HALMSTAD - In a fax message sent today to the TDR newsroom, Per wishes the readers of The Daily Roxette a splendid 2005…



He-he-hey!!!

Just a quickie from jolly Halmstad to wish y’all a splendid 2005!!


2004 made us very happy indeed with a great album from Marie as well as a quite successful album/tour from the old fellas in GeeTee. You can always rely on homecooking!


Hope all of you are making progress in life’s neverending goobledegook and that we might bump into each other some day soon. Who knows what 2005 will bring?


Lots of luv and happiness from

P.H. Gezzle

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - While The Daily Roxette waits to see Per Gessle before the final Gyllene Tider concert, it rained, rained, rained… I don’t think there has been more rain in Halmstad ever.

  When we finally get backstage, Per greets us with a smile – he has just met a bunch of foreign fans. TDR gets right down to business and asks Per about the “end of Roxette” story in Aftonbladet.

  “The rumors are not true. My sentences were taken out of context totally. If Marie wants – and can – we will certainly continue with Roxette,” Per says. “Of course, we won’t aim to conquer the US again… but why not a smaller tour, like the one in 2001, that one wasn’t longer than this tour for instance,” he continues. “We also still have a contract with EMI, I don’t remember how many records, but…”

  How about the time out? “I haven’t said that either, I will disappear from the limelight, but I won’t stop doing things, as per usual… all I want right now is to get out of sight for a while. ”

  The Daily Roxette inquires carefully about Marie Fredriksson’s condition. “There’s not much to say really, it’s more or less the same, she has her good periods and her bad ones. She needs time. It’s also a lot about how motivated she is about moving around. She’s been recording her album for a long time now, but I really don’t know much about it.”

  That said we go on to other business. The new Gyllene Tider single, “Solsken,” will likely be out in September, with some “Finn 5 fel!” demos as b-sides. The song “Choklad, vanilj, jordgubb” is not yet finished so it won’t be used. In connection to this, The Daily Roxette inquired about other future releases. “There will be the DVD, hopefully out before Christmas. The footage is shot mainly in Gothenburg, and the sound will be the best possible. We recorded all the concerts,” says Per. “In addition we may release a new live CD, but that hasn’t been decided yet.” Per also mentions that the old remastered albums will be released without the bonus tracks (as single CDs) mid-priced, and they are thinking about releasing a b-sides CD with unreleased demos. “I’m really against releasing these demos, but on the other hand, they are a part of our past so why not,” Per tells The Daily Roxette.

  SF (Svensk Filmindustri), is at the moment restoring the original 16mm film of Parkliv manually, frame by frame, so it can look its best on DVD when it finally is released.

HALMSTAD - Pop25 lets The Daily Roxette know that there will be another exhibit in Halmstad this summer, namely “Gyllene Popkonst - en resa genom 25 år (Golden Pop Art - a journey through 25 years)”. This exhibit will concentrate on Gyllene Tider’s, Roxette’s and Per Gessle’s records, and the album as a phenomenon. “We’ve had this idea for a long while, and when it was clear that Gyllene Tider would tour in 2004 we had nothing stopping us anymore,” Joakim Andersson and Micael Magnusson, the creators of the exhibition say.


  There will be over 500 different records and cassettes to see, from twenty or so countries. Everything from Gyllene Tider’s first yellow EP via Per Gessle’s solo material to Roxette records from the four corners of the world. Every record and edition has its own story and anecdotes which will be told at the exhibition.


  The exhibit is arranged by two record collectors and there is no entrance fee. The address is at Kungsgatan 2 in Halmstad. It will be open between 11:00 and 17:00 CET, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from July 6 through July 30.

• Pop25

NEW YORK - As Aftonbladet mentioned today, Per is currently visiting New York City. TDR is now able to reveal the real purpose of his visit. He is meeting Capitol Records’ management to prepare the record deal that Gyllene Tider will sign as early as next week. If everything goes as planned, this will mean that the new Gyllene Tider album, “Finn Fem Fel,” will be released in the major USA cities at the same time as it is in Sweden, on June 2nd.

  “The people here were enthusiastic about their new material,” says our anonymous source who is close to Capitol management and has followed Per’s career since the early 80s. “It’s a pity that their previous attempt to conquer the U.S. failed, but this time we feel we have a real winner on our hands.”

  The plan is to release a special “US edition” of the album with some, but not all, of the songs translated into English. “There’s a growing interest in foreign languages in the States, and we think the album will get even more attention because the songs are in a strange Scandinavian language.”

  There are also preliminary plans to continue the tour in the fall with club concerts in New York, Minneapolis and Chicago. All three are cities with a large Scandinavian population.

  Update: This article, of course, was our April Fool’s joke. Gotcha!

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)

HELSINKI - Here’s something very funny and very exclusive for the readers of The Daily Roxette. You know these “jingles” they play on the radio? “This is Per Gessle from Roxette, and you’re listening to Radio Blah Blah.” is a jingle. Besides being annoying, they are often quite hilarious.

  Well, we wanted a jingle of our own, so when we met Per before his concert in Helsinki, we asked him to record one for us. Here you go:


Per’s jingle for The Daily Roxette (MP3, 6 secs, 117 KB)

HELSINKI - The rock club Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland wasn’t completely packed with people, but that made the atmosphere even more enjoyable and intimate for those fortunate enough to be there. About 400 tickets were sold in advance and since the club has the capacity of 700, The Daily Roxette estimates there were around 500 people listening to this last concert of Per’s “Mazarin” summer tour.

  The set list was exactly the same as in Oslo on Tuesday, concentrating on the more rocking songs. Especially “(Hon vill ha) Puls” rocked like it never has before. Rather surprisingly, the audience really warmed up when “Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång” started. It seemed like everyone knew the lyrics and sang along. A similar reaction was only produced with “Sommartider,” which ended the concert.

  Per first looked a bit tired on stage, but was nevertheless in a good mood. Because of the nature of a club concert, the audience was able to shout their comments and requests to him. Unfortunately, the song list had already been decided and Per and his band didn’t play any songs suggested by the audience.

  An excellent gig by excellent musicians, anyway.

  The “Mazarin” album hasn’t been a major success in Finland, having failed to reach the Top 40 chart. However, the songs have been very popular among the Swedish-speaking minority, and it looked like most of the audience were either members of that minority or Roxette fans - or both.

HELSINKI - The Daily Roxette meets a neatly dressed Per Gessle in Hotel Simonkenttä, Helsinki, Finland. He’s wearing jeans, a pink striped shirt and a new, cool necklace. “Thanks, Jonas [Åkerlund] found it in L.A., he finds the best stuff all the time!” Per says proudly. It’s “Sommar-Mazarin” time for Finland and Per is doing a whole stretch of interviews. Although today the weather is far from summer in Helsinki, with eight centigrades and rain. Per is looking a bit exhausted this being his tenth interview for the day. He’s also been on the road almost constantly since Tuesday, he lets TDR know. Tuesday he was in Oslo giving a concert at Rockefeller. The concert was a blast and they all had fun. “There was a huge party afterwards, I’m told,” Per says. He didn’t join, as he felt he wanted to visit his family quickly. Per flew in very early this morning to Helsinki instead.

  Why Helsinki? Per says that it felt empty when the tour ended - uncomplete. There were no more places to play in Sweden. “So we thought about Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen. Copenhagen didn’t work out, but the other two did.” He also mentions that it’s good for the press coverage and good for the local record company branches. “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a big place or not. The important thing for me is to play. It will be a little bit like the release party gig [in Halmstad], only longer, and better,” Per adds, smiling.

  Per calls this the “shortest world tour ever”. It started in Oslo on Tuesday and now ends in Helsinki. Read more…

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - It may have been the pressure from the media or from the fans, or Per Gessle’s own lust for touring, or the mix of all of it, but in the end, Per has managed to arrange a tour around the end of July to mid-August. The “around 14-gig” tour will take Per at least to Stockholm and Sofiero Slott in Helsingborg where Gyllene Tider started Återtåget tour in 1996. This time, however, the premier will be in Brottet, Halmstad on July 29th.

  Per’s band will be the same as at the release party: Helena Josefsson (backing vocals), Jonas Isacsson (guitars), Jens Jansson (drums), Christoffer Lundquist (guitars & backing vocals), Anders Herrlin (bass guitar) and Clarence Öfwerman (keyboards). TDR will publish more dates as they become available.

  “I never could’ve imagined this reception for my little mazarin,” says a happy Per Gessle, “and a tour was never in the cards. But we had so much fun in Halmstad and I can’t resist the possibility to take these songs out in the Swedish summer. They are sort of made for parks and picnics, and I hope the audience agrees with me… and wants to end the summer in a green park with a mazarin.”

HALMSTAD - Per Gessle enters one of the conference rooms at Hotel Tylösand around midnight, after a massively successful mini concert and a chaotic, but peaceful, record signing session. He looks very happy. On the whiteboard is the play list. It ends with “Billy”, a song we never got to hear (due to Per’s blistered fingers).

  “Will there be a tour?” TDR wonders after greeting Per and Li Eriksson, from Capitol Records.

  “The question of the day. I can’t answer that yet. We don’t know yet. Jens is busy. I’m a bit funny, I need my
key personnel when I tour… like Oscar who does my monitor sound. There are a lot of logistical problems, but if they are
solvable, then yes, I feel up for it. This I say without even having the album out yet,” Per laughs.


  But with this response from people and media regarding the single and all? “Yes, I know, these guys really love playing these songs. Christoffer on guitar is great, and during rehearsals we’ve really had fun. No prestige whatsoever. We all had fun.” Per talks at lengths about the recording sessions and rehearsals and he seems to glow when he does. One can tell this is something he has enjoyed immensely.

  If there will be a tour, will there be a big tour or a club tour or…? “If we do decide to go on the road it will be a summer tour, an outdoor venue tour, like Sofiero, Skansen, venues like that. Maybe 10-12 gigs. All the songs I do work so much better when you get that sing-along feeling, you know? Just look at Återtåget with the 24,000 plus audiences. That worked great! But at the same time I’d hate losing Jens… We will decide this week, we really have to.” He also reveals that the possible tour may even include Norway, Denmark and Finland.


  When asked about the reason for not having a video for the new single Per says “No one cares about a video anymore, who’d show it? ZTV??” “ZTV may very well play this video,” Li interjects. But Per is reluctant, “It would be more expensive to make a video than the whole album. Maybe a low budget thingie but…”


  Will there be a second and a third single?

  “Yes I’m sure, this guy at Capitol demands at least four singles! We’ve discussed which song it should be but we’ve reached no decision yet,” Per says. “We’ll have at least two singles,” Li says. “The song also depends on which
direction the album goes, and if there’s a tour,” Per states. Per also mentions that he stays out of the single decision making these days. “Denmark will release ’Gungar’ as a
single. EMI Denmark is crazy about it. What do you think should be the next single?” he continues. TDR suggests “Spegelboll”, “Tycker om när du tar på mej” or “Om du bara vill”. Li and Per agree that they all are good choices. “This is of course a very pleasant problem,” Li smiles.


  Will there be any record signings for the album? “Yes I think so, at the department store Åhlens in Stockholm and in Halmstad. Also Gothenburg and Malmö. Nothing up north this time. But if there’s a tour, I want to play up north this time, I haven’t been in Norrland [up north] in a hundred years!” he says (conveniently forgetting that he was up there in ’96). Li explains that the signing sessions – due to obvious reasons – work better when there’s a crowd.

  Read more…

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - Per Gessle threw a release party for friends, select media and competition winners Tuesday night to promote his new album “Mazarin”. About 600 people attended the club gig at Leif’s Lounge, the night club located in the lower level of Hotel Tylösand in Halmstad.

  Per and his band performed 10 songs at the mini concert. Joining Per onstage were Jonas Isacsson (celebrating his 23rd birthday, according to Per), Anders Herrlin (of Gyllene Tider), Jens Jansson (of Brainpool), Christoffer Lundquist and Helena Josefsson (soon to be married).

  The concert opened with Gyllene Tider’s “Kung av sand”, continued with the new song “Vilket håll du än går”, the album opener. After that “Om du bara vill”, “Gungar”, “Tycker om när du tar på mej”, “Födelsedag” (dedicated to Jonas), and “Här kommer alla känslorna”… all from the new album. After leaving the stage, the band returned almost immediately and played “På promenad genom stan” (alas without Marie), John Holm’s “Den öde stranden” (that Per claims he always has to play whenever he does something in Swedish), and finally the old Gyllene Tider rocker “Vill ha ett svar!” from “Swing & Sweet” (“Covers are fun,” says Per). “Billy” was, according to our information, mysteriously cut from the playlist.

  The concert was very well performed, with a surprisingly tight band. Commenting on this to The Daily Roxette afterwards, Per said “Really? We’ve only rehearsed for three days, and just forty minutes yesterday, so that’s great to hear!”

  Per was very pleased with the show, and has yet to decide if there will be a tour or not… but time is running out. “We will have to reach a decision this week,” he told TDR. The big problems are that Per’s key players, as he calls them, are partly booked with other artists. Jens will do a Japanse tour for instance. This is what they are trying to solve at the moment. “It’s all about logistics,” Per states. If a tour will come true, Per is aiming at venues like Sofiero in Helsingborg and Skansen in Stockholm.

  All in all, a nice evening with lots of happy fans. Prominent guests spotted by TDR included MP Persson, Micke Syd, Göran Fritzson, Peter Jöback, Frida Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus to mention a few.

  Editor’s Note: A strange but unfortunate rumor promising that the first 50 fans who got to Leif’s would get in for free seemed to have circulated, according to those managing the event. Apparently, this resulted in a bus full of 50-80 German fans arriving. “Naturally we let them in”, Per said.

• Article in Aftonbladet
• Article in Expressen
• Article in Hallandsposten
• Article in Göteborgs Posten (In Swedish)