ST. PETERSBURG - Russian EMI representative Gala Records Inc. has recently released special low priced CDs. Among those are Roxette’s “The Ballad Hits” (5975512) and “The Pop Hits” (5975492). The releases are copy protected, have no bonus tracks and no bonus EP. The price will be approximately $8.

  There is also a special red label on the sleeves - inserts, not booklets - saying “For distribution in the Russian territory and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). Except for Moldavia and Ukraine.”

STOCKHOLM - Capitol Records Sweden will release a new low price series of CDs, presumably to fight piracy. Among these CDs are Per Gessle’s “The World According to Gessle” (1997) and Marie Fredriksson’s “Efter stormen” (1987). The price of the CDs will be 65 Swedish kronor ($9), and they are packed in cardboard sleeves.

HALMSTAD - Good grief!

  I almost forgot to wish you a happy new 2004!!!
And thanks for making 2003 a year that will go down in history as OVERWHELMING!!!

  Who could have anticipated the gold medals from the King, the Mazarin-success or my stunning recent go-kart laps!!
Next year it looks like we’re having new music from Marie as well as some Gyllene Tider-3-chord-headbangers coming up. And a GT-tour called “How old can you get?”. See you there!!



Lots of luv from




P.

Halmstad, Dec 29 2003

Roxette’s most recent single, “Opportunity Nox,” scored big in Germany. On Sunday, the song came in as #3 on the Jump Radio Charts of the Year. The station is generally considered to be the second largest in Germany.

  Also this weekend, on the biggest radio station of Germany, SWR3, “Opportunity Nox” also showed up as #3 on their year-end chart. It was on the charts for 12 weeks and made it to #1 nine times.

• Jump Radio (In German)

STOCKHOLM - In today’s Aftonbladet Per praises the Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund. “Of all the big names we’ve worked with Jonas and Anton Corbijn are the best. It’s not always easy to work with a friend, but with Jonas it has only helped.”

  Per and Jonas met for the first time in 1992. Per wanted him to direct Roxette’s “The Big L.” video, but the first video Åkerlund directed for Roxette was “Fingertips ’93” a year later.

  “Both Marie and I were fans of Jonas’ wild but beautiful ideas. And after all, we were the only Swedish band with a budget to create such videos,” Per says in Aftonbladet’s interview. “He was - and is - an incredibly gifted person. Pleasant, but determined, professional, honest and just enough crazy. He has a good taste in music, a very personal taste in clothes and he’s unbelievably creative.”

  Last times Per and Jonas Åkerlund worked together were when Roxette’s version of the song “Stupid” was played in Åkerlund’s movie “Spun” and when Åkerlund provided art direction for Roxette’s “Ballad Hits” and “Pop Hits” album covers.

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - According to an article published today in Aftonbladet, both Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are on the guestlist to attend the Rolling Stones’s “Licks World Tour” concert in Stockholm tonight. “Per will definitely go, but Marie isn’t sure. If the weather is nice, she will prefer to go out on the boat [with her family],” tells Roxette’s manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet.


  The concert will take place at Cirkus and is the third the Stones will give in Stockholm. Last 18th they played the Olympic Stadium and on the 20th at the Globe Arena.


  “The tickets for this concert disappeared so fast that it seems you have to be an artist or record business related to get one,” tells a source. Catarina Oscarsson from EMA Telstar, the promoter of the show, claims she doesn’t know, though, who wrote Per and Marie to the guestlist, “There’s actually no guestlist that I know of, we haven’t invited anybody special. Some of the tickets were sold via the [Stones] fan club for instance.”


  The Hellacopters will be the opening act for tonight’s show.


  Update: Aftonbladet has published pictures of Per and Marie at the concert, which they both enjoyed enormously. “Fantastic! This is the best I have ever seen,” said Marie, who was there with her husband Micke Bolyos, Per and Åsa Gessle, to Aftonbladet. “I will go home now and cry with joy,” Per exclaimed. “Give it 15 plus! 15 plus!” he added.

• Aftonbladet’s article (in Swedish)
• The Rolling Stones Official Website
• EMA Telstar
• The Hellacopters Official Website
• Aftonbladet’s article with pictures

STOCKHOLM - Yesterday Per Gessle accepted a prize for Roxette at the 10-year anniversary of Radio NRJ at Gröna Lund amusement park in Stockholm. The prize was presented by Ricky Martin.

  Roxette received the prize for being one of the most played acts on NRJ Sweden the last 10 years.

  Other well-known faces at the gala were Robyn, Dr. Alban, E-Type and many others.

• NRJ (In Swedish)

COPENHAGEN - Chat transcript from Jubii. While the questions have been translated from Swedish and Danish, Per’s replies are in his original English.




  Per: good afternoon!

Guest 32 asks: Gessle, is it correct that a new Roxette album will be released in 2004?

  Per: Well, we don’t know do we? It might happen!

Havstrym 75 asks: Hello Per, how is Marie?

  Per: Hello there. She’s much much much better now. She’s busy writing songs and dancing

Guest 12 asks: Will there be a GT-tour next summer? (have to plan my vacation anyway =)/ love you!

  Per: Good thinking! There just might be a tour next year, yes. It all depends on whether we can get Micke Syd to lose 10 kilos.

Guest 47 asks: What is your favorite acoustic guitar?

  Per: I have several but I bought a Martin from 1968 the other month and it’s kicking azz

Casper . Foldager asks: Is it really Per Gessle live?

  Per: It’s really me. You have to trust the media.

• Jubii’s site (Various languages)

Read more…

NEW YORK - It was 14 years ago this week that Roxette’s rise to international stardom became official — that was the week that “The Look” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.


  Already household names in their native Sweden, Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson were unknown in much of the rest of the world. In February 1989, an exchange student asked radio station KDWB in Minneapolis to play a CD he’d bought in Sweden. One of the tracks, “The Look,” scored big with listeners and, to make a long story short, about two months later the song was the top song in America.


  Nearly a decade and a half later, Roxette has enough hit material for two greatest hits packages — “The Ballad Hits” and “The Pop Hits”.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Success stories are coming out of Brazil where EMI is reporting that “The Pop Hits” turned gold in only two days and that “The Ballad Hits” is now ’double golden.’ Our best information is that gold means 50,000 copies sold.


(LoneGunman contributed to this article.)

• EMI Brazil (In Portugese)