Posts Tagged ‘hunting high and low’

Japanese tour dates cancelled

Both Magne and Paul have now confirmed on Instagram that the five Japanese a-ha concerts in Tokyo (x2), Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya (10-17 March) have been cancelled due to the coronavirus. This comes in addition to the already cancelled concert in Singapore (21 March).

That means the second leg of the Hunting High And Low tour is now over. But hopefully it won’t be too long until new concert dates can be scheduled for Japan and Singapore.

Paul:

“…that was as far as we got on this leg of our tour..we’ll come back at a later stage to play the shows we’re missing out on. Be well everyone and keep washing those hands.”

Magne:

“(…) i was really looking forward to seeing our fans and friends in asia, but the safety of our fans has to come first of course. take good care of yourselves everyone, and see you later down the road!”

Tour dates added in Prague and Gothenburg

Two new dates on next year’s HHAL tour have now been announced:

28 October 2020: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
20 November 2020: Partille Arena, Gothenburg, Sweden

This will be the very first time a-ha perform live in the Czech Republic, although there is definitely a fanbase in the country. In 2015 the Cast In Steel album entered the official Czech album chart at #7.

Meanwhile, the concert in Gothenburg will only be the fifth time a-ha have ever performed in Sweden. And although they did an outdoor concert in Sweden last year, in Dalhalla as part of the Electric Summer tour, next year’s concert will be their first visit to Gothenburg since 1986.

These dates follow on from last month’s announcement that a-ha will also perform in Singapore for the first time ever next year:

21 March 2020: Singapore Turf Club, Kranji, Singapore

The total number of concerts on the HHAL tour has now reached 55.

Update 15/12: Make that total 56 instead, as the concert in Dubai is now sold out and a second show has been added:

10 February: Dubai Opera, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

More dates for 2020 are expected to follow, including a rumoured tour of South America.

Ticket details for all shows can be found on a-ha.com.

HHAL Tour featured in LSi Magazine

Magazine cover

a-ha’s Hunting High and Low Tour is the cover story of the December 2019 issue of Light & Sound International, a UK magazine covering “the professional use of lighting, sound, video, staging and rigging technology across the entertainment, presentation and events industries”.

Inside there’s a very extensive 9-page article about all the technical aspects of the tour, featuring interviews with a-ha’s longtime production manager James Maillardet, FOH engineer Olivier Gerard, system tech Toby Donovan, monitor engineer Sigurd Andresen, video director Icarus Wilson-Wright, camera director Charles Woods, video crew chief Jack Middlebrook and lighting designer Stu Farrell.

The loudspeaker rig used on this tour is d&b audiotechnik’s new KSL System, which was specifically chosen to support Morten’s vocal performance:

“Morten has issues around 300-400Hz. Despite being on IEMs, anything that might affect his hearing – standing waves and house resonance – can influence his pitching and was to be avoided. Because there is more rejection at the back of the box, the acoustics of the big arenas are less excited, and that is very much noticeable when I mix. (…) This is my first tour with a-ha and only our fourth show, but it’s all working very well”, Olivier Gerard says.

The article also goes in-depth about the new and impressive 10-bit LED screen supplied by UK company Video Design, which has a potential of displaying one billion colours, compared to 16,7 million colours on a regular 8-bit screen:

“In recent years, there has been a lot of attention put on [a-ha’s] use of video – they don’t just want a screen, they want meaningful images, something that connects them to their audience. When Icarus Wilson-Wright, our video director, first came to me and asked about using 10-bit video, I thought, ‘What is this? Will the punters notice?’ The truth is, it’s stunning, more impressive than Icarus could have ever conveyed in words. The promoter at our first show in Dublin spoke of the beauty of the video, as have audiences, house staff and security personnel at every show since”, James Maillardet says.

The whole article is also available online by signing up for a free subscription to the digital edition of the magazine at the LSi Online website.

Eight new tour dates added for 2020

3Arena, Dublin, 29 October
(Picture by Deirdre Ní Fhloinn)

Eight new European dates on a-ha’s Hunting High And Low Tour next year were announced today:

30 October: Le Zenith, Paris, France
10 November: BIC, Bournemouth, UK
11 November: M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool, UK
13 November: Arena Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
14 November: The SSE Arena, Wembley, London, UK
17 November: Forest National, Brussels, Belgium
18 November: AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
21 November: Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark

Fan pre-sale tickets will go on sale Wednesday November 6, with the general ticket sale following on Friday November 8. Remember to sign up for the official mailing list to get the pre-sale details.

This brings the total number of concerts on the Hunting High And Low Tour up to 52, with more dates for next year to follow.

Meanwhile, the tour continued at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Wednesday night. The setlist was the same as in Dublin the day before. Here is a selection of YouTube videos from Belfast:

Take On Me   Hunting High and Low   The Sun Always Shines On TV
I Dream Myself Alive   Here I Stand And Face The Rain   Analogue
Foot Of The Mountain   I’ve Been Losing You   Scoundrel Days
The Living Daylights

Pictures from Belfast by Carlos Maciá (click to enlarge):

The tour continues tonight, on Magne’s birthday, at the 3,000-seat SEC Armadillo in Glasgow. Happy Birthday, Magne!

a-ha’s Hunting High And Low Tour off to a good start in Dublin

a-ha in Dublin, 29 October 2019
(Picture by Carlos Maciá)

The Hunting High And Low world tour 2019-2020 opened at the sold-out 9,000-capacity (seated) 3Arena in Dublin last night.

As expected, the first half of the concert was the full Hunting High and Low album, followed by ten other songs after a 20-minute break.

One big surprise was the very first live performance of a great new song written by Paul called “Digital River”. This is one of the songs from the Cast In Steel sessions in 2015 that didn’t make it onto the album.

While there weren’t any other surprises in the setlist, several of the song arrangements had been updated, and there were also cool new intros – like the way “Analogue” started after the break. “Dream Myself Alive” was performed similar to the original demo version.

And while a-ha had six backing musicians on last year’s Electric Summer Tour, it’s now back to three; Karl Oluf Wennerberg (drums), Even Ormestad (bass) and Erik Ljunggren (synth/programming).

Impressive video screen and visuals
(Picture by Paudie Fahey)

The stage had a large and impressive video wall at the back, featuring all new video content created by Norwegian director Knut A. Helgeland. The quality of the visuals and the live editing seems to be far beyond anything used on previous a-ha tours. Additionally, the show started with Michael Patterson’s original short-film Commuter (1981) being shown, leading into “Take On Me”.

On Facebook, Helgeland wrote about his experience of working on the video content for the last three months:

“For an old, true a-ha fan like myself, it’s fantastic to be able to work so freely on the visual world of a-ha. I feel that we’ve created something quite unique, it’s simple and honest, and a bit smart, I hope. With a lot of fantastic footage (some filmed by myself, a lot from good helpers) which looks magical on the large 10-bit screen.”

Pictures by Carlos Maciá (click to enlarge):

 
Reactions from the Dublin audience on social media have been overwhelmingly positive, regarding both the performance and the new visual design. Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen had journalist Bernt Erik Pedersen at the concert, who gives it a 5/6 review: “Does this work as a stadium show? Absolutely. Is it an event? Certainly.”

Pedersen suggests that this album format is something they can continue doing: “With this “playing the whole album”-concept they can keep it going for at least another decade – I’d be happy to come see them do East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon in five or six years.”

Setlist (with YouTube-links):
1. Take on Me
2. Train of Thought
3. Hunting High and Low
4. The Blue Sky
5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
6. The Sun Always Shines on TV
7. And You Tell Me
8. Love is Reason
9. I Dream Myself Alive
10. Here I Stand and Face the Rain
(Intermission)
11. Analogue
12. Foot of the Mountain
13. The Swing of Things
14. Crying in the Rain
15. Sycamore Leaves
16. Digital River
17. I’ve Been Losing You
18. Stay on These Roads
– – – – – – – – – – – –
19. Scoundrel Days
20. The Living Daylights

Thanks to all YouTube-uploaders.

The pre-show music included “Mount Joy” from the True August EP.

The a-ha merchandise in Dublin all seemed to be 80s nostalgia stuff, if you’re into that sort of thing. Not even one t-shirt with a current band photo. There is a tour programme, but it reportedly only contains photos by Just Loomis from the 80s and the tour credits. But signed copies of White Xmas Lies are for sale, both the vinyl and CD.

Film premiere, a-ha convention and more concerts in Norway announced

Photo by Stian Andersen

The official site has announced the world premiere of the documentary film a-ha – The Movie, directed by Thomas Robsahm and Aslaug Holm, which will take place at Colosseum Cinema in Oslo on 26 November 2020. The main auditorium at Colosseum has a capacity of 978 people.

a-ha – The Movie has been in production since 2016, and the filmmakers have followed the band on the road during the Cast In Steel Tour, the MTV Unplugged Tour and the Electric Summer Tour. They have also filmed other events, such as the Savoy concert and signing in Oslo last year.

“We will tell the whole story, from when two 12-year old friends started their first band together in the seventies, on to a-ha’s massive hit Take On Me in 1985, all the way till now where they are still touring the world selling out arenas. It’s a film about strong personalities, creating something unique together, but also about how their internal struggles have made it hard to reach their full potential. And, I must add, it’s a film about one of the most underrated bands in pop history. I want more people to discover their music!”, Thomas Robsahm told nordiskfilmogtvfond.com earlier this year.

He also talked about what the audience can expect from the film in a recent interview with Variety. In addition to Norway, a-ha – The Movie will be distributed in Germany and has been purchased for TV broadcast in a number of European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Switzerland.

The film premiere will be followed by two a-ha concerts in Oslo Spektrum on 27 and 28 November, which will mark the end of the Hunting High And Low Tour. There will also be an a-ha convention in Oslo on 28 November, with Robsahm and other guests.

Although the concert in Trondheim on 7 February was supposed to be the only show in Norway on this tour, two additional dates have also been announced today: Nordlandshallen in Bodø on 1 February and DNB Arena in Stavanger on 24 November.

Tickets for the Norwegian concerts and the film premiere will go on sale this week, along with more German dates for next year. Be sure to sign up for the official a-ha mailing list for pre-sale info.

According to a VG article today, the band will play more than 60 shows on the HHAL tour, which means there are still more than 20 shows to be announced. The article says that a-ha will also be returning to South America in 2020.

Additionally, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells VG that the setup of the HHAL concerts has been changed. The full HHAL album will now be performed first, followed by various other songs after the break. Initially it was the other way around.

Update 15 Oct:
These are the added German dates for 2020:
31 October: Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany
02 November: Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
03 November: Barclaycard Arena, Hamburg, Germany
05 November: Leipzig Arena, Leipzig, Germany
06 November: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany

HHAL Tour to be extended into 2020

The tour continues…

The upcoming Hunting High and Low Tour will be extended into 2020, the official site announced today, with the first date being Trondheim, Norway on 7 February 2020:

Due to popular demand, a-ha’s ‘Hunting High and Low Live’ tour is extending into 2020!

Today we’re announcing the first show of 2020, taking place in Trondheim, Norway!

The show will be on 7 February 2020 at the brand new indoor stadium, Trondheim Spektrum, opening in October 2019. a-ha is the first band to be announced to play at the arena.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday 11th March at 9:00 am CEST, however there will be a fan pre sale on Saturday 9th March from noon CEST!

Pre Sale Link – Click here

General Sale Link – Click here

More dates in 2020 will be announced soon, including areas the band hasn’t visited since their 1986 world tour. Stay tuned and spread the word!

According to the organizers in Trondheim, this will be the only Norwegian concert on the HHAL Tour. But such statements should be taken with a pinch of salt, as we’ve seen numerous times in the past.

Article: A-ha fremfører sitt legendariske debutalbum i Trondheim Spektrum

“Hunting High And Low – The Early Alternate Mixes” vinyl release

Album cover

A special a-ha vinyl album, Hunting High And Low – The Early Alternate Mixes, will be released in connection with the upcoming Record Store Day 2019 on April 13th.

The 10-track album (1LP, black vinyl) will include the same alternate mixes first released on disc 4 of the 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of Hunting High And Low in 2015, and comes with an alternate cover image from the original album cover shoot by Just Loomis.

According to the Record Store Day website, the release will be limited to 6000 copies worldwide.

Tracklist:
1. Take On Me (Video Version) [2015 Remastered]
2. Train Of Thought (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
3. Hunting High And Low (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
4. The Blue Sky (Alternate Long Mix) [2015 Remastered]
5. Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
6. The Sun Always Shines On T.V. (Alternate Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
7. And You Tell Me (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
8. Love Is Reason (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]
9. Dream Myself Alive (Early “NYC” Mix) [2015 Remastered]
10. Here I Stand And Face The Rain (Early Mix) [2015 Remastered]

This will be third a-ha release in connection with Record Store Day, following the “Take On Me” 7″ picture disc in 2015 and the a-ha hits South America 12″ live EP in 2016, which were limited to 3000 copies each.

See a list of participating record stores in your area here.

2019 tour will focus on Hunting High and Low

New promo shot by Stian Andersen

Today it was announced that next year’s 15-date a-ha tour will focus on playing their debut album Hunting High and Low in full, along with a selection of other songs. And thereby crushing any hopes of a new a-ha studio album next year.

“Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy will be performing in An Evening With format, with an interval. For the first half of the concert, they will play new and old, familiar and less-familiar songs. Then, after returning to the stage, they will play the ten songs of their 1985 debut album Hunting High And Low in the running order of the original release.”

Some fans may feel this is quite an unimaginative move, considering this will be the third tour in a row not supporting a new studio album and the fact they’ve already done Hunting High and Low-concerts in Oslo and London back in 2010, while others – who perhaps missed out the first time – will be looking forward to hearing some songs that are seldom played live.

The full list of tour dates:

29 October: 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland
30 October: SSE Arena, Belfast, UK
01 November: The Armadillo, Glasgow, UK
02 November: First Direct Arena, Leeds, UK
05 November: Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
06 November: Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK
08 November: AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
09 November: Seine Musicale, Paris, France
12 November: SAP Arena, Mannheim, Germany
13 November: Leipzig Arena, Leipzig, Germany
15 November: König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
16 November: ÖVB Arena, Bremen, Germany
18 November: Torwar Arena, Warsaw, Poland
20 November: Ice Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
22 November: Crocus City Hall, Moscow, Russia

There will be a fan presale later this week, before the general ticket sale starts on November 9th.

Pre-order remastered Deluxe Editions

The remastered 2-disc Deluxe Editions of Hunting High And Low and Scoundrel Days will be released in the UK on July 12th 2010.

Both albums can now be pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk using the links below:

Hunting High and Low:
Deluxe Edition

Tracklist:

Disc 1:
1. Take On Me
2. Train Of Thought
3. Hunting High And Low
4. The Blue Sky
5. Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale
6. The Sun Always Shines On T.V.
7. And You Tell Me
8. Love Is Reason
9. I Dream Myself Alive
10. Here I Stand And Face The Rain
Bonus Tracks:
11. Take On Me (Original 7″ Version 1984)
12. The Sun Always Shines On T.V. (Extended Mix)
13. Train Of Thought (U.S. Mix)
14. Hunting High And Low (Extended Remix)

Disc 2:
1. Take On Me (Demo)
2. Train Of Thought (Demo)*
3. Hunting High And Low (Demo)*
4. The Blue Sky (Demo)
5. Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale (Early Version)*
6. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Demo)*
7. And You Tell Me (Demo)
8. Love Is Reason (Demo)*
9. I Dream Myself Alive (Demo)*
10. Here I Stand And Face The Rain (Demo)*
11. Stop And Make Your Mind Up
12. Driftwood
13. Dot The I*
14. The Love Goodbye
15. Nothing To It*
16. Go To Sleep
17. Monday Mourning
18. All The Planes That Come In On The Quiet*
19. Never Never
20. What’s That You’re Doing To Yourself*
21. You Have Grown Thoughtful Again*
22. Lesson One (Autumn 1982 Demo)*
23. Presenting Lily Mars

* previously unreleased

Scoundrel Days:
Deluxe Edition

Tracklist:

Disc 1:
1. Scoundrel Days
2. The Swing Of Things
3. I’ve Been Losing You
4. October
5. Manhattan Skyline
6. Cry Wolf
7. We’re Looking For The Whales
8. The Weight Of The Wind
9. Maybe, Maybe
10. Soft Rains Of April
Bonus Tracks:
11. I’ve Been Losing You (Extended Version)
12. Cry Wolf (Extended Version)
13. Manhattan Skyline (Extended Version)

Disc 2:
1. Scoundrel Days (Demo)*
2. The Swing Of Things (Demo #3)*
3. I’ve Been Losing You (Octocon Studio Demo)*
4. October (Demo)*
5. Manhattan Skyline (Demo)*
6. Cry Wolf (Demo)*
7. We’re Looking For The Whales (Demo)*
8. The Weight Of The Wind (Demo)*
9. Maybe, Maybe (Demo)*
10. Soft Rains Of April (Guitar Version)*
11. Scoundrel Days (Octocon Studio Demo)*
12. This Alone Is Love (Original Version)
13. Days On End (Demo)
14. Train of Thought (Live In Croydon)*
15. I’ve Been Losing You (Live In Croydon)*
16. The Blue Sky (Live In Croydon)*
17. Looking for The Whales (Live In Croydon)
18. Cry Wolf (Live In Croydon)*

* previously unreleased
 
 
 
 
 
 

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