Aha & Rick Astley | All Photos by Erik Norder

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL AHA + RICK ASTLEY GALLERY BY ERIK NORDER

By: Shane Jones

Artist: AHA and Rick Astley

Date: Thursday 5th March 2020

Venue: Horncastle Arena, Christchurch, NZ

A-Ha have decided to finally add New Zealand to their 2019-20 tour - their very first trip to Aotearoa - opening up in Christchurch tonight followed by their second and final date at Villa Maria in Auckland on Saturday. They have brought British singer Rick Astley along as support.

The inner doors open and I proceed to find my seat with anticipation of hearing these two acts from the ‘80s that I’ve never seen before. Attendance is around three and a half thousand fans of all ages, majority being of an older generation. The lights dim, and a huge welcoming cheer for Rick Astley. His band takes their positions, followed by Rick himself. Opening song is ‘Together Forever’ to which he says that it’s been far too long for him to arrive here to sing, and then says, ‘Welcome back to 1987.’ He heads into his next song, ‘Beautiful Life’, then tells us of his recent trip to Akaroa to eat fish and chips, which he said he really enjoyed. The lighting for his set was very bold, with strong colour combinations.
Rick brings a couple new songs to the set with ‘Dance’ and ‘Try’, then, like he did with the Australian leg of the tour, he performs a piece of local music, first with INXS’ ‘New Sensation’, as well as Crowded House’s ‘Weather With You’, which has the audience singing out loud back to him. He finishes his set off with another crowd favourite and the one song that put him where he is today, ‘Never Going Give You Up’.

Cheers from the audience start almost lifting the rafters off as members of A-Ha take the stage to introduce their first song, their biggest ever, ’Take On Me’, which prompted screams of joy from the women folk in the crowd to a near deafening level, (you would’ve thought it was like 1964 with The Beatles). A huge milestone with ‘Take On Me’ mid February was it reached the Billion Club on YouTube; that amount of views only reached by a small handful of artists. From there, they played the entire Hunting High & Low album from start to finish. Yes, 1984 had now arrived to the auditorium. Keyboardist Magne (Mags) also apologises that it’s taken so long to finally getting to New Zealand, and, with what they have seen of our country since arriving at the beginning of the week, jokingly said, ‘We are going to come back each month from now on.’ Several more songs play from their catalogue of 10 albums before it was time to walk off the stage, the crowd in a frenzy for the encore of ‘Scoundrel Days’, as well as the final song, the 007 movie anthem ‘The Living Daylights’.
To be honest, A-Ha’s sound started off a little pitchy and the lighting wasn’t in the same awe as Astley’s set, with having three big lighting screens behind the band.

I thought Morten’s higher vocal range was a little off at times and got a bit irritating, but being 60 years of age, the older we get, yes, something is going to give. I also noticed he forgot some lyrics during ‘Living Daylights’, but in fairness, I think he was distracted by an audience member. I really enjoyed Rick Astley’s set better than A-Ha’s, as he interacted with the audience a lot more and visually it was a much more enjoyable show.

Rick Astley Set list

Together Forever
Beautiful Life
She Wants to Dance
Keep Singing
When Ever You Need Somebody
Every One Of Us
Cry For Help
Angels On My Side
Take Me To Your Heart
Dance
Try
Weather With You
Never Gonna Give You Up

A-Ha Set list Play Hunting High & Low Live

Take On Me
Train Of Thought
Hunting High & Low
The Blue Sky
Living a Boys Adventure Tale
The Sun Always Shines On T.V.
And You Tell Me
Love Is Reason
I Dream Myself Alive
Here I Stand And Face The Rain
Crying In The Rain
Sycamore Leaves
The Swing Of Things
Analogue
I’ve Been Losing You
Stay On These Roads
Encore
Scoundrel Days
Living Daylights

Review Edited By: Jake Ebdale