Joepie, 1978: ABBA’s money problems

They have taken things a little easier the past couple of months, but thanks to their feature film and their new album, the four members of ABBA are once again the centre of attention. Therefore, the coming months will be very busy for the Swedish quartet and Anna will more than once – with a broken heart – have to leave her newborn baby to the care of the nanny. There aren’t any definite plans for 1978 yet, but there’s a lot of work coming at them.
“We have now engaged five girls who do nothing else than pick up the phones all day long,” according to Benny. “They’ve had a special training. The caller needs to explain to them what it’s about, and the girls have to judge whether it’s interesting enough to pass the call to Stig. They also have a schedule at hand, that has all the dates when we’re tied up already. When someone calls who wants ABBA on such a date, then the girls are there to respond. Before that, all these calls were answered by Stig, but it went over his head...”
What Benny didn’t say, is that there are even more girls working in the accounting department. Ten, to be exact. And it’s a necessity, because the millions are pouring in on a daily basis. “Money is starting to become a problem,” according to Benny. “In the long run, we don’t know what to do with our fortune anymore. We would be satisfied with ten percent of what we are making now. We try to invest the money in as many ways as possible, but it all goes so fast that we simply don’t have the time for it. We could give it all to the tax collectors office, but we don’t think that’s very pleasant. We would rather see that our children, our grandchildren and the generations after that are able to have some advantage of our success, than that we would just give it all away...”
For a while, there was talk of ABBA moving to America, but that solution seems to be completely off the table now. Which doesn’t mean that they are planning to stay in Sweden. “Our manager has been in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks, to explore the territory. When it comes to taxes, America is an ideal country, but the social environment doesn’t appeal to us. The climate is appealing, but the mentality of the people is a turn-off. When you are living in Los Angeles, you’re a star and you go along in the merry-go-round. Parties and things like that. And press photographers who are spying on you! We prefer a more relaxed environment, where we can spend our spare time in a normal way. We have now set our minds on Switzerland...”
These days, fame and fortune have become synonymous to heaven on earth. But is that really true?