Popcorn, 1981: Wanna bet... ABBA will never perform again!

This article was published in German magazine Popcorn, shortly after interviews with the ABBA-members had appeared in English newspaper Daily Mirror, hinting to ABBA coming to an end.

The report was maintained for exactly four hours: ABBA – that’s what ‘Today’s Tours’ announced – according to their manager Stig Anderson, will start a world-tour on February the 16th 1982 with 120 dates, among them a dozen in Germany. Immediately, the verdict came from the ABBA headquarter in Stockholm: “This tour is pure speculation. ABBA would like to tour again, but at a much later date.” If there will ever be a live-concert by the super-group again, is more than unlikely. “The motivation to work together is practically zero,” is what a connoisseur of the situation is saying. “Ever since Benny filed for divorce and Björn remarried and became a father again, both girls show absolutely no interest in the group any longer. No-one who knows the atmosphere among the four members, that have fallen out privately, can imagine that ABBA will ever be seen together in public again – let alone go on tour together.” Swedish insiders are placing bets on when the end of ABBA will officially be announced. The moments that are being named vary between the end of 1981 and the spring of 1982.

ABBA themselves have contributed a lot to the fact that they are being given so little time. For example, there have been the unfriendly interviews in the English newspaper Daily Mirror, in which all four members speak their minds about their divorce and talk very grievous about each other. The recent ABBA-recordings also gave cause to the speculations about a split. Already in April, the three new songs ‘When All Is Said And Done’, Slipping Through My Fingers’ and ‘Two For The Price Of One’ were finished. All three of them would be on the next ABBA-album, one of them would be the new single. But then the three tracks failed to impress the international sales executives at the usual test-introduction (the past three years, every ABBA-single was tested this way on its chances for success): no catchy melodies, little hit potential. The four Swedes – who were ready for their holiday – had to go back into the studio.
At the time of writing it’s still unsure if there will be a new ABBA-single at all this summer, or if there will be another track singled out of the ‘Super Trouper’ album. It’s a clear sign of the creative crisis of the group, that has achieved the biggest and most spectacular career in rock-history, after the Beatles.

It all started on a summer day in August 1966. At a party of the Swedish group Hootenanny Singers, Benny Andersson (34) met his future partner Björn Ulvaeus (36). Björn was the leader of the Hootenanny Singers at the time, Benny was a member of the rival group, the Hep Stars. They got on with each other from the word go and became friends, at first only privately. Benny had serious financial problems at the time: the Swedish taxes wanted 259.000 Swedish crowns back-payments from him and Benny didn’t know where to get the money. He wrote songs constantly, hoping he could get rid of his debts by writing one big hit. “I loaned money to produce a record with Annafrid, whom I was together with at the time already,” says Benny, “but that turned into a flop as well.” What was missing in the born musician’s life was a suitable partner, who could turn Benny’s countless compositions into commercial, accessible tunes. In short: Björn was perfect for the job, as a joint jam-session indicated. “We were on the ideal wavelength. Together with Björn I succeeded in picking the essential parts from my many songs and turn them into a whole song.” Stig Anderson, at the time manager of the Hootenanny Singers, was the first to discover the potential of this musical ‘marriage’. The current ABBA-manager persuaded the two to quit their old groups and start a new band. That’s where Annafrid (35) and Agnetha (31), at the time Björn’s girlfriend, came into the picture. Again, this idea came from Stig Anderson: “Two girls and two boys in one group, that was something completely new at that time.”

On November 1 1970, they did their first performance in Göteborg, under the name ‘Festvolk Quartet’. It wasn’t until 1972 that the first single ‘She’s My Kind Of Girl’ was released, after much persuasion at the record company. Still, the breakthrough in Sweden was achieved with the song ‘People Need Love’. On the cover it read ‘Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida’, later on that would turn into ABBA. In 1973, the group entered the Swedish heats for the Eurovision Song Contest, but were eliminated. One year later, ABBA made it: with the hit ‘Waterloo’ they were able to go to Brighton, and they won.
ABBA, from this day on it would be a trademark that conquered the world. Cleverly managed by Stig Anderson, one success after the other was achieved. Exactly every four months, a new single was released: in 1974 it was ‘Waterloo’, ‘Honey, Honey’ and ‘So Long’, in 1975 they continued with ‘I do, I do’, ‘SOS’ and ‘Mamma Mia’. Along with the accessible, cleverly arranged songs, that made their mark on both teenagers and grandmothers, came the ideal image: two couples in love make music for millions, it was almost like a fairytale. Over and over again, ABBA stated in interviews: “Our career wouldn’t be possible without our private harmony. We are happy, and that’s what you can hear in our music.”

Today, now the ABBA-couples have separated, we hear a different sound. The latest ABBA press-release literally reads: “Although there are no marriages within the group any longer, the ABBA-members are still very good friends and want to continue working together, like before.” It almost sounds like a vow.
Anyhow, the latest remarks about each other by the ABBA-members, who talked about the collapsed relationships in the English newspaper Daily Mirror, weren’t exactly friendly. Björn about Agnetha: “I couldn’t even talk to her anymore.” Annafrid about Benny: “We are totally different, we were simply incompatible.”
About ABBA’s future, Björn explained: “We are rich. There are no financial reasons to stay together.” And Benny was even more clear: “I think ABBA will go on for two more years, with two new albums.” Fact is that, according to their contract with their German record company, ABBA has to release records for four more years. “But a contract like that – much like the contracts of soccer-players – isn’t worth much more than the paper it’s written on,” is what an insider thinks. “If ABBA wants, they can get out of a contract like that at any time, even though it’s going to cost them a lot of money.” It wouldn’t be too difficult, to buy themselves out. According to their tax-declaration, that has been made public in Sweden, every member has made more than four million German marks in the past year alone.

Pop Foto, October 1978: Will ABBA move to America?

Have the four musical Swedes that we all know as ABBA now surrendered to the big money? To the American dream and the Hollywood promise? Can we, continental Europeans, kiss ABBA goodbye now? Or are the stories about ABBA moving abroad just rumours and can Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid stand a lot more rudeness of the Swedish media, before they exchange Stockholm for Los Angeles?

One thing is for sure in the total confusion surrounding ABBA’s future. There are things happening around the Swedish super-group, that clearly point in the direction of a move to America.
Firstly, the group has rented a luxurious residence in the centre of American pop-music, that’s big enough for themselves and the two Ulvaeus-children. Secondly, the past year there have been so many unpleasant reports about the group in the Swedish media that the ABBAs are getting sick and tired of it. Thirdly, for quite some time especially Björn and Benny have been playing with the idea of a second ABBA-movie; and what better place is there to tape it than Hollywood?
It all sounds rather disturbing, and you’d almost get the impression that the ABBA-move is definite already, but luckily this isn’t true. Because ABBA has a lot of reasons to stay in Sweden! Of course, there’s the upbringing of little Christian and his sister Linda that – Agnetha is adamant about it - has to take place in Sweden. And then there are the splendid, brand-new houses and the recording-studio, that ABBA has build. Don’t forget those either. Of course, Björn and Benny haven’t build that money-consuming thing to go off and record their records in the US now. On the contrary, ever since the studios were ready, the two ABBA-men have been busy with new ABBA-material, that will be used for the next album. The record should be finished around Christmas and will definitely be recorded in Sweden.
Because the people to whom it concerns refuse to make any remark in the direction of the move-issue, we can only focus on the hopeful words by Stig Anderson, the ABBA-mastermind. “ABBA leaving Sweden? That will never ever happen! They’re much too Swedish for that!”
Let’s leave it at that.

Veronica, 1985: Agnetha Fältskog: "You never get used to success"

This article was published in Dutch TV-guide Veronica in 1985, shortly after Agnetha's Eyes Of A Woman album was released.
Agnetha Fältskog, the 35-year-old ashblonde ABBA-singer, hates doing interviews. But she would like to share a thing or two about her new solo album ‘Eyes Of A Woman’, produced by 10CC’s Eric Stewart. Openly, Agnetha talks to your very own Veronica-guide reporter about her solo career, ABBA’s reunion and her biggest dream... a part in an international movie.

She speaks English with a funny Swedish accent and with a soft, clear voice she talks enthusiastically about her second English-language solo album, that was released worldwide recently.
“Each time when you give birth to a ‘child’ like that, it’s exciting all over again,” says Agnetha. “You just have to wait and see how your record will be received and how it will do. With ABBA, we were incredibly spoiled. Every record was a million-seller. I’ve come to realize that it’s impossible for us as solo artists to expect the same thing. That’s why it’s an enormous kick when the record company calls you up to say that there’s a big demand for your new album all over the world. Because believe me, you never get used to success!”
At a very young age, Agnetha was already a big star in Sweden. Even before her glorious time with ABBA, she recorded six Swedish solo albums, that did very well in her own country. Her first English-language solo album appeared in 1983. With ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’, a Mike Chapman production, she proved that she was worthy of international acclaim on her own as well. Chapman’s influence had a lot to do with that. Still, Agnetha chose 10CC keyboard player Eric Stewart as a producer this time. Why is that?
“I had a tremendous time working with Mike, but I want to prevent repeating myself at all cost. That’s why I asked Eric this time. I’ve always been a 10CC fan as well. Eric’s music stands for quality.”
Agnetha is over the moon about her new record, the perfect collaboration with top musicians like Jeff Lynne (ELO), Vic Emmerson (Sad Café), John Wetton and Geoff Downes (Asia). Agnetha’s own composition ‘I Won’t Let You Go’ has been released as a single and is in the Top 40 right now.

When I met Eric for the first time last summer, we must have listened to about 400 songs together. Each time, it’s very hard work to choose suitable songs. That’s why Eric encouraged me to write my own songs. My only regret is that I can’t write lyrics. After three words I go blank, frustrating really. My command of the English language isn’t good enough either. I’m very happy with Eric’s lyrics, they suit me very well. On the B-side of the single, there’s a self-penned ballad ‘You’re There’. Unfortunately, that song didn’t come out as well as I hoped. That’s why it was left off the album. All other songs for ‘Eyes Of A Woman’ have been collected by Eric. Last year, he called several of befriended top composers, who started working especially for me. I think it’s an enormous honour that so many important people wanted to work on my album,” says Agnetha sincerely. “The singing isn’t especially easy for me,” she confesses. “I’m very ambitious, maybe too ambitious. It always takes some time before I find the right sound. Sometimes I have to re-record my vocals for a song six times. Luckily, Eric is very patient. He has taken care that my voice has been committed to tape the best way possible, and we’ve also paid a lot of attention to the backing vocals.”

Recording music is important to Agnetha, but her family always comes first. Long promotional trips abroad are out of the question. She limits herself to a few TV-shows, such as her own gala-show in ‘The Golden Rose Festival’ of Montreux.
“The endless touring and travelling is definitely over. Whenever I’m away from home for a few days, I can’t think of anything else but my two children, Linda (11) and Christian (7). I’ve come to realize more and more that there are more important things in life than just success. The children are entitled to a mother that can spend time with them. They grow up so fast, I don’t want to miss out on their childhood.”

The rumours that ABBA will come together again, are getting more frequent these days. Björn and Benny even said in a recent interview that the new ABBA-album should be in the shops around Christmas.
What are Agnetha’s views on an ABBA-reunion?
“I don’t object, as long as it’s just a record,” she says. “But performing... never again! I know Björn, Benny and Frida want to continue with ABBA more than anything. That’s their dream, breathe new life into the group. I’ve always put a brake on that because I wasn’t ready for it emotionally. Now I feel I can deal with it, as long as I’m able to combine it with my solo career, and with my family. There certainly aren’t any definite plans. We’ll see when the time is right.”
Agnetha still has a warm understanding with her ex-husband Björn. During the celebratory performance in Stockholm of the musical ‘Chess’ – composed by Björn and Benny – Agnetha was present as a guest of honour. But she could have been on stage just as well.
“Björn called me at home and asked me if I wanted to play the part of Svetlana, the Russian player’s wife. I thought it was really sweet of him to think of me, but I couldn’t accept the offer. I told him: ‘Björn dear, it can’t be, because then it will turn into an ABBA-album again. That wouldn’t be right, not for you either!’”

Agnetha still has one big wish, that she hopes will be fulfilled one day. Three years ago, she made her screen debut in the Swedish movie ‘Raskenstam’, not counting the concert-film ‘ABBA – The Movie’.
“The acting felt good,” says Agnetha. “I’m dreaming of a part in an American movie, that will be released worldwide. The director of ‘Raskenstam’, Gunnar Hellström, is working on a sequel. But I’d rather do something completely different now, like an English-language movie or a play. Maybe there’s a producer in Hollywood, who will give me a chance. That would be the best possible thing, that could be in store for me now,” Agnetha concludes.

Hitkrant, June 1983: Agnetha enjoys freedom without ABBA

Things don’t go as planned. Agnetha Fältskog, this time as herself, not as an ABBA-member, is visiting our country to promote her new single ‘The Heat Is On’. In this case it means performing on a TROS TV-show, celebrating 100 years of ANWB. Things don’t go according to plan, and that’s how our two o’clock appointment slowly moves towards four o’clock. It’s all part of the business.

“Sorry,” says Agnetha. “Things went a little different than was planned.” She looks very good, a new haircut, radiant. You wouldn’t think she is 33 years old. She seems younger. A happy smile: “Well, I’m not getting any younger. But I feel great and I’m especially pleased with my record.”

What does getting older mean to you?
“Getting wiser. You’ve experienced so much. You learn from reading, from having children. I’ve also learned that working with a group always means making compromises, both musically and privately. When you work as a solo-artist, you obtain more freedom: you get to choose your own material, record it as you choose. I’m extremely happy with my first English-language solo-album.”
When I tell Agnetha that I’ve heard a cassette from ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ at the Dutch record company, while the album is not in the shops yet, she gets curious: “Now I’m going to interview you. What do you think about it?” Not so simple: I tell her I think there are four hits on there and name the songs, helped by Agnetha. She agrees with me. “Personally I feel ‘Shame’ is the best song at the moment, but that can change any second.”

I can imagine all your interviews at the moment are the same. Everyone wants to know how your solo-career is becoming you and how it was working with Mike Chapman?
“Oh yes, and if ABBA is going to split up and why I’m working alone now: most interviews are predictable. If someone asks me to react on the word ‘interview’ my reply would be: ‘same questions'.”
But then she realizes she’s doing an interview right now, and adds: “But of course it’s not always like that, there are exceptions. And I understand that a journalist wants to know why I’m going solo.”
Then here’s the next original question: why did you go solo?
Again that broad smile. “I wanted to pursue my own ideas, away from ABBA. To make a nice, varied record. And I can tell you I’m enjoying that freedom.”

Do you still have a private life?
“At least, I’m doing everything to maintain it, and it works. People think that as an ABBA-member you are in the recording studio day and night and constantly doing interviews. But it’s not like that: you work very hard during a certain period and after that you have a lot of spare time.”
And what is it you do in that spare time?
“I love spending time at my home and in my garden. Actually, I’m living too openly: anyone can walk in and I get a lot of fans at my door. But I’m not giving up my house and garden because of that. I jog a lot, and take walks in the woods for hours with my dogs. I spend as much time as possible with my children, go to the sauna and read a lot. I read lots of stuff: biographies, memoirs, and the funniest book I’ve read so far is ‘The world according to Garp’, do you know that one?.” I do.

It’s time for the next journalist, who’s waiting in front of the dressing room at the Amsterdam RAI congress-centre. I say goodbye to Agnetha and wish her a good trip.
“I hate flying. This time I came all the way from Sweden by bus and boat. It cost me two days, but this way at least I’m able to see something while I’m travelling. It’s just that my bedroom on the boat was near the engine-room, so I didn’t get any sleep at all.”
But in a few days she’ll be home again. With her dog, her children and her garden. Then Agnetha admits that’s where she loves to be most.

Hitkrant, November 1982: ABBA divided / ABBA is drifting apart!

An article about the impending end of ABBA from Dutch magazine Hitkrant, November 1982. The Frida poster included here was published in that same magazine.

When ABBA caused a commotion a few years ago when Benny and Frida and Björn and Agnetha announced their divorces, everyone thought this would mean the end of the group. It didn’t mean that, but it was more because the group, while they had drifted apart privately, still could get along great as a musical team. That situation seems to have changed: it’s obvious that there are problems within ABBA, that’s what an associate of the Swedish record company told us. The question is how long the ABBA fairytale is going to last now.

Where in the old days the interest of the group was the most important thing, priority is now being given to the separate solo projects. Of course, there are the solo albums by Frida and Agnetha, but the real problems seem to have started with Björn and Benny.

“It was the intention that Björn and Benny would write songs for the new album during the summer,” is what our spokesperson said. “But when they coincidentally met the famous English musical-writer Andrew Lloyd-Webber, their old dream of writing a musical surfaced again. Since then, it seems as if ABBA doesn’t exist anymore for Björn and Benny. All their attention and energy is going into that new project and that’s why it was decided to release a compilation album, for which the old hits only got a new treatment, so the two B’s in ABBA only had to write new arrangements.
Agnetha and Frida were really upset when they heard that the new album was postponed. They got into their own solo projects, and they turned out to be a great success. But because of that, ABBA is now divided in two encampments: the men on one side and the ladies on the other. Stig Anderson is really worried about his favourite group. A good example is the promotional film for ABBA’s new single ‘The Day Before You Came’: Stig had to go through a lot of trouble to get the foursome together in the film studio, and within an hour everyone had left again, because they all had business or private obligations. Later on, they all came back to the studio separately to finish the film.”

“You can also sense it in the meetings,” the associate of the record company concludes. “They used to last until late in the evening, and were wound up with a sociable drink. These days, Stig reads out the items on the agenda, decisions are being made and then it’s finished. Björn and Benny hardly look at the ABBA-ladies, and vice versa.”
Is the end of ABBA drawing near? Officially, it’s still being strongly denied.

Pop Foto, 1977: ABBA's Stig Anderson is terrified of Aunt Anni!

Hilarious to see what kind of story a picture of Agnetha signing an autograph can lead to... lol! It seems the imagination of journalists has no limits. Ready for a good laugh?
An armoured car, that’s what might get you into the ABBA headquarters. Or a battalion of soldiers, fully armed and fearless. There simply aren’t any other ways to get through to the heart of the Stockholm Polar Studios, where ABBA is recording secretly. Unless your name is Aunt Anni.

Sluggishly, she gets up the stairs of the studio. The traffic is raging through the streets of Stockholm behind her. Without hesitating, she walks up to the heavily garded doors of the ABBA headquarter. The sturdy guard smiles and taps his cap. A moment ago, he decidedly refused admittance to a few German journalists. But to Aunt Anni he grins friendly. With a broad swing he opens the doors to the most secret part of Stockholm; the ABBA headquarter! And Aunt Anni shuffles inside with a bag full of groceries. Who is this mysterious old lady? And what does Aunt Anni have to do with ABBA?

Inside, in the nerve centre of the ABBA happening, it’s all very hectic. And that’s no surprise when you come to think of it that in the Polar Studios lots of treats are being prepared for the millions of ABBA fans. Firstly, hard work is being done on the new single, that will be released in the month of August. Apart from that, Benny and Björn are busy with the preparations for the follow-up of the ABBA-album ‘Arrival’, which is going to consist of songs from their movie. That’s right: a real ABBA-movie (and then we don’t mean the movie about ‘The Girl With The Golden Hair’ that we reported about earlier, but a genuine feature film, with recordings of the Australian concerts) that will probably be ready in December. But what, so the perceptive reader is wondering, has all this to do with the mysterious Aunt Anni, all dressed in black? Well, a lot. Aunt Anni is actually a real aunt of ABBA’s blonde Agnetha, who lost contact with Agnetha’s mother years ago. It wasn’t until last winter, just before ABBA’s world-tour started, that Agnetha and her long lost aunt ran into each other by coincidence. Now Aunt Anni is a part of ABBA, and what kind of part. With her dangerous walking-stick she terrorizes the studios, she just walks into the recording studios when the red lights are on and doesn’t mind the rules at all, that go for the rest of the ABBA-staff. Not because Agnetha desperately wanted it this way, but because Aunt Anni thinks her Agnetha (that’s pronounced ‘Anjetta’ in Swedish) should be looked after properly. “Child,” is what the old lady seems to have exclaimed once, “now you’re not living with your mother in Jönköping anymore, you’re much too skinny and you’re working way too hard. You should be at home, with your child. Those men around here are all slave-drivers!” ABBA-boss Stig Anderson should have taken notice, especially of that last remark, because after having witnessed Stig and Agnetha during a dispute in the studio, Aunt Anni thinks he is Sweden’s biggest brute. Now, Stig watches her timidly, whenever Aunt Anni shuffles along with her grocery-bag and her walking-stick! Besides, photographers are getting acquainted with the reputation of Aunt Anni’s stick as well; because Aunt Anni doesn’t like men who take pictures of her and she chases after them with that very stick.

Apart from that, the other three ABBA-members all think Aunt Anni is adorable. She really is an enormous fan of ABBA’s music and, apart from Stig and the photographers, she doesn’t bother anyone. However, for Agnetha it sometimes gets a bit too much with Aunt Anni. In her resoluteness to be a good second mother to Agnetha, Aunt Anni always brings complete meals, that Agnetha has to eat in front of her. After which the poor thing can’t even eat a cookie for the rest of the day, because she has to mind her figure. And Aunt Anni keeps wondering why Agnetha isn’t getting more flesh around her bones!

Hitkrant, January 1982: ABBA's solo-plans

The Dutch record industry placed an order of 110.000 copies of ‘The Visitors’, even before the album was out. In Scandinavia that was 300.000, in Germany 600.000, in the United States 500.000, in France 250.000 and in the UK even 700.000. The headlines of album reviews in various countries: “New ABBA-album – their best thus far”, “A new and personal profile”, “ABBA’s latest: a real pop-album”, “ABBA’s album: the hit of the year” and we could go on like this.

It’s clear: ABBA’s tenth album (counting ‘Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2’) dropped like a bomb and once and for all put an end to the rumours that the group wouldn’t last for much longer. Nonetheless, it seems obvious that the separate careers of the ABBA-members will go in different directions eventually.

For instance, Björn and Benny still haven’t given up on their idea to write a musical and they’re hoping to make a start with that this year. The Christmas album that Agnetha recorded with her daughter Linda is doing really well in Sweden – the record is sung in Swedish – and is achieving high chart positions.
Frida is a different story: the past year she has had lots of worries and she also stayed more in the background than the other group members. Not only her looks have changed now, there are solo-plans as well: this year in March the red-haired singer will go into the studio to record an English-language solo-album; this time the producer will not be an ABBA-member, but no other than Genesis-singer/drummer Phil Collins.
Even if the ABBA-members wouldn’t be as rich as they are, none of the four would have any problem earning a living. After almost ten years of ABBA, it’s the question if that combination should be sustained or if the foursome will call it a day and do what gives each of them the most pleasure, separately.
For now, we are being assured that ABBA will stay together and “continue their successful work”. In the near future, we hope to be able to ask Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha in an exclusive Hitkrant-interview what ABBA’s future looks like.