Magne promises an “electric summer”

When tickets for the a-ha concert in Hamar were released on Tuesday, 8,000 out of 10,000 available tickets were sold within a short time.

“It’s good to hear the tickets are selling well. And it’s nice to be playing somewhere we haven’t been before. Hamar has built a good reputation as a city for concerts, and has had visits from both Sting and Elton John lately. It’s really fun to be a part of establishing and building new, solid venues for people to experience live music”, Magne says in an interview with Hamar Arbeiderblad (paywall).

Although only five summer concerts in Norway have been announced so far, a lot more shows will be added in other countries:

“We’re doing a small unplugged tour in Europe early next year, which has lead to a lot of requests for a summer tour. So we decided to set aside the summer for touring, which has since been extended in both ends. The tour keeps changing and growing from day to day.”

But, as we know, the summer tour will not be unplugged:

“The two concerts [at Giske] formed the basis for the [MTV Unplugged] recording and TV-special, but we’re not sure if we’ll keep touring with that concept. Those are vulnerable instruments that are difficult to bring on tour. It’s a somewhat more demanding format, and with less energy than a fully electric show. We did some pondering if we should continue unplugged, or if we’d celebrate the summer with full power. We’ll be playing a number of football stadium concerts in the UK next summer, which naturally means we’re doing a full ‘electric summer’.”

“We have expanded our backing band for the unplugged tour, and we’ll keep going with a larger band. There will be full power at Hamar. We’re coming to create a good vibe, as best we can”, Magne says.