RoxetteBlog

As we informed previously, Roxette went to Antwerp, Belgium yesterday. Tonight they will have the first rehearsal, Per Gessle informs on his Twitter – it is a very probable it will be a rehearsal with the orchestra.

Only 5 day are left till Night of the Proms tour start in Antwerp.

We got following information from Pascal:

According to a post from Proms organizer Jan Vereecke on his weblog, Roxette is currently (19:30 GMT+1, on 18-10-2009) doing a soundcheck. Tomorrow the band will do a first rehearsal without orchestra. A full rehearsal with orchestra is scheduled for Tuesday.

Update October 19, Per writes on twitter:

Great rehearsals last nite. Had a ball playing with Jonas again.
And Marie’s singing was yeehaa! Looking good.

Less stuff on “Gessle over Europe” DVD and some typos.

October 18, 2009 by Tomasz

The Daily Roxette published an English version of Swedish press release regarding “Gessle over Europe” CD+DVD set. Thomas Evensson did also some scans of a promotional folder printed in Sweden. According to it, there are few changes in comparison to the preliminary informations. “C’mon” video as well as “Son of a plumber” and “Party crasher” eletronic promotional kits were removed from the frothcoming DVD. I assume it is related with DVD space limitations and will to have the best possible quality of the Cirkus concert.

Promotional folder photos: FRONT | FOLD-OUT| BACK (c) tevensso

According to Polish website Empik.com, the final tracklisting is:

1. Dressed For Success (Cologne) – Per Gessle 4:24
2. Drowning In Wonderful Thoughts About Her (Cologne) – Per Gessle 2:38
3. Stupid (London) – Per Gessle 3:46
4. Wish I Could Fly (London) – Per Gessle 4:37
5. She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Copenhagen) – Per Gessle 3:44
6. 7Twenty7 (Amsterdam) – Per Gessle 3:30
7. I Have A Party In My Head (Amsterdam) – Per Gessle 2:11
8. Late, Later On (Amsterdam) – Per Gessle 3:56
9. Listen To Your Heart (Cologne) – Per Gessle 3:12
10. Do You Wanna Be My Baby? (Copenhagen) – Per Gessle 4:03
11. Opportunity Nox (London) – Per Gessle 2:46
12. Doesn’t Make Sense (Cologne) – Per Gessle 4:50
13. Joyride (Stockholm 2) – Per Gessle 5:16
14. C’mon (Warszaw) – Per Gessle 2:50
15. Are You An Old Hippie, Sir? (Warszaw) – Per Gessle 1:41
16. It Must Have Been Love (Cologne) – Per Gessle 4:00
17. The Look (Halmstad) – Per Gessle 5:05
18. Hey Mr DJ (Amsterdam) – Per Gessle 2:32
19. (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Munchen) – Per Gessle 2:38
20. Sleeping In My Car (Amsterdam) – Per Gessle 3:48
21. Queen Of Rain (Cologne) – Per Gessle 3:39

DVD

1. Dressed For Success (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:14
2. Drowning In Wonderful Thoughts About Her (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:04
3. Stupid (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:22
4. The Party Pleaser (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:59
5. Wish I Could Fly (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 5:03
6. She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:04
7. 7Twenty7 (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:31
8. I Have A Party In My Head (I Hope It Never Ends) (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 2:05
9. Late, Later On (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:46
10. Listen To Your Heart (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:45
11. Do You Wanna Be My Baby? (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:02
12. Opportunity Nox (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:10
13. Doesn’t Make Sense (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:40
14. Church Of Your Heart (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 2:59
15. Dangerous (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:29
16. Joyride (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:53
17. C’mon (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 2:48
18. Are You On Old Hippie, Sir? (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 1:36
19. The Look (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 5:18
20. It Must Have Been Love (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 4:11
21. Hey Mr Dj (Won’t You Play Another Love Song) (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 2:40
22. (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 2:40
23. Sleeping In My Car (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:56
24. Queen Of Rain (Live At Cirkus) – Per Gessle 3:33
25. 100 x Tribal Homevideos – Per Gessle 58:25
26. Silly Really – Per Gessle 4:02
27. Shopping With Mother – Per Gessle 2:37
28. Jo-Anna Says – Son Of A Plumber 3:26
29. Hey Mr DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song) – Son Of A Plumber 3:30
30. Do You Wanna Be My Baby? (director’s cut) – Per Gessle 3:47
31. Kix (Directors Cut) – Per Gessle 4:09
32. I Want You To Know – Per Gessle 4:00
33. Kix (Lovely Pair Mix) – Per Gessle 5:43
34. Kix-Cha-Cha (Directors Cut) – Per Gessle 1:30

It is worth noticing that two songs from Warsaw concert on a live CD was tagged as “Warszaw”, which is incorrect both in English and in Swedish. The incorrect name of Polish capital was also used in Per Gessle’s blog, so I suppose this was the reason why EMI did mistake there. This typo is visible in some webshops as well as on last.fm service. Fortunately, on the back cover of the album everything seems to be right.

Additionally, according to Lurirox at R2R forum German subtitles on DVD have few mistakes:
“We have a special letter in German called “ß” – some kind of “ss”, but it’s wrong to use it instead of “ß”. You have to change the language of the keyboard to get the right letter and it seems to me as if the person who was responsible for the subtitles did not change it because all the time when a “ß” is needed there is a “ü” instead of it.”

P.S. But still – I just can’t wait to watch it! 🙂

Helena Josefsson – Fen & Jag [cover + download]

October 18, 2009 by Tomasz

Helena Josefsson posted a message on her MySpace profile:

“I have recorded a song and made a video with my family and friends, it is called “Fen & jag”!
Waiting for the new soloalbum to get released, I needed to have some fun and I want to give something to you who wait patiently!
I am also playing with my friend Malin, who is a magician (www.malinnilsson.se) and I will be a guest at her show in November! And in spring we will make our very own show with her magic tricks and my popmusic in an exciting fusion! It is so much fun and it is a dream coming true to me…”

You can also listen to the song there as well as the French version of “Where does the unused love go?” called “Oublie notre amour KO”. If you are willing to buy “Fen & Jag”, there is a website CDbaby.com found by Evgeny Perekopskiy where you can do it.

Christoffer Lundquist – Major & Minor Songs EP [review]

October 17, 2009 by Tomasz

Written by Emilio Gimenez Bahl from Argentina:

Besides Per Gessle undoubtedly Christoffer Lundquist is my favorite artist from Sweden. I started to know more about him from the latter days of Brainpool when he assumed a more active role in the band from Lund. Actually “Junk a Rock Opera” became my favorite and the best album they made, ever.

One day, wasting some precious time on the iTunes Store, I got a beauty surprise – “A Christoffer Lundquist EP“. There were only four songs, so I asked myself why not to give it a try? The album was released under the extinct Junk Music AB in 2005 an it’s called “Major & Minor Songs EP”. Let’s see.

The opening track is “Happy new year”. Maybe the song matches the most the Brainpool sound but until 1:40 when you start to listen a very familiar sound – Christoffer’s guitar. Then you start to listen to synths like in “Mazarin” and beautiful guitar sounds as in the outro of “Late, later on”.

The first impression was strange, because the EP doesn’t have the sound I was expecting to listen, I mean… like “God bless free Radio” or “Designer dreams” from Brainpool and “Happy new year” has the sound and atmosphere of … “Son of a Plumber”, yes! Sort of acoustic and organic music with a very 70s sound.

“I would fain fly” has to most “up to date” sound of the EP. It’s an amazing story of love with all the tips that I used to enjoy in a good pop song. Simple lyrics, harmonical vocals and a sweet guitar melody – when you have this music’s algorithm, you have a hit. And “I would fain fly” is it!

The track #3 “Let’s Talk” follows the same plot, an extraordinary acoustic and simple pop love song “…so let’s talk you and I till the wondering sky kiss the night goodbye…” Sometimes it reminds me the voice of Peter Hammill, when he sings “Refugees”.

The ending track is “Take out for one”, a sweet American ballad like “Since I don’t have you”, with Christoffer singing in a higher tone and with a very 50’s piano rhythm.

I really enjoyed this EP and “I would fain fly” in particular. Christoffer has finished to record his first full length solo album right now and as he said “it is ready and waiting to be released”. So I do hope to see it on the shelves very soon.

You can listen the EP here: Christoffer Lundquist – Major & Minor Songs >
Spotify (album:0IRoJNaY655DcuCK1Zf2Lm) or buy it here iTunes