A-ha get set for Birmingham date

So, what can A-ha fans expect if they go to see Morten Harket, the band's former lead singer, at Birmingham Symphony Hall on Monday?

"They can expect me," laughs the Norwegian, down a phoneline so faint it's tempting to ask him to shout his answers out of the window. "I will be on stage, live, and I will be singing and I will have a strong band with me."

What he won't have, of course, is former colleagues guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and keyboard player Magne Furuholmen.

They decided to call it a day in 2010 after a quarter-century together that had taken them from teen heartthrobs to "elder statesmen" status, with bands such as U2 and Keane praising a back catalogue which runs from the classics, such as Take on Me and The Sun Always Shines on TV, to their final album, with hits such as Foot of The Mountain.

http://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914

After all those years in the spotlight at 35 million album sales, Harket could probably have retired to a private fjord back home and lived a quiet life studying nature, one of his many interests, but instead he has decided to resume his solo career and is embarking on a very short UK tour which is taking him to Manchester, London and, finally, England's second city.

How is he enjoying the solo life?

"The solo life?" ponders the singer. "It sounds like I'm living by myself."

He says he enjoys the challenge of performing and going out on the road, and it's not that different from his days in A-ha - the members of his band are the same musicians who played on the group's final tour.

"It's a real band, real music," he says. "It's live and it has the same level that it did with A-ha. It's the same standard."

He adds: "I don't really take much time for the industry. I'm interested in the music."

But does he miss the other two? "I've not had a chance to miss them," he says. He's been busy writing and recording a second solo album since their split, but their relationship remains "relaxed" and they appear to be on good terms.

He'll be singing songs from his new album and other solo material at the Symphony Hall, and will also throw in some songs from the sizeable back catalogue.

Harket finds he gets a mixture of people at his solo shows. There are the fans who followed A-ha and there are the people "who know quite well the stuff that I've done by myself.

He adds: "I'm not a circus artist. I'm not an entertainer. I'm more of an engager, and that's entertaining in itself.

"For me, what makes it interesting is not to give the people what they want but to give people what they didn't know they wanted."

For tickets to see Morten Harket at Birmingham call 0121 780 3333