ABBA Voyage arena set to be demolished as developers unveil plans for housing estate...

ABBA Voyage arena set to be demolished as developers unveil plans for housing estate...

Howell Davies — 

ABBA Voyage has been a huge success since its launch three years ago, but now the Swedish group‘s digital avatars are set to be kicked out of their East London arena.

I can reveal plans have been drawn up to make way for a 1,000-home neighbourhood, which would mean the venue, constructed especially for the concert spectacle, will be demolished by the end of the decade to make way for apartment blocks.

The Swedish group‘s digital avatars will be kicked out of their East London arena

Credit: ABBA Voyage

The news is likely to devastate fans, as the group have said the concert — using state-of-the-art technology to show a younger version of the group on stage — is the closest anyone will come to seeing Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus perform together again.

It also scuppers hopes the Spice Girls could take over the arena, in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, after The Sun revealed the girl group have been planning to create their own similar digital residency.

The concert is currently booking up until January 2026, although it is expected to continue for longer.

The show’s CEO and executive producer Michael Bolingbroke previously said: “ABBA Voyage will certainly run for another couple of years and hopefully longer — in an ideal world we’d stay for ever.”

Building work on the first two phases of a major new estate is scheduled to start next year just metres away from the arena.

Real loss

That will include construction on the site of the nearby hotel and bar Snoozebox, where revellers often congregate after the performances and which only has permission to stay until the end of 2025.

The first homes on the site are scheduled to be completed in 2028, but earlier this year, ABBA’s Bjorn said he believed the arena could remain until 2029.

He explained: “We are allowed to stay in our venue till 2029, but sales might drop, you never know.”

The arena was originally built as a moveable venue, but the band later admitted they hoped the show would stay in the area.

During its run, ABBA Voyage has attracted more than two million visitors and has contributed £1.4billion to the UK economy.

ABBA make a rare appearance together as they are honoured by the King and Queen of Sweden

A spokesperson for ABBA Voyage said: “We are in constant dialogue with the London Legacy Development Corporation and Newham Council about our lease and we welcome the opportunity to stay at the arena for as long as viable.

“At present, there are no plans for any changes to be made.”

A rep for LLDC tells The Sun: "It was always planned that ABBA Voyage would only be in place on a temporary basis, while plans were being approved for a new neighbourhood that will bring affordable housing to the area.

"The new neighbourhood, Pudding Mill Lane, will be made up of approximately 1000 homes, of which 45% will be affordable homes.

"There will be a high percentage of family homes, as well as a nursery, health centre and play spaces. Pudding Mill Lane will also be home to new employment space that supports the innovation district on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park."

It would be a real loss for it to go, but it’s certainly been a massive triumph.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/35935278/abba-voyage-arena-demolish-housing-estate-plans/

Frida at ABBA Arena

sep 14, 2024

more about her last visit at Abba Arena

 

abba voyage video

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tjpRB9n1ySk

sep 14, 2024 Svana Gisla video

Frida at ABBA Arena

 

adhough_London twitter

**************************

https://www.instagram.com/carlenegrahammusic

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_50NfpoOL3/

Frida at ABBA Arena

 

Frida at Abba Arena

 Frida at Abba Arena

Feb 17th, 2024

-------------------------------

photo Svana Gisla

instagram

--------------------------------------------------

more about this visit: https://abbaregistro.blogspot.com/2024/02/frida.html

https://abbaregistro.blogspot.com/2024/03/frida-like-angel.html

Frida !!!!!

"Come to my loveland, wander along Beautiful gardens full of flowers and songs Come to the sunshine, beaches and sand Listen to bluebirds, won't you come to my land?"

Frida today at the ABBA Arena

photo @chrisjfern on twitter

19022024

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3iXNRItj6h

Frida con Ursula Tuca Milan, integrante de la banda

more about this visit: https://abbaregistro.blogspot.com/2024/02/frida-at-abba-arena.html

https://abbaregistro.blogspot.com/2024/03/frida-like-angel.html

ABBA Voyage - Charcoalblue

 

4 ene 2024 ABBA rocked the entertainment world in 2021 when they announced they would be returning to action with a brand new album and live show, for the first time in over 40 years! The “comeback” performance, ABBA Voyage, is a nightly entertainment experience with the format of a live concert. In this case, the “live” performers are holograms of the ABBA band members created with motion capture technology. A live band accompanies the show along with immersive light, laser, and audio effects housed inside a bespoke, temporary, and reusable arena. In partnership with Stufish, we contributed to the initial aspects of the technical design and on the acoustics of the building enclosure throughout the design and construction phases. Advising on sound separation, room acoustics and noise control for the arena from very early in the design process, it was an exciting and highly technical project to be involved with from conception through to completion. The “comeback” performance, ABBA Voyage, is a nightly entertainment experience with the format of a live concert. In this case, the “live” performers are holograms of the ABBA band members created with motion capture technology. A live band accompanies the show along with immersive light, laser, and audio effects housed inside a bespoke, temporary, and reusable arena. Charcoalblue were delighted to be appointed as the building-wide acoustic designers on this iconic new development. Advising on sound separation, room acoustics and noise control for the Arena from very early in the design process, it was an exciting and highly technical project to be involved with from conception through to completion.
At the centre of the brief, the ABBA Arena was set to be the world’s largest demountable and transportable concert venue, and as a result, has been developed using mostly lightweight and sustainable interlocking materials; the main structure built from steel and timber, with extensive use of CLT (cross-laminated timber) the front of house spaces. The building has been designed and built to be flat-packed and relocated to another city, once its 5-year tenure in East London ends and by using these materials, no additional materials will have to be used to create the venue again.
Further to this requirement for transportability, the East London site is in a mixed commercial & residential area near the Pudding Mill Lane DLR station, so the auditorium has been designed to a very high acoustic specification, that allows both minimum distraction from intrusive environmental noise and a negligible noise impact to the neighbouring noise-sensitive areas, situated a mere 65m away from its façade.
The 3,000-capacity, 5,000m2 GIA purpose-built venue to house their cutting-edge virtual 3D show (designed by none other than George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic) opened in May 2022 in East London, and is nothing short of an engineering marvel.
Abba Arena exterior.
Charcoalblue worked closely with the design and construction teams, led by Stufish, and developed a twin-skin building structure where the inner and outer layers are decoupled by vibration isolators and resilient materials. Careful detailing was implemented to ensure there are no rigid connections between the inner and outer skins, thus increasing the overall acoustic performance of the auditorium envelope. The roof cassettes and modular wall panels, along with every building penetration and door, have carefully detailed acoustic seals. In a show as ground-breaking as this, we’re pleased to provide some of the more invisible innovation that makes it possible.
Project Details Client: Aniara Ltd. Architect: Stufish Entertainment Architects Budget: Confidential

Abba Voyage

 

ABBA’s Hologram ‘Voyage’ Proves Concerts Without Artists Are Here, And They’re F’ing Awesome

ANDY GENSLER10:53 AM, WEDNESDAY, 12/06/2023NEWS

Chiquitita, Tell Me The Truth: ABBA holograms “perform” the band’s 1979 hit “Chiquitita” as part of the “ABBA Voyage” show in London, which has attracted some 1.6 million over 550 shows since its opening in May 2022, according to the show’s producer. (Photo by Johan Persson / Courtesy ‘Abba Voyage’)

In mid-November, I saw ABBA perform in London. Technically, however, that’s not true. In fact, ABBA were nowhere near the custom-built ABBA Arena in East London where hologram versions (i.e. “Abbatars”) of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad “performed” their stunning “ABBA Voyage” show. Still, for the entirety of the dazzling 90-minute spectacle, all disbelief was easily suspended so that I, along with 3,000 others, including copious middle-aged tipsy Britons donning their best 1970s disco frippery and living their most smashing lives, could together enjoy the communal revelry in real-time.

And how can one not dance, croon or day drink (it was a weekend matinee in East London) to ABBA classics like “Dancing Queen,” “SOS,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” or “Fernando”? Their timeless catalog and Swedish visages are etched deeply into the consciousness of a multi-generational global swath of humanity. The long-running “Mamma Mia!” films and theater productions are proof of eternal fandom concept, which ultimately drives the show’s success a year and a half into its run.

“We’re coming up on 550 shows and almost every show is completely sold out. 1.6 million people have seen it,” says Ludwig Andersson, the show’s producer, who with his team spent seven years putting together “ABBA Voyage.” “We didn’t know until we had our first preview with an audience, three weeks before opening night, if it was going to work. All of us there felt from that first moment it was going to work.”

Three 65-million-pixel screens provide a 3D depth of field that makes “ABBA Voyage” convincingly real. The show reportedly cost $175 million to produce and was created with ABBA performing for over five weeks in motion capture suits with some 160 cameras trained on them. Visual effects artists at Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas’ company, worked on the show for two years.

“It turns out they used ten times the amount of processing hours for ABBA than they did for the last ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Andersson says.

The custom-made hexagonal ABBA Arena, designed by Stufish Ent. Architects (Beyonce, U2, Stones), feels like a spaceship and features surround sound and hundreds of rotating mirrors that reflect light and laser beams. Front of stage is a packed dance floor.

Andersson says the reason they built the single-purpose 3,000 cap venue was because they “had to control that space down to every detail,” in order for it to be successful. “There’s too much lighting and sound and equipment involved for it to ever be able to tour in any capacity. We have to control every sight line, every angle.”

While the thought of a “live” concert without artists may be anathema to live music fans, the industry’s been heading that way for years. The starless Blue Man Group or Cirque Du Soliel’s “Beatles Love” shows have been around for decades. The Tupac, Roy Orbison and Ronnie James Dio holograms began rolling out in the 2010s. Travis Scott and Lil Nas X’s metaverse shows in Fortnite and Roblox were just a few years ago. And today’s major tours by the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake and Beyonce and U2’s Sphere show all employ multi-million pixel screens, powerful servers and professional programmers and seem only degrees away from “ABBA Voyage.”

That said, ABBA’s show isn’t entirely “Memorex.” There’s 10 musicians playing live on a side stage who add booming analog audio to the digital technologies. “Having a live band was key,” Andersson says. “Even if you don’t intellectually understand the show, you feel it is happening now. There’s a kinetic energy from a kick drum you feel.”

The stage banter cadence replicates the live experience and quickly gets meta. Benny starts with a pertinent existential question: “To be or not to be?” He, or his hologram, references “Dr. Who Time Travel” and notes the group hasn’t performed in London since 1979. There’s a relatability with authentic personal stories, acknowledgment of their campiness, poor dress choices, a 1974 Eurovision victory and well-timed pauses for applause.   

The show grosses $2 million a week, according to Bloomberg, which means “ABBA Voyage” is well on its way to turning a profit and poised for global franchising. “We’re in talks with a lot of different places without revealing too much. We always hoped we could try to do this somewhere else,” says Andersson (Benny’s son.)

“We’ve done it once, and the last time we did it, no one knew if it was going to be good or not, so it’s much easier this time.”

https://news.pollstar.com/2023/12/06/abbas-hologram-voyage-proves-concerts-without-artists-are-here-and-theyre-fing-awesome/

ABBA's ‘Voyage’ Virtual Concert to Go on Tour

ABBA's ‘Voyage’ Virtual Concert to Go on Tour

Jem Aswad 

ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ Virtual Concert to Go on Tour ‘Around the World’

Courtesy 'ABBA Voyage'

ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ virtual concert — which opened in a specially built London arena last May and has sold more than 1 million tickets — will go on a global tour, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge confirmed during the company’s earnings call on Thursday.

“Plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world,” Grainge said on the call. Presumably, that means the show will be playing in specially modified arenas in major cities across the globe. Contacted by Variety, reps for ABBA and Universal, the group’s label, did not immediately have further information.

While details are slim and the news is not a shock, it is the first official confirmation that the show — a multi-multi-million-dollar project, nearly six years in the making, that saw George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic using motion-capture technology to create “ABBA-tars” of the group as they looked in 1979 playing a 90-minute concert of their most-loved songs — will play somewhere besides the London theater. While technically not a hologram show, “Voyage” represents a new peak in that type of technology — the four band members, who are now in their seventies, spent many hours performing for the motion-capture cameras to appear as lifelike as possible. It has received rave reviews nearly across the board.

Reviewing “ABBA Voyage” opening night for Variety, Mark Sutherland wrote, “At first, the movements seem a little too jerky, the lines a little too obvious. But then, just as when you saw the initially-somewhat-unconvincing dinosaurs in ‘Jurassic Park’ for the first time, your eyes adjust, the willing suspension of disbelief kicks in, and they begin to feel like living, breathing musicians, rather than the product of 160 motion capture cameras and one billion computing hours by Industrial Light & Magic.”

The group’s Benny Andersson told Variety, “Everything, from ILM’s work to the lighting to the sound is amazingly beautiful. It’s the best sound you’ve heard in an arena ever, I promise you that. That has been my department. I mean, the music is my department, the band sound. All the people who work with this have been wonderful. But the technique has nothing to do with the show. You sit there and you see a band on stage and that’s what it is.”

https://variety.com/2023/music/news/abba-voyage-virtual-concert-tour-1235541368/

Bjorn talked about plans of ABBA Voyage

Yesterday Bjorn talked at Grand Travel Award 2023 about the next ABBA Arena and the show in Londres. He hopes for an extension...

audio in swedish:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ai71Nn0Qwb4DVjmlZuIGF

instagram Katarina Myrberg, Journalist

instagram Katarina Myrberg, Journalist

---------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------

 News! translation by google

From expressen.se

- We have looked around a bit and received a very interesting offer from Singapore, said Björn Ulvaeus in an interview on stage at the travel industry's gala Grand Travel Award in Stockholm last night. And then Las Vegas is also on the map, although nothing is decided yet.

The agreement with London runs for four and a half years, but given the enormous success, Björn Ulvaeus hopes for an extension.

- If we become an attraction, one of the things you do in London, like Madame Tussauds, they will hopefully let us stay longer, he has said in a previous interview. Over time, the show may change a bit and songs may be replaced.

South America and Berlin are also interesting

According to Ulvaeus, the occupancy in London has been an impressive 98 percent on average, so that London wants to keep Abba Voyage for a few more years is not a bold guess.

Benny Andersson's son Ludvig Andersson, who is a producer for Abba Voyage, has said that they are also looking at possible locations in South America. Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, who was with Björn on his visit to Singapore before Christmas, has also hinted that another city in Europe may be relevant, namely Berlin. After the English fans, Germans are in the majority among the audience in London.

But setting up the show at Cirkus on Djurgården, which is owned by Ulvaeus, or anywhere else in the Swedish capital, is out of the question.

- No, Stockholm is unfortunately too small, Ulvaeus answered when he was asked.

----------------------------------------------------

Här är nästa stad där Abba Voyage sätts upp Abba Publicerad 24 feb 2023 kl 10.03 Efter succén med Abba Voyage i London är det dags för den spektakulära showen att sättas upp på nya platser i världen. Det man tittar på främst är Singapore, och även Las Vegas står på tur, berättade Abbas Björn Ulvaeus vid resebranschens gala Grand Travel Award i går kväll. I slutet av maj är det ett år sedan Abba Voyage, med de fyra Abba-medlemmarna som ”abbatarer” ackompanjerade av ett liveband på tio personer, hade premiär på den specialbyggda Abba Arena i London, med en publikkapacitet på 3 000 personer. Och att det finns långt framskridna planer på att sätta upp showen på andra platser är helt klart – Abba-medlemmen Björn Ulvaeus har tidigare sagt att man tittar på en plats i Nordamerika och en plats i Sydostasien. – Vi har tittat runt lite och fått ett mycket intressant erbjudande från Singapore, sa Björn Ulvaeus i en intervju på scenen på resebranschens gala Grand Travel Award i Stockholm i går kväll. Och sedan finns Las Vegas också på kartan, även om inget är bestämt än. Avtalet med London löper på fyra och ett halvt år, men med tanke på den enorma succén hoppas Björn Ulvaeus på en förlängning. – Om vi ​​blir en attraktion, en av de saker man gör i London, som Madame Tussauds, låter de förhoppningsvis oss stanna längre, har han sagt i en tidigare intervju. Med tiden kan showen komma att ändras lite och låtar bytas ut. Även Sydamerika och Berlin är intressant Beläggningen i London har enligt Ulvaeus legat på imponerande 98 procent i snitt, så att London vill ha kvar Abba Voyage några år till är ingen vågad gissning. Benny Anderssons son Ludvig Andersson, som är producent för Abba Voyage, har sagt att man även tittar på tänkbara platser i Sydamerika. Per Sundin, vd för Pophouse Entertainment, som var med Björn vid hans besök i Singapore före jul, har också hintat om att en annan stad i Europa kan bli aktuell, nämligen Berlin. Efter de engelska fansen är tyskar i majoritet bland publiken i London. Men att sätta upp showen på Cirkus på Djurgården, som ägs av Ulvaeus, eller någon annanstans i den svenska huvudstaden, är inte aktuellt. – Nej, Stockholm är tyvärr för litet, svarade Ulvaeus när han fick frågan. Så de svenska Abba-fansen får fortsätta att åka till London om de vill höra ”Dancing queen” och ”Mamma Mia” framföras på scen av originalmedlemmarna – om än i inspelad form.

https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/regeringens-press-pa-polisen-drev-pa-utredningen-om-lofving/

I have seen the future of live entertainment, thanks to ABBA

 Article

Feb 2, 2023
I have seen the future of live entertainment, thanks to ABBA 
By Karen Koren

Katy (my daughter) bought me a lovely Christmas present which I was able to enjoy last week. It was the ABBA Voyage in Stratford at a purpose-built arena with 500 moving lights, 291 speakers and a capacity of 3,000.

The bespoke show that was made by ABBA themselves is the absolute future of entertainment – to see the best of ABBA in form and looks. They are avatars and they look spectacular. From the moment they rose from the back of the auditorium in shadow form and becoming full blown colour and real. Whatever they are, the effect is genuinely jaw-dropping. Chants roar through the audience as the show starts and you see them: Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida. Dressed in tight, sequinned jumpsuits, crowned with full heads of hair, they’re glowing, smiling and flawless. With incredible “ABBAesque” costumes, but none that you have seen before. There’s a ten-piece live band which appears and disappears depending on which song is being performed. The surround sound is incredible and multiscreen close-ups flawless.

Watching the four figures on the stage, it’s almost impossible to tell you’re not watching human beings. The projections on the giant screens either side of the stage, make them look slightly too good, but your attention is drawn to the human-sized avatars towards the back of the stage. Once you get over the weirdness – and give up comparing the avatars to the ‘real thing’ – the fun begins. The technology is mind-boggling. Wherever you are in the arena, you’re totally immersed by lights, whisked into a dazzling futuristic disco. There are multiple screens of video and stunning transitions between songs: a huge sun silhouette for Chiquitita, the Northern Lights for Fernando and the deep cosmos for Summer Night City. Dancing Queen is when all the audience sing in unison and The Winner Takes It All is the encore and we are moved to tears.

The 3D digital ABBA-tars as they are called were created by blending five weeks of ABBA’s current selves with younger body doubles, mixing them to look like their ’70s prime. It’s a great idea and ABBA always were innovative, so it makes sense that they’re pioneering this exciting technology in live entertainment. It’s the future and everyone should experience it at least once.
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/i-have-seen-the-future-of-live-entertainment-thanks-to-abba-karen-koren-4008866
--------------------------

fotos para ilustrar la nota.

Hello ! - Abba Arena

 

Svana Gisla on Instagram

ABBA's original designer Owe Sandström

 ABBA's original designer Owe Sandström