| At 9:05pm the lights went down, the screams went up and Norway’s finest strolled on stage to huge applause and rocked straight into Forever Not Yours, Minor Earth Major Sky, and There’s A Reason before we could pause for air. “Do you remember us” asked Mags. “Certain songs have different meanings, and this next song is a song Pal & I wrote, and since September 11th this one has” he added before sitting at the piano and playing the opening tones to Manhattan Skyline. The audience were soon back on their feet for I’ve Been Losing You and The Blood That Moves The Body while security pleaded with us to sit down, but there was no stopping fans from clapping their hands and enjoying the night. Morten slowed things down again for Time And Again, and on their new single Did Anyone Approach You, Mags & Morten proceeded to do a little dance in unison at the front of the stage which went down well with all the screaming girls in the front rows. You could see the band were really enjoying themselves also, as Mags had said “Thanks for letting us finish our Tour here in Dublin”. The brilliant The Swing Of Things, Lifelines, and Oranges On Appletrees were all crowd pleasers also. Morten, who was vocally excellent throughout the night seemed to struggle very much so on Cry Wolf or perhaps it was just the version they performed. The song was almost unrecognisable to me, except for the lyrics. The cigarette lighters and hand waving started during the ballad Crying In The Rain. Mags was the spokesman for the night while Pal changed guitars regularly, and Morten rested his vocal chords between songs. “We seem to get a better response from our audience than we do from our record company” he declared. He also seems to have become the multi-talented member of the group as he switched from Keyboard to Guitar on several occasions and then sat at the Piano again for Stay on These Roads and Hunting High And Low, the latter of which the audience sang mostly. Morten then left the stage while Pal took lead vocals on Sycamore Leaves and Mags then introduced his debut solo single. “This song is also on the new album,but this is a different version. This is a song about commitment” to which he performed the beautiful Dragonfly. Morten returned for Scoundrel Days before Mags had a chance to thank the band and production crew for all their help on the tour. The opening seconds of Take On Me brought the house down and we were treated to an extended version before they bowed out with The Living Daylights. “Thank you Dublin, you’ve been a fantastic crowd” said Morten before leaving the stage. The encore consisted of Summer Moved On and of course The Sun Always Shines On TV. By now the crowd were wild and shouted for more, so back they all came once more to finish with the gentle Locust. While sadly, none of us got to meet them afterwards, it was still great to be right up at the front and witness what was one of the gigs of the year. They enjoyed it, we loved it, and we await their return. |
| Dublin, Ireland 16th October 2002 By Mick Lynch |
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| On Thursday, 16th October 2002 A-ha returned to Ireland for the first time in 14 years to perform before an almost sell-out crowd at Dublin’s Point Depot. The two-hour set was a blend of new and old material and with it being the final night of their ‘Lifelines’ Tour, they were determined to finish with a bang. |