Posts Tagged ‘bbc’

a-ha on BBC’s The One Show

a-ha on The One Show, November 9th

a-ha made an appearance on BBC’s The One Show on Friday night, performing “Take On Me” live with an orchestra outside the BBC Broadcasting House in London.

The performance, for which both Magne and Paul had brought out their custom Everly Brothers acoustic guitars, can be seen on YouTube.

This was in connection with tickets for next year’s Hunting High and Low tour going on sale, as well as the release of a new compilation album called 80’s Symphonic, on which “Take On Me” is one of 15 songs from the 80’s where the original vocal track has been combined with new string arrangements, recorded at Abbey Road by the 50-piece London Studio Orchestra.

The 80’s Symphonic album is available now from amazon.co.uk and amazon.de.

While in London, Magne also attended the Queen Sonja Print Award 2018 ceremony at the Royal Academy of Arts on Thursday night. Magne is on the board of directors of the award, which was presented to Canadian artist Emma Nishimura this year.

a-ha to headline BBC charity concert

a-ha will be headlining the charity concert “BBC Children in Need Rocks the 80s” at Wembley Arena (aka The SSE Arena) in London on October 19th.

Some of the other acts taking part include Bananarama, Boy George, Europe, Erasure and Jason Donovan.

The decision to perform seems somewhat puzzling, as a-ha have always been careful to avoid 80s-themed nostalgia events. Obviously, they are in a totally different league when it comes to continued success and credibility than any of these acts. But the promotional opportunities in the UK must have been limited at the moment.

According to independent.ie “the concert will be broadcast on BBC1 in the run-up to the annual BBC Children In Need appeal”.

More info and ticket links on bbc.co.uk.

UK promotion and VG interview

a-ha on BBC Breakfast, September 2nd

a-ha on BBC Breakfast, September 2nd

a-ha were in London yesterday, where they spent a few hours at the BBC Studios, doing a number of radio interviews. Some of them have already been broadcast:

– BBC Radio 5 Live: Afternoon Edition
– BBC Local Radio: The Mark Forrest Show (starts at 1h 36min)

Morten and Paul also did a video interview with Reuters.

Today the guys were in Manchester, where they were guests on BBC Breakfast. A video clip of the interview has been posted on YouTube.

Later on they did a signing session at HMV Manchester. A selection of pictures can be seen on the event page on Facebook.

For lots more links and pictures from the UK promo, visit my Twitter profile.

Meanwhile in Norway, VG had a 3-page interview yesterday, where each of them give their honest opinion on the process of making Cast In Steel. Here is a little sample:

A new album, Cast In Steel is ready, but the band members haven’t been together in the studio during the recording process. That is something Paul Waaktaar-Savoy regrets.

“I wish we could get together, that is the way we should be recording music”, Waaktaar-Savoy says. He was also eager to have one producer on the whole album: Alan Tarney, who produced a-ha’s three first albums. But that’s not how it turned out.

Morten Harket also feels they should have recorded the album together, after first doing a tour.

“In fact, from a band point-of-view, we should have recorded the album in one studio and lived together for three months. You are more tuned in after a tour, we should have done writing sessions, hung out together and made music.”

– That’s what Paul also said?

“Yeah, but he’s so slow to join! Bloody slow. So that’s not how it actually is.”

In the end, 12 songs were selected for the album, while many others were rejected.

“I came into the process very late, and I think Paul felt the album was already finished. But then the majority expressed a clear wish that we should go all in. a-ha is the three of us and needs those three voices”, Furuholmen says.

Waaktaar-Savoy describes the song selection as “total chaos” and says he really missed an A&R-guy like they used to have in the past. Someone from the record company who could interject and make a decision.

“How are we supposed to agree on things, when all three of us have different things that we care about? It ends up being so much noise, and it saps so much energy that I’m all like: OK, next album! I feel like I need another ten years before I can listen to this album again. And now I have plunged headfirst into another new project. That’s the way I manage to keep going.”

And here are the first Norwegian reviews of the new album:
VG (4/6)
Aftenposten (4/6)
Dagsavisen (4/6)
Vårt Land

More UK promotion

On ITV, April 7th

On ITV, April 7th

Morten did some more promotion in London yesterday. He started by appearing on Lorraine Kelly’s show on ITV, which can be seen here.

Then it was time for radio interviews, which included BBC Derby, BBC Lincolnshire, BBC Merseyside, BBC Suffolk, BBC Devon and others.

Although Morten will do more touring in the autumn, he couldn’t promise any further UK dates when answering fan questions on BBC Derby:

“I hope so, but I haven’t planned – I mean, this is all I see now; the album is just coming out and it’s what I’m doing. The summer is also booked up, as for the first time I’m doing festivals in Norway. There are a lot of activities there, and I have decided to do that this summer. Beyond that I haven’t planned exactly what will happen.”

Out Of My Hands enters UK album chart

Following a solid amount of promotion, Out Of My Hands has entered the official UK album chart at #37 in its first week, selling 3,455 copies. This is his first solo album to reach the UK top 40.

Additional radio interviews with Morten this past week include BBC Radio Scotland with Janice Forsyth on May 19th (starts at 0:19) and BBC Radio Lincolnshire with James Hoggarth on May 21st (starts at 3:25).

Morten interviewed on the BBC

Morten on BBC Breakfast, May 11th

Morten was a guest on BBC Breakfast this morning. A video clip of the interview can be seen here.

Yesterday he was interviewed by Alan Thompson on BBC Radio Wales, which can be heard here (Part one at 1:15 and Part two at 1:45).

Asked by a listener if there are any plans to record a live album, Morten answered:

“There are no plans at the moment, but it will happen. It’s a given, I think. But not right away, as we need to get warmed up first – which we are actually starting to, you know. The machinery is starting to get oiled. We’ve done about three to four weeks now on the road and the band is coming together.”

He also expressed an interest in playing countries that haven’t been a part of the current tour:

“There are in fact, a lot of places I would really want to visit. We’re doing a run, which is mainly the waterholes of a-ha over the past years, to start with. I would love to go in and do Spain and also Italy and a number of places. I am not doing Ireland now, for instance, which I would love to.”

He was also a guest on Alan Simpson’s show on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday, available here (starts at 1:10).

Other interviews coming up include Matt White’s show on BBC Radio Manchester tonight and “Good Morning Sunday” on BBC Radio 2 this Sunday, May 13th.

Magne interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland

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).

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