In their small snowy country of Norway, members of the 1980s super group A-ha are considered close to royalty. The pretty boys of Oslo were the first Norwegian band to make it big in pop-music. By the end of 1980s, they had amassed numerous awards and platinum albums.

Two of the band members, Magne Furuholmen and Pal Waaktaar, grew up in Oslo. Their first band together, Spider Empire—formed in 1977—was heavily influenced by the music of the Doors and Jimi Hendrix. Spider Empire evolved into another band called Bridges in 1979 and took on a bassist and drummer. Soon they released their first album, Fakkeltog —Torchlight Procession—on their own label, Vakenatt. The Bridges were working on their second album when Morten Harket entered the scene. Influenced by the falsetto of Freddy Mercury of Queen, Harket had been singing in other Oslo bands.

After deciding to work together, the band, with Harket on lead vocals and Furuholmen writing many of the lyrics, the band began tossing around ideas for a new name. They decided upon A-ha because, as Furuholmen explained, it was easily memorized and familiar exclamation in any language. "Originally, we were trying to find a Norwegian word that people would be able to say in English. Eventually Harket spotted a song called "a-ha" in Waaktaar's song notebook. It was a terrible song, but a great name. I mean, you say it, a-ha, all the time," Furuholmen said online. 

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In 1982, the band began changing its tune and started working on becoming a more commercial, synth-pop sounding band, like pop kings Duran Duran. The trio began looking toward England for a record label to offer them a contract. Even with their chiseled good looks and snappy sound, success would take a while.

983 was to be the dawning for the Norwegian music marvels. After ringing in the new year by relocating to London in January, the trio managed to purchase some recording time at Rendezvous Studios. One demo, "Lesson One," caught the ear of John Ratcliff, manager of the recording studio. Ratcliff in turn played it for Terry Slater, a former record company executive who once worked with the Everly Brothers. Slater was so impressed with the band that he agreed to manage the trio immediately and arrange a series of influential auditions.

As a Christmas present for their families and compatriots, A-ha brought home a worldwide contract with Warner Bros. Records. The first album Hunting High and Low, included the single "Take On Me." Released in early 1984, it was re-worked version of "Lesson One." The band experienced a successful Norwegian debut, but failed to reach audiences over in England and abroad. Only 300 copies of the album were sold outside its native Norway. In 1985, the band, at the urging of Slater, remixed and re-released the single.

During the summer of 1986, Warner Bros. Records decided to invest some money on a revolutionary video for the struggling band. "Take On Me," directed by Steve Barron, was a charcoal animation of the band members was a fore-runner in semi-animated video-market. At the third MTV Music Awards in 1986, the video won for Best New Concept Video, Best New Artist Video, Best Special Effects, Best Direction, Most Experimental and the Viewers Choice awards, among others awards. According to the Encyclopedia of Rock Stars, it was a record number of wins by one act for both the fledgling ceremony and band. 

In 1986, A-ha released it's sophomore album, Scoundrel Days. Although less successful than Hunting High And Low, the album did include the hit single "Cry Wolf." A year later, the band was commissioned to create the theme song for the new James Bond movie, The Living Daylights. Their third album, Stay on These Roads, almost entirely written by guitarist Pal Waaktaar continued A-ha's popularity in England while marking its journey into obscurity in the United States. The album entered the English charts early in 1988 at number two.

After a two year holiday, A-ha released their fourth album, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, in November 1990. This new album shows a departure from the heavy synth-ladled albums of the past. In 1991, after a string of little noticed singles,, A-ha released a six year retrospective album entitled Headlines and Deadlines, The Hits Of A-ha. 

During the fifth annual World Music Awards, the darlings of Norwegian pop music were named Best Selling Norwegian Artist of the Year two years in a row 1992-93. In 1993, the band releases Memorial Beach, which featured the single "Dark Is the Night." More than previous A-ha albums, this album highlighted the talents of the other band members including new members bassist J.B. Bogeberg and Per Hillestad on drums. Much of the album reflects time spent in America.

After feeling "spent out" artistically, the band took a two year sabbatical according to an online interview at http://www.wwiv.com/a-ha/a-ha-faq.html. The trio decided to pursued individual artistic challenges. Furuholmen co-wrote the soundtrack for the Norwegian movie Ten Knifes in the Heart, which world premiered in 1994. He also created a wood carving for the cover design for the album Songs from the Pocket, a solo project of his fellow tour mate J.B Bogeberg. During this time apart, the band did regroup to record "Shapes That Go Together, " theme song for the 1994 Special Olymics that were held in Lillehammer, Norway.

Harket recorded the Frankie Valli hit "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" for the Coneheads soundtrack in 1983. The movie was directed by Steve Baron, the gentleman behind the record shattering "Take On Me video." In 1995, Harket released Wild Seed, his first solo album with Warner Brothers Records International. In 1996, Pal Waaktaar also released an album with Warner Brothers Records International. With his band Savoy, he released Mary is Coming in early 1996 in Europe and the United States writing all the songs on the album.

For The Record:

Members include Magne Furuholmen (born November 1, 1962), keyboards, vocals; Morten Harket (born September 14, 1959), lead vocals; and Pal Waaktaar (born September 6, 1961), guitar, vocals. 

Group formed in 1977 as Spider Empire, changed name to A-Ha in 1982. Released debut album Hunting High and Low on Warner Bros. Label, 1986; other releases on the Warner Bors. Labes include: Scoundrel Days, 1986; Stay on These Roads, 1988; East of the Sun, West of the Moon, 1991; Headlines & Deadlines, The Hits of A-Ha, 1991; Memorial Beach, 1993. Contributed "The Living Daylights" for soundtrack of the same name, 1987. 

 Awards: MTV Video Awards for Best New Concept Video, Best New Artist Video, Best Special Effects, Best Direction, Most Experimental and Viewers Choice Awards, all in 1986.

Address: Record company—Warner Bros. Records, 10907 Magnolia Blvd., Box 419, North Hollywood, CA.

Source: Gretchen Monette

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During the psychedelic haze of the late '60s, the grimy, noisy and relentlessly bleak rock & roll of The Stooges was conspicuously out of time. Like the Velvet Underground, The Stooges revealed the underside of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, showing all of the grime beneath the myth. The Stooges, however, weren't nearly as cerebral as The Velvets. Taking their cue from the over-amplified pounding of British blues, the primal raunch of American garage rock, and the psychedelic rock (as well as the audience-baiting) of The Doors, The Stooges were raw, immediate, and vulgar. Iggy Pop became notorious for performing smeared in blood or peanut butter and diving into the audience. Ron and Scott Asheton formed a ridiculously primitive rhythm section, pounding out chords with no finesse, in essence, The Stooges were the first rock & roll band completely stripped of the swinging beat that epitomized R&B and early rock & roll. During the late '60s and early '70s, the group was an underground sensation, yet the band was too weird, too dangerous to break into the mainstream. Following three albums, The Stooges disbanded, but the group's legacy grew over the next two decades, as legions of underground bands used their sludgy grind as a foundation for a variety of indie rock styles, and as Iggy Pop became a pop culture icon.

After playing in several local bands in Ann Arbor, MI, including the blues band The Prime Movers and The Iguanas, Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) formed The Stooges in 1967 after witnessing a Doors concert in Chicago. Adopting the name Iggy Stooge, he rounded up brothers Ron and Scott Asheton (guitar and drums, respectively) and bassist Dave Alexander, and the group debuted at a Halloween concert at the University of Michigan student union in 1967. For the next year, the group played the Midwest relentlessly, earning a reputation for their wild, primitive performances, which were largely reviled. In particular, Iggy gained attention for his bizarre on-stage behavior. Performing shirtless, he would smear steaks and peanut butter on his body, cut himself with glass, and dive into the audience. The Stooges were infamous, not famous, while they had a rabidly devoted core audience, even more people detested their shock tactics. Nevertheless, the group lucked into a major-label record contract in 1968 when an Elektra talent scout went to Detroit to see the MC5 and wound up signing their opening act, The Stooges, as well.

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Produced by John Cale, The Stooges' primitive eponymous debut was released in 1969, and while it generated some attention in the underground press, it barely sold any copies. As the band prepared to record their second album, every member sank deeper into substance abuse, and their excess eventually surfaced in their concerts, not only through Iggy's antics, but also in the fact that the band could barely keep a simple, two-chord riff afloat. Fun House, an atonal barrage of avant-noise, appeared in 1970 and, if it was even noticed, it earned generally negative reviews and sold even fewer copies than the debut. Following the release of Fun House, The Stooges essentially disintegrated, as Iggy sank into heroin addiction. At first, he did try to keep The Stooges afloat. Dave Alexander left the band and after a spell in which Zeke Zettner and then James Recca took his place, Ron Asheton moved to bass as James Williamson joined as guitarist, but this incarnation wasn't able to land a record deal, despite recording a handful of demos. For the next two years, the band was in limbo as Iggy weaned himself off heroin and worked various odd jobs. Early in 1972, Pop happened to run into David Bowie, then at the height of his Ziggy Stardust popularity. Bowie made it his mission to resuscitate Iggy & the Stooges, as the band was now billed. With Bowie's help, The Stooges landed a management deal and a contract with Columbia, and he took control of the production of the group's third album, Raw Power. Released in 1973 to surprisingly strong reviews, Raw Power had a weird, thin mix due to various technical problems. Although this would be the cause of much controversy later on, many purists blamed Bowie for the brittle mix, its razor-thin sound helped kick-start the punk revolution. At the time, however, Raw Power flopped, essentially bringing The Stooges' career to a halt, with the band's disastrous final gig captured on the live album Metallic K.O.

In 1976, Bowie once again came to Iggy's rescue, helping him establish himself as a solo act by producing the albums The Idiot and Lust for Life and playing keyboards in Iggy's road band. In time, Iggy established an international following as one of rock's great renegades, but the other Stooges didn't fare quite as well. Dave Alexander died of pneumonia in 1975, aggravated by an inflamed pancreas. James Williamson returned to Iggy's circle as a songwriter and producer on the albums New Values (1979) and Soldier (1980), but in the 1980s he dropped out of music and began a successful career in electronics. Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton launched a band called the New Order (no relation to the successful British group), but it didn't fare well and soon split up. In 1981, Ron Asheton was recruited to join New Race, a short-lived side project formed by Radio Birdman guitarist Deniz Tek which also featured MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson and Radio Birdman alumni Rob Younger and Warwick Gilbert. However, the group (as intended) split after a single Australian tour and album. After returning to Michigan, Ron gigged periodically with Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival, acted in a handful of low-budget films, and in 1998 he recorded with the ad hoc band Wylde Ratttz, featuring Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, Mark Arm from Mudhoney, and Mike Watt, ex-Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Wylde Ratttz's cover of "TV Eye" appeared on the soundtrack of the film Velvet Goldmine, but the group's album remains unreleased. Following The Stooges breakup, Scott Asheton played with a few local groups in Detroit before joining Sonic's Rendezvous Band in 1974, with Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5, Scott Morgan of The Rationals, and Gary Rasmussen of The Up; the band earned a potent reputation as a live act, but record labels were wary and the group slowly faded out by the end of the decade.

In 2002, Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton joined J Mascis + the Fog for a tour in which they performed a handful of Stooges classics from the group's first two albums. The show's were enthusiastically received, especially in Europe, and word got back to Iggy Pop, who had been talking with Ron Asheton on and off for several years about a possible Stooges reunion. In 2003, Iggy was recording the album Skull Ring, which featured contributions from a number of noteworthy bands, and he decided to add The Stooges to the roster; the Asheton brothers backed Iggy on four cuts (with Ron handling both guitar and bass), and on April 27, 2003, The Stooges played their first concert in 30 years at California's Coachella festival, with Mike Watt sitting in for the late Dave Alexander. The reunited Stooges began hitting the road on a semi-regular basis for the next three years, playing major festivals in Europe and the United States, and in the fall of 2006 the group entered Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago, IL, with engineer Steve Albini to record The Weirdness, an album culled from 22 new songs written by Pop and the Ashetons. The Weirdness was released in March 2007, followed by a major world tour.

Albums:

Source: artistdirect.com

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This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com

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