Archive for March, 2009

Santiago concert

a-ha in Santiago (Picture by Carlos Muller)

a-ha in Santiago
(Picture by Carlos Muller)

a-ha played the last concert of their South American mini-tour yesterday, when they headlined the fifth day of the Pepsi Music Festival in Santiago, Chile, playing for an audience of more than 14.000 people at the Movistar Arena.

After Blondie and Rick Astley had finished their sets, a-ha came on stage after midnight.

A short video clip of “Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale” can be seen on the website of Terra TV. And here is a HD clip of “I’ve Been Losing You”.

More pictures from the concert are available on Flickr, here and here.

And another video report from Brazil earlier in the week is now up on YouTube.

Rio concert

Paul on stage in Rio

Paul on stage in Rio

a-ha played at the Citibank Hall in Rio de Janeiro last night. The setlist was the same as in Sao Paulo.

A Twitter message from the band after the show said: “Great audience tonight! Helped us to get over technical problems! Hope you njoyd anyway.. Night night!“.

Large parts of the concerts can now be found on YouTube. A user called “cybertechno” has uploaded many video clips here.

Links to Rio reviews and pictures:
A-HA relembra sucessos e baladas em show no Rio
A-Ha faz show pasteurizado para seis mil pessoas no Rio
A-ha se apresenta para publico carioca

A HD-quality video clip of the elusive new song “What There Is” is now finally up on YouTube. The song uses the melody from Timbersound’s “Ti Kniver i Hjertet” movie theme from 1994.

TV Norge had a small report from the Rio concert in the Friday edition of “Spotlight”, which can be seen here (starts after 4.25 minutes).

And a Sao Paulo interview with a-ha (in English) from TV Amaury is available here (starts after 2.30 minutes).

From Sao Paulo to Rio

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The Brazilian press has been following the band closely in the last few days. Here they are meeting fans outside their hotel in Sao Paulo yesterday:
Integrantes da banda A-Ha sao cercados por fas na saida do hotel

And arriving at the airport in Rio earlier today:
Integrantes do grupo A-Ha ja estao no Rio de Janeiro

Sao Paulo concert

Morten on stage at the Credicard Hall

Morten on stage at the Credicard Hall

a-ha performed 22 songs at last night’s concert at the Credicard Hall in Sao Paulo, before an audience of 7500 people.

Of particular interest; “I Dream Myself Alive” was played live for the first time since 1987, last year’s two new songs “Riding The Crest” and “Shadowside” were played again, and another new song called “What There Is” was performed live for the first time.

“Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale”, with Edvard Grieg’s “Morgenstemning” as an intro, was also an unusual opener. This is how a-ha entered the stage:

The complete setlist can be found here.

Many other videos have already been uploaded to YouTube. Here are links to some of them:
The Blood That Moves The Body
I’ve Been Losing You
Riding The Crest/Shadowside
I Dream Myself Alive
Hunting High And Low
Train Of Thought
Stay On These Roads
Forever Not Yours
Crying In The Rain
Take On Me

TV report

More TV interviews

Taking a break from rehearsals

Taking a break from rehearsals

a-ha are interviewed by Globo TV during rehearsals in Sao Paulo. Watch the video clip here.

Another interview from TV Cultura can be seen here. Paul again talks about the new album, and says that September is “the official release date”.

Tonight’s concert at the Credicard Hall is sold out. Check back here tomorrow for the setlist and other info.

The band will also be providing updates on Twitter this week. Here is the link.

Pictures from Sao Paulo

Morten signs autographs outside their hotel in Sao Paulo, while leaving the others to wait in the car. What else is new? 🙂

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Larger pictures can be found here, here, here and here.

Interview in Brazil

a-ha have arrived in Brazil, and are interviewed by Terra TV. Watch the interview here. Paul reveals that the new album won’t be out until September, but that’s to be expected in a-ha-land.

a-ha in São Paulo

a-ha in São Paulo

Brazilian fan Kemeniel has kindly written down a rough translation of the interview:

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The Norwegian band a-ha is here for the fourth time. The gigs will take place on Wednesday in São Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. Morten, Paul and Mags are already in our country and they were interviewed by Terra in a hotel here in São Paulo.

Q: And… About your return to Brazil, what can the Brazilian audience expect at these gigs?

Mags: New version of the songs. We tested some new electronic support and we are really excited because it will be something really different from what we used to do for years. We have a different backing band with us.

Q: Tell us about your memories related to Brazil.

Mags: Only good memories. Fantastic memories. Gigs in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are part of a-ha’s history, which made it easier to say “yes” when we were invited to come to Brazil.

Q: Now we are talking right to an internet audience. What does the internet represent to you all on a day-by-day basis?

Morten: It’s just a major arena. You have to work with it, like it or not because it’s an excellent way to reach the fans. And besides that, it helped to change the way you work with music.

Q: After all these years, is there any place where you would like to play?

Morten: We have never played in China. We have never played in Mexico. Not in India. There are actually many places where we haven’t played. There’s not a good reason why we haven’t, it’s just happened that way.

The guitarman Paul Savoy revealed something that the audience is really looking forward to.

Paul: We are in the end of the process for our new CD. It will be done probably in September, after some years working on it.

Q: Do you prefer to play the old or the new songs?

Paul: You know, the fans want to hear one thing, and we have an idea of what we would like them to hear. You just have to find a balance

A balance liked by the Brazilian fans and which made all tickets for São Paulo Gig being sold out much sooner than expected. If you want to watch the immortalized 80’s idols, don’t waste your time, there are still some tickets for Rio de Janeiro concert.
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UK tour dates announced

a-ha.com has announced the first dates of the 2009 European Tour. They are as follows:

2 November: National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, UK
3 November: MEN Arena, Manchester, UK
4 November: O2 Arena, London, UK

The a-ha.com presale starts on Wednesday, March 25th. More details can be found here.

The names of a-ha’s new backing musicians have also been revealed today. Erik Ljunggren (Seigmen, Zeromancer) on keyboards, bass and programming, and Karl Oluf Wennerberg (Dreampilots, Magne F) on drums.

More concert dates, including a German tour in October, are expected soon.

Tour announcement coming soon

Info from a-ha.com:

We’ll be making an announcement next week regarding some new dates for a-ha. We’ll also be letting you know about our a-ha.com members’ best seat presales. Make sure you get the news as soon as it’s announced by signing up to the mailing list.

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