Bravo, March 1983: ABBA ’83, more beautiful and radiant than ever

Time and time again they are pronounced dead as a group, the four Swedes whose initials turned into a worldwide trademark. But the fact that ABBA – being Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid (also known as Frida) – is more alive than ever is proven by the latest pictures from Stockholm. They are looking more radiant and beautiful than ever.
Although privately the two boys and the two girls are going separate ways after their divorces, and although all four of them are having solo projects on the side, when it comes to ABBA as a group they are fully committed.
Like recently for the British television programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show wherein Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny were ‘cabled’ onto the British television screens via a live set-up from a studio in Stockholm.
For anyone who hasn’t grasped the intention yet: more and more ABBA is going down the path of a studio group. They won’t have anything to do with touring anymore.
Benny and Björn: “Only the preparations are taking up a year of our time already and therefore we will have to pass on a new album. That’s why we’ve always decided against a tour up till now.”

And Frida admits: “To be on stage is really a tremendous feeling. But we all have our families that we don’t want to be separated from for such a long time. Benny and Björn are having small children at home. Apart from that, every day a different hotel room, packing suitcases and waiting at airports is just too stressful for me.”
For 1983, the decision about new activities has been made already. A new album will probably be released in the autumn, perhaps accompanied by a big television special in the style of the American Dick Cavett Show, wherein the four Swedes chatted extensively about their job and their private lives in 1981.
Still this spring, Agnetha’s solo material should be crossing shop counters. Only Frida is still keeping her fans in suspense. In London, her new place of residence, she is thinking about a second album with Phil Collins. But the course of action has not been determined yet.