Abba Tour 1977
When Abba toured, in 1977, Jands supplied the sound, lighting and a custom built hydraulic stage that was used to raise and lower the 17 piece Australian orchestra who provided backing for several songs including “Dancing Queenrdquo;
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 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
Jands Sound, Lighting & Staging Crew
Howard Page, Peter Rooney, Paul Mulholland
Tour Organisation
Promoter Paul Dainty
Tour Manager Michael Chugg
Assistant Tour Manager Graham Maddigan
Production Manager Eric Robinson
Publicity Patti Mostyn
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- Abba, Myer Music Bowl Melbourne, 1977
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- Abba, Myer Music Bowl Melbourne, 1977
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- Abba, Myer Music Bowl Melbourne, 1977
Links
More images from the 1977 tour
ABBA in Perth
Our local Southern Cross station, 6PR was talking the other day about the one and only ABBA show at the Perth Entertainment Centre and apparently there was a bomb threat before the show !!
Can you publish more detailed information about the equipment used on the ABBA 77 tour, please ? And more pictures if you have some … 😉
Regards, Safa – ABBA World Revival
Safa:
An excerpt from an article I wrote in the 1980s about instruments ABBA hired for the concert.
During their March 1977 Australian tour, ABBA’s entourage was 40 musicians and 60 film crew who were making ABBA – The Movie. Scott Morgan of Billy Hyde Stage Systems, Sydney, said ABBA hired two Arbiter Auto-Tune drum kits for the Sydney concert.
“The kit was a mid-1970s fad which died out because they weren’t sturdy enough, the hardware was faulty,” Morgan said.
A special feature of the auto-tune meant the drum could be easily tuned by swivelling the drum head around.
ABBA also used two mounted toms (12 x 8 and 13 x 9) and two floor toms (16 x 16 and a 18 x 16).
Each kit had Paiste cymbals, 16 and 18 inch crashers and a 20 inch ride.
The bottom drum heads were removed and microphones placed inside.
“They had a lot of percussion gear: a bell tree, two congas and Ludwig chimes,” Scott said.
All the amps (including keyboards and bass) were by Music Man and they used Ovation classical acoustic and electric guitars, a Fender Telecaster and Stingray bass guitar.
Legendary……..
That black and white photo of the audience taken from behind the sound booth. I zoomed in and i can see me with my parents. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember where we were sitting.
Yes, still have the 32 channel mixer on the right I believe was used for foldback have owned and used it since 1980
[…] Some info about the tech gear for the tour, plus photos of the Melbourne leg – http://www.jpjaudio.com.au/1977/03/12/abba-tour-1977/ […]
Just a shame that more effort was not made to record the music to a high enough quality so that a live album could have been released.
I need to find out what synth boards were used in the concert. (the mini musical part With I’m A Marionette and the drum/percussion instrumental).