Abba-dabba-doo

We've not been to the Concert Hall in a while, but for a treat, I booked a couple of tickets to see the opening night of Mamma Mia, which is showing for the next couple of weeks.

It was of course a full house, to see what is now one of the worlds best loved musicals. The storyline is quite a simple one, a twenty year old girl who lives on a Greek island with her mother is about to get married. But one problem, she doesn't know who her dad is. There are three possible contenders, who have all been former lovers of her mum. So she invites them all to her wedding, in the hope that she can find out which man is her real father. This story is weaved around a number of Abba's most famous songs, culminating in of course the title track; Mamma Mia.

The stage setting was simple, but very effective. It was of course very colourful. Like you were watching it live in Technicolor. I could feel that the audience were dying to get up and dance and sing along to the tunes, just like they did a few weeks ago, when we went to see the Abba tribute band at Mansfield. But the audience were very well behaved, and just clapped along to some of the more lively Ulvaeus and Andersson tunes. I have always been an Abba fan, so knew a lot of the lyrics, which I quietly sang to Gail at opportune moments.

I thought there was something missing though. I couldn't really work out what it was, until Gail said that she really enjoyed it, but would have liked to have been closer to the stage. Then it clicked. it was a lack of connection with the artists. Being so far away, I couldn't really make out the actors' faces. The sound level was great, the singing and dancing top notch. I just couldn't see the cast moving their mouths at all. Nobody's fault of course, except mine maybe, being shortsighted. Perhaps I need to take a pair of binoculars next time.

Abbadabbadoo

I had a bit of luck this week in winning a couple of tickets to see an Abba tribute band at Mansfield's Palace Theatre.

It was quite strange how I won them too. I went on the theatre's Facebook page to make a complaint about their on-line booking form, and saw the competition. It simply asked in which year did Abba win Eurovision. Being an Abba fan, I obviously knew that it was 1974. I also noticed that no one had answered, even though the posting had been up for a few hours.

The theatre was packed with people of all ages, and by about the third song, people were either on their feet dancing, or sitting down clapping and singing along. Even I was singing to some of the songs, as I knew most of the words.

The band also joked with the audience, in a cod Swedish accent. Although, like the real Benny, the pretend one didn't say that much either! Their costumes looked quite authentic. They had a live drummer, but I think they also used a backing track on some of the songs.

On the whole it was a very enjoyable evening, and probably the nearest thing to the genuine Abba that anyone will get to see, as Agnatha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Freid have no intention of every playing together again.

Glad To Be Gay (2)

Nottingham Pride today. And what a colourful, musical day it was. Met up with a friend who has a band, and they opened the event with a fresh new line up.

There were certainly plenty of characters about, but I spotted these two girls waiting near a tram stop at then end of the day. I like the way they were standing, like Agnetha & Frida did in some ABBA videos from the 70s.

It was a much smaller event this year, and took place in the Lace Market, rather than the Arboretum like last year. Apparently the event lost a lot of money, so they have gone back to basics and scaled things down a bit. I hope this one breaks even, if not makes a bit of money for them, so it comes back next year, as I hand a very enjoyable day.

I Have A Dream

There are quite a few bands that I would have loved to have seen live; Kate Bush, Pink Floyd and ABBA, to name a few.

Due to stage fright, I don't think Kate Bush will ever tour again. She's only ever done one, and that was in 1979.  With the death of keyboard player Richard Wright and ongoing animosity amongst the remaining members, we are probably not going to see another Pink Floyd tour in the foreseeable future.

So that leaves ABBA. And as Agnetha Faltskog (the blonde) has more or less become a recluse, and Anni-frid (the brunette) is not interested in pursuing a singing career anymore, there is no chance of them recording again. Even after newspaper reports once said that they were offered a huge sum of money to perform for some Arab billionaire.

So we have to make do with tribute bands. And I saw a very good one yesterday at the Armed Forces event at the Embankment. Here are some shots of the individual members that make up Arrival UK. And very good they were too. They soon had the open air audience dancing on the grass and singing along to those oh so familiar tunes.