‘Keepers of the Flame’ fan reunion 2011

Pub Night

The first official a-ha fan reunion weekend started on Friday evening with a traditional pub quiz night at Johns Bar. About 75 fans divided into teams and worked together to complete a trivia quiz that would separate the true fans from the casual listeners! The quiz included questions about a-ha’s career highlights, music, videos and performances, stretching back over the band’s 25+ year history.

When the quiz was over, teams traded their answer sheets and scored the results. Prizes – including two ‘Ending on a High Note’ Blu-Ray DVDs donated by Universal Norway – were given out based on the number of questions correct, with medals going to the winners!

Thanks very much to Sally Manning and Ann Gunnarsson for coordinating many of the details for the pub night, and to all the fan party volunteers who helped make sure it all ran so smoothly!

Speaker Sessions

During the day on Saturday, two guest speakers joined us at the Ice Bar and shared their knowledge and experience with a captivated audience.

First up was PA Stenersen, a lifelong a-ha fan and one of the main experts on the band and their global discography. PA took us through a select body of a-ha’s discography, and presented many interesting historical facts and rare photos of the band. Of key importance was the overview PA gave of ‘Project Avatar’, which includes the ambition to write the most comprehensive history of the band ever written, in a series of three books.

During his presentation, PA played clips from rare, unreleased demos dating from a-ha’s earliest days in the studio, which was a definite highlight for the audience. PA had so much material to share that there was unfortunately not much time for the audience to ask him questions, but we understand that there will soon be an online opportunity for fans to learn more about Project Avatar and how they can contribute. Stay tuned!

Our second speaker was a-ha drummer Karl Oluf Wennerberg. Karl was prepared with a slideshow of his own personal photos from touring with a-ha, and he spoke for about 20 minutes about his experiences with the band. What fans may not know about Karl is that he is an a-ha fan too – and when he was young, he told his family and friends that ‘One day I will play with a-ha!’ Not only has he achieved his ambition to play with a-ha, but he has recorded and performed with Magne, and has been working with Morten on his solo album and upcoming tour.

After his 20-minute talk, Karl answered questions from the audience. The questions ranged from ‘What is your favorite a-ha song to play live?’ to ‘How do you prepare for a live show?’ to ‘Do you think it will be strange to play a-ha songs without Paul and Magne on stage with you (on Morten’s upcoming tour)?’ He was kind enough to allow us to record his session, so in the future we plan to share excerpts from his talk and the Q&A session here on a-ha.com. We think the information he shared will be interesting to every a-ha fan!

Although Stian Andersen couldn’t make it to the speaker sessions, he did send us some exclusive photos from the upcoming official a-ha photo book, which were shown in a slideshow between the sessions. Stian was also able to share that the book is now expected to be released in September 2012. More information will be posted on a-ha.com when details about the release are confirmed.

We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation once again to PA, Karl and Stian for participating in the event and giving the reunion guests an interesting and exclusive look at a-ha’s history and body of work. Thanks also go to Yvonne Hendrich, Mags Foremka, and the rest of the party volunteers who helped keep the sessions on time and well organized!

International Fan Party

The highlight of the weekend! Almost 200 fans from 15 countries attended the fan party on Saturday night. It was so great to see so many happy a-ha fans enjoying the music, watching videos and getting to know each other. Those who have been to a-ha fan parties before understand how amazing it is to walk into a room and know immeditately that everyone around you is just as passionate about a-ha’s music as you are. There is nothing like it!

During the evening, there were more prize giveaways – three live Blu-Ray DVDs courtesy of Universal Norway, several shirts and other merchandise courtesy of Event Merchandising, handmade a-ha buttons, an extremely rare Royal Albert Hall ‘Hunting High and Low’ t-shirt, and several ‘The Last Hurrah’ fan party DVDs. We actually still have a few prizes left over from the party, including two original signed photo prints courtesy of Stian Andersen, so we’ll organize some giveaways here on a-ha.com in the coming year!

Our sincerest thanks go to the dedicated fan party volunteer team – without them, events like these would not be possible! Here is most of the team, gathered for a group photo sometime before midnight:

Plans are already being made for next year’s a-ha fan reunion. Updates will be posted here on a-ha.com and on the a-ha Facebook page.

Also, as always we are happy to post news about fan club parties and other events in the a-ha.com Fan Corner. If you have an event to announce, please send the information to editor@a-ha.com.

Were you there? If you have photos to share, please be sure to upload them to the a-ha.com Flickr group and tag them ‘Oslo fan reunion 2011′!