Morten on festival concerts and meeting Jimmy Page

An unexpected meeting; Morten and Jimmy Page

An unexpected meeting; Morten and Jimmy Page

Budstikka had an interview with Morten yesterday, in connection with his upcoming concert at Hvalstrandfestivalen in August. Ten of the twelve concerts he’s doing in Norway this summer are festivals, which he feels is a healthy change:

“I like the idea of going on stage in front of a more general audience who haven’t necessarily come to see just me. It’ll be good for me to perform for an initially disinterested audience. There’s something healthy about it.”

He also tells the story of how he first met one of his teenage heroes:

“I was at a garden centre somewhere in England and was standing in line to pay. Suddenly I hear a voice saying “Hey Morten” and I’m thinking ‘oh great’, now I’ll have to turn around and face some guy I don’t recognize and that’s never any fun. Instead I’m staring straight at Jimmy Page, standing there with his hand stretched out and saying “Jimmy. Jimmy Page”. And I just say: “Yes you are, aren’t you”. It was quite unexpected”, he says with a laugh. Later they’ve met each other several times.

“He’s a really great guy. I was surprised by how well he knew a-ha’s music. And just like me he collected butterflies and insects, but he had a considerably larger guitar collection than me”, Harket says with a smile.

Berlin concert, May 8th

Columbiahalle, Berlin, May 8th. Per Lindvall, Morten, Lars Danielsson, Christer Karlsson and Peter Kvint. (Picture by Petra Zerbe)

Columbiahalle, Berlin, May 8th.
Per Lindvall, Morten, Lars Danielsson, Christer Karlsson and Peter Kvint.
(Picture by Petra Zerbe. Click to enlarge.)

The third concert of Morten’s Brother tour was held at the Columbiahalle in Berlin yesterday, with around 2000 people in the audience.

YouTube videos:
When I Reached The Moon   Oh What A Night   Safe With Me   End Of The Line
Lay Me Down Tonight   Did I Leave You Behind   Let It Be Me

Photo galleries:
Getty Images   berlin.de   sheila-wolf.de

Offenbach is the last stop in Germany tonight, before the tour moves on to Holland, Belgium, France and the UK.

Several fans have asked for details on new merchandise, but there doesn’t seem to be any merch for sale, at least not in Germany.

Cologne concert, May 6th

Cologne, May 6th (Picture from ruhrnachrichten.de)

Cologne, May 6th
(Picture from ruhrnachrichten.de)

The tour continued in Cologne yesterday, where Morten and his band played for around 1000 people at the E-Werk venue. The setlist appears to have been the same as in Hamburg.

YouTube live videos posted so far include Do You Remember Me, Oh What A Night, Darkspace, Whispering Heart and Let It Be Me.

If you look at the video of “Darkspace”, you’ll notice Morten has altered some of the lyrics since he last performed the song in 2008.

There is also a photo gallery from Cologne at ruhrnachrichten.de and review at rundschau-online.de.

Meanwhile, “Brother” climbs from #19 to #15 in its third week on the German album chart.

Brother tour opens in Hamburg

Morten on stage at Laeiszhalle last night, with Lars Danielsson (left). (Picture from oldie95.de)

Morten on stage at Laeiszhalle last night, with Lars Danielsson (left).
(Picture from oldie95.de)

Morten’s 2014 solo tour opened at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Germany last night. He was backed by Per Lindvall (drums), Christer Karlsson (keyboard), Peter Kvint (guitar) and Lars Danielsson (bass). “We had a great great time – thanks to all you wonderful fans!”, Peter Kvint said in an update on his website.

Update: A video of the whole concert has now been posted on Vimeo.

Here is the setlist, with links to live videos:

1. Do You Remember Me?
2. Oh What A Night
3. Spanish Steps
4. End Of The Line
5. Darkspace
6. Did I Leave You Behind
7. When I Reached The Moon
8. Lay Me Down Tonight
9. Should The Rain Fall
10. Shooting Star
11. Safe With Me
12. There Is A Place
13. Wild Seed
14. Los Angeles
15. Whispering Heart
—————–
16. Brother
17. A Kind Of Christmas Card
18. Let It Be Me (Everly Brothers cover, duet with Peter Kvint)

This means the setlist included 7 songs from Brother, 5 songs from Wild Seed, 3 songs from Letter From Egypt, 1 song from Out Of My Hands, 1 unreleased song (“Did I Leave You Behind”) and 1 cover version (“Let It Be Me”). No a-ha songs this time, thankfully!

Three of the songs had their live premieres last night; “Oh What A Night” and “End Of the Line” from Brother and “Should The Rain Fall” from Letter From Egypt. In addition, “Darkspace” and “Shooting Star” were played live for the first time since 2008.

Five of the songs (“Spanish Steps”, “When I Reached The Moon”, “Lay Me Down Tonight”, “Wild Seed” and “A Kind Of Christmas Card”) were also performed on the 2012 tour.

There is a photo gallery from the concert at oldie95.de.

Morten on Lindmo and Geht’s noch

Morten, Karl Oluf and Dan on Lindmo, May 3rd.

Morten, Karl Oluf and Dan on Lindmo, May 3rd.

Morten was a guest on the NRK1 talkshow Lindmo yesterday. The show was taped in Oslo on Friday. In addition to being interviewed, he did an acoustic version of “Do You Remember Me” with Dan Sunhordvik and Karl Oluf Wennerberg. The show can be viewed at tv.nrk.no.

There is also a photo gallery and a backstage clip from the taping on Facebook.

Morten was also a guest on the German talkshow Geht’s noch?! Kayas Woche, hosted by comedian Kaya Yanar, on Friday. The RTL show, which was taped in Cologne on Thursday, is available here – but can’t be viewed outside of Germany.

There is also a bonus clip at rtl.de and a video greeting from Morten at kaya.tv.

On the Norwegian album chart, Brother is down to #2 in its third week, after spending two weeks at #1. In Germany the album fell from #11 to #19 in its second week, while it disappeared from the Top 100 in both UK and Switzerland after only one week.

BTW, Dan Sunhordvik has posted a photo gallery from his promo work with Morten this spring on Facebook.

Paul: “I loved her voice from the first moment”

Album cover

Album cover

Although the CD release seems to have been delayed until May 9th, Linnea Dale‘s new album Good Goodbyes was released digitally last Friday, April 25th, and is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Wimp.

The album includes three songs produced and co-written by Paul: “Better Without You”, “Sweet Life” and “With Eyes Closed”. Paul is also credited with keyboards, bass, drums, programming and guitar on all three songs.

“I loved her voice from the first moment. It doesn’t matter what kind of microphone or filters you use. It’s all there from the get-go”, Paul tells VG in an interview today.

“She has her own knack for melodies, and an atypical way of using words. It flows beautifully”, he says.

“This is the first time I’ve done something like this, and I liked it. It felt good; a different perspective. But I was under the impression I wouldn’t have to do any promo work, so this is a bit of a downer”, Paul jokes.

VG also asks him which other Norwegian artists he’d be interested in producing:

“There are constantly new and cool artists emerging back home in Norway. I’d need to look into that. But I really loved Susanne Sundfør’s “White Foxes”.

Morten on Tørnquist Show

Morten on Tørnquist Show

Morten on Tørnquist Show

Morten is the main guest on this week’s episode of VGTV’s online talkshow Tørnquist Show, which can be viewed at vgtv.no.

Host Einar Tørnquist had talked to some Harket family members in preparation for the interview, which resulted in some unusual questions about Morten’s teenage interests; the caiman he kept in a bathtub, the orchidarium he had in his bedroom and the butterflies he imported from abroad.

He was also asked about the Rock in Rio concert and the hilarious megaphone incident in Salem, 2010.

Meanwhile, the Brother album has entered the German album chart at #11 in its first week, while it’s #62 in Switzerland. And details of the next single “Do You Remember Me?” has been posted on the French site qobuz.com. Apparently it’s released on May 12th, with the same cover image as the UK promo CD.

Update (25/4): Morten was a guest on Kveldsåpent on NRK P1 tonight. The interview can be heard at radio.nrk.no.

Update II (26/4): There is a new interview with Morten at side2.no today.

Brother enters at #1 in Norway

Straight in at number 1

Straight in at number 1

Morten’s new album Brother has entered the Norwegian album chart VG Lista Topp 40 at number 1 today.

This is his fourth solo album to reach number 1 in Norway, following Wild Seed (1995), Letter From Egypt (2008) and Out Of My Hands (2012).

In the UK, the album initially appeared on the midweek chart at #23, but has since fallen down to #32 and then #39.

Update: Brother enters the UK album chart at #56, with first-week sales of 1,461 copies. In comparison, Out Of My Hands sold 3,454 copies in its first week two years ago.

Update II: Brother is “album of the week” on the Ken Bruce show on BBC Radio 2, from 21 – 25 April.

Morten interviewed by Vårt Land and NTB

"This album is a tribute to the diversity among us", Morten tells Vårt Land.

“This album is a tribute to the diversity among us”, Morten tells Vårt Land.

A few additional interviews with Morten have appeared in the Norwegian press today.

In its album review on Friday, the Christian newspaper Vårt Land wrote that “Brother is without a doubt his most existential, wonderingly, even sacral and religious album that he’s made on his own”.

Today’s interview follows up on that notion. Here is one quote:

“Our reviewer feels that the lyrics on this album are deeper than in a long time. Is it your Christian background that shines through?

– Absolutely. I still have the same Christian faith that I grew up with, but I can’t use that as a starting point, because I wish to communicate with people who don’t share the same faith. That means my starting point can’t be that God created us, that Jesus is his son and that he gave his life for us. If I am to communicate, I need to start somewhere else and trust that these things will get across on their own, which I believe they will. I strongly believe that the search process in itself is valuable. It’s the questions that make us spiritual people, not the answers. There are no eternal answers, only eternal questions. Christians will also benefit from questioning everything. Including the scriptures and the history. That will make you a true child of God”, Morten says.

In an interview with NTB, available at dt.no, Morten talks about the upcoming festival tour in the summer and how it turned into more than he first imagined:

“I agreed to do a few, and then it turned into a lot. (…) It will be interesting. I haven’t done many festivals before. And we mostly did our own concerts with a-ha. I said I wanted to give it a try, and now I’m suddenly staring at this really long list”, Morten says with a slightly self-deprecating grin.”

In other news, Morten will be a guest on Sounds of the 80s on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday, April 19th. And a-ha.com has announced plans for a 2014 fan weekend in Oslo on November 14-15, which would include “a fan party on November 14 and an ‘intimate’ concert with Morten”.

New Morten Harket biography in the works

A new biography about Morten is currently in the works, an interview in UK’s Sunday Mercury newspaper revealed today:

Morten is currently working with writer Tom Bromley on his biography and says “It’s been very good, he’s a really nice guy and we have had some interesting sessions. He makes me remember things, makes me see things again”.

He chuckles: “I then read his interpretation of me and attack that and then resurrect it.”

The book does not have a title as yet, although Morten laughingly promises it will have one.

Tom Bromley has previously written books like The Encyclopeadia of Guilty Pleasures and The Weird and Wonderful World of One Hit Wonders, which makes him seem like an odd choice if this is supposed to be a serious biography. He has also written about a-ha in a chapter of his 2012 book Wired for Sound: Now That’s What I Call an Eighties Music Childhood.

On the other hand, Bromley was the one who gave Morten his copy of Maajid Nawaz’ Radical, which resulted in “Brother” being written. “It triggered something in me. It touched me. The guts that guy has, the balls of steel and capacity for depth. It spoke to me”, Morten says of Nawaz’ book.

The Sunday Mercury interview is not available online, but pictures of it have been posted on Twitter: Page 1    Page 2

Also, if you missed yesterday’s interview with Morten on BBC Radio Devon, it’s available on bbc.co.uk (starts at 23:10 mins) until April 19th.

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