ROXETTE

News added 2001-01-15
The new album and single.
Apperently the album will be called Room Service, and a world wide release is scheduled for April 2nd. It is currently being masterd at Abbey Road Studios in London (the studio The Beatles always used...). the single to kick it all off will be The Centre Of The Heart (Is A Suburb To The Brain). It is supposed to be released on March 19th, with radio airplay starting a month before that.

News added 2001-01-09
Roxette video shoot
Jonas Åkerlund, the famous Swedish video director, who apart from Roxette has worked with a multitude of artists (Modonna, U2, Metallica, Prodgidy etc.), is again working with Per & Marie. In a few days they start shooting the first single from the comming album. Release date for single and album is not yet announced. Åkerlund will then probably do the next Britney Spears clip.

News added 2000-12-10
Even more boring...
For some reason or other Per and Marie have decided to withdraw their greatest hits album, Don't Bore Us, Get To The Chorus, and then replace it with a new hit compilation, with the same name... Probably it is some sort of effect of the release in USA. A few songs from their latest album is included.

News added 2000-09-09
Roxette's studio to be destroyed!
Roxette or rather Mats 'MP' Persson and Per Gessle's studio 'Tits & Ass' will not only close. It will also be demolished, in order to give way for a new road. A protest movement is created by Roxette's International Fan Club. But even if they succeed, the studio will move. MP has already bought a new house in the centre of Halmstad where a new studio will be built. All equipment will be moved there.

The Tits & Ass studio was a closed down cub scout house in Styrdal outside of Halmstad. It was meant to be a rehersal studio for Gyllene Tider. It was first known as 'Studio Styr', until Anders Herrlin came upp with the name 'Tits & Ass' after Rolling Stones' song Little T&A.

Over the years many fans has written their name on the door to the studio. It is most likely that this door will be saved to world, and put on the Roxette Museum at Per Gessle's nearby Hotell Tylösand.

News added 2000-08
Album delayed.
The new album will now not be released until next year. Probably in March. If this is due to the recordings taking longer then expected, or to allow for promotional work in USA, is not known.

News added 2000-07-24
Gessle writes for others again.
This time he supposed to have made at least one song on the new album by Sven-Ingvars. Not so strange as Micke "Nord" Andersson is a member of the band (and also produced the album). The album is called Retro Aktiv.

News added 2000-07-01
Gessle on the bridge.
Per Gessle has written a song for the opening cermony of Öresundsbron (see below). Now at least the title is known, View From A Bridge. The title indicate it may only be a reworking of the old View From A Hill. Anyway it is suposed to be performed at todays cermony so we will know soon enough.

News added 2000-06-01
Album update and US deal.
Apperently there will be a new Roxette album out in the autumn. It is not known what producers are involved, but very likely the same as always. After years of troubles, finally Roxette have got an American deal. EMI has not released anything since 1994. Their new label in the USA is Edel. A hits compilation will be out shortly, containing 13 of their old hits and three "new" (new is probably just the three first ones from their latest album).

Read more about Marie's recent solo success in the Marie section.

News added 2000-05-30
Per's hymn for a bridge
Per Gessle has written music for the bridge opening event set for July 1st. It is Öresundsbron, a bridge and tunnel system that connects Copenhagen (Denmark) with Malmö (Sweden). It is a very long bridge, replacing a 50 minute boat ride. On the opening event the King of Sweden and the Queen of Denmark will attend. Exactly what kind of music Per has done is not known, neither if he will be there performing it.

News added 2000-02-04
Roxette in Las Vegas.
Jonas Åkerlund, that has directed a hand full of Roxette videos, has also been involved in directing a circus. The circus is not of the 'classic' kind we are all used to, but avant garde. This was such a success in Stockholm, that Jonas and his friends was contracted to set it up in one of the casions in Las Vegas. This will be in the fall. There will be a soundtrack album for the event. Jonas seems to have fixed some of the arists he has directed. Roxette, Metallica, Madonna...

News added 2000-01-27
Roxette records again!
Per Gessle got a real kick out of the success of the latest album, so has made a lot of new songs riding on that wave. Roxette spent januari in the studio recording. It is meant that the album will be finnished by the end of the year. Marie will be bussy with solo stuff also [see the Marie section]. By the way, Per's song did not enter Melodifestivalen...

News added 1999-11-16
Per Gessle in Melodifestivalen/Eurovision 2000??
As the time closed for sending in contributions to Melodifestivalen 2000, the Swedish heat for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was discovered that among 1200 or so songs there was one by no one less then Per Gessle. It is not his first time either. Well a jury will now firts select approximatly 250 songs from the 1200, of these another group of people will choose 10 to be on TV.

News added 1999-01-24
GESSLE - THE NEXT GENERATION.
While Per Gessle was around 20 when he kicked of his career, his son starts off much earlier. Gabriel Gessle who is just a year and half is in the new Roxette video, Wish I Could Fly. Which is premiered at the MIDEM exhibition in Cannes this weekend. The clip is directed by hot video director Jonas Åkerlund. Jonas has done videos for Roxette before, such as Vulnerable. Off late he has recieved awards for Madonnas's Ray Of Light and The Prodgidy's Smack My Bitch Up, other videos include The Cardigans My Favorite Game and the latest one by Metallica.

News added 1999-01-11
INTERVIEW WITH GESSLE.
In time for his 40th birthday on the 12th this month Per was interviewed by most of the big media. So too in my morning paper Göteborgs-Posten. Here is a summary of the piece that got the headline "A Pop Nerd Turns Forty":

There will be no "40's crisis" for Roxette Per thinks. They have just signed a new 10 year deal. But he admits that he is now in a rather new situation as he has always been the youngest one. From the start with a bigger brother and then starting school a year early, and so on. I have always been a pop nerd, and that ain't gonna change.

The new album contains tracks produced by three different producers. Clarence Öfwerman as usual. Then Mikael Illbert that did some on Greatest Hits and which also helped on the Gyllene Tider singles. Then there is the base player from Brainpool, Christoffer Lundquist. He worked as musican on Per's solo album. All three of them has the power to take the rather "simple" demos of Per's songs in to those typical Roxette power ballads and wall of sound upbeat songs.

He is troubled by the fact that most people in the record business and at radio stations today is only in for the money, seeing it as a job like any other. He thinks an artist like Van Morrison would probably not get a record deal if he was 20 now. It is all about marketing, hence Per has the next six months schedueld for promotion. Per is having a check on everything that leaves the Roxette office, from promotion pictures for the press to videos and CD covers. The fans expect classy stuff, and we can aford it so that's the way it will be. Marie is also more involved in these things than she was before.

It was a tough period after C!B!B!, and when their American record company did not even released Greatest Hits they decided to take a break. Also Marie needed time with her family. For Per it has always been the music that is the number one priority. He still can not understand why Marie would rather have a dinner with her sister then work in the studio...

He still has no 'needs' to lead the life of a 'Rock Star', moving to Monaco or New York. He likes it in Halmstad, where he has his old friends. He thinks that Roxette has quite a large fan base. So with the right hit, they can still be back on top. And he thinks they have never been trendy, thus they will not get untrendy.

News added 1998-12-09
AWARD TO GESSLE.
On monday the 7th represantives from the American artists copyright organisation - BMI, was in Stockholm and handed over an award to Per Gessle. It was to him as composer of Listen To Your Heart, which has now been played over two million times in American radio (2.000.000 !!!). A few other who has also recived this award are The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. Phil Graham of BMI said it was very unusual for a song to get over the two million mark in such a short time, normally a few decades are needed. Per said he was extra pride that the song reached this level without the help of EMI America, who did not even bother to release their 'Greatest Hits' album.

News added 1998-11-28
THE NEW ROXETTE ALBUM.
Finally there is official news about the new album. The title will be Have A Nice Day. It will be released on Feburary the 22nd. A single will be out on January 4th 1999. The album has been recorded in Marbella [Spain] and Stockholm [Sweden]. It is currently being mixed, according to rumours in the Polar studio (where most ABBA albums were made). The album is produced Per & Marie, Calrence Öfwerman and Michael Ilbert. My personal guess regarding releases, with all the delays that is standrad practise, is that the single will be out in the later half of January and the album will be out in the second half of March or early April.

News added 1998-07-27
Marie live gig.
Marie Fredriksson appeared at the Europride 98 festival on July 25th. The big gay manifestation that was in Stockholm this year had a lot of artists appearing, such Eva & Efva, Jonas Gardell, Dana International and others. As probably the only straight artist Marie sung two songs live, När Det Lyser Mittemot and Tro.

News added 1998-03-08
'Nio Liv' out as a single.
The Sven Ingvars recording of Per Gessle's song Nio Liv is now released on single. Unfortunately it is not backed by any other Gessle song (there is three Gessle songs on the album). The 2-track CD-single is available at SEK 60 + P&P.

News added 1998-02-15
Gessle gets prize.
Per Gessle recently got a prize from Hallands Marknadsförening (Halland's Marketing Association) for doing big efforts in marketing Halland (the province where Halmstad is "capital city"). It was handed out by former Governor Björn Molin at the associations yearly meeting. The meeting took place on Hotell Tylösand, of which Per is co-owner...

News added 1998-01-30
The rumour denied by EMI.
It seems as the rumour below was just that, a rumour. All though the longer they go on the more likely it is that they split up...

New Gessle songs.
Legendary light rockers Sven Ingvars released their new album last week. This band started when Rolling Stones was still in little boys in school. It is called Nio Liv (Nine life's). Per Gessle has written the music to the title track. The lyrics were written by a guy called Svante Carlsson. I have never heard of this guy. The song is published by Jimmy Fun Music, so it might be an old Roxette song or so, that has just got new Swedish lyrics. Apart from that song, Per made a brand new original song, Byter Bara Blickar (Just Exchanging Glances), and the lyrics for an old Alvin Stardust song, now being called Marie, Marie, this song can be heard with Gyllene Tider on Puls, the CD not the LP. The whole album is produced by Gyllene Tider's old producer Lasse Lindbom. The album is available for SEK 170 + P&P.

News added 1998-01-20
The last joyride??!?.
Roxette are just starting to work on the new album, with an expected release of October 1998, but my guess from earlier Roxette releases is that it will be out in March or April 1999. As it seems only Clarence is still with them from the old band. They will be using various musicians. However Christofer Lundqvist from Brainpool will be with them for the whole recording. According to some press reports this will be the last Roxette album. It seems as Marie & Per are disagreeing more and more about the musical direction. But they want to end it all with the flag at the top, and hope to do an album that is even better then Joyride. The future will tell... They will do parts of the recordings in Spain.

Marie song re-recorded.
The song Kärlek that Marie wrote for Rikard Wolf's latest album has been re-recorded. This time Mikael Bolyos has produced and Marie her self sings backing vocals. Family business... It has been released as a single by EMI (my price is SEK 60 + P&P), and also available shrink wrapped to the album.

Previous news
Pearls of Passion
They have just recently re-released their first album Pearls Of Passion, with eighth bonus tracks and all. This is of course something that has been scheduled for every autumn since 1991 or so...

Gyllene Tider etc.
As Per Gessle is not a man to sit around and roll his thumbs, something "new" is released by Gyllene Tider. Per's solo album has so far resulted in three singles. Earlier this year he became a father for the first time.