STOCKHOLM - Roxette is rushing up the charts again. At the moment Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson are #11 on the U.K. album chart. But there will be no tour.


  "Marie may decide to take it easy for a few years, and that may well be," Per Gessle says to Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden's major morning papers.

  It's been eight years since Roxette was on the U.K. album chart with "Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus!". This time it's the new collection "The Ballad Hits" which is a sudden success.

  "I grew up with British music so it feels a bit different compared to being number 11 in Holland," Per Gessle laughs.

"Is there a new Roxette wave coming?"

  "I can feel that we've been doing this for so long and that it's a circle being closed. Our songs start to feel right and great, very eighties."

"Do you still get as happy as before, when things go your way?"

  "You never get tired of success, but you get sick of the [record] business. It's not as fun doing 42 interviews in Frankfurt." Per states to Svenska Dagbladet's Harry Amster.

• Svenska Dagbladet (In Swedish)

  Later this spring the collection "The Pop Hits" is released and Per Gessle is a bit surprised that he's singing the lead on so many up-tempo hits such as "The Look" and "Joyride". So far Roxette has sold 40 million albums.

  "1995 we had toured for almost a year and worked without any breaks for 8 years. Then we talked about moving to the US to break through there once and for all. But we decided to take a break instead," Per says.

"How do you feel about 'The Look' today?"

  "It's still sounds like a super-hit. Even back then it had this odd, but positive, sound."

"Any of your hits you can't stand?"

  "I don't listen to them! Same thing with Gyllene Tider, I don't sit around listening to 'Sommartider'", that would be terrible."

"Will there be a tour next year, when Gyllene Tider celebrates 25 years?"

  "Nothing has been decided, although we have had a meeting. It can happen."

  Per concludes that it's harder working with Roxette since Marie Fredriksson has been ill.

  "We decided early last year to release these compilations. Nothing has changed but this thing that has happened is terrible. We can't do promotion together.

"Have you yourself decided if you are to continue or not? Maybe it's not as important anymore"

  "No, we plan to continue with Roxette. How and when, I don't know, but we've been doing this all our lives, so we can't stop it.