Privé, January 1979: “We keep our feet on the ground”

An article from Dutch gossip magazine Privé about ABBA’s finances, meanwhile also informing us that ABBA wanted to stop touring for the sake of the children. As it turned out, they went on tour again that same year.
Only on hearing the name ABBA the cash registers start jingling. You can’t listen to a single chart without hearing a song by the Swedish supergroup in there. The members are all multi-millionaires and Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid don’t have to perform any longer. Just making records will bring in so much money that they could lead a very comfortable life. And for the time being there seems to be no end to their success. “But,” brunette Anni-Frid says, “we keep our feet on the ground. Our family is the most important thing for us.”

It happened at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974. With the winning song ‘Waterloo’, ABBA’s name was on everybody’s lips. Since then, things went uphill and today, ABBA is the most successful popgroup in the world.
It’s hard to keep count of the amount of gold records that the group has received in every possible country, even in Japan. The members are all multi-millionaires. Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid, together with their manager Stig Anderson, have ‘arrived’! They are on top. And on top it’s ‘Money, Money, Money’!
ABBA has become big business. The millions are pouring into the ABBA-home in Stockholm with increasing rapidity. About once a week, big companies are making inquiries whether ABBA is for sale. The manager of the group, Stig Anderson, has announced that only serious offers of about 60 million a head are interesting. Only then will he start thinking about starting negotiations. That says a lot about ABBA’s current market value. In 1977, the turnover was more than 50 million Swedish crowns. Stig Anderson says that ABBA will continue as long as the members feel like it. When it comes to performances, the entire year of 1978 was fully booked for ABBA in advance.
What is ABBA doing with all that money? They say they are investing it in solid projects. That’s what they’ve learned from their manager. Currently, ABBA-manager Stig Anderson is the owner of two apartment buildings in Stockholm, that he bought for one million Swedish crowns. He has also bought the luxurious apartment where he resides. Price unknown. His company Sweden Music owns a house that was bought for almost two and a half million Swedish crowns and that was reconstructed for about two million; the ABBA-home where ABBA’s headquarter in Stockholm resides.
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the two men who write the music, are actually the basis of ABBA.
Björn says: “There are moments when we can hardly believe that all this has happened to us.” The most surprising thing about ABBA is that they have remained nice and friendly people, despite their success. Frida – the brunette – says: “Whatever happens, we keep our feet firmly on the ground. We are not completely new to this business and a bit of success doesn’t startle us.”
“We’re very normal people,” Benny says, and Björn adds: “Every now and then we think about how we eventually could escape all this attention, how we could return to normal life, whenever ABBA will stop existing one day.”

Is it true that ABBA doesn’t want to tour again and that they want to concentrate completely on making records?
After the Beatles, once the most popular and successful popgroup in the world, the four from Stockholm now want to realize the same thing as their famous predecessors did years ago?
Björn says that in the world of show business actually nothing is definitely over. But it’s true that they will stop touring. “We’ve neglected our family long enough now.”
For Anni-Frid and Benny, the aspect of the children probably wasn’t that crucial. They both have a daughter and a son, from a previous relationship. Those four children are between 11 and 15 years old, an age at which they become a bit more independent and acquire some understanding. But for Björn and Agnetha it’s a different matter. Apart from their five-year-old daughter Linda, they now have to care for their little son Christian, who is now eleven months old. “It’s irresponsible to leave the boy alone so often,” Björn says. “But no worries, we will keep on producing records.” So the tours are definitely over? Björn doesn’t want to confirm this: “Children grow up. We shall see...”

Veronica, November 1976: ABBA is here to stay

An article from Veronica magazine, November 1976. ABBA’s popularity was reaching boiling point in Holland at this time. In 1976, every single and album they released rocketed to the number one spot in the charts, the compilation The Best Of ABBA was the biggest selling musicassette of all time, Arrival had just been released and on November 19 they appeared on the highly rated TV-show Eén Van De Acht, dressed in their iconic kimonos.
The popularity of the Swedish group ABBA has reached unprecedented heights. If we only take a look at our own country: numerous Top 40 hits, of which ‘Dancing Queen’ has been the biggest, one compilation album of which more than a quarter of a million copies were sold and the new album ‘Arrival’ of which more than one hundred thousand copies were sold already in advance sales. It was high time for the group to show their faces in our country. And that’s just what they’ll do: ABBA will be in our country this week to appear in Mies Bouwman’s television show and at the beginning of next year they will be back for a one-off concert. A unique event that will take place on the fourth of February at the Jaap Eden hall in Amsterdam.
This concert is part of a big European tour that has been a long time coming. ABBA doesn’t tour very often. They’d rather stay at home in Stockholm. Even for a television performance it’s practically impossible to entice Benny, Björn, Anna and Frida to travel abroad. But now a European tour has been put together with great care: ABBA will go to France, Germany, Scandinavia, England and Holland. They will be accompanied by a sixteen-piece band, while a gigantic light show and specially designed costumes will bring about extra effects.
After Europe, ABBA will travel to America, Japan and Australia. Especially in that last country ABBA is insanely popular. “This year, we’ve performed for forty thousand people over there and we were welcomed as if we were the Beatles!” The Australian audience is completely mesmerized by the Swedes: in hardly two months time no less than eight hundred thousand albums of the group have been sold. But actually the same story goes for the rest of the world. One record after the other is storming up the local charts. And with that these Swedes are the first artists, not coming from an English-speaking country, that have conquered a constant position in the international pop scene.

Pop Foto, February 1981: Win a great Pop Foto T-shirt plus a personal congratulatory message from ABBA!

I remember that I entered this competition in 1981. The (multiple choice) questions are really funny. For example: what’s Agnetha’s last name? Fältskog, Knäckepäck or Löteflöt (lol!).
There was a chance to win a T-shirt with a personal message and autographed by ABBA or the Super Trouper album. Sadly, I won the Super Trouper album. Of course, I already had that one...
David with ABBA! Recently, you have been able to read all about it in Pop Foto. But did you know that David brought something with him from Sweden, just for you...?

For years, Pop Foto has been very close with ABBA. It all started a long time ago, when ABBA was in Holland for the first time. David, assistant of pop-photographer Pieter Mazèl, immediately was very taken with the successful group. And the funny thing was: ABBA was very fond of Pop Foto’s David as well.
This made it possible for Pop Foto to continually publish the greatest reports about ABBA through the years. Because even when ABBA wasn’t in the mood or didn’t have any time to pose due to their full schedule, an exception was always made for Pop Foto. Thus, ABBA wholeheartedly agreed to surprise the ten winners of this Pop Foto T-shirt competition with a personal message.
Just think that you would win one of these. Wouldn’t that be great! And it’s not that difficult at all to have a chance at something this special. Because the questions really aren’t that difficult. And there are even 15 ABBA-albums to be won as well! Try your best.

Oor, October 1979: ABBA-Chöre

A review of ABBA’s concert in Holland at the Ahoy venue in Rotterdam, October 24, 1979. The headline is a reference to the German choir group Fischer Chöre.

On the mere mentioning of the name ABBA, many serious lovers of pop music will turn up their nose and rebelliously exclaim ‘ABBAH!’. For the time being however, ABBA is the most successful group of the seventies and up till this day they deliver quality-singles on a regular basis, in which the sound of disco is shining through ever more prominent. Despite ABBA’s musical mood swing, from pop to doll-like rock-disco, the group is still extremely popular, in Holland as well, something that was once again underlined by the fact that the 8.500 tickets for the concert at the Ahoy sports hall in Rotterdam were sold out within one hour.

In contrast with the concert at the Jaap Eden hall in Amsterdam two years ago, where a complete mini-musical was performed on stage, simplicity was the keyword of this concert. From a plain and simple pyramid stage design, primarily hits were fired at the mixed audience. Practically all of them were present. From ‘Chiquitita’ to ‘Dancing Queen’. From the brand-new ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)’ to the oldie ‘Waterloo’. ABBA’s jukebox was playing at full force and, along with a competent band of subjects, made for as much hit potential as quality with every selection, at which the not always clear sound didn’t differ much from the records.

There were four pieces that were not ready to eat in the, for the rest, exquisite hit puree. Just like two years ago, Benny Andersson thought it was necessary to freak out on the Yamaha in an exceptionally bombastic symphonic-rocker. Pretentious and unnecessary self interest that he’d better save for his solo career. The same went for the song ‘I’m Still Alive’, which was performed solo by composer Agnetha from behind the same Yamaha. A pompous ballad of the kind that Barry Manilow writes ten of in one evening, performed by an overly ambitious lady. The boys from the band got to perform the obligatory solo number as well. That was the hard rocker ‘Not Bad At All’, in which Tomas Ledin, a celebrated disco star (from Sweden...), played a too worked up leading part. The most remarkable grape in the ABBA-porridge was the performance of the instant sing-along ‘I Have A Dream’. A kind of alternative ‘Internationale’, in which ABBA was assisted by twenty-five singing little children from the Rotterdam music school. So that’s ABBA-Chöre. Or ABBA with the Rotterdam harbour singers. It almost seemed as if Queen Juliana had turned seventy again. No Jos Brink around, so that had to be a misunderstanding.

No, practically all, mostly pretentious sidesteps of the hit group ABBA were irrelevant and only emphasized that the group is in a dissolving state, whereupon only the complete dismantling can follow. ABBA used to be a cosy group. Now it’s the relentless sum of solo contributions. Indeed, the ladies and gentlemen of ABBA, dressed in silver-grey and metallic-blue play-suits, did give each other a hug every now and then during the performance, but everything suggested that it didn’t happen wholeheartedly, due to the risen tensions on a personal level. ‘Money Money Money’ and Stig Anderson are keeping the group together in the year 1979. With great anticipation I’m waiting for the things that are going to happen to ABBA in 1980. There will probably not be one tiny bit of a ‘united to the eighties’ feeling, or all members would have to remain as ironical as Björn Ulvaeus was, who, on announcing the song ‘As Good As New’, pointed out that this very appropriate track would be sung by his on sale ex-wife...

Hitrant, May 1978: ABBA is slaving away behind the scenes

An article about ABBA’s activities in mid-1978. Preparations for the new album Voulez-Vous were made, which eventually would take up far more time than expected.

The year 1978 seems to have started off quietly for ABBA. After ‘ABBA – The Album’, the movie and the birth of Björn and Agnetha’s son (who was baptized under the name Peter Christian on the first day of Easter), we have heard very little from Anni-Frid, Benny, Agnetha and Björn. But that’s just a front: behind the scenes ABBA is slaving away. Or, like Benny puts it: “A quiet period of time; it’s just a lot of hard work.”

The two latest albums ‘Arrival’ and ‘The Album’ are still selling millions of copies. But as it happens, a pop group just can’t sit still. That’s not any different for ABBA: a lot of hard work is being put into the successor.
That’s why Björn and Benny are in each other’s company day in and day out, exchanging musical ideas and trying to write new songs.

They’ve developed a tight working schedule: five days a week from 10 o’clock in the morning till 5 o’clock in the afternoon, with a lunch break of one hour. That means 30 hours a week. Thirty hours on the piano and on the guitar, mostly at Agnetha and Björn’s home (after all, they do have to get up early, with two small children at home!).
“The first two weeks we didn’t get anywhere,” Björn says. “It’s always difficult to get that stream of creativity flowing. But luckily I can now say that we’ve finally developed a couple of terrific ideas; we’re very satisfied with it ourselves.”

Anni-Frid and Agnetha don’t sit still either. Anni-Frid is taking singing and dancing lessons. Her singing coach is Inga Sundström, a very well-known lady in Sweden. She’s getting dancing lessons from ballet teacher Graham Tainton, an American that emigrated to Sweden, he also guided Agnetha before her son was born.
In the evenings, Björn and Agnetha mostly stay in, for the sake of the children, and they are rarely seen in the city. But Anni-Frid’s shiny Maserati can regularly be found parked in front of the better restaurants in Stockholm: Benny and Anni-Frid are more outgoing than their friends. “Still, we really don’t party day and night,” Benny says. “Some people think that ABBA leads a life of movie stars, but that’s not true. We’re enjoying our lives, that’s true. But you don’t accomplish anything without work.”

Still, in Sweden the spring has started as well and that means that Benny has taken out his boat (an extremely luxurious cruiser), Anni-Frid has dug up her tennis shoes and Björn and Agnetha have taken out their garden furniture. Because it’s not all work and no play for ABBA...

Tros Kompas, June 1985: The story of ABBA

TV-guide announcement of the repeated broadcast of The story of ABBA. It featured one of the last joint interviews with the four group members and it was first broadcast on December 12, 1982. I remember this well since this was my birthday and I couldn't be part of the celebrations because obviously I had to watch this...
1974. ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest. The breakthrough of a Swedish group. After that, the foursome conquers the world by storm. At a high pace, ABBA makes extremely successful records, promotional videos, movies, concert tours and is even successful in the business world.
Agnetha Fältskog: “How happy we all were in the beginning. We were just married and had an unbelievable success. Of course, this couldn’t last. For years, we were together 24 hours a day and worked like madmen. Even during our holidays, Björn and Benny kept on composing songs. In the end, it all got too much.”
The result is widely known: the ABBA-couples separated and the group was dissolved some time later. Because of its overwhelming success, the fantastic ABBA-story is brought to the screen again tonight by Veronica.

Hitkrant, November 1982: Frida moves

A small news item about Frida moving to London in 1982.
Last week, it has been revealed that ABBA’s Frida Lyngstad will not only leave Stockholm, but Sweden as well: she’s going to reside in London. Frida stated that the reason for this decision is that she is in need of anonymity; allegedly she has become too well-known in Sweden which could be an obstacle for the continuation of her career. Frida emphasized that there are no disagreements within ABBA and that she will keep on working with the group.
In Sweden, it is suggested that the new government, that has announced drastic changes in tax legislation, might be the cause of the departure of the 37-year-old millionaire. Frida’s 15-year-old daughter Lotta, who’s in high school in America, and son Hans, who works as a studio technician in Sweden, stay where they are.