LJUSDAL - So finally it is here, the mystical, mythical and long spoken about RoxBox – full name: The RoxBox - Roxette 86-06. I have it in my hand, it is a hefty piece, very well manufactured. The box contains four fully-crammed CDs, a thick, attached booklet and a DVD of "all Roxette's videos" (which certainly can be debated…) and the legendary MTV Unplugged show from 1993, in full!
Let's start with the box itself. It's made like a book, with the four CDs attached two to each cover, with a very lovely booklet in-between. So where is the DVD? It's in a cardboard sleeve at the very back of the booklet. Not a good place to put it, I would say, as the DVD is double-sided and DVDs are easily scratched. The booklet is written by well-known reporter Janne Gradvall, who has a definite stamp-of-approval from Per. Gradvall is a Swedish pop journalist with a long and genuine background, respected by many of Sweden's pop stars and music business people. The text has been translated by Sven Åke Peterson. The text itself is very informative and has tons of bits and pieces of nice Roxette trivia. I also like the translation, most of it at least. What is a "dropping-bottle" really? I would call that a "drip" or "drip-feed," but hey, that's me! The photos in the booklet are both familiar and unfamiliar, all in truly nice quality. What I miss in the booklet is an explanation from Per and Marie why they selected the tracks that made the box.
Now we get to the DVD(s) and unfortunately I can't say that I'm overjoyed about them. I say "them" because in reality there's two. The disc is a "flipper" (two sided). Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely fabulous to finally get the missing tracks of the Unplugged concert. I'm glad that someone convinced MTV to let Roxette use them. But why, oh why, do it in this poor quality?? I'm sure the original Beta masters were used to render the DVD, but the Mbit/s is only 6.16 which is VERY poor (and it gets worse). The sound is available in both Dolby Digital and DTS stereo, which is fine, however the bonus tracks have plenty of audio clicks and glitches. That may come from the original source material though. Oh well, the Unplugged concert looks decent on a regular 29" TV, but is hard to view at all on a 42" plasma.
Regarding the "video" side of the DVD, it contains 37 Roxette videos, not all videos ever made. And frankly, I doubt we'll ever see that compilation. The bitrate of the video side is an appalling 3.57 Mbit per second! That, my friends, is about as low as you can go on a DVD. And it's quite noticable while watching; for instance in "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore," where the whole picture is pixelated most of the time. I can buy perhaps that the earlier videos have low quality sources, but this is way beyond that. It's not acceptable for a company to release the third lousy (quality-wise) video compilation in a row… Other companies release good DVDs all the time, why not EMI? Read more…

STOCKHOLM - The following message has just been published on Roxette’s official website, Roxette.se:

You don’t like Mondays???

Well, Roxette certainly do!

Starting Monday October 30 (and continuing until Xmas) Roxette.se will give you the opportunity to listen to some extremely rare Roxette demos, straight from Señor Gessle’s hidden vaults.

Every Monday we will bring you a new special track, never before released. And yes, they’re all in stereo and no, you can’t download them, only listen to them.

Enjoy!


P&M

STOCKHOLM - Both Aftonbladet and Expressen give the “Rox Box” three out of five, but not without reservations. Expressen’s Anders Nunstedt misses the version of “The Look” where Marie sings, and also the demo of “Svarta glas” that later became “Neverending Love,” while Aftonbladet’s Markus Larsson thinks the box is too much. Markus claims that about two and a half CD is “the rest” and is just filling and bad repeats.

  On the other hand Markus thinks that Marie’s voice is “damned great” and Per was a formidable hit machine during Roxette’s heydays. Both Markus Larsson and Anders Nunstedt feel that Roxette was the best between ’86-’92 (Larsson) or ’89-’91 (Nunstedt) and that Roxette can claim it was mismanaged as much as it wants, as the booklet does state. They both disagree with that.

  Nunstedt concludes that the box summarizes Roxette in a loving, well-made and generous way. “Roxette was great and really terrible.” Markus Larsson says that “Listen to Your Heart” is the best track and that Roxette made pop music that is way up there with what ABBA and the Ramones did.

  Additionally, Nunstedt gives “Hits” two stingers. He writes “On the album ’Have a Nice Day’ (1999) you hear a band that’s lost its compass. You don’t have to listen very carefully to ’Room Service’ (2001) to hear the sound of a duo that’s been lost in the woods so long that the search has ended.” He mentions that the point of this album is its first half, with songs like “It Must Have Been Love” and “Spending My Time.” He disagrees with the subtitle “Their 20 greatest songs” but can count at least eight of them.

• Aftonbladet’s review (In Swedish)
• Expressen’s “Hits” review (In Swedish. The “Box” review is not online.)

STOCKHOLM - According to TV4.se’s recent vote Roxette’s Best Video Ever is “Listen to Your Heart.” After a week of selecting finalists, 586 voters selected “Listen to Your Heart” as the final winner with more than 30% of the votes.

  The video for “Listen to Your Heart” was recorded at Borgholm castle ruin and directed by Doug Freel (“Dangerous,” “It Must Have Been Love,” “Joyride,” “Fading Like a Flower”). When released in the US Americans thought Roxette had had the castle ruin built just for the video’s sake…

  Roxette paid for the video themselves and it was recorded at the same time as the video for “Dangerous.” Marie was barefoot in the video, which resulted in her getting tons of shoes sent to her. And finally; the segment when the audience is holding sparklers in the video was recorded during “It Must Have Been Love.”

• TV4.se
• Doug Freel’s work

According to online Portuguese CD retail stores, it has been confirmed that due to delays, the new Roxette compilation and its 2CD (CD with DVD) will only be released on October 23 all over the country. It seems that the normal edition has arrived, yet it will not be on sale until the arrival of the deluxe edition. However, it was expected to be released on October 16 simultaneoulsly with other European countries.

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - On TV4.se you can now vote for Roxette’s best video through all times. There will be three videos a day to choose from. Next Tuesday all six winners will be fighting for Best Roxette Video ever.



  October 11: “The Look,” “A Thing About You” and “Wish I Could Fly”

  October 12: “Listen to Your Heart,” “Almost Unreal” and “The Center of the Heart.”

  October 13: “It Must Have Been Love,” “Run to You” and “Crash!Boom!Bang!.”

  October 14: “Joyride,” “Milk & Toast & Honey” and “How Do You Do!.”

  October 15: “Fading Like a Flower,” “Dangerous” and “Stars.”

  October 16: “Spending My Time,” “Sleeping in My Car” and “Dressed for Success.”



OK, so now it’s time to choose the best Roxette video of all times. The selection must have been a bit random by TV4 as they have only showed 18 out of about 45 videos. Take it for what it’s worth. The finalists are in bold.

• Per & Marie’s greeting to TV4’s viewers (In Swedish)

Magic TV UK played the first showing of the new Roxette single “One Wish” today. Magic TV is a British music television station owned by EMAP who also owns Magic radio station. The video was played as part of a program called “Roxette - 10 steps through time.” The following videos were shown.

1 The Look

2 It Must Have Been Love

3 Listen to Your Heart

4 Dressed for Success

5 Joyride

6 Fading Like a Flower

7 Crash!Boom!Bang!

8 Almost Unreal

9 Wish I Could Fly

10 One Wish

  They also had facts and general comments running at the bottom of the screen. Examples: “Listen to Your Heart” has been played three million times in the US; if played back to back it would play for 27 years! They also mention that “It Must Have Been Love” is Roxette’s most successful single and was released twice in the UK; “Wish I Could Fly” was the most played song on radio in 1999 in Europe and that Roxette hasn’t entered the UK chart so far this century, and finally that “One Wish” may change that for them.

STOCKHOLM - 45 milllion albums later.

  Now Roxette starts over again. With a new style, new songs and a new Marie Fredriksson.

  “The lively Marie is gone. Of course she’s a different person today,” Per Gessle says.



By Anders Nunstedt, Expressen



  It’s 20 years ago this year that Roxette made its single debut in Sweden. The rest is pop history, now with a happy ending.

  It could have ended considerably worse. When Marie Fredriksson in the fall of 2002 was struck by a brain tumor, it was a shock not only for the Roxette singer but also for everyone close to her.



“It was scary”

  “It was scary. There are different grades of cancer and of course one lived in suspense. I don’t even think the chance was 50/50 for her to make it,” Per Gessle says.

  “It’s amazing that Marie has recovered. Now Roxette is back, even if on a different premise.

  Per Gessle, who has been amazingly productive during the 2000s, explains that the initiative to Roxette’s comeback came from Marie. “When the compilation became viable it was she who suggested that we should record a new song.”

  It became more than that. On the “Greatest Hits” record released on Wednesday there is, in addition to the single “One Wish,” the ballad “Reveal.”

  “Actually we haven’t discussed if we are going to do something more. I don’t know what I want to do. On the one hand it’s fun, of course, but I have no idea if there’s a point in continuing. It doesn’t feel so tempting to go on promotion trips and sing playback in Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid,” Gessle says.

  The question is also if Marie Fredriksson wants to, and can manage, a full commitment to Roxette.



“One reconsiders everything”

  “It’s naturally a different Marie today. When something like this happens one reconsiders everything. It doesn’t help how many gold records you have hanging on the wall when you get ill,” says Gessle.

  Per explains that “the singing voice is back at full strength, but there are other circumstances. She has a problem reading fast and trouble remembering things. Everything goes a little slower. Maybe it can be worked on, but it takes time.”

  Roxette’s participation in the “Världens barn” (Children of the World) gala tomorrow is a comeback against all odds.

  But there’s no doubt they’re back. “One Wish” immediately swooshed up to second place of the Swedish single chart and has also started to climb internationally.

  Today Per goes to New York to prepare Roxette’s upcoming U.S. release.

  “Who would’ve thought that,” Gessle says with a laugh. “Now we’re actually back, and have really no idea where it’s gonna end.”



English translation by Cecilia Isvén

• Expressen’s article (in Swedish - with photo of Per not shown here)

SÖDERHAMN - According to Roxette.se there will be no Roxette tour “within a forseeable future,” but Swedish Radio P3 will in celebration of Roxette’s 20th anniversary broadcast a concert recorded during the Room Service tour in the Globen Arena in 2001. The concert starts at 21:03 CET October 20 and lasts one hour.

  This concert has been broadcast once before and consists of roughly a dozen songs:

01. Crush on You

02. Dressed for Success

03. Listen to Your Heart

04. Real Sugar

05. It Must Have Been Love

06. The Centre of the Heart

07. Sleeping in My Car

08. Milk & Toast & Honey

09. Joyride

10. Crash!Boom!Bang!/Anyone

11. The Look

• Roxette.se

STOCKHOLM - Roxette turns 20 years and celebrates by releasing their greatest hits. But even if the album contains two new tracks,
the thought of a comeback is far away.

  “I take everything much, much slower these days,” Marie Fredriksson says.

  Talking to Roxette, who turns 20 and releases a compilation album is of course a dead straight stroll down memory lane. Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson dwell more than willingly on their memories of sold out arenas, chart positions and the superstar lives they lived during the early ’90s.

  “We sold a decent amount of records in South America, but nothing remarkable. Maybe 30,000 records in Brazil. But when we released tickets we sold 120,000 - just in Rio. 60,000 in Sao Paolo, 55,000 in Montevideo. Totally amazing!”
says Per Gessle.

  “China was special. Or Porto Alegre [Brazil],” says Marie Fredriksson in a noticeably quiet and a bit shaky voice.

  Per Gessle adds “It was like Albert Hall only much bigger. Someone in the band had the stomach flu and threw up on stage. That was fun. And after a TV interview in Amsterdam we saw a guy in a window yelling ’I love your record!’ It was Tom Petty, my old hero. ’We love your records too!’ we yelled back.”

  It’s easy to forget how big Roxette really was. During four years in the ’90s they never - never - left the Billboard chart. Roxette has sold around 75 million records. “It Must Have Been Love” has been played over four million times on American radio. It means it’s been played 685 times per day. For 16 years. Not bad for a band everyone considered a one hit wonder when it broke through with “The Look” in 1989.

  “That’s what everybody thought. But we weren’t in our twenties, we were almost in our thirties. We owned our own
publishing companies, we had chosen our management, we kept a check on things. When we got our foot into things, we hung on,” says Per Gessle.

  The comparison with ABBA they’ve heard a few times. But you can’t help it: a Swedish band selling enormous amounts of records all over the world. Loved by many but never favorites among the critics.

  TT Spektra: “ABBA went from being despised by the establishment to being embraced twenty years after their
debut. Will the same thing happen with Roxette?”

  “Yes I believe so. The climate of pop music is totally different today. Almost no artists get time to make mistakes anymore, it’s more of a product thinking these days. Suddenly Roxette stand out as the real deal. It’s for real, we write and produce ourselves and people know all our songs,” says Per Gessle.

  The last few years have been dramatic to Roxette. When Marie Fredriksson [was discovered to have] a brain tumor, many thought that was the end for her and for Roxette. Today she’s well, but still marked by her illness. She talks quietly and moves stiffly.

  “There was a time when I really didn’t think I’d be sitting like this and talking to reporters. But thank God I’m here again. But I take things much, much slower these days.”

  TT Spektra: “Do you really have the energy for this?”

  “I can manage, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. But I take one week at the time. No long-term plans. Very slow and quiet. I have my family as well, so I don’t want to be rushing about,” Marie says.

  And by that, the question of a real comeback seems to be answered. To start long tours or record full albums doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.

  “It’s this album that is for now. A world tour would be nice, but I don’t think we will do it the way we used to do. Maybe a mini tour?” says Marie Fredriksson.

  Per Gessle can’t hold it in, he really has to tell another anecdote:

  “When I was in New York this summer and went through immigration, the officer asked me what I did for a living. ’Musician’ I answered. Then he wondered if he should know about me. ’Well, I wrote that’ I said, and pointed to the radio which was playing ’Listen to Your Heart’. That was fun.”


Judith Seuma, Marcus van Deursen and Txiqui contributed to this article.