ABBA reunites to record new music and plan "Avatar Tour"

[Dan Roth]

Count me as surprised about all of this. Abba have apparently recorded two new songs. They are also planning an "avatar" TV special and tour, which I am less excited about:

From The Guardian article :

The band said in a statement: “The decision to go ahead with the exciting Abba avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did. And it was like time had stood still and we had only been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!”

One of the two new songs that resulted, I Still Have Faith in You, will feature in a TV special to air in December.

The statement concluded: “We may have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good.”

Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus revealed details of the band’s avatar project in Brussels earlier this week. The centrepiece is the two-hour TV show co-produced by NBC and the BBC, which will see the band perform as computer-generated avatars. Ulvaeus said that the band had been digitally scanned and “de-aged” to look like they did in 1979, when the band performed their third and final tour.

The avatars are then set to tour the world from next year.

[miamiscot]

Steve Howe loves Abba.
I don't.

[Sean]

Steven Wilson should just cut to the chase and have them on his next album!

[aith01]

Steven Wilson should just cut to the chase and have them on his next album!

[Koreabruce]

Abbatar?

[Mister Triscuits]

Abattoir?

[Steve983]

No, no no, please don't start Steven Wilson off again...

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

I am reasonably excited about the new songs.

About the Avatour...well, we'll wait and see...

[Camelogue]

Mama Mia!

[Steve F.]

They are also planning an "avatar" TV special and tour

Does 'avatar' mean 'hologram' ?

[Sean]

Yeah

[Koreabruce]

Does 'avatar' mean 'hologram' ?

Apparently to the folks directly concerned with this particular endeavor, it does. I thought it rather odd myself. The original meaning of an avatar has to do with the incarnation of a deity. A hologram is a 3-D image created with photographic projection. It seems they're equating a projection of an image with its incarnation, in a manner of speaking.

[spellbound]

Is an avatar tour one in which the artists do not appear in person? Can one use fake money to pay to see a facsimile of Abba?

[MudShark22]

What was not said - its a double bill with the FZappatar tour.

'Live Music! Fake Legends!"

[JJ88]

The new songs are a big deal- in the UK they are still much loved* so it's all over the news and there's a genuine sense of excitement. Coming back after 35 years is incredible.

*I believe their ABBA Gold is the biggest selling CD in the UK. (Not the biggest selling album overall, although it's still up there- this came out in the era where records were no longer the primary format.)

Steven Wilson should just cut to the chase and have them on his next album!

He should be so lucky.

[Steve F.]

Yeah

I can't imagine my wanting to see something like this, whether it's Frank or Abba or Lennie Tristano or anyone under any circumstances.

YMMV.

[JJ88]

^The avatar stuff is hokum, it's the new songs I'm interested in.

[Mister Triscuits]

I can't imagine my wanting to see something like this, whether it's Frank or Abba or Lennie Tristano or anyone under any circumstances.

The thing that makes the Zappa hologram project potentially interesting is that FZ himself isn't the whole show. A lot of band alumni are being advertised, and with the likes of Ray White, Mike Keneally, and Robert Martin up there we should be getting some live singing and not just canned Frank. Maybe think of it as a Band from Utopia-type show with an extra added attraction.

[Steve F.]

The thing that makes the Zappa hologram project potentially interesting is that FZ himself isn't the whole show. A lot of band alumni are being advertised, and with the likes of Ray White, Mike Keneally, and Robert Martin up there we should be getting some live singing and not just canned Frank. Maybe think of it as a Band from Utopia-type show with an extra added attraction.

It makes it better but they are still musically tethered to 'robot' FZ and I'm not personally interested. I'll watch a DVD of a real concert.

[GuitarGeek]

Y aknow, one of the things I always respected about Abba is that they didn't do a reunion. I remember someone saying part of the Abba mystique or whatever you want to call it, was that once they broke up, that was it. They'd been offered ridiculous amounts of money to do a tour or make a new record or whatever, but they always turned it down. So, I'm not sure what I think of this.

[Zaragon]

Back in the '90s when ABBAmania resurfaced, it was said that the four could never reunite because Frida had married into royalty and this precluded her involvement in the pop scene.

I wonder if this reunion will make some ABBA fans nostalgic for Björn Again. After all, a lot of people would argue that The Musical Box perform Nursery Cryme–Lamb material better than a reunited five-piece Genesis would be capable of doing at this point in time.

[JJ88]

They are not touring so not really.

[GuitarGeek]

OK, here's the deal: I've made up my mind, if the Frida and Angie holograms wear the cat outfits, then I'm in. Maybe.

[TheH]

The number one Pop band ever for me. Some new stuff: Great!

Avatar live show don't know, might be great fun though!

I really hope Pop music will ever reach this level!

[hFx]

OK, here's the deal: I've made up my mind, if the Frida and Angie holograms wear the cat outfits, then I'm in. Maybe.

"Abba, who were was digitally scanned and de-aged to look like they did in 1979, will perform as computer-generated avatars."

Voluez-Vouz costumes?