Joepie, 1979: ABBA’s last world tour – If it’s up to Agnetha...

On the eve of ABBA’s world tour – that will take the Swedish top group across the United States and subsequently Europe and that will last for more than two months – singer Agnetha has revealed something quite shocking. If it’s up to her, it’s going to be their final goodbye to live performances, regardless of how the group will keep existing after the expiration of the ABBA contract in the middle of 1980...

But for now, these contractual changes – according to which ABBA would continue as a female duo before they stop existing altogether – are not the reason to never go on tour again in the future. Blonde Agnetha simply wants more time off to spend with her two children Christian and Linda, especially since she divorced their father, ABBA singer and composer Björn Ulvaeus.
“I don’t mind the performance in itself but the amount of weeks and months that we are away from home and have to perform is what’s primarily bothering me,” she says. “My children miss me too much and I have to admit that I have the same feeling. I can’t take this any longer as a mother, that’s why this is going to be the last time that I’ll be away from home for such a long period.”

Apart from these family problems, especially the enormous pressure of a tour that goes on for months and performances day in and day out, were the reason that the upcoming tour remained a question mark for such a long time. Indeed, the tensions during their last tour, now two and a half years ago, were the main reason for Agnetha and Björn’s marital split.
“It had been such a nerve-racking experience that it became doubtful if we would ever go on tour again,” according to Agnetha. “You have no idea how much pressure weighs upon you during such a tour. Every night performing 20 songs during a two hour long show. Do you know what that means? And by day, you don’t even have the time to recover because you have to get to the next city faster than the speed of light, where new promotional duties and interviews are waiting for you. We are not used to that rhythm, it can break you. I still don’t understand how we have been able to keep our voices in shape!”

Despite their worries and fears, the four from ABBA are convinced that their upcoming tour is going to be the most successful from their impressive career. Apart from that, it should give them the same gigantic success in the United States that they’ve become accustomed to in Europe.
“Indeed, ‘Voulez-Vous’ is doing rather well on the American charts,” Agnetha ascertains with pleasure. “Our tour will hopefully make it our first number one over there. If we have achieved that, we have gone all around the world with our super hits and wouldn’t that be a wonderful moment to put an end to these gigantic but exhausting live performances? I’d rather leave that to the unattached pop boys who don’t have children or a home base. As a mother of two children, I demand to have a family life.”

Meanwhile, the four remain much wanted guests on all kinds of festivities. More and more in their own country as well. When the construction of an enormous shopping and office centre commenced in Stockholm – wherein the Europa Film Studios will be housed as well – they were invited to immortalize the prints of their right hands. These clay imprints will be turned into bronze hand prints and they will be used as ornaments at the entrance of the building. Manager Stig Anderson, Anni-Frid, Björn, Agnetha and Benny didn’t mind doing it, especially since it was a welcome interruption in their busy rehearsal schedule in the big studio of Europa Film in the same area. Each member has his own way of relaxing during the many rehearsals for their ’79 tour. As you might have guessed, Agnetha relaxes with her children. Anni-Frid threw herself into rollerskating. Meanwhile Björn and Benny – slave labourers and perfectionists as they are – are coming up with new musical ideas at the last minute with which they want to pleasantly surprise their thousands of fans later on.

Hitkrant, August 1979: Spectacular run on ABBA tickets

Thursday, September 13 is the day. Then ABBA’s gigantic world tour will kick off in Edmonton, for which – considering the advance ticket sales – the interest is overwhelming. Never before has a tour been as well prepared as this one. Nothing has been left to chance and that’s why it seems as if the Swedish quartet wants to put an end to the rumours that this will be their farewell tour once and for all.

For weeks on end, the group has worked and rehearsed for the new show in Stockholm, that will last for at least two hours and – apart from several hits – will contain new songs as well.

Once again, ABBA will be strengthened by several Swedish musicians. They are: Ola Brunkert/drums, Anders Eljas/keyboards, Rutger Gunnarsson/bass, Mats Ronander/guitars, Ake Sundqvist/percussion and Lars Wellander/guitars.

In several countries, the tickets have gone on sale already and this has made for some spectacular statistics. In England, Scotland and Ireland, the tickets were sold out in one day! And that’s a total of 75.000 tickets!
In Copenhagen, the concert was sold out within two hours and in Edmonton, all tickets were gone within three hours. Furthermore, in America all concerts – for which the tickets have gone on sale already – are sold out.
It’s very likely that there will be an enormous run on the tickets in our country as well, when they go on sale on Saturday, September 22.
A television crew from Radio Sweden is going to film ABBA during the week in November when they perform in London. At ABBA’s request, a 52-minute TV special will be filmed, that will be broadcast in the beginning of next year, hopefully in our country too. This film will contain footage filmed in North America as well. On top of that, manager Stig Anderson is negotiating with the BBC to air a radio special called ‘ABBA In Concert’.

Only after the opening concert in Edmonton, the group will have a big press conference. Apart from that, there will be small, informative gatherings after the concerts, that only one or two members of the group will attend. This arrangement has been made because the tour will be extremely hard and exhausting and will demand a lot from the ABBA members.
Meanwhile, we were allowed to take a peek in ABBA’s rehearsal studio and Agnetha assured us that they have never been this well prepared on a tour as this one: “If this doesn’t become a resounding success, I will be flabbergasted. The show is very well crafted and thought out. It can’t be bettered!”
You will be there too, won’t you, on October 24 in Ahoy Rotterdam?

Joepie, 1979: ABBA mysteries: the end in 1980 and a fifth ABBA member!

In spite of all the rumours, the most popular group at the moment – ABBA – will stop existing in the middle of 1980! At least on paper, because the mutual contracts that tie the four members and their manager Stig Anderson together will expire officially at that time. It is obvious that no one can say beforehand what Benny, Björn, Agnetha, Anni-Frid and Stig’s plans will be at that moment in time. And all five of them are completely silent in that respect. Joepie already puts all the facts and suppositions in perspective.

Allegedly, it should be a fact that Stig Anderson has already signed contracts with the four ABBA members individually. This means that their collaboration is going to last for some time to come, even if the foursome would decide to stop working together as ABBA. Stig wisely kept on the safe side and of course he is right with such top talents.
What’s equally sure, is that Anni-Frid, Benny, Björn and Agnetha will be venturing out in new artistic fields individually, no matter what happens with ABBA.
Anni-Frid already played – apart from ‘ABBA – The Movie’ – the leading part in a Swedish movie and she is not planning to leave it at that. Only recently, she was in Spain for some test shootings for a next movie. A movie career, that would demand so much of her time that there would hardly be any time left for pop music, shouldn’t be ruled out.
Agnetha, after her divorce from Björn completely on her own two feet, is going to occupy herself with the career of new artists and especially making solo records as well. Her first one is already in the making, to celebrate her ten year singing career.
Benny is planning to start his own production company.
Meanwhile Björn would prefer to step out of the limelight and work behind the scenes, primarily as a composer that comes up with new ideas.
At last, the four from ABBA would work on certain projects together. The first one concerns the young Swedish newcomer Ted Gärdestad, who represented his country this year at the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. Althoug he was hardly successful, their confidence in his talent remained unshakable and we are bound to hear more from this young man. “He is the first one with whom we are trying something new and we keep believing in him completely,” according to the ABBAs. And they add in a convinced way: “He belongs to the family and you might even call him – not considering Stig because he doesn’t sing anyway – the fifth ABBA member!” But obviously you shouldn’t take that literally.

Another reason to put an end to ABBA might very well be the increasing difficulties that Benny and Björn experience to keep composing the same high quality ABBA material. Up till now, they have always refused to record songs by other composers and they want to keep it that way. And it is obvious that their possibilities – after the ongoing succession of hits and outstanding album material and despite their huge talent – will become exhausted or at least very limited. Indeed, they have already experienced this while putting together the songs for their latest album ‘Voulez-Vous’, that was released later than scheduled because of that.
“You have no idea how hard we had to work to achieve the quality that the audience expects from us,” Björn says in a modest way. “I still get dizzy when I think about the slave labour it has cost us. We can’t afford to record songs of lesser quality or even flops. If that would be the case, we would prefer to stop releasing records altogether.”

Indeed, ABBA is not the only group that deals with problems like these. Simon & Garfunkel split up at the height of their fame because they had written themselves empty. Gerry Rafferty put an end to Stealers Wheel because he had had enough of it. For a long time, he refused every million dollar offer to be able to retreat on his secluded farm. It seems to have worked out well for him because he has a wonderful solo career now.
Either way, 1980 will be the year of the truth for ABBA, if only because their mutual contract will expire then. Will there be a new contract for a couple of years? Will they go their separate ways? Will they start working on something new? A spokesperson of the ABBA empire doesn’t tell it all either. Diplomatically, he says: “From what I hear, ‘Voulez-Vous’ is their last album. Maybe two more singles will be released around the time that their contract expires. But for the time being I can’t say anything more about ABBA’s future.”
Either way, our correspondent in Sweden is keeping his eyes and ears open to keep you posted about the hottest ABBA news.

ABBA Info, July 1985: Agnetha’s record talk

During Agnetha’s visit to Belgium, the Dutch Associaton of Record Retailers had an interview with her about the retail business and the records.

“It’s pretty obvious why things went wrong with the four of us,” Agnetha says. “You know, for years we were together twenty four hours a day, we worked like madmen and during our two month long holiday, we retreated to one of Sweden’s islands where we owned a grandiose mansion. The boys worked on new songs there and rehearsed them with us.”
At the question which music she prefers, she replies: “There is so much. I love big bands like Quincy Jones, Nelson Riddle and so on. Then I admire Frank Sinatra’s timing, Andy Williams’ voice, Sammy Davis jr.’s performance. I also started to like more pop music, like Michael Jackson, Prince and Dire Straits. It’s all good. In Europe, my fellow-countryman Svend Amussen is still one of my favourites. I just loved to listen to him when I was a little girl. I think James Last, whom I got to know pretty well, is a wonderful man. And his orchestra consists of excellent musicians and I think the arrangements and the performances are very good.”
When we ask Agnetha about her private life, she says that all the magazines are already writing and gossiping about that. “Ask it my mother,” was her evasive answer.
About the record retail industry: “I know that you are writing for a trade journal, so you won’t hear anything negative from me. No, but if you really want to know. We had a wonderful success with ‘Waterloo’. They had problems pressing sufficient records. The retailers couldn’t wait to get their hands on them. The releases after that we’re received wonderfully as well. We could only be more than satisfied, both with our record company Polydor as well as with the retailers. I do know that retailers gave us a lot of confidence, even before the record was released. They placed large advance orders before they had even heard anything. That gave all four of us an enormous satisfaction, it’s just as good as getting applause. Even now that Frida and I are making solo records, the retailers are still behind us and that’s important. The retail industry is the concluding piece to the consumers. You can bet that I realise that very well. Give my best to everyone in Holland. In conclusion I want to say this: Holland as a whole has always been great for us and I really mean that from the bottom from my heart.”

Bravo, 1978: ABBA and Andy

Björn, with his guitar under his arm, is walking back and forth nervously. Anni-Frid, dressed in white, is checking herself in the mirror while her make-up is being touched up. Benny is grinning amused while the stressed costume designer Fleur Thiemeyer is sowing the belt of his jacket. Olivia Newton-John is running around with curlers in her hair while Agnetha is handing over a large bouquet of roses on ABBA’s behalf.
The preparations of the Olivia Newton-John special for American television are in their final stages. The spectators have been waiting in line for five hours in front of the Columbia studio in Hollywood, to be admitted for the live broadcast. The past nine days, Olivia has been rehearsing nonstop with her guest stars ABBA and Andy Gibb. All of them have been standing in front of the TV cameras from early in the morning until late in the evening. The extra hours were necessary, because Steve Binder – the producer and director – is a perfectionist. And that was fine with ABBA because they hope to achieve a final breakthrough in America with their guest appearance on Olivia’s show (about 50 million Americans saw the show). America is the only country where the four Swedes aren’t that well-known yet.
Then they finally get started! The invited audience is applauding. ABBA and Olivia are in the spotlights. Andy Gibb, dressed in red with a white waistcoat, is running behind them and sighs: “Oh, I’m so nervous...” And then they all sing Cat Stevens’ song ‘Old Schoolyard’ together. They all do their best and Andy’s stagefright is fading rapidly. Then ABBA performs ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Fernando’ and ‘Dancing Queen’. Andy and Olivia are singing along. Andy performs his hit single ‘I Just Wanne Be Your Everything’ and ABBA and Olivia are joining him as backing singers. Obviously the guests also join in on Olivia’s hits.
In the next scene of the show, they all sit cosily in a circle and chat about the start of their careers. Benny performs the old Beach Boys track ‘Barbara Ann’, Anni-Frid manifests herself as an opera singer. Andy is being teased by the others: “Don’t you have very famous brothers? Aren’t they promoting a record right now?” They are aiming at the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ album, the sales figures of which are unbeatable. Then it continues with the ABBA hits ‘Money, Money’ and ‘Take A Chance’. As a farewell they all sing ‘Thank You For The Music’ together.
The spotlights had barely died down when ABBA hurried into the recording studio. The four of them were slaving away there until six o’clock in the morning. On the same day, they are flying back to Europe, to perform in Germany in the TV programme Star Parade. Due to these commitments, they had to cancel a party at the Swedish embassy with president Carter.
With their three songs ‘Take A Chance’, ‘Eagle’ and ‘Thank You For The Music’, ABBA wowed all the viewers of Star Parade.

1976: ABBA – Export from Sweden

After the Swedish group ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with the song ‘Waterloo’, the group produced one hit after the other. ABBA turned into an important export article for Sweden. At the moment, there are some problems within the group and the most important reason for the quartet to stay together is their financial gain. Harry van Nieuwenhoven is exploring ABBA a little deeper, their music and problems. Among other Swedish artists, ABBA can be seen in the programme ‘Export from Sweden’ that will be broadcast by the AVRO on Tuesday at 09.50 pm.

Being a writer about mainly progressive pop music, I now and then wonder desperately how the popularity of some hit groups can be explained in a rational way. What do droves of people all over the world exactly see in a group like ABBA? The meticulously oiled Swedish hit machine that, after having won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with the infectious ‘Waterloo’, has succeeded in building an extremely successful career with songs like ‘Honey, Honey’, ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’ (there is not a single word of Oxford English in there!), ‘SOS’, ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Fernando’. A career that even acquired an international flavour, thanks to chart successes in England and the United States.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to analyze ABBA’s popularity in a provisional way. In a mixed company, I digested the usual dose of TopPop on that particular Friday evening. All of a sudden, the ladies Frida Lyngstad and Anna Fältskog and the gentlemen Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA appeared on the screen. Young and old jumped up and watched the screen contentedly on which the four thirtysomethings mimed to their latest hit ‘Fernando’. A small survey that was conducted afterwards among the persons present pointed to the combination of elements that appears to bring about ABBA’s popularity among the young and the old.
First of all, the clever appearance and show of the group. A mastermind behind ABBA sees to it that the eye-catching vocalists Frida and Anna are stylishly and sexily dressed in trendy clothes in such a way that neither the male viewers (the eye needs to be pleased too) nor the female viewers (because they are jealous of the exquisite garments that the girls are wearing again) are able to take their eyes off their television screen.
In ABBA’s visually very attractive show, blonde Frida is the absolute main attraction. The seemingly careless and cooled way in which she utilizes her body, mostly dressed in hotpants that are verging on being too hot, while singing the simple tunes, can be called great class.
The second reason for ABBA’s success is of course their simple but very infectious music. Practically all ABBA hits, composed by the gentlemen Andersson-Ulvaeus and manager Stig Anderson, are constructed with a simple chorus, repeated many times, that you can sing along to effortlessly after having heard it a couple of times, while the mostly overproduced instrumental part is made up of a boom-boom rhythm that is easy digestable.

That’s ABBA’s formula for success. Something that is emphasized yet again on their bestselling album ‘The Best Of ABBA’, nothing more but definitely nothing less than an excellent hit group that is even starting to get musical pretensions, as demonstrated by their latest chartbuster ‘Fernando’. Who ever dared to dream of that?
ABBA has now existed officially for three years. Unofficially, they have existed for six years already. In 1970, Andersson and Ulvaeus recorded the album ‘Lycka’ (Happiness), for which they called upon their girlfriends Frida and Anna, more like a fun experiment. Two professional singers, who were already very well-known in Sweden as solo artists. In these turbulent times for Swedish pop music, Andersson and Ulvaeus were mainly active as composers and producers. Before that, as the artistic motors behind the Hep Stars (who scored European hits in 1968 with songs like ‘Sunny Girl’ and ‘Music Box’), they played an important part in the evolvement of Swedish pop music that is flourishing in 1976 with artists like Harpo and Bo Hansson. When the Hep Stars split up, Andersson and Ulvaeus started working as producers and composers at Polar Records, the company of ABBA’s current manager Stig Anderson. While recording and producing records for Polar, the concept for ABBA grew slowly but surely, which manifested itself in the archetype of Björn & Benny & Frida & Anna in 1973 on the Eurovision Song Contest where the quartet finished in third place thanks to the song ‘Ring Ring’. One year later, the four Swedes came back with a vengeance and finished in first place with ‘Waterloo’.
The rest of the success story is well-known. Since then, ABBA is scoring one hit after the other. The group has turned into a multi-million company. With the gigantic sums of money that the members have made by performing and composing their hits, they have bought Polar Recors and changed its name to Polar Music: ABBA’s own music publishing company, record and promotion company.
During the six long years that the ABBA members have worked together intensively, their mutual understanding has only deteriorated. It’s a public secret that the two ABBA couples don’t especially get along and that they keep their personal contacts on a business level as much as possible. The tensions are mostly ventilated during nerve-racking promotional tours when – true to the habit of millionaires – caviar and other delicacies are often flying through the air. The tensions are not important enough to blow up the multi-million company. There’s too much money at stake. Especially now that the group is starting to achieve a breakthrough in huge territories like England and the United States.
Not considering the upcoming solo projects (among others a solo album by Frida?), it is expected that ABBA will keep exploring their successful formula for some time to come. A formula that seems to be a clever combination of Swedish self-mockery, business sense and naughtiness.

Pop Biz, 1979: Never before had ABBA been this good..., but still...

ABBA’s major super tour has been completed and we have been able to enjoy a successful concert at the Ahoy hall in Rotterdam. Everybody who has seen the concert agreed with us: never before had ABBA been this perfect and convincing.

Björn, Agnetha, Benny and Anni-Frid’s show was sensational and the fans were very appreciative and cheered their idols on. Not a single movement, not a single sound and not a single stunt had been left to chance. The entire show had been rehearsed to the smallest detail and even the critical music journalists had to admit that ABBA delivered the most perfect, maybe even the best concert of the year.
The whole tour cost more than two thirds of its receivings. But manager Stig Anderson doesn’t mind. The important thing is that the costs have been covered. Because the record sales benefit from a tour. When it comes to that, ABBA can rest assured that they will earn back all their expenses.
Fifty people travelled along with the group. Musicians, backing singers, technicians, a hairdresser and also a lady who took care of ABBA’s wardrobe. Apart from that, the group had rented the most expensive sound equipment in the world from an American company. For the impressing price of 10.000 dollar per night!

The tour was very exhausting and no one was allowed to come near the group. Only family members, acquaintances and friends. To arrive everywhere in time, ABBA travelled with their own super modern private jet, equipped with a telephone, a colour TV, a stereo system and a large bar. Björn: “Otherwise we would not have been able to cope with it all.”
Björn had brought along his girlfriend Lena Källersjö on this tour. “She helped me a great deal,” he revealed. “Without Lena, it would have been far more difficult for me.”
And Agnetha? “Agnetha and Lena have a very good understanding,” he claims. “They have become real friends. Otherwise I would never have brought Lena along...”
But still... “Agnetha was very lonely,” a good friend of hers revealed to us. “She didn’t want to give that impression, but that’s how it was. Every time I was alone with her, she poured her heart out. She missed the feeling of belonging to someone.
Anni-Frid belongs to Benny, Björn belongs to Lena now. She was all alone. In former times, she was able to discuss all her problems with Björn and ask his advice. Now she had to make her own decisions. Something she has been wanting to do for years. But now she realizes that it has disadvantages as well...”
But one thing is for sure: the tour was a bang on target for little Linda, Agnetha and Björn’s daughter. Because this was the first time that she could come along. She had a great time together with Stig Anderson’s little daughter. The highlight was their visit to Disneyland in America. Something she will never forget. “I wish we could be in America more often,” she sighed. Maybe her wish will come true, because meanwhile America is at ABBA’s feet as well. Agnetha was happy too that her daughter was present. “I’ve never had this much fun with her,” she said. “Next year, Linda will start school and then she won’t be able to come along anymore. But then I want to stay home more often. I’ve made her that promise. In the end, she will be needing me then.” That’s certainly true. But Agnetha needs someone too. Someone who really cares about her, who loves her. Her relationship with Swedish ice hockey player Lars has ended and that has hurt her very much. Let’s hope that she will find someone else soon.