Yesterday a-ha played four songs as they ended “VG lista topp 20″ - a free concert by nearly 30 artists at Rådhusplassen in Oslo. The setlist was - as predicted - The Sun Always Shines On TV, Riding The Crest, Foot Of The Mountain and Take On Me. Some of us were hoping for an additional bonus after the TV went off air, but for some reason the crowd dissipated surprisingly quickly - so now pressure for extras unfortunately.

The weather was rather disappointing, a bit cold and windy and loads of rain - thundershower style. Luckily it lifted before a-ha went on stage. Some reports claim up to 90.000 people attended - which I find rather doubtful. My estimate would be 50-60.000 or so - still a decent crowd. The mood was surprisingly cheery though - given the pretty battering weather.

A-ha’s performance was really good - the TV version don’t give it credit at all - which bodes good for the coming tour. Riding The Crest in particular is a lot more powerful live than the studio version appear. 

Read more about the show in VG and there are lots of pictures from the event here here (a-ha from #68). Even more of my photos on Flickr.

Short video I took from the a-ha signing at Oslo City on June 15 finally up. Long line of people, but everything went quite calmly about.

Believe it or not - it’s my first signed a-ha item ever

Some more photos on Flickr.

I was walking in the city today and to my surprise a-ha was doing soundchecks at Rådhusplassen for tomorrows “VG-lista” concert. I have no idea how many songs they are going to play, but I doubt they’ll attend something like this for just a couple. Most artists will only be able to do one or two songs usually - but most artists also does playback. A-ha will apparently not.

Close to 30 artists will perform during the 3 hour show, and if the weather is as good as tonight probably around 100.000 people will attend. The concert will be televised live on NRK. I take it that it will be able for streaming from nrk.no afterwards.

Other notable acts are Aqua, Alexander Rybak, Big Bang, Lene Marlin, Timbuktu, Eva & The Heartmaker and Mira Craig. Read more at vg.no.

During the time I stayed at the soundcheck the guys played excerpt from Riding The Crest, Foot Of The Mountain and Take On Me. I take it these are pretty safe bets to be on the setlist tomorrow. Hoping for more than that though. Ridning The Crest sounded quite more powerful than on the CD though.

Sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures - only had my mobile with me, and it doesn’t do well when it’s getting a little dark.

Graphics on the screens. Sort of.

If the weather is nice, this place is going to be some wild party :) 

In perfect synch with the release of the new CD in Norway and the lovely news that Photographer Stian Andersen plans a new photobook of a-ha, this saturday saw main norwegian tabloid VG boast a 9 page photo special of a-ha. They also made the top of the frontpage and features the front of the weekend magazine where the article is. All photos are taken by Janne Møller-Hansen and are from the early days.

The photos are accompanied with a short story and each one with humorous comments from the guys:

– We, who really were überserious and grave, suddenly appeared at that time as playful humourboys with cheeky smiles, totally blind to the effect of exposing ourselves so shamelessly.

I’ll see if I get the time to translate in time - in the meantime PDF can be downloaded here:

verdensgang_helg-aha.pdf

New iPhone at the WWDC today. Not difficult to guess that this one will replace my 2G version as soon as it becomes available in Norway. Hopefully within a few weeks now. Lovely!

Especially looking forward to the enhanced camera and video function - and of course the faster processor. Why, I hate waiting.

The new video. Nice feel to it, but a couple parts seems a little unnatural or stiff to me.

Digged and Funny