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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
10:53 PM 15th June 2018
arts

A-ha, Keep Moat Stadium, Doncaster

 
A-ha
A-ha
The sun might always shine on TV according to one of A-ha's biggest hits but thankfully it was also shining in Doncaster when the band visited the town as part of their Electric Summer tour.

Before they took to the stage it was another 80's act who took everyone back to an era when Top Of The Pops was essential viewing on a Thursday night. OMD were regulars on the programme with lead singer Andy McCluskey dancing like he was having an epileptic fit.

Fast forward 30 years or so and whilst the dancing might not have got much better, the songs still sound as good as you remember them.

Playing a Greatest Hits set they started with one of their biggest hits, Enola Gay. I forgot how many hits they had: Tesla Girls, Souvenir and Joan of Arc are some of the ground breaking electronic hits they produced.

OMD
OMD
McCluskey cracks a joke by saying that "the sun always shines on Donny" as he points out the sun shining over the audience standing on the pitch. With musical partner Paul Humphrey together they left the memory of the band untarnished even if his comic patter might have been better left on Merseyside where the act hail from.

A-Ha always seemed to be unlikely pop stars - it was their introductory hit Take On Me which when re-recorded into a more commercial version, put them on the cover of Smash Hits and catapulted them into childhood sweethearts and teenage loves.

Morten Harket
Morten Harket
Lead singer Morten Harket, now 58, still looks younger than his age. He only addresses the audience towards the end of the evening - it is keyboard player, Mags who does the talking and introductions.

Cry Wolf opens up their 90 minute set, the trio being backed with a 6 piece band which includes a string section, though you would be hard pressed to hear the strings on most of the songs, it was only on Scoundrel Days that they came to the fore.

They must have played the songs countless times, so it was refreshing to hear some of the tracks re-arranged such as Train of Thought which sounded better than the original version.

Tracks such as Foot of the Mountain and Stay on These Roads are more representative of what the band sound like: slower, deeper and more reflective than their big pop hits.

A-ha
A-ha
Mags asks if the fans are from Doncaster (big cheer) or perhaps Doncaster Rover fans (muted response) he then tests out his geography skills by asking of anyone is from Scunthorpe (silence).

Things begin to pick up with The Sun Always Shines on TV and the encores of The Living Daylights and predictably Take On Me, the fans are now in their element. Even 33 years on it sounds fresh and uplifting - even if you were from Scunthorpe.