ABBA

I am not normally a visitor of theatres or cinemas, because my hearing fails me and I spend two or three hours twiddling my thumbs trying to work out what the actors on stage are saying. However, I do like a musical or concert, because I can hear and appreciate the music. Eighteen months ago for my birthday, Kay promised me tickets to the ABBA Voyage  experience in London. We had only got around to booking tickets recently and this week saw us heading up to East London to see it.

We stopped en route to Canary Wharf  to wander round there

Centre of Canary Wharf area

and ended up eating at a pizzeria before getting the Docklands Light Railway to the delightfully-named Pudding Mill Lane. 

The ABBA venue is adjacent to Pudding Mill Lane station and, once inside, is a complex full of bars selling all manner of drinks and food (which you can take to your seats) as well as shops selling merchandise. The auditorium is huge - this photo does not do it justice -  but was taken high up where we sat with an excellent view of the stage. I have no idea how many thousands were there, but, apart from the seated areas, there was a dance pit near the stage where people were crammed in to dance. It did not however stop us dancing by our seats as many did for the popular songs like Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia. in fact there was not a single person sitting for those.

I expected the show to be good, as ABBA tunes are always catchy, but I had not expected it to be mind-blowing. The use of avatars to make it look like the real ABBA are on stage was very convincing and side panels showed them up close too. There was a live band to one side actually playing the music with a backing singing group of three girls. By far the most mind-blowing was the lighting effects which changed with every song.  It was like nothing else I had been to. 

The photos above were taken as the auditorium was filling up.  Sadly, as the show was about to start,  we were told not to be tempted to use our phones to photograph or video anything, as we would be escorted out of the complex. I would have loved to record a snippet just to show here, but you'll have to go yourselves to see what it is like. The following is the official youtube advert.