A-HA IS READY FOR THE WORLD! IS THE WORLD READY FOR THEM?

A-HA IS READY FOR THE WORLD! IS THE WORLD READY FOR THEM?

Sylvie Simmons

Outside in the rain there’s a couple of dripping London bobbies gaping at a couple of hundred teenage girls who look like they’ve been put through the rinse cycle once too often, and scream like David Lee Roth sings every time a face appears at the window! Which could, of course, have something to do with the faces belonging to the barely-pronounceable, unbearablyperfect Magne Furuholmen, Pal Waaktaar and Morten Harket, more sensibly known as A-Ha. They’re up here announcing their first tour—a world tour—that takes in five continents, 25 million people, and that lasts nine months, almost three of them (August through October) in America, and they’re “excited.” Though no more excited than the network of fans outside, who discovered the whereabouts of this “secret” event and are dissolving in puddles of happy drool as I talk to Mags, Pal and Mort...

It started out as Bridges. Bridges are something that get walked over. Bridges are something you can kill yourself off. Bridges get you from A to B. And Bridges was all those things to a 16-year-old Mags and a 14-year-old Pal, who put it together as their first real band back in Oslo, Norway. They’d grown up together, developing from playing the recorder and potsand-pans to cheap synthesizers, recruited another couple of unpronounceable Scandinavian types and put out an independent album of symphonic stuff. And they talked of England and new wave and fashion and record contracts overflowing like fjords and other Norwegian folktales, and Pal and Mags put $3000 in their pockets (saved from part-time jobs driving streetcars and teaching children) and headed for the musical capital of Europe, leaving the rest of their reluctant band and their cheap synthesizers behind them. They presented themselves to the record companies and...

Nothing. Not a thing. No interest whatsoever. So they hitchhiked back home to Norway, and got arrested for stopping cars in Germany, where they don’t like that sort of thing too much.

In 1983, back in Oslo, they found Mort, who’d been singing in a band called Soldier Blue. And back they went to London with a new name. The Bridges had been burned and they were now A-Ha. Could have been Ahem. “It started out as the name of a song,” says Pal—he hadn’t decided which of the two it was going to be—“and Morten saw it in my notebook and thought it was a good name for a band.”

“We wanted to become so big that we’d ruin the expression ‘a-hal’ for peopie, so that you can’t say it withouttl ing of our band!” says Mags, whoh bit of a bad streak. I mean, there sill other two in blue silk jacket and tiny* scarf (Mort) and nice checkered swel and clean jeans (Pal), and here hef a scruffy brown leather jacket! ItdocH surprise you when you learn that the| Pal was signing their record contri London, Mort was down at the polici tion bailing Mags out of jail! (A little dr he’d apparently been running away a couple of girls who establii themselves in the band’s shabby ment, tripped over and knocked dot passing policeman!)

The first song they recorded, “Tate| Me,” got to number one in Norway,j,e’ the U.S., then half the world loony—number one in 14 countriesBritain, their adopted home, event caught on, too. Their latest single, Of Thought” (re-recorded in the Abbey Road studio with an orchestra zooming up the charts here, their Hunting High And Low album sells more every day, and there’s a second album halffinished; ihey were busy recording late into last night.

Il| “The better half” of it is already done, jjMort says. “We’ve been recording for two ^months, says Pal, who wrote all the songs with Mags, and they’ll be doing m0re of Ihe recording in America in the iefai'n middle of their tour, “a tricky joething,” according to Mort, “because we’ll have to pop in and out of the rehearsal (r£.studio and the recording studio” in bejC6.tween shows. They’re also recording >d(ievery show on tour> “but not to go on .the album”—just for their own use, to see b||S.how they sound.

a; Because they’ve no idea what they do1SOUnd l'ke live' “We’ve never played live as A-Ha before,” says Mort. “We didn’t wd0 anything when we were in Norway,” iandthey couldn’t do anything when they ,were i° Britain because they didn’t have 3S,w°rk Permits. “When we were over here IniM cou|dn’t even do a pub gig or we’d i./1ave been thrown out!” bJP!'1’ '^y’re not worried about how fare onstage. They’ve been practicing “in front of cardboard dummies,” Pal laughs, and “we’ve always shot from the hip anyway,” says Mort.

“To us it’s not a test—it may be to you. I’m just excited about it, really. I think it’s the right thing to do at this stage. We’ve been in studios a long time; we need to go out and play.”

“It’s the ultimate band thing,” says Mags. “You don’t feel like a band unless you go out on the road.”

“We always knew we would be faced with this studio-band image thing when we started,” says Mort, “but we always knew that eventually we would go out and play properly.” The biggest fear of spending nine months on the road for the first time is, he laughs, “these two guys!”

Seriously, though, are they going to cope with seeing each other day-in, dayout for all that time?

“We’ve lived together for more than three years now, from day to day,” smiles Mort. He doesn’t mention the friction that’s arisen once or twice during those three years—like the time he and Mags had a terrific fight, the pacifist Mort coming out on the losing end, with his head through a window, and moved in with Visage’s singer Steve Strange for a short while until it blew over!

“There’s quite a lot of friction when we record,” is all Mort will say. “But that’s what helps it. We’re getting on very well actually. We have a lot of respect for each other, and we have the same goals.” The other two nod.

They’ll be taking three other musicians on the road with them—one of them a Norwegian guy they met in L.A., the other two Americans, although one of the Americans, says Mort, ‘‘has a more Norwegian name than we have! At the moment it looks very good, very powerful,” he laughs. ‘‘We’re going to blast them!”

Well, they’ll have to do something loud to be heard over the screaming. As they obviously take their music very seriously, does it bother them that they might as well be up there crooning Norwegian folk songs, for all some of their fans care?

‘‘It’s the whole atmosphere that counts, really,” says Pal.

“They can go home and listen to the records if they want to,” nods Mags.

“Yes,” Mort agrees. “There’s a time for sitting back and listening in the peace and quiet, but not at the concert. It’s a different thing.”

“We’ll match any level of noise!” offers Pal. “We’ll match the excitement,” says Mags.

They’ll find out for sure when the tour starts in Australia in June—a place they say they picked because “we like sheep” and they’re less likely to suffer from hayfever there! They’ve been getting in shape for the tour by “skateboarding,” according to Pal, who went out and bought some roller-skis a few days before. “That’s what we use in Norway when there's no snow. We're very physical."

"We're still quite young," says Mort, "so I think we'll get in shape without any difficulties. When we went back to Norway for Easter we did some cross-country skiing—which is quite hard when you've lived in England for three years!" The tour ends in Norway next January "We wanted to have the peak in Norway," says Mort, and make it a special event. "We didn't want to start off there because it's like playing your hometown you don't want to make fools of yourself!" aughs Mags. "I'm really looking forward to that part of it," says Mort, "coming back home."

So far it looks like Mags and Pal will be taking their girlfriends on the road; Mort will be the only eligible one. "Oh?" he laughs, That's fine!" According to some newspaper reports, his romance with dancer Bunty Bailey has broken up. He says he'd rather not talk about it. "I'm in bit of a tricky situation there! Romance never over. You have to keep the omance going," he adds mysteriously. As for what he looks for when he choosad girlfriends: "They choose us!" he

You get the distinct impression they don't much like being pin-ups, however well-qualified they all are for the job. That's not what we wanted," says Mort. "We were trying to keep that down." And as for taking away the sex symbol crown from Duran Duran and Wham!: "I'd like to give it back to them!" But would they be the stars they are today if they didn’t look so cute?

“It’s hard to tell,” says Mort. “But the record company has been good. They could have done it the safe way and had our faces plastered all over the magazines to get a hit—but that would have caused a lot of problems with us, because we wouldn’t have liked it. We have been told we have some poster potential—but that can be a big problem, actually, if you’re serious about the music. We can't help the way we look, you know!”

Mort always used to get bullied at school. Is success a way of getting back at those bullies—the Sweetest Revenge, as Morrissey of the Smiths put it?

“No. Success is being bullied as well—all the fuss and attention you get is very much the same thing really. I don’t think so. The most important thing is to like what you’re doing yourself really. If you have self-respect, it doesn’t really matter that much what other people think.”

Mort also said—though it’s hard to believe—that girls always ignored him at school. Now, of course, they chase him. Has success changed anything else?

"When you’ve lived 25 years before this happens,” says Mags, the oldest, “you know yourself as a person that you’re really not all that interesting, so it doesn’t mean anything!”

“You mustn't take it too seriously,” says Mort. “You mustn’t sell yourself in any way.”

“The only thing that’s really important,” says Pal, “is the music. Always.”

Now they're only concerned with showing they have credibility and a long career, and the only way of doing that is “you have to show it,” says Mort, “not talk about it.” “Hopefully,” says Mags, “we’ll expand as we make more and more records.” They plan on working hard—“Home isn’t anywhere in particular at the moment,” says Pal—and not letting all this fame go to their handsome heads.

“It’s being not famous that’s hard to cope with!” laughs Pal. “The public may have changed their attitudes towards us; but we haven't changed.”

A-HA On Tour,

1986 Canada & America

As promised last month, the big news of the summer will surely be the premiere tour of one of 1985’s hottest groups—the astonishing A-Ha! To help you plan attending one of their U.S. or Canadian shows, here is their tentative itinerary when they hit our shores. This is one invasion a lot of people are looking forward to!

AUGUST

FRI. 15 VANCOUVER WORLD EXPO THEATER SAT. 16 SEATTLE PARAMOUNT THEATER SUN. 17 PORTLAND SCHNITZER THEATER TUE. 19 SAN FRANCISCO

FRI. 22 LOS ANGELES UNIVERSAL AMPHITHEATER SAT. 23 LOS ANGELES UNIVERSAL AMPHITHEATER WED. 27 SAN DIEGO AMPHITHEATER THU. 28 PHOENIX GAMMAGE HALL

SEPTEMBER

MON. 1 DENVER PARAMOUNT WED. 3 OKLAHOMA CIVIC CENTER THU. 4 AUSTIN PALMER AUDITORIUM FRI. 5 HOUSTON SAT.6 DALLAS

MON. 8 NEW ORLEANS SANGER THEATER TUE. 9 MEMPHIS ORPHEUM THEATER WED. 10 BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA BAUTWELL AUDITORIUM FRI. 12 ATLANTA SAT. 13 TAMPA BAY FRONT SUN. 14 MIAMI SUNRISE THEATER THU. 18 NASHVILLE PERFORMING ARTS THEATER FRI. 19 ST. LOUIS KIEL OPERA HOUSE SAT. 20 KANSAS CITY MIDLAND THEATER SUN. 21 OMAHA MUSIC HALL TUE. 23 MILWAUKEE RIVERSIDE THEATER WED. 24 MINNEAPOLIS ROY WILKENS AUDITORIUM FRI. 26 CHICAGO AUDITORIUM SUN. 28 DETROIT FORD THEATER

OCTOBER

WED. 1 INDIANAPOLIS CLOWES HALL

THU. 2 CLEVELAND MUSIC HALL

FRI. 3 WASHINGTON D.C. CONSTITUTION

SAT. 4 NORFOLK CHRYSLER HALL

MON. 6 PHILADELPHIA TOWER THEATER

WED. 8 PITTSBURGH MOSQUE THEATER

FRI. 10 NEW YORK RADIO CITY

SAT. 11 NEW YORK RADIO CITY

MON. 13 HARTFORD BUSHNELL THEATER

TUE. 14 BUFFALO SHEAS THEATER

THU. 16 TORONTO MASSEY HALL

SAT. 18 MONTREAL VERDON

MON. 20 PROVIDENCE OCEAN STATE THEATER

TUE. 21 BOSTON ORPHEUM