Why Take on Me hitmakers a-ha hated being pop stars
In 1986 Take on Me made Norway’s a-ha instant pin-up boys, even it was against their will. More than thirty years later, they’ve made peace with the pop machine that made them famous.
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Ironically the set lists for a-ha’s first Australian tour, in 1986, and their very belated second tour next year will be very similar.
That tour for the Norwegian band was actually their first world tour — their Perth show on June 3 1986 their first ever live show as a band.
34 years later, their long awaited return to Australia will see them play their first album Hunting High and Low in full, as well as a second set from a career that has seen them sell 55 million albums and remain a stadium act in Europe, the UK and South America.
“Back then we had no other songs.” frontman Morten Harket recalls.
“Since then our catalogue has grown markedly …”
The trio’s career launched with the global No. 1 Take on Me.
It was originally called The Juicy Fruit Song, then Lesson One and harks back to 1981.
It was the song (and keyboard riff) that convinced Harket to join keyboardist Magne Furholmen and guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy in a-ha.
The song was released twice, flopping each time, before a third version in 1985 broke
through, thanks to an iconic video where Harket came to life from the pages of a comic book.
Take on Me’s video has been viewed over 900 million times on You Tube, while the song has been endlessly covered (from DJ Kygo to rock band Weezer most recently) and referenced in pop culture — including Deadpool 2.
“It lives a life completely on its own terms,” Harket says of Take on Me.
“It’s been much better at being a pop star than we have ever been. It lives a parallel life to us and it’s been doing very well. I’m not protective of it. You can’t touch that song anyway. People can play with it, mess around with it, do whatever they want, it’s not going to change what it is.”
While the band are mistakenly viewed by some as one-hit wonders, Harket says a-ha have no problem embracing their biggest hit.
“Singles like The Sun Always Shines on TV, Train of Thought and Hunting High and Low from that first album were very big hits for us, they just haven’t taken off the way Take on Me has. Globally that song sits in a very particular position. It belongs in a unique category and it stands away from everything else.
“We know it’s the one song that sticks out. We came to peace with it a long time ago. In the earlier days it was a little harder, so much was associated with that song. Since then we’ve built a longevity in our career not just on Take on Me, but the catalogue that makes up who we are as a band. But Take on Me has always been there, it’s played its part, it’s the joker in the pack.”
The band’s imperial period saw the Hunting High and Low album sell over 11 million copies worldwide.
They recorded I’ve Been Losing You, the first single from second album Scoundrel Days, in Sydney while on their Australian tour.
The rockier sound, as evidenced on single Cry Wolf, saw them lose fans in some markets, however the album still cracked six million sales.
In 1987 the band recorded the Bond theme The Living Daylights, their last major Australian hit, but their success maintained in the UK, Europe and especially South America.
However Harket admits the band’s synth-pop driven early days created an impression that was hard to shake.
“We hit the market so hard, with such an impact in 1985, based very much on external things like the way we looked.
“A lot of people thought we were a boy band who had been put together by a record label. The opposite is the truth, we’ve never been in the interested in that.
“There was an onslaught of attention by the pop media. They made us into that through putting posters in magazines. They’d take 1000 pictures before you’d blink and turn them into posters. They’d groom a band to their tastes.
“That’s what happened to us. We felt we’d lost complete touch with ourselves and who we were in terms of how we were presented to the media. That was a tough time for the band.”
Their response was to retreat, pull back from interviews and photo shoots.
“We withdrew, we took a reclusive direction for quite some time. We just carried on making the music we always loved.
“None of us were drawn to pop music or the pop scene when we were teenagers. It was only when we started as a band and went to London we became curious about the music scene.
“It was the early 80s in England, there were experimental acts, it was a stimulating time. We knew the Beatles went after the charts at the start of their career in order to get attention and then moved on from there to do what they wanted. We thought we could do the same.
“But these were early days. We’d never made an album before, we’d never met a producer before. You want to be positive about their ideas, it takes a while before you get tough enough to stand your ground. That’s where we came from. We viewed ourselves from the outside and we saw this pop act. We don’t know who the bloody hell they were. It was a funny time.”
By 1994 the band had gone on hiatus while all three members worked on solo projects. They reunited for 2000s Minor Earth Major Sky and 2002’s Lifelines.
Around this time a-ha began getting a reappraisal from critics and their peers — with Coldplay’s Chris Martin hailing Hunting High and Low as one of his favourite albums and even performing the title track live (Furholmen joined him on stage at a Coldplay show on one occasion).
Coldplay’s bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion would go on to play on Furholmen’s solo album.
“Chris Martin has been very vocal about where he stands with the band,” Harket says.
“After some time it almost became a movement among very well known artists in the industry that were starting to have their (positive) comments on the band. It created a wave for a period.”
The band were compared to Depeche Mode on 2009’s Foot of the Mountain album, while Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCullogh and Yazoo’s Alison Moyet performed with them at their MTV Unplugged show, lending even more credibility.
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TAKE ON ME HITMAKERS A-HA RETURN TO AUSTRALIA
By 2011 the band announced a final tour, Ending on a High Note, to mark their 25th anniversary , however they returned for more touring and 2015’s Cast In Steel album.
“That was the only time we consciously decided, `OK, it’s 25 years, let’s be thankful and end on a high’,” Harket says.
“Which was very good for us. It’s the first time we’ve planned anything consciously. It was the first time people working for us knew what the band was doing, they could start to make their plans. They set up a world tour, which was a great tour, and that was it.
“We were asked was this (split) for keeps? I said we can’t be sure, but we had to stop, it was a definite plan. We needed a completely open sky. The media said we were never going to be back together again, which was bullsh--, we never said that. Naturally we got back together a few years ago, that felt right then and here we are.”
Yet while they’re excited to tour territories they’ve neglected for decades, Harket says a new a-ha album is unlikely.
“We already have a huge track record of songs. I think we’ll do that (make new music) independently. Recording is quite a big project for a-ha. I don’t see that we will be doing that. There’s a lot of limitations on the individuals in the band when you are in the band. The three of us are driven partly in different directions, we need space and time for that. But we do really enjoy going out, at times, and we do play quite a lot of gigs. But because we are senior band members these days and we understand our lives better we understand how to balance things better, between private life, private time, family time and also just to be professional about going out on the road and being on stage and delivering to your standard. If we can’t deliver to that standard we would stop on the dot.”
Harket continues to be a coach on the Norwegian version of The Voice (”I realise I do know a lot of things know, I feel I have something to give back”) and will turn 60 in September.
“I haven’t had a problem hitting those notes yet, that may happen. I haven’t noticed a change in my voice. I’m only turning 60 though. I promised myself not to grow older until I grow wiser so I’m just hanging in there waiting for that to happen..”
A-HA AND RICK ASTLEY, PSEUDO ECHO AND I KNOW LEOPARD: A DAY ON THE GREEN SHOWS
Kings Park and Botanic Garden Perth Feb 19
Rochford Wines Yarra Valley Vic Feb 22
Bimbadgen Hunter NSW Valley Feb 29
Sirromet Wines Mount Cotton March 1.
(Pseudo Echo not playing Perth)
A-HA AND RICK ASTLEY
Margaret Court Arena Melbourne Feb 23
Originally published as Why Take on Me hitmakers a-ha hated being pop stars
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