No, not Jem and the Holograms. Real holograms of real musicians--who happen to be deceased:

The Inevitable Rise of the Hologram Rock Concert

Why should a little thing like death stop a musician from touring?

By Jim Sullivan

"I see dead people.

"Not quite the same way the little boy in “The Sixth Sense” did, but…I’ve seen singers that have gone to the great beyond, and yet magically reappeared in front of me in concert.

"Specifically, in November 2019, I watched “Roy Orbison” — dead for 31 years — and “Buddy Holly” — dead for 60 years — play to a crowd of 1,000 at a Boston theater. The iconic performers were wrapping up a long American tour, and concurrently touring in Europe. Spoiler alert: This isn’t a supernatural story. Each singer was a hologram: a light-beam produced, three-dimensional image, produced by a Las Vegas-based company called BASE Hologram Productions.

"Their voices were real: remastered Orbison and Holly vocals, once again singing hits like “Only the Lonely” and “Rave On.” They sounded great, especially the operatic Orbison, who during his life was dubbed the “Pavarotti of pop.” Truth be told, they both looked pretty good, too, Holly about 20 and Orbison maybe 40. They were lifelike enough to make some fans think they were seeing impersonators — until the singers disappeared in a puff of mist or descended into the stage floor."

More at:


https://expmag.com/2020/01/the-inevitab ... ket-newtab

Put me in the camp of those who think it all sounds very creepy. The article suggests that it may turn out to be something of a generational thing. The audiences apparently consist largely of youths who weren't old enough to see the real musicians in concert, and have spent so much of their lives online that the whole unreality thing doesn't bother them.

I agree with you, Daphne. It's the ubiquity of the online world that's made this seem acceptable. I find it unnerving, but you're right about it being generational.

Yeah, this is something that’s been debated for a while, especially after the Tupac hologram at Coachella and the proposed Ronnie James Dio hologram tour. Just ghoulish money grubbing as far as I’m concerned.

The first act I heard about using this was X Japan, after their original guitarist died, and only when they played venues that could handle the tech for a solo - not integrated with the band. I think it might be neat like that, but not an entire show. I mean, Queen had Freddie do a couple of songs via video, and it's not that different.

I am really not a fan of the concept for entire shows, although the fact that it is a digital remastered studio version might increase it's selling point to millenials. Just about everything I read about their concert habits is that they prefer authentic album recreations, and not the more traditional live approach. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

I can see live music, especially live rock music, becoming a relatively niche thing. But not, as they say, in my lifetime, and not on my watch.

I was thinking the same about video...and thought of the recent Queen shows. The Who did something a bit similar with Entwistle, however, a live bass player matched his playing. A one off novelty of a hologram Freddie vs video, maybe...but not a fan of this idea.

Hologams you say?

It's a little interesting to see, but as I'm sure they'll be charging full concert prices to watch holograms I don't really agree with it. If they were to put that Buddy Holly one in the BH museum as part of the exhibit it would be cool...but not to pay to see "tour".

I'd pay to see Roy Orbison flying and doing backflips, though. That part did sound entertaining.

Proposed? It's already started.

On the Quadrophenia tour a couple years ago, the Who had Entwistle 'playing' with the band using video from another tour. They used the bass solo from that tour as his 'appearance'. They did the same with Keith Moon to have him 'sing' 'Bell Boy'.

Dweezil Zappa did something like that on the second Zappa Plays Zappa tour (maybe the third) - they used video footage of Frank to allow them to 'duet' (a la Nat and Natalie Cole), and to have Frank 'solo' on a couple songs. That was more like the Freddie thing.

The difference to me is that, in none of those cases was the video the basis for the show (the Zappa thing was promoted that it was going to happen and was a hook, but it wasn't the majority of the show). Last year, they did a Zappa hologram tour. It used former Zappa musicians for most of the band (except the drummer), and it focused a lot on unreleased music, but still, the video clips I saw struck me as...odd, I guess.

We've come a long way since Elvis Presley's coat...

https://vimeo.com/30869244