The Daily Roxette

On his own record label Cosmos, Per Gessle will release a 7" with "Kvar i min bil" (from the 2008 movie "Let the Right One In") and B-side "Loud Clothes" from way back when (2002.) The release is called The Per Gessle Archives and a mysterious box set is promised to be released in September... The sleeve is, as you can see, very Roy Lichtenstein inspired.

April 26, Record Store Day in Sweden, "The Look" will be re-released in the original deep red 7" with the red sleeve. A 25 year anniversary logo has been added. The 7" will be released in 1,000 copies only. Non-Swedes can buy it via bengans.se. It is not yet known if the song itself will be the original or a remix, but the B-side will be the original "Silver Blue" demo.

GÄVLE - Going into the final, northern, part of the tour Marie visited Gävle in the middle of Sweden tonight. Gävle Concert Hall wasn't sold out, but close to it. There were roughly 35 international fans there, and from what I saw there was even a meet & greet for some of them. Talking to the fans and listening to the crowd after the show I realized this was one of the better shows of the tour. Top 3 even according to some. There were no changes in the setlist, and frankly, I didn't expect it either. Marie was in very good spirits, smiling and almost joking between the songs. Barefoot of course.

The sound was nothing short of amazing! The band was perfect and Marie was brilliant. Christoffer was doing his normal Neil Young wailing and Micke looked stern behind the keys. Second guitar player Jokke Pettersson was all smiles. The audience could have been more "on" but it was a mature audience and you could still see they were enjoying the show. Swedish celebrity Roger Pontare was there. Biggest hits (according to audience reactions) were "Ännu doftar kärlek," "Sparvöga," "Så länge det lyser mitt emot" and "Mellan sommar och höst" where a lot of (other) people stood up. The newer material, being only two songs, didn't seem to hit the spot though.

All in all, a very good concert, albeit at 1.25 it felt a bit short.

When Marie Fredriksson announced the release of Nu! many fans hoped and dreamed for a solo Marie tour.  Their prayers were answered and Marie is currently in the middle of her first solo tour in 14 years, singing songs covering her entire solo career from 1984’s “Ännu doftar kärlek” right up to “Sista sommarens val” which was, of course, released earlier this year. Marie has played concert halls and theatres across Sweden and with only 7 shows left of the tour, there is not long left to catch the show! If you haven't gotten tickets, you may want to look into it.

The Daily Roxette got the chance to speak to Marie recently.  Read on to hear the latest thoughts on the tour from Marie herself:  

TDR: Hi Marie!
MF: Hi!!

TDR: If you think back to 2009 when the beginning of Roxette’s comeback began, and then the subsequent massive world tour, does it surprise you that there are still so many people interested in the work that you and Per do?
MF:  I tend not to think about it like that.  I’m just very happy and grateful that the audience is still with us.  

As many of you have noticed, this was an April's Fools joke... for now!

For a long time fans have kept guessing what exactly Per was talking about when he told us about being at “another airport” every other day, when he possibly can't be flying that much. It turns out it will be his personal contribution to Sweden’s Record Store Day on April 26: an audio book, or a travelogue if you will. While the official press release will be out tomorrow, we can provide you with a few details already.

The audio book will consist of two vinyls full of travel logs noted down and read out by Per himself, in English. He used the long waiting times at the airports all over the world during the last Roxette tours to put down his personal experiences and thoughts. We will learn about advantages of hard hotel beds in South Africa and disadvantages of vegetarian breakfasts at 2pm, there will also be a longer part about his hospital stay before the canceled show in New Zealand (where Per had obviously too much time to make up his mind on airline food and queues to the airplane toilet). Also, you will hear what it’s like not to be escorted by police in Dubai and what the customs in Istanbul initially thought about Christoffer’s incense sticks. And finally we hear the full story of Åsa’s mishap that lead to the infamous song title “Excuse Me, Sir, Do You Want Me to Check on Your wife.” All in all there will be 25 chapters on 2 12″ vinyl discs with a total length of a little less than 2 hours. Each chapter is preceeded by a short sound sample from Per’s voice recorder where he stores his ideas for songs and lyrics. As a bonus track, we hear Per, Chris and Pelle killing The Marcels’ “Blue Moon” in an empty airport hall in South Germany, a little too loud and maybe a little too tipsy...

The mixing has been done by Mats MP Persson in his T&A studio in Halmstad, Sven Lindström helped putting down the right words.

The audio book will come in two editions: On April 26, you can purchase the extended but limited edition (1400 copies) which will include a picture book of 102 pages for 1.400 SEK, only in Swedish local record stores. Two weeks later, the standard edition, without the book (and as we heard sadly without “Blue Moon,”) can be ordered at the usual online stores and iTunes for around 149 SEK.

You can win one signed copy of “A.N.O.T.H.E.R. A.I.R.P.O.R.T” if you send an email with the answer to the following question to contest@dailyroxette.com still today: “What is the IATA code of the Halmstad airport?”. The winner will be drawn tomorrow and the copy of “A.N.O.T.H.E.R. A.I.R.P.O.R.T” will be sent out after April 26. Good luck!

This was sadly an April's Fools day joke - this time!

The Daily Roxette is thankful and proud to offer four of our readers the chance to visit Christoffer Lundquist in his mighty AGM studios. You will see the actual recording studio, the mighty studio cats and “Gubbens hus,” the place the guys (except for Per) stay at night. Of course you can ask Chris all your important questions and try the two echo chambers to your liking. All you have to do is write an email to contest@dailyroxette.com telling us what the acronym AGM actually stand for.

Please observe the following rules that we had to introduce in order not to reveal the actual location of the studio to the winners:

The trip will take place in the end of April 2014, we’ll start at the Central station in Malmö. The exact date will be disclosed to the winners exclusively. A maximum of 4 winners will be allowed which is due to the limits of the van we will drive you with from Malmö to the AGM. The participants will have to agree to get blindfolded during the ride, all mobile phones and cameras and other devices with GPS functionalities will have to remain in a locker at Malmö station. Don’t worry, photos of this event will be taken for you and sent out afterwards. The winners will have to make sure that they can manage to travel to Malmö at the given date at their own costs. Sorry, you can’t bring your friends or cats with you. Only emails arriving today will be qualified to take part in the contest.

GOTHENBURG - Around 1,200 fans squeezed into the Göteborg Konserthus last night.  From the sound of the audience reaction, it felt more like 12,000!  Marie was visably moved by the reaction from the audience and mentioned that this was the best show on the tour so far.  The audience jumped to their feet as soon as "Kom vila hos mig" started!  

Having never been to a Marie-solo concert before, this reporter wasn't sure what to expect.  What was delivered on the night by Marie and her band was excellent.  Marie was on top form! Super-top form in fact!  From the moment she entered the stage (barefoot again), Marie's vocals were excellent, and there were no obvious lyric issues.

VÄXJÖ - Marie came out to a wave of cheers and applause as she entered the stage (barefoot) in Växjö on Saturday night - cheers that disappeared in an instant as soon as Marie began singing "Så stilla, så långsamt" with only Christoffer's acoustic guitar as her guide. So quiet that that you could literally hear a pin drop - every single person in the audience completely captivated by this amazing voice - fiercely strong, yet heart achingly vulnerable at the same time. From the very first note she sang until she left the stage, Marie had everyone's undivided attention. Nothing less than she deserved.

Marie took the time to thank the Roxette fans for coming along to the show – a comment which was met with loud cheers and a lot of clapping, particularly from the first three rows.

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