Being an ABBA fan

 A number of years ago I was asked to take part in an interview about being an ABBA fan.  There were a number of emails back and forth but the whole story was eventually shelved.  All this was completed well before Voyage. Here's my answers to the questions.

Q:  Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, a good place to start would be the obvious, when did you first become a fan?

A: In 1974 I heard Waterloo on the radio and was captured by the melody.  I obviously heard it a few times and must have seen the film clip on TV. I remember telling my parents there was four members in the group, my father’s response was that there must have been more than four, “they only showed four on TV” was my reply.  I don’t recall hearing any other songs by ABBA until the Countdown explosion started.  I was with my mother one day before Christmas in 1975 at Target and they were playing the ABBA/ABBA album, I ran to see if Waterloo was on there, it wasn’t, so I put it back and re-joined my mother.  On Christmas Day 1975 the ABBA album was one of my presents.  I asked why she chose that album and she mentioned she saw me run to the album at Target and assumed I must have wanted it. She wasn’t wrong and it cemented my love of ABBA.

Q: Why do you think ABBA were so popular in Australia?

A: Right place, right time.  It was something Australia hooked into. They had a freshness about them and a sound that made them easily identifiable.  They were exotic, from a distant land called Sweden, but they sounded English. Having said that, there was a lot of press and talk about ABBA appealing to everyone between 5 to 95.  The teenagers at the time hated ABBA, not because they were bad, but it was so uncool if your baby brother or sister liked them.  Even worse would have been walking into the kitchen and seeing your mother joyfully singing along with Fernando on the radio.  With all the media hype it was pure heaven if you were at an ABBA fan but pure hell if you weren’t.

Q: Can you describe what it felt like during the Australian frenzy of 1976/1977?

A: It was glorious, however with hindsight it was a lot of stress, favours and wheeling and dealing. I had limited pocket money, and you had to strategize your spending. TV Times might have a centrespread poster, TV week have released a fold out poster, you need all four of the sticker sheets and different notepads, Woman’s Day have an article wanting you to make a dress like Agnetha and you had to keep up purchasing the ABBA trading cards because you really wanted a full set.  Birthdays and Christmas you’d ask for big ticket items like the wall scrolls, the mirror etc.  It was hard to keep up as ABBA were literally everywhere.

Q: What are your memories of the media at the time?

A: No wonder we were so confused.  The spelling of Agnetha and the pronunciation was different every time you saw or heard it.  Headlines ran from absurd to attention grabbing.  ‘ABBA dive naked into the snow!’  ‘I had an orgy with Bjorn and Anna!’  (It was a dream a girl had) but it made a sensational headline.  ‘ABBA love Australia and we’ll see them first in concert, no we won’t, yes we will, no its definitely cancelled, now it’s delayed’.   It was confusing being an impressionable kid to know what was real and what was fiction.  With every article there was always a snide comment added in by a journalist for good measure.

Q: ABBA made a television special in Australia in 1976, what are your memories of that?

A: It was big.  ABBA were in Australia, that felt exciting.  Adelaide waited an eternity for it to air.  I remember my teacher announcing we had no homework the night it aired.  It was the first time we’d seen ABBA in their iconic blue and yellow cat dresses.  I remember thinking they made them just for Australia (they didn’t).  The next day every boy in school was talking about the girls removing their long dresses revealing their mini-skirts and being very impressed, even the non-ABBA fans.


Q: Did you attend their Australian concert?  What was memorable about it?

A: I was lucky enough to go.  The wait from buying the ticket to show night felt like forever. I remember the drive to the stadium, we turned onto West Lakes Blvd and I could see the back of the stage roof and promptly let out a flood of tears, like a damn bursting. it was all finally happening.  Maybe there’s something about your first concert, maybe it was my age, but it was truly magical.  We were sitting in the area between the grass and the grandstand.  I remember the crowd’s roar when they drove in to the stadium, I’m sure the people on the grass wouldn’t have known what was going on.  I know cried a lot that night and I remember their 20-minute musical seemed to go for an eternity.  It was during So Long I remember getting angry they hadn’t performed Dancing Queen.  It was the night I learnt what an encore was.

Q: What was/is your favourite song and ABBA period?

A: Song wise it hasn’t changed in all these years.  Money, Money, Money, That’s Me, Lay All Your Love on Me.  I love the up-tempo stuff.  The ballads, as good as they are, I get more enjoyment from something upbeat.  That goes with all musical styles.  As for a favourite timespan, the joy that 1976 brought to me with the ABBA frenzy is pretty hard to beat, Super Trouper was released the year I ended high school, The Visitors in 1981 had me dealing with coming out, there are significant moments in my life that I’ve had to deal with and ABBA have been a constant friend.

Q: After ABBA had lost popularity, how did you deal with their Australian decline?

A: To be honest I didn’t care.  I was still buying their records.  I remember in 1978 seeing the English ABBA Magazine in the magazine section at the newsagent and making sure to keep enough pocket money for the next issue.  I was well aware they were no longer reaching the number one slot, but the Adelaide shops always carried their releases.  In late 1978 I joined the Australian ABBA fanclub and found them to be a great source of news.  It was their newsletter that alerted me to RCA releasing the Spanish version of Chiquitita in Australia (again, easily available in the Adelaide shops).

Q: What was it like for a longtime fan in the early 1980’s when ABBA broke up?

A: There’s the interesting thing, ABBA never officially broke up, rumours sure but nothing official.  There was a lot of confusion and speculation with fans at the time though.  Would Frida’s solo venture be so successful that she’d leave the group, would the others continue as a trio without her?  We had Frida’s solo singles, incessant talk about the Chess musical project.  Agnetha was releasing duets and solo singles.  We all felt the end was surely imminent.  In December 1982 when ABBA The Singles was released, it was captioned The First Ten Years.  Was this the proof we needed that ABBA were solid and returning for more?  Only time would tell.  Around 1985/1986 we were hoping for something, but the only glimmer was that ABBA finally released a live album in 1986.  To be honest by then it felt like it was all too little too late.  In 1987 I purchased my first CD player and the first three CD’s I first purchased were Arrival, The Album and ABBA Live.  Old habits are hard to break.

Q: When the girls released their solo projects how did you feel about them?

A: I was assisting with the ABBA fan club around that time and Graeme (the clubs president) has a 45 second piece of Frida’s new single (I Know There’s Something Going On) on tape from someone in the UK and he made a continuous loop of it.  We put a newsletter together listening to that loop for what seemed an eternity.  We joked that after hearing it 500 times that the song really grows on you.  Frida’s first album I felt was too heavily influenced by producer Phil Collins.  My father commented after hearing the albums opening song, Tell Me That It’s Over, “is she singing about ABBA?”.
Agnetha was a little different, we knew she had Mike Chapman from Blondie fame as her producer and were a little worried she might go rogue and attempt something – let’s just say, out of her comfort level.  We needn’t have worried, it was pure pop in its finest form.  Frida was the one who tried to distance herself from ABBA’s style, Agnetha stayed true to form.

Q: How did you feel when the ABBA revival happened in the 90’s?

A: I was a little peeved to be honest.  All these people that hated ABBA were suddenly fans again, it rubbed me the wrong way.  I remember talking to Ian Bell at Andromeda Records and he showed me the ABBA Gold import from England.  My response was non plussed and with nothing new on the album I had no interest buying it.  It was around this time that I decided to let go of my collection. I was happy to keep the CD’s but everything else was gathering dust.  It’s a decision I regret to this day.  It was only in the mid 2000’s that I decided I wanted everything back.  Luckily, I was able to get my original RCA singles back but everything else has been a slow process.

Q:  Have you ever travelled to Sweden and been lucky to meet the members?

A: Sweden is on my list of must visit places, but it’s not on my radar currently.  I’ve never met anyone closely involved with ABBA but of course have many friends who’ve been lucky enough for a personal encounter.  However, in 2010 I was in Las Vegas walking the strip, oblivious to everything happening, when I noticed a lady in a window seat eating an ice cream with a friend.  I stopped in my tracks and my mind was racing, is that Frida?  I started to get emotional when all I could hear in my head was – Frida from ABBA eating an ice-cream, oh how absurd, get a hold of yourself.  I literally questioned my own sanity.  I slowly walked away honestly believing had just seen Frida.  A few days later I called a friend back in Australia and light-heartedly told him my absurd story.  All I heard was screaming, “there’s been a photo posted this week of Frida in the US, she’s there at the moment”.  Tears ran down my face, proof I had seen a member of ABBA and livid I had completely stuffed up my once in a life time moment.

Q: You must be thrilled with the success that Mamma Mia the musical and movies received and generating a whole new legion of fans.

A: Of course, it’s been incredible for them.  Personally, I haven’t seen the stage musical, I’ve watched the movie once. There has been talk of a sequel, but I haven’t followed that trajectory.

Q: Can I ask why that is?

A: Well, it’s not ABBA.  I’ve been called an ABBA snob by some fans, and I totally understand their point of view.  I like ABBA for ABBA, hearing someone one else perform their music is not my cup of tea.  In fact, I’ll go as far as when I saw a photo of the stage from the West End production I commented the stage set looked like an amateur production by some community players and would fold within 2 weeks.  Clearly, I was very, very wrong.

Q: What do you think the future holds for ABBA?

A: Benny has a fast and hard rule -if we didn’t release it then, we’re not releasing it now.  With that as his mantra all they have is their back catalogue.  They’ve released all they really can.  More compilations, box sets, with new fans catching the ABBA train I guess there will always be a market.  The big question is; does ABBA releases propel Mamma Mia or does Mamma Mia propel ABBA releases?

For the four members, personally, they’ve given me an almost lifetime of happiness, I hope they get to retire, I hope fans respect their privacy and let them live out their lives peacefully and happy.