American singer-songwriter Roy Orbison died of a heart attack in 1988, but that's not stopping him from going on tour in 2018.
Billboard reports that a holographic version of Orbison is heading on a UK tour called "In Dreams" (named after his hit song) in April. As strange as it might seem that a performer like Orbison would be turned into a hologram and taken on tour this long after his death, fans are excited. 70 percent of the tour's tickets have already been sold—three months before the first show.
Laser-projected Orbison will be backed by a live band: the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. His son, Alex Orbison, says, "My dad was one of the first people to combine rock and roll with orchestral sound so to see the full meal deal of having the big orchestra with my Dad is really a dream set up."
Of course, this continues debate about holographic tours after the death of a performer and whether there's an appropriate, tactful way to do it. In December, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda shared his disgust at the idea of bringing recently-passed former bandmate Chester Bennington on tour as a hologram. He said, "There's absolutely no way. I cannot fuck with that. I can't do a hologram Chester you guys, that would be the worst."
Base Entertainment (the Las Vegas company behind Cirque du Soleil) is planning a short UK run in April before going on a three-month North American run in fall 2018. If you want to see holographic Roy Orbison in person, you can get tickets to the UK tour here. Tour dates are below.
April 8 - Cardiff - Motorpoint Arena
April 9 - Birmingham - Genting Arena
April 11 - Manchester - O2 Apollo
April 12 - Edinburgh - Playhouse
April 13 - Glasgow - SEC Armadillo
April 14 - Leeds - First Direct Arena
April 16 - Nottingham - Royal Centre
April 17 - Liverpool - Echo 2
April 18 - London - Hammersmith Eventim Apollo
April 20 - Bournemouth - BIC
