Who needs a label, promo, singles, airplay, and HYPE, when you sell out shows, you sell out your own distributed cd's, so who cares if the MASSES dont get it, who the fuck needs the MASSES?

This whole "week" idea started back in January when a-Ha member MAGNE F decided to give away 6tracks on his Myspace site for free, but he didnt stop there, a UNIQUE email to his fans, stated the 3 ways you could get this music. He was going to make 300 COLLECTIBLE copies, all different, artwork, signatures, Cd and vinyl editions for sale, for the diehards/loyals, to give them what they would pay for. THOSE who missed out on the 300 could download the digital tracks for free for a limited time, and the rest of the people could go on with their lives and leave him alone. Well people may have GONE NUTS when they saw the 100 EURO price for the LTD edition but they sold out in 1 day, the dowloads went through the roof, and a letter writing campaign forced a distributor in Norway/UK to release his CD on Monday called "a dot of black in the blue of your bliss", and on top of this he signed a deal with ELLE magazine in Norway to put the CD in the magazine, at least 6 songs of it, the new cd contains more songs than the download or the Elle magazine issue.

Then stepped in is SAVOY, a band fronted by a-Ha member Paul Savoy and his wife Lauren, this is their 5th release and its a 2cd set of songs re-done from previously released albums plus an acoustic disc.

Then enter Morten Harket, the lead singer of a-Ha, he has been working on a solo record for quite some time that was due out last year but was delayed till now, the first single MOVIES and current one DARKSPACE, this cd will see a release in Norway, germany and possibly the uk.

All 3 cds will be out Monday together. But thats not where it ends, always wanting to do something NO ONE can do, a-Ha has set out on a ONE week only promo tour, magne F playing a few FREE shows, Morten doing an Instore session and Paul a live gig, all of this to come together at Royal Albert Hall when the 3 members perform SOLO but together, in a serious of events in the uk and Norway from the 20th through the 24th, all shows are sold out.

The unique shows will further each ones belief in each others contribution to the band, and lead the way to their 10th album due out in the fall, along with a DVD of the Royal albet hall show. Each member has a very different style and that is the reason that a-Ha has gone from their "synth" days in the 80's, to becoming a more well rounded band which shows in all their work since 1990, till this decade which they have owned in terms of creating perfect songs. And the funny thing is, like the members of QUEEN back in the day, a-Ha fight ALOT!

Does this mean I get the week off work?

Now that's great promo.

Matronik said:

They have made alot of money in their career and now too, people write them off in this country as a one hit wonder and the topic of countless-mindless vh1 shows, but they proved what QUEEN proved, America aint shit when it comes to the big picture. Queen is still one of the walthiest bands in history and biggest selling, and a-Ha has sold over 80 million worldwide, about 2 million of that from the USA, so we can see where the usa stacks on the world stage.

lastdecember said:

a-ha are huge worldwide. They are massive (like almost in a beatlemania fashion) in countries like Brasil.

Matronik said:

Oh i know, i was lucky to get a dvd from someone in CHILE of when they played a show on the "analogue" tour that was broadcast on tv, and the crowds were huge. I was lucky to get to see a-Ha for their only show when they played here in NYC sept 12 2005, it was 20 years since they last played a show here, and as Magne said when they came on stage, maybe we'll do this a little sooner next time. In talking with the band, mainly Magne through his myspace site, he has told me that they really want to do somehting here in the usa, but there is too much politics with labels, and to sponsor there own tour in the USA would cost tons of money, he told me that they lost money on the NYC gig they did, even though it sold out in 20 minutes. Just from the expense of traveling to america, the equiment and crews. So he said if they do something here, it will be in a place like NYC once again, but not much else