The Daily Roxette

Head over to roxette.se and take a gander at the brand new playlist Per has made. Rick Springfield is a given of course!

It's not just Per Gessle who's been involved in a some sort of movie soundtrack project. This time, it's Helena Josefsson – who's been on tour with Roxette this past year – whose name is in the news.

"My Own Worst Enemy," a duet sung by Helena and Robert Petersson, lead singer of the Swedish alt-rock group Takida, will be the title song for "Hamilton – In the Interest of the Nation," the continuation of a series of "Hamilton" movies based on the bestselling novels of author Jan Guillou. The film will have its premiere Monday in Stockholm.

With dialogue mostly in English, the three upcoming films, like the one before it that with additional footage was turned into a television mini-series, are in the political intrigue/action thriller genre. They will be distributed by SF International (Svensk Filmindusti) and, after their theatrical run, appear on TV4 in Sweden and Canal+ in Europe.

Guillou is the same author who wrote the novels behind the "Arn" series of films, for which Marie Fredriksson recorded "Där du andas (Where You Breathe)" as a title song.

There's one more connection as well. Peter Stormare, who was cast as the landlord who is mistakenly killed in the upcoming film "Small Apartments" for which Per Gessle has supplied the soundtrack songs (see article below), played the role of Carl Hamilton in the first film.

As Per Gessle revealed today on Facebook, the songs he's recently written and recorded for a "soundtrack" are for Jonas Åkerlund's new movie "Small Apartments." Read the message by the man himself:

Yes Box Alright! I've done the soundtrack, based on the Son of a Plumber vibe, for Jonas Åkerlund's new movie "Small Apartments". The music has been recorded at the AGM Studio and as expected the mighty Mr Lundquist & Mr Ofwerman have been the cornerstones. The film? Well, it's a "dark comedy" (based on the S.A. novel) starring Matt Lucas, Billy Crystal, James Caan and Peter Stormare in the leading parts. And yes, it's a wonderful movie. And yes, there will be a soundtrack. And yes, we have to release it on vinyl as well. I'm really proud to be part of this. Cheers, P. (P.S. Jonas is God.)

The novel this movie is based upon was written by American writer Chris Millis in 2001. He has adapted the screenplay and is the executive producer of the movie. Here's the blurb for the book:

Small Apartments is the offbeat tale of an obese, slovenly peeping tom, his odd brother, his pothead neighbour, and their quest to hide the body of an unfortunate landlord. The story is accented along the way by murder, strange fingernail collections and the occasional blast from a treasured alphorn.

Behind-the-scenes photos of the shooting of the movie are available on Chris Millis' website and the complete cast is available on the Internet Movie Database.

Another soundtrack Per Gessle has contributed to in the past was that for the 2008 movie "Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)". In this movie, you can hear parts of the still officially unreleased song "Kvar i min bil (Left in My Car)".

The Look Competition
Open: December 16 - January 6 2012
Prize: Signed Roxette Album and Singles!!!
BE THE BEST BEAT THE REST, SING WITH THE ROXETTE SINGBOX AND COMPETE FOR FAN-TASTIC PRIZES.

To enter the competition simply share your score from singing "The Look" in Roxette Singbox for iPhone on Roxette's Facebook during the competition period.

Prizes

    Signed Charm School vinyl album
    Signed Way Out single
    Signed She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio) single

In a charity auction on Tradera you can win an Ultimate Roxette Kit containing:

10 Per Gessle guitar picks
A set of Pelle Alsing's drumsticks
A signed by Per copy of Charm School
1 tote bag with the Roxette Room Service logo
3 Roxette pins
1 gray Charm School T-shirt (L)
1 black Charm School tank top (M)
1 tour poster from 2011
1 tour poster from Join the Joyride, Stockholm 1992

The profits go directly to Musikhjälpen's charity, this time being the right for girls to attend school.

The auction closes tomorrow, December 17 at 15.20 CET.

Edit: The auction ended at 7000 SEK ($1050).

Caroline Roosmark, the Swedish photographer who has taken the recent Roxette photographs, has this year also made a calendar for charity. This year's calendar is called Women & Men of the Year 2012. 2012's focus is children poverty in Sweden. "250,000 children live a life in poverty in Sweden. Half of them live with a single parent. 87 % of those are the mother. We want to lift this up on the political agenda so something is actually done about it. A lot of people think that there are no poor children in Sweden, but that's not the case" says Caroline in Aftonbladet.

The calendar is made on a very tight budget, none of the extras or stars get any payment, yet they never turn Caroline down, in spite of their often jam-packed schedules.

Marie Fredriksson, the female star of Roxette is in the calendar, as May. The text on May's page reads as follows (click the photo): She couldn't come along, they took away from her pearls and ribbons, all the visible signs of success. Sparrows' eyes followed her, the birds sat in her hands. The smallest animals by the hem of her dress. A friendly light fell over the backyard and we know: soon she's going out in the world.

Other stars include the actor Jan Malmsjö (Fanny & Alexander), high jumper Patrik Sjöberg and writer Kerstin Thorvall, to mention a few.

The calendar is for sale at Caroline's site, the price is 169 SEK (roughly € 18) You may also purchase the original photos there.

Photos used with kind permission of Caroline Roosmark.

As you may or may not know, before every tour Per spends a night in front of his stereo system with a bottle of wine to put together the perfect mix tape to play while fans all over the world wait for Roxette to come on stage. This tour is no different. If you have access to Spotify, just click the link. Songs marked with * are not available on Spotify.

Rox World Tour 2011 II by Mr. Gee

Eddie & the Hot Rods, Do anything you wanna do
Madness, My girl
Lynn Anderson, Rose garden
Kraftwerk, The model
The Mascots, A sad boy
Madonna, Dress you up
Kirsty MacColl, Days
The Marvelettes, Please Mr. Postman
Kleerup, Longing for lullabies (w/ Titiyo)

Halmstad-based band Vikunja opened for Roxette in Halmstad last August and were personally invited by Per Gessle to open for Roxette again, in Stockholm's Globen (The Globe) on Thursday and in Malmö Arena on Friday.

Martin Larsson from Vikunja, how does this feel?
- It feels great! Per is apparently a big fan and really pushed for having us opening "back home in Sweden" and we were available so here we are... After the concert in Halmstad it felt awesome, and then we had a few setbacks, for instance we wanted Christoffer Lundquist to produce our upcoming promo EP, but he didn't have time as he's on the road with Roxette all the time. And we felt that we wanted the EP put together sooner than 2012. These concerts came in the nick of time, It's now or never, ha ha!

This promo EP, can you describe it?
- We want, or need, to do it a bit like Gyllene Tider did; have a finished product to show the record companies. If and when they say 'we want this band' the record is already finished and can be released instantly.

Gyllene Tider you say... is Per Gessle any influence on Vikunja, or who is?
- Our guitars sound a bit like Roxette's, we also like riffs that stand out. Roxette is a tremendous band I think. Charm School is amazing! I also like Per's Mazarin. He can do so many styles. Other influences are Oasis, The Who, Coldplay, The Killers, Pink Floyd, you know, that kind.

So who did you get to produce, if Chris didn't have time?
- We wanted Chris, as I said, and then he couldn't do it so we looked into the guy who produced Håkan Hellström's latest album and then Oskar Linnros or Joshua. But then our manager is friends with Mats Valentin who has worked with,  for instance, Kelly Clarkson. He has time to do it, and he really wants to as well. We'll be recording in Storm Studios in Stockholm, the same studio where Veronica Maggio's Satan i gatan was recorded. We are stoked!

Any special preparation for the two big concerts?
- Yes, when we played in Halmstad we were four guys playing, this time we'll still be the four guys, but with backing tracks! It sounds way better with strings, horns, background vocals, effects. We did a concert with Tove Styrke that was very appreciated. It sounded really nice. Oh and our guitarist forgot to tell the audience who we were in Halmstad! He never said it!! So this time we'll say it between every song and also we have a backdrop!

The popular British television talent show, The X Factor premiered in the U.S. last month, opening to more than 12 million viewers. On last night's episode (which was not shown in the U.S. do to a rain-delayed baseball game, but was shown in Canada), 14-year-old Drew Ryniewicz of Chino Valley, Arizona wowed judge Simon Cowell with her stripped-down, country-tinged take on Roxette's third Billboard #1, "It Must Have Been Love." Accompanied only by a piano, Ryniewicz captured the simplicity of the now 24-year-old song (chosen for her by Cowell), in a gentle, emotive vocal performance that closed out – and, arguably, stole – the episode, similar in style to her surprising take on Justin Bieber's "Baby," which catapulted her into the top tier of early favorites.

Rain caused the start of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series to be delayed by two hours, and that forced Fox to reluctantly pull The X Factor from its schedule Wednesday night. The episode will be aired tonight (Thursday night) instead.

Director and photographer Jonas Åkerlund (Gessle, Roxette, Metallica, Madonna, Prodigy, etc.) is now represented in Scandinavia by d&d management , the same firm that manages Roxette.

d&d partner Marie Dimberg and Jonas Åkerlund have crossed paths earlier, when Jonas made a documentary about Marie Fredriksson, which led to videos for Per Gessle and subsequently Roxette. Now they're focusing on a deeper collaboration.

From d&d management:

We are proud and happy to welcome Jonas Åkerlund to d&d for management representation in Scandinavia.

Jonas is one of the world's most renowned directors and has created countless music videos and commercials. His international breakthrough came through his collaboration with Madonna. Among his gigantic collection of productions, he has also made ​​several short films, documentaries and art projects. Jonas is currently working on his fourth feature film, “Small apartments,” featuring Matt Lucas, James Caan and Billy Crystal in the leading roles. He has the whole world as his working field – Stockholm and Los Angeles as his two bases. The latest project in Sweden was the acclaimed film version of Mats Ek’s “Ställe” featuring Ana Laguna and Mikhail Baryshnikov.