Tag: a-ha

Oops, I did it again…

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How long have you been reading 6000 miles…?

If it’s more than *weep* 6 years, then you may remember this post from Christmas 2009. It was when my amazing wife bought me amazing tickets for a-ha’s amazing last ever gig in Oslo.

There was much excitement. So. Much. Excitement.
I had almost a year to plan and anticipate my trip, I was going to meet friends and family on the way through. It was going to be amazing. I couldn’t stop smiling for 11 months. I even made a category on here for the whole thing.

But then… then this:

5230643297_8ce7b2ae10_bAnd this:

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And the rest, as they say, is history.

Really, really expensive history.

But then, on a happier note, a-ha reformed, announcing one last album and one last tour.

It wouldn’t be like me to do something daft and use the a-ha fan club pre-sale link to buy tickets for their last ever gig in Bergen next May, would it?

Would it? Er… yes. It would.

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Oh crap. Here we go again.

As impulse purchases go, it was ridiculously expensive and both wholly unthought-through (hence impulse) and yet somehow carefully considered (in that this concert will sell out and I can certainly pass the tickets on should I need to).

Accommodation is sorted too, thanks to a remarkable hotel flex deal meaning that I pay nothing til I get there and don’t have to decide whether to I want to stay until 1600 on the day I check in. 1.4km from the train station, 700m from the concert venue (including a ferry trip). And cheaper than a hotel in Cape Town. I know. You do the maths.

There are a few minor things to work out. Childcare, flights, trains, annual leave and a million other potential stumbling blocks.
But suddenly some bare bones, bare bones which I hadn’t even considered this morning, are in place.

And look, Google is chilled AF about the whole thing:

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Or as the Norwegians would say “Weekend i Bergen”.
Ja. Let’s go play. Possibly. Maybe let’s tell my wife first though.

Shapes

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Music this morning, because I need some cheering up after Mrs 6000’s car nearly killed me twice on the way to work. It stalls SO easily, leaving you a sitting duck when, for example, turning right across oncoming traffic on the appropriately-named Main Road. My issues probably stem mainly from the fact that I don’t drive the vehicle very often. I’m sure it’s one of those things that you learn to avoid when regularly driving it. Otherwise, it’s a simply lovely car with some emissions problems that we didn’t know about when we bought it. Because no-one did. Apart from those devious Germans in the software lab.

I digress. Back to 1994, and the theme for the Lillehammer Winter Paralympic Games.

This song was a massive flop for Morten et al., reaching number 27 in the UK charts, and doing nothing anywhere else. That, together with the tensions within the band indicated that it was likely to be the last single from a-ha. Oh noes.
History shows us that this wasn’t to be the case, but it was a bit scary at the time. Anyway, because of the hiatus which followed, this remains the only single released by a-ha that doesn’t appear on any of their studio albums. You’ll thank me when that question comes up at your next pub quiz.

Still, with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, this is a nice, positive song. I’ve almost forgotten that I’ve got to drive home again this afternoon.

MOAR deluxe edition albums!

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We’ve covered a bit of this already, but after a-ha released their recent offering Cast In Steel, they then released a Deluxe 30th Anniversary Edition of their 1985 classic Hunting High And Low. It has loads of previously unreleased stuff all over its 4 CD loveliness. That only came out last week, so I can’t imagine that it’s the widespread critical acclaim that has prompted the following announcement, but that’s unimportant. What is important is the contents of the following announcement:

A-HA CONTINUE DELUXE EDITION SERIES

Yep. Deluxe editions of Stay On These Roads, Memorial Beach and East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon are on their way. Be still my beaten wallet.

Track listings are here, and once again include demo versions, remixes and previously unreleased material. Included is the instrumental version of Angel In The Snow, special to me because it’s the song that my wife (or wife-to-be, I guess) walked up the aisle to at our wedding.

But wait, there’s more. Lots, lots more. An alternative mix of the beautiful Out Of Blue Comes Green. The soulful I’ll Never Find You In This Streetful City and a DVD release of the 1993 VHS Live In South America.

If you’re an a-ha fan (spoiler: I am), it’s going to be raining wonder for quite some time.

It’s here

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The new a-ha album Cast In Steel came out last night. And I’m listening to it right now. I’ve been listening to it most of the morning, truth be told. I’ve missed several important phone calls and ignored all my colleagues in a meeting. These people must just understand. After all, I’m usually very accommodating. Today is different, though, because a-ha’s new album came out today and that’s actually far more important to me than they are right now.

I’ll obviously have to do a proper review at some stage (of the album, not the colleagues), but for the moment, have this:
First thoughts (spoiler: I’ve been listening to excerpts and track leaks for the last couple of months, so these are actually not my first thoughts at all) are that it is very Radio 2. This is no longer the cutting edge of pop music. This is mature music for a more mature audience. A Radio 2 listening audience.

However, there remains, amongst the music for old people, hints of the electronic synth-pop which made a-ha so popular 30 (*weep*) years ago. That ting-ting-ting in the chorus of The Wake, the first few bars of Forest Fire, which could be straight off 1985’s Hunting High And Low, will happily take you back to younger days.

Then add the 5 bonus tracks: demo versions and interesting remixes of previous releases, and you’ve got a proper treat for fans like me who have been around for too long since the early days.
And there’s more on the way, with a concert tour (yes, I shall be making plans) and the 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set of Hunting High and Low [lengthy tracklist here] coming out later this month (strike while the iron is hot).

September has been kind to us.

Under The Makeup

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With their new (and allegedly last) album out next week, a-ha have finally got around to releasing the video for Under The Makeup: the first single off Cast In Steel. I’ll be honest, aside from the soaring James Bond-esque strings, it’s not one of my favourites by them and that was a bit worrying. Thankfully, the next offering, called The Wake sounds much more like my kind of thing, replete, as it is, with OMD-style ding-y keyboards and an 80’s synthpop feel, but more of that sometime soon.

So – here it is, starring Sofie Gråbøl and Frida “no accents in my surname” Farrell:

Sadly, given all the teasers and the generated suspense, they messed up a bit with the upload to YouTube, meaning that lots of Europe, Africa and apparently all of North and South America couldn’t watch due to “international content restrictions”. Thus, the video above is uploaded from the ridiculously named “WeWantA-HAandMortenHarket InTheFrenchMedia”. They might have a looney name and a niche agenda, but they can at least put 200 seconds of (ahem – pirated) video on the internet better than Universal music.
So… y’know… good for them.

As for the video… ja. I’ve watched it several times now, and I’m still not 100% sure of what’s going on, aside from the unfortunate demise of our protagonist. Are those… are those… Yurts? Do Pal and Magne escape? Whose side are they on anyway? What’s in the briefcase and why is that woman preparing a butternut in the middle of the Scandinavian wilderness?

Are you as lost as I am?

All in all, it’s not a great start to the whole Cast In Steel saga. There was never going to be massive commercial appeal for this anyway, but please – it should at least leave the fans happy. This, awkwardly… hasn’t… doesn’t.

Oh dear.