1983

1983 In a freezing january day, when Morten, Pal and Mags each bought
a one way boat ticket from Norway to Britain.
Coming to London they hoped to sign a recording contract and become a superstarts.

A-HA had a little more than their dreams to live on sharing a tiny London
flat, they couldn´t afford to put money in the electricity meter and they
baked their own bread filled with bits of cabbage and scraps.
-"Mags remenbered"-
We had this flat and we had one light bulb and if one of us had to go to the bathroom, we´d have to take the light bulb out of the living room and put
it in the bathroom and we had gas leakage in the bedroom and only two beds for three people.

MORTEN HARKET

Not surprisingly the band began to loose their tempers and have rows with each other. Mags have even had a fight with Morten shoving his head through a window. They never knew how Morten survived this with out being seriously injured.

There was a ray of light on the horizon when a-ha signed a deal with a company called Lion Heart; But things didn´t work out. A-ha didn´t make any progress and they´d decided they would be better off looking else where.

They made a second purpose; They managed to arranged an appoiment with Decca Records,
but one of the promoters thought the music was good but no quite good enought .
After all they were in right way because Decca had turned down the Beatles
as well, that would be their second biggest mistake.

You need Java to see this applet.

A-ha wanted to re-record some of their old material
including " Living At Boys Adventure Tale ". In a new
studio record called Rendezvous Studios.

June 1983 "Lessson One". Impress John Ratcliff, studio manager.
Ratcliff plays the track to a former record company executive Terry Slater, who becomes their manager and arranges auditions for record companies in a London rehearsal studio.

When Terry Slater meet A-ha, he was impressed by
their music but also by their commitment and ideas.

Terry quickly agreed to becomes A-ha´s manager and he was just the sort of person they were looking for.
Terry had a lot of experience in the music bussines. he used to be director of A&R for EMI Records and he was responsible for signing such talents as Kate Bush and Duran Duran.

All that A-ha need it now was a recording contract.
Terry´s name could open many doors,That was when Warner Brothers Records see them and he quickly decided he wanted A-ha for the label.

PAL WAAKTAAR
SAVOY

D E C E M B E R 1 9 8 3

They went to Norway for christmas, having been signed by
WEA Records for International Releases.