A-ha icon dies aged 85 as band member pays tribute to group’s ‘most important person’

Slater signed the group when he was a board member of record label EMI in 1983.

Band member Furuholmen paid tribute to Slater, saying: “Terry is the singularly most important person in A-ha’s music career.”

In a message on Facebook, the band wrote: “43 years ago, give or take a couple of months, Terry Slater took a chance on three scruffy, hopeful Norwegians living in London squalor with a burning ambition and some degree of talent.

“With this he pioneered what was to become the first norwegian artists to have major hits and top the charts around the world, a string of world tours from arenas to stadiums, and eventually now look back on a more than 40-year international career in music as norway’s still biggest ever international act – and not least the fact that millions of people are still enjoying the music we have had the opportunity to make.

“Terry is the singularly most important person in a-has music career. He was already a towering figure in music world when we first met, but more than just his business boldness, experience, knowhow, network etc, he became a kind of father figure and a good friend.

“He really cared. about the band, and the three of us as people, guiding us with a steady hand through the many trappings and pitfalls of success.

“He is without a doubt the person with the greatest impact on our professional lives and, I dare say, the lives of all our families.

“It is with immense sadness that we must now accept the fact that terry has passed away.

“Thank you dear Terry – for everything. i hope you are inimitably chuckling away in some other dimension – playing bass and goofing off with your friends Phil and Don and all the other music greats who are no longer gracing us with their talent – most of whom you knew and who knew and appreciated you.

“You are missed.”