**a1 in Norway**
*Nesbyen, 4th
July 2003*
Well we promised you all the
goss from a1’s most recent (and unfortunately, in the words of Ben,
“last”) gig at Hallingmarken in Nesbyen, Norway on 4th July, and
here it is! Chloe was there and has brought back with her hours worth of news
and stories about Mark, Christian and Ben, which we have
condensed into this report for you all. Just remember that you heard it here on
Inspired Innovation first, and we’ll try and bring you some pictures soon!
Mark and Ben flew into Oslo Gardermoen airport on
Wednesday 2nd July on what Mark called “a fairly easy flight”
and flew back out at 10:40 a.m. on Saturday 5th July, having only
had “20 minutes sleep” after they hijacked a band that were playing at Christian’s
hotel and sang the night away with such karaoke classics as “Angels”, instead
of driving straight back to Oslo like they were supposed to.
Mark was looking cheerful (and gorgeous) as ever before
the gig, despite having hurt his throat by being over-enthusiastic in
rehearsals the day before. The Mark fans among us will be very pleased
to know that THE ARM MUSCLES ARE BACK!! We can personally verify that it felt
like he had “bricks up his sleeves”. Hoorah! And for those of you who were a
bit iffy about his sideburns phase, we can assure you that they won’t be back
after he saw a picture of himself with them and said they were “terrible”! He
was really looking forward to the gig and said that the band they had backing
them were fantastic. He was also looking forward to the release of the Disney
film ‘Lilo & Stitch 2’, which apparently is “out this year”. Some things
never change!
Christian looked like he’d put a bit of weight on and was
sporting the slightly odd ‘Things Are Gonna Change’ boyband-y hair, but he was
still as lovely as usual and was chatting away to the masses of fans there in
Norwegian which was fascinating to listen to!
Ben’s ego had increased dramatically in size and the first
we saw of him he was talking unnecessarily loudly about his pants and lapping
up the female adoration. He was very very brown after having come back
from a week in Spain, and his hair was done in a Paul-esque Mohican fin
all over his head, with the ends highlighted a slightly lighter brown. He
didn’t look quite as skinny as expected, but was still fairly scary.
Nobody really mentioned Paul,
and it almost felt like we shouldn’t, even though he’s said he’s still in
contact with Mark. It was exactly the same as when we saw Paul on
his own, not feeling like we could or should mention a1, or the other
guys.
And finally, shock sibling
news, straight from Mark’s mouth, in that “He’s [Colin] 29 and he’s only
just left home!”
We spoke to Mark at
length about his upcoming solo stuff, and found out the rather exciting news
that it won’t just be him, but a guitarist as well! He couldn’t really describe
in words (Mark was speechless?! What is the world coming to?!) what his solo
material was going to sound like, but he said it won’t be too far removed from
a1’s last album and that his main influence is still The Beatles. He’s been
working really hard (so he says!) over the last six months, writing songs for
lots of people including Holly Valence, Gareth Gates and Toni Braxton, although
he did admit that he’s been “watching a bit more Simpsons than usual!”
Both Mark and Ben
will still be managed by Byrne Blood, and although neither yet have a record
contract, Mark has managed to secure himself a publishing deal and is
going to start approaching record companies this month. He’s hoping to have
some new stuff out early next year. He promised not to keep us waiting too
long, but said that, although he was never completely satisfied with any of his
stuff, he did want it to be as close as he could get to perfect before he came
out with anything new. Ben later announced on stage that all of their
solo albums would be out sometime “next year”. Yay!
Whilst waiting for the
concert to start, Nesbyen decided to treat us to an hour of torrential rain,
unlike anything ever rained in England! When we’d all got completely soaked
through, the sun came out and so did the show’s presenter. The first act on
were two 15-year-old rappers who’d won the Children’s Norwegian Song Contest
who did three songs (yawn), second was Dina, a sort of dance music singer whose
microphone wasn’t working properly (no great loss), third on was a “surprise
guest” in the form of Maria Arredondo, who was very skinny and not as pretty as
expected but a good singer nonetheless, and fiiiiinally, out came the guys. And
then down came the rain. Again. Hooray.
They were being backed by two
extra guitarists, an extra keyboard-ist, a drummer and three backing singers,
as well as Mark having his good old keyboard and Christian his
guitar. Ben just had a microphone, but was of course centre-stage.
They started off the set with
‘Same Old Brand New You’, and then moved on to ‘Make It Good’, which were both
fantastic and totally live, as was every song they performed.
Then Ben and Christian
disappeared off stage and Mark performed an incredible solo version of ‘Make It
Through The Night’, saying afterwards that it was a good job “they’ve given me
honey and lemon” to drink as his throat was hurting.
Ben and Christian came back on stage and they all
performed ‘Everytime’, with Mark singing Paul’s bits, which
sounded fine, but he’s not Paul.
Next up was Ben’s solo
slot, which he used to perform ‘Like A Rose’. It was noted that he sounded
exactly the same singing it as he did when they recorded the first album. Half
way through the song he got a fan from the crowd up on stage and sang to her, Christian
scuttling in at an appropriate moment and handing Ben a broken rose to
proffer to the girl.
Christian took to the stage next to sing his most recent Number
1 single, ‘Things Are Gonna Change’. This was one of the highlights of the
show, as the song is so euphoric, especially with the crowd singing the chorus
with Christian. He was really different performing on his own than how
he usually is in a1 (which he put down to being “because of the solo
stuff”, going on to remind us that he’d had “two number ones”, when we spoke to
him afterwards), acting every bit the solo star, and even – rather disturbingly
– grabbing at his crotch several times during the song! He did look very cool,
though.
The rendition of ‘Learn To
Fly’ was absolutely fantastic, even though Christian almost forgot to
start singing (maybe he forgot they were doing the new Paul-less
version!) and despite the fact that Ben forgot half the words to the
second voice, replacing them with “der der der der der” while Mark just
laughed at him and made no attempt to help him out at all! Ben
apologised for forgetting the words with a cheeky “Sorry about that!”
The next song was ‘One More Try’, and then they did a fantastically jazzed-up version of ‘Ready Or Not’, in which Ben and Mark were jumping around all over the place. Disappointing lack of fans doing the hand movements to the chorus though, and even a1 weren’t doing it! Maybe Paul copyrighted it before he left!!
The most surprising song of
the set was a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’. Predictably, Mark
looked like he was enjoying it most of all of them, and was really getting into
the dancing and jumping about, encouraging the crowd to “twist!” Everyone was
singing along, and it was just fab!
Then Mark said a
sudden thanks and “See you later!” and everyone – even the band – left the
stage.
Then they came back on.
They performed ‘Caught In The Middle’, and then to finish, the most amazing version of ‘Take On Me’ ever ever ever!! The song was hyped up, the guys were hyped up, the crowd was hyped up – everyone was going mad and jumping up and down, including Ben, Mark and Christian! They still had Mark’s “One! Two! Three! Four!” in the middle, along with the clapping, which everyone joined in with, and the look of delight on Ben’s face was really cute! Half expected them to launch into the full dance after the clapping, but they just jumped around some more. Mark sang Paul’s bit again, which went down really well with the crowd, and right at the end, all three of them turned their backs on us and jumped round in time to the very last crash of drums/cymbals. The look of exhausted happiness on their faces as they grinned at each other and at us was just lovely to see.
It was one of the most
energetic a1 gigs ever seen, and all three guys performed with such
enthusiasm and enjoyment. You could tell that they’d put everything they had
into their performance had loved every minute of it and so even though it’s sad
that it was their last gig together, it was a truly incredible one to end on.
Job well done.
Look away now if you’re a Ben
fan.
Seeing Mark and Ben
at the airport just before they got on their flight back home to England was
one of the funniest moments of the two days and an image that will stay in
memory for ages.
The flight closed at 10:30,
and at 10:25 along strolled Ben and Mark. Mark was looking
great for his possibly slightly exaggerated report of only getting “20
minutes sleep”, and was just walking along normally, carrying a bag in his
hand, a rucksack on his back and pulling a small suitcase behind him. Same old
Mark, just a regular person (well, almost!).
And then there was Ben.
Ben was swaggering along next to Mark like he was
on the catwalk, head held high in the air, looking every bit the prototype for
‘pop star’. His hair was immaculate, his clothes were trendy and he was wearing
shiny, expensive-looking sunglasses to “disguise” himself. He could not have
looked less conspicuous or more like a celebrity, and stood out
among the hoards of normal people more than previously thought possible. And
far from carrying his bags himself like poor old Mark was, Ben
had someone pushing his bags on a trolley for him! He didn’t even
notice when Mark stopped for a chat, sweeping past in a cloud of his own
self-importance. He did look good, and yes, hoorah, Ben’s thin
now and has better hair, but it was slightly over-the-top just for the airport!
After promising to “keep in touch”
(of course you will, Mark), having a picture done with a surprised fan
waiting for her flight to somewhere else, and saying thank you to Ben’s
bag-pusher (probably on his behalf!), Mark joined Ben on the
flight back to London Heathrow, and the Nesbyen saga was over!
THE END!