we want the world and we want it now (part 2)
The next day, it’s back to the grinding tour schedule and we’re beginning to realise that the USA is actually a lot more than just Los Angeles. Every state, every big city, has its own target audience requiring individual marketing strategies. But obviously having made it in New York and Los Angeles is a great help, these two cities having the biggest influence on the music scene.
Concentrating on Los Angeles and New York was, therefore, a primary goal for a-ha at that point. Before they arrived in New York, they made a quick detour to Miami, where their record company, Warner Brothers, had a sales conference. Hundreds of salesmen from all over the USA met there to be presented with new artists and their ‘products’ – the product being, of course, albums. This time, a-ha were the guests of honour. Yet another indication that the record company really believes in our boys.
For hours, Morten, Mags and Pål walked around meeting the people responsible for selling records to the record stores. And the boys proved to be experts here, too. They conversed just as pleasantly and openly with the salesmen and businessmen as they do with their fans on the street. To top it all off, that week Warner Brothers placed a series of impressive ads in the music business bible, Billboard. On page one, there were three pictures of a-ha showing the group and the record company thanking all the representatives at the Miami meeting for their efforts so far, with a-ha gracing the centre-spread in the form of a large poster.
The record company meeting in Miami had to be content with this one-day visit, as the boys had to take the ‘red-eye’, or night plane, to gain sometime. Now they were ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple – New York City! Here the PR machinery was going full force again. Terry Slater continued to pick and choose wisely. Only the biggest teen magazines and the most prestigious publications like Andy Warhol’s Interview and the grand-daddy of them all, Rolling Stone, could count on getting close to them. a-ha were so well-known that both they and their manager Terry Slater booked themselves into the Berkshire Palace Hotel under fake names, to avoid telephone calls and other unnecessary disturbances.
The following week the music TV station MTV was to present their annual video prizes, and the city was full of pop stars. Sheila E, Julian Lennon and Wham! were staying at our hotel. The fans who waited all day and night outside the entrance and in the lobby now recognised a-ha immediately. So every time they went in or out of the hotel they were mobbed by hoards of autograph and photo hunters.
It wasn’t all work though, and we got invited to a number of parties. Sitting in the back seat of yet another stretch limousine on the way to a reception, Mags checks whether his accidental discovery made on one of the first limousine trips in Los Angeles is the same all over the USA. What happened was that when he tried to turn on the apparently old-fashioned radio in the backseat of the long car, what flooded out was not music, but scotch! He tried another station – vodka. Yet another – gin. So he concluded that all proper limousines are equipped with their own chapter bars.
The party this evening is for David Lee Roth who is leaving Van Halen, and is being held at the trendy Palladium. This turns out to be much bigger than the private parties we attended in Los Angeles. The Palladium holds thousands of people – and it is jam-packed! But a-ha not only manage to slip in ahead of the long queue waiting outside, but are also able to get through the rope closures blocking the VIP area, where Morten and I seek refuge after nearly being trampled to death at the bar. We immediately catch sight of the lovely Brooke Shields clinging rather intimately to George Michael of Wham!
“They make an attractive couple, but I don’t think there’s much future there,” remarks Morten who can’t wait to get out of the- place and go home. Home now means a hotel room for a-ha. Only a few months ago, they had to drape plastic over their heads to avoid rain leaking from the ceiling of John Ratcliff’s dilapidated studio in London. Now they’re living in a $200 a day suite in New York. But they’ll only be there for a few days because Morten has promised to attend his elder brother’s wedding in Oslo. Mags wants to set up an apartment with Heidi, and Pål is going to Boston to see Lauren.
After catching up with family and personal affairs, they’re back together in London again for more PR interviews and more meetings, but primarily to start production for their video for The Sun Always Shines on TV. Upon their arrival in London they receive the news that Take on Me has gone all the way to the top of the Billboard chart in the USA. Number One!
On Friday, October 11, three proud boys board the plane to Australia. But it’s a long, long way to the other side of the earth – the trip takes 27 hours! The jet lag after the trip to Los Angeles is nothing compared to this.
On arrival in Sydney, the local record company representative immediately offers to take us sightseeing. Morten, Mags and I accept. But it’s not just raining, it’s pouring! All our hopes of sun, summer, surfing and swimming are soon dampened by the down-pour. But we get to see Sydney anyway – in yet another stretch limousine, without a bar for once. We see the storm-soaked beaches on the outskirts of the city; the Opera House with its unusual architectural design; the harbour full of restaurants and, of course, Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Manager Terry Slater follows his usual routine: a few days off before the serious business begins. After our first day in Australia, we all felt the jet-lag creep up on us in one way or another. Pål went out to play snooker in the middle of the night, Mags ate dinner at breakfast-time and I went for 48 hours without sleep. But a-ha were soon back to work. More TV shows, more interviews, more photo sessions. Work, work, work. The only difference was that the journalists here asked what the boys thought of Australia, instead of Los Angeles.
We managed to find time for a boat trip… in the middle of a storm. We can’t do any shark-fishing, but we do get to see some real waves. The ocean spray drenches the whole boat, and we all get soaked, but even amidst the 30 foot waves the three members of a-ha and their manager thoroughly enjoy themselves. Mags and Morten, in particular, are having great fun clowning around for the benefit of the photographers present. Mags hangs from the side of the boat and gives them all a ‘Captain’s’ salute, while Morten, with his brand new camera, tries to snap the photographers snapping him! Pål, however, is getting rather fed up with the whole thing – and is heard cursing loudly when one of the photographers, with profuse apologies, tells them that the roll of film showing the boys in front of the Opera House has been swept overboard… Would they mind terribly doing it all again? But, ever the professionals, they all trudge back out into the rain once more.
Eventually they return to the hotel to be greeted with sunnier news. Take on Me is soaring up the charts in England, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Germany… you name it. Mags has a favourite quotation from one of the Doors’ songs, “We want the world and we want it now.” For a-ha, these are no longer just words because they are conquering the world! So the tour continues… and new challenges await.
