The first November tour dates have been confirmed by a-ha.com today. a-ha will be visiting Latvia and Lithuania for the second time ever (they first performed in these two countries on the Lifelines tour in 2002). The dates are:
1 November: Arena Riga, Riga, Latvia
2 November: Siemens Arena, Vilnius, Lithuania
Tickets for the Vilnius concert go on sale on 19 February at tiketa.lt, while the Riga ticket sale starts on 23 February at bilesuserviss.lv
Magne and a-ha lighting designer JoJo Tillmann discussing the Apparatjik cube
Last night, Lydverket on NRK1 had a report about Apparatjik’s recent concert in Berlin. The whole video clip can be seen on Lydverket’s website here.
“The whole idea of Apparatjik is that we are four professional people who approach the project with the spirit of an amateur. We all make videos, we all make music, we all sing. There is a good intensity and energy that emerges when we are able to get together“, Magne tells Lydverket’s reporter.
A third concert in New York has now been announced. a-ha.com has the details about the show, which takes place on 8 May at the Nokia Theatre.
This also means that the total number of concerts on the farewell tour has now reached 40.
The Live at Sunset festival stage in Zurich
a-ha will be playing a concert in Zurich, Switzerland on 17 July, as part of the Live at Sunset festival. This according to the festival’s website.
The concert will be held at the Dolder Eisbahn – a large outdoor ice-rink. a-ha last visited Zurich in 2002, on the Lifelines tour.
The regular ticket sale for the New York and Los Angeles concerts started on Ticketmaster today, and due to “extremely high demand” a second date in L.A. has now been added on 16 May, a-ha.com announced. Pre-sale on a-ha.com now, with Ticketmaster following tomorrow.
I was searching through the Google News Archive the other day when I found a concert that isn’t listed anywhere online:
29 September 1986: Masonic Auditorium, Toledo, USA
There is a review of the concert from the Toledo Blade newspaper here, so it definitely happened. I have now updated the 1986-87 tour page with this “new” date.
The clothing designers in Moods of Norway have posted a picture on their blog of themselves and Hugo Opdal with Apparatjik in Berlin on February 1st. Apparently they will be launching a special Apparatjik clothing collection in Norway in April. Their spelling could use some improvement, though…
And singer Elisabeth Andreassen has posted a picture on her blog of herself and Morten with British/Norwegian group A1 at the concert for Haiti on January 24th.
Magne was interviewed by Janice Forsyth on the BBC Radio Scotland programme “The Radio Café” yesterday.
The 14-minute interview, which was mostly about Alpha Beta and Word Symphony, is available for listening on the BBC Radio Scotland website here until next Wednesday (starts after 1 min 30 secs).
The Apparatjik members are starting to look surprisingly similar
(Picture by Lydverket)
Apparatjik played their first concert at the WMF Club in Berlin last night, as part of the music and art festival “Club Transmediale”.
The concert lasted around 40 minutes, with the band members playing inside a specially constructed cube.
“This concert is as much an art performance, as a concert“, Jonas Bjerre told NRK’s Lydverket, which will have a TV-report about the concert next Wednesday.
The Berlin concert is the only Apparatjik performance that has been planned.
“We would like to continue our collaboration, but if that will result in more music or something completely different, who knows“, the band says.
Morten standing by the cube
(Picture by Lydverket)
Magne was not the only a-ha member in Berlin last night, as Morten had also come to witness the event.
“[This was] refreshing, and even though Magne doesn’t really have time to do this right before our own tour starts, I think this is the best preparation he could have done“, Morten tells Lydverket.
The Apparatjik album was also released yesterday. It’s called We Are Here and can now be purchased as an MP3 album or pre-ordered as a CD/DVD set here.
We Are Here album cover
Album tracklist:
1. Deadbeat
2. Datascroller
3. Snow Crystals
4. Supersonic Sound
5. Arrow and Bow
6. In A Quiet Corner
7. Josie
8. Antlers
9. Electric Eye
10. Look Kids
11. Quiz Show
a-ha.com has announced three a-ha concerts in New York and Los Angeles in May:
6 May: Nokia Theatre, New York, USA
7 May: Nokia Theatre, New York, USA
15 May: Club Nokia, Los Angeles, USA
An a-ha.com ticket presale starts on 2 February.
Yohan movie poster
The final movie poster for Yohan is now being sent out to Norwegian cinemas.
As can be seen in this larger version on the Yohan website, Morten is credited as one of the eight main actors at the top of the poster.
The children’s adventure movie, in which Morten plays the father in a travelling gypsy family, will premiere in Norway on March 26th.
Directed by Grete Salomonsen, Yohan also stars Kris Kristofferson, Dennis Storhøi and Agnete Haaland.
Single cover
The studio version of “Den Stilleste Timen” is now available for purchase from Norwegian download sites like Platekompaniet.no and musikkonline.no.
Morten can be heard singing the lead vocals on the first chorus and the third verse.
“Den Stilleste Timen” also features the voices of: Ole Paus, Lars Lillo-Stenberg, Ingrid Olava, Thom Hell, Elisabeth Andreassen, Askil Holm, Simone Larsen, Laila Samuelsen, Pål Angelskår, Anne Nørdsti, Benedikte Narum, Eldar Vågan, Helene Bøksle, Steven Wilson, Tommy Michaelsen and Tuva Syvertsen.
The song was recorded and mixed by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studios, and produced by Håkon Iversen. All proceeds goes to the Haiti relief work being done by the Norwegian Red Cross and the Norwegian Church Aid.
Update: The song is apparently also available for purchase on iTunes across Europe.
According to a-ha.com the 2010 American tour dates will be announced next week.
Apart from the one-off show at New York’s Irving Plaza in 2005, these will be the first a-ha concerts in the U.S. since 1986.
