Can anyone give me some info??

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Maxi-saxi - 13.12.2006, 02:34

Good question Sam?

I wouln't honestly know.

Maxi-saxi :roll:

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Maxi-saxi - 13.12.2006, 09:08

OK!

But wasn't Waterloo on ABBA Number Ones sung Live?

It sure sounded like it to me! :band: :band: :band: :wine: :wine: :wine:
Maxi-saxi

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Didi - 13.12.2006, 09:51

BBC it is all do do with the unions, in the 70's UK unions were very strong, so for all foreign groups, they had to sing live and use the BBC orchestra, so looking after the British jobs and therefore ABBA were at a disadvantage as Waterloo on BBC does not sound like the record at all, and with the BBC orchestra/musicians playing the music, it was a bit disappointing. Knowing ABBA they wanted to replicate the studio sound, so they began to make promo clips, videos as we now know them.

Any British acts could mime, as they probably used British musicians and so protected British jobs, Maggie Thatcher broke the unions and after that it was easier for a foreign group to come to Top Of The Pops and mime to a record, you'll notice too that Fernando was also kind of sung live, it used different music and my guess it was that ABBA were not allowed in 76 to mime to that either. Hence ABBA thought, stuff the UK and their unions, we will just send videos and be done with it. If you look at Germany or Holland or even Spain under Franco's dictatorship, they were allowed to mime. That's how strong the unions were in the UK!

If you look at If It Wasn't For The Nights from Mike Yarwood 78, they sang a different mix, this was again something to do with the BBC being t***s about them miming, yet Thank You For The Music, somehow they got to mime to that,, by then it was 78 and maybe the hold the unions had had slipped a little or Bjorn got the BBC in a backroom and pinned them up against a wall!

Diego

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

johnny59 - 13.12.2006, 11:00

Indeed, very interesting.

Although I never have been a fan of lip.synching and miming. I think it's a betrayal. I can hear the studio recordings on my records, what for heaven's sake is cool to see the artists pretending to sing on TV? It seems like some kind of ridicule to me. I really appreciate live performances on TV, that you get a feeling how it would be to hear them live.

Anyway, better than no TV clips at all. I would agree to that. But it stays a nuisance, also if you take into account that they never released a live album what is a pity. I would love to have a completely recorded concert.

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Bonnie - 13.12.2006, 15:09

It's interesting to notice it were usually the same songs sung live.
I think they wanted to be on the safe side and chose songs that were "easy" to sing.
Of course Waterloo, but that was in 1974.
Fernando and SOS were, I guess, the songs the sang live several times.

Maybe a song like Summer Night City is more difficult to reproduce in a TV studio?

Bonnie 8)

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

iancee - 13.12.2006, 22:12

The only reason that ABBA performed on television at all was to promote their records, to make people go out and buy their singles and albums. They wanted the songs to sound their best, so they wanted to mime to the studio recordings.

There's a comment from Björn that's been quoted many times when he said of one UK TV appearance that Queen were on before ABBA, and Queen were able to mime because their recording featured British musicians, while ABBA had to re-record their song with local musicians (because of the British Musicians Union rules as Diego mentioned above), and in his words, ABBA sounded "awful" by comparison.

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Didi - 13.12.2006, 22:26

Well the days here are over for such a con, loads of groups mimed on Top Of The Pops, when it becase a "rule" they had to sing live many groups and singers ran a mile and Top Of The Pops began to die with them.

I remember such groups as Blondie or The Jam and Dexy's Midnight Runners on Top Of The Pops, they couldn't even mime to their own songs! Made them out to be the amateurs they were, ABBA mimed perfectly to their songs and sang them live when they had to or wanted to. That is because they were real singers, have you heard Jordan and that grongo of a husband of hers singing live? Cats choir! They cannot sing and have no talent, all she has is big boobs and a pea brain, he tagged along with her due to his flagging career. Victoria Beckham, again, cannot sing, did not sing live on Top Of The Pops and had her voice tampered with on most records.

So with no Top Of The Pops to show them up, they rake up sales, they should give their royalties to the true talents: the studio guys who edit and correct their horrendous voices!

Diego

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

johnny59 - 13.12.2006, 22:33

Diego,

interesting insights but I would cautiously suggest that we try to be a little bit more merciful concerning our public judgement of artists beside ABBA.

Just for politeness' sake and for the case a fan of them might be among us.

8)

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Anonymous - 14.12.2006, 09:06

Sinikka wrote: Let's pretend that we sing...the audience to such artists should say: Let's pretend that we listen. Anne

LOL, Anne.

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Didi - 14.12.2006, 10:45

I didn't mind them miming at all, I wanted to hear the record they slugged away at in the recording sessions for all those weeks and months, not something sort of close. They were more a studio group and I loved that. They worked miracles in those studios. Even to this day many analyse the build of a typical ABBA recording and very few can come up with that perfect formula! That is why they are "unique" !


Diego

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Didi - 14.12.2006, 15:56

Way off topic and slapped wrists, but, well, honestly! Those two just crack me up!

Diego

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

Didi - 14.12.2006, 16:34

Blubber! Yeah! Feeding time! jeje

Diego

Re: Can anyone give me some info??

MarryMeAgnetha - 17.12.2006, 10:51

It's pretty easy to tell about lip-synching on ABBA TV appearances. If they sound just like the record, they're lip-synching. If you see just the four members of ABBA, they're lip-synching. If you see ABBA plus a backup band, but it still sounds just like the record, they're lip-synching.

Occasionally but not often they had recorded instrumental tracks to which they sang live, e.g. SOS on Saturday Night Live.

When you see ABBA plus a backup band, and it doesn't sound just like the record, e.g. Take a Chance on Me from the Olivia Newton-John TV special, they're actually performing live.

As much as I love ABBA, I too find it kind of exasperating that they lip-synched most of their TV performances. As Sinikka put it so well:

"Björn and Benny have always been a bit mad about perfection! As if something were good only if it is perfect."

They created great music in the studio. I just wish someone could have gotten it into their heads that what works in the studio and what works live are somewhat different things, and that they're each valuable in their respective ways.

It's like the difference between a play and a movie. You can shoot a scene over and over again for a movie until you get the best take. Then you can edit, add special effects, etc., until you get it perfect for the film. However in a play the actors, tech people, musicians, etc. have to rehearse and then when the performance comes, they just have to do their best even if there's a mistake or problem. On the other hand, they have the advantages of immediacy and close contact with the audience. Neither one is better. They're just different media. I wish Benny and Björn had taken an attitude more like that, and had been willing to sacrifice the sterile perfection of miming to the recording to the superior artistic statement of performing live.

Even at that, it seems I still hungrily devour any ABBA clips I can get my hands on, lip-synched or not. :roll:

--Daniel