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Abbatars

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Can someone explain to me exactly how the Abba show (at the “Abba Arena” apparently – not the Abbarena) is done? Are they holograms or not? What’s the technology here? I’ve read a couple of reviews this morning (it’s fantastic, apparently, if you liked Abba, which would be kind of a dealbreaker for me) but there’s no explanation of what’s happening.

Somebody here must know, Shirley?

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  5. I called my make Shirley and she informed me it was all done by shady Spanish mother and son outfit, working out of a lockup behind Waterloo station (that’s why it’s being staged in London not Sweden). Apparently Bjorn called up the son, Fernando, and asked “Does Your Mother Know how to do this?”.

    It was all doable but would cost a lot of Money, Money Money. However on seeing the mock-ups the group were quite pleased and it was then simply a case of Gimme, Gimme Gimme………

  6. It looks spectacular and very very clever to me. Whatever the technology is I won’t understand it anyway. Are they live voices? A live band? Could The Rolling Stones do this and tour for eternity?

  10. Think of the applications – you could have a Van Morrison that’s actually cheerful, a Guns’N’Roses that start on time, a CSN&Y that talk to each other….

  11. Woah, this is actually news to me. Forget the “holograms” bit (I never believed these were actual proper “holograms” but just real looking digital images on a screen), but the fact that the actual figures and the vocals are not Abba themselves but taken from old recordings. When the promotional stuff came out last year showing our four septuagenarian Swedes in those funny skintight outfits with pingpong balls on them, I assumed that for the actual shows the fab four would be still performing “live”, from the comfort of a studio somewhere, with their images projected on to the stage via some kind of magic (technological) link up.

    But now it sounds like that’s not the case. Am I right in thinking that for the concerts the four aren’t actually involved at all? What the audience are paying to see and hear is just old footage and old vocals with a live backing band? Given that the four are still alive and well and this was touted as a reunion tour, that’s… kind of rubbish isn’t it?

    I mean, I have no horse in this race. I’m not an Abba fan and have no wish to see them, digitally recreated or not, but I feel that anyone who has paid for a ticket is either deluded or has been ripped off (or both).

    • Never see me sneering Abba, no sirree. But I’m with Arthur who thought you’d be getting the real Abba performing from their homes whilst digitally enhanced holograms floated across the stage. I am obviously Wrong.
      The reviews suggest it’s going to be a very enjoyable hoot – if they play Pouzolles café, I’ll be there.

        • It’s not permitted to sneer at pop musicians? Since when? I wasn’t, and I don’t see anyone else having a pop at Abba here, least of all poor old Cowslip, as well-meaning a cove as you could wish to meet. But if I wanted to sneer – or adopt any other facial expression – at Abba, I hope the Afterword would be the forum to do it. I don’t think it would be particularly “edgy” in Abba’s case, though, they’ve always had a certain amount of sneer directed at them for their corporate and insufferably bland cookie-cutter pop. There was a very successful stage musical – maybe it’s still running – featuring their sing-along ditties, too, and they weren’t on stage for that, either. Don’t get me wrong – my disinterest in this bunch of human paperweights and their pop production line is complete, and I can’t work up the energy for a smirk, let alone a sneer. A good time is a good time and who’s to deny their millions of taste-challenged Ikea-shopping consumers that? Good luck to ’em, say I!

              • No, being accused of being deluded or ripped off is shameful. And I’m sure Mr Cowslip is well able to argue his corner without the unwelcome assistance of the self-appointed Afterword Police.

                • Why did you take it so personally, and so bitterly? Do you fly off the handle so easily in “real life”? If you made such an offensive personal remark (here it is again: “Don’t fucking patronise what you clearly can’t be arsed to find out about”) in public – say, a pub conversation – would you expect people around you to look mutely down into their beer or tell you to knock it off?
                  And it’s good that he got some support, in the absence of Team Mod showing you a well-deserved yellow card for kicking the player and not the ball.

    • I’ve been on my best behaviour. Live and let live. Did they do their their “King Kong” song? If it’s good enough for Frank Zappa and the Sensational Alex Harvey band, I can hardly get pissy about the Scandipop version.

  13. No sneering from me, many members of my family (OK, but not me) have tickets for sometime in August and are really looking forward to it. Does it even matter what they are “getting”? No one thought it would be the real thing so where’s the problem?

  14. Shortly after I first started dating my wife, Bob Geldof announced his Live8 concert.

    We were out for dinner with my family and the subject of Live8 came up. All of us ripped the piss; Snow Patrol, Dido, Coldplay, Joss Stone? What kind of a moron would want to go stand in Hyde Park with a bunch of losers listening to that load of old toss. On and on we went, all of us far too cool and countercultural for any of that bollocks.

    Eventually, after a considerable period of such lip curling, my father asked my then girlfriend what she thought. She laughed and said she’d probably try to go. And then she applied for tickets. And her and her housemate got them.

    Off they went to Hyde Park to listen to all that MOR cack and I stayed home and probably played a video game or something. And then she got back and they’d had an absolutely bloody amazing time, and enjoyed every minute of it. There was no “told you so”, no “you were wrong”, she just went off and had a load of fun and left me stewing in my own self perceived critical superiority.

    Probably the first of many great life lessons she had to teach me, that. I look back now and I have no idea what I was thinking; the Killers, Mariah Carey, Madonna (Madonna!), REM, all out in the sunshine with a bunch of happy people having fun. Fuck it, even Snow Patrol would have had their moments.

    Anyway, this thread kind of reminds me of that. A few people will come on here and be like “it’s not even live vocals” and “they’re not real holograms” and “only a fool would pay for this”. Meanwhile, others will go along and probably have a fucking fantastic time singing along to some of the greatest pop songs ever written. No new ground will be broken, it won’t be “proper” music, and yet it will almost certainly be better than whatever the critics are doing with the same timeslot.

    I’m not a huge Abba listener, by any means, but I will say this; I properly listened to Slipping Through My Fingers for the first time this year and holy shit what a song that is.

    Hats off to those who are going, I hope it’s brilliant, and I’m pretty certain it will be.

    • Absolutely. Have some fun whilst you can. I heard a dear musical mate died of a coronary this week (Bill Balfour, if any of you liked Goa trance or worked his Glastonbury stage back in the day), and my flatmate from university has moved from his oncologist to palliative care. So lets seize the moment, have fun, and start doing it rather than keep fun plans on a never-engaged with “bucket list” then leave our money to the tax man.

    • “it will almost certainly be better than whatever the critics are doing with the same timeslot.”
      I’m no critic and quite fond of The Abba, but I fully intend to devote the alloted timeslot to all manner of pervy delights that will be far better than any of the above options. When is it?

    • Its a geralisation, but something I have noticed is that rather more women than men really just get on with looking forward to and enjoying stuff. For a small experiment, try playing an unknown song or piece of music to people. Check out how many men say ” what are we listening to” co pared to the number of women who say ” I like this” ( or not) without the need to know who it is before offering their opinion.

      • This comment reminded me of a friend of mine. Travelling in the car she’d often ask “who’s this we’re listening to?”. So often I got fed up and one day answered rather patonisingly “There’s no point in me telling you, you never remember.” She was understandably huffy and rightly told me not to be so patronising. So I told her, “The Stone Roses.” Fast forward to the return journey and “Who’s this we’re listening to now?”, “Still the same band as before.”, “What were they called again?”.

        Now I have a screen thingy on the car’s stereo that shows the album cover, so the conversation now goes: “Who’s this?”, I indicate the screen, “Oh I can’t see that, I need my glasses.”

        • The late Mrs thep used to say, “What is this we’re listening to exactly?” That “exactly” was the killer. What she actually meant was, “What is this shit?” She didn’t actually want to know, of course, what she really meant was “Turn this shit off.” So I did.

          • My wife doesn’t know The Beatles from Elvis (like most Thais – they have other things to think about), and she’s also a bit mutt, so car journeys are a great opportunity to hit shuffle and watch the rice go by.

  15. Reading the title on my phone made me think the thread was called “Abattoirs”.

    Gimme Gimme Gimme a ham after midnight
    Knowing Meat, Knowing You
    What’s the Name of the Gane? Is it pheasant or cockatoo?
    NO thank you – for the muesli
    Chipolata tell me what’s wrong.,,

  16. Knowing Meat, Knowing Stew – A-HAA!
    Hamma-Hia
    Steak A Chance On Me
    As Good As Stew
    I Am Just A Grill
    Lay All Your Love On Meat
    Ham In The Middle
    Meat And Pie
    The Wiener Takes It All
    Livers (Live A Little Longer)
    I’m A Marinade

  19. Apologies if this has been answered (I’ve looked through the thread), but will it literally be the same gig every show? Do they have, say, 58 different bits of audience engagement they’ll rotate, or will it be the same set, band comments, physical movement, etc. at each gig? Some people will want to go multiple times.

    • There’s a review of the opening night over on SDE which mentions five singles they didn’t perform, so the setlist is likely to be jumbled up a bit.

      I love the interaction Bjorn Again have with the audience as, even though they are accomplished musicians, they don’t take it too seriously. My best BA memories are of the band laughing at the antics of the audience. Abbatars can’t do that, and I’d miss it.

  20. By all accounts, they were motion-captured doing a wider range of songs with a view to updating the setlist periodically. And in context, most major artists don’t change their sets or even ‘spontaneous’ banter on highly-choreographed and staged tours.

  21. Everyone I know who’s seen it says this is just fantastic and you cannot tell you’re not really watching the four real members of Abba. It’s surely the future for all those acts wishing to keep their legacy going after old age and death – and arguably easier and less risky than the jukebox musical, which was previously considered the default. However, anyone getting carried away about seeing the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Queen recreated may be a little wide of the mark. Apparently it helped the process immensely that all four members of Abba are still alive. It means they didn’t just capture their mannerisms, which could be imitated, but also the Abbatars were perfectly in proportion. As good as Remi Malek was, he wasn’t *quite* Freddie Mercury. So the digital Fred – and it will surely come – will not be quite as convincing as this Abba show.

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