GOTHENBURG - While Marie Fredriksson covers her favorite songs from the ’60s and ’70s on “Min bäste vän,” Swedish singer Shirley Clamp covers her favorites from all times in her new album “Favoriter på svenska” that’s due for release on May 10. Last month we reported that the album would include a cover of “It Must Have Been Love”, with the Swedish title “När kärleken föds,” which was just released as a single. But the album features one more song Roxette fans know very well; “Tro” by Marie Fredriksson. She wanted to record Eurythmics’ “Miracle of Love” but when they contacted Annie Lennox they found out she won’t have her songs translated.


  “There is a reason for each song to be on the album,” says Clamp to Expressen. “I didn’t have the inspiration to make a new album, then I thought about a Christmas-album, but Jill Johnson was faster, so I decided for an album with covers,” she explains. “I wrote down all my favorite songs on a paper, and eleven made it to the album. One of them is Marie’s ’Tro’: I find no words to explain how beautiful this song is. I was asked to sing it for a funeral and it was magical,” she comments.


  Clamp had her breakthrough as a candidate in the Melodifestival in 2004 with the song “Min kärlek.” She will participate in this summer’s RIX-FM Festival tour and guest with Peter Jöback for a couple of Robert Wells’ concerts in Scandinavia.

  The new Swedish lyrics are written by Ingela “Pling” Forsman who has taken some artistic liberties and moved beyond simply trying to do a direct translation. One only needs to look at the title, which translates to English as “When Love is Born,” to realize this. Forsman, 55, holds the record for having written the lyrics to the most songs entered in the Melodifestival, with no less than 26 to her credit.

• Shirley Clamp’s official website
• Article in Expressen

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NEW YORK - Herbie Herbert. It’s a name familar to fans who have poured over the liner notes of various Roxette albums. A musician himself, he was Roxette’s manager in the States during the height of their career. Now, an online auction of San Francisco music memorabilia features items from his private collection.

  Herbert got his start in the industry as the young and eager road manager for Frumious Bandersnatch, a psychedelic band that rocked the Bay Area from 1966 to 1969. In 1973 he pulled together Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, Ross Valory, George Tickner and Prairie Prince to form the Golden Gate Rhythm Section which very soon became Journey.

  With Journey’s success and his desire to do more, Herbert added Mr. Big, Europe, Roxette and other artists to his management roster. Since then, Herbert has moved from backstage into the spotlight, recording three albums as Sy Klopps and touring the San Francisco Bay Area with the Sy Klopps Band, which has included such Journey band members as Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, Prairie Prince, and Ross Valory.

  Having recently closed down his studio, Herbert decided to sell most of his memorabilia, including several Roxette-related items. Among the more notable pieces being offered are his personal copies of gold and platinum record awards. The auction ends on April 30.

• Backstage Auction’s Roxette page
• Herbie Herbert’s bio

STOCKHOLM - In an ongoing series called “The Greatest,” which introduces some of Sweden’s most eminent figures through time, Radio Sweden has recently asked its listeners to decide if Roxette or The Cardigans are “the greatest.”

On their website, they wrote:

  In the late 1970’s Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle first crossed paths but their own successes meant it wasn’t quite time to get together. In 1986 they merged their music.

  International success came with a stroke of luck… an American exchange student returned to America from Sweden and urged a radio station in Minneapolis to play ”The Look”.

  Lovefool catapulted The Cardigans from cult favourite to international stardom. The song was included on the blockbuster Romeo and Juliet film soundtrack and topped UK and U.S. charts.

  Two Swedish Groups who have made their musical mark both at home and on the international stage …. The 80’s supergroup or the Swedish sweater set? Who’s the Greatest…you decide.

  Roxette’s success story is chronicled, and prominent mention is made during the 13-minute program of the fact that this is Roxette’s 20th anniversary year and that the group is getting back together.

  The program invited Claus Olsson, editor-in-chief of Sweden’s music trade magazine NMB, and Billboard magazine’s correspondent in Sweden, Jeffery DeHart, to serve as commentators.

  “He’s such a master at finding melodies and catchy tunes and hooks that people like, that he’s kind of made it into a sport,” said Olsson of Per Gessle.

  DeHart, who said he’s never been a big Roxette fan, spoke of attending a Room Service concert. “It was amazing, I was really surprised…I didn’t really expect it to be so well polished, but it was. It was flawless. Very professional, great musicianship, very good band. It was very impressive,” he said.

  While both ended up at the end of the program choosing The Cardigans, it wasn’t without hesitation.

  Radio Sweden is the English-language service of Sveriges Radio, available via shortwave radio broadcasts and on the Internet.

• Radio Sweden’s Roxette vs. Cardigans audio program (requires RealPlayer)
• Radio Sweden’s “The Greatest” program page (in English)

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STOCKHOLM - EMI Sweden confirms all the articles about Roxette’s coming projects in a press release today. Roxette will release a Greatest Hits album with one or two new songs that Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson will record together this summer. “It will be really great to go into the studio with Marie again,” Per lets us know from Vienna, where he’s doing Son of a Plumber promotion at the moment. “It’s been a fantastic journey and I’m so happy to continue it together with her.”

  In addition to this Greatest Hits album there will be “The Rox Box” – a collector’s item with the substantial Roxette history: the hits, previously unreleased material, et. cetera. It will consist of three CDs and a bonus DVD. “Twenty years, it feels like yesterday,” Per concludes. “Time flies when you’re having fun!”

  The releases are planned for October.

NEW YORK (UPDATED) - It’s finally started!! While The Daily Roxette has been reporting this story for months now, the first reports heralding the return of Roxette from other news sources have begun to appear. Roxette’s 20th Anniversary – that many fans have been almost afraid to start celebrating… for fear of somehow jinxing it – can begin to get underway!

  With a headline of “Roxette Announce Comeback,” Contactmusic.com, a website devoted to entertainment industry news, published a story today, one of the first of what’s sure to be many to come.

“Swedish pop duo ROXETTE are heading back to the studio later this year, singer and guitarist PER GESSLE has announced. THE LOOK stars took a break from music-making when singer MARIE FREDRIKSSON was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2002. But having received the all-clear, the band will now record new material, Gessle reveals. He says “We haven’t written any new songs yet, but we’ll definitely go back to the studio this summer.” Roxette, who are considered the most successful Swedish band since ABBA, launched their career in the 1980s and hope to mark their 20th anniversary with the new material.

  Rheinische Post, a German newspaper, published a similar article. Meanwhile, Per made a firm promise during an interview on Swedish TV4 yesterday (while presenting his new “Hey Mr. DJ” video) that this anniversary would be observed with new Roxette material. “It feels like we are not really finished with what we’ve started yet,” he said.


  Aftonbladet also writes more or less the same thing, but adds that Per and Marie will go to Christoffer Lundquist’s Aerosol Grey Machine studio this summer to record “a few new tracks.” Per also tells Aftonbladet that a tour could be in the cards. “You never know,” he says.

Anniversary logo by Jorge Diaz for The Daily Roxette

• ContactMusic’s article
• Rheinische Post’s article (in German)
• Aftonbladet’s article
• Norwegian TV2’s article (in Norwegian)

WROCLAW, POLAND - In what many Roxette fans are sure to consider the worst cover of a Roxette song ever, the Polish heavy metal band Elysium has covered Roxette’s “How Do You Do!,” renaming it “How Do You Die.”

  Their cover song, which appears as a “hidden track” on their last album, starts off with about a 15 second clip of the original version (you hear Per’s voice) followed by their death metal approach. There are incoherrent voices and references to death, murder and knives – and a few more short samples of the original.

  Last month, The Metal Observer reviewed Elysium’s album from 2004 entitled “Deadline.” In the mixed review, they wrote “even the re-lyricized ROXETTE cover “How Do You Die” … does not save much anymore.”

  The link below offers a free download (log in to their mp3 zone with the password and username given, find the album called “Deadline,” and download “How Do You Die”).

Reported by Scott Johnson with additional reporting by Lars-Erik Olson.

• Album review
• Elysium website (Download page has instructions for how to access the MP3)

An eBay auction led this reporter to the discovery of a new cover of Roxette’s “Fading Like A Flower” by the German group Discoblaster. The single was released on December 10th 2005 on the EMI/Zeitgeist [Universal Dance] Label:



DISCOBLASTER: FADING



CD 1



01. Fading (radio edit)

02. Fading (the disco boys radio edit)

03. Fading (Steve Murano radio remx)

04. Fading (club mix)

05. Fading (the disco boys remix)

06. Fading (candlelight mix)



CD 2



01. Fading (radio edit)

02. Fading (the disco boys remix)



12” Part 1



01. Fading (club mix)

02. Fading (Steve Murano remix)



12” Part 2



01. Fading (the disco boys remix)

02. Fading (Steve Murano dub remix)

03. Fading (the disco boys dub remix)



  From Universal Dance http://www.udance.de/. Translated from German:



Discoblaster - “Fading” 28.10.2005



Discoblaster, are Fine (17), Justine (19), Samantha (19), Nina (20) and Sandra (16).

• Discoblaster (In German)
• Udance (In German)

HALMSTAD - To all readers of TDR - a Merry Christmas! Here’s the “annual” Christmas message from Per and Marie:

Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling!!!!

Howdy Planet Earth!

We’d love to wish you all a very merry christmas and a wonderful 2006.

Things are looking bright on our side with, maybe, just maybe, some new Rox-music in the can for next year. No promises, though…



And, of course, thanks for your neverending love and support during 2005 which turned out to be a quite normal (=extremely busy) year with an art exhibition, a plumbing album and a few exciting live performances.



Hope y’all get a splendid holiday season with lots of fun stuff coming your way!!!




Lots of love,

Marie & Per

LONDON (UPDATED) - Last night Roxette reunited on a stage at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Per was there to receive two BMI awards for “Listen to Your Heart” which has been played 2 million times (and is also the “Dance Song of the Year”) and “It Must Have Been Love” which has been played over 4 million times on US radio.

  Marie stepped up on stage with Per and was applauded by stars like Steve Winwood, Keane and Snow Patrol. This was Marie’s first public appearance with Per since she got sick. “The secret with ’It Must Have Been Love’ is that it has such a beautiful and simple melody and Marie performs it amazingly” Per says to Expressen. “She makes it a better song, therefore it was great that Marie joined me!” Marie adds “It was wonderful to be on stage with Per again.”

  After the gala Per went out in the London night to party with director and friend Jonas Åkerlund and Madonna, while Marie went back to her hotel.

  Aftonbladet asks Per and Marie if Roxette will do something together now. Per replies “We haven’t decided yet, no doors are closed. It’s totally up to Marie. I would’ve liked it damned much to work with Marie again though. We’re still young…” Marie tells Aftonbladet “It’ would’ve been great. We’ve already been around the globe a few times, why not make it a few more.”

  “I hope this may lead to a new album, or at least a few new songs,” Per adds.

Rox_me_like_a_baby contributed to this article.

• Expressen
• Aftonbladet
• BMI News (includes SLIDESHOW with additional photos of Roxette)
• BMI’s “million-airs”

Read more…

SÖDERHAMN - After many years “siteless” or with poor sites, Roxette now has a new, fresh site - www.roxette.se. The new site is involved in the Son of a Plumber project, which also hosts www.gessle.com and www.gyllenetideronline.com there. The company responsible for the design is Transmit/Receive from Söderhamn, Sweden, and the man behind them is David J. Elfström. Two of TDR’s editors, Thomas Evensson and Judith Seuma, have collaborated in the site with adding content in the different sections such as discography, gallery and lyrics, and are the moderators in the forum.

  T/R has many many successful Swedish pop sites in their catalogue, among them, Mauro Scocco, Peter Jöback and Lena Philipsson to name a few.

  Son of a Plumber.com and roxette.se are in English, while gessle.com and gyllenetideronline.com are in Swedish, the reason for that is simply that the lyrics featured on the sites are in those languages.

• Roxette.se
• Gessle.com (In Swedish)
• Gyllene Tider (In Swedish)
• Transmit/Receive (In Swedish)