Posts Tagged ‘a-ha’

a-ha receive honorary award

Morten and Magne with their trophy, meeting the press after the show

a-ha were given the honorary award at the Spellemann Awards for 2010, which were held at Oslo Spektrum on Saturday. This is actually the third time a-ha have been given the honorary award – they also received it in 1987 and 2001.

Magne and Morten had been specially invited, and was in the audience together with Heidi, Inez and manager Harald Wiik. Paul was in New York, where he is reportedly working on a new Savoy album.

The award was presented by Kaizers Orchestra vocalist Janove Ottesen, Thomas Dybdahl, Ida Maria Sivertsen and Bertine Zetlitz, who opened the show with a cover version of “The Sun Always Shines On TV” as a tribute to a-ha.

 

Here is Magne’s acceptance speech:

Thank you very much. The last time we were standing in almost this exact same spot, was on December 4th. That was a special evening, just as this is turning out to be.

We are a three-headed troll and we are missing one of our heads tonight. But on behalf of all of us I want to thank you all for a fantastic version of a song that’s actually 25 years old. And of course we can’t leave the stage without thanking our families and wives. According to my wife, that’s something we’ve never done before.

We have really been touring a lot. And I wouldn’t necessarily say that he managed to tame the troll, but he kept us organized; Harald Wiik, our manager in recent years. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone in Norway. It’s been a pleasure to entertain you through all these years.

Morten added: “Enough has been said. Thank you very much, everyone.

 

A video clip of the TSASOTV performance and the acceptance speech can be seen at tv2underholdning.no. Further down on the page is a clip of Morten and Magne arriving on the red carpet.

VGTV also has a video interview with Morten, who had just returned from a holiday “far away from Norway”.

And here is a video of Magne and Morten meeting the press after the show.

The Final Concert CD cover

 

The cover of the CD version of Ending On A High Note – The Final Concert has now started to appear online, including on the website of Universal Norway.

And I’d expect the covers of the DVD and Blu-ray to look somewhat similar.

These live releases are still scheduled to be out in Germany on April 1st, but details on tracklists and number of discs have not been officially confirmed yet.

Amazon.de has the CD version listed as being just 1 disc, which means it’s obviously not the complete concert. Hopefully the Deluxe Version (3 discs) will have all the songs. Needless to say we’re at least expecting the DVD and Blu-ray to feature the complete concert (although leaving out “Bowling Green” will be understandable).

An official announcement is expected soon.

Sound On Sound article

Sound On Sound, a UK magazine focusing on music recording technology, has a 6-page article about the recording of “Take On Me” in its latest issue, March 2011.

Describing the studio work on the different versions of the song in great detail, the article features contributions from producer Alan Tarney and engineers Neill King and Gerry Kitchingham.

The March issue of the magazine can be ordered from soundonsound.com. The a-ha article is also available as a PDF file here (includes a preview of the article).

(Thanks to Oliver and Matthew for the tip)

Just Loomis book and exhibition

A sample of the book

The 96-page photo book a-ha photographer Just Loomis was published in Norway earlier this week. It features a selection of Loomis’ a-ha photos between 1985 and 1991, taken in the UK, Canada and Brazil.

The book also includes a foreword written by Magne, an interview with Morten (done by Loomis himself) and a text written by Paul. There are also interviews with Warner executive Jeff Ayeroff and graphic designer Jeri Heiden.

We recognised in Just someone whose ambition and passion for photography matched our own ambition and passion for music: he wanted to take great pictures, we wanted to make great music“, Magne writes in the foreword.

Just Loomis with some of the photos on display at the Stenersen Museum

The book release tied in with the opening of Loomis’ exhibition As We Are at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo on Thursday, February 10th, which also features some of his a-ha photos.

WOTM forum member “Hermetic”, who attended the opening, writes:

“Both Magne and Morten were at the opening of the exhibition, and I was lucky enough to have my copy signed by both + Just. Lauren was there too, but no sign of Paul though (might have left already as I arrived quite late).”

Update: Just Loomis has posted a couple of pictures from the opening on his Facebook page. Here he is with Morten, Magne, The Swing Of Things author Jan Omdahl and head of Press Publishing Håkon Harket. And here is another one with Morten and Jan.

A TV interview with Loomis from NRK Østlandssendingen can be seen here. There were also interviews with him at Dagbladet.no and Foto.no.

“This is the first time I’m in Oslo and it’s a great honour for me to show these photos now, following a-ha’s farewell tour”, Loomis says in the Foto.no interview.

“It’s very special for me to be among those who were there from the start, taking part in the process that eventually turned a-ha into international stars”, he added to Dagbladet.

The exhibition at the Stenersen Museum is on display until April 3rd.

The photo book, which will be available outside of Norway next month, can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

If you’re in Norway, the book is now available from online stores such as Bokkilden and Haugen Bok.

Ending On A High Note coming on CD, DVD and Blu-ray

Several German online stores (like Buch.de) are now taking pre-orders for Ending On A High Note, the recording of the final two a-ha concerts in Oslo Spektrum, which is set for release on 1 April and will be available on CD, DVD, CD/DVD (deluxe) and Blu-ray.

This will be the first a-ha Blu-ray release. The concerts in Oslo were filmed with ten HD cameras.

Cover image and other info is not yet available.

(Thanks to “Elly2” on the German forum for noticing)

2011 a-ha fan calendar now available

 

The West Of The Moon 2011 a-ha fan calendar is now available to order from Lulu.com.

Here’s some info from Catherine on the WOTM Forum:

“This is a weekly desk calendar, NOT a 12-month wall calendar. Please be sure this is what you want before deciding whether to buy – Lulu.com doesn’t do returns or exchanges unless something is faulty.

Because we missed January due to production delays, we added in January 2012 so that everyone could have the January facts and more photos 🙂 As always, this is a non-profit product, you pay what it costs Lulu.com to print and ship to you.

Thanks to everyone involved, and for all members’ support and patience! Let us know what you think of this year’s calendar!

Join the calendar discussion here.”

If you missed any of the the previous a-ha fan calendars from 2007, 2008 and 2010, they are still available from Lulu.com here.

Contributors wanted for a-ha book

I have been contacted by Greg Lansdowne, a freelance journalist/communications professional from England, who is planning to write a book about a-ha, based on the experiences of fans during the “Ending On A High Note” tour.

In a longer message posted in the “fan corner” section of a-ha.com, he writes:

“I am, therefore, writing to ask for contributors to such a book who would be interested in sharing not only their thoughts on a specific concert but also why your love for a-ha took you to that concert (particularly for those travelling quite a distance).

Initially, I would like to get as much feedback as possible in terms of whether this is a book that would be welcomed the a-ha fraternity.

Were that to be the case, I would then ask for people to volunteer their interest to write about a particular concert (to make sure all bases could be covered).”

To read the whole message, which includes contact info, visit a-ha.com.

Lansdowne has also created a thread about this on the WOTM forum.

Hits 2010 book

Hits 2010 - book cover

Book cover

Norsk Noteservice, a Norwegian publisher of music books, recently published Hits 2010 – the latest in an annual series of books featuring some of the biggest Norwegian and international hits from the last year, complete with tabs and chords for guitar and keyboard, as well as lyrics.

a-ha’s final single “Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)” is among the 36 songs that can be found in the book. “Den Stilleste Timen”, the charity single for Haiti that featured Morten on vocals, is also included.

And as you can see, Morten is on the cover of the book.

Hits 2010 can be ordered from Norwegian online book stores such as Haugen Bok, Bokkilden or directly from the publisher at Notebutikken.no.

 

Speaking of books; don’t forget to pre-order Just Loomis’ new a-ha photobook, which will include a foreword written by Magne.

The book can be ordered from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with a March 31st publishing date.

a-ha TV special

Markus Kavka and Erikha Harket

An historical site: host Markus Kavka and Morten’s niece Erikha visit the Waaktaar family’s
cabin at Nærsnes, where a-ha recorded their first demos in the autumn of 1982.

A new TV-special about a-ha aired on Kabel Eins in Germany on 28 December.

Hosted by Markus Kavka, the “Number One!” TV-special included interviews with all three band members, as well as Bunty Bailey, producer Andreas “Boogieman” Herbig and a-ha manager Harald Wiik.

The whole show seems to have been removed from the channel’s website, but the complete interviews with Paul, Magne and Morten (which were done in late 2009) can be seen here.

If you’re having trouble viewing the clips outside Germany, some of the interview clips can also be found at MyVideo.de.

DVD director revealed

An article on the website of audio company Lawo reveals that a-ha’s upcoming live DVD from the final concerts in Oslo is directed by Matt Askem.

Askem previously worked with a-ha when he directed the live webcast from Kiel in September 2007. His directing credits feature a long list of artists, including Muse, Faithless and U2.

An excerpt from the article:

The final four shows of the “Ending on a High Note” tour were played in the band’s home town of Oslo at the famous Spektrum venue. Leading broadcast facilities company Cinevideogroup was called in by film-makers Serpent Productions and director Matt Askem to provide a 10-camera HD recording of the event, complete with digital audio, for future release.

Inside the sound control room of the state-of-the-art OB14 were British sound engineer Toby Alington, well known for his work on the BRIT Awards and MTV Europe Awards, and Huub Lelieveld, Cinevideogroup’s senior audio engineer. Alington has responsibility for the final 5.1 mix of the project, while Lelieveld was responsible for the multitrack recording in Oslo.

The full article – which incorrectly claims that this will be a-ha’s first live DVD – but which also provides a lot of fascinating technical details, can be found here.

(Thanks to “greeneyedgirl” for the find)

Powered by WordPress