Misc

Norwegian band accuses Roxette of plagiarism

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According to an article on Norwegian newspapers Dagbladet and Side2,  the Norwegian band Hollywood Vampires claims Roxette has stolen parts of their song “She Had Nothing On But the Radio”, which was released in 2008. According to the singer of the band Paul E. Vercouteren, these parts can be found in Roxette’s latest single “She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)”.

“It is weird that another band is earning money on the chorus we wrote,” tells Vercourteren to Dagbladet. Vercourteren claims that besides the chorus, the bass rythm and guitar chords are similar as well, and that all in all, the song is “too similar to be a coincidence”.

The norwegian band is now considering if they take any legal steps against Roxette or not.

Here’s the link to Hollywood Vampires song. What do you think? Personally, to me this song sounds like Green Day.

Premiere of documentary film featuring Helena Josefsson

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Helena Josefsson (currently on tour with Roxette, backing vocals) is taking a break in the tour and won’t be in the next two concerts (Ukraine and Belarus). The reason for that is that she is attending the premiere of a documentary film about Dolly Parton she is in.

The documentary, directed by Jessica Nettelbladts, is called “Jag är min egen Dolly Parton”, which Helena co-starrs with Nina Persson, Cecilia Nordlund and Lotta Wenglén, as well as music producer Gudrun Hauksdottir. The film is about the friendship and dreams of these five women, about women being in the middle of a career and longing for cihldren. And, of course, about Dolly Parton as a role model.

The “VIP” film premiere took place yesterday in Stockholm. The official premiere is on March 11th in Folketsbio cinemas in Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and many other cities across Sweden.

Our reader Erik Johansson attended the premiere yesterday and comments “the film is in Swedish with no subtitles, so a lot of you will not understand that much, but there is really a lot of feelings going on.. and there were many times when tears came through”. He absolutely recommends the film.

SvD article

Jag är min egen Dolly Parton from Folkets Bio on Vimeo.

Update March 12th: The four ladies performed one of the songs from the documentary live at SVT’s Skavlan yesterday. You can see the performance here.

Lundquist to receive Sir George Martin Prize

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Christoffer Lundquist is the first winner of Sir George Martin Music Award. In the jury’s statement we read: “With burning ambition to musical perfection Christoffer Lundquist transformed Vollsjö to a Scanian Abbey Road!”

Christoffer Lundquist is producer, musician and composer and he has produced over 100 albums for the Swedish and international artists. He has also been a member of Brainpool and also toured with Per Gessle and Roxette for the last 10 years.

Sir George Martin Music Award was set up one year ago in connection with the Beatles former producer’s visit in the southern Sweden to receive a honorary doctorate from Musikhögskolan in Malmö.

The prize is 100,000 SEK and will be handed at the official gala at Malmö’s Palladium on May 2nd, 2011.

Source: Sydsvenskan.se

Musicians for a reduced VAT rate

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Per Gessle amongst other important artists as Andrés Calamaro from Argentina, Alejandro Sanz, Carmona Bros of Ketama and Niña Pastori from Spain, Krezip members from the Netherlands, Tiziano Ferro and Jovanotti from Italy, Air members from France, Sir Elton John and Sir Tom Jones from UK have signed a petition asking for a reduced VAT rate on sound recordings in order to put an end to cultural discrimination against music.

Source: Ifpi.org

Thanks to Emilio for this piece of information.