A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: FABBAGIRLS



We’ve performed on a £75 million yacht in Sardinia, we’ve performed on a floating stage in Barbados, we’ve performed at Buckingham Palace for royalty and even at the Queens Golden Jubilee. We’re super-lucky to have sung with some of the most iconic musical artists in history such as ‘Queen’, ‘The Who’, Sting, Lionel Richie, Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Phil Collins and Jamie Cullum. The journey keeps going and most importantly we LOVE our jobs!”

Fabbagirls


Susie Webb and Zoe Nicholas are ‘FABBAGIRLS’, recognised as the founders and lead singers of the world’s leading ABBA tribute band. Based in London, they travel the globe performing at cool, exclusive events and weddings. Here we discuss how Fabbagirls originated and the fantastic events they’re requested to appear at: 

C&B: “How did FABBAGIRLS first come together and whose brilliant idea was it?”

TFG: “We first started performing backing vocals for rock stars such as Queen, Sting, Lionel Richie and many others. Through our love of singing close harmonies and our love of ABBA we decided to create our own cool ABBA tribute band – with everything just as tasteful, classy and kitsch as the originals – and always adding a cool twist to our performance. We sing live and the boys perform live; we’re wearing stunning crystal embellished hand-made costumes and boots. We view ourselves as keeping the ABBA phenomenon alive but with fun and quirky choreography and a dash of humour!”



C&B: “Besides yourselves, who are the other two front members of your band?”

TFG: “We work with an array of world class performers; the Benny and Bjorn characters are chosen from a selection of various amazing musicians!”

C&B: “Why did you choose ABBA for your tribute band and how did you know it would be as successful as it is?”

TFG: “We love ABBA and have found over the years that pretty much everyone does; the funny thing is ABBA is loved as much by those in the age group of 16-21 years old through to those well into their 70s, and over! The music is timeless, fun and original… we perform at events ranging from 21st birthday through to second weddings and 80th anniversaries. When we perform at weddings, absolutely everyone knows the lyrics, wherever they come from in the world; it’s like a universal musical language!”



C&B: “Agreed! Such a fab sound that gets everyone on the dance floor immediately; do you remember your first ever engagement and, if so, what was it?”

TFG: “Yes! It was with Dame Shirley Bassey at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in the Great Room, the biggest special event room in London, decorated with fabulous chandeliers. On the next occasion we performed with Dame Shirley, which was at The Dorchester, we had to help her onto the stage as her dress was a little tight and she couldn’t step up – so we lifted her!”



C&B: “That must have had the guests laughing! Besides these amazing London venues, your engagements take you to many different countries – which are the most memorable and where is your favourite destination?”

TFG:  “We’ve travelled to Japan, Russia, Australia all over Europe and the USA; Greece is a favourite because of the ‘Mamma Mia’ films being shot there…”

C&B: “Of all the amazing events you’ve performed at over the past 20 years, which has been the most significant, and why?”

TFG: “Performing at Sir Rod Stewart’s wedding in Portofino, Italy was amazing… also, touring as backing singers with Brian May on a world tour. When we arrived in Sweden, he asked us to put on our ABBA costumes to do a FABBAGIRLS performance and he was playing guitar – that was awesome. The crowd actually went ballistic!”



C&B: “Who are your typical clients and how do they find you?”

TFG: “Our clients are mainly high-end private clients, event organisers, wedding and party planners from all over the world. Typical clients are party-loving people who love ABBA, and wedding planners because every one of any age knows and loves ABBA hits. It’s tricky to find a band that can play at least an hour of hits – but with ABBA music you can. The hosts and guests also love the theme – getting to dress up and wear 70’s and 80’s outfits – the platforms and the glitter…any excuse!!”

C&B: “You’ve mentioned the appeal of ABBA costumes a couple of times – who designs and makes FABBAGIRLS outfits?”

TFG: “Our usual designer is Adrian Gwillym who owns ‘Academy Costumes’; he’s made outfits and costumes for many rock stars and actors. We’ve also had different designers create our outfits and we usually work with them to create our own specific designs – they’re not exact copies of ABBA costumes, however they are equally gorgeous with hundreds of Swarovski crystals that sparkle under the lights. In fact, when we performed for two nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Swarovski sponsored us…”



C&B: “What is the normal set for a FABBAGIRLS performance? How long do you typically play for?”

TFG: “It depends a little on the lineup; we offer various options: duo, foursome or bigger – we’ve even worked with a 75 piece orchestra, which was at an event in Bangkok. There are approximately 12-15 songs in a standard performance, however we can do more, or we can do less. We discuss all this with the client in advance, making it a bespoke show and we take it from there and try our best to and fit into everybody’s needs…”



C&B: “On that subject, which are the most popular songs from the ABBA repertoire that you perform?”

TFG: “Well, the biggest floor-filler of all time has got to be ‘Dancing Queen’, but all the songs are really popular: ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Voulez-Vous’, ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, ‘Money Money Money’…we do perform at many weddings and we play ‘I Do, I Do I Do I Do I Do’!”


We did an Air Tattoo in RAF Fairford for 7,000 pilots – quite a few of them jumped on the stage and pinned their badges on our costumes…that was a new experience, but great fun!”

Fabbagirls

C&B: “What’s the most memorable happening during an event you’ve performed at, before or after?”

TFG: “Johnny Roxburgh, our favourite ‘Party Architect’, had us dressed in nuns outfits in Salzburg, home of ‘The Sound of Music’, before ripping them off to reveal our ABBA outfits! We LOVE a party with a twist!”



C&B: “Hilarious! We saw that you’d also been on stage with Sir Rod himself on another occasion – and Ronnie Wood too! That must have been a riot!”

TFG: “Yes, we were performing backing vocals together as ‘‘ROCKCHICKS’ when we were asked to sing on the only reunion of ‘The Faces’. Prior to that, we’d sung at Rod Stewart’s wedding…”


C&B: “The event industry weekend hosted by RSVP at the Mandarin Oriental in Istanbul looked amazing from what we saw on Instagram – what did you enjoy the most about it?”

TFG: “It was fabulous; we partied hard and we performed on the opening night which was so exciting. Everyone dressed up in the theme of ‘Fake It Till You Make It’! There were so many wonderful party organisers and wedding planners there having fun. There were many people speaking so it was a great learning experience too…”

TFG: “The best part of the event for us was at the start of our show, coming out of the elevator into the ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental in our sparkling costumes and having an array of photographers, videographers and guests all screaming with excitement!”



WEBSITE: http://www.fabbagirls.com

INSTAGRAM: @fabbagirls



 

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