ABBA! Live! Sort of!
Unless you've been living under a rock this year (and quite frankly who could blame you if you had) you'll be aware that ABBA have been turned into ABBA-tars and are 'gigging' again for the first time in 43 years. I was a little sceptical about how well it would all work but it really does look as though they're up there on stage. That's only part of the show though, there are animated bits and videos shown on ruddy huge screens that make up the walls of the Arena, a live band and vocalists to add that live feel and enough frickin' laser beams to destroy a small planet. In short, it's pretty bloody spectacular.
Pretty much all the hits are included plus some of the new stuff that magically appeared last year and each ABBA-tar 'comes out' on stage to deliver a little speech throughout the night. Of course what they can't do is interact with the audience so there's the odd moment or two when people cheer something that's been said but the ABBA-tar carries on speaking rather than basking in the adoration but that's a minor quibble. I'm guessing there's zero chance of seeing the real band play live ever again so this is a pretty great substitute.
What its success will mean for live music in the future, who knows? As this technology develops will artists play live shows in one country and have them beamed around the world so they appear to be on dozens of stages at the same time? And will people accept it? Will they even notice? Lets face it, if you go to a huge gig the chances are you'll end up watching most of the action on giant screens anyway. I suspect the likes of The Rolling Stones are watching this play out and seeing a way to carry on raking in the squillions without having to leave home. Fast forward a decade or three and you'll probably be able to beam bands into your own living room so you can enjoy the show in your pants...
PS: A word of warning about buying tickets for this show. There doesn't appear to be a box office so all sales are handled by Ticketmaster. Oh dear. An awful lot of tickets then seem to end up on Viagogo, a secondary ticketing platform with a lousy reputation populated by touts who are making millions by slapping obscene mark-ups on anything they can get their sticky little hands on. Worse still are the scammers who don't even have any bloody tickets, My father in law bought 4 tickets through Viagogo...or so he thought...but they didn't exist. He was unaware that Viagogo was a secondary ticketing platform or that he was 'buying' from a private 'seller'. When we turned up we were gently informed by a very lovely lady that he'd been scammed. Ouch. Fortunately Mrs B and I were able to buy tickets from a couple of people who had spares for a fraction of the sum that the scammer had charged and we got in but father-in- law and his partner weren't so lucky. I LOATHE Viagogo and anyone who prays on music fans and always have done. It should be illegal to buy tickets purely for profit but sadly too many people are making too much money from it and there seems little appetite to stamp it out. Personally I'd never buy a ticket with a mark-up on it and if everyone else did likewise these leeches would be wiped out.
No comments:
Post a Comment