LONDON - Actor Dolph Lundgren was interviewed in The Guardian for his upcoming movie, The Expendables. In it, the reporter asked if he were friends with any Swedish celebrities:
 
Guardian: "You're Swedish. Are you mates with that bloke from True Blood, ABBA, Roxette, and the Swedish Chef from The Muppets?"
 
Lundgren: "I've met Skarsgård; we're doing something together. ABBA, I don't know. I know Per Gessle, he's a Ferrari fan. And I parted ways with the chef in a back room in New York with a baseball bat."

Photo: Antti Puskala courtesy of Per Gessle.

HALMSTAD - Between June 16 and August 13 there is a small, but nice, exhibition about Per Gessle, Gyllene Tider and Roxette at Söndrum's public library. It's photographer Dan Karlsson who shows and sells photos of concerts in Halmstad.
The library is situated next to ICA in Söndrum centrum, on the way out to Tylösand.

HALMSTAD - For you who are visiting Halmstad this summer, be sure to pick up a copy of the brand new (and free)  lifestyle magazine called Tylösand Magazine. The magazine is published by Ormsmarck Media Group in Halmstad and Joakim Ormsmarck says to TDR "I've always felt there was something missing in Tylösand, but after having a picnic at Tylösand with my wife, some wine, cheese and crackers we both realized that Tylösand doesn't have its own magazine!" Said and done, they created this magazine for all the thousands of guests and visitors that pass thru Halmstad and Tylösand every summer. (And also for the 50 people who visit Tylösand in the winter.)

The premiere copy has, among several interesting articles, also an interesting interview about art with Per Gessle, Lasse Nordin and Nette Johansson - the Tres Hombres - the art gallery at Hotell Tylösand.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - At the party for Crown Princess Victoria and her fiancé Daniel Per Gessle surprised them both with a song especially written for them. Aftonbladet describes it as a romantic ballad. And for the party tomorrow, where Roxette will perform several songs according to Expressen, there will be another new song.

Update: SVT ended its broadcast after the traditional wedding waltz. After that the party ensued where Roxette performed as planned. Swedish singer Carola performed her song "Evighet" shortly after 1 AM, but the party didn't take off until Roxette entered the stage. According to Aftonbladet the Crown Princess really rocked her butt off to Roxette. The band performed several of its greatest hits, among them "It Must Have Been Love". "That has got to be the ultimate song" commented Anders Borg, Swedish Secretary of Treasure. 

Per Gessle left the party at 6 AM.

STOCKHOLM - A brand new interview, by tevensso, published on Roxette.se, check it out!

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NEW YORK - Per Gessle and Sven Lindström to count down the Top 50 Swedish Songs of the past decade on Sirius XM's NORDIC ROX show. A two-part special to showcase a wide-variety of Swedish songs from artists like The Hives, Roxette, Peter, Bjorn and John, Kent, The Cardigans, The Sounds and more. On The Spectrum, SIRIUS channel 18 and XM channel 45

The first half of the countdown will air on Sunday, January 24 at 8:00 pm ET. The second half of the countdown will air on Sunday, January 31 at 8:00 pm ET.

HALMSTAD - Radio Halland's Pelle Hörmander has met Per Gessle for their traditional after-Christmas interview. These are the highlights of the 13 minute interview:

About the new album:

"We're thinking '80s, that immediate in-your-face production. We're looking at 'Look Sharp!' production wise. The songs are short and effective. Clarence calls it "fool proof production" meaning not so many instruments and they all are very clear to hear. I'm trying to think that way when I write [for this album]. It's hard to explain."

- Is it as danceable as 'Party Crasher'?

"No, not at all. Not at all. Maybe next year when we sit here again, the album's out."

"Half of the songs are written for me, half for Marie. Marie hasn't written anything for the album. I'd like Marie to sing it all, but I guess that's not possible so I have to fill in here and there."

About touring:

"I do see Roxette performing again, that's what we want. Why not in Sweden? If not, we'll have to make room for Sweden. This is not written in stone though, but if you had asked me 6 months ago I would have said no."

- Next big Roxette tour, will you take more space on stage?

"Yes I might, since I've been touring a lot solo lately I now feel more comfortable to be on stage."

- Still interested in the US?

"Sure, but that will never happen again. We're too old and vintage. But there may well be a cover of a Rox song that will climb the charts. The songs still have power, not sure that Per & Marie have it anymore…"

About 2010:

"We're in the studio until midsummer for starters. Then possibly rehearsals if we're to do concerts."

"Next year there will be nothing but Roxette."

CURITIBA, BRAZIL - Writer/director Marcos Marques from Curitiba, Brazil, wrote a screenplay based on the Son of a Plumber song "Are You An Old Hippie, Sir?".  With his screenplay he won the 1st place at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation screenplay contest. As a prize he received $ 6,000 to make a movie based on this script. The short movie is titled "Você É Um Velho Hippie, Senhor?" in Portuguese and was shot November 1. It is currently in post-production. According to the movie producer, Priscila Zaruvny Borges (who kindly informed The Daily Roxette about this project), the story is about two guys at a convenience store and an old man that sometimes looks like an old hippie and sometimes like a serious business man. The two guys spend the movie trying to answer the "title" question. Look for the premiere at Curitiba's Cinemateca in June 2010!

Per has just let The Daily Roxette know that the albums "The World According to Gessle," "Son of a Plumber" and "Party Crasher" now are via Tunecore digitally released in these online stores:

# iTunes U.S.
# Rhapsody
# Napster
# eMusic
# IMVU
# Lala
# Shockhound
# LimeWire Store
# iTunes Australia/N.Z.
# iTunes Canada
# iTunes Japan

Additionally the single "Silly Really" is also available on Amazon.com.

LJUSDAL - First there was nothing, then there was "Wings over America." Now there's "Gessle over Europe"! The live CD/DVD combo awaited by many a fan. Was it worth the wait?

Yes. Yes it certainly was!

The CD is amazing, crystal clear sound, heavy bass and with a live feeling that puts you right back into the audience again. If you were there in the first place, that is… Kudos to Christoffer Lundqvist! The packaging is identical to the Roxette re-releases; a high glossy "eco" pack that looks like a small vinyl LP. Speaking of which, the album comes as a double LP with three bonus tracks as well, not reviewed here though.
The tracks on the album come from the best concerts available, and from what I can understand, some concerts were better than others. "Gessle over Europe" isn't mixed together to sound like one homogeneous concert so there are some fade ins and outs. This only affects the crowd noises though.
I won't review the concert again, so if you want to read about that, check that review out here.

In short: This album is a must have. I would recommend it to non-fans even. However, I have to mention some of the better tracks (and this is hard): "Doesn't Make Sense" is out of this world on this album, and so is "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart." I can go on and on, but I'll limit myself to these three. What I keep wondering is if they've cut the last part out of "Listen to Your Heart" as I want to remember it from the concert that Per sings "you tell her goodbye…" yet another time.

Now, Capitol is marketing this as a CD with a bonus-DVD, while I think the audience may see it the other way around.

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