Joepie, 1977: Why Robert got the leading part in the ABBA movie

We already discussed ABBA's very first feature film, 'The Girl With The Golden Hair', earlier. And although the title of the movie refers to the beautiful Frida, the film actually revolves around Robert Hughes, a rather popular DJ in Australia. He plays the part of a radio presenter who hopelessly tries to get an interview with ABBA and starts daydreaming when he doesn't succeed. He imagines himself in the arms of the two girls, he goes out with the group to have a drink, to play some golf and he invites Frida for a ride on a horse.
In short, in his imagination he is having a real good time. Insiders who have witnessed the filming of the scenes claim that Robert will be the biggest revelation of the movie. And that his popularity will rocket to new heights.
Why exactly was this Robert chosen as a key figure? Why was he chosen to play this dream part? "Robert has always supported us in his radio broadcasts. Even shortly after we won the Eurovision Song Contest (when we hadn't achieved our international breakthrough yet), he already played our records. And he kept doing that so we owe him a great deal for our Australian breakthrough. Look, now that we are as popular as we are, the requests for interviews and things like that come pouring in. There are so many of them that we simply can't accept them all. But a man like Robert, a friend from the times before we hit the big time, we can't disappoint or ignore someone like that. That leading part is our way of saying thank you..."
Meanwhile, ABBA has completed filming the scenes for the movie. One of these days, the new single 'The Name Of The Game' will be released, but there aren't any further activities on their schedule yet.
"Björn and I will mainly focus on composing new songs," according to Benny. "And Anna, well, she is waiting in all peace and quiet until her baby arrives. Supported by my Frida, by the way..."
You can find a couple of neat pictures from the ABBA movie on these pages. In anticipation of the day that you can watch the movie yourself in the movie theatre...