The Daily Roxette

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!

Here is a special Christmas greeting from Marie and Per:

2011 turned out to be something very special indeed. We don’t really know where to start! The ”She’s Got Nothing On”-single that made it all the way to the-4th-most-played-song-in-the-world for a couple of weeks? The Charm School album that felt like the perfect comeback for this young couple? Or The World Tour that kicked off in February? Oh yeah, let’s start there!

No one expected this kind of reception we got from you guys, we couldn’t even dream of filling huge arenas again. Almost 800,000 people came to the shows this year. That’s an awful lot of tickets!

And you know, we say it again and again, nothing would have been possible without the support, friendship, love + affection we get on a daily basis from YOU; The Rox Aficionados all over the world!!! You make things so much easier.

We certainly hope we’ll meet all of you again in 2012. Looks like this tour will have another 65 shows to go before the finale in October. New cities + new countries are in the can as well as some jolly returns to favourite places.

And, hey, as we’re writing this... we’re just wrapping up the recordings of the new T2 – Tourism 2-album. It feels like we’re having a splendid one coming up, recorded while touring, filled with the positive energy from you + from the superb bunch of musicians we’re blessed to work with.
We la-la-la-la-love it! Have a feeling you’re gonna love it too!

So, folks…..have a wonderful xmas + a mighty 2012.

Cheers,
Marie + Per

MANNHEIM - After shortly visiting my cousin and her family in Calw (birthplace of Hermann Hesse), it was time to move on to Mannheim. A dear friend of mine, was already waiting outside the SAP Arena. So far, we attended different shows and it was our first indoor concert of the current tour for both of us. We were excited about the new touring equipment (stage and lights) and of course we wanted to hear "C!B!B!" and "Soul Deep." At this time, we didn’t know what to expect. More and more people showed up at the SAP arena. It seemed that approximately 70 % of the tickets were sold. Support act Mobilée did a good job and the audience honored their performance. But everyone was waiting for Roxette to enter the stage. Then at 9.00 PM they started with "Dressed for Success“ followed by "Sleeping in My Car“.

From the beginning people had great fun. If you looked around, you could see many clapping hands. Marie talked to the audience: "Thank you so much. It’s so nice to see you.“ The audience was screaming and Marie replied: "Wow“. A real power-pop song came next: "The Big L.“. Then it was Per’s turn: "Good evening Mannheim. Fantastic to be back. It’s good to see so many people here. Do you feel fine? Have you had a great weekend? We’re gonna play some old Roxette favorites for you, we’re gonna play some new songs from the Charm School album. So let’s see what happens.

“A stunning performance of “Wish I Could Fly“ followed. This song ended with very mystical sounds which lead perfectly to "Only When I Dream“. This song has been very well received by the audience.  "She’s Got Nothing On“ and a shorter version of "Soul Deep“ were next. I was surprised so many people knew the lyrics to "Soul Deep“. You could hear them singing. During these songs the audience was very active. Per thanks the audience by saying in German: "Danke schön“. Then it was time to play stripped down versions of "Perfect Day“ and "Things Will Never be the Same.“
 

Exactly 25 years ago, on the 8th of July 1986, Roxette released their first single "Neverending Love" in Sweden. Originally intended for Per’s next solo album in Swedish, the lyrics of "Svarta Glas" ("Black Glasses") were re-written to English and we all know the worldwide success that followed.

Now, 25 years later, Roxette is stronger than ever. No one could have imagined a comeback like this but sometimes dreams can actually come true. Currently the band is about halfway through its enormous and successful world tour, giving many fans the ability to finally see their favorite band in real life. At the same time, Roxette is working on the follow-up of the Tourism album which was recorded during the Joyride world tour.

Congratulations from the entire TDR team!

+++ Please be aware that this competion has ended in the meantime. Thanks to all of you who participated! See a report about this meet & greet here. +++

 The Daily Roxette, in cooperation with the Polish fan club and d&d management, is proud to offer you the chance to meet Marie and Per backstage in Warsaw this Sunday. Together we are giving away 7 (seven) m&g passes for you fans!

Of course, we will need to put up some rules:

- Readers of Polish nationality please head over now to www.roxettepl.com and look for competition details over there.

- Non-Polish fans please apply here as follows: Send an email to kai@dailyroxette.com with the following details: Your name, email, cell phone number (international format!) before Saturday evening 23.59 Warsaw local time.

- Winners will be informed on Sunday morning via a text message to their cell phones. You will need to have purchased a valid concert ticket beforehand. Sorry, you cannot bring friends to the M&G. Pictures of the M&G will be taken for you and sent to your email address afterwards. No guarantees whatsoever for chances of getting items signed.

- Your personal data will remain secret and will only be used in connection with the preparation of this event. Data exchanges among TDR, RoxettePL and d&d may occur.

- Have fun!

Unhappy with this reporter being unhappy about particular audiences?
This Wednesday will be your chance to prove me wrong. TDR will cover Roxette's concert in Leipzig with an extended report again and this very writer will be present there. So shake the ground, blow up the balloons, take all your pocket lamps with you! Remember to eat some ginger to enhance your voices (Per does it too)! Make it a night to remember! I'm ready. Are you? :)

As Roxette plays Romania for the first time ever tonight, it's Marie Fredriksson's birthday! The Daily Roxette assumes the tenacious Romanian fans have something terrific planned.

A huge happy birthday to you Marie, from all of us here at TDR. (You can tell her Per, as "Marie don't surf!".)

Here it is - the traditional Daily Roxette team album review! Lars-Erik, Thomas, Judith, Colin & Paul gathered in the virtual TDR newsroom to write up this special review on Roxette’s brand-new album!

It’s been a long, long time (It’s been a while and lots of miles…) coming but here we are… a brand new studio album from Roxette. Years of speculation on Roxette’s future have ended with the release of Charm School and the upcoming World Tour.  As for the album itself, it has so many trademark Roxette sounds, yet is totally new and it feels great to have real instruments again on some of the songs. Most fans we're sure will love it, but obviously there will always be some who won’t.  Our review is quite lengthy, but it’s been 10 years since we've had a chance to do one of these. Anyway, song by song review time:

“WAY OUT”

Colin: A Roxette album that starts with a mouth harp - that must be a first! The first verse really has that Aerosol Grey Machine studio sound and then at the catchy chorus the heavier guitars kick in. The song has a really positive vibe to it and to me it feels like a sequel to “June Afternoon” – awesome!
Thomas: “We will we will rock you!” drums. Love those guitars. And it must be Per playing that first weee-wah-wah-wah-wa after the first chorus! They also used a mouth harp in “I Remember You” if you remember.
Colin: Oh I do remember! That was my first Roxette song - loved it!
Paul: This song reminds me more of “Stupid” from The World According To Gessle. The drum beat is very similar indeed.
Lars-Erik: You know you’re right! I thought this had a familiar sound to it and that was it!
Paul: Not a typical Rox-album-opener really. I was expecting something along the lines of “Crush On You” or “Real Sugar”, so this came as a surprise… a nice surprise. The song, as with a few others on the album, is too short though.  A Marie middle-8 would have fixed that problem Mr G!
Thomas: 2.46?? That’s barely longer than “Här kommer alla känslorna”.
Judith: Now that you mention this song, I keep having this one in mind when I listen to some of the tracks on this album. It must be the happy mood. This album has a lot of the Roxette sound we know, but yet we get to hear some new sounds we never heard with Roxette before. This is one example. Great guitars and opener! I am glad that Per realized he can use and experiment with his voice a lot more than he used to! I must say both sing wonderfully on this album. I think this is a wonderful album so you won’t get much negative points from my side, I am afraid. The only one is that the album is too short! I want more!! 2-3 more songs would have done it.
Thomas: Yes, what else is there to add? This is one of my favorites as well, maybe even “The Favorite” and I had hoped the whole album had been a bit more like this song.
Colin: Definitely one of my favorites too, after listening to the albums a few times this is the chorus that really keeps hanging around in my head!
Lars-Erik: Nobody’s mentioned the ending… I really like it! I think the distorted guitar there is cool!
Thomas: Yes we did! We all felt it came way too soon!