Førkveld, August 24th

Magne and Morten are already in Bergen to prepare for Saturday’s concert at Brann Stadium, and tonight they were guests on the live talkshow “Førkveld” on NRK1, with host Halvor Folgerø.

They were very pleased with last weekend’s concert at Ullevaal.

Morten: “It was great. There was a special atmosphere.”

Magne: “When we’re meeting our home crowd here in Norway for the last time, all the lines of lyrics that we have been singing through 25 years, like “Wave goodbye”, take on a different meaning.”

Førkveld, August 24th

The interview also addressed an issue Italian fans have been wondering about:

Halvor Folgerø: “We have asked our viewers to send in questions via our Facebook page, and most of them, or at least 50 percent come from abroad. Quite a lot of Italians, actually…”

Magne: “They are mad at us, because we haven’t managed to include Italy on our Farewell Tour. And we’re feeling sorry about that.”

Halvor Folgerø: “Serena Renzi writes that Italian fans are so sad that you’re not coming to say farewell in her country. Do you have something against Italians or Italy, she asks?”

Morten: “Except Berlusconi? No.”

Magne: “Not at all. Italy was, for my part, one of the most fun countries to be touring. In addition to the excitement of playing concerts, it was also a culinary journey. I am incredibly fascinated by Italy in every way. So this is simply about two things; the fact that we haven’t been successfull enough in Italy in recent years that agents want to provide the support we need. We have a production at the moment of arena/stadium size. It costs a lot of money and someone has to take the risk. We have been willing to take our part of the risk, but… I mean, we do have a lot of fans in Italy, but I don’t think the agents are feeling confident enough about it. The other thing is that we have had so many offers from other places that in the end we’ve just decided that we’ll tour where we know that we are wanted.”

Following a montage of live clips, Morten talked about how touring can become a blur after a while, which made Magne remember an infamous incident from last year. I have posted a translation here.

And Magne revealed that there will be a second HHAL-concert this autumn. But he didn’t say if it will be held at the Royal Albert Hall or somewhere else.

The Førkveld interview can be seen online here.

Magne and Morten were also interviewed on Vestlandsrevyen (local news) tonight. The video clip can be seen here.

And here is an update from Just Loomis, who is selling some of his own high-quality a-ha photos at justloomisahaart.com (see August 7th news story):

“Due to the many, many requests that I have received from the fans, I am now offering a smaller print size for a limited time, for the fans of Aha. The cost of an 8×10 will be $50 plus shipping.“