Additional concert dates continue to be added to the “Night of the Proms” tour, making this the biggest year yet for this concert series:

• Wednesday, 20 November, Rotterdamn (Ahoy)
• Thursday, 19 December, Dortmund (Westfalenhalle) (chairs only)
• Saturday, 21 December, Cologne (Kölnarena) (chairs only)
• Sunday, 22 December, Hamburg (Color Line Arena) (chairs only)

For a complete list of tour dates, see the Night of the Proms website.

HALMSTAD - “Night of the Proms” aside, Per Gessle wants to take Roxette out on tour again soon, probably next summer, according to a report published today in several Swedish newpapers.

  “It would be really fun to do a summer tour and play in Sweden. We played in Göteborg and Stockholm the last time, and it would be great to make a big Greatest Hits tour. But this can only happen if there´s a possibility to do it abroad as well,” Per said to Mikael Forsell, a reporter for Swedish news bureau Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT).

  “Roxette seem to have a renewed energy,” Forsell wrote. “What turned the spark on again was the tour this past autumn.”

  “It was fantastic to do that tour, and to be able to sell 8,000-10,000 tickets in those cities and still have an audience,” said Per.

• Hallandsposten article (In Swedish)

The Pointer Sisters have been added to the roster of artists that will be performing, along with Roxette, at this year´s Nokia Night Of The Proms concerts in Belgium, Holland and Germany.

  The three sisters from California who began singing as little girls in their father’s church, will present their biggest hits accompained by the choir Fine Fleur and the orchestra IL Novecento under the direction of Robert Groslot.

  John “Music” Miles will be also be a part of the show once more. An additional act in Germany is Alphaville, while in The Netherlands and Belgium, Marco Borsato will entertain the audience.

Roxette will be the headline act this fall for “Night of the Proms,” an event that began as a student party and has evolved into a series of concerts performed in three countries: Belgium, Holland and Germany. Roxette will be accompanied by the symphonic orchestra Il Novecento.

  The biographical information on the Night of the Proms website states “The band broke through in the late eighties with numerous hits in the top of the charts. Among them were worldwide hits like “The Look”, “Dressed for Success,” “Listen To Your Heart,” “It Must Have Been Love,” “Joyride,” “How Do You Do!,” “Sleeping In My Car,” “Run To You,” “Crash! Boom! Bang!,” and “Wish I Could Fly.” Sixteen years later the band can show impressive sales figures (more than 40 million albums and 15 million singles sold) and look back on some very successfull world tours.”

  “Their seductive mix of pop tunes full of irony and obvious “power ballads” today still sound as fresh and catchy as in those days, when their songs first started to get airplay.”

• Night of the Proms website

STOCKHOLM - Inferring that the report published yesterday in Metro – Sweden’s largest morning newspaper – was fabricated, EMI Music Sweden posted this message today on Roxette.se, Roxette’s own “official” website:

  “This is an official comment on rumours regarding a forthcoming tour, release dates etc. There will be no Roxette tour this summer/year. Per and Marie are in the process of writing new material. There are however no plans to release anything before or during the summer of 2002.”

STOCKHOLM - Today’s report in Metro, a daily newspaper distributed here for free, reports that Roxette will go on a Swedish tour this summer, just after the release of the new compilation album mentioned in the article above.

STOCKHOLM - Roxette will appear on stage here tonight at the NRJ Radio Awards at Hovet near Globen. This is their first live appear since their Room Service tour ended in November. Other artists to perform are Ronan Keating, Westlife, Alanis Morissette, Kylie Minogue, E-Type, and the rising Swedish band Lambretta. Lenny Kravitz was supposed to perform, but he has cancelled his entire European tour due to sickness.

  The show will be broadcast live on Kanal 5 TV network in Sweden. The broadcast starts at 8pm CET (UTC+1). In Finland, Nelonen will show a 1-hour long version of the show on Sunday, starting at 2pm. We also suppose that all NRJ radio networks around Europe are broadcasting the show live.

  Don’t forget that Roxette is also nominated in the awards in Best Swedish Group category. Roxette’s “The Centre Of The Heart” is nominated in two categories, Best Nordic Song and Best Swedish Song. You can still vote at the NRJ Radio Awards site.

HALMSTAD - Per posted this entry to his “diary” on the Roxette site today, and as it is rather noteworthy, we reprint it here [with Editor’s Notes appearing in brackets]:

Dear all of you:

  So now the “Room Service Tour 2001” finally has come to an end. It was with mixed feelings that we left the stage after “Church of your Heart” at Scandinavium in Gothenburg last weekend. The tour has been soooo cool, soooo good that even Mr. Alsing considers it to be his best on-ze-road-experience since he parted with The Idols (Swedish inside joke!!). Anyway, thanks for making this such a beautiful trip.

  It was, as expected, great to finish the tour in Sweden. Both the Karlstad show and the Globe Show in Stockholm were great but the real killer came in Gothenburg this time. I don’t know what it is, but it’s always really special to play on the West coast. All three shows were sold out early on so we felt very honored by our fans in our home country.

  Rumor [a probable reference to a story in The Daily Roxette that was based on statements made during the Helsinki press conference] has it that there is a summer tour in the can. I can only say that we’re thinking about it. We’re even talking about it. We’ll have some meetings very soon to make up our minds. There are other extremely interesting plans as well for next year (which I won’t go into here and now) [see the same TDR article] but an extension of the tour is definitely worth discussing.

  So, there you are! I’ll finish off with a quick thank you to all the hardcore fans out there, our management in The Old Town, our record companies all over Europe, the tour agents here and there, the hardest working band on the bus and, last but not least, our unbelievable crew. Without them, nothing would work at all. Hope to see you very soon again. Have a great Christmas y’all.

P. November 22, 2001

• Per’s Diary on Roxette.se

2 out of 5 in Aftonbladet, 1 out of 5 in Expressen… “Roxette is over,” say the Swedish tabloids. Both Aftonbladet and Expressen have almost identical reviews of yesterday’s Karlstad concert, their first “Room Service” tour gig in Sweden.

  Aftonbladet’s review is written by Per Bjurman, who’s been long known for his negative attitude towards Roxette (see TDR’s old articles 1, 2). Both Aftonbladet and Expressen say that Roxette is boring and lame and they’re playing the same old songs again and again. According to Bjurman, Roxette still hasn’t gotten over the 80s. (Even though most of their hits have been in the 90s… - Ed.)

  It seems that it’s still the same old problem of not gaining critics’ respect in their home country. To gain some perspective, Finnish papers had only positive reviews of their Helsinki concert and the Swedish public still seems to love one of their biggest exports; all their three concerts in Sweden are sold out.

  Hallandsposten was the only Swedish paper with a positive review. Hallandsposten is published in Halmstad area where Roxette is from and the review was written by Jan-Owe Wikström, the co-author of “Roxette The Book”.

• Aftonbladet article
• Expressen article
• Hallandsposten article

The Official Roxette Fanclub is organizing parties for Roxette fans before and after the band’s concerts in Sweden.

  In Karlstad (November 14th) there will be an after-party in the night club Arena. In Stockholm (November 16th) there will be a gathering before the concert at Olivlunden, Gullmarsplan, at 4pm, and an after-party at Kickis Bar & Café. For the after party you have to be over 18 and you’ll need an ID to get in. The entrance fee is 40 SEK if you have a concert ticket with you or 60 SEK without one.

  The fanclub is still working on a party in Gothenburg on November 17th.

• Roxettenews.com