Saturday 26 September 2009

Das Freizeit-Magazin, November 1978: ABBA never on tour again

In 1978, rumours were circulating that ABBA would never tour again.
ABBA Live – that’s over with. The reason: Björn and Agnetha want to have more time off to spend with their son Christian. “Therefore, we can’t afford all this travelling around any longer.”

Wasn’t that a big shock for the fans, when ABBA announced: “We will not go on tour again, instead we will focus exclusively on our work in the recording studio.”
The most popular and successful pop group in the world since the Beatles – the quartet from Stockholm now wants to follow the same path as their famous predecessors did years ago.
A Swedish tidbit that was hard to stomach. We wanted to know the exact facts and gave ABBA a call at their home. Björn was on the phone.
Are you really serious about this?
In show business, as we were told, something is actually never really final. But at least it’s true, according to Björn, that they are very serious about it at the moment. Because: “We’ve neglected our children long enough”.
For Anni-Frid and Benny, the aspect of the children probably wasn’t that crucial. They both have a daughter and a son from previous relationships. Those four children are eleven to fifteen years old. At these ages, they are becoming self-dependent and intelligible. But for Björn and Agnetha, it’s a completely different matter.
Besides the care for their five-year-old daughter Linda, the couple now has to care for their son Christian as well, who is just eleven months old.
“It would be irresponsible,” says Björn, “to leave the boy alone so much. But no worries: we will continue recording music.”
So there definitely won’t be any tours anymore?
Björn still doesn’t want to confirm it: “Children do get older. Then we will see what happens...”

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