The Daily Roxette

Ho ho ho. Xmas comes closer, you know that. As every year, there is this well-known 24 step countdown. A day, a door. Yep, nothing new. Except.... you are a regular reader of The Daily Roxette. If you haven't been one, you will become one from now on. Because from tomorrow on until Dec 24, we will give you a good read every day. Sometimes even two. Or more. What's to come?

This summer, we (this is Justyna Bereza of the Polish Roxette page www.roxettepl.com and me) had the chance to meet four top members of the Roxette circus:

• Marie Dimberg. She's Per's, Marie's (and thus Roxette's) manager. And not only this.
• Pelle Alsing. The drummer. Famous.
• Clarence Öfwerman. Producer, keyboarder, smiler.
• Christoffer Lundquist. Universal genius and studio owner.

Altogether, we talked for almost eight hours. This is like you go there at nine in the morning and keep talking to five in the afternoon. And ask and ask and ask. We had prepared a few witty questions for each of them but actually we wanted to let the talks take their own directions. We wanted to show you the person behind the face you know so well. What's she/he like in private? What's their professional background, what do they think? You will find out that even for the people in Roxette, the world is much bigger than just 200 pop songs. We'll talk about cats, dogs, mice, bicycles, hats, gays, men in women's wear, different techniques to throw a tambourine off stages, late lead singers, missed chances, beer prices, touching noses during concerts and other weird stuff. Then, we will take a very close look at the famous AGM studios where the magic is happening now. Lots of photos to come, lots of interesting things to read, rest assured.

And we have a few more surprises up our sleeves. Stay tuned, check back here every day. If you feel like talking about what you will read here, please do so. We may even send your questions to the people we talked to, if you're interested.

A huge Thank You goes out to Marie D, Pelle, Clarence and Christoffer who without any exception have kindly supported this project. They are really nice and friendly people. All of them. All texts you read here have been approved so you can be sure it's true what you read.

And if you read carefully between the lines, you will get a very good idea of what will happen in 2013. You'll see.

Kai-Uwe Heinze & Justyna Bereza

Tomorrow: Face to face with: Marie Dimberg. Part 1: "It's very frustrating."

The next hint on the TDR Advent calendar 2012.

ROXETTE 2012 - FANtastic! : A mini-documentary about Roxette's 2012 world tour.

Here's our story of Roxette's world tour and the special relationship between the band and the fans. Of course we couldn't have done this without the help of many people, especially you readers of the Daily Roxette. Thank you kindly!

Recorded on the 29th of June at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Produced exclusively for the Daily Roxette. Shot, edited and directed by TDR reporter Colin van der Bel. Want to read more about how this video was made (technically speaking) and see some behind-the-scenes pictures? Head on over to Colin's blog.

The concerts are over for now, and at least up here in Northern Europe, the winter is approaching fast. So is Christmas. Hopefully, we will see the new Roxette live DVD (BD?) being released soon enough to have it as a gift under the Christmas tree.

Well, for those of you who do not want to wait that long, The Daily Roxette has prepared a long list of surprises. Look forward to your most favorite Advent calendar this year. Every door is filled with a goody. And because we know that you've been a good fan this year, some doors are bigger than others.

What's to come, you ask? Time will tell! Check back here from time to time. The first door will open December 1. Watch the video and be sure there's even more than that. More details next week. Stay tuned!

We're excited! Are you?

For a special TDR project which we can’t reveal too much about right now, the Daily Roxette is asking for your help.

Are you going to Roxette’s concert in Amsterdam the 29th and want to share your unique fan story with us? We would love to interview you on camera!

We are also looking for pictures of fans together with Per, Marie and/or other band members taken anywhere around the globe (during the current tour). Do you have a great picture of yourself with Roxette? Please send it to us!

Contact us for more details about this project: amsterdam@dailyroxette.com

Today is the day that Per Gessle turns 53 years young! 

I'm sure all our readers will join us in wishing him all the best on his special day.

Happy Birthday, Mr G, from the TDR team - Hope you have a great day!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Make sure you click on the jump to read Paul's exclusive interview with Per and a particularly well-written comment from Tholmes1138. Note also the addition of a link to a reader's full account of the show.]

LONDON – After a long 17 year wait, Roxette finally brought their epic World Tour to the UK last night.  Wembley Arena was packed to the rafters with about 12,000 fans who, in this reporters opinion, were full of energy and sang along to all of the songs.  

The setlist was, as expected, identical to previous concerts in the re-launched tour (minus "Soul Deep" within "......Radio") and both Per and Marie were in top shape, so we won't cover much on the actual show. However, Chris did an amazing, frenzied version of "God Save The Queen" as the "Joyride" intro.

For a more complete report and review, Brandon Veevers, one of our readers who won a slot at the Meet & Greet, filed this report afterwards for a UK entertainment site.

The Meet and Greet, organised through this newspaper in conjunction with d&d Management and Live Nation, was a great success.  The fans that were lucky enough to win our contest were each able to have one item signed by Marie and Per. One such item was a rare blue vinyl edition of Marie's "Ännu doftar kärlek."  Marie was clearly very surprised when she saw this!  

The Daily Roxette also managed to grab some time with Per for an interview and to answer some questions put to him by you, the readers of TDR!

Photos of the show and Meet & Greet to follow...

(Click read more for the exclusive pre-show interview with Per.)

LONDON – Planning on attending the big concert in London? Would you like to go backstage before the show to say hello to Per and Marie?

The Daily Roxette, in conjunction with LiveNation and Roxette's management, is pleased to be able to offer a small group of fans the opportunity to participate in a "Meet & Greet" just before the November 15 concert in London's Wembley Arena.

All you need to do is answer at least one TDR Trivia question correctly in order to qualify for the drawing (one entry per person). The eight lucky winners will be chosen at random from the pool of qualified responses.

You have until 12 noon (UK time) on Friday, November 4 to enter the contest.  We'll contact the winners, and you can look for their names to be published here on Sunday, November 6.  Perhaps one of them will be you? Good luck!

NEW YORK – Many of our readers participated in the The Daily Roxette's trivia contest for a copy of Matthew Chojnacki's new book Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute that features, along with about 250 other great examples from the 80's, the cover art to Roxette's "Neverending Love" single.  Here are the answers, and the names of the winners:

The first question, which 77 percent got right, asked which graphic artist or designer was responsible for the majority of Roxette's album and single covers. Yes, it was Kjell Andersson who helped Roxette obscure their identity in the beginning (and who stayed on for many albums thereafter). Chojnacki quotes Per as telling him that without photos of them on the covers, the plan was they could return to their solo careers without anyone noticing, "just in case the Roxette thing didn't work out."

NEW YORK – Over 250 readers participated in the The Daily Roxette's trivia contest for a copy of the new U.S. Greatest Hits release from Capitol Records, along with some runner-up prizes. Here are the answers, and the names of the winners:

Given that both Per and Marie speak English rather well, it's a little funny to learn from Caroline Greyshock that she used finger gestures to get them to cross the street on that beautiful spring day when these Look Sharp! publicity photos were taken. 86 percent got her name right.

Where did Roxette often go in New York's East Village to buy their clothes? Well, "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is the name of a Times Square inspired painting by Piet Mondrian that is in the permanent collection at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in New York City. Abercrombie & Fitch, a trendy young adult brand has its flagship store is on Fifth Avenue in Midtown.  CBGB's is the now-closed music venue associated with punk bands like The Ramones (but you can still buy logo t-shirts). Duo is in the East Village (and Roxette is a duo), but this boutique sells vintage and local designer clothing. The correct answer, which 64 percent got right, is Trash & Vaudeville.

The story's been around so long that almost everyone (91 percent) seemed to know that it was a radio station in Minneapolis (KDWB) to whom Dean Cushman (also 91 percent) loaned his copy of Look Sharp!

Finally, 77 percent knew that it was the music video for The Look that EMI execs in the States wanted remade, while 80 percent knew correctly that the other artists involved in the controversial McDonald's promotion were Tina Turner, Elton John and Garth Brooks.

So who are the lucky winners of the new U.S. Greatest Hits CD, courtesy of Capitol Records?  They are Luiz Possebon (New York, USA), German Divonis (Rosario, Argentina), Dario Olivera (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Sarah Feeney (Texas, USA), and Kandice Halfacre (Tennessee, USA).

And the six bonus winners (who had to get all the trivia questions correct) are: Nicolas Cortés (Mendosa, Argentina), Blanka Pentela (Lodz, Poland), Arnaldo Suarez (Cordoba, Argentina), Thom Renström (Linköping, Sweden) and Johannes Lemm (Cologne, Germany). They each will get a gold Roxette logo pin (Charm School version) along with a TDR/Roxette lanyard and a promo card from Roxette's previous U.S. greatest hits album!

We also asked for suggestions for future trivia contest questions, and got many great responses.  We think it's fun to give stuff away, so you can look forward then to another such TDR contest in the near future!