On January 6th, a-ha.com announced a date in Paris, France on October 12th. And the previously known date in Santiago, Chile on March 6th was officially confirmed.
The following day, a concert in Amsterdam, Holland on October 10th was also announced by a-ha.com. But that date has since been removed from the official site, because all the details weren’t ready yet.
The 2009 statistics of the official Norwegian album chart shows that Foot Of The Mountain was the 8th bestselling Norwegian album of 2009 and the 15th bestselling when international albums are included. The whole list can be seen on Farojournalen’s website.
On NRK P1, Norway’s largest radio station, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 2nd most played song in 2009, only beaten by Beyonce’s “Halo”. The 15 most played songs can be seen on NRK.no.
And on Hit 40, the official Norwegian radio chart, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 4th most played Norwegian song in 2009 and 7th overall. The top 100 songs are listed here.
In Germany, Foot Of The Mountain ended up at number 22 on the list of the bestselling albums of 2009, which is available here. The album is actually still in the German album chart, currently at number 52 after 29 weeks.
a-ha’s backing musician Erik Ljunggren was recently interviewed by the German magazine Keyboards. Scans of the interview has been posted on the German forum by Elanur.
a-ha appeared on several UK radio stations today and over the weekend, including Forth One, Lincs FM, BFBS Radio and Wave 105.
Some of the interviews are also available online: Lincs FM (starts after 10 minutes), BFBS Radio (starts after 22 minutes) and Wave 105.
In between interviews, Magne found time for a quick visit to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark on Sunday, where he hung out with his friends in Coldplay – who ended the festival with a big concert.
There’s a backstage picture of Magne and Guy Berryman on Coldplay.com.
a-ha’s appearence on the morning TV show GMTV has apparently been re-scheduled for July 17th.
(Thanks to Catherine, Bunty, Sally and Carlos for links and info)
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Somehow I missed this when it was first broadcast, but Magne was interviewed on NRK P2’s radio programme “Mozart og Madonna” on June 15th.
The theme of the week was England, and Magne had been invited to talk about how a-ha went to London to make it in the music business. He says that staying in London had an important impact on Paul and himself as musicians:
“We discovered and opened up to more commercial music than what we had listened to before. We were rather stuck in the sixties, in a way. We had noticed punk music and thought it was cool, but we tried our best to hold onto the sixties-sound in the music we did ourselves.”
This month’s promotional push in the UK was also mentioned:
“We’re going to play and talk our way through July in London. There’s a surprising amount of interest and love directed towards the band over there these days.”
I have made a full translation of the interview, which can be found here.
And if you want to listen to it yourself, the June 15th programme is available for download from nrk.no as a podcast. The interview starts after 9 minutes.
Morten on stage, July 2nd
(Picture by Qouda)
“The Bandstand” made its live debut last night, when a-ha played a 7-song live set in front of 150 lucky ticket winners at the One Marelybone venue in London.
According to a-ha.com on Twitter, the setlist at the promotional mini-concert was:
1. The Bandstand
2. Riding The Crest
3. The Sun Always Shines On TV
4. Foot Of The Mountain
5. Analogue
6. Take On Me
– – – – – – – –
7. Hunting High And Low
An interview with a-ha will be broadcast on BFBS Radio on Monday, July 6th, on the show “Breakfast with Sim” between 09.00 and 10.00 (UK time).
The show should be available for listening at bfbs-radio.com. (Thanks to “feeb” on WOTM)
A concert at the Olimpiysky Arena in Moscow on 22 November has been rumored for a while – the ticket sale even started several weeks ago.
This date has now been confirmed by a-ha.com, along with a concert at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg on 20 November.
You can find these, and all the other upcoming dates, on our 2009 tour page.
The UK promotion schedule is slowly growing; a-ha will play live on BBC Radio 6 Music on Friday, 3 July. Update: Nothing was broadcast, so this may have been re-scheduled for a later date instead.
WOTM forum member Jomarac received the following info in an e-mail from BBC:
“A-Ha will be performing a HUB session for George Lamb’s programme on Friday. More details on his programme page at bbc.co.uk/6music“.
Picture from Oslo, June 12th
The first of many TV-appearances in the UK in July has been announced; GMTV on ITV1 on Monday, July 6th. Update: re-scheduled for July 17th.
According to the TV guide on itv.com, “Norwegian band a-ha stop by the studio for a chat and to introduce the video of their new single Foot of the Mountain“.
(Thanks to Verni for the info)
In its second week on the German album chart, FOTM is down from #1 to #2.
The single is still in the top 10, down from #6 to #9 in its fifth week. (Thanks to Sandra)
The German fansite a-ha-net.de has published a new interview with a-ha backing musician and producer/programmer Erik Ljunggren.
It’s available in English here.
And here is an English translation of the guys’ comments on Janne Møller-Hansen pictures from the 80s, that appeared in VG earlier this month (see June 13th news update).
Michael Jackson, watching a-ha perform
“Dark Is The Night” at the World Music
Awards in 1993.
Fans and music colleagues around the world have been saddened by Michael Jackson’s sudden passing yesterday.
Here’s a comment from Magne on Dagbladet.no:
“Michael Jackson leaves behind an incredibly rich history of music and a complicated posthumous reputation. He lived a life filled with absolutely extraordinary ups and downs.”
Coincidentally, Michael Jackson was mentioned in the MASSIV magazine interview with Paul last week:
MASSIV: – I came across an old article about Michael Jackson wanting to work with you?
Paul: – Yes, there was some kind of dialogue there, but I don’t remember exactly what it was about. He owns the publishing company that has the rights to some of a-ha’s songs. We also did a concert in Los Angeles where he was sitting in the first row together with Sophia Loren. I remember feeling particularly stiff-legged that night.
– Wow! Did you talk to them afterwards? Did you have eye-contact with her?
– No. They sneaked in after the concert had started and left before it was over, both of them wearing large sunglasses and Michael with one of those surgical masks. Halfway through the concert Morten stumbled over a monitor and landed in front of their legs, so I’m sure we made a lasting impression, one way or the other.
– Michael Jackson wrote a letter for you, do you still have it?
– If we do, our former manager Terry Slater must have it, but a lot of stuff from those days has disappeared.
– Speaking of Slater, are you still friends?
– Sure. We see each other now and then.
Another connection between Michael Jackson and a-ha is of course filmmaker Steve Barron. He directed the music video for Jackson’s 1983 hit “Billie Jean”, and went on to direct eight a-ha videos between 1985 and 1990.
——————–
a-ha.com reports that the FOTM release dates in the UK have once again changed. The single has now been postponed to 20 July, while the album will be out one week later, 27 July. As a consequence, the HMV signing session in London on 13 July has been cancelled. According to a-ha.com, “the band and management are very sorry for any inconvenience and will do their best to reschedule the event”.
The other two live performances that have been announced for the UK in July are going ahead as planned.
a-ha will do a concert for the radio station SWR3 in Baden-Baden, Germany on 6 August. It will be broadcast on radio/TV on 22 August. Tickets are only available to competition winners, apparently. (Thanks to Jenn)
In Austria, FOTM has entered the album chart at number 13, while the single moves up from #49 to #29 on the Austrian singles chart in its fourth week. (Thanks to johnen)
Billboard reports that FOTM has entered the Top 100 European Album Chart at number 8. (Thanks to Morten)
And another video clip of a-ha’s live performance at the Arqiva Awards on June 5 is now available at mediabounty.com.
Oslo, June 19th
Another promotional live performance has been scheduled in the UK. Info from magic.co.uk:
“Critically acclaimed band and Magic favourites A-ha will be performing for one night only on Thursday 2nd July at the exclusive Magic Indulgence A-ha event in association with MORE TH>N.
Taking place at luxurious London venue ‘One Marylebone’, a handful of lucky guests will enjoy a glamorous evening including cocktails, canapes, a delectable dinner, plus an exclusive performance by A-Ha ‘live’ and up close.”
Read the whole article and info on how to win tickets on magic.co.uk.
(Thanks to Petra for the link)
In Norway the album has entered the album chart at number 2. The single drops from #11 to #13 on the singles chart in its sixth week, while it stays at #2 on the airplay chart after seven weeks.
In Switzerland the album has entered the album chart at number 12.
a-ha manager Harald Wiik comments on the German chart success in an article on Dagbladet.no:
“We don’t have an exact number of how many albums we’ve sold, but the album has entered the chart at number 1 well ahead of the album at number 2. (…) Germany loves a-ha, but a-ha loves Germany as well. It’s an important country for us, and it’s also the second largest market in the world. Only USA is bigger. (…) The TV-campaign for Foot Of The Mountain is the largest ever in Germany. So we’re being heavily promoted.”
Wiik also mentions TV-promotion in the UK next month:
“8 to 10 TV-appearances have been confirmed, both on BBC and ITV. But exactly which shows it will be hasn’t been finally decided yet.”
Magne’s next London exhibition at the Paul Stolper gallery is called “Alpha Beta” and will be held from 15 October – 14 November.
(Thanks to Karen for the info)
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