ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC ABBA SHOW HEADS TO THE SAND DU PLESSIS THEATRE

Abba fans are in for an absolute treat as the music of the 70's Swedish SupergroupAbba is celebrated at the Sand Du Plessis Theatre for two nights on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 October, in a show entitled Absolutely Abba!

The show, presented by Centrestage in association with Ofm broke national and international box office records in the Eastern Cape and presents the much loved Abba music in concert style.

Absolutely Abba! will bring all the popular Abba hits back to life. Dancing Queen, Voulez Voux, SOS, Fernando, Mamma Mia, Souper Trouper, Chiquita, Gimme Gimme, Does Your Mother Know and Waterloo are but a few of the popular songs that will be reprised in the 2 hour show.

Absolutely Abba is the first in the series of shows which will come to Bloemfontein over the next 2 years. Other hits for the 9-piece Centrestage All-Star Band include The Magnificent 7 - A tribute to the 7 greatest bands of all Time and tributes to Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Bee Gees and Queen.

"The reasons for the popularity of the band have to do with the sheer entertainment value that they offer. Not only are they a superbly tight musical outfit, but each individual is a seasoned entertainer in in their own right in many genres.The enjoyment of their performances shines through on-stage" says Centrestage director Gary Hemmings.

"Every effort has been taken to ensure that the integrity of the original Abba sound is faithfully and flawlessly reproduced", Hemmings continues.

"Abba music is deceptively simple sounding, yet extremely musically complex. To achieve the true Abba sound, the vocal arrangements have to be spot on and the keyboard parts, which often have a classical base, must be authentic."

Fronted by the sensational Tara-Jane Metzler and Donna Africa, the band is an all-star collaboration.

Ace guitarist Donovan Hattingh acts as musical director for the shows.

"We are lucky to have two of SA's finest keyboard players in Rory McLaren and Candy 'G' Gilson in the lineup."

Rory McLaren is not only a great keyboard player, but was seen on stage recently in his tribute to Robbie Williams and Michael Buble entitled Robbin' the Buble, and he recently performed as Freddy Mercury in the bands critically acclaimed salute to Queen.

Candy 'G' is a long time veteran of the Sun International circuit, while Tara-Jane Metzler and Donna Africa perform throughout the country fronting various shows and Centrestage corporate ensembles. Tara usually fronts the That Rollicking Rock n Roll Show and was most recently seen in the musical comedies The Libido Loco Roadshow, The Italian Odd-job and The Unusual Suspects, in which she also appeared with fellow stage colleague and drummer Gino Fabbri.

Fabbri himself is a versatile act - when not on the drums, he is an outstanding comedian who plays a range of zany characters and MC's corporate functions for the likes of Sun International.

Donna Africa has performed as far afield as Mauritius in shows such as Motown Soul Grooving - and shares the stage with Rory McLaren in their sophisticated cabaret show When 2 Stars Collide.

MD and vocal coach for the show Donovan Hattingh has swapped his "Kick-Ass Guitar show"pyrotechnic guitar style for a more subtle approach.

"Vocally, there are a number of challenges to overcome as some of the songs have 6-8 different voices running concurrently, so it helps that the entire group are all top-notch singers."

Hattingh has painstakingly pre-recorded every voice that each vocalist must sing for rehearsal purposes - "the final product sounds incredible", he said. "What's even more exciting is that, given the advances in sound technology since Abba was around in the 70's and taking into account the extraordinary talent that we have at our disposal in this group, we have the opportunity to actually sound BETTER than they did!", he enthused.

Backing vocals will be handled by Eloise Potgieter and Natasha Frost. Eloise recently made it into the top 4 out of 3500 hopefuls in Patricia Lewis's national Supersterre talent search competition - where she enjoyed numerous television appearances.

Bass player , along with Fabbri, makes up the rhythm section - they were the backbone to the group Eminent Child, who scored national hits on 5fm in their day. They are joined by the effervescantly energetic Wayne Kallis on acoustic guitar. Kallis fronted both the Creedence Tribute Hey Tonight, as well as emulating surfing and singing legend Jack Johnson in his respective tribute.

Tickets for Absolutely Abba are available at R95 from the Sand Du Plessis theatre by calling 051-4477772 / or 3..