Archive for October, 2010

Tour update / Media links

a-ha in Basel, 17 October 2010

Basel, 17 October
(Picture from ch.tilllate.com)

The band played for 5000 people at the Stadthalle in Rostock yesterday, after having said farewell to audiences in Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Basel, Munich, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Lepzig during the last couple of weeks.

The setlist seems to have remained the same at every gig so far.

For extensive fan coverage of each concert, with links to picture galleries, video clips and more – visit the tour forum on WOTM.

 

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Munich 18 October 2010

Munich, 18 October
(Picture from br-online.de)

Yet another date has been added for the final week in Oslo. This very last (?) addition to the tour schedule takes place on 30 November and tickets go on sale on Tuesday, 26 October.

 

Jimmy Gnecco has announced in a blog entry on his official website that he’ll be supporting a-ha at all the 10 UK dates in November as well.

 

BBC Radio 2 broadcast parts of the Royal Albert Hall concert on Thursday night; the whole HHAL album + 3 songs from SD. The broadcast is available for a few more days on the BBC website. Or you can find details on how to download a high-quality recording made by Chris on WOTM.

 

The German website BoostTV.de has a 12-minute video interview with Morten that was recorded back in July. It can be seen here.

 

And it turns out the radio interview that Jian Ghomeshi did with the band for Studio Q on CBC in Canada on 14 May was also filmed. The whole 43-minute interview can be watched in HD on Q TV’s YouTube channel.

Jimmy Gnecco interview

Jimmy Gnecco - The Heart

The cover of Jimmy Gnecco’s first solo album
The Heart, released earlier this year.

The support act in Amsterdam was Paul’s good friend and collaborator from New York, Jimmy Gnecco, who will open for a-ha at another five concerts this week.

Gnecco, who did the lead vocals on “The Breakers” and backing vocals on “Shooting Spree” for Savoy’s self-titled album in 2004, revealed in a recent interview with uberrock.co.uk that Paul actually asked him to join the band at one point – an idea that was shot down by Savoy’s record company:

So how did you get to know Paul Savoy?

I met him in ’96. My friend was playing with Savoy and I met him then. And then I got my deal. It was weird because I’m a huge fan of a-ha and Savoy’s first record [‘Mary Is Coming’]. I mean I like a lot of his records but the first one I’m such a huge fan of. And then I started making records and he genuinely became a fan and he called me – he loved ‘Precious’ – he asked me if I wanted to sing on anything I said: “in a second!” then I went down and I sang on a bunch of songs and then he asked me to join the band and I said: “sure” – I’d be like an honorary member you know.

Then they went back and talked to their record company and the record company was like: “we like your voices that’s why we signed you” – they didn’t really want me to do it. They didn’t know me. I’m sure they liked it but…I’m hoping to do something with Paul in the future.

Amsterdam concert

Morten Harket and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Amsterdam, 10 October 2010

Amsterdam, 10 October
(Picture from gooddayz.nl)

The final leg of the farewell tour started at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on Sunday night, featuring some changes compared to previous indoor concerts earlier this year.

The stage was basically a scaled-down version of the Norwegian stadium concerts, using parts of the butterfly-screen as backdrop.

The setlist also seems to have been identical to the stadium concerts – 21 songs starting with “The Sun Always Shines On TV” and ending with “Take On Me”.

Some pictures from Amsterdam has been posted by Sandra here.

For videos from the show, check out Malin’s YouTube clips here. She has also written a report on the WOTM Forum.

 
Meanwhile, in the UK, the 25 collection has entered the album chart at number 10, selling 10,835 units in its first week. It’s the fifth a-ha album to reach the UK top ten. Well done!

Royal Albert Hall concert / UK promo

a-ha at Royal Albert Hall, 8 October 2010

Royal Albert Hall, October 8th

a-ha played at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the 6th and final time yesterday.

Like in Oslo earlier in the week, they were joined by members of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and played both Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days in their entirety.

For some high quality videos from the concert, check out the ones that Chris is uploading to YouTube here.

HMV signing session, 6 October 2010

HMV signing session, October 6th

On Wednesday, following a signing session for the 25 compilation at the HMV store in Oxford Street, the band did an intimate gig at the Heaven nighclub for 300 lucky competition winners.

The setlist (with links to YouTube videos by Chris):

1. The Sun Always Shines On TV
2. Train Of Thought
3. The Blue Sky
4. I Dream Myself Alive
5. Here I Stand And Face The Rain
6. The Swing Of Things
7. The Weight of the Wind
————-
8. Take On Me

 

Earlier in the day, they did a few TV-appearances on ITV. A short interview on Daybreak (YouTube), then an interview on Lorraine Kelly’s show (YouTube) and a live performance of “The Sun Always Shines On TV” (YouTube).

On Thursday Magne and Morten were interviewed on Loose Women (YouTube), and Paul joined them for a live performance of “Take On Me” at the end (YouTube).

a-ha perform two full albums in Oslo

a-ha, Olso Konserthus, 4 October 2010

Oslo Konserthus, October 4th

a-ha surprised the audience at Oslo Konserthus last night, by not only playing the Hunting High and Low-album, but also the entire Scoundrel Days-album – 20 songs in all.

Another surprise was that Paul and Magne had decided to change sides on stage for the first time since 1994.

Clips up on YouTube so far:
Take On Me
Train Of Thought
Hunting High And Low
And You Tell Me
Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale
Here I Stand And Face The Rain
October
Manhattan Skyline
The Weight Of The Wind
Soft Rains Of April

The audience of 1300 people included Queen Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise and her husband Ari Behn.

Aftenposten has an article about the concert here, while Dagbladet has a review here.

There is also a review in Dagsavisen (5 out of 6) and an article at popsenteret.no.

Dagbladet’s reviewer Sven Ove Bakke gives the concert 4 out of 6, and is not entirely satisfied with a-ha’s collaboration with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra:

(…) Adding string arrangements to cool and quite minimalistic synthpop is a challenge.

The strings should preferably seek out the darkest and coldest corners, and bring out the underlying unease and dark melancholy that run through the early a-ha material.

But Kjetil Bjerkestrand’s bombastic, light romantic string arrangements did little else than rub the a-ha material with the hairs.

On its best, it gave the durable a-ha classics a sort of extra pomposity, predictably mood-enhancing, but not too annoying.

Luckily “Here I Stand And Face The Rain” and “Soft Rains Of April” – both strong endings on their respective albums – benefited from effectively sweeping and ending credits-like dramaturgy.

In the worst cases – where “And You Tell Me” stood out as a horrible low point – you got an overly sweet Disney-Christmas feeling.

Mostly, they were positioned somewhere in between – arrangements so dead that Princess Märtha Louise in the seventh row was probably the only one who got something of value out of them. (…)

On Friday, the audience in London will get a chance to hear the same concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Just Loomis photos – now on a-ha.com

Passing along a message from photographer Just Loomis:

Thank you all a-ha fans who purchased prints from my website: justloomisahaart.com. This site is no longer live.

The time has passed to do this on my own and I now announce that I am happily working with the official a-ha site now.
If you are interested in getting a print please go to the official site.

thanks again to all that supported my site,
Just Loomis

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