Melbourne-based tribute band BABBA has been coming to Geelong for more than 30 years.
Hailed by Aussie music guru Molly Meldrum as being “as good as ABBA”, Australia’s number one ABBA show returns to Geelong for a celebration of the Swedish supergroup’s music and story.
In a Richmond pub in 1994 a group of friends decided to conquer the tribute band scene with a show that would perfect every aspect of ABBA’s musical and performance style.
Michael Ingvarson, who has played Benny Andersson in BABBA as well as serving as the musical director since its inception, has also been responsible for much of the continual refinement of the show.
He said BABBA’s ongoing journey had been “so much fun”.
“From the beginning, playing in a tiny little pub in Fitzroy… to playing the closing of the Masters Games one year to 45,000 people at Colonial Stadium… there have been so many great shows,” Ingvarson said.
“The combination of people, the performers, was really good right from the start. We did our best to recreate these songs really well.
“I put a lot of time into researching and pulling apart ABBA, the arrangements and the parts. I really had to study it and then we had to work together to do it properly. ABBA’s music is a lot more complicated than you might think.”
Ingvarson said when they began the project he never imagined they would be going strong more than three decades later.
“It’s a great job, such a rewarding job, because the reaction you get from audiences is just so warm and full of energy,” he said.
“We play to such a wide variety of age groups. We play at Melbourne or Monash University and they just crowd in there, a thousand of them, because they’ve grown up listening to the Mamma Mia movie (soundtrack).
“We played at a high school last year, it was like a Beatles concert. And then we play theatres and things, where it’s a much older age group. ABBA’s just got such a massive appeal, and that’s kept us rolling along.”
BABBA are at Geelong Performing Arts Centre on Saturday, April 5.
