Archive for March, 2010

Wennerberg speaks

Karl Oluf Wennerberg

Karl Oluf Wennerberg

a-ha/magne f-drummer Karl Oluf Wennerberg, who comes from the small town of Vennesla in southern Norway, is interviewed by his local newspaper Vennesla Tidende today.

I’m looking forward to playing in every city, it’s really fun. There’s been a good atmosphere so far. The highlight will probably be the concert at Sør Arena [in Kristiansand] on September 11th. It will be special to be on home ground“, Wennerberg says.

A translation of the whole interview, which was done over the phone in Bauru on Tuesday, can be found in the articles section here.

 

a-ha.com on Twitter continues to provide small updates from the tour. Here is a picture of Magne with Brazilian football legends Junior and Zico.

The “a-ha The Best” blog has more pictures from this meeting.

Sao Paulo concert

Sao Paulo, March 10th

Sao Paulo, March 10th

Last night’s concert at the Credicard Hall in Sao Paulo saw some positive changes to the setlist, with “Minor Earth Major Sky” (new acoustic version) and “The Swing Of Things” being added. “Touchy” (which didn’t really seem to work the previous night) was dropped, along with “And You Tell Me” and “Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale”.

The concert was sold out, which meant around 7500 people in the audience.

The setlist (with YouTube-links):

Sao Paulo, March 10th

Sao Paulo, March 10th

1. The Bandstand
2. Foot Of The Mountain
3. Analogue
4. Forever Not Yours
5. Summer Moved On
6. Minor Earth Major Sky
7. Move To Memphis
8. Stay On These Roads
9. The Blood That Moves The Body
10. The Living Daylights
11. Early Morning
12. Crying In The Rain
13. Scoundrel Days
14. The Swing Of Things
15. Manhattan Skyline
16. We’re Looking For The Whales
17. I’ve Been Losing You
18. Cry Wolf
————
19. Train Of Thought
20. The Sun Always Shines On TV
21. Hunting High And Low
22. Take On Me

Brazilian press reviews: Terra   UOL Musica   R7   MTV Brazil   Rolling Stone Brazil   Yahoo Brazil   Yahoo picture set on Flickr

Now the band has a few days off before the next concert in Rio on Saturday.

BTW, the concert in Brasilia on the 16th has been moved from Centro de Convenciones to Ginasio Nilson Nelson, which is a larger venue.

Bauru concert

Bauru, March 9th

Bauru, March 9th

a-ha played the first of seven Brazilian concerts yesterday – and their first ever show in the city of Bauru.

The concert was held in a huge tent that had been set up in the parking lot outside the Alameda Quality Center and attracted an audience of 3 000 people.

With 23 songs in total, the setlist was even longer than in Buenos Aires and included a rare performance of “Touchy” – which hasn’t been played live since 1994. In addition, several songs were shuffled around during the last half of the set.

The setlist (with YouTube-links):

Bauru, March 9th

Bauru, March 9th

1. The Bandstand
2. Foot Of The Mountain
3. Analogue
4. Forever Not Yours
5. Summer Moved On
6. Move To Memphis
7. Crying In The Rain
8. Stay On These Roads
9. Touchy
10. The Blood That Moves The Body
11. The Living Daylights
12. Early Morning
13. And You Tell Me
14. Scoundrel Days
15. Manhattan Skyline
16. We’re Looking For The Whales
17. I’ve Been Losing You
18. Cry Wolf
————–
19. Train Of Thought
20. The Sun Always Shines On TV
21. Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale
22. Hunting High And Low
————–
23. Take On Me

 
During “Take On Me” Morten asked security to bring a fan in the audience called Viviane up on stage. You can see a picture she took on stage together with Morten here. “The most unforgettable moment in my life“, she said afterwards.

More pictures from the concert can be seen on 94 FM‘s website and in this set on Flickr.

Local reviews: Jornal da Cidade

Here is a short interview clip from TV TEM and here is a look backstage before the concert.

New date for Chile

Good news for fans in Chile; the Santiago concert that had to be cancelled last week because of the earthquake has now been rescheduled for 23 March.

The venue will be the same, Movistar Arena, and tickets purchased for the original date can be used on the 23rd. Read more on a-ha.com.

 

Also on a-ha.com; some info about the well-known German fans Judith, Petra and Judith, who are once again following the band on tour in Brazil. Their Twitter updates can be seen at twitter.com/jpjontour.

Yohan movie trailer

Morten as "Yussuf"

Morten as “Yussuf”

The Yohan movie trailer is now available on Filmweb.no.

Morten plays Yussuf, the husband of Lexya (Aylar Lie) and father of Levi (Alexander Rybak), in the childrens adventure movie, which premieres in Norway on 26 March.

The scenes with Morten were shot in the summer of 2008.

Interview with Paul

There is an interview with Paul in the Bauru newspaper Jornal da Cidade today. Here are a few quotes:

Buenos Aires, March 4th

Buenos Aires, March 4th

JC – What are the expectations of the band regarding the Brazilian public?
Paul – The tours that we remember most are from South America and the times when we were in Brazil are very special to us. It is even a little funny because we always did more shows in Europe and North America, but they started telling us that we were very successful in Brazil and that we should include the country on tour. When we finally visited Brazil, we were impressed with the care, attention and the amount of fans we had here. For me, the first time we played in Brazil was particularly special because it was as if we were playing live for the first time. The audience was different and gave us a new feeling because we had never played in such big and open stadiums. It really changed the way we were performing.

JC – What do you like about Brazil?
Paul – It’s hard to compete with the Brazilian public. You are very passionate, caring and have a unique energy. I remember we were impressed with this concert at Rock in Rio II that I mentioned, because there were people who stood in line for more than nine hours and still had the energy to sing and jump during the show. This is amazing. Brazilians give of themselves completely and I do not find these features anywhere else in the world. Let’s say that each country has a “taste” and the Brazilian “taste” is very striking.

JC – Is there a chance that the band will meet up again in the future?
Paul – “Forever” does not exist. Nothing is eternal. We don’t know what can happen in the future. I won’t say that we will never again be reunited as a-ha, but right now we are saying goodbye, yes.

JC – What do you intend to do from now on?
Paul – I really want to keep writing and working on music, working with new artists. Maybe I’ll form a new band. I have written songs and I’ll see what to do with them. Magne formed another band and they even released an album, but I think none of us have decided exactly what to do in the future because we still have much work to do on this last tour. But surely the music will continue in our lives.

The whole interview in Portuguese can be found on Jornal da Cidade’s website here, or you can read an English translation provided by Google Translate here.

The beginning of the end…

Buenos Aires, March 4th

Buenos Aires, March 4th

a-ha opened their “Ending on a High Note” Farewell Tour in front of 10.000 people in a sold-out Luna Park concert hall in Buenos Aires last night. This was also the first a-ha concert in Argentina since 1991.

The intro music that opened the concert was Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade in C major”, which was used for the first time in nine years. In 2000/2001 this classical piece was the intro on most of the concerts on the MEMS tour.

The setlist was quite long – 22 songs – but the only real surprise was “We’re Looking For The Whales”, which was played live for the first time since the 80s. One could perhaps have expected something different than the usual live songs and hits since the band have promised special concerts for the fans on this farewell tour. But hopefully they will change it up a little after a while.

The order of the songs was original, though. Starting with two songs from Foot Of The Mountain, the set continued chronologically backwards by album, except for an acoustic set in the middle with “Early Morning” and “And You Tell Me”.

Here is the full setlist (with links to YouTube-clips):

Morten on stage in Buenos Aires

Morten on stage in Buenos Aires

1. The Bandstand
2. Foot Of The Mountain
3. Analogue
4. Forever Not Yours
5. Summer Moved On
6. Move To Memphis
7. Crying In The Rain
8. Stay On These Roads
9. The Blood That Moves The Body
10. The Living Daylights
11. Early Morning
12. And You Tell Me
13. Scoundrel Days
14. Cry Wolf
15. We’re Looking For The Whales
16. Manhattan Skyline
17. I’ve Been Losing You
———–
18. Living A Boys Adventure Tale
19. Hunting High And Low
20. Train Of Thought
21. The Sun Always Shines On TV
22. Take On Me

 
Magne and Morten talked to Aftenposten after the concert. Here’s a translation for you:

Magne:
An incredible audience. We were carried forward on a wave of South American madness. This was a great gig, and now the party has begun. The ball is rolling, and we’ll just have to hold on to it.

Paul on stage in Buenos Aires (See more pictures by gigriders.com on Flickr)

Paul on stage in Buenos Aires
(See more pictures by gigriders.com on Flickr)

Morten:
Yeah, it turned out to be a really fun gig. We played here 19 years ago and experienced exactly the same back then. This was as good a start of the tour as we could have hoped for, and that makes me pleased and relieved. Because it’s not guaranteed to work like that, an opening concert is always connected with uncertainty.

Magne:
We won’t get another chance to present this show for people in Argentina, obviously. This was the last chance, so we went full steam ahead and it worked.

Morten:
It also has to do with us having so much experience and professional instincts. Even though we had a lot of technical difficulties in the preparations leading up to the concert, we just won’t tolerate that things aren’t working on the night itself. Quite simply. The fact that this is live, where anything can happen, helps to keep us focused.

Local reviews:
MSN Argentina     Clarin.com     Pagina 12
Rolling Stone Argentina     10musica.com

Since tomorrow’s concert in Santiago has been cancelled, the next concert will be in Bauru, Brazil on Tuesday.

“- This is a tour that just keeps growing and growing”

a-ha at Plaza de la Republica in Buenos Aires yesterday

a-ha at Plaza de la Republica in Buenos Aires yesterday

An interview with a-ha in Buenos Aires appeared in several Norwegian newspapers today.

I have translated some of it:

Morten about the fans who were waiting at the airport and outside their hotel:
For us, this is only fun. The fans over here are so calm and polite that it’s a sheer delight.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Magne:
And these people are the reason why we have returned to South America now. These aren’t gigs that we earn much money doing, it’s concerts that have been booked as much with the heart as with the brain, because these countries had to be included when we decided to end our career with a big tour. The fans here have always been incredibly loyal, with a strong passion for the band.

Magne about the cancelled concert in Santiago:
We don’t want to intrude in a time of disaster and chaos, but we also don’t want to disappoint the fans who are waiting to see a-ha one final time. This time we can’t exactly say “we’ll be back”, so that’s why we will schedule a new concert date over there. The fans deserve it.

Magne about the Farewell tour:
This is a tour that just keeps growing and growing, so it will be a challenging task for us, especially Morten.

Morten:
But I feel that we are well prepared to go on the road again. There are many things about a-ha that are better now. Last year I felt that we were more united and focused than ever before. The fact that this is the last time is just cool, and that’s the only proper attitude here and now.

Morten and some local fans

Morten and some local fans

Magne:
We have always been a band that’s kept moving forward, without taking the time to celebrate ourselves. We’re getting a golden opportunity to do that now. That’s a positive feeling to start the tour with, and even though it’s been an odd roller coaster ride at times, this is reminiscent of the same feeling we had when we started out.

Morten:
We all have our individual projects, and a-ha has been very demanding in the busy periods. I can feel a sting of sadness, but also a feeling of freedom. Now we’ll close a chapter and open the horizon for something new. To picture a clear, blue sky is a good feeling.

Magne:
And it’s not like we’re sitting here and planning the hangover on December 5th. We’ll have to get through the party first.

The official site relaunches

a-ha.com with a new design

a-ha.com with a new design

To coincide with the start of the Farewell Tour, the official site was relaunched with a brand new design last night.

Check it out on a-ha.com.

Be sure to follow a-ha.com on Twitter as well, as new pictures and updates will be provided during the South American tour. A picture from rehearsals in Buenos Aires can be seen here.

a-ha exhibition in Oslo

More details about the a-ha exhibition in Oslo are now available in English at the national library’s website.

The exhibition, entitled Hunting High and Low: 25 years with a-ha, will be open between 20 October and 30 December 2010 and aims to “highlight different periods in the band’s career from the time of their breakthrough until today”.

There will also be an international conference called Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale: musical transgression in the decades of postmodernism on 20 October, in connection with the exhibition opening.

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