And of course 'Party Crash' - there are a few that I can't seem to stay away from." says Per, who also hints at the possibility for a longer tour. "The tour is too short I'd say, but Chris is a very busy man…" Per lets us all know, if the tour doesn't get extended this time, maybe later this year.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Thursday 16 April HELSINKI, Finland, Tavastia Club
Sunday 19 April OSLO, Norway, Rockefeller
Monday 20 April COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Vega
Wednesday 22 April WARSAW, Poland, Stodola
Thursday 23 April PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Luccerna Hall
Saturday 25 April HAMBURG, Germany, Grunspan
Monday 27 April COLOGNE, Germany, Gloria
Tuesday 28 April ZÜRICH, Switzerland, Kaufleuten
Wednesday 29 April MÜNCHEN, Germany, Muffathalle
Saturday 2 May GENT, Belgium, Handelsbeurs
Monday 4 May LONDON, United Kingdom, Sheperds Bush Empire
Wednesday 6 May AMSTERDAM, Holland, Melkweg
Saturday 9 May STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Cirkus

Sunday 10 May STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Cirkus - extra concert

Update January 29: Tickets for the concert in Cirkus, Stockholm, were sold out this morning straight away, therefore an extra concert has been added to the tour schedule. The concert will be on May 10th. 

The radio show Nordic Rox, hosted by Per Gessle and music journalist Sven Lindström on the American satellite radio service Sirius XM, airs its 100th episode this month. To celebrate this milestone there will be a two-part special spotlighting the 50 best Swedish songs of all time.

"One hundred shows! Can't believe it! We started out as rookies with this simple mission to bring Scandinavian pop and rock music to the U.S. It’s been a blast," said Per Gessle. "We've had great response from listeners all over the country. The best thing, however, is to put these shows together. To dig out that special track we just know is happening and demands a bigger audience than just the tiny local radio station in the north of Sweden. That, to me, is what it's all about."

Sirius XM has been very satisfied with the show that first aired in April 2006. "Per and his team have built the artistic bridge between the music of Scandinavia and the music fans of North America," said Scott Greenstein, Sirius XM’s President and Chief Content Officer. Greenstein is himself a fan of Swedish pop music and was instrumental in getting Per to agree to do the show.

Nordic Rox airs weekly on Sunday nights at 8pm on The Spectrum on Sirius channel 18 and XM channel 45. The first part of the Nordic Rox special will debut on January 25 with part two following on February 1.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish newspaper Musikindustrin reports that EMI boss Roffe Nygren sadly has passed away.

Rolf Nygren, one of Sweden's legendary record company bosses, passed away last Monday. Roffe, who was 68 years old, was hired by EMI back in 1966. At first he was a sales assistant, but later became the manager for the sub-label Music For Pleasure. He was CEO of EMI Finland between 1973 and '75.
Between 1976 and 1998 Nygren was the CEO of EMI Sweden. From 1987 he was also the Scandinavian manager. During Roffe's era EMI became the leading company for Swedish music with artists such as Gyllene Tider, Ulf Lundell and Roxette. Roffe was also the chairman of Swedish ifpi for many years.

Per Gessle: "It was Roffe who tied Gyllene Tider to EMI 1979. Along the way he's been a great supporter and inspiration to our common Roxette successes. A journey we all thought impossible. He was a "hitpicker" with perfect aim and always a creative idea bouncer. He was also a very dear friend of mine and my family's. We miss him enormously."

Marie Dimberg: "To me Rolf was a strong personality with a great curiosity and love for the music. A safe, equal, engaged, low prestigious and a very encouraging boss who always gave freedom under responsibility. He was a positive pessimist with a large and warm heart. Rolf was my door opener to the music business and an always present mentor and my mainstay.
Life will be very empty without him."

The staff of The Daily Roxette offers our sympathy.

More good news is coming from the Czech Republic. Per's new album "Party Crasher" will be released also in the Czech Republic at the end of January and "Silly Really" will be added to radio playlists next week according to Czech music website MusicServer.cz.
No more details are known right now, also there's no news on the official EMI Czech sites, but it's quite normal.

STOCKHOLM - As previously reported, "Sing Along" will be the next Swedish single. It will be released in two colors on February 4.

The tracklist:

01. Sing Along (radio edit) (3:25)
02. Theme from 'Roberta Right' (3:05)
03. Sing Along (album version) (4:01)

The Daily Roxette has gotten reports that the international version of Arn - Tempelriddaren (Arn - The Knight Templar) contains "Där du andas" by Marie Fredriksson - in English! "Where Your Love Lives" is its English title. It is available on the compilation album "Mix Megapol 1."

The international version of the two movies Arn - Tempelriddaren and Arn - Riket vid vägens slut is a combined version of the two, much shorter - less than half actually - and more concise. There will also be a longer version on TV4 sometime during 2009.

A huge congratulations from The Daily Roxette and its readers to Per Gessle who turns big five-oh (50) today! Stay tuned…

Lars-Erik, Visa, Thomas & Judith featuring Colin and Paul.

According to the official EMI website in Germany, Per's album "Party Crasher" will be released on February 27.

On EMI Germany's web page you can find, among other things, a small gallery of photos, a biography and a mini promotional video.

Happy new year, readers of The Daily Roxette! A year has passed again and it's time to take a look back.

In 2008, there were two news items over the others. Per releasing a new solo album, "Party Crasher," and Marie joining the Stjärnklart tour and performing live after what seemed like forever. But let's start from the beginning of the year.

January went with no major news, but in February we reported about Marie's second art exhibition, "Ett bord i solen" ("A table in the sun"). Her art was on display at the same Stockholm gallery as the first time, although the gallery had changed its name since then. A beautiful, limited edition book of the exhibition was also released. In September, Marie's art was on display in a Gothenburg-based gallery.

Swedish TV4 interviewed Marie when her exhibition opened in Stockholm. In an open-hearted interview Marie revealed that the brain tumor took away the sight on her right eye. Marie also said that when she finally got a clean bill of health in the summer 2007, she became a new person. When the cancer was at its worst, Marie almost didn't have the energy to get out of bed. "The worst thing was that I didn't even want to sing. It's definitely a kick to be back," Marie said in the interview.

In May, Marie turned 50. Many fans sent their greetings to her and we got a lovely reply from Marie.

The world suddenly got bigger

In February, we announced probably the most unanticipated re-release of the decade: "The World According To Gessle - The Extended Edition," or "super duper extra turbo deluxe with cheese on it" edition as Per puts it. The final version of the re-released contained a whopping 26 bonus tracks of which most were previously unreleased. I say the "final version," because we were able to report you pretty much in real time how the track listing of the album changed. Check our articles for version 1, version 2, version 3 and finally version 4 of the listing.

The quality of the demos on the bonus disc is superb and there are real gems, such as "Elvis In Deutschland," a ballad version of "Elvis In Germany (Let's Celebrate)" with a different chorus, and "Writer," a demo of "Reporter" with pretty much no other differences than some parts of the lyrics (such as the title).

In May, we had an exclusive interview with Per about the TWATG re-release. In the interview, he talks about why the album was re-released and what it felt like going through his demo archives. Thomas also asked him if he ever feels like releasing another album like TWATG: "[H]ell yes, someday I'll make the definitive ultra-catchy-power-pop-guitars-skweeked-to-13-sort-of-record! It would be nice. I have it in my system somewhere. It pops up every other Saturday night when I make silly dance moves."

We didn't have to wait too long for that to happen…

Read more…