A-Ha
 The
trio at the heart of A-Ha met in 1980 in Oslo, Norway, and decided to
concentrate on producing a commercial form of music. Traveling to
England in 1982, Waaktaar and Furuholmen tried (unsuccessfully) to
secure a record deal.
Undaunted, the trio located to
London in 1983 where they shared a flat and continued to work on
original material and record demo's. While recording one such demo at
Rendezvous Studios, they came to the attention of former record
company executive Terry Slater, who became their manager and arranged
a series of showcase auditions for record companies at a London
rehearsal studio.
By Christmas they were signed
to a worldwide contract by Warner Brothers. Take On Me was
released in the UK in October 1984 (after a successful Norwegian
release). It sold approximately 300 copies! In 1985, the band re-mixed
the single with a different producer and re-released it in the UK, but
it failed to chart once more.
Disillusioned, the trio
elected to spend the northern summer in Oslo. Meanwhile, Warner
released Take On Me in the USA, deciding to spend $100,000 on a
ground-breaking semi-animated video to help secure airplay on MTV. By
October 85, Take On Me had topped the US chart and (on the
third attempt in Britain) hit Number 2 in the UK.
Their debut album (Hunting
High and Low) reached Number 2 in the UK and Number 15 in the US. The album
highlighted the band's melodic synth-based pop style and Harket's
distinctive, smooth (often falsetto) voice. Over the next five years
A-Ha toured the world, won numerous awards (primarily for their
videos) and racked up 13 consecutive Top 30 singles (including their
theme to the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights).
But by the mid 90s the band
had all but ceased to exist, with the original trio moving on to a
number of (far less successful) musical ventures.
| The
Band |
Morten Harket
Vocals |
Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen
Keyboards |
Pal Waaktaar-Savoy
Guitar |
|
