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A-Ha biography
A-HA BIOGRAPHY
The chiselled-cheekbones, pop mag covers and hordes of screaming pre-pubescent female fans, masked the fact that Norwegian popsters A-ha were actually a talented musical combo. Unlike the umpteen 'boybands' that followed them, A-ha wrote their own music, played their own instruments and in frontman Morten Harket, had a talented singer. They embraced the MTV age in the the '80s with their breakthrough video for debut single, Take On Me which featured animated drawing brought to life, and eventually ran out of steam in the early '90s after 13 Top 30 singles and one No.1 The Sun Always Shines On TV. Recently, with namechecks from rockers like Coldplay and U2, the Norwegian popsters' stock has risen with a recent comeback album, Analogue.
The band were formed in 1982 after keyboardist Magne Foruholmen and guitarist Pal Waaktar recruited vocalist Morten Harket. Both Magne and Pal had played in Oslo rock groups Spider Empire and Bridges in the mid '70s. The band relocated to London in 1984 and secured the services of manager Terry Slater. It was through him that the band took their demo, Lesson One, to Warners Records and were signed to a contract. The song Lesson One was eventually remixed and renamed Take On Me. It was released to a disinterested British public in 1984. The following year the song bombed again but things looked brighter in the US where the song had received a £100,000 animated facelift by pop video director Steve Barron. The clever promo resulted in some precious airtime on MTV in America and catapulted the song to No.1 in the US Billboard charts in October 1985. It was immediately given a third release in the UK where it peaked at No.2.The song's success immediately propelled our Nordic heroes into pop pinups, a situation they were never very comfortable with. "It freaked me out," says Magne of the bubble-gum pop tag. "We can't blame anyone else though. We posed for all those silly photographs and made those cheesy videos."
The band's debut album, Hunting High And Low was released in the UK towards the end of 1985. Its strangely compelling blend of electro pop and Harket's falsetto vocals struck a chord with pop lovers, who propelled it to a Top 3 placing in the charts. The album spawned further hit singles with the title track, the chart-topping The Sun Always Shines On TV and Train Of Thought. Follow up album, 1986's Scoundrel Days, produced by Cliff Richard's producer, Alan Tarney, helped to continue the band's success in the UK with hit singles Manhattan Skyline and Cry Wolf. In 1987 lyricist and guitarist Pal Waaktar co-wrote The Living Daylights, the theme tune to that year's James Bond flick of the same name. Sung by Harket, the song provided the band with another Top 20 UK hit.
By 1988 and the group's third album, Stay On These Roads, their popularity had waned a bit although it didn't stop them having a chart hit with the album's title track. In 1989 Harket added acting to his repertoire when he starred in the Scandanavian flick Kamilla and the Thief.
The band returned in 1990 with the album, East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon, which spawned Top 20 Hit, Crying In The Rain, a cover of the Everly Brothers classic. The band returned to the UK charts in 1993 with the single Dark Is The Night and new album, Memorial Beach. In the same year Harket changed direction to cut his first solo album, Wild Seed, an esoteric, some might say self indulgent offering of musical adaptations of 12 Norwegian poems about the life of Christ. Unsurprisingly, critics gave it the thumbs down. Magne and Pal fared little better with their spin-off projects, Timbersound and Savoy. Soon, the band felt they were unable to get punters to take them seriously. They disintegrated and barely spoke to eachother for five years. Then in 1998 the band accepted an invitation to play at the Nobel Peace Prize concert. The band sensed a gradual re-awakening of interest in their music and the reunion resulted in the album, Minor Earth, Major Sky in 2000 which managed to scrape into the UK Top 30 and spawn hit single, Summer Moved On. A follow up album, 2002's Lifelines, failed to provide one.
But soon, the band's '80s epics were becoming fashionable again after name-drops from the likes of Robbie, Coldplay and U2. (The Edge called them "the most underestimated band in the world") The renewed interest led to a new label deal with Polydor Records and a new album in 2005, Analogue. They recently played their first concert for 20 years in New York and have been packing them in at gigs in the UK. Their songwriting has matured and critics have praised the ballad-heavy new sound. And with new song , Celice, included on the soundtrack to this summer's blockbuster movie, The Da Vinci Code, there's no reason why, Magne says, "We can't be one of the great bands. We were a young, great band who were misunderstood." A-ha, ready to take on the world again?
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