Popshop, September 1977: With ABBA on the film set

A 1977 article about the upcoming ABBA movie.

In one of our previous magazines we already briefly discussed the movie that ABBA is filming at the moment, ‘The Girl With The Golden Hair’. A movie that’s a sort of a mixture of romance, fantasy and music. At the invitation of the Swedish foursome we were present at one of the sessions.
“We started filming in the beginning of this year,” according to Björn. “To be exact: during our first major tour, live footage was shot of which the best parts will be seen in the movie. Filming took place in London, Sydney and Melbourne. It’s obvious that our most familiar hits will be the main attraction of the musical part. In its entirety the movie will be about ninety minutes long. It’s expected that the premiere will be around Christmas...”
Although it actually isn’t an action-packed movie, there’s still a storyline in there. The main character is someone called Robert Hughes who plays the part of an Australian deejay.
In the movie, Robert is working for an Australian radio station and to no avail he tries to rope the foursome in for an interview. He waits for them after their performance, he tries to find them in their hotel. But nothing works, ABBA is unapproachable. Or rather: ABBA is aware of the nuisance and tries to avoid him...

“And then he starts to dream. He pictures himself sitting on a couch with the two girls,” Benny continues. “Or he imagines that we invite him to come along on a picnic. The two girls almost get caught up in a fight to get his attention. These dream sequences are amazing!”
It’s remarkable that almost all of the scenes were filmed in Australia (except for the live footage that was filmed in London). However, the preference of the four Swedes for that country has been known for quite some time.
“Australia is a beautiful country,” according to Anna, visibly enjoying the gentle late summer sun. “There is lots of nature, the weather situation is agreeable. Really, whenever the day comes that we will have to leave Sweden due to the heavy taxes, chances are that we will come to live here. On top of that, the people here are very kind...”