Posts Tagged ‘a-ha’

Magne talks with Chronicle Live

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.

UK tour in November announced

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.

Concerts in Latvia and Lithuania

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

Third concert in New York

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.

Swiss festival / Extra L.A. date / 1986 concert rediscovered

The Live at Sunset festival stage in Zurich

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.

a-ha concerts in New York and Los Angeles

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.

American tour dates coming next week

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.

Platinum awards / Echo nomination / Apparatjik album release

a-ha receiving platinum awards in Munich, January 15th

a-ha receiving platinum awards in Munich, January 15th

While in Munich to perform at the Bavarian Movie Awards on January 15th, a-ha were presented with platinum awards for selling more than 200 000 copies of Foot Of The Mountain in Germany, trade publication MusikWoche reports.

Considering the fact that “no one” buys CDs anymore, this is an impressive number. The album is still in the Top 100 German album chart after 31 weeks, currently at number 65.

 

More news from Germany: a-ha have been nominated in the “Best international group”-category for this year’s Echo Awards, which will take place in Berlin on March 4th.

The other nominees are U2, Depeche Mode, Black Eyed Peas and Razorlight. a-ha will not be able to attend the award show, as they are opening their farewell tour in Buenos Aires on that day.

 

In Norway the nominations for this year’s Spellemann Awards were announced yesterday, but a-ha did not get any nominations for their final album.

 

Producer and Apparatjik member Martin Terefe has posted a news update on his official website which says that the long-awaited Apparatjik album will be released on the same day as the band’s debut concert in Berlin next Monday, February 1st.

Since there has been no info about a CD release, it’s fair to assume that the album will be available only as a digital download.

 

Some info about last week’s Pupparatjik workshop in Trondheim can now be found here. One of the students who participated has shared some of his thoughts on the Apparatchick forum and he has also posted a set of pictures on Flickr.

And of course you can see the results of the workshop at apparatjik.com/pupparatjik.

Concert news for Spain and Australia

Some good news for fans in Spain; according to the website of a Spanish booking company (rocknrock.com), a-ha will be playing in Madrid on 14 October and in Barcelona on 15 October. No info about the venues and ticket details available yet.

Update (Jan. 19): The dates have now been confirmed by a-ha.com and the venues are Palacio Vista Alegre in Madrid and St. Jordi Club in Barcelona. Tickets go on sale this Friday through Ticketmaster.

 
And some bad news for fans in Australia; although a-ha had hoped to visit the country on their farewell tour, unfortunately there won’t be any concerts in Australia this year.

Movie awards / Brussels concert / Edinburgh opening

a-ha on stage inside the Prinzregententheater in Munich yesterday evening

a-ha on stage inside the Prinzregententheater in Munich yesterday evening

a-ha made their first appearance this year when they did a playback performance of “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” at the Bavarian movie awards in Munich last night.

Even though it was only playback, they were joined by Karl and Erik on drums and bass. The performance can be seen on YouTube here.

 

The official site has now confirmed a concert in Brussels, Belgium on 11 October. The four remaining concerts in Brazil were also finally confirmed. Visit a-ha.com for ticket details.

 

Magne’s “Alpha Beta” exhibition is opening at the Edinburgh Printmakers gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland today.

According to the gallery’s website, Magne will be present for an “artist talk” between 4.30-5.30pm, where he will discuss his artworks with Paul Stolper. And between 6-8pm people can “join Magne F for an exclusive reception to celebrate his exhibition”.

Update (Jan. 20): Although the exhibition opened on January 16th, the “artist talk” and “exclusive reception” with Magne won’t happen before February 17th. A PDF flyer for this event can be seen here.

 

Tonight is the second semi-final of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix (Eurovision Song Contest), where Morten’s daughter Tomine will perform the song “Be Good To Me”.

Because of a-ha’s trip to Germany, Morten won’t be able to be part of the audience in Bodø, where the show is held. And that is one of the reasons why Tomine wants to make it to the final. “I have to make it to the next round so my father gets a chance to see me on stage“, Tomine told VG a few days ago.

Tomine can be proud of the beautiful song she will be performing. And Grand Prix is a great arena in which to present it“, Morten says in today’s VG.

The show can be seen live on NRK’s web-TV here, starting at 19.55. “Be Good To Me” can already be heard here.

Update: Tomine did a good performance, but did not get enough votes to go to the final.

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