Bravo, 1978: After their holiday in full swing again: ABBA

These pictures are very rare: they show ABBA in holiday mood. On the next page you’ll see them at their show on the poster. Read about what they did on their holiday and what their plans are now.

It was a kind of military secret. The four ABBA-members, Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Björn and Benny decided: we’ll take a few days off. As a matter of fact, in the Stockholm area. We really want to relax in our own country.
And that’s how the four of them set about: they walked through wonderful forests, took a rest at a lake, took rides on pedal- and rowing boats and acted like ordinary tourists. Benny: “We mainly walked in places that were not too crowded. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to escape from our fans.” And Anni-Frid adds: “By doing that, we had a chance to recover. It was almost like being in my childhood.”

You have to realize that ABBA have been under a lot of pressure since their Eurovision success in 1974, and that they’ve been on the road constantly. Björn: “This past summer we’ve taken it a little easier. It’s no use to wear ourselves out with all the travelling and uninterrupted performances.” Still, the foursome couldn’t live without their job completely. For their single and album, Björn and Benny tried out new songs, that both girls sang, to keep their voices in shape, classic songs. Apart from that, they took dancing lessons and designed new stage outfits.
The single ‘Summer Night City’ has been out in the shops since a couple of weeks. Björn: “On this record we paid hommage to the Disco Sound, that’s ruling the direction of music at the moment. The song is disco-influenced, but still unmistakable ABBA-style.”
The B-side is a medley of the songs ‘Pick A Bale Of Cotton’, ‘On Top Of Old Smokey’ and ‘Midnight Special’. This B-side could be heard already in 1975 on a charity album for the German cancer research.

Their album, recorded at their brand-new recording studio in Stockholm, should be released worldwide before Christmas. The next major trip will take ABBA to Japan. Benny: “In the middle of November we’ll have our own television show in Tokyo. It will have a running time of one hour; we will perform our biggest hits in that show. On our way to Tokyo, we’ll stopover in Los Angeles, to perform on the Dick Clark Show.”
Privately, everything is clear sailing with ABBA. The foursome’s sweetheart is Agnetha’s almost one-year-old son, Christian. The proud mother: “A very sweet rascal. I would love to take him with me on all my trips. But unfortunately he’s still too young.”
Anni-Frid has Bravo to thank for her best experience in the past few years. Like we reported extensively, we succeeded in finding Anni-Frid’s German father in Karlsruhe. The singer: “The meeting with my father, who was believed to be missing without a trace, has meant more to me than any gold record.”