MADRID - As part of his promotion tour, Per Gessle is visiting Spain this week. In addition to a press conference and meetings with various media, he was interviewed by the Spanish radio station Los 40 Principales yesterday afternoon.


  The interview will be broadcast today on their program “Lo + 40” that runs from 17.00 to 20.00 CET.


  The program is also available as a webcast through the radio station’s website.


A first part of the interview was already broadcast at around 17.20. There will be more in the next 2 hours of the program

• Los 40 Principales (Click on “Player” button on the top-left corner to listen to the program)

TDR’s ’Small Talk’ section is – as always when a new Roxette single is released – full of messages from our subscribers talking about the success of the single on the charts.

  Last weekend, “A Thing About You” reached the top at major Russian station Maximum, after a week of voting. It was followed by Madonna’s new single.

  In Sweden, it entered the single charts at #14; while in Germany it’s at #37 and in Austria #39.

  There are two TDR subscriber-reporters keeping track of this activity in an organized fashion. One, “RoomService”, is posting chart info on his website “Roxette Charts”. You’ll find “PerFanatic”’s info as this article continues.


  (Christos Skendras, joyrider and Daniel Alvedal also contributed to this article).

• Austria
• Roxette Charts (In German)
• Russia
• Sweden

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - The promotional effort to support the launch of “The Ballad Hits” is in full swing now, with radio interviews in Sweden last week and a two-week promotional tour beginning this Friday.


  As The Daily Roxette previously reported, Per Gessle will be doing this promotion tour on his own, while Marie Fredriksson is recovering from the successful operation she went through in late September to remove the tumor she had in her head.


  The promotion tour will take Per to Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark and begins with a series of interviews Friday in Stockholm where Per will meet with, among others, reporters from German and Polish newspapers. Other countries may be added to the PR tour, as TDR is aware of a request from EMI Finland to get Per to do promo there.


  The tour schedule (subject to change) is as follows:


Oct. 25  International Press Day in Stockholm

Oct. 29-31  Spain promotion

Nov. 4  Belgium promotion

Nov. 5  Switzerland promotion

Nov. 6  Denmark promotion

STOCKHOLM - For one of the first times since Marie’s operation, Per talked about his friend and partner on a Swedish radio program. After a hard time, the Roxette-star is feeling better.

  “She is up and in in good spirits,” said Per to Radio Sweden.
As TDR readers are aware, Marie underwent surgery on September 30th. The doctors removed a tumor that had appeared in the back of her head.


  For the first time since that operation two weeks ago, Per gives a vision of the time before, during and after the operation.

  In the interview with SR’s program “S-Märkt,” Per explains that Marie is feeling better and better.


  “Marie feels quite fine. She is up and in good spirits, but of course dazed by what has happened,” says Per.

  “It is something she has come over now, I think. Now they have operated and it went fine. But it has been a hard time for her, of course, and for all of us.”


  He explains that the operation was planned long before it was known.

  “It wasn’t a flash operation, I knew that she would be operated before others got to know,” says Per.


He got to know about Marie’s accident when he was on his way to a press conference in Belgium, about the planned autumn tour with Roxette.


  “I got to know about it when I was in the taxi on my way to Kastrup. I was near Halmstad then and I didn’t understand a thing. I decided to go to Kastrup and wait for more information. And then I got it, so when I got to Kastrup I decided to stay.


  “It was hard news, of course. But I didn´t know how bad it was. (tumor…). I don´t really get it now either. It’s been a very hard time for all of us,” says Per.


  “Besides that Marie feels better, I will go on working with promotion work around the world with this album. Then we will work in the studio too. We hope to have some more stuff ready by Christmas or January, says Per in the interview.

“My personality and Marie’s work really fine together. We fight very seldom and we are like brother and sister. We complete each other so well - even at a human level - and that has helped us a lot.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was picked up by Reuters, so expect to see it appear in English-language newspapers around the world. It already appears on Yahoo!’s news page, for example. – LEO

• Aftonbladet’s article

STOCKHOLM - With any new album, Per and Marie’s schedule has included time with with a professional photographer for the prerequisite publicity photos to be taken. EMI’s press kit for the upcoming ballad hits album now includes the two photos shown here [click to enlarge].

  Taken during the video shoot for “A Thing About You,” the picture at the right is available to subscribers of The Daily Roxette as a hi-res file suitable for printing as a photo. Just send a request to [email protected] that includes your TDR user name.


Dates to remember:

- October 21st: “A Thing About You” single hits the stores worldwide in two forms, single and maxi single.

- November 4th: “The Ballad Hits” - Limited Edition - is released, containing an EP with previously unreleased songs.
(Note: In Germany, the EP will be replaced by a CD with additional tracks).

Per will be interviewed by the Swedish radio station Rix FM tomorrow (Friday). He will take part in the radio station’s morning program “RIX MorronZoo”, that runs from 6:00 to 10:00 CET.

The program is also available as a webcast through the radio station’s website.

• RixFM (Click on GO - button to listen)

NEW YORK - It was exactly two years ago that Roxette, having signed a record deal with Edel America Records (EAR), were here in the United States on a two-week promotional tour that took them across the country.

  Among other appearances during their time here, the band played the sold-out MixFest outdoor concert in Boston, at Virgin Megastore Times Square in New York, and at the Experience Music Project in Seattle (designed by Frank Gehry, who was also the architect of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain).

  There was even a new fan club, RoxNorthAmeriFANS, formed with the support of Steven Howlett’s Roxette.net and TDR. The club worked closely with EAR to promote “Wish I Could Fly” on US radio stations.

  While this was supposed to be Roxette’s US comeback, it wasn’t long thereafter, however, that trouble appeared. Encountering financial difficulty, EAR did not release “Room Service” and since then, has gone out of business.

  A glimmer of hope still exists to see Roxette marketed in the US. Their hit songs continue to be played regularly on the radio, and it would make sense to have at least a Greatest Hits album available. TDR has learned that a proposal similar to this is under consideration.

• NorthAmeriFans archived site (Steven Howlett and Judith Seuma put this site together for RNAF)

STOCKHOLM - The tracklisting for the new compilation album, which will be titled “Love Peas: The Ballad Hits,” was released by EMI today and published on Roxette’s own website.

  The tracks are: 1. A Thing About You; 2. It Must Have Been Love; 3. Listen To Your Heart; 4. Fading Like A Flower; 5. Spending My Time; 6. Queen Of Rain; 7. Almost Unreal; 8. Crash! Boom! Bang!; 9. Vulnerable; 10. You Don’t Understand Me; 11. Wish I Could Fly; 12. Anyone; 13. Salvation; 14. Milk And Toast And Honey; 15. Breathe

  And on the Limited Edition EP: 1. The Weight Of The World; 2. It Hurts; 3. See Me; 4. Every Day.

TEHRAN - Roxette track “Crash! Boom! Bang!” has been used as a background sound in an Iranian film “Shokaran” (English title “Hemlock”). The story of the film is about a man who is happy with his life and has a good family, but when he visits a friend in a hospital, he falls in love with a beautiful nurse.

  The song can be heard first in the nurse’s home during their first night together and another time in the middle of film during a rainy night scene.

  “Shokaran” is a very popular film in Iran and it has been praised for its directing, acting and music. “Crash! Boom! Bang!” is not on the film’s soundtrack album.

• “Shokaran” at irmovies.com

STOCKHOLM - One of Sweden’s biggest radio stations conducted a poll amongst their listeners, to decide the Top 500 best songs ever. Coming in at the #1 position was “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette.

  The radio station called Per and told him in person that he won. His “Sommartider,” written for Gyllene Tider, was also in the top 20. Read more…