Talk about a Mamma Mia moment!
At the end of a mind-bending 100 minutes in which digital versions of Sweden’s finest already had the crowd enthralled, up stepped the real thing.
As Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid came onto the stage, the roars from the crowd nearly blew the roof off the 3,000 capacity ABBA Arena.
A group hug, a kiss for old time’s sake, a wave to the crowd….the audience went wild!
All week there has been fevered speculation whether all four would make the trip to London to attend the premiere.
Not least notoriously private Agnetha, who hates travelling and has a phobia of flying.
But as they sashayed onto the stage, it was as if time stood still and they’d never been away. The crowd - already buzzing following a spell-binding show that blurred fact and fiction - exploded.
Even before this moment - and the band In digital form only - there were standing ovations, arm-waving and (lots of ) tears.
Behind me Kylie Minogue was dancing on her feet, Kate Moss a few rows in front continually had her arms in the air.
As soon as the opening bars of The Visitors began , and the foursome appeared for the first time - with the girls resplendent in peacock, flared jumpsuits - it was if they were in the room.
Crucially, you couldn’t differentiate between the (real) 10-piece band playing by the side of the stage and the group themselves as they went through their paces with hits such as SOS, Knowing Me, Knowing You and Gimme, Gimme Gimme.
They had their mannerisms down to a a tee. From Agnetha sultrily flicking her hair, to Benny’s goofiness.
When the band initially announced their vision for the show last year, some were naturally skeptical. After all, the music industry had seen hologram tours from the likes of Whitney Houston and Roy Orbison…with decidedly mixed results.
But from the beginning, the band have stressed their “digital ABBA-tars” created by Star Wars supremo George Lucas were going to be different.
They were right.
It’s great to have them back….sort of.
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