Re: Weird Triple Bill

Roxette is launching their 40th anniversary tour this year. Now, that's already kind of weird, given that Marie Fredrikkson, their vocalist and frontperson who most people thought was a girl named Roxette, expired back in 2019. But we'll leave it up to the Smithereens, Inxs, Buzzcocks, Big Country and whoever else to debate dragging the band out on tour when your most recognizable member has croaked. That's not especially weird these days.

Nor is the fact that Taylor Dayne is on the bill. Sure, her place in the musical food chain never amounted to much more than being a low-calorie Madonna substitute and her career for the last 35 years or so has mostly been filling the Nostalgia stage at Pridefests nationwide, but she doesn't feel out of place on a pseudo-Roxette 40th anniversary tour.

But the third artist announced to be on the tour is...Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets???

How the heck did that come to be? Is it based on Roxette being named after a Dr. Feelgood song, giving them the most tangential connection possible to the pub rock scene that spawned Nick? That's the only possible explanation I can come up with, that apparent pub rock fan Per Gessle specifically invited pub rock's greatest living icon along for the ride. Otherwise, a lineup consisting of Roxette, Taylor Dayne and Nick Lowe is entirely inexplicable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2026 05:08PM by breno.

Gessle is definitely a Lowe fan. Via Google AI:

"Roxette has not covered a Nick Lowe song, but band co-founder Per Gessle recorded a duet with Lowe for his 2018 solo album, Small Town Talk.

The collaboration is the title track, "Small Town Talk". Gessle, a lifelong fan, reached out to Lowe, who traveled to Stockholm to record the vocals."

I also suspect Nick and the 'Jackets are gonna face sparse crowds impatiently awaiting the headliners, but who knows? Diehard Roxette fans, assuming they bought Gessle's solo album, will know who Nick is.

> I also suspect Nick and the 'Jackets are gonna face
> sparse crowds impatiently awaiting the headliners,
> but who knows?

If enough fans are curious enough to check YouTube, they could end up being curious about this white-haired, bespectacled man backed up by these guys in the Mexican wrestling masks. Maybe the crowds for Nick and the guys won't be so sparse.

Well, Squeeze went on a tour with Heart. That was just baffling.

Cheap Trick was touring with like Journey or some crap.

The Pretenders opened for Guns N’ Roses on a tour few years ago. I don’t know what the hell that was all about.

I wonder if there are two kinds of crowds at these shows, like TPers get there early to see the openers and then leave? And then all the normals move upfront for the headliners?

That's a weird bill. I do like Roxette but don't want to see them with Marie long dead.

Agree with Zwirn. When you present your "band" as two people, it's too much of a stretch on credulity to go out under the same name when your musical partner has bid this earthly life goodbye.

Vanilli

Or as a friend of mine referred to the lone surviving singer*, "Millus Vanillus."

*Or rather, the lone surviving non-singer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2026 01:07PM by Delvin.

I found out just recently that Milli Vanilli mastermind Frank Farian also created Boney M, the bizarre German disco group responsible for "Rasputin" and the disco cover of "Sunny." Boney M also had members who didn't actually sing on the records.

Now WAIT a minute. Are we all positive Roxette would headline this thing?

Sure, many soccer moms know their songs when they hear them on adult-contemporary stations, but do they know the artist’s name? Would they buy tickets?

Nick Lowe has been at this a long time. His fans (and they exist in every town, I’m certain) will go to see Nick Lowe. WHY wouldn’t he headline?

How many hits did roxette have? 3? 4 tops?? Nick produced the damned’s ‘new rose’ and played bass in rockpile damnit…not to mention his body of solo work.

Nick can fill a set no problem. Roxette has maybe 30 minutes of desirable material for its fans?