The Norwegian website musikknyheter.no has posted a list of concerts that includes some new info (unconfirmed):
16 July: Clam Castle, Linz, Austria
2 – 8 August: Japan (TBC)
17 October: St Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland
4 – 11 November: Russia (TBC)
The official site has now confirmed the concert at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. It will be held on May 10th instead of the previously rumoured May 11th date.
There will also be an additional U.S. date at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago on May 13th. This means that we’re up to 60 concerts in total. Ticket info on a-ha.com.
Magne and Morten at the press conference
Morten and Magne (Paul is in New York) held a press conference in Oslo today to announce the Norwegian tour dates and to reveal that the band will be handing out a new talent grant.
4 million kroner of the band’s own money will be given to local bands in some of the cities they are visiting later this year, and more details will be up on this website on April 12th: www.aha2010.no
One local band in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Kristiansand will receive 1 million kroner each. The bands are also given the opportunity to perform as part of a-ha’s Norwegian tour.
“We are at the end of our adventure, and are excited to see what will happen in the future. We are priveleged and want to make a contribution“, Magne says.
“It’s an opportunity to give something back, since we have received so much“.
Articles: VG, TV2, Fædrelandsvennen, FaroJournalen, Side 2
Video from press conference: YouTube
Video interviews: VG TV, ScanPix, Aftenposten
Update: According to this article from NTB, we can expect a lot of interesting releases and events this year, including:
– new deluxe editions of both Hunting High And Low and Scoundrel Days
– a new anthology
– updated edition of Jan Omdahl’s book “The Swing Of Things”
– the national library in Oslo will hold an a-ha exhibition
– a documentary
– a live DVD
– photo book
– plus a few more surprises
All this was announced by a-ha manager Harald Wiik as he opened the press conference.
Morten and Paul at the Døgnvill Festival in 2007. Now they’re coming back.
a-ha will be performing in six Norwegian cities in August and September as part of the Farewell Tour, the band announced today.
The dates are:
21 August: Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo
28 August: Brann Stadium, Bergen
2 September: Rått og Råde Festival, Stavanger
3 September: Døgnvill Festival, Tromsø
4 September: Lerkendal Stadium, Trondheim
11 September: Sør Arena, Kristiansand
This is how the stage will be
This will be the biggest stadium tour in Norway ever. It will take one week to set up the specially designed stage, which includes a 1000 square meters LED screen which is 47 meters wide and 20 meters tall.
20 semitrailers are required to carry all the equipment around, along with a crew of 100 people. And an additional 200 people will be hired locally for each concert.
An animation of JoJo Tillmann’s stage design for the four stadium concerts (a smaller stage may be used for the two festival concerts) can be seen here: NRK.no
“We have a busy and important year ahead of us, and we have even more planned than what has been announced so far. We’ll start by doing a big tour around the world, to celebrate the ending together with our fans. And then we’ll end it all at home. This will be the coolest a-ha show ever“, Magne tells Stavanger Aftenblad.
Tickets for all six concerts will go on sale next Monday, 8 March, at 09:00 via Billettservice.
News articles: Stavanger Aftenblad, iTromsø, NRK Rogaland, RBK.no, NRK Hordaland, Bergensavisen, Bergens Tidende (1), Bergens Tidende (2), Aftenposten, Fævennen, VG
According to the EyeWeekly.com blog, a-ha will be playing at the Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada on May 11th.
Ticket info for the show is said to be “available shortly”.
a-ha have played at the Massey Hall once before, on October 16th 1986.
The Newcastle news site Chronicle Live has a small interview with Magne today, in connection with the UK tour in November.
The article states that the gig at Metro Radio Arena on November 16th will be the “first and last” a-ha concert in Newcastle. But they have actually played in the city twice before, in 1986 and 1991.
“What would be the ultimate a-ha show? Something for everyone. We’re trying to make things representative of our career, while trying to do something that is not completely predictable. I want people to walk away thinking it was the best a-ha show“, Magne says about the upcoming farewell tour.
Read the whole interview here.
a-ha.com has today announced ten UK dates for November:
15 November: Brighton Centre, Brighton
16 November: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
17 November: Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
19 November: LG Arena, Birmingham
20 November: MEN Arena, Manchester
21 November: Trent FM Arena, Nottingham
23 November: Sheffield Arena, Sheffield
25 November: CIA, Cardiff
26 November: BIC, Bournemouth
27 November: Wembley Arena, London
This will be the biggest UK tour since the East Of The Sun tour in 1991.
Tickets for all ten dates go on sale Friday, February 26 at 9 am GMT through Gigs & Tours, or by telephone at 0871 2200 260, a-ha.com says.
Update from a-ha.com: There will be a ticket pre-sale for all UK shows via Gigs & Tours on Thursday, February 25 at 9:00.
Magne with Ingrid Olava and Oddvar
Høie (Statoil’s head of marketing)
This year’s Statoil talent grant was given to the Norwegian singer/songwriter Ingrid Olava at the by:Larm festival/conference tonight.
Magne has been the jury leader as usual and appeared at the Folk Restaurant in Oslo to reveal the winner, who will receive 800.000 kroner earmarked for international promotion.
“The jury has been unanimous in its decision, and we have put emphasis on her noticeable artistic development. She is a solid live artist who has shown a certain unpredictability and madness in her performances“, Magne said about Olava.
This is the third year that Magne has led the Statoil talent grant jury. The two former winners were Ida Maria in 2008 and Mathias Eick in 2009.
In other news, the festival concert in Zurich, Switzerland on 17 July has now been confirmed by a-ha.com. Tickets go on sale at starticket.ch on 25 February.
Edinburgh, February 17th
Magne was in Edinburgh, Scotland on Wednesday to talk about his Alpha Beta exhibition, which is currently on display at the Edinburgh Printmakers gallery.
There’s a video clip from this event on mirror.co.uk, where Magne reveals that he is working on a new art book:
“Right now I’ve come off a couple of exhibitions in Scandinavia and I’m also working on a book of my artworks that will be published later this year. And between [I’m] doing rehearsals for the final a-ha tour, which is due to start in the beginning of March“.
He also recalls working as an assistant at the Henie-Onstad Art Centre as a teenager, where he had the chance to meet artists like David Hockney and Yoko Ono.
There is also another short video clip from Edinburgh here.
On Thursday Magne was back in Oslo to attend the annual by:Larm music festival/conference, where Dagbladet observed him enjoying a concert by the Danish band Oh No Ono.
Dugnad For Haiti CD cover
A collection of live songs from the January 24th fundraising concert for Haiti is released in Norway tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Morten’s performance of “O Bli Hos Meg” is not among the tracks that are on the CD. However, both the studio and live version of “Den Stilleste Timen”, which feature Morten on vocals, are included on the CD.
Speaking of “Den Stilleste Timen” – the music video for this song premiered on Friday, and can be seen on Dagbladet.no.
In other news, the annual Hungarian music awards were held on Wednesday, and a-ha were nominated in the “best modern pop-rock album” category with Foot Of The Mountain, Tamás in Hungary reports.
The other nominees were Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen and The Black Eyed Peas. The award went to Lady Gaga for her album The Fame.
