PORT ELISABETH - Per Gessle was interviewed last Tuesday by Radio Algoa, located in South Africa. Here’s a transcript of the phone interview.



Interviewer (I): We were talking before we got started about the time differences, so I guess there’s not such a great time difference. You must be kinda looking forward to lunch I suppose?




  Per Gessle (PG): Yea well (Laughs) It’s noon in Europe, so yea, it’s one hour behind you guys.




I: How many interviews do you have scheduled?




  PG: Oh well, I’m doing about seven or eight. I’m dividing it into different countries. I started doing interviews last week. Doing a couple of hours every day. But it’s fine, it’s nice to talk to people. And the new record is coming out, you know.



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CAPE TOWN - With the release date South African edition of “The Pop Hits” just around the corner (according to the local EMI branch it will be released early next week), EMI granted a couple of local radio station the opportunity to speak to Per Gessle via phone. Cape Town’s biggest radio station, KFM, aired their interview last Tuesday on the breakfast show.


  The interviewer starts the interview asking Per if they are still touring, “Not really. We tend to travel a lot for every release apart from the current one,” Per says, “it’s not like the olden days; we haven’t worked American for a while – North America, that is. The touring the last time concentrated in Europe. We did a big tour there, but it was basically just in Europe.” Per explains that this is a “a natural development” since they both have their families now. Marie has got two children at school, so it’s difficult for her to be away for a long period. “It was different when we were younger.”


  But there’s still time for big parties, “we still have big parties though,” Per says with a big laugh, “I think it’s got to do with changing your priorities in life and especially when you’ve got kids.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE - Since TDR published this item yesterday, we’ve learned that Per Gessle is “very surprised” that the Finnish paper published this. Apparently, Iltalehti’s reporter misunderstood what he said, as Per states he “never said it will be four years to the next Roxette album.” All he ever says, according to his manager, Marie Dimberg, is that “we will have to wait until Marie feels up to working again.” /LEO

HELSINKI - According to the Finnish tabloid newspaper Iltalehti, which Per gave an interview to a little while ago in the EMI office in Stockholm, Roxette might spend some time in the studio this summer. But a new album will be released only in four years’ time. There are also some plans to go on tour with Gyllene Tider because of the 25th anniversary, but as Per stated, “everything has to be perfect.”

  On a side note, the “thing” about the article is actually the Iraqi war which Per opposes strongly. But Per is not going to write peace songs. “We’re not living in the 80s, so peace songs don’t have any effect. Musicians and lyrics used to have power, but now it doesn’t matter anymore,” he said.

• Iltalehti article (registration req’d)
• Iltalehti’s Roxette competition (win a cocktail set, dvd and the new cd)

STOCKHOLM - Roxette is rushing up the charts again. At the moment Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are #11 on the U.K. album chart. But there will be no tour.


  “Marie may decide to take it easy for a few years, and that may well be,” Per Gessle says to Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s major morning papers.

  It’s been eight years since Roxette was on the U.K. album chart with “Don’t Bore Us - Get to the Chorus!”. This time it’s the new collection “The Ballad Hits” which is a sudden success.

  “I grew up with British music so it feels a bit different compared to being number 11 in Holland,” Per Gessle laughs.

“Is there a new Roxette wave coming?”

  “I can feel that we’ve been doing this for so long and that it’s a circle being closed. Our songs start to feel right and great, very eighties.”

“Do you still get as happy as before, when things go your way?”

  “You never get tired of success, but you get sick of the [record] business. It’s not as fun doing 42 interviews in Frankfurt.” Per states to Svenska Dagbladet’s Harry Amster.

• Svenska Dagbladet (In Swedish)

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GERMANY - The German website of EMI has now put links to snippets of the new songs from “Pop Hits” online on their website. The songs aren’t there yet though.

  It’s listed for March 24th and the new songs are previously known… And the site also refers to the CD as “limited edition”.

1. Opportunity Nox

15. Little Miss Sorrow (previously unreleased)

16. Stupid (from the movie “Spun”)

17. Makin´ Love To You (previously unreleased)

18. Better Off On Her Own (b-side “Stars”)

19. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart) (previously unreleased)

• Capitol Music Deutschland (In German)

STOCKHOLM -

Although there was a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not Marie Fredriksson would be able to attend, it was both members of Roxette who arrived at the Royal Palace here this afternoon to receive medals from His Majesty, the King of Sweden.

  This morning the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet and tabloid Expressen reported that it was still uncertain if Marie would attend or not. “It will depend on the mood of the day,” had previously told Per to Aftonbladet, but in the end, she felt with the energy to attend the event and receive the Medal personally.


  Per and Marie both were beaming with pride as they stepped forward to be distinguished by the King. “Both [of them] are so honored and very proud to have received this medal,” explains Marie Dimberg, their manager.


  Aftonbladet also reports today that Marie feels better, “it is like night and day, she feels definetely better,” explains Per, but we have to bear in mind that “she didn’t get a cold, but a big knockout.” So Marie has to take her time to come back “Marie has to decide it for herself when she feels like coming back,” Per goes on telling, “there is no reason for her to stress.”


  It is for this reason that it is not sure what Roxette will do during this year. Previously the target was to work together this summer, but now Per reveals that the “The Pop Hits” release may be the last that the band does this year. “Under normal circumstances, we would have surely spent a couple of months in the spring to promote this album,” says Per, “but now I doubt it.” Besides that, there is no urge for Roxette to release a new album. “We are not in panic of having to make a new album,” Per states.


  On the other hand, Expressen reported this morning that a bump was found in Marie’s left breast. According to the tabloid’s source, they will apply a biopsy to this bump next week, but Dimberg already denied this piece of information in the press message we reported earlier today.

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)
• Expressen’s story (In Swedish)
• TV4’s report (Requires Real player)
• SVT’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - This Friday, January 31, Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson will receive the King’s Medal of the Eighth Size with Royal Blue Ribbon, from His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden. The medal is to be awarded for outstanding achievements with Roxette, in Sweden as well as internationally.

  While this particular medal is usually given out to athletes who have outdone themselves in any area, this year it is given to performers, actors, directors and such. The King announced the names of those who he would be bestowing medals today, which is Karl’s namesday in Sweden. In addition to Per and Marie, the creator Lasse Åberg, Princess Christina fru (Mrs.) Magnusson, and Hans-Åke Bergström, manager of the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, will receive medals.

  “It is, of course, a huge honor to receive such a distinction”, says an honored Marie Fredriksson in a press statement released by her manager. “It’s nothing one could have dreamed of when we first shared a rehearsal space in Halmstad in the ’70s.” “I am so happy”, says Per Gessle, who with his typical sense of humor added… “but my Mom is even happier!”

  The ceremony will be held at 3 pm in the Royal Palace in Stockholm with Her Majesty Queen Silvia also in attendence.

  Since this is indeed considered to be a great honor, Marie is expected to attend, even if the timing could have been better. Marie has been in seclusion for several months now, recovering from the operation to remove a brain tumor, and undergoing chemo and radiation therapy to prevent any further cancer.

  “Marie does not want to step [from this seclusion] directly into a media circus,” explains Marie Dimberg, her manager. However, since the event is to be held inside the palace, security controls are already in place. “We’re working on making arrangements,” Dimberg reveals to TDR.

(Judith Seuma and Stellan Quist contributed to this article.)

• Royal Court of Sweden (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Roxette’s new single, “Opportunity Nox,” (EMI 7243-5518972) will be hitting the European airwaves on February 3rd.
  The song, a power-pop tune, is to be available in stores on February 24th and will be included on the forthcoming Roxette compilation, “The Pop Hits,” scheduled to be released about a month later, on or around March 24th.


(Roxfreak contributed to this article.)

GERMANY - Roxette’s new album release is once again climbing the German Album Charts.

  In the first weeks after the release it jumped from #0 directly to the #10 spot.

  Numerous Radiostations played the song “A Thing About You” a lot of times, and the active Roxette fanbase kept the song continuously for several weeks on the first radiochart positions. After some time the album “The Ballad Hits” went all the way down to the #43rd place in the German Album charts.

  But now the miracle is happening! It is again climbing the charts. The actual position is #35

  “A Thing About You” was also named as best song 2002 on the Radio Station SWR3

HALMSTAD (UPDATED) - Radio Halland’s Pelle Hörmander tells The Daily Roxette today that he has known Per Gessle for most of his professional life… going all the way back to the days of Gyllene Tider. He feels he knows Per well enough to deeply understand that “the situation with Marie has really ’rocked’ him… it’s really shaken him.”

  Every year around Christmas, Hörmander conducts an interview with Per that is broadcast on this regional radio station. The tradition continued this year, when Per visited the Radio Halland studio on December 23rd.

  “Per says that the treatment Marie is receiving for the cancer is “rough”… but he is optimistic about the future, even mentioning the possibility of touring again.” But, of course, Roxette’s future is dependent upon Marie’s health. He also repeated that when a family member or friend suffers from something like that, it’s clearly obvious that it’s a shock for everyone.
  Per speaks with an open heart about his feelings concerning Marie’s sickness in this interview — sound clips of which are now available (see link below).

   As previously reported, Per says that Marie was able to add her vocal track to the the new single which will come out early next year.

• SR’s Radio Halland Interview with Per (In Swedish)

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