ABBA to be neighbours with West Ham

Swedish pop titans ABBA will soon be neighbours in Stratford close to the London Stadium.

A new ABBA album called ‘Voyage’ is out November 5 – but the band will return as a virtual live entity in London next year.

It turns out that the ‘immersive theatre’ that’s been under construction in Stratford for a couple of years now is, in fact, the purpose-built 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena where audiences will be able to watch a special concert that mixes a live ten-piece band with an ultra-high-tech pre-recorded motion-capture performance from the four members of ABBA: that’s Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

Exactly how this will work is somewhat of a mystery: the word ‘hologram’ has been bandied around, but it seems more likely that it’ll be some sort of AR experience. Whatever the case, the show is the first music offering from George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic special effects company, with an 850-strong team working on this show alone. Whatever it is, it will surely be spectacular, and perhaps lays down a blueprint for the future of live music as the giants of the ’60s and ’70s retire.

It also confirms London as the ABBA capital of the world: with ‘Mamma Mia!’ in the West End and ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’ at The O2, there will be roughly 5,000 Londoners seeing a live ABBA show on any given night.

The Abba Arena is being built next to Pudding Mill Lane DLR station.

The ABBA Arena doesn’t open its door until May 27 next year

 

About Sean Whetstone

I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball, I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh. Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons! Follow me at @Westhamfootball on twitter