ABBA re-form and are on tour!

[Carl Sagan]

No football forum can be complete without a thread on ABBA.

The  Swedish songsters are releasing a new album and creating a purpose-built venue in the Olympic Park in Stratford to the east of London, where they'll play 8 gigs a week. Except they're using new technology so it's their 1979 selves who will be up on stage as holograms, supported by a real  band. 

Here's the first single from the point the holograms become visible:

The venture is called ABBA Voyage. Mrs Sagan has long been a fan, and forced me to gate crash the premiere party of Mamma Mia the Party to join her (she was invited) which was fun. I ended up having drinks with Noel Fielding and giving Bjorn a congratulatory pat on the back as he walked past. Hopefully we both get invited to this one!

[Spanish]

7 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

No football forum can be complete without a thread on ABBA.

The  Swedish songsters are releasing a new album and creating a purpose-built venue in the Olympic Park in Stratford to the east of London, where they'll play 8 gigs a week. Except they're using new technology so it's their 1979 selves who will be up on stage as holograms, supported by a real  band. 

Here's the first single from the point the holograms become visible:

The venture is called ABBA Voyage. Mrs Sagan has long been a fan, and forced me to gate crash the premiere party of Mamma Mia the Party to join her (she was invited) which was fun. I ended up having drinks with Noel Fielding and giving Bjorn a congratulatory pat on the back as he walked past. Hopefully we both get invited to this one!

So they don’t attend in person

[TigerTedd]

7 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

No football forum can be complete without a thread on ABBA.

The  Swedish songsters are releasing a new album and creating a purpose-built venue in the Olympic Park in Stratford to the east of London, where they'll play 8 gigs a week. Except they're using new technology so it's their 1979 selves who will be up on stage as holograms, supported by a real  band. 

Here's the first single from the point the holograms become visible:

The venture is called ABBA Voyage. Mrs Sagan has long been a fan, and forced me to gate crash the premiere party of Mamma Mia the Party to join her (she was invited) which was fun. I ended up having drinks with Noel Fielding and giving Bjorn a congratulatory pat on the back as he walked past. Hopefully we both get invited to this one!

Isn’t it a bit of a cheat to just pre-record the concert once and then just hit the play button?

They’re not dead, like Tupac, and they’re not cartoons like the gorillaz, they could actually show up and do it themselves. 

listened to the singles yesterday though, they’re quite good. 

[Spanish]

59 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

Isn’t it a bit of a cheat to just pre-record the concert once and then just hit the play button?

They’re not dead, like Tupac, and they’re not cartoons like the gorillaz, they could actually show up and do it themselves. 

listened to the singles yesterday though, they’re quite good. 

every concert the same, buy the DVD on the way out?  But people will go and enjoy themselves.  Bit like going to an enhanced cinema experience and not on tour at all

[Wolfie]

Aaaaah, Agneta. My first childhood celebrity crush.

I watched a "30 best moments" thing on Channel 5 last Friday when I was half drunk and it all came flooding back.

I liked ABBA but always preferred their slower, more emotional songs to the disco hits. Give me Winner takes it all or The day before you came over Dancing Queen any day.

Once the initial opening rush has died down a bit, I'd probably like to go and see this.

[Spanish]

1 minute ago, Wolfie said:

Aaaaah, Agneta. My first childhood celebrity crush.

I watched a "30 best moments" thing on Channel 5 last Friday when I was half drunk and it all came flooding back.

I liked ABBA but always preferred their slower, more emotional songs to the disco hits. Give me Winner takes it all or The day before you came over Dancing Queen any day.

Once the initial opening rush has died down a bit, I'd probably like to go and see this.

errrr....

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, Spanish said:

every concert the same, buy the DVD on the way out?  But people will go and enjoy themselves.  Bit like going to an enhanced cinema experience and not on tour at all

Which is fair enough, but it’s still a bit of a cheat to call it a concert / tour. If everyone did their concerts like this, you could show it 6 times a day every day. You can make mega bucks, but it’s still cheating. 

[Chester40]

Abba......no more interesting to me than The Spice Girls in their day, songs possibly better than the run of the mill chart stuff but can't think of a single song of their's I actually like. I also can't think of a film more awful than the few minutes of Mamma Mia I saw, so I'm thinking I'm a no for this one. 

[Wolfie]

2 hours ago, Spanish said:

errrr....

What?. Come on......

[Carl Sagan]

2 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Abba......no more interesting to me than The Spice Girls in their day, songs possibly better than the run of the mill chart stuff but can't think of a single song of their's I actually like. I also can't think of a film more awful than the few minutes of Mamma Mia I saw, so I'm thinking I'm a no for this one. 

Mamma Mia is an abomination to original ABBA fans. The band had no involvement in it originally, except the royalties. But they decided to take the money and run (you can't really blame them when you realize how much money is involved). Back when the stage version was first launched the fanclub asked Mrs Sagan to review it for them. She detested it, but the consolation was it was so bad it surely wouldn't last more than a couple of weeks before it was pulled!

[Carl Sagan]

2 hours ago, Spanish said:

every concert the same, buy the DVD on the way out?  But people will go and enjoy themselves.  Bit like going to an enhanced cinema experience and not on tour at all

If the AI is clever enough (if they even have it) then every concert will be different. But my suspicion is we're not there yet (in terms of that level of technology or ABBA risking it)  and you're most likely right.

[Carl Sagan]

3 hours ago, TigerTedd said:

Isn’t it a bit of a cheat to just pre-record the concert once and then just hit the play button?

They’re not dead, like Tupac, and they’re not cartoons like the gorillaz, they could actually show up and do it themselves. 

listened to the singles yesterday though, they’re quite good. 

Would you rather see wrinklies on stage or the members in their prime? All the band were born in the 1940s (except Agnetha was 1950) and one reason they never re-formed was because they felt they no longer looked like ABBA. To me you're right, presuming the concert is pre-recorded, that it is a bit of  a cheat. My hope was that there would be sufficient artificial intelligence involved that the holograms do different things each night, but that sort of tech in a reliable form that will always work for the show probably remains a few years away.

That said, many years ago now U2 filmed a 3D concert in Buenos Aires and it was released as an IMAX 3D movie (U23D). I went loads of times because it was an extraordinary experience to be up on stage with the band in the midst of all that, even though it was the same every night.

[Wolfie]

34 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Would you rather see wrinklies on stage or the members in their prime? All the band were born in the 1940s (except Agnetha was 1950) and one reason they never re-formed was because they felt they no longer looked like ABBA. To me you're right, presuming the concert is pre-recorded, that it is a bit of  a cheat.

 

I wonder if it's partly down to Agnetha as well?. She became a recluse after ABBA ended and it's noticeable in the video I watched yesterday that there's very little of her in it - she's mostly hidden behind microphones.

Maybe she won't do the big live appearances and they won't/can't do it without her? Dunno.

[Leveller]

1 hour ago, Chester40 said:

Abba......no more interesting to me than The Spice Girls in their day, songs possibly better than the run of the mill chart stuff but can't think of a single song of their's I actually like. I also can't think of a film more awful than the few minutes of Mamma Mia I saw, so I'm thinking I'm a no for this one. 

Hear, hear. Though to be fair, the ABBA guys had a great talent for tunes, which sadly they turned into awful music.

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, Carl Sagan said:

Would you rather see wrinklies on stage or the members in their prime? All the band were born in the 1940s (except Agnetha was 1950) and one reason they never re-formed was because they felt they no longer looked like ABBA. To me you're right, presuming the concert is pre-recorded, that it is a bit of  a cheat. My hope was that there would be sufficient artificial intelligence involved that the holograms do different things each night, but that sort of tech in a reliable form that will always work for the show probably remains a few years away.

That said, many years ago now U2 filmed a 3D concert in Buenos Aires and it was released as an IMAX 3D movie (U23D). I went loads of times because it was an extraordinary experience to be up on stage with the band in the midst of all that, even though it was the same every night.

You’re probably right, but they could at least turn up and wave at the end or something. Do one slow, emotional encore that they don’t have to dance around to. Just seems a bit lazy. They can just stay in Sweden and press play. At hope they’d at least be around to sign autographs or something.