Roxette

Contest! Win a copy of Roxette’s blu-ray “Live – Travelling the World”

by

Year 2013 has been a fantastic year for Roxers, Marie fans and GT fans, it’s been fully packed with surprises: GT’s album and tour, Marie’s album and announcement of 2014 tour, to mention just a few. And last but not least, the very first live DVD/blu-ray released by Roxette… so we thought the best way to end this year would be with a contest!

In cooperation with D&D Management and Parlophone, we are giving away 2 copies of Roxette’s blu-ray “Roxette Live – Travelling the World”, which will be out next week (the DVD+CD is out since early December).

In order to participate in the contest simply answer this question:

As you know, there are two versions of the live recording: DVD and blu-ray. Both come with a live CD but the are some extras on the blu-ray that you will not find on the DVD.
Name one of these extras!

Send an email with your name, home address (so we can send the blu-ray) and the answer to the question to judith@roxetteblog.com until December 31st 23:59 CET. The 2 lucky winners will be announced the first week of 2014.

Good luck!

Update January 9th: The winners are Rodica Luntraru (Romania) and Andreea Seferian (France). Congratulations!


And here is the small letter, contest terms and conditions
– In order to participate, you have to send an email to judith@roxetteblog.com with name, address and answer to the question. We will consider all emails we receive until the 31st of December 2013, 23:59 CET time.
– 2 winners will be picked up randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answer.
– As it is usual, you can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by standard mail only once (so basically, if the envelope gets lost.. we won’t be able to send a replacement) by Roxetteblog.
– Winners will be announced on this website and will also be notified per email. You’ll be required to answer to the email confirming your address.
– Roxetteblog.com will not enter into any correspondence regarding the result of the contest and is not liable for any damages, loss or expenses that may result in connection to the prize
– All submitted data will only be used for the purpose of the contest and, in case you are one of the lucky winners, to send you the prize.

Tack för musiken, Marie Fredriksson

by

SVT broadcasted the show ”Tack för musiken”, for which the recordings with Marie Fredriksson were on 27th August. Click HERE to watch it!

It begins with Niklas Strömstedt and the band performing ”Tro” live. Niklas welcomes Ms Effe only after this. They are sitting and talking about Marie’s career (solo, earlier bands, Roxette, Per Gessle), illness (she’s healthy now and grateful to be there) and her family. Marie’s husband, Micke Bolyos was sitting in the band, playing the keyboards during the show.

You can see how much Marie enjoyed being there and how fine she is. She was very relaxed, smiling and laughing all the time. Tears appeared in her eyes when Niklas was talking about her album ”Den ständiga resan” that there are 13 songs about darkness, but the last song, ”Till sist” is different. He read up the first lines of the song and asked who these lines are about. Marie pointed at Micke and told it’s about him. They looked at each other with so much love during the whole show.

MF_Tack_för_musiken_01  MF_Tack_för_musiken_02

Marie started singing when she was a little child. She started the day with singing at 7 am, when everyone else would have loved to sleep. Later, at the age of 17 she wanted to be an actress. It was her dream. She was talking about how she loves writing songs, but after her illness it’s not that easy anymore. She talked about Lasse Lindbom, how much he means to her. They had a fantastic time and were writing a lot of songs together.

In the audience there were many familiar faces and at one point Niklas started talking about Argentina and the fans. Marie realized there were fans in the audience from Argentina, too and said that a lot of Roxette fans are here and they are fantastic. The fans are always by their side, following them and they are even here at this show. Marie told the fans know all the lyrics regardless of where they are coming from or which language the songs are in.

Niklas was joking about Marie’s name, Gun-Marie and pronounced it the English way: Gun-Marie from Roxette. Everyone was laughing.

Read more

Long interview with Per Gessle in Livets Goda

by

As Per already informed us some time ago, Livets Goda did a very long and veeery nice interview with Mr G. The December issue contains 16 pages of Per Gessle: awesome interview, 20 important songs, some wine tasting and hot photos of Per. Interview by Anders Enquist, photos by Erik Dahlström.

The magazine is available in Sweden at the newsstands from 10th December, but you can also have your own copy even if you don’t live in Sweden. Here you can buy the pdf version online for 50 SEK. (You can pay even via PayPal.) It is really worth it!

The interview is mainly about Per’s career in the music business, stories about how Gyllene Tider and Roxette started out, his solo projects, the 80’s when he met Åsa (he says it was the best thing that happened back then), The Look, the US, It Must Have Been Love, the Billboard, EMI, later years, Roxette comeback, GT comeback, how he became interested in wines, so briefly, kind of the whole story of his life so far. There are not too many real news in the interview, but it’s always nice to read Per Gessle’s thoughts and what he is saying about different songs, for example.

Per_Gessle_Livets_Goda_2013

THERE IS SOMETHING NEW: Per would like to record an acoustic album with some of his old songs.

Great news! 😉

You surely remember Mr Gessle was talking about the Top20 songs he was setting up for this article in Livets Goda. These are not his all time fave songs, but the ones meaning a lot to him. Here is the list:

1. Nina Simone: Wild Is The Wind
2. Heart: Love Alive
3. Air: Le Femme D’argent
4. Caitlin Rose: For The Rabbits
5. Big Star: September Gurls
6. The Young Rascals: How Can I Be Sure
7. Fleetwood Mac: That’s Alright
8. John Holm: Den Öde Stranden
9. The Beatles: Hey Jude
10. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Refugee
11. David Bowie: Lady Grinning Soul
12. Lorde: Royals
13. The Tornados: Telstar
14. Docent Död: Solglasögon
15. Divinyls: Pleasure And Pain
16. Joni Mitchell: Rainy Night House
17. Kenny Rogers: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town
18. Frank Sinatra: It Was A Very Good Year
19. Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra: Summer Wine
20. The Buzzcocks: Ever Fallen In Love

 

Some probably think that I’m a super-capitalist who is just sitting there and earns a lot of money on nothing, while others think I’m a talented pop craftsman who knows far too much about pop music, a nerd … I don’t know …

There are many things I’m not talented in, but I’m good at melodies and writing songs. That’s what I can do, so I need people who are doing all the other stuff I can’t.

 

He also mentions in the interview that he always thought Marie is the world’s best singer since they met for the first time.

Per’s 5 favourite Roxette songs which are lesser-known (with his comments):
1. I’m Sorry – Great chorus, a hit in Brazil.
2. My World, My Love My Life – A damn good song.
3. It Takes You No Time To Get Here – Some country text and feeling.
4. Opportunity Nox – Our best pop wallop.
5. Sleeping Single – Marie sings amazing. She makes the album.

 

I have no idea why Roxette is still so big. Maybe it’s because of the songs, maybe there is a certain timelessness in many of the songs’ melodies. But why exactly us? Maybe it’s my Swedish poor self-confidence that makes me unable to respond to it …

Regarding the next Roxette tour he says that first Marie goes on tour, but sooner or later there will probably be a major Roxette tour. Bring it on!

 

Consequential Lyrics – a podcast about Roxette lyrics

by

”Cassettes & Chocolate Milk is a music blog and podcast series that examines the passionate antics of the mod revivalists, lovers of synth and mad devotees of British pop.” Missy El (Eleanor Gray), who is running C&CM since 10 years, is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Her new podcast series, Consequential Lyrics consists of 40-minute-long episodes (including the songs). Besides analyzing the lyrics of Queen, The Beatles, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths and Erasure, she analyzed some Roxette lyrics as a bonus.

It sounded so familiar, when I heard her starting the show like this:

This episode looks at the lyricism of Roxette. Now I can almost hear you cry: ”But El, surely there is no real depth or meaning in Roxette lyrics!” Well, that’s where you’re wrong!

God, how many times I heard it from my non-Roxer friends. And when I asked them to tell me a Roxette song without any meaning, they all came up with ”Sleeping In My Car”. Maybe they just never had any back seat affair in their car… Whatever. I gave up convincing them. Now I could suggest them listening to this podcast at least.

Roxette_2012_liveBy the way, listening to Missy El, you can clearly hear she’s a fan of Per Gessle lyrics. I can totally understand her. 😉 Songs analyzed (not a typical list of Roxette songs / demos): Sleeping Single, Come Back (Before You Leave), I Do Believe, (I Could Never) Give You Up, Love Spins, Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave) and Always Breaking My Heart. You can listen to this episode by clicking here.