News archive - November 2009
"TV Total Turmspringen" and "Die Ultimative Chartshow"
a-ha were in Munich last night to perform on a live broadcast of the TV-show TV Total Turmspringen on Pro7.
The show, hosted by Stefan Raab, was held inside the city's Olympic Swimming Pool.
a-ha's playback performance of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" can be seen on YouTube.
Friday night's broadcast of Die Ultimative Chartshow on RTL also included a playback performance of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here", plus a short interview with Morten.
A clip of the performance, which was taped in Cologne on October 21st, is also up on YouTube.
And the German concert dates have now finally been confirmed by a-ha.com.
(Thanks to Sandra and Verni)
Motor.de interview / German ticket sales
Magne and Paul were recently interviewed by the German website motor.de.
They are both asked about the decision to end the band and Paul once again says that he wouldn't have had a problem with a-ha continuing.
Magne: I think the main reason for the decision is that we have come a long way together.
For our 25-year band anniversary, we looked back - which we normally don't do, we always look forward - and found that we have had a great time - from the small beginnings in a garage in Norway to the arenas around the world.
We also got the chance to do a comeback and receive respect for it.
It was nice to see that after the very personal hysteria had subsided, our musical influence was still present.
So we would rather end things on a high, than to fade out half-forgotten.
I'd rather end with people applauding with tears in their eyes than applauding just to get rid of you. We have had great experiences together and we have a very complex relationship, because we've known each other for so long. It was simply time to move and do things in a different way.
Paul: The reasons are different for each band member. I would have been able to make another album. I had already written a few songs and worked on them. For me, it would have been great to do another record. But when you're in a band, it's either all or nothing. 25 years is a long time and there are a lot of other things I'd like to try. I would like to collaborate with other artists, or write for other people.
A full English translation of the interview has been posted on the WOTM forum by Sandra.
The ticket sales for most of the German concerts on the 2010 Farewell Tour started yesterday on eventim.de, Germany's leading ticket agency.
Bizarrely, none of the concerts have been confirmed by a-ha.com yet. So there must have been a severe lack of communication somewhere between management, concert promoter and ticket agency. No matter what has happened, tickets are available now and it looks like all the best seats are selling quickly.
End of 2009 tour / New song from Apparatjik
a-ha played the last concert of the Foot Of The Mountain Tour at the JCB Hall in Tokyo yesterday. This was the 50th a-ha concert in Japan since 1986, but only the first since November 2000.
Miko on the WOTM forum reports that although the setlist was the same as usual, the stage setup was rather stripped-down compared to the rest of the tour, without any video screens.
But the audience was enthusiastic and the guys seemed really happy to see the reaction from the crowd, according to Miko.
Apparatjik recently sent out a track called "Electric Eye" to 30 lucky people who submitted their theories about the weird videos posted on the official Apparatjik website.
An extended version of the same track will be made available as a free download from the official website on 30 November.
After the music blog TwentyFourBit picked up info about "Electric Eye" from Coldplaying.com, news about Apparatjik and the new single has been reported by dozens of websites and music blogs in several countries, including NME, Q and The Guardian.
A complete overview of all the media articles that have appeared in the last few days can be found on magnef.us. Also be sure to check out the new fansite apparatchick.com, which includes a blog with news updates and a forum.
German tour dates 2010
17 concert dates in Germany have been announced today, as part of the 2010 Farewell Tour. There will be big outdoor concerts in May, June and July, and they will be back for an indoor arena tour in October. Here are the dates:
28 May: HockeyPark, Mönchengladbach
29 May: Arena Trier, Trier
30 May: Hessentag, Stadtallendorf
02 June: Sparkassen Arena, Kiel
18 July: Schloss Salem, Salem
23 July: Schlossplatz, Emmendingen
24 July: Gerry Weber Stadion, Halle
25 July: Elbufer, Dresden
18 October: Olympiahalle, Munich
19 October: Porsche Arena, Stuttgart
21 October: Arena NV, Nürnberg
22 October: Arena Leipzig, Leipzig
23 October: Stadthalle, Rostock
25 October: VW Halle, Braunschweig
26 October: SAP Arena, Mannheim
28 October: Color Line Arena, Hamburg
29 October: O2 World Arena, Berlin
The dates were announced on the website of a-ha's German concert promoter Marek Lieberberg. Ticket sales are expected to start this Friday, November 27th.
Russian concerts / "Nur Die Liebe Zählt"
a-ha played for an audience of 11.500 people in St. Petersburg on Friday, and presumably an even larger audience in Moscow yesterday (don't know the exact number).
There are plenty of fan videos on YouTube from both St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Some pictures and articles in Russian about the concerts:
oper.ru
zvezdanews.ru
afisha.mail.ru
zvuki.ru
a-ha's playback-performance of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" on Nur Die Liebe Zählt was broadcast yesterday on Sat1. The show was taped on November 13th. A clip of the performance can be seen on YouTube.
Tour update / Links / DVD correction
a-ha have now arrived in Russia, following three additional dates in Germany and their second-ever concert in Poland. Tonight they are playing at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg and on Sunday they will be at the Olympic Arena in Moscow, before heading over to Japan for the last concert of the tour in Tokyo on Wednesday, 25 November.
Below are links to some reviews and picture galleries from the last week.
Oberhausen, 12 November:
DerWesten.de (review 1)
DerWesten.de (review 2)
DerWesten.de (gallery)
Hannover, 14 November:
NeuePresse.de
NeuePresse.de (gallery)
Erfurt, 16 November:
Freies-Wort.de
Lodz, 17 November:
infomusic.pl
nolimits.media.pl
muzyka.interia.pl
miasta.gazeta.pl
On Friday November 13th, between the concerts in Oberhausen and Hannover, a-ha taped an appearance on the German TV-show "Nur Die Liebe Zählt". They performed "Nothing Is Keeping You Here", and the show will air this Sunday, November 22nd on Sat1.
a-ha will perform at the "Bayerischer Filmpreis" (the Bavarian movie awards) in Munich on January 15th 2010, according to Universal Germany. The award show is held at the Prinzregententheater and will be broadcast on the German TV-channel BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk) at 8.15 PM.
Following the concert in Brussels last week, there was an interview with Paul and Morten on Belgian TV. The clip, which includes some live footage from the gig, can be seen here.
And according to Fitz on the German forum, there will be a third live track - "The Bandstand" - included on the DVD that comes with the FOTM Deluxe Edition, in addition to "Foot Of The Mountain" and "Riding The Crest". All three live tracks were recorded at the SWR3 concert in Neuwied this past August.
(Thanks to Sandra, Gosia, Andreas and Fitz)
DVD details / Brussels concert / Chart update
Here are the details of what will be included on the DVD that comes with the forthcoming Deluxe Edition of Foot Of The Mountain:
Live tracks:
1. Foot Of The Mountain (Live in Neuwied, 6 August 2009)
2. Riding The Crest (Live in Neuwied, 6 August 2009)
Music videos:
1. Foot Of The Mountain
2. Shadowside
3. Nothing Is Keeping You Here
The Deluxe Edition is out on 4 December, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.de.
(Picture by Sufian)
The Ancienne Belgique in Brussels was the place to be yesterday, as a-ha played their first concert in Belgium since 2005. Sufian (who sent me some pictures) says that the venue was sold out and the concert got a great reception from the audience.
Tonight they are back in Germany for three more concerts, starting in Oberhausen. By the way, check out these great pictures from the Paris concert.
The tour has led to the album once again climbing on the German chart. It went from #66 in week 43, to #33 the following week and then up to #14 last week. This week it's still in the top 20, at #18 (after 21 weeks in the chart).
The "Shadowside"-single entered the German single chart at #36, before climbing up to #22 last week. This week it's down to #33. In Austria "Shadowside" entered at #73, but fell out of the chart after the first week. "Foot Of The Mountain" re-entered the German single chart at #38 last week. This week it's down to #53 in its 20th week on the chart.
And the movie Yohan, in which Morten plays one of the roles, has once again been given a new Norwegian premiere date. The new date - hopefully the final one - is 26 March 2010.
(Thanks to Andreas, Sufian, David and Nilo)
The tour continues / NIKYH music video
(Picture by Jakob)
The concerts in the UK and Oslo last week received good reviews in the press.
Birmingham concert reviews:
Birmingham Mail (4/5)
Shropshire Star
Manchester concert reviews:
News Of The World (4/5)
CityLife.co.uk (4/5)
London concert reviews:
wharf.co.uk (5/5)
Oslo I concert reviews:
Dagbladet (5/6)
Aftenposten (5/6)
Dagsavisen (5/6)
Nettavisen (4/6)
Oslo II concert reviews:
Puls.no
(Picture by Jakob)
Before the first concert in Oslo a-ha were interviewed by Per Sundnes for NRK. Video clips of the interview can be viewed on NRK.no.
There was also a recent interview with Morten and Paul in the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau on 3 November. Sandra has posted an English translation on the WOTM Forum here.
As the last two a-ha concerts next year, in Oslo Spektrum on 3 and 4 December 2010 are now sold out, yet another concert has been added for 2 December. Tickets are available now from Billettservice.no.
The tour continued in Paris last night, where they played the smallest concert of the tour. Although it was sold out, the Bobino Hall only holds around 1000 people. Quite a contrast to the large concerts last week.
(Picture by Jakob)
The music video for "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" finally premiered on 4 November, on the German website MyVideo.de. If you live outside of Germany, the video is also available on YouTube.
The music video was directed by Uwe Flade, who also did the "Shadowside" video.
And as you can probably hear, the German/European single mix is different to the UK version of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here", making it the third version of the song to be released.
Don't forget to pre-order your copy of the "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" CD-single from Amazon.de!
CD-single tracklist:
1. NIKYH (Single Edit) 3:04
2. NIKYH (Steve Osborne Remix) 3:20
Thank you
a-ha-live.com just passed 100 000 unique visitors so far this year. The monthly number of visitors has been growing from 4 back in January to 20 000 now in October.
So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who keep visiting the site, thanks for contributing info and for the hundreds of e-mails I have received.
Jakob
(BTW, don't expect any news updates this week. I'll be busy travelling to concerts in London and Oslo.)
100 concerts next year?
VG's paper edition has another article about a-ha today.
a-ha manager Harald Wiik is pleased with how things have been going on the Foot Of The Mountain tour so far. "We expect sold out venues everywhere", he says.
And the number of concerts that are being planned for next year's farewell tour seems to be constantly increasing. "I presume that there could be as many as 100 concerts next year", Wiik tells VG.
Frankfurt concert
a-ha played the last concert of October in Frankfurt's Festhalle yesterday. This was the first concert that didn't have a support band, as the German band Stanfour - which has opened on the other concerts - had another gig somewhere else.
I don't have the Frankfurt setlist yet, but I do have the Hamburg setlist now (thanks, Simone!). Update: Here is the Frankfurt setlist, sent in by Andreas.
Some reviews and pictures from Frankfurt:
Frankfurter Neue Presse
HR3 Online
After the concert, the band and invited guests went out on the town in Frankfurt to celebrate Magne, who turns 47 today. Congratulations Magne!
