Abba

Just before midday we were heading for Waterloo. A quick change and we were on the tube to Stratford.  At Stratford we got a bit lost trying to find the right branch of the DLR to take us to Pudding Mill Lane. Hint: it’s not where I thought it was.

We got off and found the brand new, purpose-built, ABBA arena. It’s quite an impressive venue with multicoloured ABBA lettering in the roof. We walked right past and had a drink, and a pizza, at the Print House Bar and Kitchen. While we sitting outside the bar more-and-more customers started to fill the place and it was clear that a large number of them were here for the ABBA event.

By 2:30pm we were back and the arena and we’d got through the queue and security checks.  As soon as we were inside we were buying a glass of wine, ready to see the ABBA virtual concert (ABBA Voyage), inside this very Scandinavian building.  The so-called ABBAtars are performing a full-on ABBA concert and, while at the far back of the stage, they are remarkably convincing to the human eye. They interact with each other and move around each other as real people would. They don’t really interact with the real life performers on the stage and there is an enormous amount of other video projection and effects which, I guess, distract the attention enough for the audience not to feel that the ABBAtars should be doing something else. But, the overall effect is stunning.  

The concert goes on without an interval for about 90 minutes and a ton of the hits are played.  One of my favourites, The Visitors, opens the show but the big hits of Knowing Me, Knowing You, Mamma Mia, Waterloo, Thank You for the Music and Dancing Queen (plus many, many more) were all performed. It is very, very easy to forget this is not, entirely, a real concert.  This could be the future of concerts for some of the biggest stars. 

Later, we went back to the Print House Bar for a drink before heading home.