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IT may be labelled a midlife crisis but nowadays it’s cool to love the sounds of ABBA if you’re of a certain middle-age and young at heart.
Unfortunately the Swedish originals are no longer performing together on stage but the lookalikes and soundalikes are out in force to meet the demand and the FABBAGIRLS are one of the best tribute acts around.
The English act, with outfits, dance routines and corny Swedish accents to match were back on the island by public demand as guests of the Arabian Celts GAA Club.
The Gaelic football fanatics and their friends were joined by hotel guests in the pool at the charity fundraiser staged at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Residence & Spa on Friday night and were not disappointed by a night of fun, curly-haired wigs, outrageous 1970s attire and dance floor frolics.
After fronting ABBA cover band Bjorn Again, Susie Webb and Zoe Nicholas decided to form a band of their own, and were helped on stage by a couple of guys pretending to play keyboards and guitar and together imitating the immortal Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
Their sound-man to the side got an on-stage telling off for playing the backing track of two songs twice but ever the true professionals, FABBAGIRLS carried on regardless and the crowd didn’t appear to notice.
They started with Waterloo and did an encore of Thank you for the Music. Susie and Zoe worked the stage and the audience non-stop of one hour and 30-minutes of ABBA hits, plus six minutes of extra time for the two songs that were repeated.
By the end of the night some members of the audience had worked up such a head of steam that they needed to join the pool party fully-clothed to cool off.
All told a FABBAulous night, although I’m not sure if it was the act or the dancing queens who came out on top.
– Stan Szecowka
