Mags Furuholmen was only “ok looking”? Blimey, tough crowd. I’d have said a-ha’s 2:1 ratio compared very favourably to Duran’s.

Having now caught up on a-ha’s later output, I have to question the comparison with Duran on that score too. The band sound rather bitter in interviews about their record company forcing them to keep working with their original producer and sound for that third album when they were keen to move on.

A-ha at this point were the group gaining all the new girly fans, many of them were ex-Durannies jumping ship. You could practically feel the posters of LeBon et al being torn down from the bedroom walls as their extended absence gained these new Euro pretty-boys much needed space to advance unhindered. Spandau too were losing fans. Wham! timed their breakup just right, as they were the only remaining members of the teenybopper three to strike back in late ’85 / early ’86, and by announcing their split, they set a closing date for their fans to cling to which worked like a charm. As a result, there was no loss of face or ‘fans moving on’ for them.

A-ha were certainly more consistent (and better IMHO) than the other ‘big’ new groups of the year – ‘Five Star’ and ‘Curiosity Killed the Cat’. Both of whom would have short survival rates and little enduring fan appeal. But saying that, A-ha never really convinced in their position as popstars the way Duran did, there was very little seductive glamour. And they were easily as patchy a singles band as Duran (they were no Wham! in this regard). So even after a strong 1-2 punch, they tapered off, never again bothering the top 3 of the charts. Their follow-ups were good, with ‘Hunting High and Low’ and ‘Cry Wolf’ as standouts, but things like ‘Train of Thought’, ‘I’ve Been Losing You’ and ‘Manhattan Skyline’ were never going to bother the top 3. Also, Duran always managed to add something new every now and then to show that they were attentive to what was going on, and at least somewhat progressive. A-ha never managed that (‘Living Daylights’, while a fine song, lacks the punch of ‘View to a Kill’ and owes more than a little to that songs ‘orchestra crash’). Their third album, while containing some good tunes (‘Stay On These Roads’) was no more advanced than their first, and by then SAW were moving many units, so A-ha’s time was done.

Also worth pointing out; while Duran had at the very least three worthy pin-up members, it seems that A-ha really only had one – Morten. Yes, the other two were ok looking, but as a band, they really only graced the bedroom walls because of Morten, unlike Duran and Wham! where the as-good-looking-as-a-model ratio was higher.

And Duran Duran? Post 1982 it may have gone a bit wonky for them but you have to admire the chutzpah of a band who thought they could cover Public Enemy and get away with it. And then there’s ‘Electric Barbarella’ with its dubious lyrics and even more dubious video. But what a cracking tune.

It’s not a patch on “Take on me”. To my ears this sounds like a B-side track. Something hastily put together when A-ha realised they were suddenly famous and needed to keep the momentum rolling – as so many groups have done in the past. The sad thing is that this time the wrong record made it to No.1 – Part of the post Xmas “what single shall we buy?” syndrome that so often happens. That would apply if the brilliant PSB’s hadn’t got there first.

A 4 from me.

as it happens, i often see paul young doing his shopping – notably un-mobbed – in barnet waitrose, his masterpiece no doubt brewing.

Duran Duran had a fine indian summer around that period. For most people that came to a shuddering halt with that covers album they did, but I really liked about half the tunes on there, acoustic ’911 Is A Joke’ included. I fear digging it out again, lest reality spoil that little bit of contrarianism.

(I really like some post-82 Duran – as my generous marks for them suggested – but almost never for the choruses – they were good at, er, vibe I guess.)

8 for me and much concurring with what is above. I have both this and Take On Me on vinyl single and this I think I have come to prefer. However the song has a much more resonant meaning for me.

In the summer of 1989 a friend and I ended up on Capital Radio, doing Gharam Dene’s “Wall Game” This was a complex lunchtime quiz show where four contestants would be wittled down to one who could then win a prize of the order of a CD player or stereo. This was a special half term kids version, but the questions weren’t exactly dumbed down. More importantly along the line Jakki Brambles (who was the producer on the show at the time) got out of me my admiration for Belinda Carlisle’s cheekbones. I digress.

Anyway in the final round I had to answer three questions out of five about 1986 correctly (it being the “year” round). The music question was on A-Ha, as they had played Hunting High And Low. And it was simple, name another A-Ha hit from 1986.

So I said The Sun Always Shines On TV, confident that it was number one in early 1986. Wrong – they said. This threw me because
a) I knew I was right
b) I had to get three out of the next four right.

I did manage to get the three, but as ever this burned in my soul, as clearly Capital Radio had just looked in the Guinness book of hit singles and seen that The Sun Always Shines On TV was released on the 28 December 1985, and thusly a 1985 hit.

I started listening to Radio One soon after.

Not “Ordinary World” Tom, – not by a long chalk

The vocals are if anything are too good, almost quasi-operatic, but not in a weird Billy MacKenzie way. They don’t work as pop vocals for me.

Edit – on second listen the way he sings “Touch Me” is too fey to work with the stadium rock/pop backing. Normally I don’t have a problem with fey but it needs a lighter touch on the production.

A 5, because it’s well put together and has some good ideas.

On the subject of why A-Ha weren’t bigger (although as somebody pointed out, they had a pretty good 12 months or so), isn’t A-Ha an awful choice for a band name? Perhaps that affected their chances of any long term credibility.

January 2 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Levia 42, Bronski Beat and Sophia George. John Peel and Janice Long were the hosts.

January 16 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Fine Young Cannibals, Cherelle & Alexander O’Neal and Mister Mister. Mike Read and Dixie Peach were the hosts.

January 23 1986. Also in the studio that week were; The Alarm and nana Mouskouri. Paul Jordan (who?) and Mike Smith were the hosts.

The thing which really grated at the time was what I heard as a hackneyed metaphor for delusion of the sun always shining on TV, combined with the song’s epic length. I think that I was hoping for something with the effervescence of ‘Take On Me’ again. It’s taken the education of learning what A-Ha were about through their subsequent records for me to appreciate this, though even now it’s only about my eighth favourite of their hits.

For me, the greatest moment is ‘Stay On These Roads’ – the last really big hit in 1988; “The cold has a voice. It talks to me” – a wholly stright-faced song about mortality. The old man is dying of the cold. A voice, which may be either the cold or the remembered loved other implores him to stay alive, to keep hope, before it “trails off again”. It’s a lot closer to the Ibsen of Brand and John Gabriel Borkman than Five Star or Curiosity Killed the Cat.

Swanstep, I’m just waiting for my own 2-versus-everyone-else’s-9 moment – I’m sure it will come. I felt a bit out-of-step with a few of the 1984-85 hits, and there are stranger days ahead.

The piano sound at the start is very Scandinavian to me, ABBA used it a lot. It’s sort of chilly and echoey while also sounding like an old pub joanna.

I’d never noticed the similarity before, but I think Tom is right and it indicates a certain emptiness to both tracks. With a-ha I’m willing to fill in the gaps, but with the other I put it down to having nothing left to say. I think the video might have a lot to do with it – darkness lends itself to that sort of dramatic tension much more than does light.

I first heard this song as an album track, so the idea of it being a “follow-up single” as such never really occurred to me.

#37 well since it got to #1 we can talk about it then – lord knows there’s not a lot else to say about that song :)