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a-ha to end ‘Cast In Steel’ Tour in Oslo

Posted by Jakob S on September 15th, 2015
a-ha in Oslo Spektrum, December 2010

a-ha in Oslo Spektrum, December 2010
(Picture by Jakob)

A concert at Oslo Spektrum on Saturday 30 April 2016, was announced today. This will be the last concert of the Cast In Steel Tour according to the official site, and is to be held on the same day as the next a-ha fan convention in Oslo.

“It would have been very strange not to bring the tour back home to Norway. After all we’re touring with a big arena production and there have been lots of offers coming in here at home”, Magne tells VG today.

This will be a-ha’s ninth concert at Oslo Spektrum, and marks the 25th anniversary of their two opening concerts of the then-brand-new venue in January 1991.

“We have basically done it all in Norway; there isn’t much we haven’t tried, after having played everything from the gigantic concert at Frognerparken to small club gigs. Therefore it was natural to connect this to another anniversary”, he says.

Magne also says he’s really pleased with how the new album has been received:

“It’s fantastic to have the album go top 10 both in the UK, Germany and here at home, and it’s so exciting to see all the interest surrounding the band, 30 years after we started. We took nothing for granted in the years we were gone, but we’re sensing a very positive vibe around the band. This is the rewarding part of being an a-ha member; sold out venues, big enthusiasm and much affection from the fans”.

The a-ha.com member pre-sale for Oslo Spektrum begins Wednesday September 16 at 9am, while general tickets go on sale Friday September 18 at 9am.

Surprisingly, it looks like the concert will be seated audience only, with tickets for the first three rows costing 1500 kroner (£120). a-ha have never played a concert for an all-seated audience in Norway before, apart from the HHAL/SD concert with the Oslo Philharmonics in 2010. Not very rock n’ roll…

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Tracklistings for upcoming Deluxe Editions

Posted by Jakob S on September 14th, 2015
Stay On These Roads (1988), East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon (1990) and Memorial Beach (1993)

Stay On These Roads (1988), East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon (1990) and Memorial Beach (1993)

The complete tracklistings for the upcoming Remastered Deluxe Editions of Stay On These Roads (1988), East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon (1990) and Memorial Beach (1993) have now been posted on the Facebook page of “Campaign For More a-ha Remastered Deluxes”.

These much-anticipated sets, which will probably be released at the end of October, will include an impressive 102 tracks in total. All three albums will be 2CD sets, while East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon will also include Live In South America on DVD for the first time – it has previously only been released on VHS and Laserdisc.

In addition to a lot of demos, alternate versions and live recordings of the album tracks, there will also be several previously unreleased songs: “I’ll Never Find You In This Streetful City”, “Umbrella”, “Thus Ended Our Love Affair”, “Evitar”, “Sail On My Love”, “Trees Will Not Grow On Sand” and “Bar Room”.

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Chart success for ‘Cast In Steel’

Posted by Jakob S on September 12th, 2015
Cast In Steel

Cast In Steel

[Updated 16 Sep.]:
a-ha’s new album Cast In Steel is doing quite well on the European album charts in its first week.

Here are the chart positions so far:
#3 in Norway
#4 in Germany
#5 in the Netherlands
#7 in the Czech Republic
#8 in the UK
#9 in Switzerland
#13 in Austria
#24 in Belgium (Wallonia)
#33 in Ireland
#35 in Belgium (Flanders)
#40 in Denmark
#58 in Spain

In the UK the album sold 7,828 copies in its first week, making Cast In Steel a-ha’s sixth Top 10 album and 14th Top 75 album in the UK since 1985 (including “best of” and live albums).

The #5 position in the Netherlands is – together with 1988’s Stay On These Roads – a-ha’s best album chart position ever in that country. None of their albums since 2000 have been higher than #50 in the album chart, so this is quite impressive.

Meanwhile in France, Cast In Steel enters the album chart at #166, but there has been no physical release and no promotion, so this is only based on download sales. The album is actually #22 on the download chart.

The album failed to chart in Sweden, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Greece.

BTW, here are a few more album reviews (in English):
Cryptic Rock (5/5)
Hit The Floor Magazine (7/10)
The Plymouth Herald (7/10)
The Herald Scotland

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30-minute EPK interview video

Posted by Jakob S on September 12th, 2015
From the EPK interview video

From the EPK interview video

A 30-minute long EPK video, in which Magne, Paul and Morten are each interviewed about the reunion and the making of Cast In Steel has now been posted on the website of Universal Germany.

The video seems to have been filmed in connection with the comeback press conference in Berlin back in March.

Watch it here: ‘Cast In Steel’ 30-minute EPK interview video

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Drammen rehearsal concert, September 9th

Posted by Jakob S on September 10th, 2015
Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th (Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th
(Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

a-ha played a 50-minute rehearsal concert at Union Scene in Drammen, Norway yesterday, in front of around 600 people – most of which had won tickets at a Platekompaniet signing session in Oslo the day before.

The band has been rehearsing at Union Scene over the last few weeks to prepare for the upcoming South American tour, and this was the final dress rehearsal before heading to Luna Park in Buenos Aires, although the full shows are likely to include twice as many songs.

A 14-minute video with clips from all the songs performed in Drammen has been posted on YouTube, courtesy of Rune Tønnessen.

Three songs from Cast In Steel were played live for the first time last night, while “Sycamore Leaves” appeared in the setlist for the first time since 2004 – now with Morten singing it instead of Paul. “Early Morning” was played as a full band version, instead of the acoustic version they’ve usually done in the 2000s.

The biggest surprise was probably “Soft Rains of April”, which has rarely been played live since the late 80s – apart from the HHAL/SD concerts with the Oslo Philhamonics in 2010.

Setlist:
(with links to other YouTube clips)
1. The Wake
2. I’ve Been Losing You
3. Cry Wolf
4. Hunting High and Low
5. Forest Fire
6. Early Morning
7. Sycamore Leaves
8. Soft Rains of April
9. Under The Makeup
10. The Sun Always Shines on TV
– – – – – – – – – – – –
11. Foot of the Mountain

Just as on the two previous tours, a-ha are joined by Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on synth/programming, while new bassist Even Ormestad is going on tour with the band for the first time.

Reports from some of the fans who were at the show seem to indicate that the sound is less polished and more rock-oriented than it was in 2009-2010, with Paul bringing out his Gibson SG Fano Alt de Facto ML6 guitar for some heavy riffs.

Concert reviews:
VG: Konturene av et nytt a-ha – for tredje gang…
Dagsavisen Fremtiden: Gøy på øving
Rock and Roll Dreams: Klar til avreise

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German TV-performances

Posted by Jakob S on September 7th, 2015
a-ha performing at the Goldene Henne Awards in Berlin, September 5th

a-ha performing at the Goldene Henne Awards in Berlin, September 5th

a-ha have done three different TV-performances in Germany over the last few days.

On Thursday they did a playback performance of “Forest Fire” and “Foot Of The Mountain” at the German Radio Awards in Hamburg, where they also received an honorary award:
YouTube: Forest Fire and Foot Of The Mountain
YouTube: Receiving the honorary award
YouTube: Interview before the show

On Friday they did an unplugged live version of “Under The Makeup” on the ZDF talkshow Aspekte in Berlin:
YouTube: Interview and Under The Makeup

And on Saturday they did a playback performance of “Under The Makeup” and “Forest Fire” at the Goldene Henne Awards in Berlin:
YouTube: Under The Makeup
YouTube: Forest Fire

Over on Facebook, Peter Kvint has posted some pictures from the Cast In Steel recording sessions in Stockholm. One of the pictures shows a computer screen with various song mixes, which reveals five of the a-ha tracks that didn’t make it onto the album; “Digital River”, “Hold Me”, “Karma King”, “Open Face” and Morten’s well-known song “Did I Leave You Behind”.

At least two of those songs are likely to appear on Morten’s next solo album instead, Kvint says.

Additional UK radio interviews:
BBC Radio 2: Steve Wright in the aftenoon (starts at 2h 18min)
BBC Radio Lincolnshire: Melvyn in the Morning (starts at 2h 8min)
– plus the video stream of the BBC Radio 5 Live interview

And here are some more album reviews:
superdeluxeedition.com (3/5)
electricity-club.co.uk
radiocremebrulee.com (4/5) (USA)
Daily Mail (4/5)
The Scotsman (3/5)
Adresseavisen (4/6)
Dagbladet (3/6)

German interviews:
Rolling Stone (Video interview – Part 1)
Der Tagesspiegel (Video)
magistrix.de

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UK promotion and VG interview

Posted by Jakob S on September 2nd, 2015
a-ha on BBC Breakfast, September 2nd

a-ha on BBC Breakfast, September 2nd

a-ha were in London yesterday, where they spent a few hours at the BBC Studios, doing a number of radio interviews. Some of them have already been broadcast:

– BBC Radio 5 Live: Afternoon Edition
– BBC Local Radio: The Mark Forrest Show (starts at 1h 36min)

Morten and Paul also did a video interview with Reuters.

Today the guys were in Manchester, where they were guests on BBC Breakfast. A video clip of the interview has been posted on YouTube.

Later on they did a signing session at HMV Manchester. A selection of pictures can be seen on the event page on Facebook.

For lots more links and pictures from the UK promo, visit my Twitter profile.

Meanwhile in Norway, VG had a 3-page interview yesterday, where each of them give their honest opinion on the process of making Cast In Steel. Here is a little sample:

A new album, Cast In Steel is ready, but the band members haven’t been together in the studio during the recording process. That is something Paul Waaktaar-Savoy regrets.

“I wish we could get together, that is the way we should be recording music”, Waaktaar-Savoy says. He was also eager to have one producer on the whole album: Alan Tarney, who produced a-ha’s three first albums. But that’s not how it turned out.

Morten Harket also feels they should have recorded the album together, after first doing a tour.

“In fact, from a band point-of-view, we should have recorded the album in one studio and lived together for three months. You are more tuned in after a tour, we should have done writing sessions, hung out together and made music.”

– That’s what Paul also said?

“Yeah, but he’s so slow to join! Bloody slow. So that’s not how it actually is.”

In the end, 12 songs were selected for the album, while many others were rejected.

“I came into the process very late, and I think Paul felt the album was already finished. But then the majority expressed a clear wish that we should go all in. a-ha is the three of us and needs those three voices”, Furuholmen says.

Waaktaar-Savoy describes the song selection as “total chaos” and says he really missed an A&R-guy like they used to have in the past. Someone from the record company who could interject and make a decision.

“How are we supposed to agree on things, when all three of us have different things that we care about? It ends up being so much noise, and it saps so much energy that I’m all like: OK, next album! I feel like I need another ten years before I can listen to this album again. And now I have plunged headfirst into another new project. That’s the way I manage to keep going.”

And here are the first Norwegian reviews of the new album:
VG (4/6)
Aftenposten (4/6)
Dagsavisen (4/6)
Vårt Land

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‘Cast In Steel’ promotion this week

Posted by Jakob S on August 31st, 2015
Screenshot from the video greeting posted by Hydro on Facebook

Screenshot from the video greeting posted by Hydro on Facebook

Promotion is kicking into high gear this week, with the new a-ha album Cast In Steel being released on Friday, September 4th. Below are a few of the events and appearances coming up, with lots more to come:

2 September: Manchester: HMV in-store signing
3 September: BBC Radio 2: Interview on “Steve Wright in the Afternoon”.
3 September: GoTV (Austria): a-ha present their favorite music videos in a 1-hour “Hosted by”-special.
3 September: Hamburg: Deutscher Radiopreis (The German Radio Awards), performing “Forest Fire” and “Foot Of The Mountain”. They will also receive an honorary award. ARD radio/NRD television.
4 September: Berlin: Aspekte (German talkshow), performing live. ZDF
5 September: Berlin: Goldene Henne 2015 (German award show), performing “Under The Makeup” and another new song. MDR/RBB
8 September: Oslo: Platekompaniet in-store signing, at Oslo City Shopping Centre

In Norway, Radio Norge is playing a new song from Cast In Steel exclusively on their morning show Morgenklubben each day this week, as well as other times throughout the day. Morten has done an ad for this – which can be heard below:

 
In connection with yesterday’s announcement of two private a-ha concerts for Hydro employees in the Pará area in Brazil, Hydro has posted a short video greeting from a-ha on Facebook.

Hydro has also posted a YouTube video where the members of a-ha share their thoughts on Kygo’s new remix of “Take On Me”.

Read More »

German interviews

Posted by Jakob S on August 31st, 2015
a-ha interviewed in Berlin, July 2015

a-ha interviewed in Berlin, July 2015

Two new interviews in German have been posted online recently, by Mittelbayerische and Berner Zeitung.

Here are a few quotes:

– This time you’re doing the interviews together. Does that mean you’re finding it easier to agree on things than before?

Magne: “We’re doing it because it feels good. It’s like group therapy.”

Paul: “It definitely feels different than before. This might be the beginning of a new era for our band”

– Has it been easy to record this comeback album?

Morten: “The songwriting is always the easiest. The hard part is trying to agree on which songs that will end up on the album. That is always an enormous challenge. Personally, I’m surprised by how strong the new album has turned out to be. It’s not inferior to our earlier albums.”

– The music of a-ha is easily recognizable. Did you want to build on this tradition with Cast In Steel?

Paul: “What do you mean, ‘easily recognizable’? Our second album was very different from the first one. With every record we want to take things one step further. Morten’s voice has a clear identity, but in terms of arrangements and melodies we’re not guided by the past.”

Magne: “Morten’s voice is an important element of a-ha, but so is our songwriting and the way we arrange the music. For me personally, it’s completely irrelevant whether the new album sounds like our first, third or fifth album or whether we go in a completely new direction. The main thing; the songs are cool. There aren’t many bands from the 1980s that are still active and keep releasing new material.”

– Do you already know when you will disband again?

Magne: “2015 and 2016 will be all about a-ha. We’re really looking forward to the tour, it will be great. As for 2017, we don’t know yet. We haven’t ruled out anything, but there are no specific plans.”

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Paul interviewed by Aftenposten

Posted by Jakob S on August 29th, 2015
A selection of pages from Paul's notebooks are included in the Aftenposten article

A selection of pages from Paul’s notebooks are included in the Aftenposten article

Today’s edition of Aftenposten includes an extensive 7-page article that tells the story of how two of a-ha’s biggest fans, P.A. Stenersen and Christopher Hopkins, managed to rescue a number of early a-ha recordings and notebooks, ending a decade-long legal stalemate between a-ha and their controversial first manager John Ratcliff.

Many of these early recordings are now included on the new 5-disc 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of Hunting High and Low, to be released on September 18th.

Getting his old notebooks back also inspired Paul to record one of the early songs, “She’s Humming a Tune”, which has ended up being one of the tracks on Cast In Steel.

“When I got the books back, I saw the lyrics and remembered ‘oh yeah, that one was cool’. Then I thought it would be cool to record this one in particular now”, Paul says.

Paul also talks candidly about what he thinks of the new album:

“It is very hard to think of this as a-ha, because it seems to me that there are three different things – which one calls a-ha. It often ends up like this, and many bands do it this way. But I do miss the feeling of us being in the same studio, working on the same song in real time.”

An English translation of the entire Aftenposten article has been posted online at Aftenposten.no.

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