The Welcome To My Nightmare Tour began in Spring of 1975 and continued until 1977 when Alice took the show to Australia and New Zealand.

The elaborate travelling stage set included a large gothic looking bed in the center of the stage. There were huge pillars on either side of the bed, which would at one point in the show support an over-sized spider web for the performance of Devil’s Food and The Black Widow. And, at the height of the show the bed would slide back and a large split screen was raised.

Alice and the dancers were on the screen and then would emerge through the screen onto the stage. Sheryl Goddard, who would later become Sheryl Cooper, played the ballerina role for Only Women Bleed.

The touring band included Dick Wagner, Steven Hunter, Prakash John and Whitey Glan.

I Never Cry was added to the set during the Australian and New Zealand leg of the tour.

Tour Dates

March 1977
14, 15 Entertainment Centre, Perth
18 Westlakes Football Stadium, Adelaide
21, 22, 23, 24 Festival Hall, Melbourne
26 RAS Showground, Sydney (40,000 people attended, breaking the Australian record at this time)
29, 30, 31 Festival Hall, Brisbane

Video

When Abba toured, in 1977, Jands supplied the sound, lighting and a custom built hydraulic stage that was used to raise and lower a 17 piece Australian orchestra who provided backing for several songs including “Dancing Queen”

In a radio interview, after the Melbourne concert, reporter Don McLean said
“…a big speaker bank either side of the stage and then they had another one half way up the lawn area. I think possibly because of the use of strings and synthesizers and just the band themselves playing and the whole lot was blended so well, it was just unbelievable, the sound was perfect. And of course you could hear every word that ABBA sang which was what the kids were there for anyway.

Also the lighting, the stage was all white. They had big blue curtains hanging down on either side with ah sort of flowers all round the stage. And ah, I wouldn’t be sure exactly how many lights they had, they had a lot of lights on stage, on the sides of the stage and ah it was just one big colour bath the whole way through. It was brilliant.”

Tour Dates 1977

March 3 & 4 Sydney Showgrounds
March 5 & 6 Melbourne Myer Music Bowl
March 8 Adelaide Westlakes Stadium
March 10, 11 & 12 Perth Entertainment Centre.

Sound System

System Crew
Howard Page, Peter Rooney, Paul Mulholland

ABBA & Management:
Promoter Paul Dainty
Australian Tour Manager Michael Chugg
Asst. Tour Manager Graham Maddigan
Production Manager Eric Robinson
Publicity Patti Mostyn