Last Tuesday we went to see a-ha in Manchester’s M EN Arena as part of their Foot of The Mountain album tour.
I was very impressed with them, their support act Donkeyboy and the Arena itself. In a break with tradition, the Donkeyboy guys and gals were fairly well-mixed, rather than the usual listening through mud treatment support acts are prone to receive.
I have to confess that I don’t know that many a-ha tracks: basically just The Sun Always Shines on TV, Take On Me, The Living Daylights and Hunting High and Low. And I only know the last one because Cerys likes singing it in SingStar. I think now that this is my loss: everything they played was very good.
Of the new material, my favourite is the first track on the album, The Bandstand, which is sort of Kraftwerky and sort of not.
Unfortunately we had to leave partway through the encore as my fear of large crowded places was making me feel physically sick. As a result we missed Take On Me, and possibly a couple of other tracks.
The M EN arena is acoustically very good. The only similar structure in which I’ve been to a concert is Wembley Arena and that sounded very poor: echoes all over the place. It’s also easy to get in and out of the arena and find your seats once you’re in.
I should get myself back to The Priory and see if I can do anything to let me make it through complete performances in the future.
