The Daily Roxette

Ten years after their last visit, Roxette rejoins on stage in Helsinki's Hartwall Areena ice hockey rink. The concert went with the same formula as the previous ones during this world tour, so no surprises there. This was my third concert this year and the only new things were the minimalistic LED show on the background — a nice and subtle extension to their rather light stage construction — and the addition of "Crash! Boom! Bang!" to their set list. The new rendition of CBB with Per singing the first verse actually worked very well.

Marie struggled with the lyrics a few times, but Per and the audience of 7,500 people helped her well enough. Like in my previous Roxette concert in Tallinn, audience didn't realize that Roxette will always have two encores (They should know that the concert isn't over until the lights come up and Per's mix tape starts rolling!) and started leaving the arena. Then when the band came back first for "The Look" and then for LTYH, people were rushing back to their seats.

"Silver Blue" and "Stars" were dropped from the set list.

ZÜRICH - At first, this was meant to be a short clip with some nice scenes from Roxette’s SOLD OUT concert in Zürich on the 31st of October 2011 at the Hallenstadion. But then it turned out to be a small movie. 13,000 fans wanted to see Roxette in Zürich that evening. As we had reserved seats on the right side just in front of the stage, the view was amazing. Luckily, small cameras were allowed, so we managed to record some snippets. There are some scenes you shouldn’t miss. For example Per’s blooper at the beginning (fortunately, nothing happened). After “The Big L.,“ Marie was smiling all over her face and gave Per a pat on his back. Per’s talking to the audience saying that it would be always a pleasure to come back to Zürich. From “She’s Got Nothing On“ the audience was a lot more active than during the first songs. One gets goosebumps listening to the whole arena singing “It Must Have Been Love“ or “Spending My Time“. Another favorite: Per is playing with the audience at the beginning of “How Do You Do!“.

During the band presentation Per asked Magnus about a strange little blue machine he has never seen before. That part was indeed funny, because Per pretended that he has never heard of a synthesizer and many people were laughing at him. You can see the audience having fun with the big Roxette balloons during “Joyride“. “The Look“ was just amazing, watch the snippet. Marie at her best during “Listen to Your Heart“. After the first verse of “Church of Your Heart“ Per stopped singing. He was overwhelmed by the huge audience.

At the end of the concert Marie seemed a little bit lost as you can see on the snippet. It’s probably because most people did not applaud, but put their hands in the air and screamed “oohhhh...“. What they didn't realize of course is that this is really special about the Swiss audience at big concerts or music festivals; it’s a sign that they enjoyed the concert. When they do this, they also want to play and wait for someone starting a wave. At the beginning of “Watercolours in the Rain“ you can see the front row trying to start the wave, but it didn’t work. It has to be someone from the stage. Fans hoped for Per or Marie to start the wave, but naturally nobody had told them about this. Hopefully next time! All in all, it was an unforgettable evening.

Here is the video, it's not searchable.

Marie has drawn this charcoal piece called "Tre vänner" ("Three Friends") which is being auctioned out.
All profits from the auction go towards the Child Diabetes Fund, and is arranged by the Child Diabetes Fund together with the medical company Eli Lilly along with the Swedish Auction Office.

November 14 is World Diabetes Day. This is also the last day of the auction. Many Swedish celebrities have donated objects to this auction.

The auction is available at Auktionsverket and www.stadsauktion.se until November 14, and anyone can place a bid!

EMI has silently and without any promotion at all released a new single from Charm School - "No One Makes It On Her Own." The release is so far purely digital, but should a physical need arise, EMI is no stranger to releasing it for real. The song is accompanied by the beautiful fan video made by Tanya Rush earlier this year. EMI has purchased the rights to the video from Tanya and made it into the "official" video!

STOCKHOLM - After the last few weeks of good reviews of Roxette here at TDR there's nothing much to add really. Roxette played the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm Thursday night, with Vikunja as the opening act. This reporter was stuck backstage taking pictures of happy meet & greet winners during Vikunja so sadly he cannot review their performance.

Roxette, however, I saw the full show. It was the same show as usual, but I hadn't seen the new stage, or heard the 1.5 new songs. The verdict? Roxette scores 1-0 over Sweden. Like we've stated before, the new stage and lights are a huge improvement over the "summer tour." The band is tighter (if that's even possible at this stage) and Roxette sounds good, plain and simple. Marie was a bit shaky, it's always nervous to be on home turf, but she did splendidly as well. The now famous "international fans" fill in the blanks in the lyrics and Marie shines with happiness as they do.

I talked to many people that can't be described as Roxette fans and they were overwhelmed. One guy said "I never realized how good they are live!" and his sentiment was shared by several. The Globe admitted circa 9,600 people on the Friday.

The concert was visited by the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt who also attended the meet and greet before the concert.

To almost quote The Daily Roxette reporter Kai-Uwe Heinze: Get tickets to this tour or be left out!

Over 100 questions have now been received.  Apologies, but I will not be able to add any more questions to the pile.  Thank you so much to everyone who has submitted a question - it should make for a very interesting interview. Watch this space! - Paul

LONDON – Well, your luck is in!  During Roxette's upcoming visit to London, The Daily Roxette will be interviewing Per and we'd like to open the opportunity up to you, our readers, to have any of your long-time burning questions answered.

Obviously, we won't be able to ask every single question that gets submitted (Per, unfortunately, doesn't have the whole day to spend with us), but we will pick the best ones and put them to Mr G!

Email your questions to paul@dailyroxette.com by Wednesday, 9 November.  And please, keep your questions clean!

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!

OBERHAUSEN - After six consecutive shows in Germany, Roxette played a wonderful show at the König Pilsner Arena in Oberhausen. The Daily Roxette was on the scene to report and managed to get a quick word with Per.

Although the concert wasn't sold out, most seats were filled and the atmosphere was great. The audience seemed to know the words of most of the classics as they sang along in a loud volume. The front row was filled with screaming fans.

The show had a very energetic start with "Dressed For Success," "The Big L." and "Sleeping In My Car", followed by "Wish I Could Fly" and "Only When I Dream". After "She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)", the words "Soul Deep" were printed in everyone's eyes by bright lights high above the stage that displayed those two words every time they were mentioned in the song. The whole crowd turned silent when Marie started singing the first words of "Perfect Day," which continued into "Things Will Never Be The Same." For "It Must Have Been Love" the new backdrop was transformed into a million twinkling stars, setting the mood for romance.

OBERHAUSEN - The Daily Roxette attended the Oberhausen concert last night, but more about that later. For now, here's an interesting snapshot. "Sooo Christoffer..."

VIENNA - The Daily Roxette got hold of Per while he was rehearsing down in Vienna before the big fall tour opening tonight:

You’re back after basically two months of nothingness and studio work – how does it feel to be back on the road again?

Hey man! Nothingness?!? Hmmm.... I’ve been busy writing the last couple of songs for T2 and also recording them in the studio. Also, I’ve been working on another project which I can’t tell you about at this point. Before Christmas I’ll let you know... And... we’ve done a couple of Rox-shows in Norway and Denmark if my memory serves me right. And a week of rehearsing with the new stage production. So, time has certainly not been wasted. And oh, New York, in the middle of everything. Radio work. Anyway, it’s great to back on the road with our own light & sound etc. The band and crew are groovin’ and Marie and myself look forward to some serious limbo dancing!

Sweet! So what can the fans expect from the “new” show tonight regarding the stage, the show, the songs, the performers?

Well, it’s a brand new design, it looks beautiful and very different from before. We’ve rehearsed several old and new songs, we’re gonna start with just a couple tonight then we’ll see what happens down the road. It’s very difficult for Marie to memorize new lyrics so we have to keep that in mind. It’s not like in the old days when you get an idea on the soundcheck and decide to play it the same evening. It doesn’t work like that anymore. Also, Helena is taking time-out from Roxette after this Autumn Tour so this is her last hurrah with us for a while.

Oh yes, we know Marie has a hard time memorizing lyrics nowadays, that's just how things are. Did not know however that Helena is sitting out after this one. How’s "2Rism" doing?

Great thank you. Almost done. Most of the mixing are left to do as well as the strings, some b-vocals and Pelle Alsing’s kinky hip-hop song.

Wow, that made this reporter want to hear it so much less now! What can you tell us about the 50 or so still missing tour dates?

Nothing much at this point. Looks like the tour will go on until Aug-Sep next year. It’s a big world.

Indeed so. Now, “Radio” is doing fairly well in the States, what will be the result of that?

I dunno. We’re, of course, excited by this unexpected success. Hopefully it will result in that we can do some gigs over there. Should be fun. No promises, though...

Thanx Per, and keep on truckin'!