BABBA

Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn last played in concert in Australia in 1977. When BABBA play their hearts out on a Saturday night at the Melbourne Zoo, it is just as if it was yesterday for me and my ten-year-old children.

In the delicious cool air of a summer evening, the Melbourne audience is in a picnicking frenzy, a little soporific from too much dip and white wine when BABBA begin their set at seven. However, after an hour of the magic of ABBA, nearly all the members of the audience are either on their feet dancing, or, at the very least, waving their arms in a slow sway.

The tribute band BABBA has been working together since 1994. It is getting to the point where one might think that the tribute band may itself need a tribute band. However, BABBA show no signs of dwindling energy or enthusiasm. Their performance is the epitome of confident and humorous musicianship, presenting themselves as happy to laugh with their audience as well as at themselves. With a gentleness of manner, BABBA relates to the audience in a way that is engaging without being too desperate. As a result, the atmosphere on the lawns of the zoo is very relaxed and cheerful.

With a tribute band, the priority is to look like the original and to sound like the original. Gabriella Favretto (Frida) and Susie Woodcock (Agnetha) are strong vocal mimics of the ABBA female duo and carry much of the power and emotion in their voices. James Macdonald and Michael Ingvarson, who play the keyboard and guitar, do so with the effortless skill and passion of the original Swedes. The impressive musicality of the six-piece band (the four stars are backed by a bass guitarist and drummer) sound indistinguishable to my ear from the original ABBA tracks.

Over the two hour set, a number of costume changes allow me to marvel at the design flair of the glam rock days of the 1970s. The cape – rarely to be seen in today’s fashion arena – looks magnificent on Bjorn, worn three-quarter-length like a super hero who has discovered disco. Agnetha and Frida’s costumes are an exploration of the female thigh and are visually compelling: never have shorts been so short or pants so tight as across these Swedish divas’ lower bodies.

The appeal of ABBA spans generations and this is what such high-class tribute bands as BABBA offer to an audience. Extending from five- and six-year-olds, teenagers, up to the most mature members of the audience, all were dancing and singing with happy abandon. It is an infectious musical legacy that ABBA has left to us: ‘Fernando’, ‘Chiquitita’, ‘Rock Me’, ‘Does Your Mother Know That You’re Out’ brings many disco-dancing on their picnic rugs. The band closes the night with encores of ‘Thank you for the Music’.

There are a host of different ABBA tribute bands in Australia,with a complementary set of funny names including Bjorn Again and Abbasession. Whether it is due to nostalgia, or the pure audio-visual spectacle of the Swedish original, ABBA still wins the crowd over. BABBA is a delight to watch and creates an audience experience which is diverse in every way.