BAO’s Summer Tour 2011 – were you there?
Stockholm’s Galejan at Skansen hosted the last night of the Benny Anderssons Orkester Tour 2011 on 30 July. Reports have been coming through of another great tour night.
If you had seen BAO before, there were not too many surprises but the ones that stood out for me were hearing Kisses Of Fire and the Happy Hawaii/Why Did It Have To Be Me? mash-up! Also O klang och jubeltid was simply beautiful.
It really dawns on me when I witness BAO that it is a truly unique show. Here we have a worldwide pop/rock megastar playing the folk-influenced music he loves with a bunch of mates in front of a relaxed audience, most of whom are actually there to dance!
Please do feel free to share your BAO experiences in this thread and have a look at a few photos takein in Leksand. More to follow…
Yeah it was truly unique. I was in Leksand, too, and it was the 4th time having heard BAO live. Most stunning was “Beatrice” in this new very quiet emotional version. It brought tears in my eyes. I hope Benny will be on the road for another long time! Thank you all!
Thoroughly enjoyed the Skansen show on Sat evening – great night. Brilliant. Thanks to BAO. What a great bunch of guys …and Helen.Really liked En dag i sänder.
jdaz
I was in Leksand too. It was a great show. It was a funny and very good performance. A lot of people from the adience were on the dancefloor in front of the stage.. De music was going on and on and on. It was lovely to see Benny and here the voices of Tommy en Helen live again with al the great musicians . They played 4 ABBA songs. “Kisses of Fire”, “Hasta Manana”, “I do I do I do” and “Why did it have to be me” .It was wonderful te be there. Thanks BAO!l.
I saw BAO in Skansen Galejan.
Of course it was a Great Show and I was so Close Standing to Benny.
It was fantastic. En DAG i sänder is my favorite Song.
Kisses of Fire , what a surprise. The Performance was brilliant.
For a Short while ABBA was back.
But it’s so good to have Bao with the Great musicans.
I Hope I See them again.
All I can say is
Thank you for the Music
Ralf from Düsseldorf Germany
I was at Skansen, Galejan. Great night. Managed to get to the front. After the show I met Benny, got a photo with him and he signed the new album for me! Sorted!
I had my small camera with me that takes quite nice video and have recorded various parts of the day. I’ll try to keep update my YouTube account with them as often as I can. Here’s my first upload of Benny arriving at the gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCIWXk0r164&feature=channel_video_title
Right then…. when is he touring again???
I was at the Stockholm concert at the venue where the Benny Andersson band played together in front of an audience for the first time ten years ago.
The concert was as always brilliant with lots of joy, great music, fantastic musicianship and great sound!
Yes he played some Abba songs, which of course was great but I wish fans outside Sweden could understand that Benny Andersson has moved on in so many ways since Abba.
I think for us Swedes Abba feels a long way off as we have followed Benny Andersson and what he has been up to during the years.
He is such a brilliant musician and thanks to his sucess with Abba he has had the possibility and time to do what he wants.
In 2007 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and in 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Stockholm University for importantly contributing to the preservation and the growth of the Swedish folk music tradition.
I hope Benny Andersson will have more projects in the future and I hope he will continue with his band for many years to come!
The concerts were, as ever, a complete joy. So many great moments, Benny looking surprised at the mass of people in Helsingborg, Tommy blowing kisses to his sister in Galejan, the joy of the crowd as Helen started the opening lines to Kisses of Fire. The Gothenburg concert was electrifying. I was struck by how happy Benny looked and how sweet he was to the audience, walking across the whole front of stage with his accordion to give everyone a chance of a photo and at one point stopping, just for a second, to give one girl the perfect photo – midsong – at Galejan. The band all get their chances to shine and shine they ALL do. To see the band quietly congratulating each other after each song was a joy in itself, these are 16 people with total respect for each other and the audience. The band took the unfurling of ‘ABBA’ banners with good grace, even if this must be odd for 15 of the band members. They seemed to respect that this was a rare chance to wave such a flag, and for four songs they were playing Abba, but it still must be a strange feeling for them. The new BAO songs all went down very well indeed, no wander the CD is now number one! We can only hope for more – and a BIG thankyou to all the BAO.
For those, like me, who couldn’t be there someone has very kindly uploaded the following to YouTube –
Kisses Of Fire: http://youtu.be/zSutorGk4dw
Why Did It Have To Be Me: http://youtu.be/gebFG0gMdP8
Fantastic performances!!
Thanks to the uploader.
I was in Gripsholm and Stockholm. Gripsholm was pure magic because of the venue which greatly enhanced the magic of the music. I was standing 5 metres away from the stage and enjoyed every second of the concert. Such variety and such musicianship… I got goosepimples when Kisses of fire started as I didn’t know it would be coming up. Loved Kalle’s solo parts as much as Tommy’s and Helen’s. Great to hear so much from the new CD. Tommy’s “Jag hör…” was absolutely breathtaking. The fun and joy of the musicians was the read thread that made the two nights absolutely outstanding. I hope they will continue to play live together for many years to come!
Silke, Germany
I was at the Skansen concert on Saturday, 30 July and it was a great experience. I was able to stand close to the stage and to Benny’s piano. It’s so easy to imagine he is 35 years younger and the magic is back ! We stayed in Hotel Rival (of course) and were lucky enough to see the tour bus arrive there shortly after midnight. I got 5 autographs on my O Klang och Jubeltid CD (but not Benny’s, unfortunately). Also great was that the band walked off the stage at the end and played a few songs on the dance floor, surrounded by their fans and audience.
Hi All…..
Just a quiery really,I was looking at some of the pics from Skansen,and I was wondering if Benny had any plans to bring BAO over to the Uk.
I think he would get a good crod here,but its a bit expensive to travel to Sweden just for 2 nights.
Look forward to hearing from you,and looks like it was a great night.
Incidentally,1 day I`d love to get over to Stockholm,just to look around the place.
All the best and many thanks John.