SAMARA - Yesterday's concert in Samara, Russia was a smash, according to Per Gessle. "The gig was super tonite! We cut 'Silver Blue' and 'Watercolours in the Rain' because the concert needed some momentum," says Per when talking to The Daily Roxette. Next stop is the Palace of Sports (capacity 5,000) in Yekaterinburg, Russia tomorrow Saturday. Get tickets here, there are merely 150 standing left.

1. Dressed For Success
2. Sleeping In My Car
3. Opportunity Nox
4. The Big L.
5. Wish I Could Fly
6. Only When I Dream
7. She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)
8. Perfect Day
9. Things Will Never Be the Same
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. 7Twenty7
12. Fading Like A Flower
13. How Do You Do!
14. Dangerous
Band presentation (performing Samara gorodok "Samara small town")
15. Joyride

First Encore (Extras)

16. Spending My Time
17. The Look

Second Encore (Extra extras)

18. Way Out
19. Listen To Your Heart
20. Church Of Your Heart

More great photos from Andyash here.

SAMARA, RUSSIA - Roxette, after opening the Charm School tour in Kazan, has travelled 181 miles (291 km) south to Samara and will perform at the CSK-VVS Sport Palace this evening. The arena has a capacity of 3,800. 193 tickets were still available at 11.00 CET.
TV Report (in Russian) | Arrival Video and Photos [KP.ru]

Roxette café contributed to this article.

KAZAN, RUSSIA - Reporters from the Swedish newspapers covering the premiere concert of the Charm School tour have both published stories quoting Per as saying that if all goes well, Roxette will include North America and Australia when the tour is extended this fall.

Jens Peterson of Aftonbladet wrote that Per said "We would really like to go to Australia, we would really like to do Canada and the United States and as much as possible. There are plans and sketches. We have said that this is a tour without end right now. Everything is subject to how it works for Marie. We are not like a normal band. She must think it's fun and stay motivated." 

And Expressen's Anders Dahlbom has Per saying "It's no secret that we want to play in North America and Australia. We say that this tour doesn't have an end." 

Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)| Expressen article (in Swedish)

KAZAN, RUSSIA (Updated) - It was a shaky at the beginning, with Per and Marie encountering audio problems during the first three songs… but Roxette mangaged to get through that and, according to reports from various fans amongst the approximately 7,000 in attendance, the rest of the concert went very well.

TDR's reporter in Kazan, Svetlana Kulalaeva, filed this report:

The audience seemed to be very reserved at the beginning. Also, because not many people speak English in the province, most people could hardly understand what was said. No welcoming applause to "Hello from Hollywood", though by the first chords of "It Must Have Been Love" the arena exploded with applause and noise.  But the guys were great! Really! They did their job and worked and enjoyed what they were doing, and it was like a fire for butter. Slowly, slowly the audience started to make noise, applaud loudly, shout and show signs of appreciation.

Roxette didn't ask the crowd to raise their hands (nothing like "raise your hands in the air" or this kind of cheap stuff), they inspired people, and after a few songs people started to move, dance, clap hands, behave somehow to show that they liked what they were seeing.

The arena where the show took place is the biggest in Kazan, and it was full… but mostly the seats. There was a lot of space on the dance floor and between the rows, so in the beginning it looked more like a symphony concert.  I suppose it's a display of the Russian character: we start slowly, we need time to pick up speed, but once we get going we can hardly stop. By the end of the show, people jumped close to the stage and danced in the gangways!

The band was great, they are professionals in the best meaning of the word. To start in a cold atmosphere without showing any disappointment, it costs a lot. They felt some disappointment I suppose, I could feel it by the behavior of Marie most of all, she was quite reserved too, but she was good… really good. Smiling, the voice was beautiful as always, and Per inspired everybody by the music and he did it very well.

It was a good mix of new and old songs, and we accepted everything, waiting for their old hits of course.  They did win over the audience and the cold Russian winter!  They made the snow melt, and spring has finally arrived to our place!

And one of our readers (gearshift) told us that “'Listen to Your Heart' was gorgeous. Half of the stadium was collected at the front of the stage and the other half was waving cell phones. It was a full magic moment. Marie was singing almost two hours in a row - FANTASTIC!!”

Video of the first three songs [KP.ru] (the audio problems had not yet been worked out) | Video of "The Look" [fancam] | Video of "Listen to Your Heart" [fancam] | Video of "Spending My Time" [fancam] | Video of "How Do You Do"/"Dangerous" [fancam] | Video of "Joyride" [fancam]

Fridapeeples and Roxtexanet contributed to this article. 

KAZAN, RUSSIA - With the first concert of the tour now completed in Kazan, here is the full set list:

1. Dressed For Success
2. Sleeping In My Car
3. Opportunity Nox
4. The Big L.
5. Wish I Could Fly
6. Only When I Dream
7. She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)
8. Perfect Day
9. Things Will Never Be the Same
10. It Must Have Been Love
11. 7Twenty7
12. Fading Like A Flower
13. Silver Blue
14. How Do You Do!
15. Dangerous
Band presentation (with Kalinka Malinka)
16. Joyride

First Encore (Extras)

17. Watercolours In the Rain
18. Spending My Time
19. The Look

Second Encore (Extra extras), and Marie is now wearing the official sweater of Kazan hockey club Ak Bars.

20. Way Out
21. Listen To Your Heart
22. Church Of Your Heart

Additional reporting by Joyrider2000

Fans have been hopeful in recent years that with Marie's recovery from brain cancer, that Per and Marie would reactivate Roxette: take the stage again… perhaps tour… and if all that wasn't possible, at least get into a recording studio and release new material.  We've known for months now that all of these wishes are coming true, and today marks another milestone in the duo's career with Roxette.

Per, Marie, and the band – along with a very small entourage – boarded what Per has dubbed the "Roxjet" late yesterday morning and flew to Kazan, Russia where, tonight, the first in a long series of concerts will take place in the large basketball arena there.

After a handful of successful concerts that Roxette performed this past summer (the results of which are an impressive addition to the deluxe edition of their new Charm School album), they've now set out on a full-fledged world tour that is expected to span at least five continents during the year (see below).  By all accounts, both Per and Marie are returning to the world stage full of renewed enthusiasm. While Roxette toured the U.S. in 2000 (Greatest Hits) and Europe in 2001 (Room Service), their last real world tour took place in 1994-95 in conjunction with the “Crash! Boom! Bang!” album.

“If you’d asked me a couple of years ago,  if there would ever be a new Roxette tour I would have very quickly said 'No!',” says Per. “Knowing what Marie had to go through in recovering from her severe illness, this is not only unbelievable, it seems almost magical to me. It will be wonderful to meet all our audience on Planet Earth again.”

Band member Christoffer Lundquist, speaking to The Daily Roxette after having arrived in Kazan, said “Roxette are back and it really feels like the world wants to hear Roxette again. Everyone really feels the difference compared to the last tour – 2001.  There's so much more enthusiasm and demand and curiousity about Roxette and it really affects all of us. And of course the obvious… I mean Marie's amazing comeback. It's really a miraculous recovery. And also, her personal strength… the way she has been fighting for this and not giving up. The whole thing is mind-blowing to me.”

About the tour, he says “We're playing really, really great songs and singing and playing live… with as much energy as we can possibly muster!”

MORE GOOD NEWS TO COME!

Additional concert dates, beyond those that are confirmed and appear on our concert calendar, are expected… both within the current time frame, and beyond it. Per, in an interview with German radio station NDR 2 for which readers of TDR were invited to submit questions, revealed that plans are underway to extend the tour into the fall with about 25 more shows. While he mentioned that some would be in Germany, it is expected that other dates will include stops in some of the countries that seem to be obvious omissions from the tour including, perhaps, a North American segment.  There has been speculation that that is why the Mexico City date was replaced with Montevideo, Uruguay.

HAPPENING IN KAZAN

TDR's reporter in Kazan, Svetlana Kulalaeva, has let us know that it should be possible to view the scheduled press conference over the internet (link below), and that the Mayor of Kazan (who by some accounts is a Roxette fan himself) is expected to officially welcome Per and Marie.

Coverage of Roxette's arrival in Kazan (photos and video) [KP.ru] | Press Conference (with LiveNation's Thomas Johansson)

Additional reporting by Michi1506 in Germany. The photo of the Roxjet is an artist's rendition of the actual plane (which LiveNation has leased from a company in Finland — thus the "OH"), with the addition of a Roxette livery.

COPENHAGEN - Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark is putting out a warning about fake Roxette tickets. Many sites, among them the infamous Biljett.nu, are apparently selling tickets to the Roxette concert on Friday, July 22, but the concert is free! So again, do not purchase tickets for the Tivoli show, as the performance is included in the price of admission to the historic amusement park. This entrance fee is 95 Danish kroner (about $17.50 USD or €12.75 EUR) before 8 pm.

Regarding the Roxette World Tour that starts February 28 in Kazan, Russia; two dates have returned and one date is gone:

Mexico City, Mexico has vanished from the tour schedule, it may be back though, stranger things have happened.

June 24 Neckarsulm, Germany
June 25 Ingolstadt, Germany

Both dates are included in the Audi RockPop Festival 2011. Tickets go on pre-sale February 25 and can be bought at Eventim.

WARSAW - According to several sources, among them Per's own Facebook page, the concert in the Torwar Hall, Poland has been sold out making that the 12th sold out concert of the tour so far. Per comments "Hallelujah!"

Robert Lathi contributed to this article.

Roxette's perfomance this weekend on the German television program "Wetten, dass…?" was a high-energy medley of "The Look," "It Must Have Been Love," and the new single "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)."

The set designer had Roxette performing in an open tunnel lit mostly with blue spotlights. In the audience shots, several fans could be seen wearing "Charm School Girl" t-shirts, complete with graduation caps at the end. The host said "Welcome back!" to Roxette and presented Marie with a bouquet of sunflowers and yellow roses. Per said the show went "very, very well." 

Various fans recorded the show and have uploaded the segment to YouTube.  Here's one example.