Posts Tagged ‘oslo konserthus’

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.

Additional Oslo concert announced / More interviews

Morten on the front page of Stavanger Aftenblad Pluss.

Morten on the front page of Stavanger Aftenblad Pluss.

The second “Hunting High And Low”-concert that Magne mentioned earlier this week, has now been officially announced on a-ha.com.

The concert will be held at Oslo Konserthus on 4 October, and will benefit Mercy Ships – a Christian organization that operates hospital ships in developing nations. Only a limited amount of tickets will be available.

 

There is a lot of promo for the Norwegian concerts going on at the moment.

Morten is on the front page of Stavanger Aftenblad’s weekend magazine today. Inside there is a 3-page interview.

There is also a 2-page article about Morten in Vårt Land today, while Bergensavisen has an article about a purchase agreement for a guitar amplifier that Morten bought in 1976 (!).

Fædrelandsvennen has a 2-page interview with Karl Oluf, who talks about his experiences touring with a-ha over the last two years.

 

Karl Oluf on the front page of Fædrelandsvennen's culture section.

Karl Oluf on the front page of Fædrelandsvennen’s culture section.

In Bergen, the last preparations are being done before the concert at Brann Stadium tomorrow night. Between 25.000 and 30.000 people are expected to attend the largest concert ever held in the city. Bergens Tidende has documented the process of building the stage with an article and slideshow here. You can also view a 360° panorama picture of the stadium.

And here are some more interviews from Magne and Morten’s promo day in Bergen on Tuesday:
NRK Hordaland: – Har hatt en fantastisk karriere
Bergens Tidende: Gleder seg til å ta farvel med Bergen
Bergensavisen: A-ha lover kjempefest

NRK Hordaland: Ettermiddagssending 24.08 (Radio interview – starts after 50 minutes)

There will be a-ha stuff happening in the future as well“, Magne says in the interview with Bergensavisen. “Not albums and concerts. But certain people are interested in making musicals and fictional movies about a-ha. And that’s something that we have to consider.

 

And the 25 collection has finally entered the official Norwegian album chart (at number 9), as it’s now also available outside the COOP chain – earlier than originally planned.

In Europe as a whole, the album is at number 8 in its second week, as Billboard reports. It’s currently number 3 in Germany, 6 in Switzerland and 14 in Austria.

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