a-ha PERFORM FINAL CANADIAN DATE AT MASSEY HALL, TORONTO:
















I was lucky enough to catch a-ha in concert as part of their "Ending On A High Note" tour at Massey Hall in Toronto on May 10th, 2010. I have been a long time fan of the trio and decided I wanted to see them in concert and it was definitely worth the trip to Toronto to see them.

I arrived at the venue a bit early and found a crowd of fans around one of the stage doors and heard stories of how they had recently arrived at the venue and that Paul and Mags had stopped to sign a few things for people but that Morten said he would do that later. I was fun chatting with a few fans, one guy had waited for 14 hours at the Toronto airport only to miss them arriving in the city because he waited in the wrong terminal. I entered the famous Massey Hall and took my seat (fifth row centre isle) and waited for the concert to begin after the short set by opener Ray Materick.

Tchaikovsky's "Serenade in C major" started up as their intro music and the large video screen at the back of the stage ran various black and white cartoon drawing images of the band, then Paul, Mags and Morten entered to great applause. They started with the title track from their latest cd "Foot Of The Mountain" and basically played all their best songs in reverse chronological order (see full set-list below). Morten had an early false start on either The Bandstand or Analogue and cracked a smile with Magne once he realized his mistake. The band sounded great and was helped out with a drummer and keyboard player. Morten's voice was in top form which was nice as he has had some problems with it in earlier stages of the farewell tour (he managed the long sustained note in "Summer Moved On" with no problems). A couple of times Magne came out from behind his keyboard to encourage the crowd and even played some drums during one song (Morten also played electronic drums during "Bandtsand"). Mid set the guys got together in the center of the stage and performed "And You Tell Me" and "Early Morning" acoustically without the backing band. Ending with "Cry Wolf" the band left the stage and a nice video retrospective played on the screen, then the band returned to play out the final songs which were "The Sun Always Shines on TV" (during which a montage of old American movies and TV shows was projected on the video screen), "Hunting High And Low" and left the stage and came back to close the show with a great version of their best known hit "Take On Me". I managed to video tape the last song and you can watch it below.

After the concert I noticed a large crowd at the main stage door waiting to try and meet the guys. I walked around to the other side of the building where there was another smaller crowd and a couple of black vehicles waiting so I decided that this was probably the best place to stay and try and meet them. Paul came out first and I got his signature on my "Hunting High & Low" cd booklet. Magne followed and again I got the autograph I wanted. Lastly Morten came out and he said he would sign things first then take photos with fans (he must have spent at least 25 minutes with the fans). Got the final signature on the cd booklet and then thought I might as well get a pic with Morten also so I waited a bit longer and got a photo with him.







It was amazing to finally see the band live and meeting them briefly after the gig was a nice way to end the evening.




a-ha Massey Hall Toronto May 10th, 2010

SET LIST:

8:45 pm - Tchaikovsky's "Serenade in C major" intro

1. Foot Of The Mountain
2. The Bandstand
3. Analogue
4. Forever Not Yours
5. Minor Earth, Major Sky
6. Summer Moved On
7. Move To Memphis
8. The Blood That Moves The Body
9. Stay On These Roads
10. The Living Daylights
11. Scoundrel Days
12. The Swing Of Things
13. And You Tell Me (acoustic)
14. Early Morning (acoustic)
15. We're Looking For The Whales
16. Manhattan Skyline
17. I've Been Losing You
18. Cry Wolf
-- Video Retrospective 10:00 pm
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19. The Sun Always Shines On TV
20. Hunting High And Low
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21. Take On Me
ended 10:25
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BACK FROM HOLIDAY IN TORONTO:

















Well sorry for the lack of posts, I was in Toronto for two weeks and didn't feel like posting while I was visiting with family and friends. Had a great time, also managed to see a-ha, Two Door Cinema Club and The Spoons in concert which was fun (may post concert reviews soon). Also enjoyed going to some of my favourite restaurants and cd stores. A lot of the used cd stores have disappeared, and the majors are basically down to HMV and Sunrise Records.

New cds bought: Keane - Night Train, Tracey Thorn - Love And It's Opposite, Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History and The Spoons - Talkback (first time issued on cd).

Used cds bought: Colin Munroe - Don't Think Less Of Me, Starsailor - On The Outside, Semi Precious Weapons - We Love You, Yes - 90125, Passengers - Wicked Man's Rest, The Creeps - Blue Tomato and many more (great when you find a sale bin $1 each or 7 for $5 at a place like Neurotica).

Restaurants recommended: Green Mango (730 Yonge Street) - amazing pad thai and curried vegetables, Ghazale's (504 Bloor Street West) - still the best falafal in the city, Eastern Twist (505 St. Clair Ave. West) - still love their curry potatoe paratha wrap, and Ali's Roti (1446 Queen Street West) still making great doubles.
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VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:






Interior of Massey Hall







I am off to Toronto soon to visit with family and friends as well as see a-ha live in concert for the first time at the great Massey Hall venue. Also hoping to see Two Door Cinema Club at Wrong Bar if I can get a ticket. I recently discovered MillionYoung who is opening for them so it should be a great concert.

Really love the new demo from MadFox called "No Surrender", definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Howard Jones is touring in North America in October with dates in Florida, New York, Salt Lake City and Toronto (some dates still need to be confirmed). No word on whether it will be the Human's Lib/Dream Into Action albums in the entirety concert or not

Check out Addicted To Vinyl's post on Will Owsley who died recently (he played guitar for the likes of Amy Grant & Shania Twain as well as releasing two albums of his own). They have a great live recording of Will covering the Steely Dan song "My Old School" that is definitely worth getting.

Not sure if I liked the new series "Happy Town" Wednesday night's on ABC but plan to watch it and see how it moves along.
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VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:





















a-ha have announced only three concert dates (Update: extra gigs in L.A. and New York have been added, up to five now) for North America in May as part of their 'Ending On A High Note' tour, and they are in New York and Los Angeles. To say this is a big disappointment is a major understatement, still hoping they manage to add some Canadian gigs to the list. I bought a ticket to one of the New York shows and will plan a road trip to see them if that is the only option.

Speaking of a-ha, band member Magne Furuholmen has teamed up to form a group called Apparatjik with Coldplay's bassist Guy Berryman and singer/guitarist Jonas Bjerre from the band Mew. They have just released their debut cd called "We Are Here", I look forward to hearing what it is like.

Lo-Fi-Fnk have leaked a song of their forthcoming album, the song is called "Marchin' In" and it is available to download from their blog. The song is good, a bit mellow, but it is great knowing that we are getting closer to the album finally being released, 4 years after the amazing 'Boylife' cd.

Nik Kershaw just released a cool solo acoustic album called "No Frills" on Monday. You can order it here from his new nicely redesigned website (and they accept PayPal which is great).

Loving the new Two Door Cinema Club album 'Tourist History'. Favourite tracks are the previously leaked demo track "Something Good Can Work', 'Come Back Home', 'Do You Want It All' and 'This Is The Life'. Check them out if you are a fan of a band like 'Upper Room'.

U.K. band Captain are on a bit of a hiatus (after their second album 'Distraction' ended up not getting officially released by EMI) but a couple of months ago started a new mailing list (sign up here) to try and gauge fan support. When you sign up you also get a free download of an unreleased Captain song called "Back In The Knife Drawer". This track was part of sessions they did in Oxford prior to the recording of 'Distraction'.

Teitur has finished writing his next album and plans to record it in March, hopefully it will get released over the summer.

The Human League have signed with Wall Of Sound Records, hopefully their new cd will be out this year.

I just found the Facebook page of Viv who ran the Thompson Twins Fan Club 'Teefax' back in the day, may try and get in touch to see what she has been up to, hope she is doing well.
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a-ha TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA FOR ANNIVERSARY SHOWS:


















It sounds like a-ha will be having a world tour in the next year in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of a-ha's first Number 1 hit, 'Take On Me'. Their album "Hunting High And Low" will be reissued, following info from their website: Magne said in an interview with BBC News, "For the anniversary, we want to do something creative and revisit material in a different way and make something special for the fans." Although the following timeframes and countries are not 100% confirmed, we understand this is the general tour schedule for 2010.
* In November 2009, the European tour will be extended. The band will also add a show in Tokyo, Japan.
* January will bring a-ha back to Australia for the first time since their first world tour, which opened in Perth, Australia on June 3, 1986.
* Fans in South America, Canada and the United States can look forward to some concerts in March.
* In May and June, a-ha will return to Europe and do some festivals.

The band probably played a few dates in Canada back in the 80's but they never returned after that from what I'm aware of. They are one band that I like that I've never seen live, looks like that will change soon!
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MORE INFO ON THE NEW a-ha CD "FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN":





















Above is the cover for the new a-ha album, not sure if I like it that much. Besides the title track single, two songs to be on the album are - "Shadowside" and "What There Is". "These songs probably have a classic a-ha sound, but many of the other songs on the album will be quite different", Magne Furuholmen says. Hardcore fans of the band may feel that they have heard the band's new single before, apparently the verses are identical with those in the song "The Longest Night" - which was on Magne Furuholmen's "A Dot Of Black In The Blue Of Your Bliss" album last year. But the chorus is new. "This is a completely normal way of working. The song was originally written for a-ha, but then things took time, and it ended up on my solo album first. We're also planning to make a new verse for "Take On Me" and re-release it", Magne Furuholmen laughs.

The cd "Foot Of The Mountain" is due out on June 19th (June 22nd in Norway), no idea if a release is planned for North America.

Monday is a special day here at KulPop, check back to find out why.
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NEW A-HA ALBUM "FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN" DUE OUT IN JUNE:





















Norway's a-ha follow up their successful "Analogue" cd with their ninth studio album titled "Foot Of The Mountain" due out in Europe on June 19th. The first single (cover of single above) is the title track and you can listen to it here and a sample of it on the band's newly set up MySpace page, and they have also set up a Twitter page. A-ha had some live dates scheduled for late October in Germany and a November 4th concert at London's O2 Arena, tour dates here.
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NEW MORTEN HARKET ALBUM AND SINGLE:

















Morten Harket, the lead singer of a-ha has just released his second english solo album (follow up to 1995's 'Wild Seed') titled 'Letter From Egypt' and it is a solid record that should appeal to all a-ha fans. Up for download for a week is the new single from that album titled 'Darkside'. Click here to see a live television appearance of the single.
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