Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
02/01/2013
14/09/2012
04/08/2012
11/04/2012
21/12/2011
SING BOX
On Wednesday 21 December, Singbox will release a new ABBA game “ ABBA Lyrics Challenge” that will allow players to enjoy their favourite songs and videos while (trying to) fill in the blank space for the missing words in the lyrics on the smartphone display.
See trailer here:
ABBA Lyrics Challenge will be bundled into the ABBA Singbox app. Those who already have ABBA Singbox get the new Lyrics Challenge for free, simply by updating the application. For those who haven’t got ABBA Singbox yet the application can be bought for USD 0,99 in App Store including both games and 4 songs.
About ABBA Singbox and ABBA Lyrics Challenge
ABBA Singbox is a music driven gaming concept around ABBA, giving the user a closer connection to the group and a new way of experiencing their vast catalogue.
About ABBA Singbox and ABBA Lyrics Challenge
ABBA Singbox is a music driven gaming concept around ABBA, giving the user a closer connection to the group and a new way of experiencing their vast catalogue.
Sing
At the core the Singbox focuses on gaming around singing performance. The user’s singing is measured on pitch and timing ten times per second and compared to the original vocals of ABBA, all while watching the original videos. All pitch and timing data is accumulated into a score, which the user can share with friends and challenge them, post to Facebook, and enter competitions.
The app comes bundled with four songs [Dancing Queen, Eagle, Knowing Me, Knowing You and Take a Chance On Me] and a number of additional songs are available for purchase.
Lyrics Challenge
The ABBA Singbox Lyrics Challenge is a new game included in the ABBA Singbox application. The game tests your lyrics skills as well as your reflexes and eye to hand coordination. This game is played without singing, expanding the game to be used in places where you maybe don't want to sing - the subway, the bank, in cafes or in the street.
The game is as simple as addictive - fill in the blanks - we have extracted random words from the text and as they are sung you shall press a button corresponding to the missing word. You score is based on timing. As with the singing game the score can be used for challenges, high scores and competitions with friends globally or over Facebook.
How to play
On the start screen of ABBA Singbox choose game mode “Sing” or “Lyrics Challenge”. Then you select your song or browse the available purchases.
Then select long or short version of the song as well as the level of difficulty, where HARD has a tighter timing window where scoring is possible and more blanked words.
Playing the game the lyrics are shown in a incoming stream and blanked words are replaced by graphical blocks. When the blank word block comes up you press the button with the word you know/believe is about to be sung given you a maximum score of 500 points.
At the end of the song you are presented to your final result and grade. From this view you can share your score on Facebook, with friends and post it to the global scoreboard.
Download the app here: http://singbox.com/apps/?app=abbasingbox
20/12/2011
18/12/2011
Ulf Andersson
ULF ANDERSSON
Saxophone
Ulf Andersson was one of the most sought-after saxophone players in Stockholm in the 1970s, and Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and their sound engineer Michael Tretow immediately thought of him when they needed a groovy musician. The most famous of Ulf's saxophone features probably remains the recording of I do, I do, I do. He is still one of the most wanted saxophone players in Europe and has performed with Monica Zetterlund, Tchad Jones, Frank Sinatra Jr, Georgie Fame, Rich Matteson, Larry Willis, Lars Samuelson Big Band and others. Ulf Andersson also participated in the ABBA world tours and has appeared on thousands of recordings.
Interview: Abba saxophonist Ulf Andersson
HE was an original member in ABBA’s band and later this month Ulf Andersson will be bringing their hits alive once more on Tyneside. Entertainment Editor Gordon Barr catches up with him.
IT’S one of the most recognisable introductions to an ABBA single – and the man responsible for it is heading for The Sage Gateshead.
Ulf Andersson played the famous saxophone solo in I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, and he’ll be doing it again with ABBA The Show later this month.
The Sage Gateshead will transform into an ABBA-fest on November 29 as a clutch of the Swedish fab four’s former musicians join forces.
Performed by Sweden’s Waterloo, the show charts the ABBA story from their Eurovision beginnings to their major international success.
It kicks off at the tail-end of the 60s when Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida meet to play together for the first time. Throughout the course of the production, the audience is led on a magical journey through the rise and rise of ABBA.
Featuring classic songs such as Waterloo, SOS, Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Money Money Money, Knowing Me Knowing You and, of course, I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, this promises to be the must-see event of 2011 for any ABBA fan!
“It’s very much like it used to be back in the 70s,” Ulf explains to me when I catch up with him in Sweden.
“There is and only ever will be one ABBA, and that was something very special of course.
“But the situation, being on the stage and playing this music, is very similar to what we experienced in those days. The sound of the music is very similar and even the people around me look much the same.
“We stick to the original arrangements to get the sound as close as possible to the original.”
In ABBA’s heyday, Ulf, who is now 71, joined them on their world tours, in particular their 1977 jaunt to Australia, which was filmed for ABBA The Movie.
That particular era remains a highlight for him.
“Going to Australia was something unreal – more than 50,000 people for the first concerts in Sydney,” he recalls.
“It was such bad weather they thought of cancelling the concert because of the rain being dangerous for electric guitars and the guys could get killed by electric shocks.
“But you had to make it because all the people were so excited.
“It was such a great reception. It must have been the highlight, but going into the studio with these guys was special too.
reunification gig
Benny hints at reunification gig (only joking though!)
This weekend, former band member Benny Andersson revealed that he’d be willing to reunite the group to save a beloved – albeit urine soaked – Stockholm landmark.
”If I knew with 100 percent certainty that it would help, I would call the others and ask if we could do a gig. I’d try at least,” said a half-serious Benny to daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) on Saturday.
The comments come in reference to Andersson’s concern about the future of Slussen, (literally translated as the Locks), a central area of Stockholm named after the locks between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea that dates from 1935.
The area has had a lot of attention in recent years. Plans for a major redevelopment of the area made city leaders deem many of the original design features redundant or unserviceable due to physical deterioration.
In 2009, the city of Stockholm announced a new design featuring two linked pedestrian bridges and one for automobile traffic.
The new design would remove many of the existing roads and create several new blocks of buildings close to the waterfront.
However, from the very introduction of the new plans there has been massive resistance to the proposal, the winner of a 2009 competition to design a plan for the area.
The former Abba star got involved when the head of the Bevara Slussen organization (Save Slussen), Karin Schmidt, contacted him asking for help.
And after hearing experts at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts explain exactly what the proposal entails, he was upset and decided to do something.
Andersson even penned an open letter to Stockholm mayor Sten Nordin, calling the proposal “stupid and anti-human”.
”I have had a lot of positive response even if someone thought I ought to stick to the accordion,” he told SvD.
In order to save the area from what Andersson believes to be a mistake, he would even reunite Abba if he thought it could be of help.
”Slussen is that important. But there is not much time, we’d need at least one day’s rehearsing,” Benny Andersson told SvD on Saturday.
On Monday, the day of the fateful decision, Andersson was one of many Swedish celebrities on hand at City Hall to entreat deputy mayor for culture, Madeleine Sjöstedt, to rethink the proposal.
However, Sjöstedt wasn’t to be swayed by Andersson and the others. She said she will vote yes when the decision is taken later in the day.
“I think it will be good,” said Sjöstedt, who added that it wouldn’t be fair on all the people that have been working on the proposal for all these years to scrap it at the last minute.
But according to Andersson, many Stockholmers are unaware of exactly what the new proposal entails.
“Stockholmers should have their say in a referendum,” Andersson said to Dagens Nyheter (DN) on Monday.
Rebecca Martin
16/12/2011
50 Years of Bad Sex
http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/news-container/tv-programme-with-abba-content-on-uk-tv-tonight
TV programme with ABBA content on UK TV tonight
NEWS DECEMBER 16, 2011
50 Years of Bad Sex - somehow it connects with ABBA, apparently.
I was interviewed for a TV programme broadcast on More4 in the UK tonight at 10 pm, entitled 50 Years of Bad Sex. Sorry for the short notice, but I was only told about the broadcast just now.
Originally pitched to me as "a programme for Channel 4 that will explore the cultural impact of ABBA", with the added explanation that "The programme will use the work of ABBA to show how they embodied many of the underlying themes of the decade" ("the decade" referring to the 70s, one presumes), judging by the title it turns out that it's really, partly, about ABBA and their connection to "bad sex" during "the decade" and perhaps even today (!).
Well, it does have some ABBA content, so maybe it's worth watching.
Originally pitched to me as "a programme for Channel 4 that will explore the cultural impact of ABBA", with the added explanation that "The programme will use the work of ABBA to show how they embodied many of the underlying themes of the decade" ("the decade" referring to the 70s, one presumes), judging by the title it turns out that it's really, partly, about ABBA and their connection to "bad sex" during "the decade" and perhaps even today (!).
Well, it does have some ABBA content, so maybe it's worth watching.
thanks to 
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