Popshop, 1976: Guest in ABBA's headquarter

In one of the most quiet and remote streets of Stockholm, ABBA's headquarter is situated. Even our cab driver didn't even know that spot because he had to take a look at his city map first. The only cars that are parked there belong to ABBA's employees. Apart from that there's hardly any traffic. No wonder, because the narrow little street stops at some kind of city canal. These quiet surroundings make for a striking contrast with what's happening inside the town house, rebuilt into an office building: the invisible man behind the telex machine is typing away eagerly, the sound of ringing telephones is overwhelming the soft background music and the small army of secretaries is apparently having a competition at typing with ten fingers.
In short, ABBA's hit factory is working at full speed. A Swedish beauty is serving a cup of coffee and asks if we are able to wait for five more minutes because the management is in a meeting. Just like every Friday afternoon. And the management, that's Björn, Benny and ABBA manager Stig Anderson. The threesome that founded the company Polar Music.
"Every Thursday we discuss the proposals that we've received that week," Benny explains when we sit behind Stig's enormous desk a couple of minutes later. "We operate very democratically. If we disagree about certain issues, we are having a vote. And yes, with three people involved, the results of such a vote come in very quickly. To be honest, I'd rather be in the studio than in meetings like this. But the business side has to be taken care of as well. The things we discuss at such meetings? All sorts of things: which television programmes we are going to appear on and which not, the choice of songs for new records, the bookkeeping, internal affairs, actually all the problems that every business has to deal with..."
Until recently, the four ABBA members lived about thirty kilometres from Stockholm but because they come into the office every day, they've recently moved to the old part of the city.
"About two to three kilometres from here," says Björn. "You should come and drop by in a couple of months. Now it's still a mess. We haven't had time yet to put everything in the right place."
The spacious basements of the building were rebuilt into a music room. There's a piano and stereo equipment. "Björn and I mostly compose there," according to Benny. "Me at the piano and Björn with his guitar in his hands. We are planning to build a studio here as well, but we have to make some adjustments before that happens. And we use that stereo equipment very often too. Every day, one of our secretaries goes out to buy the newly released albums, and Björn and I listen through them, one by one. You are never that perfect that you can't learn anything new from other artists."
At least once every week all the studio musicians come together at that place too. "We are often called a golden duo," says Björn while he is pointing at Benny. "But to be honest, we have to admit that there are other people too who are responsible for ABBA's success. Like Michael B. Tretow, for instance, or co-producer. He has often come up with very original ideas. And we can't dismiss our team of studio musicians either. All of them are superb musicians, who work for us permanently. We are going to take them along too when we go on tour later on..."

Rocky, 1977: Partner switch with ABBA

The guy is called Ashley, he is an Australian DJ and lately a moviestar as well. His part gives him the opportunity to get very close to two Swedes who usually have a clean reputation: Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Both ladies are the leading contributors to the Swedish major enterprise called ABBA. About this 'company', a movie is being made that will be screened next year in German cinemas and that will surely attract millions of viewers. Its title is plain and gripping: 'ABBA - The Movie'.
Its title is as plain as its story, that revolves around the Scandinavian success group. Robert Hughes, a professional reporter, is dreaming about an exclusive interview with ABBA. Hughes, played by Ashley, goes through all kinds of amusing experiences during his hunt for the group. Encounters between the screen hero and the ABBA members are taking place primarily in Hughes' bed: indeed, he is dreaming them up. That's how the movie runs along for ninety minutes, highlighted with plenty of music, a bit of drollery and of course a happy end.
The entertainment film will once more prove the incredible popularity of the Swedish hit group. The soft rockers are looking back on more than a dozen million sellers and their aim is to keep their ABBA enterprise this prosperous. Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson were forced to take a break this year to take care of a couple of personal obligations: Agnetha gave birth to her baby and Anni-Frid found her long-lost father.
This breathing space was a good opportunity for the quartet to think about the progress of their tumultuous career and come up with new hit supplies. The Swedish ABBA factory has an extreme shortage of staff.
That's how the business-minded Swedes are taking all the raisins out of the show cake and produce hit singles and albums that turn into gold even before they are released, and they are shooting a movie.
It's clear to ABBA that a successful world career can also be pure hell. "After all, we can't tear ourselves up and be in America, Germany, England, Japan, Scandinavia and everywhere where our songs become hits, at the same time," Björn Ulvaeus said in an interview. "ABBA is running like a freight train but we are running out of breath."
Apart from that, the phenomenon of the registered ABBA trademark is linked to vast amounts of money, so that the Swedish state would have to put up with a sensitive drawback in its balance of payments if ABBA's stream of foreign exchange would dry up one day. If the four world famous stars want to end up with any money at all from their success and not work exclusively for the tax office, they have to invest in new ventures. That's also the reason that there will be more products with the ABBA trademark in the future.
Because the four clean Swedes have long turned into an institution and little time is left for a 'human touch', the question is discussed ever more often if other musicians will be able to come into the name and success of ABBA...

De Telegraaf, 1979: ABBA's Björn shows his new love

ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus, who recently divorced his wife Agnetha, introduced the new love of his life yesterday.

He spoke enthusiastically about his feelings for the blonde Lena Källersjö who is now inseparable from him. Björn said in his London hotel room, while his ex-wife Agnetha was alone in her room a couple of doors further: "I had only been single for a week after I divorced Agnetha, when I met Lena. We started living together right away. I discovered that love comes easier when you have already lived with somebody. When Agnetha and I separated, I knew immediately that I would fall in love again. I realised that I wasn't cut out for a bachelor's life."
Björn thinks that the divorce from Agnetha has been easier on him than he had expected: "There were a lot of tensions," he said. "When it got much worse we tried to distance ourselves from the tensions but the situation became intolerable. Now we have a good understanding in our work and we've remained friends."

While Björn has found happiness again with a new girlfriend, friends are saying that Agnetha has far more difficulties. She only has loose and temporary relationships. Björn says: "I believe Agnetha likes being single. She has had a lot of relationships but I thought she was having a hard time with them."

Björn says: "Despite all our problems we have done the right thing by getting divorced. We were both very selfish and this caused numerous arguments. Agnetha isn't jealous of my new girlfriend either. We often go out to dinner together. Lena and Agnetha get along great with each other."

Das Freizeit-Magazin, 1978: Björn: this is my life

Just like his other three ABBA colleagues, Björn grew up with music. And he had already tasted success in show business as well, before he started his triumph with the Swedish group. "When I was only eleven years old, I started a skiffle group at school," Björn is remembering from the start of his musical career. When he was seventeen - Björn was born on 25 April 1945 in Göteborg - he launched The Hootenanny Singers, a Swedish folk group. Today he has achieved with ABBA what he had always dreamed about as a child. But his private happiness with his family means even more to him than these enormous successes. With his pretty wife Agnetha, little daughter Linda and son Christian.

Because the school wouldn't spend any money on a band for a party, Björn - only 17 years old - took the initiative and founded a folk group, together with three friends. The school party turned out so well that The Hootenanny Singers - that's how the four named themselves - decided to keep playing together in the future. When he was only eleven years old, Björn had already started a very strong skiffle group at school.

Do you recognise the boys from Göteborg on the bottom left? At the beginning of the sixties, Björn achieved the big breakthrough with his group. Here you can see the Singers in a 1964 TV show.

Björn had just started walking when his parents moved from his home town Göteborg an the Swedish southeast coast to Västervik. Björn: "Here I was going to school and I am standing on our old market."

Björn could rarely rest on his laurels in his adolescence. After he had finished highschool he dived headfirst in  a study of law and economics, although he was already very busy as the leading man of The Hootenanny Singers.

Even before his ABBA days, Björn was a popular target for Swedish autograph hunters. "Here I am signing our first record as a Hootenanny Singer for a girl. It was a big hit."

When Björn took this picture of The Hep Stars in 1966, he couldn't imagine that this meeting would actually determine his future. Indeed, that's when he met Benny, his ABBA colleague.

ABBA started with Björn and Benny's friendship. Björn: "We had noticed that we were on the same wavelength musically and tried our luck as a duo in 1970." Later on the two girls joined them.

With 'Waterloo' and ABBA's win at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, their string of successes took off. Numerous awards followed, like the Golden Gong that the quartet received at the premiere of the ABBA movie.

And yet another award: the royal couple of Monaco presents the four stars with a music award. In the meantime, ABBA is considered the most successful group of all time.

While both ABBA girls keep themselves fit with daily gymnastics, Björn prefers to swim a few rounds in the water. He was already a great swimmer as a child.

In the 'Waterloo' year 1974, ABBA's headquarter in Stockholm was still a bit modest. Björn and Agnetha's little daughter Linda - only one year old - looks at the camera in wonderment. The little girl doesn't understand anything about success yet.

Björn met blonde Agnetha at a 1969 TV show. The couple got married two years later. This picture was taken in 1977 while shooting the feature film 'ABBA - The Movie'.

Björn and Benny in the studio: when it comes to the music, the both of them won't let anyone butt in. Benny makes sure that the sound is right. Björn is taking care of the lyrics and ABBA's day-to-day business.

Although the four Swedes are not considering to rest on their laurels, live performances like this will become less frequent in the future. Björn: "We need time for our private lives too."

1983: Frida - singer is breaking free from ABBA

ABBA splitting up, ABBA not splitting up: when both singers of the Swedish group started concentrating on their own solo projects, the fans were holding their breath. The rumours were immediately denied from Stockholm, but especially because of the solo sidestep of the red-haired Frida Lyngstad, it seemed that ABBA's days had been counted. Together with Genesis drummer Phil Collins, Frida recorded a solo album - titled 'Something's Going On' - that was received exceptionally well, and she announced that she had no intentions to stop at that one album.
The next shock for the fans came when Frida moved, and not just somewhere inside Sweden: she left her home country to move abroad to London. When on top of that it became known that she had sold all of her shares in the ABBA company, it seemed pretty clear that the singer would only work with ABBA on specific projects from now on, but that she would mainly focus her attention on her individual career as a singer. Frida herself claims that she is still a member of ABBA, but for the group it would be very unwise - especially on a business level - to admit that they in fact don't exist anymore. It is obvious: a new future has started for Frida.

Hitkrant, 1984: Abbacadabra, a fairy-tale in videoland

In this festive new year's time, the first real ABBA musical 'Abbacadabra' had its premiere at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in London. This fairy-like spectacle is part one of Björn and Benny's double project that won't be completed until the spring of 1985. We were in first row.

Björn and Benny are calling 'Abbacadabra' a musical adventure. It's a story about a couple of children playing a video game, in which they have to take a number of characters to the castle of the good fairy, while all of a sudden meeting these fairy-tale figures in reality. To stage this big spectacle, Björn and Benny made an appeal to a number of well-known employees. A familiar face was recruited for the female lead: Elaine Paige, the British girl that was about to give up her singing and acting career for a job as a nurse. When she suddenly succeeded in getting the leading role of Evita in Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice's musical, she realised that her future actually was in show business.

Apart from Elaine, B.A. Robertson is playing an important part in 'Abbacadabra' too. Things had been very quiet around this Scottish singer since his 1979 hit record 'Bang Bang'. And except for his striking nose, he actually seemed to be completely forgotten. So he was over the moon when he found out that Björn and Benny were looking for the leading male part in 'Abbacadabra' and they actually had him in mind for the job. I'm sure we won't have to introduce the third eye-catcher in 'Abbacadabra'. Indeed, Finola Hughes is the fantastic dancer John Travolta falls in love with in 'Staying Alive'.
The music for 'Abbacadabra' was composed completely by the magic ABBA composers duo. The repertoire not only consists of well-known ABBA songs but a number of songs have been composed especially for the occasion. Mike Batt was hired for the orchestration of the project. You might recognise his name from Art Garfunkel's beautiful ballad 'Bright Eyes'. The interest for the first few performances of the show in London was overwhelming. That's undoubtedly an encouraging sign for Björn and Benny who now are very busy with their next musical 'Chess' of which a double album is planned to be released in the autumn of 1984. For the live performance of 'Chess' we will have to be patient until early '85. But there's no doubt about it, 'Abbacadabra' and 'Chess' will probably turn out to be extremely successful, just like ABBA's previous projects.

Elaine Paige/'Like An Image Passing By'/Polydor 817 2887
This song was released under the title 'My Love, My Life' on the ABBA album 'Arrival'. Now it is featured in 'Abbacadabra' with adapted lyrics and performed by Elaine Paige. I think it completely falls flat. It's almost a violation of the original version. I wonder what Agnetha - who sings the original version - thinks of this bad cover version.

Hitkrant, 1979: Poster magazine