ABBACOVER conquered the“cruise liner of dreams“

In 2012 we made it to the MS Deutschland for the first time, well known to german TV viewers from the television series „Das Traumschiff“.
What an experience!
We played a great show in the beautiful on board theater and enjoyed the rest of our stay on board a real cruise ship of dreams to the fullest.

ABBACOVER in south-east asia

Also in 2012 we were honoured to accompany the MS Columbus on their last world trip for a few weeks. Starting from Bangkok/Thailand it took us all the way through the south chinese sea, to Singapore, Myanmar, the Andaman Islands and finally to India.
It is always something special for us to play our show on cruise ships because you coulnd´t even get a closer contact to your audience.
Not only because the mostly small and intimate locations you play in but also because of being with the guests for many days or weeks in a tiny space and meet almost everytime and everywhere.
We like that a lot but simply had to admit that the stagework turned into a trivial matter due to this breathtaking trip. The places we´ve seen were just incredible. Go for a swim in Phuket and Koh Samui, sightseeing in Singapore – probably one oft he most wicked cities in the world. Myanmar really had some awareness-changing spirit because of its unspoiled nature and very little touristic activity. Visiting the holy places and meeting buddhist monks gave us three unforgotten days. We actually did not really knew about the Andaman Islands before coming there and just don´t know why! It´s nothing less than a paradise. We completed this amazing trip visiting the indian city of Cochin where you can still slightly hear the winds oft he long-gone colonial era.
If someone should ask about the unfamiliar face in the pictures - it´s Corvin, who jumped in for Axel for that cruise. It seemed to be impossible – but he did great!

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Our most prominent fan: Angela Merkel

This is not a political statement. We met the German Chancellor many times and it has always been very special to us because notwithstanding her high office we got to know her as a very kind lady.

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The magic transformation of ABBACOVER´s Benny

After concerts meeting people who were in the show in restaurants or hotelbars you mostly hear people ask the same question over and over: where is your Benny? Pointing on Axel who stood there all the time near by people still hardly recognize and often think we make fun oft them.
This is why we wanted to show here what a good make-up artist is able to do.

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ABBACOVER in France

Our trip to the côte d´Azur in France granted us two of the most unusual stages the band has ever seen in all those years. In Théoule-sur-mêr we played for about 500 guests on a small stage located high above the Mediteranean See built into a slope in a stunning, unique atmosphere. The audience enjoyed our show watching a breathtaking sunset over the ocean right behind us that no stage decoration in the world could ever offer. Well, with the sun finally disappearing it got quite windy and damp, but who cares?

Another highlight during this trip was our show in Cassis. Cassis is an enchanting place close to Marseille built around a small romantic fishing port. What made it so special was: the stage we played on was a swimming pontoon right in the middle of the basin on a warm summer night. The view from the stage down to people celebrating in small boats around the stage and over on the promenade is something artists do not see so very often and of course we enjoyed it a lot.

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ABBACOVER in Kazakhstan

Inspired by our Beirut experience we went for a show to Kazakhstan.
Precisely we went to Asia`s highest located outdoor stadium in Almaty.
Of course our expectations were influenced by our lebanese experiment and we were ready to cope with the fact that things will be different in Asia…
And they were. But not at all in the way be expected them to be.
Kazakhstan treated us as if we were really ABBA.
On our stopover in Atyrau we were greeted by a uniformed officer who took care of all the official procedures such a passports, visa and luggage. So we did not have to queue like everyone else but felt like a real celebrity. Strange, but fun!

Having arrived in Almaty a strech limousine( ready-to-use during the whole stay…) took us to our five star Intercontinental Hotel. You can cope with anything after spending the night there!
And when we arrived at the stadium the next day for soundcheck we could hardly believe that it seemed that someone really read the stageorder carefully and every single cable was there for us accompanied by a whole team of competent people ready to fulfil our wishes. Afterwards our limo took us for lunch whith the american rapper Coolio who could not at all believe finding himself in a country where the eat horse meat.

Entering the stadium again later that day for the festival we felt slightly uncertain because of the huge presence oft he kazakh army.
A long chain of angry-faced men arrived for stage security but this only seemed strange to us until one of them asked for a picture.
Of course he got his picture and all of a sudden army guys queued to take a picture with us. The oppressive atmosphere was gone and turned into high spirited happiness. We played a great show and went home with wonderful impressions of Kazakhstan and its people.

New Year´s Eve in Beirut

One oft he most unusual concerts the band ever played was for sure our New Year´s Eve show in Beirut.
An artist agency handed in this offer and we were quite sceptical and even mistrustful knowing Beirut only from the TV News and were unsure to go or not.
But finally we made the descision to go for it and got rewarded with a real adventure. Already just after arriving during our ride through the Beirut night we couldn´t ignore those voices in our heads screaming if we were completely crazy and out of our minds having decided to go there.
To a still battle-scarred city with teenage boys wearing machine guns here and there in the streets. Uneasy feeling to be honest!
We were longing for a hotel room after such a long flight trip spending hours on a stopover in Istanbul at three in the morning but no way – they drove us from the airport directly to the club we were supposed to play the next day saying that they just want us to do some promotion for tomorrow…
Just imagine: they made us stand on top of the bar in an overcrowded nightclub – no make up, deadly tired, no costumes – put in an original ABBA CD, handed over two wireless microphones and said the three magic words: „go ahead, sing!“
And there we were. In the middle of the night at a club in Lebanon up on a bar looking like tramps singing Super Trouper for people who neither knew who we were nor what we did there. We never ever did something bizarre like that before and hopefully we never will again. Spending a rather short night at the hotel room we enjoyed for the first time the impressing hospitality oft he country before going back to the club for soundcheck.

Arriving there, the next surprise was already there. Nothing of the equipment we ordered was there. Nothing.
While in our minds we already said goodbye to play even a single tone that night, a deeply relaxed guy called Habib joined the scene. Every second phrase he said contained the words:“don´t worry.“ That was where we learned how strained and tensed we european guys can be.

Habib didn´t even understand what our confusion was about, said „don´t worry „ again, asked what we need, took his mobile and 20 minutes later a bunch of people carried in different pieces of technical equipment and instruments. Possible in Germany on New Year´s Eve? No way. And no way at all in such a short amount of time.

So finally we played our show that almost turned into a trivial compared to all those impressions around.
And due to the fact that our flight back home left Beirut also in this New Year´s Night already there was no sleep again but it was worth it. We met kind and nice people and brought a bunch of unforgotten memories. Again something very special.