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ABBA World, Earl’s Court, London

Monday, February 15th, 2010

As cultural juxtapositions go, there can’t be many like this one. At opposite ends of the London cultural spectrum, we watched Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night, and visited the ABBA World exhibition at Earl’s Court on Saturday morning. Both full of brightly-coloured costumes, stage acts and singing, only one had acrobatics of the high-wire kind. The other boasted voice acrobatics that have become known the world over as the sound of the Swedish supergroup.

If you don’t know the ABBA story, you’re either very young or have had your head buried in the proverbial sand for the best part of the last four decades. There haven’t been many Eurovision winners that have gone on to mega-stardom and have a legacy both as rich and recognisable as Agnetha’s, Bjorn’s Benny’s and Anni-Frid’s. And it’s just as well it’s a legacy worth celebrating, as, unsurprisingly, that’s what ABBA World is all about. Premiering in the UK, the movable exhibition is, just like the band did, going on a global tour and will end up in Sweden as a more permanent reminder of the Swedish super group. But we got it first.

My fear was that it would be a tacky, glittery and money, money, money-making memorabilia fest, taking away the credit that the post-ABBA Gold and Mamma Mia! years have built up. Yes, there is a fair bit of, let’s call it fun, but the one thing the exhibition does do is remind you of how big the four Swedes were. Led down the stairs in what appears to be Earl’s Court’s basement, 25 themed ‘rooms’ let you enjoy the ABBA story, told by new video reminiscences (even by the ever-elusive Agnetha), endless numbers of gold discs and music industry awards, props, puppets and scene set-ups.

Interactive exhibits lets the visitor test their ABBA knowledge (I was quite good on the ‘Fan’ questions but rubbish on the ‘Fanatic’ ones), mix an ABBA track (compared the original, I was 86% correct and quite pleased), appear in an ABBA video and appear with 3D cartoon-like holograms of their idols. Unfortunate and incorrect Swedish to English translations on the exhibit information panels aside, ABBA World is largely well-done and a diverting and interesting three hours. And even I, an ABBA loyalist, learned new things about the other fab four.

Don’t believe all what you see, though; the helicopter in the ‘Arrival’ section (above) isn’t the one that actually appeared in the stunning 1976 Arrival album cover. But, disappointment aside, that didn’t stop me and several others sitting in it…

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Cirque du Soleil: Varekai

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

To Cirque de Soleil (and to Romani language), Varekai means ‘wherever’. To us, it usually means a brightly-coloured night of spectacle and wonder at the Royal Albert Hall. An ‘acrobatic tribute to the nomadic soul’, it was a Friday night out with Emma and Adobe, and Varekai was by far the best Cirque du Soleil show we’ve yet seen. With a plot based around the mythical story of Icarus who melts his wings after flying too close to the sun, it’s almost a literal translation of this circus troupe’s name.

If you’ve never popped your Cirque du Soleil cherry, the first time you see a show performed by the Canadian (and increasingly global) family of acrobats, artists and singers, you’ll be amazed at the costumes and be taken aback by the low and high-level acrobatic stunts. Varekai features quite an assortment; triple trapeze, Georgian dance, aerial straps, juggling and Russian swings were all on the menu tonight (as was the delicious nibbly food that we had in our box).

Breaking from the acts of daring-do, the clowns have nothing to do with the otherworldly and mystical story (few real-life things do, but it’s escapism for a couple of hours) but almost upstage the more dangerous acts. The magician and assistant duo perform hilarious conjuring tricks, while the bumbling assistant with her hooped dress and big knickers drew laughs aplenty when she kept falling and tripping over, thus exposing her big bloomers to everyone in the RAH’s round.

This year we had a room at the plush Royal Garden Hotel, just a stone’s throw away from the RAH, and it made all the difference. There was no last-minute rush for the Tube, and no crowded, smelly train full of drunken late-night revellers to carry us home to Chelmsford. We walked back along Kensington High Street with Tim and Kim (who also had a room), before saying our goodbyes and retiring for the night. All very civilised, nice, and relaxed.

The sleep was relaxed, too, the large, comfortable bed setting us up for an undisturbed night (the glasses of champagne must have helped, too), meaning that we arrived at breakfast refreshed, ready to look out at the uninterrupted view of London from the tenth-floor restaurant’s huge panoramic windows. It really was an almost stereotypical view; nearly all of the recognisable landmarks were present and correct, glinting in the late-morning sunrise behind Kensington Palace and Gardens. We didn’t hang about, though; we had a busy day ahead of us.

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ABBA: Oro: Grandes Éxitos

Friday, February 12th, 2010

It’s rare that newer versions of old songs improve on the originals. Cover versions invariably dilute the original recording’s concept, and it’s unusual for a band to record a new version of an old song. Saint Etienne did it recently, as elements of Foxbase Alpha were re-recorded for their 2009 Foxbase Beta update, and I found out this week that ABBA have done it too. Recording Spanish versions of a collection of well-known tracks, there are two in particular which I think arguably sound better than their English language counterparts.

It’s all Spotify’s fault. Browsing the (limited) ABBA catalogue, I found a remastered version of 1977’s The Album, with bonus tracks including the Latin American versions of Move On and Thank You For The Music. These are my two favourite songs on that particular album, which I consider their best (alongside 1976’s Arrival), and so good are they that they’ve been on repeat ever since. I don’t know what it is about The Album that captivates me so much; maybe it’s the memories of both that and Arrival being played lots in my childhood (I was four at the time), but captivate me it does.

The two ‘new’ tracks are from Oro: Grandes Éxitos, a US version of Gold: Greatest Hits, released in 1993 (and re-issued in 1999) for the Latin American market, sung entirely in Spanish. This album itself was originally released as Gracias Por La Música in early 1980, the ten tracks on it re-recorded in 1979. I’ve not heard the other songs which make up the compilation, but if they are as good as Al Andar and Gracias Por La Música, then they may too eclipse the English versions. I can’t tell you why I like them so much. Maybe the Spanish lyrics fit the songs’ rhythm better, or maybe it’s just because they’re different versions of such familiar recordings.

Whatever it is, it couldn’t have worked its magic at a more appropriate time. We’re off to see ABBA World tomorrow at Earl’s Court, so for the past couple of days I’ve been listening to ABBA virtually non-stop. Everyone knows the story, the band’s legacy and the music, but there’s something that the music that still sounds fresh, even over 30 years later. I don’t know if the walk around the themed rooms tomorrow will add much to the ABBA story, but it will be interesting to see the costumes and items which played a part. The thing I’m looking forward to seeing the most? The helicopter from the stunning front cover photo shoot of Arrival…

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Moonlighting

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

‘Blue Moon Detective Agency. Getting strange calls in the middle of the night, strange notes in your mailbox by dawn’s early light, tell us about it, let us get involved, we’ll find the perv and your problems will be solved.’
Agnes DiPesto, Receptionist, Blue Moon Detective Agency

Anyone who knows us would no doubt agree, but we watch more more retro TV shows than we do new ones. It’s not necessarily a nostalgia thing for the 1970s and 1980s either; we just think that TV was better back then, although reminiscing no doubt plays a part. The latest ammunition in the cannon for ‘80s TV is Moonlighting, the American drama-comedy (or nowadays, ‘dramedy’) about a private investigation agency, run by the glamourous Madeleine ‘Maddie Hayes’ and the arrogant David Addison, screened from 1985 to 1989.

With the lead parts played by Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis respectively, it used to be one of my favourite imported shows, and yes, like similar programmes of the time, it has dated in that dated 1980s excess-type way. But, the sexual sparring, contrasting personalities of the lead characters (she’s no-nonsense, he’s the bumbling joker always rubbing her up the wrong way) and the sometimes strange cases they have to solve rarely fail to raise a smile.

This spoof of the best detective TV shows did well at the time – picking up 16 Emmy nominations for the second series and it was not only humourous, but also self-referential – and fits our criteria retro TV perfectly, even if Nik is still to be convinced. We picked it up late last year when the Zone Romantica channel became CBS Drama and started to air episodes (it’s on every day), alongside Dynasty, Falcon Crest and other ‘80s classics.

It’s all Lucy Mangan’s fault – if I hadn’t read her column about the show being re-shown, I might not have remembered it, as we have so many other old series to watch. And we don’t watch Moonlighting all the time for that reason, just dip and and dip out as we want to (most of the hour-long programmes are self-contained stories in any case). But, once all 67 episodes and five series have been broadcast, we can always buy the DVDs to catch the ones we missed…

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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

*Warning: contains spoilers*

It wasn’t so much far up, far out, or far more as the 1969 poster states, but it was rather good as James Bond romps go. We had another round of film roulette on Saturday night (the rules are simple; all our film titles are scribbled down on paper, folded up and then picked at random) and as it was an 007 picture that came out on top, I favoured George Lazenby’s one and only outing. Why? I’d been told that it was set around Christmastime (it’s not that long after) and it also had an early appearance of then model and fledgling actress Joanna Lumley.



The second in the ‘Blofeld Trilogy’ between You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service features Blofeld about to release a fatal and widespread global plague through a bevy of ‘angels of death’ unless a claim to a title and other demands are met. As an aside, Bond meets, falls in love, and marries Contessa Teresa ‘Tracy’ di Vincenzo, played by The Avengers actress Diana Rigg. Filmed at the legendary Pinewood, Portugal and Switzerland – largely at the now infamous Piz Gloria revolving restaurant – the movie did well, grossing $87m at the time, although Lazenby’s reception was both more shaken and stirred.

I’m not a Bond afficionado, but I think Lazenby deserves more credit than he received back in 1969 and since. And , although I’ve not seen many Connery Bonds either, I think the Australian actor that replaced the suave Scot did as good a job, if not better, job of playing the MI6 agent. Yes, there is a little awkwardness (Lazenby had never acted on such an epic scale before) and some scenes are a little clumsy, but overall, he should have stayed on for the seven films he originally signed up for. Thinking that the 007 franchise might be archaic in the forthcoming and more liberated 1970s he put away his Walther-PPK after just one movie.

It’s a shame. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service has many of the ‘right’ ingredients for a classic Bond movie. A strong cast (Kojak’s Telly Savalas played Blofeld), a script that reportedly stayed close to Ian Fleming’s novel, an exciting car chase with Ford Escorts on ice and stunning Swiss scenery all add up to a diverting couple of hours. The only real departure is the ending.

With Tracy lying dead in his arms, we see a hitherto unseen emotional side of Bond, which was built on for the recent blockbusters Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace (which rebooted the franchise) starring Daniel Craig. It’s non the worse for that, though, and with the lack of gadgets, it’s a stripped back Bond, again rather similar to today’s. If only Lazenby knew that 007 would still be doing his action man stuff some 40 years later; who knows how the series would have developed?

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