flashmob

WANTED – Complete Borgholm gig on DVD

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The demand to see Roxette’s complete Borgholm gig(s), recorded on 25th-26th July 1989 is h.u.g.e. There is an evergreen discussion among Roxers since the ’90s and we just can’t conclude what might have happened to the recorded materials.

Collage of some WANTED pictures shared during the flashmob.

The discussion started again during the last days of December when Sandra Knospe came up with the idea to organize a flashmob to show how many of us want the complete Borgholm gig on DVD. The plan was to post one or more screenshots of the live scenes that are already available of the Borgholm shows. The idea was of course supported by tons of us Roxers. Sandra created a cool ”WANTED – Complete Borgholm gig on DVD” background pic on which anyone could insert their own preferred Borgholm live stills. Those who were more into completely ready stuff either reposted others’ pics or posted the well-known What Do We Want meme generated by Zoltán Dúl stating ”Who are we?” ”Roxers!” ”What do we want?” ”The full Borgholm-gig on DVD!” ”When do we want it?” ”For Christmas 2017!” Clear messages on both types of pictures.

We had been waiting impatiently for the time (2nd January) to come when we could all ”spam” Roxette’s Facebook page with our pics. If you check posts by others on the page, you’ll see that quite some Roxers joined the flashmob. We all love such happenings.

Later we got a little spam back from Mr. G. He shared some Memory Lane Monday pics on all the Facebook pages he is handling. At the same time, we could realize he saw the flashmob posts, but all he ”reacted” on them was sharing the old RXB article that collected those live materials which should be released one day, as well as posting the official video to Dangerous with the text ”Summertime at the Borgholm Castle. /P.” Oh. Yeah. THAT’s the summertime we would like to know more about. 😉

3 years ago Per posted on Roxette’s Facebook page that they were ”having discussions with EMI (Warner) about re-releasing all VHS/DVD Rox live + documentaries from the past. How about that? Maybe a huge box set? Rox channel on YouTube? Guess the hardest part is to find the stuff in the vaults….” A week later Mr. G was excited to post another update telling ”Hope to get most of the live VHS & DVD releases from the past out in the open (in top quality) for your insatiable eyes and ears to enjoy. It’s a little messy in the archives at the moment due to the huge EMI/Warner-merger but I’ve got new batteries in my flashlight! We’re on the case, promise.”

To help the team what to look for in the archives, Tomasz collected all possible live performances worth to release in an article.

It seems that the mess still couldn’t be sorted out completely, however, according to the rumor TDR shared there will be a DVD box including ”Sweden Live! (Norrköping 1988), Look Sharp Live (various 1989), Live-Ism (Sydney 1992), Crash!Boom!Live! (Johannesburg 1995) and Room Service (Stockholm 2001) from the Telenor webcast” without extras.

Last June when we interviewed Per, he still couldn’t tell us details about the DVD project. All he could share was his thought that ”the first things that should be made available are all those old live VHS-tapes and DVDs that’s not around anymore”.

Since most people nowadays don’t even have a machine to play VHS, it’s always nice to see old materials being released on DVD. Blu-ray is in this case out of the question, as those old tapes are probably not of real high quality for a BD release. But ”just” re-releasing old stuff is a bit sad. We are sure there is more to include.

Back to the original topic, Borgholm. What happened to the live recordings? Has there ever been a complete recording? Of both Borgholm shows and rehearsals maybe? Or was it just some footage we could already see in this or that video and on Look Sharp Live VHS? Nah… with such technology back then, shot by an American crew it’s impossible. There must have been a complete recording. Or if not complete, there is surely much more than what we could see so far. But where is that material hiding? Deep down in a cellar? Is it lost? Did the tapes get burnt? Or? Just for the record, we are happy with any raw cut material as well. It would look sharp as an extra in the DVD box. 😉 Haha.

Until we find out what happened (hope dies last…), you can still enjoy these videos and keep your fingers crossed: Listen To Your Heart, Dangerous, Paint, Dance Away, Cry, Silver Blue.

P.S.: Borgholm being such an important place in Roxette’s history, we are very happy about the fact that at least Per will play there this summer on his solo tour.

 

I’m 1 in a million, you’re 2 of a kind

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No, we won’t do a flashmob every month, BUT Roxette Official reaching 1 million likes on Facebook is definitely something we had to celebrate. Many of us were thinking about this magic number since long, but then Kathie Winn came up with the question if we would really do something. Then we had to speed up, as the page was getting 2000-5000 likes per day.

But what should be the BIG idea? Well, when you’re stuck, besides talking to yourself, it’s always good to go back to the roots. This time to Neverending Love. Is there another phrase that could express our feelings towards Roxette any better? Not really. More than that, there is a perfect line – You’re 1 in a million, we’re 2 of a kind – which Alexandra Neitzel ”translated” into something more fitting for this occasion – I’m 1 in a million, you’re 2 of a kind. Then Basia Konarzewska came up with the idea to take pics of ourselves holding a sign that says this line.

An event was created on Facebook, just like the last time when we had the poster flashmob and many Roxers joined from around the world.  We all started thinking about our own photos, how creative they should be, if we should visit the gym before we take the pics or go to the hairdresser, but as I said before, the number of likes on the page was speeding up, so there was not much time left.

Finally, everyone could find out how to appear on the pic, where to write that 1 line and started calculating when Roxette Official might hit the 1 million threshold. Alexandra was doing different scenarios every 10 minutes, so we had a close estimation that 1 million could be reached at about 5 pm on Sunday, 26th Jan. We’ve been reloading the page constantly on this side of the world, alarm clocks were set on the other side and it was even more fun to spend our times on Facebook together with Per, who also seemed to be waiting for the magic moment impatiently. He was posting several times during the day, trying to push the number of likes towards the million. And it worked. However, poor him was busy with posting a cute boyish pic of himself right at the time the page reached 1 million. Quite Gessleish, isn’t it? He took a picture, but it showed 1,000,002. So he was desperately looking for a proper screenshot:

SUNDAY UPDATE #5: Aaaarrgghhh, missed the magic moment. This is what I got. Did you catch the million mark on photo? /P.

One can always count on Roxers, so he got the 1,000,000 screenshot which he could post at last. But before he did that, when the time has come, photos were spreading all over Roxette Official. The result was again: FAB! Many pics were uploaded to the timeline of the page and Per realized it immediately. He started sharing them, but after 4 he found out there would be more, so it made no sense to share them all. One of the pics he shared was Alexandra’s:

Thanks Alexandra and everybody else for making this happen! Splendido! Cheers!
/P&M

So, Per, could you tell us your alias you use in our closed fan groups? 😉 Funny that he posted exactly that pic with this comment. How else could it be if not because of him being a secret member of our groups? Haha.

He wrote a separate post, too after seeing there were more and more pics to come:

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR FAB PICS RE THE MILLION MARK ON FACEBOOK! VERY NICE INDEED! /P.

 

We are incredibly glad you’ve been there with us waiting, Mr G. You deserved all the remaining Breaking Bad episodes for this. CONGRATS & keep up the good work on Roxette Official!

Roxers, thanx for joining! Come back tomorrow and we do it again! Well, OK, maybe not tomorrow. Let’s wait a bit more until our next flashmob. 😉

P.S.: No chance to sing Neverending Love with the original lyrics anymore – or at least for some weeks…

Here is a collage of all the 118 photos. You can download it in hi res from .

1_in_a_million_collage_FINAL_rs

 

Update 5:15 pm 27th January:

2 great videos have been made to keep this flashmob in our memories forever. The first one is made by Doogsyify Winn, Kathie’s handy daughter and the 2nd is by another talented video-maker Roxer, Michi Seeber. Thanx for your work with them and sharing them with us!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lGkycAviPA

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3K7OdfSkAs

 

 

 

The world got roxed – Roxette Official got flashmobbed

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It wasn’t the first flashmob on Roxette Official and most probably, it wasn’t the last one. BUT: this is definitely the first one PERceived by Mr G. Or at least this is the first one which he commented on. 🙂

OH YEAH UPDATE: Love those “Roxette travelling” pictures you have posted!!!! It’s a big Rox world out there, right??? Thanx for all your work and keep ’em coming!
Have a wonderful Friday night! /P.

Halle_Germany_THE_FIRST_POSTERThis time it all started with one poster (see on the left) found in a public place in Halle, Germany, posted on Facebook and found there by Manuel Terron Browa. Then Sandra Knospe had an idea why not doing it all around the world. Everyone went like ”yeah, why not?”. So we decided for a flashmob for the DVD’s release date, 6th December, 2013. We waited so long for this release, we had to celebrate it properly all around the universe. 😉

By the help of the organizers (Sandra Knospe, Christina Dercks, Alexandra Neitzel) an event was created on Facebook for this poster flashmob. Roxers were joining and joining, let their other Roxer friends know about it and started checking their drawers for doubles of their old posters or whether they should buy some on ebay or print one. We also had to think hard where to glue our posters. To public areas, OK, but where exactly. Shop windows? Monuments? Boards? Where?

 

ROXETTE_Travelling_The_World_6th_Dec_2013_rs

 

As you can see, everyone found a great place finally. Roxers glued their posters all around the globe. Those 70 pics posted on Roxette Official on 6th December are from 43 cities of 18 countries: Argentina, Australia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, Uruguay, USA, Wales. Oh and one poster was ”placed” even over the Moon. 😉 /Click to download the hi res collage you can see on the left./

While we were doing our ”job”, all of us were thrilled. Policemen, guards, tourists, people on the streets – they all were watching us. Hopefully no one got arrested. 🙂 Heart was beating faster than usual, hands were shaking as if we were doing something bad. But we just wanted everyone to pay more attention to our beloved power pop duo. And it felt and still feels awesome!

Some posters we even found on Instagram posted by non-Roxers who were surprised to find Roxette posters just around the corner at a not so common place for these beauties and we were happy that it worked. Let’s do it again one day, MAGIC FRIENDS!

 

 

 

Thanx for the extra special bonus (= your comment on it), Per! You made all Roxers extremely happy with it. We are incredibly glad that you liked it. Cheers!

 

Update at 7:45 am, 7th December:

Ivan Kelava made a fantastic video about the flashmob to remember! I just love it! Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3foeYwJI18