(Updated) -

 EDITOR'S NOTE: TDR reporter Colin van der Bel files this additional account and review of the Party Crasher concert in Gent, Belgium. Update: Click here for a special TDR slideshow with more than 100 pictures of the concert!

GENT, Belgium —  It was a cloudy afternoon in Holland as this reporter began the drive down to Belgium to see Mr. G and his Heavy Metal Kids live in Gent's Handelsbeurs music venue later that night.

When I arrived, a large group of fans had already assembled and were pretty excited when Clarence and Pelle made a brief appearance. The show wasn't sold out completely, but surely the enthusiastic fans would made up for that!

The show started with support-act Martinique, who performed (singing, playing the guitar and even doing the elecric-boogie) a number of his songs. Also worth noting is that, in my opinion, the selection of music played before the show and during the intermission was excellent!

Read more…

GENT, BELGIUM - Per Gessle had a doorbuster of a concert here in Gent last night.  And we mean that literally.

Leaving the venue at the end of the concert, this reporter asked one of the staff members who work at Handelsbeurs, a young man named Andreas whom we had met two days before, what he thought of the concert.

“It was good,” he said somewhat hesitantly.  

“Only good?”

“Well, the concert was good, but his fans are CRAZY!  They broke our door!!”  Apparently, that had never happened before.

For several hours, fans from around the world had waited patiently outside Handlesburs, waiting for the doors to open at 7 pm.  It was a festive atmosphere, with a mix of fans from countries including Spain, Russia, Holland, Germany, Romania – Belgium of course – and even small groups from as far away as Argentina and Mexico.   Many had taken advantage of the three-day holiday weekend to attend this particular concert.  

At one point, the house manager came outside to tell the waiting fans that there would be plenty of room inside, and that everyone would have a good view (the venue can hold up to 800, and only around 280 tickets had been sold). But, of course, many in the assembled crowd had hopes of being in the “front row.”  So when the big, strong, wooden outside doors opened inward, there was a mad rush to get inside.

The actual concert hall was still closed, however. The idea of course was to give the venue a chance to sell drinks in the lounge area.  Not interested in “lounging,” the small mob outside quickly became a small mob inside, and when they finally were ready to open these much more fragile wooden frame doors, they needed to be opened outwards.  It was difficult for the staff to get people intent on proceeding forward to move backwards, so when they did manage to get one door open, there was enough pressure placed on the other door as it was opening to cause the unmistakable sound of cracking wood to be heard throughout the lounge.

Seriously, it was an accident. Per's "crazy" fans had a lot of fun during the concert*, and were by all accounts very well-behaved afterwards, waiting this time in an orderly line as Bo Johansson, the tour manager, ushered everyone waiting past Per, who was willing signing autographs and posing for quick photos. 

Read more…

Per told The Daily Roxette yesterday that "Party Crasher" ia now slated for release in the UK. The label releasing the album is not EMI/Capitol, but Sony! Release date is set for June 15. Per, who along with his management has been working on getting such a record deal for some time, is obviously quite happy about it, saying "Miracles do happen!" The Party Crasher tour hits London this Monday, May 4.

Meanwhile, TDR correspondent Steffen Hung conducted an interview with Per on behalf of HitParade.ch (and sister site HitParad.se) at the venue in Zurich, Switzerland the other night.  (Also available in German.) Per says he's "just having a blast" and that "this is one of the most rewarding tours I've done," despite the fact that "it's the only tour where I'm losing money."

Per also talks about his future plans, and once again says he "thinks there will be more Roxette." "I think we can still do some more records and events together. I look forward to that if it happens."

STOCKHOLM - Marie will be one of the celebrity guests attending a June 18 gala at Stadshuset (Stockholm City Hall) where Crown Princess Victoria will be handing out this year's prizes from the Marianne and Sigvard Bernadotte Artist Fund. The gala is even more special this year as Marianne Bernadotte, who is Victoria's great aunt, is celebrating her 85th birthday.

Marie is expected to perform during the event, along with Marianne Bernadotte's close friend Lill Lindfors, opera singer Barbara Hendricks with Staffan Scheja, and violinist Christian Svarfvar. Other special guests announced at this morning's press event, held at the Grand Hôtel, include ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog, but it is uncertain for now whether she too will perform.

Tomorrow, April 24, Romanian radio station "Magic FM" will feature Roxette Day! The station, one of the biggest in Romania, will broadcast songs from their discography, as well as stories about Roxette.

TWITTER - Per Gessle has announced in one of his tweets at Twitter that Roxette's albums will be re-released this fall. The albums will be remastered and will come with additional bonus tracks such as B-sides and demos.  The booklets will also be re-designed. Release dates are not known yet.

Per is doing a signing session at Saturn in Hamburg Altstadt next Saturday. It will start at 15:00  and will last for about an hour.  More info, in German, can be found at Saturn's website.

(Updated) - Ahead of Per’s UK Concert, the BBC has given a little interview with the man himself. There is nothing new for fans in this interview, but it is nice to see Per mentioned in UK media!

Another little article has also appeared on the BBC today as well. Quite similar in content to the other one, but worth a mention here as well. The very popular site Digital Spy has a little spot as well.

The story of a possible Roxette reunion is also being spread by World Entertainment News Network (in this example, by the American Broadcasting Company network affliate in Tampa, Florida) and by the Toronto, Canada based Chart Attack.

Roxwriter contributed to this story.

HELSINKI - Per started his Party Crasher tour last night in Helsinki, Finland. And oh, what a night it was! Per absolutely rocked the place and the audience liked what they heard. The song choices were a bit surprising, especially since there were only two songs from the "Party Crasher" album. There were no less than five songs from the "Son Of A Plumber" album and the rather unknown song, "I Have A Party In My Head," seemed to get the biggest applause from the audience. Per didn't play any of his Swedish songs, but that was quite predictable since the tour extends outside the Nordic countries.

After the uninspiring supporting act Martinique and the carefully picked mix tape of Per's favorite songs, the gig started a little after 10pm. Then it went on like a train, in good and bad, and lasted about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Here's the set list:

Read more…

As this article is being written, Per and his band are being called back on stage to perform an encore before a noisy, raucous crowd in Helsinki, Finland. It's the first night of the Party Crasher tour and, like many other international tours involving Per Gessle, Helsinki is again serving as the first stop.  It's an exciting moment, one to be repeated over the next few weeks in venues across Europe.

Partly as a result of the obligatory pre-tour publicity campaign — the tour after all ended up being subtitled "The Man from Roxette" — and partly the result of the natural progression in the timeline that has marked the remarkable recovery story of Marie Fredriksson, there's been considerable mention in the media recently of a possible reunion of Per and Marie as Roxette.

Both Per and Marie, in speaking to various journalists and reporters, have over the last few months mentioned the possibility of some kind of Roxette project surfacing again.  Lately, Per's been quoted in an article appearing on Chart Attack as saying "I'm sure something will happen."  With both Per and Marie talking out loud, on the record, to reporters… not just once but repeatedly… it's now seemingly safe to say that it's not just possible, but extremely likely that we'll at least be able to hear Per and Marie again performing together as Roxette. Per has said that he and Marie recently picked up some acoustic guitars and sang some of Roxette songs together… to see how it felt. Apparently, it felt good for them both.

We congratulate Per (and his partners-in-music) on tonight's premeire concert.   Untold numbers of our readers are looking forward to attending one of the upcoming concerts on this tour, and The Daily Roxette looks forward to providing extensive coverage.  These are good days for fans of Per Gessle's music.  Still, as we enjoy the Party Crasher album, and hear Per singing Roxette material on stage again…  we know we're not alone when thinking about Helsinki tonight.  We wonder if it's too much to hope for that this favored first-stop city might be called into service yet once again?  It's not so silly, really… to consider the possibilty of Per and Marie jetting to various locales to give their fans a treat.  For example, fellow Scandinavians a-ha just did that in Brazil… flying in to do one concert in Sao Paulo and one in Rio. 

Yes, we're all a bit older and have learned to manage our expectations, but for now at least we'll once again entertain the idea of seeing both Per and Marie on stage together.   Our prayers, after all, were answered once before.