Take On Me

Last night, we watched A-HA live in Frogner Park for free.

A-HA, I discovered, is a Norwegian band. There are five things I remember about A-HA.

1. Their lead singer was called Morten something.

2. They had a pretty cool MTV in the 80's where their singer was running around in a comic book.

3. They did the theme song for one of the James Bond movies.

4. They had a hit called "The Sun Always Shines on TV" and I have no idea what it was about.

5. Their biggest hit was called "Take on Me" and I have no idea what the song was about either.

From our limited understanding of Norwegian(s), the concert was apparently sponsored by some company called HYDRO that was celebrating it's 100th Anniversary. HYDRO is in the aluminium and energy industry and are responsible for a making a "viable" society. I saw the word "viable" being flashed on the big screens many times.

When we got there, people were going around distributing free ear plugs. I found this interesting. I have never used ear plugs at a concert before but took a pair anyway. I was, and stil am, of the view that if you stick plugs into your ears at a concert, it will be difficult to hear the music.

As A-Ha is after all a world famous band, there were expectedly opening acts. The first band that came on did English pop tunes which sounded pleasant. I do not know what the group was called and could not tell if they were famous or not.

The group that came next was much more memorable and I would buy their CD if I knew what they were called. The frontman was a white rotund and bearded rapper wearing a suit. The drummer was in a Robin outfit, the back up singers were dressed as dogs and the DJ was dressed as an Arab. It was entertaining enough just looking at them (so I guess the people wearing earplugs enjoyed themselves too). To their credit, I don't think I've ever heard such good Norwegain rap before.

The rapper was gone to soon and it was finally time for A-HA. Meanwhile, the multitudes had continued to descend on the park and before long we were in the middle of a sea of Norwegians. I'm sure most of Oslo must have been there. Because Norwegians are by and large taller than average, we could not see the stage at all. We did however have a pretty good view of the big screens that were placed around the park presumably for the benefit of the few smaller Asians. Therefore, strictly speaking we do not have any real personal knowledge that A-HA in fact performed last night.

According to the programme, A-HA were supposed to start at 2100 hrs (they use the 24 hour clock here), but we of course know what that means. No self-respecting former hit band would start a show on time. So we waited and were entertained by more film clips on "viable" society and the benefits of aluminum.

Finally A-HA came on and began their show. The audience around remained silent because we were all too far away to tell if th show had really began. I could however hear the distant commotion in the front caused by the people who could actually see the band. Presumably quite a few in the audience around us also had their free earplugs on which made it even harder for them to realize that the band was already on.

Morten's face was flashed on the big screens as he sang. He looked remarkably good for a guy who's last known hit was 20 years ago. The songs however were unrecognizable. I guess A-HA had done a lot more songs since "Take On Me" which did not happen to be international hits. After hearing about three of the songs it dawned on me that there was a reason why I had not heard from A-HA in the last 20 years.

We didn't last till "Take On Me". It was a cold night for summer (I'm guessing) so we decided to head home after the third song. We were not the only ones. Thousands more however remained and joyfully sipped their beers into the night. Maybe that was the whole point.

As we trundled to the train station I heard the refrains of "The Sun Always Shines on TV". I guess the song is all the more poignant in Norway as the sun shines here for only 3 months every year.