ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2021 Sept - Dec

I'm trying to imagine the scale of the work involved to get the vocal tracks in shape for these shows. Ludvig has said that the 1977 live recordings simply weren't good enough to make an album viable. And I'm pretty sure that he cited the vocals as the biggest problem - mics being too far from mouths was definitely mentioned. It's likely that pitch and timing might have been factors (but both of these can usually be corrected on modern equipment). Didn't someone say that studio vocals would be used too? And even alternate takes? If suspicions about the inclusion of songs like The King Has Lost His Crown and Under Attack are correct, they will have to use studio vocals. To make the show sound like one single performance, they'll have to rely on more than just the feel of the live band. There'll be differences in the voices between live and studio takes that will have to be carefully approached to avoid making the whole thing sound like a patchwork. I find the whole thing fascinating.

I think it's fair to say that a fair chunk of the audience will be just as familiar with ABBA's recordings as they are with the Mamma Mia versions. That could be freeing for ABBA - whether live or studio, Agnetha and Frida absolutely wipe the floor with the actors' performances. Yes, there will be a firm core of people devoted to the peerless original vocals but there'll be many a casual fan/corporate event attendee/person dragged along by a fan who will care a lot less. Who outnumbers who? Not to say that ABBA won't give it their very best shot, but they're likely to be hearing things very differently to their fans - from a much more technical perspective.

The Visitors was released 40 years ago today.

Does anyone know if 30 November was the UK release date? Its chart entry date was week ending 19 December, but that would have been two weeks or more after its release date.

It was a frustrating album… in 1981 we still had an old 1960s box-style record player (the ones that allowed stacking of records for continuous playback). We hadn’t experienced too many problems before but it didn’t like The Visitors. The stylus jumped its way through the record. We took it back and changed it several times, and I remember walking with my brother to the electrical shop in the village to get a new needle, but nothing worked. Even the 2p-on-the-stylus trick didn’t work. In the end, my brother had to give up and changed it for the cassette version.

There were reports in the ABBA Magazine of others encountering the same problem but presumably only affected those with old record players!

I seem to recall "The Visitors" being released a week after the single "One Of Us" in the UK, which was released during the first week of December. So, I guess we're talking about the second week of December, which sort of fits with the chart entry (although 19th December was a Saturday and charts have never been announced on a Saturday - I assume it was the chart of the week ending 19th December).

You jogged my memory about people having issues with the vinyl. Mine was fine and is the best copy I have in terms of sound quality.

The King Has Lost His Crown was rehearsed for the concerts and the rehearsals were recorded. Wouldn't it be nice to hear that version during the ABBAtar concert? And there are more such songs. But it's probably too optimistic to hope for that.

I think they did because they are were proud of the former and they probably thought the latter was innovative and showed their versatility, as it wasn't a typical ABBA song.

I’d be extremely surprised/gobsmacked if there’s any truth in that. Björn confirmed it’s all old live or studio recordings (aside from the two new songs in it of course).

If there is any truth, it’s presumably intended to be a surprise. Björn’s not great with lying though, that’s more Benny’s area.

I honestly hope not to be honest, I hate it when acts re-record old songs. Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut put me off for life! I’m happy with ABBA’s lower vocals on the new songs, but not on old ones.

Totally with you on that Alan.

Thing is, The live songs were usually in lower key anyway, Especially Dancing Queen, even in the movie. Perhaps the group re-recorded songs in studio then lip synced for live shows.

Someone posted on ABBAtalk that Claes af Gaijerstam (ABBA's sound engineering on the 1977 and 1979 tours) recently appeared on Swedish TV showing a box of tapes he had recorded from various live shows. These included concerts from Australia, United States and Japan so maybe there's more material available. Apparently he's given them to the ABBA museum.

Yes Alib agree about the video which will be really needed to promote Little Things - has anyone head any news on this !!

It was definitely confirmed when the single announcement was made that there would be a video to go with it. I doubt ABBA will be in it though (at least, not as they are now). Hopefully we might get to see it on Friday.

Trust me the amount you can now do to 'fix' old recordings on modern digital equipment means the show will sound fantastic whatever they've used. I bet they will have plenty of recordings to choose from, and the ladies have only lost a tone from their range apparently, unlike certain contemporary artists I could name who have lost the best part of an octave !
Spare a thought for the live band, because syncing to this will be a challenge, especially given the tendency for technology to go slightly pear shaped as it often does at some point :-) As a professional musician can't wait to see it - they have the chance to put on something very special. Normally gigs are a bit rushed and a compromise as they have to be moved around, but with a purpose built venue they can really go to town on the lighting and sound.

Wow! Beautiful photo! they look abbasolutely fantastic! That's made my day!  Thank you Alan.

I’m wondering if Ian McKellan is involved in the video.