ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2021 Sept - Dec

I also don't think this is the end. The 50th anniversary celebrations will start next year, I think, and will culminate with the 50th anniversary of Waterloo in 2024, as the Eurovision victory has always been seen as the start of ABBA. They have never marked the anniversary of the real beginning of ABBA in 1972 so far, but I somehow feel that will change as Universal will want to capitalise on the surge of interest in ABBA caused by the new album and the concerts. I hope that if there is any new material, it will be released next year, in conjunction with the start of the ABBAtar concerts, as it doesn't make sense to wait two more years - anything can happen in the meantime. I'm a bit worried though that with the currect pandemic situation the premiere of the virtual concerts may be postponed. I agree with gamleman that we will probably see lots of anniversary releases.

From the Daily Mail:  Abba could be rolling in the Money Money Money as Las Vegas hotels start bidding war for live show - which could rake in 'almost £1billion'

t.co/ac9k7Ptpwr?amp=1

I have nine, after returning the picture discs. I was very underwhelmed by both but the ABBAtar one is the less spectacular of the two. I may regret my decision later but for now I'm glad I recovered from the shopping frenzy. So you passed the white and blue LPs? I don't want to tempt you, but the blue one is actually very nice :-)

I thought it was supposed to be in London for at least five years? This article talks about 2024. Surely it’s not financially viable to be building a venue in London that’s only going to get two year’s use? Or do they mean it could run in both places simultaneously?

Hiya...
Just in case...
Some of us are having huge problems accessing the site.. saying no longer valid.
My laptop says no but my tablet is ironically ok...

Two others think that the licence for the site may be expired....
I’ll send personal email to Alan, just in case something is happening, as we all loose each other, and there’s not many of us around....

I also think the domain has expired. It's happened before (two years ago??). You need to access the forum through abbachat.boards.net and not abbachat.com - the latter doesn't work. If anybody is in touch with the admin, we'd probably need her to prolong the subscription (or how it works). I'm not sure if we can use this mode for unlimited time.

I'm back in for the first time in days! None of my devices would let me enter the site.
Anyway, coming back on topic, The Guardian has included Don't Shut Me Down in its top 20 songs of the year.
www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/29/the-20-best-songs-of-2021
Hope there's plenty more end-of-year critical acclaim to come (on top of this and the Grammy nomination).

With the kind of money on offer, I wonder if it's plausible that they might be looking at replicating the show (no cheap feat, I suspect) so that Las Vegas and London run simultaneously? 




I bet that Little Things will be playlisted. Maybe not A-listed, but I reckon it'll get a decent share of spins when the station is finally playing Christmas music on a regular basis. It'll be interesting to see whether/how the video elevates it.





The last few times I've tried accessing the site on my phone, I get a warning that the connection isn't secure and I am urged "back to safety"!

Phew..
Normal service resumed....
5 years should be enough for another album and a few singles....lol

Voyage is no.5 on the uk mid-week. Holding up so well!

Nice one, Alan. I'd wondered what had happened. I don't tend to log on every day but I did try a few days ago and thought the site might have been hacked but then it slowly dawned on me that something as you describe might have happened. I wonder why Roxanne doesn't pop in from time to time? Still, I guess she's busy and a lot of people do Facebook and Instagram instead now...even TikTok! Me, I have always favoured a forum scenario but that's probably because I have (mostly) fond memories of the old place.

Glad the forum is back in operation.

Probably, one last album is too much to hope for, but as a 50th Anniversary (2024) departing gift to fans, what a thrill that would be! Given the health and energy, it boils down to their creativity and ambition.

Back to now, If the ABBA of their 1974 to 1981 heyday is, overall, 5 stars for me, I'd say today's ABBA of Voyage is 4 stars. That, for a comeback after 40 years, I find incredible and wonderful.

Im kind of confused or concerned about the abbatar show. The Digital ABBA wont be singing along to the 70s-80s studio or live recordings ? They rerecorded all the vocals and that will be played along with a live band ? They themselves admitted that their voices are lower and they cant hit the high notes anymore which is understandable. Does that mean we will be listening to dancing queen or hole in your soul sung by the girls but an octave lower? Sounds interesting

No. None of the old songs have been re-recorded. The ABBA Tars show will be a mix of old (1970s or 1980s) live vocal recordings or original studio recordings. The songs will, however, sound different due to the live band (which I think includes backing vocalists).

As Michal says, Just A Notion (though not included in the show) is an example of what to expect, as it includes original vocals with a completely re-recorded instrumental.

Not sure where this rumour of new vocals is coming from, as it seems to persist. It’s completely incorrect.

However, I do have a few concerns about the use of old live vocal recordings myself. The sources are likely to be the 1977 Australian shows, the 1979 Wembley stuff, and the 1981 Dick Cavett recordings. I’m not a fan of the 1979 recordings as they often sound very different from their studio counterparts. The 1977 ones are better as they were heavily overdubbed for use in ABBA The Movie. Aside from The Way Old Friends Do on Super Trouper, the 1979 recordings were not subjected to any vocal overdubs. The 1981 Dick Cavett stuff I’m assuming was overdubbed in time for broadcast.

The problem here is that modern audiences expect a live act to sound pretty much like their studio recordings (to the point that most of them aren’t fully live and are merely singing along to the record). Not sure how ABBA are going to get round this problem, as I’m afraid they really weren’t the best live act in terms of sound, but it was accepted in the 1970s and 1980s that you couldn’t reproduce the record on stage and so no one expected it.