I'm no big ABBA fan (only two songs matter, SOS and Waterloo) but they were enormously popular across the world and their audience has not waned much. A tour would bring in a ridiculous amount of cash.
I'm no big ABBA fan (only two songs matter, SOS and Waterloo) but they were enormously popular across the world and their audience has not waned much. A tour would bring in a ridiculous amount of cash.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I think part of the reason ABBA has remained as popular as they are is that the never did a re-union. Part of their allure was their look with the two guys and the hot blond and brunette. Since they have not played together in 40 years (or whatever it is) and all the videos are of them when they were young it seems to have been able to maintain an image of them that has never really gone away. If they ever did a reunion it would probably shatter that illusion.
The Wheatles!Originally Posted by Scott Bails
I'd rather see the surviving Beatles play with Daltrey and Townshend.
I agree that a large part of ABBA's allure is the pent-up demand due to their non-reformation which is why I don't think that huge offer they received is unrealistic. Imagine if the Rolling Stones would be together now for the first time since 1981. They could easily get a $1 billion deal too, I think.
While I don't know what ABBA would sound like today, I just googled them and they at least still look good, for sixty-somethings. No problem with the image.
One of them has actually said this- I think it was Bjorn.
I don't see them as a 'live' act really. I think their studio sound was a major part of the magic, and also the mimed promo videos became pretty iconic.
BTW, 'Abba Gold' is one of the biggest selling albums ever in Britain.
I believe Paris '70 was officially released as part of a larger package at some point, but that's it.
As for the video footage that Dio mentions from Live Evil, the exact status of that is something of a mystery. About five minutes of it--without audio--turned up in trading circles some years ago, and you can see it on YouTube matched up with the corresponding audio from Live Evil. It was recorded in Dallas, I believe. While Dio states that "we're filming this one," he doesn't say that they're planning to release a full-length video or any such thing. It's not even known if the entire show was filmed, or just a couple songs intended for promo use. The home video concert release was still in its infancy in 1982 when that occurred.
About a decade ago my wife bought me the ABBA video collection DVD for Christmas. She won't buy me prog stuff but she buys me ABBA... No matter. But "iconic" is definitely one way of putting it. There are a lot of campy LOL moments among the videos. And you gotta admit the songs are damn catchy. In small doses, a great band.
If ABBA ever reformed, I am certain it would only be like the Beatles’ “reunion” that resulted in “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”: one or two studio recordings released as singles or in conjunction with yet another compilation (ABBA have tons of them!). Agnetha has gone on record that she will never tour again (though she recently came out of her hermit’s cave for some studio recordings) and Frida is likewise more or less retired and living quite happily in Switzerland. Benny and Björn are still active and collaborating but I daresay, none of them needs to work ever again.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Well, if you mean releasing it on VHS or Betamax, yeah, that was still kind of a new idea in 1982, but it could have been done for television or even a theatrically released thing, like Black And Blue. At any rate, as I said, they probably never used the footage anywhere because the band broke up before Live/Evil even came out.
Precisely. They all have more money than they'll ever need.
As to image, this is them in 2014.
McCartney continues to tour and record because he enjoys it, and likes the adulation. Most other old-timer acts who still perform do so because they NEED to. Those that don't need to -- like ABBA -- don't.
Last edited by rcarlberg; 02-08-2015 at 11:01 AM.
A Blind Faith reunion?
Reuniting Cream isn't possible anymore, lets try the next thing. Ginger Baker still can hit pretty hard, judging from 'Beware of mr. Baker' and I suppose he can use the money.
I doubt any of his former bandmates have any interest on reuniting with Ginger Baker, for any amount of money.
I remember some years back, before Jon Lord passed away, it seemed like Glenn Hughes was trying to hype the possibility of a Deep Purple MKIII reunion. I remember thinking, "something tells me there's no way you're going to get Lord and Paice interested in playing with Ritchie again".
if Jeff Lynne takes ELO on the road, he'll do it by himself. he may drag Richard Tandy along. but with the ELO pt II lawsuits, i doubt Bev Beven will ever work with him again.
After watching Beware of mr. Baker, I can imagine that, though the all speak highly of him.
That's all true, though the Black & Blue movie also made it extremely unlikely that there would be another Sabbath theatrical movie so soon afterward. However, that's also all assuming the entire gig was even filmed. We simply don't know. When Warners put out the Dio Years compilation in 2007, that would have been a good opportunity to take the Dallas footage, match it up with audio and put out something.
One problem could be that multi-camera footage needs to be properly digitized and edited for the entire show, and Warners isn't willing to put that kind of money into it. Hell, the Yes QPR show from 1975 already has a multi-camera edit and just needs to be matched to a properly mixed soundtrack, and that has almost no chance of happening, either. Nobody with the rights to the material is likely interested in shoving money into these projects at this late date. Working with film adds a whole new layer of complexity and expense.
The rumor mill had Blackmore being the party saying no, not Lord. I don't know about Paice, though. Hughes said that Japanese promoters offered seven-figure sums for a Mk III reunion tour, since that lineup never played there.
I'd be happy enough if Hughes and Coverdale did some kind of Mk III/IV oriented project together. A new album plus a tour featuring the best of their three Purple albums together would be very welcome by me.
He's a fabulous drummer.
As a human being though, utter fail.
You are quite right on that one. I don't think any of the groups he was a part of survived longer than a few years. But thanks to the documentary I discovered Ginger Bakers Airforce.
Anyone needing a dose of live ABBA should check out Arrival from Sweden. They sometimes also feature original touring band members in the lineup. My wife and I went to see them a few months ago. Some of the music is, of course, very corny and twee...but they did a fantastic job. I mainly wanted to go because the keys were being handled by Lalle Larsson (Karmakanic, Agents of Mercy, etc.). They did manage to work in a killer jam at one point...
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too, actually. They probably wouldn't have done a theatrically released TV show, but something for television in whichever form might still have been a possibility. And as we note, the concert video phenomenon was still in it's infancy, but there had already been a few put out already, such as Tull's Slipstream, Devo's The Men Who Make The Music, etc.
Does a multi-track tape even exist for the QPR gig? Maybe the reason they've never done anything with it, officially, is because they can't do anything with the audio.
But you're right about how expensive that stuff is. I recall reading that the bonus stuff that was on the Grateful Dead Movie DVD was stuff that was fully edited back in the mid 70's and was considered for the original movie, but got cut for time and/or aesthetic reasons.
Yeah, I get the impression that Ritchie just isn't interested in doing "rock" music anymore, at least not the kind of thing he did in Deep Purple and Rainbow. I actually never heard the rumors, I just remember reading where Glenn Hughes was talking about, and judging from all the stories I'd heard about Blackmore, I couldn't imagine Lord and Paicey putting themselves with being in a band with him again.
Now, another line I remember hearing was, at one stage, there was talk of Blackmore, Dio and Cozy Powell doing some kind of Rainbow project together, back in the mid 90's. But since Cozy was apparently the one who was motivated the most to do it, for whichever reason, when he died, the whole thing crumbled.
The multitracks for QPR were one of the items discovered in those long-lost Yes road cases back in the '90s, apparently.
Lord was already out of the current version of Purple when this all went down, and the rumors were that he was receptive to the idea. I'm pretty sure Paice would have nixed it, though. My guess is that there were some back-channel discussions, and Hughes just massively jumped the gun in talking about it.
The failure of the mooted Dio/Blackmore/Powell reunion had as much to do with problems between Ronnie and Cozy as it did Ritchie's reluctance, from what I understand. However, I don't think Ronnie was all that interested in doing it, anyway. He was very "anti-retro" throughout the '90s and most of the '00s until just before the Sabbath thing happened.
From a rock context, Ritchie hasn't really been *himself* since Perfect Strangers, anyway. He always sounded like he was going through the motions after that. I don't imagine it would be any better now.
Sorry, every time I see this thread, I think-
"You're on the Cash Cow! It's a TV game show that takes place right here on my cow!"
Moo.
A friend of mine was on Cash Cab. It was hilarious to watch.Sorry, every time I see this thread, I think-
"You're on the Cash Cow! It's a TV game show that takes place right here on my cow!"
Steve Hackett / Chris Squire / Dennis Chambers
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
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