The Daily Roxette

The Finnish metal band Children of Bodom has announced that their upcoming album will contain a cover version of Roxette's 'Sleeping In My Car'. It has become a tradition for this band to include cover versions of popular songs in their releases, they previously released songs such as 'Aces High' (Iron Maiden),  'Somebody Put Something In My Drink' (Ramones), 'Party All The Time' (Eddie Murphy) and 'Oops!... I Did It Again' (Britney Spears). 'Halo Of Blood' will be released on the 7th of June in Europe.

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The Daily Roxette has reached Per, who is busy in the studio and isn't really on par regarding his new wines. "I'm mastering the album and things are a bit diffuse at the moment... but yes The Per Gessle Selection musters up its courage again!" What he can tell us is that there will be two new selections released in April May. There will be a new summery white wine as well as a rose wine, aptly named Sommartider vitt and Sommartider rosé. "Both wines are quality wines from François Lurton in PG-designed 3 liter Bag-in-boxes." As far as Per recollects the bottles will only be available at restaurants, and possibly even only Hotel Tylösand's restaurant. The b-i-b will be available in Sweden's governmental liquor stores Systembolaget.

Update: Bottled Sommartider will be available for restaurants from March 25 while bag-in-boxed Sommartider will be in Sweden a week later and will go on sale April 2, in the beställningssortiment, i.e. you need to order it to the store. And to add to the general party feeling, the chords and lyrics of "Sommartider" are included on the box!

HALMSTAD - Could you be a fan of BOTH Arsenal and Chelsea? Could you be a fan of BOTH Manchester City and Manchester United? Milan AND Inter?
Well, why not? Gyllene Tider certainly can!

Halmstad's sweethearts Gyllene Tider announced today they are gonna be proud sponsors of BOTH Halmstads BK and IS Halmia the upcoming 2013 season. HBK plays in Sweden’s major league while Halmia is a step below in the First Division.

- We are incredibly proud and flattered that Gyllene Tider want to cooperate with us. It feels like a natural partnership between two brands that are strongly associated with the summer-season in Halmstad, says Glenn Silverholt, sales and marketing chief of HBK.

And Halmia's chief of marketing. Per-Gunnar Sjöö, continues:
- Per Gessle, who is a major sponsor of Halmia since many years, is together with the rest of the group sponsoring both Halmia's men and women this thrilling season. We like that!

To show diplomacy of the highest level blue-dressed HBK will have a red Gyllene Tider logo on their backs while red-white Halmia will have a blue logo on theirs.

How did this happen? Well, Gyllene Tider are divided into two soccer camps. Per, MP and Göran are all Halmia-supporters, while Micke Syd wears his HBK cap proudly. Anders you say? He'd rather go fishing!

Men have fantasy-baseball getaways and rock-star camp. For women? There's a Jane Austen vacation.

At least so it goes in the fictional Austenland, Jerusha Hess' romantic comedy of the same name about a place where fans of the author can take a holiday in an English manor. There they live out a “Fantasy Island”-style getaway filled with bodices, high tea and men as fine-looking as Mr. Darcy.

Based on Shannon Hale's novel, the film's  main character is Jane Hayes, a down-in-the-dumps thirtysomething (Keri Russell) who memorized the first three chapters of “Pride and Prejudice” at age 13 and isn’t always sure where the playacting stops and true romance begins.

Hess is a co-writer of Sundance phenomeon "Napoleon Dynamite," which husband Jared co-wrote and directed, and that film's playfulness is much on display here.  (Among the campy touches are musical montages featuring swoony throwback pop ditties like Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love," which add to the film’s romantic whimsy.)

UPPSALA - The Daily Roxette received a copy of Maria Sörgjerd's book "I en underbar ballong - en bok om att älska Roxette" (In a Wonderful Balloon - a Book about Loving Roxette" published by her own company Fenomena förlag. The book is about Roxette's fans and why they love Roxette. It has been written from a psychological point of view since author Sörgjerd majored in psychology. Maria has also interviewed lots of mainly non-Swedish fans.

So what conclusions does she reach? Well, it's hard to say. Some things are self evident, being a Roxette fan myself. Some things I don't recognize at all. All in all she puts her finger on the small phenomenons that happen when crazy Roxette fans are involved, good things mostly, but also bad things. What I find interesting is that she has also noticed this viscious hostility among Roxette fans. The book tries to describe to outsiders how it is to be a Roxette fan. I'm not sure Maria manages that, if feels like the only ones who would understand this already know. And the ones who don't, won't care, sadly. Roxette is usually never viewed in a positive way in Sweden, not by media at least. What I miss in the book is going deeper in the cases Maria has interviewed. Interesting as they may be, I want to know more about the specific people. What happened in their lives to make them turn to Roxette like a religion? How do you leave your husband/wife/so behind to travel literally thousands of miles to listen to a band that sings in a foreign tongue?

"I en underbar ballong" will initially only be published in Swedish, which is good! Then foreign fans will get another incentive to learn the gods' native language!

UPPSALA - An ”In a Wonderful Balloon party” was thrown in Uppsala last Saturday, in celebration of the upcoming book release. The guests experienced an all-nighter with Roxette music, balloons, sparkles and an opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the book. In the crowd people like Malin Norrgård (responsible for the book’s graphic design) could be spotted, as well as a couple of Roxers mentioned in the book. Another guest – Tove Pehrsson – initiated a book club group on Facebook, called “Vi som läser i en underbar ballong” (Us reading In a Wonderful Balloon). The group is open and you can find it on the Fenomena Förlag profile on Facebook.

UPPSALA - Maria Sörgjerd, hailing from Uppsala Sweden, got so fascinated with the Roxette fans outside of Sweden so she wrote a book about it. The book is called "I en underbar ballong - en bok om att älska Roxette" ("In a Wonderful Balloon - A Book about Loving Roxette") and it will be published by her own company Fenomena Förlag early December. Maria tells The Daily Roxette that she's been writing this book for a while, contacting fans outside of Sweden to get their stories. What's different about the book is that it's written about the fans mostly, about what a phenomenon Roxette is to the fans. What makes a person learn Swedish over the Internet and then travel literally thousands of miles to see Roxette, Per, Marie or Gyllene Tider on "holy ground"?, she wondered.

Maria, being a huge Roxette fan herself, is a psychology teacher in Uppsala and has written the book from a psychological perspective, but has tried her best to write it in a way that most anyone will appreciate it. "I en underbar ballong" will not initially be translated into any language, mostly because Maria can't do it herself and she obviously still doesn't know if it will be a success. She doesn't rule it out though.

NEW YORK - Here is a video of the Roxette segment as broadcast in the United States earlier today on the CBS This Morning show. Along with providing the background story, reporter Bill Whittaker interviews the duo, focusing on Marie's recovery.  

Story and video on CBS News interactive site

NEW YORK - When Per and Marie were in Los Angeles the other week they were interviewed by CBS News. This is one of the few, if not the only, interviews in English where Marie has discussed her illness and the courage it took for her to get back on stage.  The status of the interview is that it's still in the process of being edited and airdate to be set.

Update: The interview will be broadcast on Friday Oct. 5 between 7-9am ET on the show CBS This Morning.

According to Aftonbladet Per has booked studio time and will start recording a new solo album shortly. When asked about the Gyllene Tider tour rumors he says it's still 50/50 because it's so much to figure out and it's "out of his hands." Roxette will be back 2014, is the plan. "I have to take it slow, I'm not 50 anymore" Per says.