”How can you be prepared when you lose a family member?” – Kirsten Ohlwein on Marie Fredriksson

Last time we shared Kirsten’s thoughts here was January this year. The title was 1001 nights without Marie referring to the time that had passed by since 18th April 2016 until then. Kirsten finished her writing with these words:

To the next 1000 days!

P.S.: In case something interesting comes up, don’t be surprised if you see an article from me here, anyway.

We wouldn’t have expected that not even 365 days pass and we welcome her thoughts again. Better said, we wouldn’t have expected that instead of ”something interesting” it is now the saddest thing happened why she shares her thoughts. Tons of us feel with her, we’re very sure about it, but not many of us can put these feelings into words as beautifully as Kirsten does. We’re all heartbroken.

I haven’t put my thoughts into words yet. My postings are coming straight out of a survival mode feeling. I try to breathe, I try to work, I try to sleep, I try to eat.

We all knew this day would come. I tried to prepare myself. And if you had asked me on Monday or right before the news hit me, I would have told you with all my heart that I let go of her a while ago, that I don’t expect her to reach 70, that her body is just exhausted. I would have told you that I am prepared for the worst. Just to realize a day later that you are prepared until you are not.

And how can you be prepared when you lose a family member? And yes, that’s exactly what she was for me, a family member. An important one. Like a bigger sister who constantly offers you support, love and understanding coming with the greatest voice this planet ever had. How convenient! (Well, and a bigger sister I had a crush on for a while as well..)

When I was struggling, when I felt down, when I was beaten, I turned to her and she offered comfort. And so she did for the past 28 years.

She was a force to be reckoned with. She was the strongest woman I have ever known. She beat a disease for 17 years, when everyone else who suffered the same shit survived two.

She never gave up, she overcame aphasia, a total loss of speech and she fought her way back to life JUST LIKE THAT. Her first words after a long period of silence? The chorus of Dangerous. She lived for what she loved. She loved to live.

She came back to give us and her TWO WORLD TOURS which took an incredible amount of energy and time she could have spent with her family. The travelling, the concerts, us, the fans.

She was so nervous before the NOTP, a nervosity and anxiety she couldn’t shake for weeks. And why? Because she feared that people wouldn’t want to see her anymore, that they would have forgotten about her.

She stayed, she fought, show after show, until she couldn’t anymore. She was so grateful that she was able to do it after all she had been through. She soaked it up like it was the essence of life, and it was. She was so grateful that we were still there, supporting her, showing her love.

And we were grateful to be able to be part of this once more. Roxette made me find people who became some of the most important people in my life, they still are my closest friends.

And I am sure when my grief subsides, I will be nothing but grateful that I got to know this special, so special woman. A humble, strong, grateful woman. A person who enjoyed every moment, who lived in the moment, who was WITH YOU and you only when you talked to her.

On the other side of my grief I can also grab a tiny feeling of relief. I hope she is in a better place now, finally, after letting go of a body that didn’t want to be no more. I hope she is free, I hope she sings them all some songs wherever she is. I am relieved her suffering is over. And I am sure, yet, while she surely suffered a lot, she didn’t go without a fight. Because she never did.

And personally, for me dying became a lot easier. I know whom I will meet when my time has come.

Kirsten

Still is from this video

 

CONTEST: Win a Per Gessle’s Roxette tour photo book!

Anders Roos, photographer and publisher of the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour photo book was kind enough to offer us 1 copy for a contest. As you know, the book contains quotes + pics around Europe in 2018 on 144 pages and a DVD of the last show of the tour. The copy you can win is signed by Mr. G! So here is your great chance to get hold of it if you don’t have it yet!

In order to participate, answer the following questions correctly:

  1. How many gigs were there on the Per Gessle’s Roxette tour? – 20
  2. Name the opening and closing songs on the setlist one could hear at each concert on tour! – The Look; The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye
  3. Name the female members of the band on tour! – Helena Josefsson, Malin-My Wall
  4. Which gig was recorded for the DVD? – Gothenburg, Sweden, 16th November 2018

Send an e-mail with your name, address and the correct answers to the questions to rxbcontests@gmail.com until 23:59 CET, 7th July 2019. The lucky winner will be announced shortly after. Answers to all questions can be found on RoxetteBlog. 😉 Good luck!

Contest terms and conditions:
– In order to participate, you have to send an e-mail to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and correct answers to the
4 questions. We will consider all e-mails we receive until 23:59 CET on 7th July 2019.
– 1
winner will be picked randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answers.
– You can only participate once, any attempt to participate twice or more times will lead to your disqualification.
– Prizes won’t be paid out in cash. Prizes will be sent by registered
mail only once.
– The winner will be announced on this website, on our Facebook page and will also be notified per e-mail. You’ll be required to answer the e-mail 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 prizes.
– By taking part in the contest, personal data (first name, surname, e-mail address and address) will be collected. These data are needed in order to run the contest, particularly in order to match participation applications to their entries as well as to identify and notify the winners. This method of processing data is therefore required pursuant to Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit b of the GDPR to fulfil contractual obligations. The personal data collected will be processed and used by RoxetteBlog.com only to the extent that is required in order to run the contest. The personal data will be stored for the duration of the contest and – in order to process any claims relating to winnings and damages – for a maximum of 6 months afterwards and they will then be deleted. By participating you agree to all above mentioned and your name being published on this website as well as on social media channels in case you win the contest.

 

UPDATE on 8th July 2019: since we got hold of another book too, we picked 2 winners instead of 1. The winners are: Alejandro Molina, Argentina and Marcela Molcakova, Slovakia. The winners are informed via e-mail too.

Musical fountain in Budapest plays The Look by Roxette 3 times a day

The musical fountain on Margaret Island in Budapest, Hungary plays The Look by Roxette 3 times  a day. The fountain provides a multimedia musical show since 2017 and this year Roxette got on the setlist. Woohoo! Watch it HERE!

The fountain basin has an area of 1,000 square meters and a total of 154 nozzles are lit by 227 colored lamps. You can sit under the plane trees and enjoy the attraction from 19th April until the first frost (~ end of October), each day from 10 am to 10 pm. Shows are 15 to 60 minutes long and start every hour from 11 am. If you want to hear Roxette, you have to be there at 3 pm, 8 pm and 9 pm.

Setlist of the session starting at 3 pm:

  1. Roxette: The Look
  2. The Dave Clark Five: I Don’t Know
  3. Simon and Garfunkel: Cecilia
  4. The Beatles: I Feel Fine

Setlist of the session starting at 8 pm:

  1. The Rolling Stones: Let Me Down Slow
  2. Herman’s Hermits: No Milk Today
  3. The Searchers: Saturday Night Out
  4. Guns N’ Roses: Sweet Child O’ Mine
  5. Roxette: The Look
  6. The Dave Clark Five: I Don’t Know
  7. Simon and Garfunkel: Cecilia
  8. The Beatles: I Feel Fine

Setlist of the session starting at 9 pm:

  1. The Rolling Stones: Let Me Down Slow
  2. Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik
  3. Liszt: Liebestraum
  4. Radics Gigi: Budapest szerelem
  5. Herman’s Hermits: No Milk Today
  6. The Searchers: Saturday Night Out
  7. Johann Strauss: Radetzky March
  8. Guns N’ Roses: Sweet Child O’ Mine
  9. Johann Strauss II: The Blue Danube
  10. Roxette: The Look
  11. The Dave Clark Five: I Don’t Know
  12. Ákos: Hazatalál
  13. Vivaldi: Four Seasons – Spring
  14. Simon and Garfunkel: Cecilia
  15. The Beatles: I Feel Fine
  16. Film: Budapest tánclépésben
  17. Film: Nagy Magyarok

You can see the complete list of the songs played during a day HERE.

It’s not the first time a Roxette song is used for the attractions of a musical fountain. I know Listen To Your Heart was already used in Prague, Czech Republic 2010 and Kislovodsk, Russia 2017. Probably, there were / are more fountains where you could / can enjoy our fave band’s music.

Don’t give it a miss when you are in Budapest anytime between April and October this year!

Watch the video HERE! (The kid in the video doesn’t belong to me, but he was too cool. Came to the front only when Roxette and The Beatles were playing. Haha.)

 

Roxette on Rocksmith

Rocksmith is an award-winning method, the fastest way to learn to play guitar. You can plug any real guitar or bass into your PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 or PS4 and join over 3 million people who have learned to play guitar with this method that adapts to you as you play. Hundreds of songs are available and now 3 Roxette hits are also added. The Roxette Song Pack contains The Look, It Must Have Been Love and Listen To Your Heart and is available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. The songs may be posted later for players in territories served by the European PlayStation Store due to differences in publishing times. See the tunings and arrangements in THIS VIDEO.

Roxette Song Pack

  • “It Must Have Been Love” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm/Bass
  • “The Look” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm/Bass
  • “Listen To Your Heart” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm; D Standard – Bass

Thanx for the hint, Gaby Hildebrandt!

 

Busy April 12th for Roxette and Per Gessle fans

12th April brings for us fans one surprise after another. First it was announced that Roxette’s 6th studio album, Have a Nice Day will be released as a limited edition 180g yellow double LP gatefold sleeve. It was released only on cassette and CD in 1999, but never on vinyl. Nice way to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, isn’t it?

Per Gessle looks back at the record as a definite highlight in the band’s career:

Song-wise I think ”Have A Nice Day” could be our best album ever, maybe the only one that turned out like I hoped it would. That’s probably because the five-year break allowed enough time for lots of songs to grow — I wrote some of my strongest stuff and Marie’s ”Waiting For The Rain” and ”Beautiful Things” are among the best things she ever made for Roxette. And then we also added some crucial new members to our core team.

We were testing a lot of different things on ”Have A Nice Day”, mixing guitar pop ditties with drum machine driven dance beats, also adding more strings than on any previous album. And we’re talking real string sections here. You can tell that it’s recorded by a band with a big budget — maybe too big.

It has many songs and quite a long running time, a fact which in hindsight might have hurt it a bit — the “too much of a good thing” syndrome. Maybe ”Have A Nice Day” always was a double album that somewhat reluctantly was squeezed into a single CD. That’s why I love the double vinyl album format in this re-release. “Have A Nice Day” has come home again.

Tracklisting:

Side A

  1. Crush On You
  2. Wish I Could Fly
  3. You Can´t Put Your Arms Around What´s Already Gone

Side B

  1. Waiting For The Rain
  2. Anyone
  3. It Will Take A Long Long Time
  4. 7 Twenty 7

Side C

  1. I Was So Lucky
  2. Stars
  3. Salvation

Side D

  1. Pay The Price
  2. Cooper
  3. Staring At The Ground
  4. Beautiful Things

PRE-ORDER the album HERE!

 

Then there is another limited release by Per Gessle, tribute to The Ramones, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend on 12″ vinyl in 2 colours. Clear red limited edition (500 copies) and clear limited edition (500 copies). It will also be available as a bundle with both colours.

Per about the release:

Ramones was a huge inspiration when we started our first band “Grape Rock” in 1977. The unbelievable energy, the amazing guitar sound, the cool lyrics and the added touch of surf music floored us totally. Impossible not to fall in love with.

In 2002 White Jazz Records was about to make a Ramones tribute album and I was invited to participate. My choice of song was the brilliant “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”. I couldn’t stop there so I decided to do two more killer tracks outside the album at the same time. Just for fun. Hey Ho!

Tracklisting:

Side A

  1. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
  2. Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
  3. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Side B

B side is with engraving “Per Gessle” sign.

PRE-ORDER the album HERE!