30 years later we get to follow the same band's anniversary tour in the book "RoXXXette on the road", where Roxette's songwriting engine Per Gessle contributes with his own reflections, flashbacks and anecdotes while photographer Anders Roos' snapshots capture a global and seemingly indestructible Swedish music phenomenon on tour.
The result is a unique opportunity to follow the group on the first floor during the thirtieth anniversary party together with tens of thousands of fans night after night, both on the other side of the globe and in Europe.
The contrast to how it once began could hardly be greater. When Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle record the debut single "Neverending love" under the name Roxette, they have admittedly set their sights on trying to reach out internationally, but in practice they know that the chances are small.
Roxette starts at a time when Swedish pop music rarely manages to get outside Scandinavia, with Abba as the biggest exception to the rule. At best, they may be able to reach the Scandinavian countries and Germany, but hardly to trend-setting pop countries such as England and the United States.
Music without borders
But Roxette will be at least as big an exception to the rule. With the world breakthrough in 1989, the group writes both Swedish and international music history with its unprecedented successes, at the same time as they pave the way for what in the 90s should be called "the Swedish music miracle".
But despite all the talented artists and songwriters who have come from Sweden since then, no one has managed to repeat Roxette's success, especially not considering that the group both on stage and record has managed to touch several generations of people around the world with their music. It's simply as if Roxette's biggest songs - and then we're talking upwards of about 30 hits - know no bounds.
Or as Per Gessle writes in the book:
"Roxette has always been a live band. I feel pretty safe and tagged in the studio, but Marie was definitely born to be on stage. During our first recordings, I was always just as surprised when she agreed to do a second or third recording of the song. She preferred to put everything at once, as if she were on stage. Her song for "Dressed for Success" is basically recorded straight off during a single completely brilliant shot. Like "Soul deep" and "Cry". The list can be made as long as you like. "
Join the journey
With almost 300 images on as many pages, "RoXXXette on the road" takes the reader on a tour to Australia, where Roxette performs with the mighty opera house in Sydney as a backdrop.
We get backstage passes that take us all the way into the plane, into the lodges during the recharges before the concerts and at the very front at the edge of the stage where the musicians in front of an ecstatic audience pump out songs like "The Look", "Listen to your heart", "It must have been love "and" Joyride ".
Good Karma
In addition, we get unique insights from the recording of Roxette's tenth studio album "Good Karma" in the solitary studio "Aerosol Gray Machine" at Österlen in Skåne.
"RoXXXette on the road" is in short the backstage pass you always wanted, either you join the global crowd of dedicated "roxers" who follow the group around the world or are just curious about what everyday life can look like for a band that for 30 years then decided to see how far they could span the bow. Part of the answer is here.