The Daily Roxette

Roxette's tour organizer Live Nation have been sued by second hand ticket company Biljett Nu over the concert debaucle back in 2010 when Roxette's "comeback" concert was moved from Anderstorp to Halmstad. Biljett Nu demands 4 million SEK (€460,000) in damages.

In short: Biljett Nu were the official organizer of the Roxette concert in conjunction with the Race Legends race, in Anderstorp, Sweden. The race was cancelled due to poor ticket sales but according to Biljett Nu's CEO, Hans Haraldsson, Biljett Nu still had the option of having Roxette perform. Haraldsson also claims no one wanted to bet on Roxette so Biljett Nu took a risk "...putting millions into this." And when Live Nation saw that the risk paid out they took over and moved the concert.

Live Nation's CEO, Carl Pernow, disagrees and says to SVD that the company behind the Race Legends cancelled the whole event, including the concert. The new concert in Halmstad was a totally new event which was arranged by Nöjet and to which Biljett Nu no longer had a contract.

It's word against word. Biljett Nu had the right to sell 15,000 tickets to the original Roxette concert and kept selling even after the concert had been moved to Halmstad. Nöjet reported Biljett Nu to the market court but the market court ruled in favor of Biljett Nu. Live Nation and Nöjet were ruled to pay the court costs.

Per Gessle commented to TDR August 12, 2010: "I think it's terrible that BiljettNu continues to sell tickets they know are invalid. BiljettNu are obviously aware of that there are no contracts between BiljettNu and Roxette or the local organizer. Still they go on and it's 'Joe Sixpack' that gets to take the blow…"

This is by far not the only time Biljett Nu are on thin ice.

With this lawsuit Biljett Nu want to clear their name.

Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this article.

The Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards has recorded a cover of "It Must Have Been Love," which was featured on January 22 in an episode of the American TV-show "Private Practice" - a spin-off of the medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" centering on the life of neonatal surgeon Addison Montgomery.

A single hasn't been released yet, but Kathleen posted on her Facebook page the other day, to say that it will be released soon, with more details to come.

Trivia: Roxette's name was borrowed from a Dr. Feelgood song; Dr. Feelgood made a record called Private Practice; and now, a Roxette song has been featured on a TV-show called "Private Practice." Six degrees of Roxette!

Roxette's latest single, "The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye" [Bassflow Remake] has entered the Swedish Music Control (official airplay) chart as the #1 Highest Chart Climber this week and as #3 Highest Climber by Points. The song is at #32.

"The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye" 10" single in blue vinyl is released August 22.

FORT McMURRAY - For reasons yet unknown, Roxette has several songs charting on the Canadian top 200 chart.

LW    TW
#64, #60 The Look
#67, #67 Joyride
#69, #69 Listen to Your Heart
#77, #64 It Must Have Been Love
#109, #93 Dangerous
#152, #132 Fading Like a Flower
#178, #163 Dressed For Success
#199, #171 Spending My Time

One of the reasons may be that Travelling was released in Canada the other day, and several radio jockeys have received a special version containing liners by Roxette. (Likely the same ones as TDR published previously.) Whatever the reason might be, this can't be a bad thing.

UPDATED. This Sunday, June 3, at 8 pm EST Sirius XM will broadcast a Nordic Rox Roxette tour special on The Spectrum. The whole 3 hour show will be devoted to Roxette's South American tour with lots of nice talking and pure Roxette music. Tune in! (The show will be re-broadcast Wednesday at 11 pm.)

To be able to listen to 3 hours of Roxette on The Spectrum, get a 7 day free trial here: http://www.siriusxm.com/freetrial

On a side note, and this will drive Sweden's hardcore rockers nuts: Roxette will perform on the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden June 27. Other acts to perform there are Billy Idol, Rihanna and Kent to mention a few.

NEW YORK – Glass Tiger, a Canadian pop-rock group signed to EMI and best known for their 1986 hit "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone" (which reached #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard chart here in the U.S.) will open for Roxette at all seven concerts in Canada when the tour comes to North America at the end of August.  

Part of the success of that single can be attributed to the fact that Bryan Adams, who was riding high at the time from the success of his album, Reckless, contributed a cameo vocal, and that helped the record get airplay on the radio. You can hear Bryan's "adlibs" towards the end of the song ("For heaven's sake" and "My heart would break").

OSLO - Sunday November 27 on Norwegian TV2 Per Gessle will be the guest on a show called "Reisen til popstjernen" ("Meeting a popstar") The Norwegian artist Ingrid Bjørnov has met Per Gessle in Stockholm to talk about music and songwriting, trying to discover the key to his success. The show will air 21:45 - 22.45. Other artists she has met include, among others, Nik Kershaw, Espen Lind, Maria Mena and Timbuktu.

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!

NEW YORK – The Wall Street Journal reports today that Warner Music Group has moved closer to striking a deal it has coveted for years: the acquisition of the recorded-music division of rival EMI Group.

Warner, owned since the summer by Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik, is in pole position to win an auction of EMI Music after Vivendi SA walked away from the bidding process. The price tag is likely to be between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.

According to the Journal, Vivendi, the Paris-based entertainment and telecoms group, decided not to pursue a deal after it was unable to reach an agreement on certain terms.

In related news, EMI Sweden is enjoying considerable success right now with both Roxette and Swedish House Mafia, while EMI's Capitol label has just released a new Coldplay album that was an instant hit. SHM sold out an upcoming Madison Square Garden concert in 20 minutes. They will hold the distinction of being the first dance music act to ever play the Garden.

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.