The Daily Roxette

HELSINGBORG - I wanted to write a review for Marie's Helsingborg concert, but I feel this is going to turn into much more than a review, because I think I have to explain the other things to show just how special this was to me. I still remember quite clearly the first time I heard of Roxette. It was on UK TV in 1990, where they played clips of 3 songs: "It Must Have Been Love," "Listen To Your Heart" and "Dressed for Success." I could also vaguely remember "The Look" from the year before, but it hadn't really registered at the time. It wasn't really the songs that hooked me in, it was Maries voice, and I knew I had to hear more of it. I remember going for a search for their record, but Look Sharp! was nowhere to be find in my local record store. I eventually found the LP in the tiny music section of a department store called 'Littlewoods'  and that was me hooked for the next 25 years!

Of course I didn't have any Internet access back then so had to me a little more innovative to find out about the latest releases. I would regularly be asking my local record store to check when the next Roxette release was happening. If I didn't get any joy from them I would sometimes call the EMI headquarters in London, although on most occasions they weren't particularly helpful. In fact because of them I missed out on Roxette's show in London in 1995 to coincide with the release of Don't Bore Us... but that's a story for another time. I can't remember when exactly, but at one point I became aware of the fan club in Holland and that became invaluable for finding out about the latest releases. The fanzines were also fantastic for getting much more information about the band, exclusive interviews and information about the recording process and advance notice of when the next record would be released. It was from being a member of the fan club that I also became aware of Pearls of Passion, as well as their solo projects, and from that moment on (from 1991 from what I remember) I spent all my money ordering various rarities from Record Collector magazine as well as buying all the old Marie/Per/GT albums (on CD by that point!)

HELSINGBORG - Last night saw the premiere of Marie Fredriksson's long awaited 2014 solo tour at the Helsingborg Konserthus, an intimate venue in one of Sweden's southernmost cities. Aftonbladet gave the show 4/5 while Expressen and Helsingborgs Dagblad stayed with 3/5. 

There was official merchandise on sale which included T-shirts, candles, posters and iPhone covers to satisfy every need.  From the pictures that Rockfoto have published, it looked like Marie was clearly enjoying being back on stage singing her Swedish songs after a long 14 year wait.  

18 songs in total were played and the setlist was:

Så stilla så långsamt
Kom vila hos mig
Bara för en dag
Det regnar igen
Sista sommarens vals
Ber bara en gång
Sparvöga 
Ett hus vid havet
Ett bord i solen
Så skimrande var aldrig havet
Ännu doftar kärlek
Så länge det lyser mittemot
Om du såg mig nu
Efter stormen
Den sjunde vågen
Mellan sommar och höst
Den bästa dagen
Tro

Marie Fredriksson's concert in Halmstad on Friday 21 March has had a venue change. The concert will now be held at Halmstad Theatre.

The reason behind this change is to give the Halmstad audience the same intimate experience as the other concerts on this tour. All tickets purchased are, of course, valid for the new venue.

If you have any questions, please contact the organisers - info@nojet.com

On February 7, 2014 Abba and Roxette were the two obvious names to enter the very first Sweden Music Hall Of Fame.

The first group of twelve artists have been named to the new Swedish Music Hall of Fame.

Sweden may not be the largest or most high profile of countries in Europe but they have contributed a number of major artists to the world scene. The country’s five biggest selling acts of all time, ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe and the Cardigans, all had major hits in the U.S. and other countries. Modern Swedish artists Eric Prydz, Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and Icona Pop have also made major inroads on the world charts.

The Swedish Hall of Fame, which is part of a new complex that also includes ABBA: The Museum, has chosen to induct:

ABBA – International superstars and one of the biggest artists in music history with hits like "Dancing Queen," "Waterloo" and "Take a Chance on Me."

Roxette – The duo of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle which charted internationally with "The Look," "It Must Have Been Love" and "Joyride."

Entombed – Early pioneers of Swedish Death Metal, they eventually added agarage rock influenced style that was dubbed “death ‘n’ roll”.

Ebba Grön – Sweden’s most influential punk rock band.

The Latin Kings – A hip-hop group from the southern suburbs of Stockholm, they were one of the first to release a rap album with Swedish lyrics.

Monica Zetterlund – Actress and jazz singer who started covering American jazz standards and eventually recorded the influential album Waltz For Debby with Bill Evans.

Cornelius Vreeswijk – One of the most influential and successful troubadours in Sweden, he first learned his craft by listening to the likes of Josh White and Lead Belly.

Eva Dahlgren – Started her career supporting Roxette on tour and scored a number of top ten hits in the early-'90s.

Stina Nordenstam – Singer/songwriter whose career has covered jazz, alt rock and pop and includes not only recording but directing music videos.

Evert Taube – One of Sweden’s earliest major artists, he was a forerunner of the country’s ballad tradition.

Jan Johansson – Pianist whose Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish) is the best selling jazz album in the country’s history.

Nationalteatern – Progressive rock group whose repertoire included songs with left-leaning lyrics.

In a press release, the museum said they named ABBA for ending “male dominance and a macho culture … making music open to everyone, regardless of gender, sexuality or age.” A three person panel made the selections with artists having to have recorded their first material at least twenty years earlier. Member Jan Gradvall said “We want to act a bit like teachers, and demonstrate the history and significance of Swedish music. We want to build bridges between genres and generations and give Swedish music the place it deserves.”

2013 has been a great year for everyone involved in Roxette and Gyllene Tider with a summer tour and a lot of books, CDs and now even BDs having been released. Now it's time to settle down for a while and see how all these fine people who have brought you so much joy are celebrating their Xmas.

We sent these five questions to everyone in the Rox/GT camp:

1) How will you be spending X-mas/the holidays this year?
2) What have you been most proud of in 2013?
3) What's your biggest goal for the next year?
4) The best X-mas gift you've ever gotten was...
5) Your personal favorite X-mas song is...

And here are their answers:

In The Daily Roxette's Xmas contest we have now randomly selected three winners who will receive the new book about Gyllene Tider - "Alla tiders Gyllene Tider" by Anders Roos and Jan-Owe Wikström. The prizes have been kindly donated by Roos & Tegnér. We are most grateful!

So, the question was "what is regarded as Gyllene Tider's all time biggest summer hit?" We have received no less than 144 correct answers, and a few incorrect ones at that! But the answer is "Sommartider" from 1982!

Our three lucky winners are:

Remco Verhaaf
Susanne Ziegel
Andreea Cristina

Congratulations guys!

On New Year's Eve the documentary "Look Sharp! 25 years" will be broadcast on Swedish Radio P1 and P4.

The program has been put together by Tove Meyer and Tara Moshizi, both Roxette fans in hiding. Tove and Tara are journalists and got to know each other when they were by coincidence put in the same room at the radio building in Stockholm, Sweden. This lazy Friday afternoon Tara asked Tove to put on a song to pep them before the weekend. She picked "Dressed for Success" and Tara became so excited she just cried out "Are you a Roxette fan too??" Tove nodded happily.

That's how they both discovered they were "Roxers" and soon after they started sketching up the plans for a Roxette documentary. Since Roxette's album Look Sharp! turns 25 it felt natural to pick that as the theme of the show. With songs like "The Look," "Dangerous" and "Listen to Your Heart", Look Sharp! is Roxette's breakthrough album, and with that record Roxette has undoubtedly written international pop history.

Meeting Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson was also of course very thrilling. They came to Tove's and Tara's studio on Söder in Stockholm. According to Tove both of them were very decent and have generously shared memories and experiences from this era.

Per and Marie describe what Look Sharp! has meant to them, and how it feels to perform the songs today. Manager Marie Dimberg also recalls the Big Break when the band went from being Big in Sweden to international superstars.

"We are very happy to have gotten the opportunity to tell this mighty story. Join us on New Year's Eve to hear it!" says Tove.

Tuesday December 31 12.03-13.00 CET on P4
Tuesday December 31 16.03-16.45 CET on P1 with a rerun January 3 januari CET 18.15. Also available in the app Sveriges Radio Play.

And as promised, the follow up: The Ballad Hits.

Well, now that you think that this year is almost over, you’ve seen plenty of Gyllene Tider concerts and everyone is preparing for the holidays. Still there is a reason to come back to Halmstad/Sweden just two weeks before X-mas: a book release party. It may have occured to the regular reader of this magazine that long-term expert and journalist Jan-Owe Wikström and his colleague and photographer Anders Roos have worked on and published a behind-the-story book about Sweden’s cult band Gyllene Tider. Thomas Evensson has written a short summary about the book a few days ago, so I'll spare you details. All you need to know is: go get the book. It is incredibly interesting, it has astonishingly great photos inside (something you rarely see although advertised in many other books) and it looks pretty cool under the X-mas tree. Remember, you can still win your copy here on The Daily Roxette if you enter our current contest before Friday.

So, what’s a book release party of this magnitude like?

Again for those of you who surf the web, but not particularly Facebook, here's another brilliant article from our friend down under, Brendon Veevers, about Roxette's 10 best Pop Hits. There will be a follow up on Ballad Hits, of course.