Archive for October, 2025

Magne interviewed on NRK’s Musikklivet

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Magne is a guest on the latest episode of NRK P2’s radio show Musikklivet [Music Life], to talk about the 40th anniversary of “Take On Me”.

Among the topics is Poing and Hekate’s concert in Oslo earlier this year, where they covered the entire Hunting High and Low album and where Magne made a guest appearance on stage playing “Take On Me”:

“A fantastic concert. One of the most enjoyable concerts I’ve attended. They had completely different arrangements of our songs, so it was a significant experience. I was the only [a-ha member] at the show, and I felt since they were doing it as a tribute to us it would be a shame if I didn’t go. I hadn’t planned on taking part, but then I was asked to join them on stage. They were playing the album in reverse order, with “Take On Me” last in the set. It was completely unrehearsed, I just walked out on stage and threw myself into it.”

Near the end of the interview, the conversation turns to Morten’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and if this means the end of a-ha:

“I think Morten is very brave and strong in the way he’s handling the disease. But I don’t think he’s completely ruled out that something could happen at some point in the future. The rest of us have simply said that we’ll do something if Morten wants to. But what that may be is something we haven’t really discussed.
There’s been quite a lot of pressure on celebrating the 40th anniversary, but first of all we’re not very good at celebrating ourselves and secondly it needs to be something that Morten really wants to, and that he’s comfortable with it.
It’s an insidious disease. Many people have it and it’s impossible to know how you’d react to it personally. So right now I think Morten’s focus is entirely on finding out how he’s going to live with it going forward.”

Paul on Song Exploder podcast

Picture by Jakob

Paul is a guest on the latest episode (#301) of the long-running American music podcast Song Exploder, in connection with the 40th anniversary of “Take On Me”.

In conversation with podcast host Hrishikesh Hirway, he talks about the origins of the song and the many different versions of “Take On Me” that lead up to the final version that hit #1 in October 1985. To break down the structure of the song, listeners are able to hear individual stems from the master tape.

The podcast episode can be found on songexploder.net and in your preferred podcast app. There is also a PDF transcript of the episode.

The Song Exploder website also has a slideshow of pictures from some of Paul’s notebooks from 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984. The pictures include original lyrics for early songs such as “Miss Eerie”, “Nå Blåser Det På Jorden” and “She’s Humming a Tune”.

Coming on vinyl: MEMS 25th Anniversary Edition and TOM 40th Anniversary EP

The new edition comes on silver vinyl

Minor Earth | Major Sky (2000) is set to be reissued on 2LP vinyl as a 25th Anniversary Edition on December 12th, by Warner Music Germany.

The only difference from the previous 2019 2LP vinyl release of the same album (which is still readily available) seems to be the addition of four live tracks from Vallhall in 2001; “Minor Earth | Major Sky”, “The Sun Never Shone That Day”, “Velvet”, “Summer Moved On” and silver-coloured vinyl instead of black.

With the added live versions there will be more tracks spread across the two 180g LPs; 9 tracks on LP1 (6 on the 2019 version) and 8 tracks on LP2 (7 on the 2019 version).

The 25th Anniversary Edition can be pre-ordered from Amazon UK and Amazon Germany (paid links).

RSD EP on Ruby Red vinyl.

There will also be a 40th Anniversary Edition EP of “Take On Me” released by Rhino as part of the Record Store Day 2025 Black Friday event on November 28th.

It seems only 3000 copies will be available worldwide, pressed on Ruby Red 12″ vinyl. The EP is available only in participating record stores on November 28th and then online on November 29th.

Here is the tracklist:

A1. Take On Me (40th Anniversary Extended Version)
A2. Take On Me (1984 Single Version)
A3. Take On Me (1985 Single Version)
A4. Take On Me (1985 Instrumental Version)
B1. Take On Me (2018 Symphonic Version)
B2. Take On Me (2017 Acoustic)
B3. Take On Me (2017 MTV Unplugged)
B4. Take On Me (1991 Live In South America)

More info on recordstoreday.com and recordstoreday.co.uk.

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