Since their first appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Brighton Dome back in 1974, there has been no doubt about the quality of songs produced by Swedish superstars, ABBA. Their back catalogue includes many multi-million selling hits and plenty of tunes that have become regarded as classics.
On the back of that success have come a number of tribute bands and, since 1996, one of the most successful of those acts has been ABBA Fever. Fronted by Katie and Melissa, as Agnetha and Anni-Frid, and with Steve and James providing the music as Benny and Bjorn, the band also features Jason on drums.
The show is not an elaborate production, with fairly limited lighting and nothing really in the way of a set, with the focus very much more on the music rather than anything else. The advantage of this is that there is very little to distract from the superb songs that just keep coming, one after the other.
ABBA’s hits relied on a very distinctive sound, thanks to superb musicianship and their four part vocal harmonies. ABBA Fever work incredibly hard to recreate every song as faithfully as they possibly can to the original sound – and it works very well indeed.
The concert, as a whole, is thoroughly enjoyable with a very enthusiastic reaction from the audience in the Civic Centre Uckfield from the first bars of Summer Night City (very appropriate after such a beautiful day) right through to the Thank You For The Music / Waterloo finale.
It’s a cliché to say that people were dancing in the aisles but, throughout the more than two hour concert, they really were, with many in the audience entering into the spirit of the evening with very impressive ABBA style outfits.
**** Four Stars