2014

I started to think about this article on the plane back home from two incredible concerts in Finland. It was still a month to go to finish the year but my guess was that the “Rox year” would be over at that point of time, meaning not many more events left. And December is a month of reflection for me anyway and many things happened in 2014, so let’s better start on time and enjoying going through the happenings of the year.

This time I chose to write the summary month by month.

January was the month of the plectrums. Or was it the year of the plectrums? You’ll see plecs have showed up a few times this year. The PLECtionary, done with the help of Sandra Knospe, opened its doors on January 12th, on Per’s birthday, and what a better way to open it than with an interview with him? Who would have known back then that we would end the year with more plecs (go on reading…)… Also Roxette’s official Facebook page reached 1 million likes and Roxette fans did a digital flash mob to celebrate and congratulate Roxette.

Marie started her long-awaited solo tour on February 19th in Helsingborg, which went on for two months until April 19th. Marie gave a total of 19 concerts all over Sweden. Many people had the chance to meet Marie during this tour, either in meet & greets organised via contests or directly with the management or after the shows or hotels. We have reviews for all of them, for which we also got many “thank yous” from the band and Marie herself. This tour left a big impact on me and many other fans, many things happened during these two months and probably shaped me a little bit more, like all important events in one’s life. Some things were good, some bad, but what I will always keep in my heart and mind are Marie’s looks to the audience, her smiles, her strength and the willpower never to give up. And the fact that fans, supporters, can be ONE when we want to. Those paper hearts will be a symbol for ever. And who doesn’t feel like standing up when “Mellan sommar och höst” starts to sound? Here we collected messages from fans to thank Marie and the band for the tour.

March and April were mostly all about Marie’s tour. We interviewed Marie and Jokke Pettersson, who played guitar on Marie’s tour. Kirsten had met Jonas Isacsson in 2013 and wrote a very nice article about him. April also saw the releases of a special limited edition of “The Look” 7″ vinyl to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the single reaching #1 in USA and “The Per Gessle Archives” 7″, both released for the Record Store Day in Sweden. Thanks to Roxette’s management we were able to give away a copy of each of these special releases. Also in April we got to know that Per would release the box “The Per Gessle Archives” containing tons of demos later in September and that the volumes would be gradually digitally released before reaching the release date. And when we thought we could start saving a bit again… the next Roxette world tour was announced! And almost without noticing that so many years have passed by… Roxette Blog turned 5.

In May, Per revealed that, in addition to the box, two books would be released in Autumn: “Songs, Sketches and Reflections” containing his English texts and “Texter, klotter och funderingar” with the Swedish ones. “You Don’t Want Love”, a single by Finnish DJ Heikki L. featuring Per was released this month. We also started a poll to find out which songs Roxette fans would love to hear live during the upcoming tour. The poll ran until September and the results were published October. Our interview with Christoffer Lundquist, done during Marie’s tour, was published.

The first two volumes of Per’s box “Demos & Other Fun Stuff” were digitally released June and we could get an idea of the treasures this box would contain. The video (directed by Jens Jansson) for Per’s cover version of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” finally saw its light. Roxette’s official Facebook page reached 1,5 million likes. Per collaborated with another DJ, Kill FM from Sweden, and wrote the lyrics and composed the melody (topline songwriting it is called, as Per explained) to “Don’t Go Dark“, which is sung by Helena Josefsson. The PLECtionary was updated with some more plecs and we gave away one 2010 Roxette plec, a GT plec and a PG plec. And last but not least, Per finally got his LaFerrari!

On July 23rd Gyllene Tider‘s live DVD was released, just one year after the amazing tour in Sweden. The DVD entered at number 1 on Swedish DVD charts and remained there for three weeks in August. Towards the end of August Per was busy signing thousands of pre-ordered boxes.

In September we could finally hold the box and the books in our hands. And even get them signed by Per at the Göteborg book fair; many fans travelled to Göteborg to be able to hear Per speak about songwriting and get the box and the books signed. We also got two books signed by Per for a contest. A non-alcoholic wine (white and rosé – this one only available at Per’s hotel) was added to the The Per Gessle Selection; its initial name was Klunk, but had to be changed due to copyright issues to Fru Nordin (a better name if you ask me!). The website The Per Gessle Archives was launched just on time for the release and volumes 3 and 4 of “Demos & Other Fun Stuff” were also digitally released early this month.

Dea Norberg, who is doing backing vocals for Roxette on tour since 2012, released the EP “Storm” on October 1st and we took the chance to interview her in Stockholm. We also interviewed Per about the books and the box and published the poll results. The top 3 of the poll were: “A Thing About You”, “Almost Unreal”, and “(Do You Get) Excited”. None of these (nor the top 10) could be heard during the first leg of the 30th Anniversary tour, which started in Vladivostok on the 28th but some new tracks were added to the set list: “Real Sugar”, “The Heart Shaped Sea” and “Queen Of Rain”. And we are always happy with new songs! Per and Mats MP Persson attended the BMI London Awards to receive Million-Air Awards for “Listen To Your Heart” and “It Must Have Been Love” for being played more than 5 million times each. That makes quite a lot of years of the songs being played non-stop!

In November Roxette visited Estonia, Lithuania and finished the tour in Finland. Early this month the European Tour 2015 with 28 dates was announced, so no time to get bored! The ticket sales were a bit more stressful than others, but all in all one can say that most people got what they wanted.

In December, three more shows in Europe and one at the Sydney Opera House were added to the tour. The Per Gessle Selection champagnes were released as well as Kurt & Lisa 2011. And last but not least, the 2014 plectrums were added to the PLECtionary thanks to Per (and Sandra), who sent a bunch of plecs to Sandra and we also got the chance to give away 10 of them (remember you can still participate until January 2nd, 2015!).

While writing such an article you get the feeling that it’s “only” 12 months, but when you go through all the events you realise that everything is possible in this deja-vu and that 12 months is a long period of time. Once again, another year full of events and surprises and great memories one can only be thankful for.

What will 2015 will bring? Here are some open questions! Will we finally find out more about Per’s collaboration with David Guetta? How will the setlist and stage for Roxette’s 2015 concerts look like? How will the song Marie wrote for a film be like? And how will Roxette’s new material be? in which format (EP, album, …)? Will more dates be added to the existing Australia and Europe tour legs? And when will the dates for 2016 be announced? And what about new plecs?

Thank you for reading us one more year! And to the RoxBlog Team: it’s a pleasure working with you! Thank you for your work.

Cheers to a great 2015!

Update 3-1-2015: Article updated with the BMI awards piece of news after Per noted I had forgotten it 😉