Posts Tagged ‘trondheim’

a-ha world tour 2020 opens in Norway

Trondheim Spektrum, 7 February 2020

After a two-month break from touring, a-ha opened the second leg of their Hunting High and Low 2019-2020 world tour with concerts at Nordlandshallen in Bodø on 1 February and at Trondheim Spektrum in Trondheim on 7 February. While the audience of 9,700 in Bodø was all-standing, the audience of 6,000 in Trondheim was all-seated.

Reviews in the local press were generally quite positive, with both Avisa Nordland (Bodø) and Adresseavisen (Trondheim) giving the concerts a 5 out of 6 rating. Adresseavisen’s reviewer called it “the best a-ha concert I can remember in Trondheim”, highlighting the band’s “authority and musical weight” and how they have “a clear and common vision” on this tour. He also praised the video production with its “incredibly elegant execution”.

The whole Trondheim concert was filmed, to be used as additional footage in the upcoming a-ha: The Movie documentary film.

The setlist remains the same as last year; starting with the HHAL-album being played in full, followed by ten additional songs after a 20-minute break.

 
Setlist
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
(20-minute break)
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

 
Bodø reviews and pictures:
Avisa Nordland review (5/6) (paywall)
Bodø Nu review (3/6) (paywall)
Bodø Nu photo gallery (paywall)

Trondheim reviews and pictures:
Adresseavisen review (5/6) (paywall)
Musikknyheter review (8/10)
Trondheim24 photo gallery

The tour continues with two concerts at the Dubai Opera today and tomorrow, followed by Cape Town and Johannesburg on Friday and Saturday.

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

Bridges album release in Trondheim

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Viggo Bondi, Magne Furuholmen and Øystein Jevanord at the “Våkenatt” album launch in Trondheim yesterday

All four members of Bridges were at the Rockheim museum of popular Norwegian music in Trondheim yesterday, for the official release of their second album Våkenatt. Originally intended for release in 1981, as the follow-up to 1980’s Fakkeltog, the album is finally seeing the light of day this week, 37 years later.

The band members talked to the press and signed copies of the vinyl box set for fans who had pre-ordered it. An NRK TV news report from the event can be seen here (starts at 04:12).

“For me this is not just an historical document, but a new release. When I sat down to have a proper listen to the music again a couple of years ago, I was shocked by how good it sounded. We were an incredibly tight band, and this was music recorded live by four guys in a studio. We would often nail a song on the first or second take”, Paul told Aftenposten in an interview last week.

Mixing the album was done over a few days in Paul’s New York studio, and he wanted to keep things simple.

“I didn’t want the music to sound too modern, even if that would have been possible now. That’s why I came up with a dogma that only equipment invented and available pre-1981 could by used when doing the mix. That became my way of doing it. To make the album sound as good as possible, but not by cheating.”

 
When asked if there’s more to come from Bridges, Paul says:

“There are a few more songs [in the archives], but they didn’t fit in and would have been wrong to include on this album. Playing this material live again would have been cool, obviously, but it would be quite an undertaking to pull it off.”

“In any event, it feels really good and fitting to release it now. Many will view this as the story of an album being released 38 years later, but personally I’m just a really big fan of the album itself”, Paul told Aftenposten.

900 vinyl copies of the Våkenatt album have been pressed in total, of which 700 numbered copies are available for sale. The album can be ordered from Rockheim Musical Archives.

The album has already received in-depth reviews in English by Greg Lansdowne for The Electricity Club and by Christopher Hopkins for Campaign For More a-ha Remastered Deluxes.

Links:
NRK: Forgjengeren til A-ha ute med skjult album – 38 år etter at de laget det
Dagsavisen: Broen over til a-ha (paywall)
Aftenposten: Forløperen til A-ha slippes nå – etter 38 år (paywall)
Adresseavisen: – De prøvde å ta musikken vår til utlandet. Vi burde jo bare ha dytta etter (paywall)

Trondheim concert announced for 2018

a-ha at Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, 2010
(Picture by Jakob)

A fourth Norwegian outdoor concert has been announced for next year’s a-ha world tour, following dates in Kongsberg, Ålesund and Bodø:

15 August 2018: Sverresborg Museum, Trondheim, Norway

The Sverresborg Museum is one of Norway’s largest open air museums, and has a capacity of 10,000 people for concert events.

“We are really looking forward to returning to Trondheim. It’s been way too long, and Sverresborg is a fantastic concert venue”, the band said in a statement.

This will be the seventh concert a-ha have played in Trondheim. Their last concert in the city was held at Lerkendal Stadium during the Farewell Tour in 2010.

There will be a ticket presale this Thursday, 31 August (10:00 am), for followers of Trondheim Concerts on Facebook. The general sale starts on Friday, 1 September (09:00 am) through Ticketmaster.

According to press articles in connection with the Trondheim announcement, the 2018 tour has now been extended to 60 concerts in total. a-ha manager Harald Wiik has previously said the tour will begin in the UK in June, followed by concerts through Europe, USA and South America.

Adressa.no: Nå kommer A-ha tilbake til byen
NRK.no: Nytt storband kommer til Sverresborg i 2018

Magne attends Bent Sølves Orkester exhibition opening at Rockheim

Magne at Rockheim, January 29th (Screenshot from NRK Midtnytt)

Magne at Rockheim, January 29th
(Screenshot from NRK Midtnytt)

Magne attended the opening of a new exhibition at the Rockheim pop and rock museum in Trondheim yesterday. The exhibition, which he has helped put together, tells the story of his father Kåre Furuholmen’s dance orchestra Bent Sølves Orkester.

The six-piece orchestra, named Bent Sølves after Magne’s favorite teddybear, was formed in Oslo in June 1967.

With Kåre Furuholmen on trumpet, the orchestra toured extensively around Norway, including residencies at hotels and showboats. They also appeared regularly on television.

Disaster struck on 1 May 1969, when on their way to a gig in Sweden, their plane crashed near Drammen. The pilot and all the five musicians onboard died. Only their saxophonist survived, as he had decided to drive instead.

Kåre Furuholmen on stage in 1968

Kåre Furuholmen on stage in 1968

“I have vivid memories of him practicing his trumpet, but a lot of the other memories I have of him are family stories that have been told so often they become memories”, Magne told Adresseavisen yesterday (subscribers only).

“The first time I met Morten Harket, we walked home together after a party. It was a long walk, and when we had talked about the important stuff – what music we liked – we needed to find other topics of conversation. What our parents were doing, things like that. I told him that my father died in a plane crash in 1969. Morten remained completely silent for a while, before he told me that he was an eyewitness to the plane crash in Drammen. Together with his parents he was so close by that he saw the plane hit the ground. That’s quite a special coincidence”, Magne said.

Magne has previously talked about his father in an Aftenposten article in 2008 and the NRK documentary Dance for Daddy – a portrait of Magne Furuholmen in 2011.

More info about the exhibition can be found at rockheim.no. Update: There was also a short TV report from the opening on NRK Midtnytt on February 2nd.

Summer tour update

Langesund, July 19th (Picture by Jakob)

Langesund, July 19th
(Picture by Jakob)

During the last two weeks, Morten’s summer tour of Norway has continued with concerts in Brønnøysund, Langesund, Beitostølen and Trondheim.

14 songs were played at the Rootsfestival in Brønnøysund, while the audience at Wrightegaarden in Langesund got the same 18-song setlist as in Paris, London and Tysnes. No details about the setlists at Beitostølen and in Trondheim have been posted so far.

Morten’s next appearance will be on Sommeråpent on NRK1 on 15 August, while the tour continues at Elvefestivalen in Drammen on 22 August.

Here are some links to recent articles, photos and videos:

Rootsfestivalen, Brønnøysund (17 July):
– Jeg gleder meg veldig (Brønnøysunds Avis)
Morten-midt-i-livet (Helgeland Arbeiderblad)
Gullstemmen (Brønnøysunds Avis)
– Ikke foto forfra (Brønnøysunds Avis)
Rootsfestivalen on Facebook: Picture 1  Picture 2  Picture 3

Wrightegaarden, Langesund (19 July):
Turister i kø for Morten Harket (Telemarksavisa)
Venter på Morten Harket (Porsgrunns Dagblad)
Morten Harket i storform (Telemarksavisa) – with video clip
God stemning med Harket i hagen (Varden)
En blid Morten Harket laget varm stemning (Porsgrunns Dagblad)
YouTube videos from Langesund: End Of The Line (soundcheck)   Wild Seed   Oh What A Night   Darkspace   Shooting Star   Whispering Heart   Brother   Let It Be Me

Trollrock, Beitostølen (26 July):
Tåkefyrste i klarvær (Oppland Arbeiderblad)
Festivalphoto.net
Pictures by langsveien.no: Picture 1  Picture 2  Picture 3  Picture 4  Picture 5  Picture 6  Picture 7  Picture 8

Olavsfestdagene, Trondheim (31 July):
Spilte seg varm (Adresseavisen)
Nidarosfoto.no
Olavsfestdagene on Facebook: Picture 1  Picture 2

Morten to perform in Trondheim

Another summer concert was announced today; Morten will perform in Trondheim on 31 July, as part of the annual Olavsfestdagene festival.

“Trondheim is a special city with a completely different atmosphere than other cities. It’s good to perform up there every time, whether it’s with a-ha or on my own. I associate Trondheim with the Wild Seed album, which was partly recorded at the Nidaros studio”, Morten tells Adresseavisen.

Tickets are available now from Billettservice.

Magne attends hotel opening

Yesterday, Magne attended the opening of the new Clarion Hotel & Congress in Trondheim, which is situated next to the Rockheim museum. There’s a small picture of him at VG.no.

The hotel has spent a lot of money on its art collection, and Magne is one of the artists represented on the walls.

Tomorrow he’ll be back in Oslo for the second live show of The Voice.

Stavanger, Tromsø and Trondheim

Stavanger, 2 September (Picture by Jakob)

Stavanger, 2 September
(Picture by Jakob)

The band had a busy few days this past weekend, with three concerts in three days in different parts of Norway.

Stavanger, 2 September (Picture by Jakob)

Stavanger, 2 September
(Picture by Jakob)

In Stavanger they played at the first annual Rått og Råde Festival in front of 10.000 people. The setlist (18 songs) was a bit shorter than the stadium concerts, leaving out the acoustic set. The local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad gives the concert 5 out of 6.

I will be uploading some of my video clips from Stavanger on YouTube – here is the first one:
Stay On These Roads.

In Tromsø, 13.000 people saw the band at the Døgnvill Festival – where a-ha also played in 2007. Anneli Drecker, who was a-ha’s backing vocalist from 2000 – 2002, came on stage for a duet with Morten on Crying In The Rain. Many of the other songs can also be seen on YouTube here. The concert gets an outstanding review from iTromso.no (6 out of 6) and a more moderate review from nordlys.no (4 out of 6).

At Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim on Saturday they were back on their own Butterfly-shaped stage, with an audience of 15.000 people. The concert included the full 21-song set for an appreciative crowd, despite a chilly temperature. Some reviews can be found at adressa.no and NRK.no. NRK also has a picture gallery here.

 
Apparatjik have announced their third concert, which will take place in London on 23 September at the Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park. More info on apparatjik.com.

 
And happy birthday to Paul, who turns 49 today!

Trondheim, 4 September (Picture by Jakob)

Trondheim, 4 September
(Picture by Jakob)

Magne and Morten visit Rockheim

"How on earth could you wear that, Morten?" Magne studies old a-ha photos at the Rockheim museum in Trondheim today. (Picture from NRK Trøndelag)

“How on earth could you wear that, Morten?”
Magne studies old a-ha photos at the Rockheim museum in Trondheim today.
(Picture from NRK Trøndelag)

Magne and Morten were in Trondheim today to promote Saturday’s concert at Lerkendal stadium. Adresseavisen has a video interview with the guys here.

They also made a visit to Rockheim – the new interactive center/museum for Norwegian pop and rock, which opened earlier this month. The a-ha exhibit seems to be prominently featured at Rockheim, and Magne found some early Bridges photos that he had never seen before.

They are both touched by the reception they’ve been getting at the Norwegian concerts.

Morten: “It’s special for us to be at home in Norway and be met like this. I’m proud of the band“.

Magne: “There’s a really good atmosphere, we can feel that we’re being embraced and that this means a lot to people“.

A video report from their visit to Rockheim can be seen here (starts after 13.30 minutes): NRK Midtnytt 31.08.10

 

Here is another of my video clips from the Bergen concert: Cry Wolf

Be also sure to check out Lena’s videos from the soundcheck (there are 7 so far):
a-ha Bergen 28.08.2010 Soundcheck Part 1

And Claudia’s videos from the concert, like “Crying in the Rain”.

 

Several fans have asked me to mention a new petition for a-ha to stream the last concert on December 4th online. So, here it is: petitions24.com/signatures/a-halivestream/

But, as Catherine writes on WOTM, management is already well aware that fans want the final show to be streamed, so there really is no need for another petition.

 

And here is an interview with graphic designer Jeri Heiden about the HHAL album cover: Uncovered: a-ha, “Hunting High and Low”

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