Up to 2,000 jobs at EMI – more than one in three of the workforce – are at risk under a radical restructuring of the music group drawn up by private-equity boss Guy Hands. Thousands of artists will also go from EMI’s 14,000-strong roster. Little is known which artists will have to go at this point.

Robbie Williams is refusing to release his next album until he knows what kind of service an artist of his magnitude could expect from his record company. Williams' manager says that EMI's new CEO, said Guy Hands, is behaving like a plantation owner. Coldplay is also considering leaving EMI while Radiohead and Paul McCartney have already left.

Grammis-awarded Cornelis Vreeswijk tribute compilation, 'Den flygande holländaren' was re-released (January 3) in the shape of a 3-CD digipack.
It comprises the classic double-CD, the following 'Den flygande holländaren 2' from 1998 plus five bonus tracks. The cover artwork was slightly modified to fit all the artists in it.

Familiar to all the Marie fans, the songs 'Veronica', 'Ann-Katrin farväl' and 'Felicia adjö' were originally recorded for this tribute album, and later included as bonus tracks on the 'Den ständiga resan' remastered edition. Eldkvarn's 'Somliga går med trasiga skor' features Marie on backing vocals. The instrumental intro was produced and arranged by Marie and Anders Herrlin. You can hear her playing the keyboards on this track as well.

Sort of a '20th anniversary' expanded edition, a chance to grab a copy since the original CD has been out-of-print for quite a long time.

12 months have gone by in a flash and it's again the time for The Daily Roxette's annual "Year in review" article.

2007 was something you can call a slow news year - Roxette wise. Per released a Swedish solo album, "En händig man," and did a summer tour, but there was not a single Roxette news article after March 2007.

Late December 2006 and a couple of days later in January 2007, Radio Halland aired an interesting two-part interview with Per Gessle. In the interview Per revealed for the first time that he's working on a new solo album. The reporter had also heard rumors of a summer tour and asked Per about it. According to Per, nothing had been decided at that point and that the "Mazarin" tour had been put together only two months before the premier night. In March the tour looked more likely when Expressen published a story about Per releasing an album soon with a tour following it.

Per also claimed he's working on a follow-up to Son of a Plumber album, but later Per admitted that he was only trying to fool people with it. Although, later in the year, Son of a Plumber did make a surprise comeback…

Read more…

STOCKHOLM (Updated) -

Ring them bells… Ring them bells….
Hola out there in Roxette County!
Just a quickie to wish you the merriest christmas of them all!!! Thanks, as always, for your endless support.
See ya next year (one way or another…)

P&M, Stockholm

Update: Per also wishes the fans a Merry Christmas at gessle.com with a nice message and a new old demo called "Lycklig jul" ("Happy Christmas") from 1985.

STOCKHOLM - It seems Per Gessle isn't "cool" enough to receive votes in Aftonbladet's Rockbjörnen anymore - Per is nominated in zero categories this time. Most of the artists nominated have been seen on Idol or similar TV competitions.

Aftonbladet runs an exclusive world premiere of the new Son of a Plumber video today, watch "Shopping with Mother"!

LJUSDAL - Per Gessle approved this biography to be written by old friend and journalist Sven Lindström when Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with cancer. He felt that his story should be told while the people he had been hanging out with were still alive. Immediately the idea came up to use the quotation-technique used in the book "Please kill me," which both Sven and Per regard as a major inspiration. Sven drafted a few pages and sent to Per who immediately changed his mind, he didn't want people talking about him!
Then both Marie and Rolf at EMI got sick, so Per changed his mind again, and here we are!

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Per Håkan Gessle has been nominated for a Grammis in the category "Live Act of the Year" together with the following:

BENNY ANDERSSONS ORKESTER
JENS LEKMAN
LARS WINNERBÄCK
LENA PH & ORUP
PARKSOMMAR
PER GESSLE
PETER JÖBACK
TAKIDA
THE HIVES
TIMBUKTU

STOCKHOLM - Since many of you are wondering who does what on "Shopping with Mother" Per has been kind enough to share some of his recording info:

clarence: distorted wurlitzer, handclaps, celeste, timpani
christoffer: Gibson bass, drums, Gibson ES-175 el guitar, tambourine, maracas, acoustic guitar, saxophones, wah wah guitar, autoharp, solina string machine

per: handclaps.

helena: operavox

someone's mother: laughter

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - Son of a Plumber has, together with Per Gessle, recorded the new theme song for Swedish TV program "Boston Tea Party." "Boston Tea Party" is a show about finding strange things out, like how human flesh tastes like… "Many will see this as a new chapter of Per Gessle's musical career. I can't place this tune in a genre, but it sounds like how it would look when riding a limo through New York way too fast," says Fredrik Wikingsson, one of the show's two hosts.

The tune is called "Shopping With Mother" and will be premiered in the season finale of the show at the end of November. What's even better is that the tune will be released as a double A-sided single together with two remixes by Voz Vibrante. Voz Vibrante is a pseudonym for Erik Hjärpe, from the band Damn!, you can find some of his work at MySpace. Voz has remixed "Shopping With Mother" in two different versions - the Voz Vibrante remix and the Mother's Dub by Voz Vibrante.

Voz's style of music is fast fusion and electric funk, while the tune itself can be described best as a cross between a '60s Bond theme with some Star Trek and general '60s pop in it. Does it sound crazy? It is.

The double A-sided single will be released November 28, with the slightly edited version of "Pratar med min müsli" from Per's hit album "En händig man" as the other A-side, a little later than expected, but now released to the public.

Update: Per tells us there will be a video for "Shopping with Mother," directed by Jens Jansson!