No. 1 · Oslo to London · 1985
Take On Me failed twice. The third time, it came with a comic that a café owner crumpled and binned. Smooth the page and read the band’s road.
Panel 1 · Oslo and Asker · 1977 to 1982
1977
Manglerud · Manglerud, Østensjø, Oslo
As teenagers, Pål Waaktaar and Magne Furuholmen played together in Manglerud, and formed Bridges in 1977.
Magne says he and Pål had been in bands together since he was 12 or 13. Manglerud was built in the 1960s as an Oslo suburb, joined to the city by the T-bane.
A 1960s suburb in south-east Oslo, on the T-bane. The pin marks Manglerud station; family homes are not named.
Before 1982
Asker · Asker, west of Oslo
Take On Me was the first song Morten Harket heard Pål and Magne play, in Asker. It was called Miss Eerie then, and the two of them were still Bridges.
Pål and Magne had written Miss Eerie when they were 15 and 16. Harket said it sounded like a chewing-gum advert, but he heard in the keyboard riff the makings of a universal hit.
Looking for a band name, Morten found a song called A-ha in Pål’s songbook. A terrible song, he said, but a great name.
A town west of Oslo. No room or address is recorded, so Asker is named here and not mapped.
Panel 2 · London · 1982 to 1985
Pål and Magne try London on their own, and go home after six months. The trio return to London in January 1983 to find a record deal.
1983
KOKO (the Camden Palace) · 1a Camden High Street, London NW1 7JE
Short of money in London, the band loved the Camden Palace: if you dressed wildly enough, you were picked out of the queue and let in free.
The building opened as the Camden Theatre on Boxing Day 1900. It was the Music Machine from 1977 and became the Camden Palace in 1982. It was restored from 2004 and reopened as KOKO.
Still a live venue, as KOKO. Go to a show.
London
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1983 · after dark
Rendezvous studio · Sydenham, south-east London
With their money running out, the band booked a cheap studio in Sydenham because it had a drum machine and a synth. They could afford about two songs. The studio manager, John Ratcliff, heard them and offered more time if they came in at night. They worked all night and slept by day in a windowless basement.
Wikipedia says they chose Ratcliff’s studio because it had a Space Invaders machine. He introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and the two became their managers. Pål calls Rendezvous the place where their sound turned synth-based, out of necessity.
Terry Slater signs them to Warner Bros. at the end of the year.
No address is recorded for the studio, so it is named here and not mapped. The card shows Kirkdale, Sydenham.
1984–1985
Eel Pie Studios (site) · Ranelagh Drive, Twickenham
Hunting High and Low was recorded at Eel Pie Studios in Twickenham, produced by Tony Mansfield, John Ratcliff and Alan Tarney.
The studio was a 1960s boathouse on the Thames by Twickenham Bridge. Pete Townshend sold it in 2008 and it became a private home. The album came out on 1 June 1985 and reached No. 1 in Norway and No. 2 in Britain.
Now a private house, so it is not mapped. The card shows Ranelagh Drive by the river.
Take On Me · 1984 to 1985
The first Take On Me, produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff, comes out with a blue-background video and reaches 137 in Britain.
Kim’s café, Wandsworth Road · 1985
Steve Barron filmed the café scenes of the second Take On Me video in 1985 at Kim’s café, on the corner of Wandsworth Road and Pensbury Place. The rest was shot on a London sound stage.
Bunty Bailey played the woman reading the comic. Morten Harket was its hero, the one whose hand reaches out of the page. About 3,000 frames were rotoscoped over 16 weeks: Michael Patterson drew over Barron’s film and Candace Reckinger did the mattes. In the video, the café owner crumples the comic and throws it in a bin. The woman takes it home and smooths out the creases to find out what happens next. Do the same, and read the band’s road.
1977
Two boys from a 1960s Oslo suburb start a band called Bridges.
Manglerud
Before 1982
Morten Harket hears them play Miss Eerie, the riff that becomes Take On Me.
Asker
1983
Broke in London, they dress wildly enough to get into the Camden Palace for free.
KOKO (the Camden Palace)
1983
A Sydenham studio lets them record at night. The sound turns to synths.
Rendezvous studio
1985
A café on Wandsworth Road, a woman with a comic, a hand out of the page.
Kim’s café
January 1991
198,000 people at the Maracanã for a-ha’s night.
Estádio do Maracanã
Still creased
Smooth all six creases and the hero steps off the page.
Harket and Bailey met again at the café in 2019, when it was the Savoy café. By 2025 it was the Turkish Chef Mediterranean Restaurant.
A restaurant now, on a busy road. Look from the pavement, or go in for a meal. The card shows the pub nearby.
Rock in Rio II · Maracanã · January 1991
Their night drew 198,000 people, a Guinness record for the largest paying audience at a concert.
Rock in Rio II ran from 18 to 27 January 1991 at the Maracanã, and a-ha topped the bill for one night. Pål remembers 200,000 Brazilians singing Hunting High and Low to one acoustic guitar.
The band said later that the press hardly covered it. Magne felt alienated by that. A poll before the festival’s 30th birthday named a-ha’s 1991 show its highlight, and the band came back to play Rock in Rio in 2015.
A working stadium. Go to a match or a show.
Rio de Janeiro
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Compare toursOslo and Giske · 2010 to 2017
4 December 2010
Oslo Spektrum · Sjøtomta, Oslo 0050, beside Oslo Central Station
The farewell tour, Ending on a High Note, set out on 4 March 2010 and ended at Oslo Spektrum on 4 December 2010. Cameras filmed it.
They opened with The Sun Always Shines on T.V. Fans had come from England, India, Mexico, South Korea and further. Spektrum is best known for the yearly Nobel Peace Prize Concert. a-ha played it in 1998, and that led them back into the studio.
June 2017
Giske, near Ålesund
The two MTV Unplugged shows were played in Øygardshallen, the nearby harbour hall, with cables laid to Ocean Sound to record them.
Only 250 people saw each night. The hall’s glass front looked out on the pale midsummer night. They had thought about Manaus, Berlin, London and New York; the studio decided it.
Oslo Spektrum
The arena opened in December 1990. Its walls carry a mosaic of almost 400,000 tiles, with fragments of prints by Rolf Nesch.
An arena beside Oslo Central Station. Go to a concert.
Oslo
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Ocean Sound Recordings
In June 2017 the band rehearsed for two weeks at Ocean Sound with Lars Horntveth, who had spent more than half a year on acoustic arrangements. The studio began in a small boathouse in 2005 and opened as it is today in 2009. The MTV Unplugged special was made in secrecy, with no phones or recording equipment allowed in.
A working residential studio, for sessions only. Giske is reached from Ålesund by bridges and undersea tunnels.
Øygardshallen, Giske
The album, MTV Unplugged – Summer Solstice, came out in October 2017.
The hall’s address is not recorded in our sources, so it is named and not mapped. The card shows the island.
Ålesund and Giske, Norway · Book direct
The official tourism board’s list of hotels and cabins around Ålesund, the town you fly into for Giske, where the Unplugged shows were played in 2017.
Find a roomWhere it is now
In Oslo, Spektrum is by the Central Station and Manglerud is a T-bane ride south-east. In London, KOKO is in Camden and Kim’s café is south of the river on Wandsworth Road. Rio and Giske are journeys of their own.
6 places you can visit, from Manglerud station to Camden High Street and the Maracanã. Asker, the Sydenham studio and the Giske harbour hall are named, not mapped, because no address is recorded; Eel Pie Studios is a private house now.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A 1960s suburb in south-east Oslo, on the T-bane. The pin marks Manglerud station; family homes are not named.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An arena beside Oslo Central Station. Go to a concert.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working residential studio, for sessions only. Giske is reached from Ålesund by bridges and undersea tunnels.
Manglerud, Østensjø, Oslo
As teenagers, Pål Waaktaar and Magne Furuholmen played together in Manglerud, and formed Bridges in 1977.
A 1960s suburb in south-east Oslo, on the T-bane. The pin marks Manglerud station; family homes are not named.
Sjøtomta, Oslo 0050, beside Oslo Central Station
The farewell tour, Ending on a High Note, set out on 4 March 2010 and ended at Oslo Spektrum on 4 December 2010. Cameras filmed it.
An arena beside Oslo Central Station. Go to a concert.
Sjøvegen, Giske, near Ålesund
In June 2017 the band rehearsed for two weeks at Ocean Sound with Lars Horntveth, who had spent more than half a year on acoustic arrangements.
A working residential studio, for sessions only. Giske is reached from Ålesund by bridges and undersea tunnels.
Stay
The tourism board’s list for Ålesund, the nearest town to the island.
Ålesund and Giske, Norway · Book direct
The official tourism board’s list of hotels and cabins around Ålesund, the town you fly into for Giske, where the Unplugged shows were played in 2017.
Find a roomGo there
Tours in Oslo, London, Rio and Ålesund, to fit round the places on this page.
Oslo
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Compare toursWhat’s on
The band list no tour dates after October 2026.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Hunting High and Low, Scoundrel Days, and the Giske Unplugged album.
a-ha · LP, Warner Bros., 1985
Recorded at Eel Pie Studios in Twickenham; the album with Take On Me.
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Find a copya-ha · LP, Warner Bros., 1986
The second album, out in the middle of the 1986 world tour.
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Find a copya-ha · LP, Polydor, 2017
The two nights in the harbour hall on Giske.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 16 of 16 Moments
Manglerud, Østensjø, Oslo
Pål and Magne form Bridges.
Asker, west of Oslo
Morten Harket hears Pål and Magne play the song that becomes Take On Me.
Morten finds a song called A-ha in Pål’s songbook and takes it for the band.
1a Camden High Street, London NW1 7JE
Pål and Magne try London on their own, and go home after six months.
Wild clothes get the band into the Camden Palace for free.
Sydenham, south-east London
The trio return to London in January 1983 to find a record deal.
John Ratcliff lets them record at night; the sound turns to synths.
Terry Slater signs them to Warner Bros. at the end of the year.
Ranelagh Drive, Twickenham
The first Take On Me, produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff, comes out with a blue-background video and reaches 137 in Britain.
Alan Tarney re-records it with a cleaner sound and a coda; the second release flops in Britain too.
Corner of Wandsworth Road and Pensbury Place, London SW8
Steve Barron films the café scenes at Kim’s café; the drawing over the film takes 16 weeks.
Released again with the new video, Take On Me reaches No. 1 in America in October 1985 and No. 2 in Britain.
The video wins six MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.
Avenida Rei Pelé, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
a-ha’s night at Rock in Rio II draws a record paying crowd.
Sjøtomta, Oslo 0050, beside Oslo Central Station
The last show of the farewell tour, in Oslo.
Sjøvegen, Giske, near Ålesund
Giske, near Ålesund
Two acoustic shows on Giske, for 250 people a night.
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