“I was second row back and i have to agree that Morten favoured one side of the stage. Having said that it was a fantastic show just as all their shows before. It has always been about the music for Morten and he has always been open about the fact that he does not interact much with the audience. I have some cracking photos and video footage and he does smile and his facial expressions should some interaction.
I am sure that this final tour was as emotional for the band as it has been for the fans and i for one appreciate the fact that there were no cancellations despite the grief that Morten must have been experiencing following the death of his mother. He is human after all!!
I hope to continue to hear their music for many years to come.”

“Well I saw them in Glasgow afew days later at the secc, and they did sing their latest and last song " Butterfly Butterfly ", shame Nottingham missed it ( me being a Notts man ), A-ha have never been a band to interact and dance around a stage, having seen them on four occasions this final gig did not disappoint, in my eyes the greatest band from the 80's for many reasons. All good things do come to end, and thankfully they did finish on a high note !!!”

“Sub-editors have a lot to answer for! I'm with Tim on this one. This is essentially a good review with a little criticism included, but the headline which poor Mr Parkhouse almost certainly did not write himself gives a completely misleading impression. He's probably mortified that his balanced and honest (from his viewpoint) review has been interpreted so negatively.
Most long-term a-ha fans know by now that Magne essentially takes the role of frontman when it comes to interacting with the fans, and that's OK. A-ha are doing a huge farewell tour with many concerts, but at any given concert there will be many fans who are seeing the band for their last time, so it's natural the fans might be more emotional about it than the band. A-ha's final farewell to their fans will be in Oslo on 4 December, and that will be hugely emotional for everyone. Heck, even the security staff might shed a tear or two!”

“I have been a fan since I saw the 'Take on me' video 25 years ago. I went to the Nottingham concert on sunday night and I also saw them at the Concert Hall on their first tour, I thought they were fantastic. Maybe certain peoples comments would have been a little more sympathetic if they had known that Morten's mother passed away on 2nd November.......”

“Isn't that the point, there are two sides to a story.

Nicks review was one side and then there were those of us who enjoyed the concert and didn't see any issues.

I personally went to listen to the music and see the band, not someone prancing about on stage like a puppet on a string. I wasn't disappointed in what I experienced.

I accept others views, but at the same time they must accept that others may have a different view.”

“three quick technical points:

1) abusing someone inaccurately in print is libel and not slander. It's slander on the web, but this article was originally printed in the paper, so....

2) Headlines are usually written by sub-editors and not journalists., so don't assume that Parkhouse had anything to do with it.

3) the job of a reviewer is to express an opinion. You don't have to agree with it.

What seems to be happening here is that an essentially very positive review has hijacked by a misleading headline that latched onto one comment and a few people (and Sean, don't pretend you can represent the views of everyone there bar the two people you KNOW disagree with you) have got very upset because it wasn't all sunshine and flowers. I'm glad you all enjoyed the gig, but don't get all grumpy because not everyone thought it was AMAZING. I enjoyed it, but thought they were better at the NIA last year. I"m sure Morten has been through a tough time, and this is towards the end of a gruelling tour, but there you are. That's what I thought. I don't really care if the reviewer got free tickets or not: I paid my £50 and I'm entitled to my opinion.

Oh, and Kings of Leon fan, for me the KoL have been getting steadily worse as they've got more successful, and basically the quality has been down since their second album. They were awesome at Rock City in 2004 though, I'll give you that!

a-ha, on the other hand have been consistently excellent for years, from Hunting High and Low all the way through to Foot of the Mountain and we'll miss them. Surely we can all agree on that!”

“@ S.
Mr Parkhouse paid full price for his ticket (check his twitter stream).

@ Sean
The reviewers don't get to choose the headline, the Editor does. And one smart editor indeed has incited 20+ comments, none of which seem to be from Mr Parkhouse.

All he did was write a balanced review, but because it wasn't sycophantic enough, a few people have taken it upon themselves to start name-calling.

Would it have hurt Mr Harket to have had a little chat to the audience? We paid a lot to be there, after all.

The way I see it is that Mr Parkhouse could have been harsher, as I felt the gig came off technically perfect, but was strictly professional and nothing more. We may as well have been in a very big lounge room with a nice sound system for all that was happening up on stage. No one was expecting pyrotechnics or backing dancers, but to not even get a conversation out of the lead singer of a band on their farewell tour does indeed deserve at least a mention in a fair-minded review.”

“@ Genghis
We´re not as bad as we seem, although in my case, given to writing admittedly pathetic posts in an a-ha discussion.
@ian
I just thought I´d add a humourless piece of information for no particular reason:
a-ha have troubled the chart compilers twice in the last two years: last year when Foot of the Mountain reached number 5 in the UK album chart, and some weeks ago when their best-of-compilation reached number 10 in said chart.”

“Does writing a book about 80¿s pop music give you the qualified right to upset true fans and slander someone by saying that they are uncharismatic, no ¿ if however Mr Parkhouse¿s book had been solely dedicated to a-ha then perhaps he could have been justified stating his opinion, but perhaps at the end of his article/opinion. I am a huge fan of a-ha and although I don¿t own every single piece of a-ha memorabilia and have never screamed my way through a concert or tv appearance by a-ha, I am very upset with Mr Parkhouse¿s article; just because it wasn¿t to his taste it is not fair to brand the lead singer as uncharismatic ¿ did Mr Parkhouse pay for his ticket(s)? I think not, so it wasn¿t his actual choice to be there, unlike the fans. It is sad that having the ability to sing and perform LIVE means you are branded as uncharismatic, unlike boring, same sound, predictable, pop processed junk mimed, sorry lip-synchronized, by the likes of Cheryl Cole, Britney, etc, and don¿t forget Roy Orbison.... very boring standing still strumming guitar wearing dark glasses...., not like all these fantastic charismatic performers that can sing upside down whilst drinking a pint of larger and doing the latest Sudoku and ensuring that the audience participate by copying them......; also for a performer to be charismatic, do they (no matter what their age) have to cartwheel around the stage for each and every performance during the long tiring tour, for Mr Parkhouse they obviously do..... (don¿t panic, I appreciate Roy¿s voice/music).”

“What were numptys like A-Ha doing at the Arena the other night, when it should have been a group like the mighty Kings doin their stuff to a sell-out audience.They last played the Arena in December 2008, and are touring the UK
very soon, but aren't scheduled for Nottingham, which is a travesty. What's up Arena management.? Couldn't we afford them- Rock City in December 2004- Arena in July 2005, then Arena again in December 2007 and 2008. I bet they would have come if their management had been approached.!
Gutted.!”