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How it all started

Not only were you the first to believe, but you were right to believe! 'Cause the last two years have had a1 stamped all over them!

Thanks to their fun-fuelled brand of infectious pop, BEN, CHRISTIAN, MARK and PAUL have given the charts the kind of endorphin rush people ride on rollercoasters for, scoring themselves a bunch of Top-Ten UK singles with "Be The First To Believe", "Summertime Of Our Lives", the double A-sided "Everytime/Ready or Not" and their amazing cover of A-ha's "Take On Me" which has given them their very first number one.

You should know the a1 story by now, but if you don't - shame on you! - here's MARK with a little reminder: "Our managers spent nearly three years putting a1 together and they only chose one of us through an audition. I've worked with other bands and it's so difficult to find four people with the same dedication and an equal amount of talent."

The biggest Disney fan since Walt, MARK has played the piano since he was two, toured with his mum and dad's covers band all over the world and scooped a best newcomer award at an international song festival in Rumania when he was 15.

CHRISTIAN is the group's musical boffin. Not only is he the son of a famous Norwegian pop star, but has studied music full-time at the Paul McCartney fame school where he specialised in voice, composition, and studio production.

a1's choreographer, PAUL moved to Benidorm at the age of 19 where he ducked, dived and danced in clubs before a karaoke performance at his dad's bar brought him to the attention of a German record producer with whom he made a demo tape which eventually found its way to London.

Finally, BEN, the one most likely to out-cute Leonardo (and dontcha know it!), is a former head chorister at St Margaret's, Westminster Abbey who's sung solos on two choral CDs and done star turns for the Pope and the Queen! He's also the biggest Tracy Chapman fan the world has ever seen.

Together a1 have taken their blend of pop, soul, funk and rock around the world and back again. Their debut album, Here We Come, released in 1999 was written and co-written by a1 themselves and is packed to the gills with up-tempo surefire hits, high voltage disco tracks and the kind of ballads Celine Dion would kill for.

Says PAUL, "Our producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawlings also work with Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Cher and Tina Turner and they've all heard the music we've written. It's really flattering because they've said they want to work with us or have us do backing vocals for them at some point!"

CHRISTIAN adds, "When you're doing photo shoots and tours for teen magazines, everyone perceives you as just another boy band, but when you're in the studio, the musicians and singers there don't see you like that - to them you're musicians. Hopefully, we're getting that across to everyone else now too."

The guys have also performed up and down the country thanks to a series of STEPS extravaganzas, magazine and radio tours and under-18s club nights, causing near-on riots everywhere they've gone! Highlights have been Norway's v. prestigious Nobel Peace Prize concert and their whirlwind "no corner left untouched" visit of Japan where they were hailed as megastars and, and... well, the list goes on.

The year 2000 has seen our heroes back in the studio, writing and recording new material guaranteed for top chart action, no worries. Working with the likes of RipRockNAlex (who's worked with N'Sync), Eric Foster White (Whitney, Britney and Backstreet Boys) and Andrew Frampton (Steps) as well as long time collaborators Brian Rawlings and Peter Cunnah, they're taking the typical a1 sound to a new level. And you can be the first to get a sneaky earwig when the guys hit the road for their very first headlining UK tour this autumn.

a1, here they come. And then some.

You already know and would be daft not to love a1. You know they've already got a No.1 Smash Hit single, four top ten singles and a smash album underneath their belts. In just over a year the lads have sold over 1,000,000 records in the UK alone - impressive stuff.

It took three years for a1's management to hook the guys up with each other, but it was certainly worth the wait. All four members are even more dedicated to the band today than they were back in the days when photo shoots were a novelty and they had never been asked what colour pants they were wearing. 1999 saw a1 burst onto the pop scene with the anthemic "Be The First To Believe", which debuted at number six. They swiftly followed that up with the number five hit "Summertime Of Our Lives" which brightened up everyone's overcast August. The stunning double a-side that was "Everytime / Ready Or Not" came next and scored them a number three smash. This year we have had a Valentine's single called "Like A Rose" penned by a then 16 year old Ben which secured their fourth top six hit and the Madonna beating No. 1 smash "Take On Me", a cover version of the A-Ha 80's classic.

The guys have huge ambitions and have begun to spread the a1 word around the world. They're already huge stars with platinum album sales in the Far East and Europe, and things have gone so crazy in Japan that a1 trading cards are currently changing hands for fortunes over the Internet! The US is firmly in their sights and they're already building a fan-base there in advance of a 2001 album release.

The foursome have spent most of 2000 travelling around the world and winning more fans by the day. But while they've been having the time of their lives, they're aware that they've been out of the public eye in Britain for a while. As Mark says," We've been out of the limelight since February here, but were ready to come back with a bang." "We've learnt a lot since we first started out", says Ben. "The best way to learn about anything is through experience and we've certainly been getting a lot of that. We've been travelling around the world learning how to become better songwriters and performers. We hope we're always improving!"

a1 have established themselves as a band that are here to stay, so lets chuck those stereotypes aside. There's no escaping the fact that they're a boy band. Hey, they're all boys, and they're a band. But they write their own music and are far happier singing live than they are lip-synching. They wrote ten of the 12 songs on their stonking debut album "Here We Come",and are currently busy putting together album number two. How is this album going to be different from "Here We Come" ? "I think its going to be more mature in a way", Christian begins. "We've also got a bigger budget so we can record a lot more songs and make sure that we have all our best songs on the album!" "We have a problem with that though", laughs Paul. "We've written so many songs that we love and we can't decide which ones to put on the album. Also, some of the greatest songwriters and producers in the world are writing songs with us. It's an enormous honour and privilege".

The lads have been spending a lot of time in the USA concentrating on the follow up to "Here We Come". They've been working with the likes of Eric Foster-White (who penned Britney Spears massive US hit "From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart"), producers Rip Rock and Alex (who wrote 50% of N Sync gigantic album "No Strings Attached"), Andreas Carlson and Chris Porter (who has worked extensively with George Michael).

a1 are also writing songs for other artists and recently secured a publishing deal with Sony, which makes them the company's biggest UK signing, so lookout for their credits on many an album to come. Christian reckons that a1's universal love of writing music is what makes them such a strong band. "We've always said that our big difference is that we all pride ourselves on being musicians and writers, and we have something in our heart that we want to get out. It's a very unique situation where all four members of a group write and contribute equally. That's part of the reason we gel so well together, we have that common interest."

We're sure you already know, but just in case you've been in hibernation, a1's most recent single was a cover of A-ha's massive 80s anthem "Take On Me". So why did the guys decided to brave the critics and cover such a well known and well-loved song? Ben explains, "We were recording some new tracks for the album and we were thinking what cover we would do if we ever did one. Someone suggested that we do "Take On Me", and we all agreed. We thought we'd have a laugh and see how we sounded doing it. In the end we we're so pleased with the way it sounded we decided to release it as a single." "Morten himself has said before that he's always been intrigued that no-one has chosen to cover it, and we thought exactly the same thing." Christian smiles. "It's such a brilliant song and we're really excited about it. I grew up with A-ha being the biggest band that ever happened to Norway and I've always been a huge fan." "We know it's a bit of a risk covering a song that so many people have grown up with, and still dance to at clubs and parties and stuff." Mark says matter-of-factly. "And we knew we had to do it justice, and we haven't sold it short. We think people are going to love it - especially the dance mix!"

You should also prepare to be amazed by the video - it's a special effects extravaganza that was inspired by both the ground-breaking film "The Matrix" and the world famous "love bug" virus which recently brought the computer reliant globe to a standstill. Mark gives us the low-down. "The video is about us going into a computer and killing the love bug." Mark says. "We go into a virtual world and it's absolutely amazing. I got to do The Matrix flip, which was just fantastic." Ben is equally enthusiastic. "We're flipping off walls and flying, and I don't think what we've done has been seen in a music video before."

The video had to be planned well in advance of the single release because there were a team of around forty people working around the clock for a whopping ten weeks to create an entire computer world for the video. That also means that it has one of the longest production times for any video in UK history. But as soon as you set eyes on the magical masterpiece you'll be the first to agree that all the time and effort was well worth it.

a1 are already gearing up for their tour, which begins in October. And, as Paul says, the guys can't wait. "It's going to be fantastic. It'll be the first chance that people get to see a lot of songs from the new album, but they'll also get to hear the a1 faves." "We're going to be touring with a live band." Mark reveals. "And there are going to be loads of surprises. It's going to be a chance for us to show what we can do. We all had live performing experience before we joined a1, and the tour will be our chance to do what we love best."

Source: a1-pulse