Just eight months after a-ha’s farewell concerts in Oslo, the Norwegian trio — saying they were “shaken to the soul by these actions of cruelty and violent provocation” — have announced they will reunite later this month to perform at the national memorial service honoring the victims of last month’s mass killings in that country.
The ceremony — in memory of the eight people killed in a bombing in Oslo and the 69 shot dead at a youth camp on the island of Utoeya on July 22 — is scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Oslo Spektrum, the same venue were the band played a multi-night run last December to conclude its yearlong, global “Ending on a High Note” tour.
In announcing the concert last week, the band’s members wrote:
“On 22 July, we, like everyone else in Norway and the rest of the world, were shaken to the soul by these actions of cruelty and violent provocation against everything we stand for. We are also very proud to belong to a small country where people, politicians and the royal family worked together and showed solidarity in the face of such tragedy, and we are grateful to be asked to participate in the memorial ceremony. We do this to honor those who have been torn away, to show appreciation to everyone who made an effort to help on July 22, and to express our sympathy to the survivors who now are left in sorrow. Following the attacks, many of our fans posted messages of concern and support on our Facebook page, and we are touched as always that members of the worldwide fan community feel such a strong tie with Norway.”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- a-ha releasing ‘25′ retrospective in Europe with farewell single ‘Butterfly, Butterfly’
- a-ha’s ‘Hunting High and Low,’ ‘Scoundrel Days’ reissued with 28 unreleased tracks
- a-ha adds Chicago, Toronto concerts to its ‘Ending on a High Note’ farewell tour
- The Specials, a-ha add additional New York City concerts to spring U.S. tours
- a-ha adds 2nd Los Angeles concert to brief U.S. leg of ‘Ending on a High Note’ tour
- a-ha to play 3 concerts in New York, Los Angeles as part of 2010 farewell tour
