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Japanese tour, European tour and Norwegian film premiere rescheduled for 2021

Posted by Jakob S on July 28th, 2020

Picture by Stian Andersen

After a long period of silence, the official site has announced rescheduled Hunting High and Low tour dates in Japan and in Europe for 2021, due to Covid-19 preventing large public events from going ahead this year. Rescheduled dates for South- and North America are also expected to follow soon.

In addition to the original five dates in Japan, two extra shows have now been added, in Shizuoka and Tokyo. Additionally, the concert in Nagoya seems to have been moved from the NTK Hall to the Aichi Arts Center.

As for the world premiere of a-ha – The Movie, that event has also been moved to next year: 22 April 2021 at Colosseum Cinema in Oslo (rescheduled from 26.11.20).

Here are the new dates for 2021 so far:

20 January: Civic Hall, Fukuoka, Japan (rescheduled from 14.03.20)
22 January: Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan (rescheduled from 16.03.20)
23 January: City Culture Hall, Shizuoka, Japan (New show added)
25 January: Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo, Japan (rescheduled from 10.03.20)
26 January: Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo, Japan (rescheduled from 11.03.20)
28 January: Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, Japan (rescheduled from 17.03.20)
30 January: Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo, Japan (New show added)

16 April: Partille Arena, Gothenburg, Sweden (rescheduled from 20.11.20)
17 April: Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark (rescheduled from 21.11.20)
19 April: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic (rescheduled from 28.10.20)
21 April: Forest National, Brussels, Belgium (rescheduled from 17.11.20)
23 April: Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway (rescheduled from 27.11.20)
24 April: Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway (rescheduled from 28.11.20)
26 April: DNB Arena, Stavanger, Norway (rescheduled from 24.11.20)
29 April: Arena Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (rescheduled from 05.11.20)
30 April: Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany (rescheduled from 02.11.20)

02 May: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany (rescheduled from 06.11.20)
03 May: Barclaycard Arena, Hamburg, Germany (rescheduled from 03.11.20)
05 May: AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands (rescheduled from 18.11.20)
06 May: Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany (rescheduled from 31.10.20)
09 May: Le Zenith, Paris, France (rescheduled from 30.10.20)
11 May: BIC, Bournemouth, UK (rescheduled from 10.11.20)
12 May: M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool, UK (rescheduled from 11.11.20)
14 May: The SSE Arena, Wembley, London, UK (rescheduled from 14.11.20)
15 May: Utilita Arena, Birmingham, UK (rescheduled from 13.11.20)

Please visit a-ha.com for more info on ticket sales and refunds.

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Magne releases “Troubled Times”

Posted by Jakob S on June 23rd, 2020

Single cover

Magne has recorded a new cover version of the song “Troubled Times” as a tribute to Fountains Of Wayne and the recent passing of Adam Schlesinger, who died of COVID-19 complications on 1 April. The song was originally included on the American band’s second album Utopia Parkway in 1999.

Initially posted on Instagram as a preview on 24 April and full version on 8 May, Magne’s version was officially released last Friday, 19 June, along with a music video featuring contributions from fans.

To promote the song, Magne was a guest on the NRK P1 radio show Nitimen on Friday. The audio is available here (starts at 10:34), and a picture from his visit was posted on Instagram.

“Fountains Of Wayne is a band that I used to listen to a lot, and was inspired by as a songwriter. (…) When this happened, I went back and re-listened to many of those songs. “Troubled Times” is a beautiful song that in a way describes the situation that we’ve all found ourselves in”, Magne says in the interview.

In early May, Magne asked fans to help him put together a collage video for the song, which sparked a lot of creative feedback:

“I asked for short video clips, but ended up getting all kinds of stuff. I think we had to go through 500-600 submissions. (…) It was impossible to include all of them, but we’ve tried to put together something that reflects the times that we’ve been through – and still are in the middle of – and I think [the video] has turned out to be both touching and humorous.”

As we know, the a-ha tour was put on hold back in March because of the current pandemic:

“We were at the airport in New Zealand, ready to fly to Tokyo, when everything was shut down. Instead we had to fly back home [to Norway] on short notice, and went into a two-week quarantine. This was supposed to have been a big touring year for a-ha around the world, but that’s all been postponed now”, Magne says.

As for summer exhibitions, Magne will only be doing a couple of them this year, including a solo exhibition at Galleri Nicolines Hus in Kragerø from 18 July – 1 August.

He was also supposed to be this year’s festival artist during the annual Petter Dass literature festival in Alstahaug, Norway. But that festival, along with Magne’s participation, has been postponed to June 2021 instead.

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Magne in Feelgood magazine

Posted by Jakob S on June 22nd, 2020

Magazine cover

Magne is on the cover of the latest issue of Norwegian culture magazine Feelgood (#1/2020).

Inside there’s a 12-page interview about his career within music and arts, written by Erik Valebrokk, which was done in late January.

Here are a few translated quotes regarding a-ha:
————–
“Do you think [a-ha] will be recording any new music?

– Everybody keep asking about that, but I don’t see any need for that whatsoever. It’s the thing that wears us out. Having to collaborate on music pulls at the destructive sides of our relationship. We have come to have such different viewpoints and very diverging versions of our own history.

What do you think about Cast In Steel, the last a-ha album so far?

– To put it this way, I’m glad we made it. I really am. Then again, I tend to be happy about everything we’ve done together, regardless whether it was bad or good, because it always leads to something, it becomes a document of a certain time in some way or other.”
————–
Magne also mentions that he’s currently having “big ideas” about the Julia Pastrana opera that’s been in the works for quite some time. The song “Julia”, the first new Apparatjik release in eight years, was released on 20 March.

The magazine can be ordered from feelgoodmagasin.no. The price is 259 kr (£22), which includes shipping within Norway. It’s also available at Narvesen stores.

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a-ha in new Volkswagen commercial

Posted by Jakob S on June 17th, 2020

Last autumn a-ha visited the area around Kristiansand, Norway to shoot a commercial for a new and electric version of the classic Volkswagen Caravelle. The 4-minute commercial premiered on YouTube yesterday. More pictures and info about the collaboration (in German) can be found at volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de.

The film was directed by Toby Dye, while director of photography was Jan Prahl.

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Rock in Rio Lisboa performance cancelled

Posted by Jakob S on April 3rd, 2020

Only six weeks after the announcement that a-ha would performing at this year’s Rock in Rio Lisboa in Portugal on 27 June, the festival organizers have decided to cancel this year’s event and postpone it to June 2021 instead. This is because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which will probably have an impact on live concerts and other public events for a long time to come.

Tickets already purchased will remain valid for the 2021 festival, but it remains to be seen if a-ha will still be part of the lineup next year.

This means the next a-ha dates scheduled will now be the South American tour after the summer, starting in Lima, Peru on 1 September 2020.

NME: Rock in Rio Lisbon postponed to 2021

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Apparatjik releases new song “Julia”

Posted by Jakob S on March 20th, 2020

Apparatjik has released a new song called “Julia” today. It’s an homage to Julia Pastrana and their first new release since 2012. The lead vocals are by Jonas Bjerre, while Martin Terefe sings the second verse and Magne the last verse.

“it’s 10 yrs since apparatjik made our first album apparently (tsk,tsk), so we (rather apptly) celebrate with a new song from our ongoing julia pastrana project…”, Magne wrote on Instagram when he posted a short teaser for the song last month.

“Julia” can be streamed and purchased here.

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South American dates announced

Posted by Jakob S on March 10th, 2020

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The Hunting High And Low Tour has been expanded with nine tour dates in South America in September 2020, the official site announced today:

01 September: Parque de la Exposición, Lima, Peru
03 September: Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile
05 September: Buenos Aires Arena, Buenos Aires, Argentina
08 September: Teatro Positivo, Curitiba, Brazil
11 September: Espaço das Americas, São Paulo, Brazil
13 September: Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
16 September: Expominas Arena, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
19 September: Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador, Brazil
22 September: Auditorio Nacion, Mexico City, Mexico

This will be the first a-ha tour of Brazil and Argentina since 2015, their first visit to Chile since 2010 and the first ever a-ha concerts in Peru and Mexico. Visit the official site for ticket details.

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Japanese tour dates cancelled

Posted by Jakob S on March 8th, 2020

Both Magne and Paul have now confirmed on Instagram that the five Japanese a-ha concerts in Tokyo (x2), Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya (10-17 March) have been cancelled due to the coronavirus. This comes in addition to the already cancelled concert in Singapore (21 March).

That means the second leg of the Hunting High And Low tour is now over. But hopefully it won’t be too long until new concert dates can be scheduled for Japan and Singapore.

Paul:

“…that was as far as we got on this leg of our tour..we’ll come back at a later stage to play the shows we’re missing out on. Be well everyone and keep washing those hands.”

Magne:

“(…) i was really looking forward to seeing our fans and friends in asia, but the safety of our fans has to come first of course. take good care of yourselves everyone, and see you later down the road!”

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Singapore concert cancelled

Posted by Jakob S on February 28th, 2020

Today it was announced that the upcoming a-ha concert in Singapore has been cancelled:

We are extremely sad to have to tell you that the show in Singapore on March 21 has been cancelled, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) proliferation concerns.

We have been looking forward to do our first show for our fans in Singapore, and we know fans from all over South-East Asia had made plans to travel to the show as well.

It breaks our hearts to disappoint you, and we will do our best to make it back as soon as possible. Stay safe in the meantime.

Details about ticket refunds are available at sistic.com.sg.

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a-ha to perform at Rock in Rio Lisboa

Posted by Jakob S on February 20th, 2020

Festival ad

Rock in Rio Lisboa has announced that a-ha will be performing at the festival on 27 June 2020. This will be the very first time a-ha perform live in Portugal.

The Rock in Rio spin-off festival has been held every other year since 2004, and is one of the largest of its kind in Europe, with an attendance of around 350,000 people.

Also performing on the same day will be Duran Duran, Xutos & Pontapés and Bush.

For some reason Duran Duran are headlining, although it could be argued that a-ha have been more successfull in Europe in recent years, both in the charts and as a touring act.

Tickets are available here.

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