STOCKHOLM - In a live chat on TV4.se, Per reveals that there may be a European club tour planned for April-May 2009. The tour will in that case include concerts in Sweden and "a concert in London in April if everything goes fine."

TDR doesn't have any further details at this point.

STOCKHOLM/BILBAO - Marie Fredriksson is currently touring with the show "Stjärnklart". Fans coming from Spain, Germany, Romania and Russia attended the show on Saturday, November 29 in Stockholm and this is their story about the show.

The night started with a meet & greet. Meeting point was the ticket office, a sign requested fans from the above mentioned countries to follow "this way," they were welcomed by the show organizers in a big room, where they waited for Marie while standing around some tables. Marie and Mikael Bolyos appeared a couple of minutes later, and spent a great amount of time talking with the more than the 30 fans present. "Marie was smiling all the time, she took her time to speak to everybody, one could see she was very glad to meet her fans again," says one of the fans. Photos were taken, albums were signed, until it was time for Marie to go backstage and get ready for the show.

Fans then headed to the concert hall, and got seated. The show was about to start. 

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - The Stjärnklart tour with some of Sweden's top artists started yesterday in Norrköping. One of the performers in the show is Marie Fredriksson who hasn't toured since her brain tumor was discovered and treated in 2002.

"It is wonderful to be here," she told the audience from the stage of the Louis De Geer concert house. According to Expressen, the other artists of the show sang duets and had dance numbers, but Marie had a more peaceful moment between the acts. She performed three songs, "Ännu doftar kärlek," "Så skimrande var aldrig havet" and "Tro."

The tour continues on November 25 in Stockholm. More shows will follow in Malmö and Gothenburg until December 13.

Per is publishing official "En händig man" tour videos on YouTube. So far, two videos have been released: first one from the Halmstad premiere and the second one from the Linköping concert. The videos are 1-2 minutes long and consist of clips from backstage, soundcheck and live concert.

HALMSTAD - Before 17,800 people (out of 19,000 tickets available,) Per entered the stage at Örjans vall in Halmstad yesterday. Unfortunately there was a heavy drizzle over Halmstad during the evening. Per was in a great mood and exclaimed "This is the best band I've ever been in. It was also the best tour premiere of mine ever!" Per continues "This band is actually so tight that for the second week of rehearsals we only worked on switching the set list around…"

The concert itself was very Gyllene Tider oriented, with 10 out of 23 songs. The rest consisted of seven "En händig man" songs and six from "Mazarin." Per was a bit upset with the rain as it made it hard to move on stage. "Once with Roxette I ran into Jonas Isacsson when the stage was wet. I smashed into his guitar!"

The band was in top shape. MP was sharp, and looked sharp in his nice tie, Helena was cute (and sang well) and Clarence hit every key.

The stage was fabulous. A great light show with two rather big video screens that showed what was happening on stage with some effects added. The show started by the way with a 40 minute video showing Swedish artists over the years, and ended with Per's new "secret track" which I won't tell what it is. The video wasn't shown though.

Biggest song: Sommartider probably, the sing-a-long must've been heard for miles!

Many fans from all over the world attended the concert; Russians, Norwegians, Finns, Swedes you name it.

The set list

Juni, juli, augusti
(Hon vill ha) Puls
Pratar med min müsli (hur det än verkar)
En händig man
På promenad genom stan
Vilket håll du än går
Hannas kärlekspil
Det hjärta som brinner
En sten vid en sjö i en skog
När alla vännerna gått hem
Jag skulle vilja tänka en underbar tanke
Kung av sand

Band presentation

Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)
Födelsedag
Fru Nordin
Spegelboll
Gå & fiska!

Extras

Om du kommer ihåg
Tycker om när du tar på mej
Ljudet av ett annat hjärta
Ska vi älska så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly

Extra extras

Sommartider
Min hälsning

HALMSTAD - The Daily Roxette is back at the crime scene - at Leif's Lounge in Halmstad. This time it's for Per's "sneak preview" of "En händig man på turné." There are several hundred people there, among them Freddie Ljungberg, Martin Dahlin and Börje Salming, or should I say as Per puts it "All the guys with their own underwear label is here!" There are also some 20 South American Roxette fans here. And The Daily Roxette of course!

The concert starts at 22:15, a bit fashionably late, it's Per. The whole place rocks with the opening number "Hannas kärlekspil." Per and the band plays 11 songs, and skips one. All of the songs are great, but one stands out; "Jag skulle vilja tänka en underbar tanke" which turns into exactly what I had imagined. A show stopper that keeps on going!

TDR meets Per after the concert, where he and the band are presented a triple platinum award for "En händig man." Per is very satisfied with the concert "It felt great, everyone tells me I should do more club gigs." Naturally TDR asks why he doesn't. "Actually it seems I will. I wanted to do this thing for SOAP down in Europe, but now 'En händig man' goes so well in Norway that we are planning a club tour there. We may even pop over to Finland and Denmark," Per says.

Everything seems set for the big premiere tomorrow.

The set list:

1 Hannas kärlekspil
2 Det hjärta som brinner
3 En sten vid en sjö i en skog
4 En händig man
5 På promenad genom stan
6 Juni, juli, augusti
7 Jag skulle vilja tänka en underbar tanke
8 Här kommer alla känslorna
9 Födelsedag
10 Gå & fiska!

Extras

11 Fru Nordin *
12 Sommartider

* They skipped Fru Nordin as an extra for reasons unknown.

The drummer most often seen in Roxette's band, Pelle Alsing, has been playing with a new group called Moosters. They just released an album called "Executioner" in Sweden.

Pelle is very excited about this project but says that his love and devotion for Roxette will not be compromised by this. He calls their style rockin' blues. If you would like to hear what Pelle has been working on during the last two years visit their MySpace page.

In another news, the guitarist of Gyllene Tider, co-owner of the Roxette demo studio Tits & Ass, Mats "MP" Persson, is touring in March with The Cadillac Band. Three concerts have already been confirmed, one of them being in a church in Stockholm.

HAMBURG - The first thing this reporter notices, when I arrive at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg the day before the Bravo gala on Saturday, is a group of Tokio Hotel fans.

  “For whom did you come?” asks one of the girls. She isn’t much older than 15 and fixes her makeup every three minutes. “Roxette,” I say and her reply is clear: “Who?”

  It continues like that the whole day, as fans hope to for a chance to see the various groups arrive for soundcheck and technical rehearsals. Nobody’s there for Roxette.

  It’s the same thing on Saturday. About four hours before the show starts, the Tokio Hotel fans are screaming their lungs out and waiting for their heros to appear on the red carpet. At first I too am waiting behind a barrier with my friends before planning to enter the arena through the press entrance. There’s no possibility to actually see the red carpet, but we do see the black Bravo cars labeled “Cars for Stars.” The crowd of people outside – more than 75% are younger than 16 – are simply hysterical, even though hardly anyone can see anything happening on the red carpet. You couldn’t even see that there’s somebody in a car. But luck is with us this time. My friends do see Marie before the show starts.

  At about 5:45 pm Roxette step onto the red carpet. Per, Marie and the band… far away from us. But for Marie, it was only to make her entrance, as only ten minutes later she is sitting in a small car, driving back to the hotel again with manager Marie Dimberg at her side (only to drive back to the venue again two hours later). It’s luck because they need to stop right behind a big barricade to get on the street. Marie sees one of the posters my friend had made, which greets her with the words “Welcome back Marie”. She looks at it for quite a long time, smiles and then she’s gone.

  At 8:45 pm the show has already been going for about two hours. In the press area, everybody’s talking about Marie… not Tokio Hotel. It’s obvious that in the eyes of the press, she is THE star of the evening, and it’s a foretaste of what one of the biggest German Sunday newspapers, Bild am Sonntag, will be writing the next day about her: “Roxette star sings herself back into [people’s] hearts.”

  Working meticulously, the photographers sort through the pictures they took of Roxette on the red carpet and are waiting for the performance and asking wondering amongst themselves how it will be. As a press reporter myself, I had the schedule and knew that it won’t be too much longer, so I quickly decide to go back to my seat in the hall. I know that they will play on the left stage and I too wait with anticipation. Afterwards my friends – who are sitting everywhere and nowhere in the hall – tell me that they could see when Marie and Per stepped on the stage and thought that they recognized that both of them were quite nervous. The only thing I notice after host Kai Pflaume has welcomed Roxette, is that the audience is suddenly getting louder.

  The audience jumps to their feet only a few seconds after the intro of “The Look” has started. Everyone seems to begin clapping to the beat and the performance becomes one of the few highlights of the evening. Now the mood is much better than it was all through the last two hours. It’s amazing! And Marie especially seems to notice it. Boldly, she finally conquers the whole stage. Even the celebrities in the front rows stand up as the music fades away and they too are clapping their hands.

  Directly after the Roxette performance I leave the hall. In front of the entrance, I meet the Tokio Hotel girl that I had met the day before. She runs over to me happily and says “Marie is her name, right? The female singer of Roxette? I DO know her. She has short blonde hair and an amazing voice.” Somehow she’s had this epiphany even though she didn’t have a ticket for the show and therefore missed seeing the fabulous live comeback of Roxette. Read more…

HAMBURG - While Roxette’s actual performance will still be pre-recorded, Per and Marie are now both expected to take the stage this month at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany when Bravo magazine celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a live three-hour television event.

  A notice posted yesterday on Roxette.se, the duo’s own site, indicated that Roxette will “make a live appearance on stage at the actual event on the 21st.”

  And Bravo themselves yesterday released this message:

Dear Roxette-fans,
We have positive news! After intensive discussions, we have today received the definitive yes: Roxette will be on stage at the big ’50 Years BRAVO’ anniversary gala on 21 October 2006. We’re very happy to be able to bring all fans this news.

COLOGNE - While Roxette will indeed be performing as part of the “50 Years Of Bravo” television special, The Daily Roxette has learned from EMI Germany that this segment of the show will be pre-recorded and not live and that Roxette will not be physically present at the gala.

  “We don’t want to disappoint fans who buy tickets for the show because they think they will see Roxette live on stage,” said Christian Wißmann of EMI Music Germany to TDR late this afternoon.

  Per and Marie’s segment will be recorded a day earlier in Hamburg, and then spliced into the show. “The television viewer will not be informed that Roxette was not actually there at the actual event,” says Wißmann, “but we want to let the fans know this.” Logistical conflicts prevent Roxette from being there to perform live during the show.

  The show will be broadcast on October 21 on German TV channel Pro7.