Roxette

New EP or full-scale album by Roxette

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Roxette_tp_white_bgAs you could hear it with your own ears in the Australian radio interview with Per, he started writing new songs for Roxette a couple of months ago and they will go to studio in August to record new material before they start rehearsing for the tour in September.

Now Per reveals in an interview with The New Zealand Herald that they are planning to do an EP with 4-5 songs. However, being the hit machine he is, there might be a new studio album coming! That’s what he says:

We’re talking about doing an EP, four or five songs. At the same time, knowing me, I write a lot and if everything goes well, it might as well be a full-scale album.

Fingers crossed for a full album!

 

Besides this, he tells what the secret behind one of pop’s most enduring relationships is:

It helps that we never had a romance. We’ve known each other all our lives and it’s like a brother-sister relationship. When Marie got ill in 2002, it was a nightmare for all of us. I’m so pleased that she’s still alive. To be able to do these tours again is just amazing.

We are all so pleased, too! Bring on the new album and the tour!

 

Australian media about Roxette’s tour: TV, radio and contest

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10172738_10152044402680178_3736147522337777958_nTour dates for Australia and New Zealand were announced this week and it seems Australians are very happy about the news! So here is a collection of what’s been going on this week on Australian media.

Newspapers have covered the news extensively, and are currently running a contest to win 10 double passes for each of the five Roxette concerts in Australia. You can find more details about the contest on News Corp Australia newspapers (state links: Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser, Herald Sun, Perth Now, Courier Mail).

And there were a few radio interviews with Per, like the one on KOFM 102.9 (see embedded audio below) radio or or Gold104.3 where Per revealed that he started writing new songs for Roxette some months ago and that they will get into the studio in August to record some new material and will start rehearsing in September. Per also explains he spends about 15-20 minutes a day updating Roxette’s Facebook page, and that he likes this kind of communication, “in the old days there was such a huge gap between you and the audience, nowadays you can interact with your fans in a total different way.” He also tells that he likes to know what fans think about this and that, “for me it’s pretty cool to find out what people are interested in, sometimes I ask people questions what they want to hear, and you get like 2000 answers, it’s fun to read.” Regarding Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Per thinks the winner song by Conchita Wurst’s “Rise Like a Phoenix” is a nice song, but he thinks the show is very long. Besides that, he wrote some songs for the Song Contest many years ago (without any big success).

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/149624368″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Australian TV also reported about the come back of Marie and Per to down under:

 

The Today Show

 

 

Roxette to visit Australia and New Zealand in 2015

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roxette_goes_on_tour_2014According to Australian newspaper Herald Sun, Roxette will visit Australia in February 2015 as part of the new world tour that will start in October this year. In addition, the New Zealander news website Stuff reported today that Roxette will give a concert in Auckland as well.

These are the dates announced so far also by Live Nation. Tickets go on sale on May 27th, 2014. Pre-sale is on May 21st.

February 7th – Auckland , Vector Arena, New Zealand

February 10th – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia
February 14th – Perth Arena, Perth, Australia
February 17th – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Australia
February 20th – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
February 21st – Rochford Wines, Yarra Valley, Australia (A Day on the Green*)
February 23rd – WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong, Australia
February 27th – Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney, Australia
February 28th – Bimbagden Estate, Hunter Valley, Australia (A Day on the Green*)

*A Day on the Green is an outdoor event that combines “good food, fine wine and great music in magnificent locations” as indicated on their website. Rochford Wines is about 60 minutes drive from Melbourne and Bimbagden Winery is 50 minutes from Newcastle / 2,5 hrs from Sydney. Maybe Per will get inspired for new wines to add to his collection?

Just make sure you are seating when you see the prices; they range from 99 to 525 AUD in Sydney, the latter for first row seats with VIP packaged, for example. Understandable to read negative reactions on the net, the prices are very high. The VIP packages include access to the VIP area, drinks and a couple of souvenirs like a tour book or a laminated card.

Don’t miss the interview published on Herald Sun! Per talks among others about playing in Australia, Marie’s solo tour and the preparations for the upcoming tour.

 

Where have the official Roxette videos gone?

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Tonight Per posted a non-official video of ”June Afternoon”, because he couldn’t find the official one on YouTube. Weird, because he shared it several times during the past years and we watched it many times for sure, so there is something strange happening here. Now we could find the official JA video only on other sites, e.g. on Dailymotion.

Official videos available on emimusic’s channel (with actual views) are:

  • It Must Have Been Love – 34 074 356 views
  • Listen To Your Heart – 31 078 061 views
  • IMHBL_LTYH_YT_emimusicJoyride – 8 352 248 views
  • The Look – 7 460 461 views
  • Dangerous – 6 347 994 views
  • One Wish – 160 404 views

Roxette VEVO channel has the following clips (with actual views):

  • Wish I Could Fly – 2 907 618 views
  • She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) – 1 763 301 views
  • Queen of Rain – 1 128 350 views
  • Way Out – 258 114 views
  • It’s Possible – 229 435 views
  • No One Makes It On Her Own – 120 789 views

 

But where are all the others??? Well, it seems that the videos are being moved to another channel or the channel is changing, because many videos got private settings now. (Other bands, Iron Maiden, Blur and Daft Punk among others are facing the same issue it seems. Thanx for letting us know, Tina Engmann.) Hopefully, Warner Music will be able to solve it, because if emimusic channel deletes all the remaining Rox videos – even the 2 most popular ones with more than 30 million views each – it won’t be too funny. No clue if there is any chance to keep the statistics and the view counts. As far as I know, they can only be kept if the video stays where it is and has the same code / link.

By the way, I couldn’t even find e.g. Per Gessle’s ”Silly Really” official video on YouTube anymore. Probably, it’s the same situation.

Marie Fredriksson’s YouTube channel is still working, but there you can only watch ”Sista sommarens vals” and the PR videos for Nu! and the tour. And of course, Per’s home video channel is still there.

Until it gets – hopefully – solved, you can go to the Roxette channel on Dailymotion to watch 42 official videos and to the Per Gessle channel to watch 5 official videos.

 

Contest: win a copy of Per’s and Roxette’s Record Store Day special vinyls!

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KIMB_LC_Per_GessleRoxetteBlog is turning five years old today and we are happy to run a special competition to celebrate this!

In cooperation with Per’s and Roxette’s management D&D, we are giving away one copy of Per’s “The Per Gessle Archives” 7″ single and one copy of Roxette’s “The Look” special 25th anniversary 7″. Both singles were released on April 26th for the Swedish Record Store Day and are very limited editions (500 and 1000 copies each).

In order to participate simply answer the following questions:

– When and where did Per and Marie celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Look” reaching #1 at USA charts?
– The “Per Gessle Archives” 7″ is an advance of an exclusive box-set that will be released in Septethelookmber 2014. The release focuses on three parts of Per’s career, which ones?

Send an email with your name, home address (so we can send the single) and the answer to the questions to [deleted] until May 6th 23:59 CET. The 2 lucky winners will be announced a few days later.

Good luck!

And thanks D&D for this!

Update May 14th: winners are Travis W. from Australia and Kelly M. from Canada.


And here is the small letter, contest terms and conditions
– In order to participate, you have to send an email to rxbcontests@gmail.com with name, address and answer to the 2 questions. We will consider all emails we receive until the 6th of May 2014, 23:59 CET time.
– 2 winners will be picked up randomly among those who have participated and sent the correct answer, prize (either the Per Gessle or Roxette 7″ vinyl) will also be chosen randomly.
– 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)!
– 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.