ARRIVAL IN SYDNEY - Fiona's Review

Whilst not being quite the ABBA cover band connoisseur that fellow ABBAMAILer Jeff Roberts is, I do admit that I have seen my fair share. Some have been really good, some fair, some tragic.

Despite the possibility of a public flogging (and no Graeme I wouldn't enjoy that :), I admit that I really enjoyed the original Bjorn Again. I believe a lot of that had to do with the people that were in the group at the time and how nice they were to us.

Whilst, on occasions I can tend to have a differing opinion to Mother, I do on this occasion agree. ARRIVAL as the best cover band I have seen.

Due to work circumstances and health issues (i.e. I felt like crap), I couldn't make Saturday night. It would have been nice to catch up with everyone. I decided to come up for the Sunday concert and then I could do other work things in Sydney on Monday.

I got to Grant's place too early, and then Mother arrived late, and panicking that we would only be 2 hours early :)

After a minor detour to the wrong club and a confrontation with a polite but very officious woman, we arrived at the right club.

We arrived to the sounds of As Good As New in the sound check, heard from the car park. We trotted in and had the privilege of sitting through the rest of the sound check. I did say to Grant & Graeme that I imagine that watching them do their sound check would be like watching ABBA around 1973. When they were just another band and able to have a fun time. The Swedish chatter was like listening to ABBA undeleted - read slightly frustrating. (note to self: learn Swedish)

The room was great , but unfortunately not set up very well for an band that encourages dancing. There were tables right up to the stage. However the room did have 2 gigantic video screens which was pretty cool.

The crowd was small, but there were a few quite enthusiastic people happy to sing along and dance. There were also some very shy people who really did want to get up and dance but were too inhibited. And there were also some people who probably should have stayed home and watch 60 Minutes.

Then of course there were Grant, Graeme and Jeff and myself. Let's just say we provided about 85% of the crowd noise ;-) ARRIVAL must come back to Sydney soon. If they came out regularly I would be a lot thinner. Who needs aerobics? The songs were brilliant. The dancing was great. The sound, the musicianship and the quality of the singing was exceptional. The attention to detail was fabulous. Even down to Vicky (Frida) having the odd memory problem ;-) Though to be fair it was a very tough crowd and an even tougher schedule.

We were lucky enough to be able to go backstage later and chat to the band . Gosh what a truly lovely bunch of people. They were so friendly and appreciative of us being there. I was honoured to meet such great people who obviously really do care about the quality of what they are doing and also about what they are representing.

I want to thank Graeme fore doing so much to encourage everyone to go, and all the work he did for this whole thing. I want to thank Grant for letting me stay at his place overnight and, of course, ARRIVAL for coming to Sydney despite their unbelievably hectic schedule.

Oh, and I also want to thank ARRIVAL for having a very cute backing singer. :)

Fiona Metcalfe, Sydney, Australia