a-ha arriving in Buenos Aires, 2 March
(Pictures from the “Wildest Dream” a-ha fanclub)
Morten and Magne arrived in Buenos Aires last night, after a flight from Oslo via Frankfurt, and were met by fans at the airport. Paul had arrived from New York earlier in the day.
The website of the Argentine a-ha fanclub “Wildest Dream” has some pictures of the band members arriving here.
The Farewell Tour starts with a concert at Luna Park in Buenos Aires tomorrow.
Because of the earthquake in Chile, Saturday’s concert at the Movistar Arena in Santiago has been cancelled. But the band is hoping to add a new date in Chile at the end of the month, following the concerts in Brazil.
Read the whole message about the Santiago concert on a-ha.com.
The Norwegian website musikknyheter.no has posted a list of concerts that includes some new info (unconfirmed):
16 July: Clam Castle, Linz, Austria
2 – 8 August: Japan (TBC)
17 October: St Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland
4 – 11 November: Russia (TBC)
The official site has now confirmed the concert at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. It will be held on May 10th instead of the previously rumoured May 11th date.
There will also be an additional U.S. date at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago on May 13th. This means that we’re up to 60 concerts in total. Ticket info on a-ha.com.
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Tags: a-ha, ending on a high note 
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Magne and Morten at the press conference
Morten and Magne (Paul is in New York) held a press conference in Oslo today to announce the Norwegian tour dates and to reveal that the band will be handing out a new talent grant.
4 million kroner of the band’s own money will be given to local bands in some of the cities they are visiting later this year, and more details will be up on this website on April 12th: www.aha2010.no
One local band in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Kristiansand will receive 1 million kroner each. The bands are also given the opportunity to perform as part of a-ha’s Norwegian tour.
“We are at the end of our adventure, and are excited to see what will happen in the future. We are priveleged and want to make a contribution“, Magne says.
“It’s an opportunity to give something back, since we have received so much“.
Articles: VG, TV2, Fædrelandsvennen, FaroJournalen, Side 2
Video from press conference: YouTube
Video interviews: VG TV, ScanPix, Aftenposten
Update: According to this article from NTB, we can expect a lot of interesting releases and events this year, including:
– new deluxe editions of both Hunting High And Low and Scoundrel Days
– a new anthology
– updated edition of Jan Omdahl’s book “The Swing Of Things”
– the national library in Oslo will hold an a-ha exhibition
– a documentary
– a live DVD
– photo book
– plus a few more surprises
All this was announced by a-ha manager Harald Wiik as he opened the press conference.
Morten and Paul at the Døgnvill Festival in 2007. Now they’re coming back.
a-ha will be performing in six Norwegian cities in August and September as part of the Farewell Tour, the band announced today.
The dates are:
21 August: Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo
28 August: Brann Stadium, Bergen
2 September: Rått og Råde Festival, Stavanger
3 September: Døgnvill Festival, Tromsø
4 September: Lerkendal Stadium, Trondheim
11 September: Sør Arena, Kristiansand
This is how the stage will be
This will be the biggest stadium tour in Norway ever. It will take one week to set up the specially designed stage, which includes a 1000 square meters LED screen which is 47 meters wide and 20 meters tall.
20 semitrailers are required to carry all the equipment around, along with a crew of 100 people. And an additional 200 people will be hired locally for each concert.
An animation of JoJo Tillmann’s stage design for the four stadium concerts (a smaller stage may be used for the two festival concerts) can be seen here: NRK.no
“We have a busy and important year ahead of us, and we have even more planned than what has been announced so far. We’ll start by doing a big tour around the world, to celebrate the ending together with our fans. And then we’ll end it all at home. This will be the coolest a-ha show ever“, Magne tells Stavanger Aftenblad.
Tickets for all six concerts will go on sale next Monday, 8 March, at 09:00 via Billettservice.
News articles: Stavanger Aftenblad, iTromsø, NRK Rogaland, RBK.no, NRK Hordaland, Bergensavisen, Bergens Tidende (1), Bergens Tidende (2), Aftenposten, Fævennen, VG
Posted in a-ha, Ending on a High Note Tour Tags: a-ha, ending on a high note, jojo tillmann Comments Off on Norwegian stadium tour announcedAccording to the EyeWeekly.com blog, a-ha will be playing at the Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada on May 11th.
Ticket info for the show is said to be “available shortly”.
a-ha have played at the Massey Hall once before, on October 16th 1986.
The Newcastle news site Chronicle Live has a small interview with Magne today, in connection with the UK tour in November.
The article states that the gig at Metro Radio Arena on November 16th will be the “first and last” a-ha concert in Newcastle. But they have actually played in the city twice before, in 1986 and 1991.
“What would be the ultimate a-ha show? Something for everyone. We’re trying to make things representative of our career, while trying to do something that is not completely predictable. I want people to walk away thinking it was the best a-ha show“, Magne says about the upcoming farewell tour.
Read the whole interview here.
a-ha.com has today announced ten UK dates for November:
15 November: Brighton Centre, Brighton
16 November: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
17 November: Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
19 November: LG Arena, Birmingham
20 November: MEN Arena, Manchester
21 November: Trent FM Arena, Nottingham
23 November: Sheffield Arena, Sheffield
25 November: CIA, Cardiff
26 November: BIC, Bournemouth
27 November: Wembley Arena, London
This will be the biggest UK tour since the East Of The Sun tour in 1991.
Tickets for all ten dates go on sale Friday, February 26 at 9 am GMT through Gigs & Tours, or by telephone at 0871 2200 260, a-ha.com says.
Update from a-ha.com: There will be a ticket pre-sale for all UK shows via Gigs & Tours on Thursday, February 25 at 9:00.
The first November tour dates have been confirmed by a-ha.com today. a-ha will be visiting Latvia and Lithuania for the second time ever (they first performed in these two countries on the Lifelines tour in 2002). The dates are:
1 November: Arena Riga, Riga, Latvia
2 November: Siemens Arena, Vilnius, Lithuania
Tickets for the Vilnius concert go on sale on 19 February at tiketa.lt, while the Riga ticket sale starts on 23 February at bilesuserviss.lv
