The concert is held at the ABBA Arena, which was specifically designed for this event at the Olympic Park in East London. The custom-designed arena was built because of the very specific technical requirements needed for the digital performance of the band members. 

The concept of this concert started with exploring the possibility of creating digital versions of ABBA to be able to perform again, and allow a community and fans to come together and enjoy their songs live again. 

The band itself formed back in 1972 with members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They split in 1982 after both divorces amongst the band members. The group and their songs are legendary, and they were the first non-English speaking group to achieve consistent chart success across the globe. Their music and fashion style have transcended across generations, still seen as an iconic band today. 

ABBA’s music was also heavily influential for the well-known Mamma Mia movies, as the musical films were built around their songs and helped create a narrative story that became iconic. 

ABBA Voyage, over the past few years, has reunited the band for a new and older generation to enjoy, and a way to celebrate their musical legacy. The concert has also pushed the boundaries of live entertainment by creating realistic avatars through motion capture technology, featuring the group as they looked in the 1970s. The concert runs for 90 minutes with no interruptions, held every day of the week, and is family-friendly, welcoming all ages.

The digital concert’s setlist includes popular songs, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, ‘Voulez-vous’, ‘Waterloo’, ‘Fernando’, ‘SOS’, ‘Thank You For The Music’, and ends the night with their most popular song, ‘Dancing Queen’.   

ABBA Voyage has a unique layout for the audience with auditorium seating, which also allows for accessible seating, a dance floor area creating a concert experience, and dance booths designed for smaller groups and pod-like spaces. This design has enhanced the immersive experience. 

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The arena holds 3,000 people, both sitting and standing, and the tickets are generally cheaper than a regular concert, as well as allowing for a slight discount for ticket-holders between the ages of 16-25.

This incredibly unique concert has played exclusively in London over the past few years, and there is still a chance to see this experience. You can get tickets here.

The Swedish pop group ABBA, comprised of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaenus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were formed in 1972. Considered one of the most successful music groups of all time, ABBA got their big break in 1974 when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song ‘Waterloo’ at the Brighton Dome, United Kingdom. The track became their first Number 1 hit in the UK and would establish a momentum for the band as they went on to achieve a further eight Number 1 singles and ten Number 1 albums.

With a career spanning over five decades, the band made their comeback in 2021, after disbanding in 1982, when they announced ‘ABBA Voyage’ a live virtual concert and an album of the same name. The album peaked at Number 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart the week of its release. The concept of the band’s virtual concert ‘ABBA Voyage’ caught the attention of fans, spectators and news outlets alike due to its adoption of technology that had never been seen before during a live concert.

The virtual concert utilises a fusion of motion capture, visual effects, and a live band to showcase ABBA in concert as their 1977 selves. With visual effects and a live 10-piece band to accompany the pre-recorded backdrop of ABBA’s performance,  ABBA Voyage provides an atmospheric experience to attendees. The concert and its technological output cost a whopping $175 million to create, following the construction of a purpose-built venue, which seats 3000 people.

Hosting its first edition in May 2022, the live concert which takes place in East London, has since contributed £1.4 billion to the UK economy, including an additional turnover of £774.3 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) between May 2022 and May 2024.

The Sound Diplomacy has unveiled the socio-economic impact of ABBA Voyage, as it has been revealed attendees of the event spend on average £220 per day in London, in addition to the price of tickets. With that being said, ABBA’s economic influence is substantial as international visitors to the event have contributed £72.6 million, the local boroughs (Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest) £262.1 million whilst attendees outside of London contributed £142.2 million.

ABBA Voyage’s economic power is evident, not only due to its contribution to the economy but its creation of over 10,000 jobs, which are adjacent to the commencement and completion of each concert.

The sun sets on summer, but the memories live on at ABBA Arena. pic.twitter.com/Oo8lmYjRVo

— ABBA Voyage (@ABBAVoyage) September 22, 2024

The Major of London, Sadiq Khan discussed the prevalence of ABBA Voyage to London, stating: “ABBA Voyage has been a phenomenal success story for London, boosting our economy by more than £1bn and showing again why our capital is a global leader for music and culture”.

He continued to declare the show’s demand was due to “ABBA’s timeless popularity”. As ABBA Voyage has witnessed over 2 million visitors since 2022, it is clear their pop anthems created from infectious instrumentation and catchy lyricism have been the soundtrack for many generations.

As the virtual concert was meant to conclude in 2026, it is no doubt that due to its ongoing popularity and substantial economic benefits to London, that the virtual concert may be indefinitely present in London’s culture and music scene in the future and beyond 2026.

]]> https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/abba-voyage-contributes-over-1-4-billion-to-the-uk-new-economic-analysis-reports/feed/ 0 https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/digital-entertainment-company-hopes-to-bring-elvis-back-to-life-in-hologram-performance/ https://www.mxdwn.co.uk/news/digital-entertainment-company-hopes-to-bring-elvis-back-to-life-in-hologram-performance/#comments Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:47:32 +0000 http://www.mxdwn.co.uk/?p=98652 A rising trend in the music industry that continues to see financial success is that of hologram performances. Although the term hologram implies a futuristic space-age event, these performances often boil down to looking at a big screen. Beginning in the early 2000s, digital concerts hosted online were seen as peculiar novelties for the internet-obsessed. The first band to successfully put on a digital concert was Duran Duran who used the sandbox game Second Life to host their online extravaganza. Now relatively obscure, Second Life is one of the first incarnations of, what we would now call today, a metaverse. Released in 2003 by Linden Labs, Second Life offers fully customisable experiences, from role playing and digital hangouts, to mini-games and online events. 

Digital concerts have had a varied history with Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz pioneering the concept in the West and Japan’s Hatsune Miku continuing to sell out arenas in Asia. However, developments in 3D modelling technology in the last 10 years has given rise to an all new form digital concert. Perhaps most infamously, Coachella 2014 brought us Tupac resurrected and rendered in all of his early-2010s 3D glory. Although still essentially a projection on a large screen, the 2014 Coachella performance imprinted the hologram concert into the music zeitgeist. 

Fast forward ten years and we are now faced with a massive digital performance industry, whether that be entirely online events like Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert in 2020, or holographic arena shows like ABBA’s Voyage. While Voyage still works of the same technology as Tupac’s 2012 performance, all aspects of the process have been greatly improved: 3D modelling, motion capture, projection, lighting, and sound design have all been refined to a high degree in an attempt to convince the audience that they aren’t just looking at a big screen. Despite the band being as unlikely to return to the stage as Tupac, their digital renditions sold 1.4m tickets in its first year. 

Perhaps what hologram concerts need, to truly live up to their futuristic namesake, is a leap in technology. In comes Layered Reality, a UK based digital events specialist who have secured the rights to give Elvis Presley the Lazarus treatment. Layered Reality is a company that specialises in virtual reality (VR)  technology as a vehicle to tell immersive stories to participants. Although official material from Layered Reality is vague on the specifics of the Elvis experience, it appears that it will feature physical set and sound design used in combination with an augmented reality overlay (AR) viewed through a VR headset. 

In addition to this smorgasbord of technological bells and whistles, the digital Elvis will use AI models to generate new dialogue from the star. Speaking to the BBC, Layered Reality’s CEO, Andrew Guinness said: “The AI generates an authentic version of Elvis, born of original material, but it [also] allows you to do new things with him.” Much like the unofficial fan AI covers seen last year like ghostwriter977’s ‘Heart on my Sleeve’, Layered Reality will use old footage and recordings of Presley to train an AI program to mimic his voice. 

The experience is scheduled to take place in London sometime this year. Layered Reality offers a mailing list for those wanting to receive updates on specific locations and dates on their website. 

“Very happy to announce my new album JIM, I’M STILL HERE will be released on July 8th on @deeweestudio. Produced between myself and @Soulwax.”https://t.co/bO6WwtTEoQ
1/5 pic.twitter.com/7ykdic3w75

— James Righton (@James__Righton) April 5, 2022

The two met when Righton was helping put together the live band for ABBA’s upcoming Voyage shows in London in celebration of their latest LP. Starting on May 27^th in the new ABBA Arena, the show will have the group appearing virtually beside the live band that Righton has helped to build.

He was brought into the project by Johan Renck (director of Bowie’s “Blackstar” video) and couldn’t really turn down the opportunity, working in secret for two years with one of the most iconic bands of the seventies. He admitted that “trying not to say anything to anyone is quite hard when you’re working with such a legendary act like ABBA”.

Righton was of course keen to make the most of the opportunity, noting that the very mention of working with ABBA made his jaw drop. “Whenever you hear an ABBA reunion rumour it just feels so unbelievable.” On working with Andersson for his new track, he said Andersson had “never done anything like this before. I nervously sent him the track and a couple of days later he sent back this keyboard line which was perfect.”

As for the song itself; “Empty Rooms’ is about silent conflicts. It’s about realising one’s own flaws and working through them. Like all the songs on the album it reflects another side of life during lockdown.”

Righton, who used to be a member of Klaxons until the group disbanded back in 2015, has been working on a variety of projects as of late. Some of these have been released under the name of Shock Machine, and he’s even been having a go at film soundtracks recently (e.g. 2019’s Benjamin).

If you’re interested in seeing how Brighton’s hard work has paid off, tickets for ABBA’s Voyage residency can be gotten here.

If you want to pre-order Brighton’s new album then you can click the link here. He’s also got some live dates coming up around Europe and the UK later on this year, visiting the likes of London, Glasgow, Paris and Berlin. You can see the UK dates down below and use the previous link to find tickets.

James Brighton UK Tour Dates

26/08/2022 – Thorington Theatre – Saxmundham
14/09 – Moth Club – London
15/09 – Headrow House – Leeds
16/09 – Broadcast – Glasgow

Back in November, you may remember the apparent ‘vinyl shortage’ the world was experiencing. Many attributed this to Adele and her monster of a success that was 30, but as exciting as it sounds blaming a single British artist for a worldwide shortage… it’s probably quite unlikely. 500,000 copies of the album were ordered for release, and that only accounts for about 0.3% of records pressed this year. It seems far more likely that the cause of the disruption was simply a combination of Covid restrictions, supply-chain issues and labour shortages. Materials, production power, and transportation all took a big hit right at the same time. The vinyl issue didn’t even register on the scale that is Adele’s recording-breaking album release.

On the opposite end of the scale, however, CD sales continue to decline. The CD renaissance is yet to hit the general public after sales drop to just 14 million; the lowest figure since 1988. It’s not all doom and gloom though, (unless you insist on consuming music like it’s 1997) because the CD drop off is showing signs of plateauing. Sales only dropped 12% from 2020, which seems okay compared to the near 1/3 drop off from 2019-2020.

ABBA’s success can reasonably be attributed to its massive pre-order campaign, as well as the general predictability of the British populous. 29,891 vinyl copies were shifted in the first week after a pre-order of the album allowed you to access pre-sale codes for the group’s upcoming virtual tour next year. The trick worked though, according to the official charts; the album became the fastest-selling record of the century.

And to round out all the good news, in case you’re interested, cassette tape sales also increased this year! Give or take 190,000 tapes were shifted this year, making 2021 the formats most successful year since 1991.

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The annual festive race sees artists from all genres of music duke it out to be crowned Christmas number one. Contenders from all avenues of the entertainment industry have competed for the prize. With the rise of social media, a new form of public figure can now enter the festive competition. Last year saw YouTuber Mark Hoyle claim the top spot for the third year, otherwise known as LadBaby the husband and father won with his single “Don’t Stop Me Eatin”.

The contenders for this year’s Christmas number One includes a varied list of legendary artists and rising stars.  It was reported earlier this year that Sir Elton John had joined forces with Ed Sheeran to compete. Both have experienced festive chart success before, Sheeran scored a Christmas number one in 2017 with “Perfect” and Sir John placed at number eight in 1973 with “Step Into Christmas”. The single has remained a festive favourite and has re-entered the charts this year.

This year has seen a comeback for Disco icons ABBA, the “Dancing Queen” singers scored a number one this year with their album Voyages. They are also hoping to claim another hit with their upcoming track “Little Things”. The track is their first Christmas single and will be released on 3rd December 2021 accompanied by a music video. This year has also seen Adele dominate the charts, certain tracks from her newly released album 30 are being tipped as this year’s number one.

A reimagined version of the 1960 Charles Brown single, “Come on Home For Christmas” has also joined the race. The new version has been recorded by English singer-songwriter George Ezra and has been released alongside Amazon Music.  Much like previous years, a celebrity duet has also been released to compete. Former Take That member Gary Barlow and actress Sheridan Smith have teamed up to release the single “How Christmas Is Supposed To Be”.

British rockers The Lathums have also released a festive single , the track entitled “Krampus” was released on 12^th November 2021. The track serves as an anti-Christmas track and is named after a festive folklore figure. Often depicted as the evil counterpoint as Santa Claus, Krampus is shown in popular culture as a villain. Another Christmas contender is Olivia Dean, the up-and-coming artist is set to storm the charts with her cover of the Nat King Cole standard “The Christmas Song”.

Other artists who have thrown their hat in the ring include Gypsy Pistoleros and the controversial act The K**ts. The results will be published by The Official Chart via an announcement on BBC Radio 1 on Christmas Eve from 4 pm. The show will not just announce this year’s Christmas number one single but will also reveal the official Christmas top 40. Music fans will also be able to catch the countdown on Top Of The Pops broadcasted on Christmas Day on BBC One. The full official top 100 Official Christmas Singles and Albums chart will be published via OfficialCharts.com.

wtf is wrong with the grammys

— blonde don (@machinegunkelly) November 23, 2021

This year’s more prestigious categories in the general field (best album, best new artist, record of the year and song of the year) see a lot of big names, none of which crop up more regularly than Olivia Rodrigo, who has been nominated for each with her viral sensation ‘drivers license’ from here 2021 album Sour. The usual suspects of Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, H.E.R., Taylor Swift, and Kanye West also receive nods throughout the categories. Mercury Prize winner Arlo Parks and recent record breakers Glass Animals also get fitting mentions in the Best New Artist bracket.

The Album of The Year, and Best Rap Song categories also bring their fair share of controversy. Kanye West has been nominated for his effort on DONDA, released earlier this year. These days it’s seemingly impossible for Kanye to go through an album cycle without something landing in the headlines. This time, the spotlight has been placed on his expansive feature list. Specifically, the appearance of recently cancelled Marilyn Manson, who also has a nod for Best Rap Song on West’s track “Jail”. His position on the album has led to many questioning whether or not he should be involved in the award ceremony after being accused of sexual assault by multiple women. The academy’s CEO Mason Harvey Jr. said this about his inclusion, “We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work-eligible based on date and other criteria,” he added. “If it is, they can submit for consideration.”.

Jay-Z makes history with this announcement, picking up 2 separate nominations in the Best Rap Song category. Featuring on “Jail” with Kanye West, and “Bath Salts” alongside DMX and Nas, takes the rappers total Grammy nominations up to a record-breaking 83. He surpassed Beatles legend Paul McCartney to take the title after he has only gained 81 nominations so far, renowned producer Quincy Jones sits in 3^rd place with a meagre 80 Grammy nominations. Of the 83 nominations Jay-Z has bagged so far, he has won 23.

Many other oddities come from this year’s nominees. ABBA was nominated for the first time in their 48 year careers, BTS fans are shocked at the group’s singular mention despite the group themselves seeming incredibly grateful, and notice a distinct lack of British music on the list. Arlo Parks, Major Lazer, and Paul McCartney are basically the only Brits to land in any major categories. See all the nominations here.

This is a huge honor Thanks to everyone who supports our music journey! @RecordingAcad #GRAMMYs #BTS #방탄소년단 pic.twitter.com/l10x0LrDMq

— BTS_official (@bts_bighit) November 24, 2021

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The disco legend’s new release is their first studio album in 40 years and their first chart entry since their 1981 album The Visitors. The group have experienced chart success prior with compilations and greatest hits albums, Voyage is their newest album of fresh material to enter the charts.

The group spoke with OfficialCharts.com concerning their win, “We are so happy that our fans seem to have enjoyed our new album as much as we enjoyed making it! We are absolutely over the moon to have an album at the top of the charts again!”

The band’s ninth studio album has accumulated over 204,000 chart sales within its first week. The album has grossed the biggest opening week in four years within the UK’s Official Album Chart. The previous record-holder was Ed Sheeran for his album Divide which was released in 2017. Voyage’s total sales include the 29,900 units sold on wax, making 90% of the album’s sales on physical formats. Due to this success, the album has also become the fastest-selling release on wax of this century. This title was previously awarded to Arctic Monkey’s, their album Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino sold over 24,500 vinyl sales within its first week in 2018.

The new release has also broken the sales record for an album by a group, Voyage has become the fasted selling album by a group in eight years. This title was previously held by One Direction for their 2013 album Midnight Memories. The Swedish singers are also the fourth group to secure over 200,000 chart sales in their initial week within this decade.

The Official Album Chart have also reported that the group have secured a total of 58 weeks as number one within the UK. Only two other acts within popular music have spent more weeks at the top spot, The Beatles and Elvis. The album has broken further records, the new release marks the tenth number one album for the quartet. Within chart history, only seven other acts have acquired more number-one albums than ABBA.  These acts are The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.

In other news within the charts, Ed Sheeran’s newest album = drops to number two. The 30-year-old singer’s fifth studio album enjoyed a week at number one when initially released on 29th October 2021. James Arthur secures his fourth number three album this week with his new release It’ll All Make Sense In The End. The album debuts at the third position after being released on 5th November 2021 via Columbia Records.

Fans will be able to see ABBA perform their new material next year when the band start their UK concert series as digital versions of themselves. Ticketholders will be able to experience the “Mamma Mia” singers in general admission seats, auditorium seats or within a personal dance booth. The group’s comeback concert entitled ABBA Voyage will be held at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The digitised group will perform within a custom build area and will be accompanied by a 10-piece live band.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Hosted by Graham Norton, the show gave the public the opportunity to vote on a shortlist made by experts and celebrity fans such as Scott Mills, Rylan Clark-Neal, Ken Bruce, Adele Roberts and Mel Giedroyc, as well as former UK acts SuRie and Nicki French.

The Swedish four piece won the competition in 1974 in Brighton, which kicked off their career: The song topped the UK charts and sold nearly 6 million copies. “Of course it’s ABBA”, Graham Norton said whilst announcing the winner, “it was always going to be.” ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus said he found it “hard to believe” that this is where it all had started for them years ago.

The special also showed what the UK’s entry for this year’s competition was supposed to be: My Last Breath by James Newman, to whom Norton spoke to via video call. Newman confessed he was “pretty gutted” and had to “have a few minutes by myself”, once he found out the contest had been cancelled. The singing competition attracts an audience of nearly 200 million people every year and was due to take place in Rotterdam after the Netherlands had won last year’s competition.

But there aren’t only bad news. ABBA member Benny Andersson said the iconic band is hoping to release some new music later this year. In a video shared by ABBA Talk, the musician was asked about the ABBA songs that fans have been promised for a long time. “They’re coming”, he answered in Swedish, “they’re coming this year. I’m guessing after the summer.”

ABBA became really popular in the UK due to the Eurovision Song Contest that was hosted at the Dome in Brighton in 1974, ever since then they became the first band to come from a non-English speaking country that dominated the charts in the UK and other English-speaking countries globally with their hit ‘Waterloo’. In the late 70’s- early 80’s, ABBA rose to fame in the UK with their compilation album ‘Greatest Hits’ which hit number one in the UK and now they continue to be adored by people globally even after they split up. They then went on to sell 380 million records since around the world.

The four members – Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad told journalists (according to The Guardian) that “We are here to party” when asked why they decided to make a public appearance now for the first time in almost a decade. They also unfortunately announced that it was unlikely that the four would perform together live again. Fans have been waiting and wishing for an ABBA reunion for decades, last year Björn Ulvaeus stated that the band will never reform. “We took a break in ’82, and it was meant to be a break,” he said. “It’s still a break and will remain so. You’ll never see us onstage again.” He went on to say “We don’t need the money, for one thing,” ending his statement with “Usually the reason bands have reunions is that one of them is destitute and the others want to help. Fortunately that has not happened to us.”