Abbatar

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(Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay)

It was with some amusement that I learnt Abba is not only releasing an album but will also be undertaking a series of live shows in London next year. That's not bad for a group now in its seventies that hasn't performed together for almost 40 years. Except, they won't be appearing in those live shows themselves but in virtual form with digital versions of the group members as they once were. 

I'm not sure I'd like to be reproduced on stage as I was in the seventies, unless there's some kind of bonus that arises from being able to dance in platform shoes. However, you have to admit that it's a somewhat novel way of maintaining your youthfulness and I suppose demonstrates the next and inevitable step from video to hologram and beyond.

Perhaps we will all one day spend our later years entertaining in virtual form, letting our avatars do the hardwork whilst we sit back and enjoy retirement. Incredible as that may seem, at least one of the lead singles on the album lends credibility to the ageing process with recognition of the personal growth and physical changes we inevitably go through in the intervening decades: 

"In the shape and form I appear now, I have learned to cope... I'm not the one you knew, I'm now and then combined," (from 'Don't Shut Me Down' released on 2 September and to be included on the Voyage Album). If ever I needed a signature tune, that could be it!

 

Comments

Treaders said…
Eewww, those shoes. Definitely Gary Glitterish!
16 September 2021 at 13:23
Marksgran said…
Sounds like my tune too. I'd love to have my 70's body back but probably not my mind!!
16 September 2021 at 19:10
Caree Risover said…
Memories, ladies, memories.
16 September 2021 at 21:12
Jeanette Lewis said…
When I heard about the virtual live shows that Abba is planning I felt a stab of nostalgia. Their music has such staying power! Good for them to keep it alive for another generation to enjoy!
16 September 2021 at 21:38
Caree Risover said…
The only issue I have Jeanette is that on the tracks that have been released their voices inevitably sound older - or perhaps it’s my fading hearing.
16 September 2021 at 21:51
Gill - That British Woman said…
I was confused when I saw this in the . I can never understand why these popstars what to relive their former glories, let sleeping dogs lie as they say!!
16 September 2021 at 23:56
Caree Risover said…
There’s nothing worse than hearing an artiste murder a song from their heyday, especially if the version we know was crafted with all the in-studio accoutrements and all they can do is croak out a karaoke type version
17 September 2021 at 07:11
Jennyff said…
I am often shocked to see how people have aged, whilst I of course have remained ever youthful. I do find something rather sad about Abba having to be represented in such a way, there is nothing wrong with ageing, happens to us all.
18 September 2021 at 13:04
Caree Risover said…
You mean if the audience is going to bop along to Dancing Queen with Zimmer frames and walking sticks, maybe they should too?
18 September 2021 at 13:36
Bethany @ Happily Loco said…
The show sounds like it could be very cringe...but I love those boots!
19 September 2021 at 04:03
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