Tickets please!

How exciting – look what I got in the post last night:

Two of them, in fact.

Now there’s just a couple of flights to organise, a reasonably priced hotel room in Oslo (is there such a thing?) and a couch here and there in the UK.
Oh, and if you’re reading this, Mr Carter – as you should be – you’re proving rather difficult to get hold of!

Oh Emm Gee

Those of you fortunate enough to know me will be aware that I am rarely lost for words. Any potential struggling around in difficult social situations can usually be avoided by my finding some witty or pertinent remark, about 5% of which land me in trouble. But it’s worth taking the chance. Usually.

Mrs 6k hit the speechless nail on the head with her Christmas gift for me this year, though.
In fact, speechless was just part of the reaction. I was stunned, overwhelmed, overcome and speechless. All at the same time.
It took a strong brandy or eight before I could even react at all.

Of course, those who are fortunate enough to know Mrs 6k will be aware that she has always been known for her imaginative ideas in the field of gifting.

But this time she completely outdid herself with a couple of tickets to a little farewell concert in December 2010.

In Oslo.

Just 341 sleeps to go. Oh Emm Gee.

Choked

I’m in shock. Mildly, anyway. I just got this in my email from a-ha’s official website:

With the current album ‘Foot of The Mountain’ enjoying both commercial success and critical acclaim, A-ha has decided to call it a day.

As a consequence, A-ha will not be releasing any further albums in the future.

The band would like to thank their fans and everyone who has contributed to their amazing journey, and say:
‘We’ve literally lived the ultimate boy’s adventure tale, through a longer, more rewarding career than anyone could hope for.
Doing this now will give us a chance to get more involved in other meaningful aspects of life, be it humanitarian work, politics, or whatever else – and of course through new constellations in the field of art and music. We are retiring as a band, not as individuals.
Change is always difficult and it is easy to get set in one’s ways. Now it is time to move on.’

Wow. We shared a quarter of a century together.
You were my first compact disc, you came to my school discos, you kept me sane on wet Lake District holidays.
You popped in while I was at University, you played at my wedding (on CD, because we couldn’t afford to fly you to Cape Town and still have the lamb on the menu) and at the birth of my child (as an mp3 file, for obvious reasons); a child that I then named after your lead singer. 
You are my most played band on iTunes. By a country mile.

And now you leave me for humanitarian work and politics? Politics??

Gutted.

Morten Harket 1959-2009

…and beyond, I hope. But at least I got your attention.

Yes, Morten Harket, lead singer of Norwegian synth-pop supergroup a-ha turns 50 today. And what better way to mark the occasion on 6000 miles… that the ground-breakingly brilliant video for their 1985 hit, Take on Me:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXxMlIExpo 650 390]

Amazing to think that this was 24 years ago and that a-ha are still going strong, having just released their ninth studio album.  I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been a huge fan from those early days and still love their music today.

Happy Birthday, Morten.

a-ha: Foot of the Mountain

2010 marks the 25th anniversary of a-ha‘s first big hit, Take on Me, and the band are planning a world tour to mark the occasion. It seems unlikely that Cape Town will be on their venue list, but if you’re reading, Morten (and I know you’re a big fan of 6000 miles…) then you’re welcome to stop by our place on your way through. Please try to avoid June and July though, I have a World Cup happening and I will be busy doing World Cup stuff.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that a-ha are still together and still releasing albums. Their latest offering, Foot of the Mountain, is their 9th album and was released just last month. And with it, they have unashamedly returned to their 80’s synthy-pop roots, Morten’s distinctive and ageless voice soaring above wonderfully over-produced keyboards from the very first song, like an unusually cheerful Dave Gahan. And that’s something that’s been missing in their work for a while (the over-produced keyboards, not an unusually cheerful Dave Gahan).
Stand out tracks include What There Is, Shadowside and Foot of the Mountain, the latter probably being the most reminiscent of their early stuff, thanks to the repeating keyboard riff. And then there’s the rather Snow Patrol-esque sound of Nothing is Keeping You Here, which even now I can imagine was penned by Gary Lightbody. Although it wasn’t. 
So yes, it’s a surefire hit, but with whom, exactly?

AHA_header

I’ve enjoyed a-ha’s music since the beginning. Yes, I’m a fan and yes, I have all their stuff – even when they lost their direction a bit around 1993. I’ve seen them countless times. I have Paul Waaktaar-Savoy’s leather wristband at home, gained after he threw it into the crowd at Sheffield City Hall in 1988. I have their solo work, even Morten’s Poetenes Evangelium, which is wholly in Norwegian and which I therefore don’t understand, but I still enjoy listening to. Last night, I even held on until the end of the pisspoor Coneheads on SET so that I could hear his version of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. OK – I’ll accept that that was a bit sad.

Of course, when the whole a-ha thing started in the UK, it was cutting edge, new age and trendy. Not quite so now it seems, as they are BBC Radio 2’s album of the month and being interviewed by Dale Winton. Terrifyingly middle-aged, you might argue. And I’d agree. 
But I guess that as the band and their music has got older, so have their fans (I know I have, despite my best efforts to resist). And somehow, the 1980’s style of Foot of the Mountain has got me reliving those days and made me feel all young again.

That’s why I think it’s going to be a popular album with their fans – they still have a huge following in South America, Germany and, of course, Scandinavia. I don’t think they’ll win huge numbers of new followers with FotM, despite the critical acclaim that it has received: there just isn’t a big new market for this sort of music these days. But I doubt that the band are expecting a plethora of teenies bopping along to their stuff anyway.

Suffice to say that this latest offering will keep their fans very happy and eagerly awaiting the upcoming tour and – beyond that – the next album. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to wait another four years for that.