When I met ABBA in 1974

In October 1974 ABBA was preparing for their first international live concert tour. They needed a place to rehearse so they rented the auditorium of Rudbecksskolan in Sollentuna, just outside of Stockholm for two weeks. Lucky for me! My father was the principal of that school...
     Every day after school I took the bus to my father's school. He would let me in to the projector room in the back of the auditorium. There, in the dark (so I wouldn't get noticed), I sat for hours watching my idols rehearsing. There was a lot of arguments, Frida storming out after disagreeing with Benny, Agnetha singing out of key and getting bad looks from Björn and so forth. But mostly there was beautiful music being made. I got to hear new songs like "So Long", "Hey Hey Helen" and "I've Been Waiting For You" to name a few. One day I saw Agnetha go into the restrooms outside of the auditorium so I waited for her. When she came out I asked her for an autograph. She was very sweet and signed for me immediately. Then she asked me if I would like to meet the others and get their autographs as well. Would I? So she let me in to the auditorium and I got to meet Frida, Benny and Björn. Frida was really sweet to me, asked me how old I was and so on. Benny and Björn seemed a little annoyed since they were actually working and I guess they didn't want to be interrupted but they signed for me anyway.
     After the two weeks of rehearsal ABBA gave a free concert for the students of the school. My father sneaked me in through the stagedoor so I ended up on the first row. I was so thrilled. I couldn't believe they were just centimetres away from me performing. The concert was a huge success and ABBA seemed happy that they got such a good reaction to their new show.
     Frida and Björn left straight away after the show. Benny and Agnetha were still around and my father knocked on the stage door and asked if it was OK if I came in for a minute. Agnetha came over to me and talked to me for a while, asking me which song I liked best etc. Benny gave me the sheet music for the "Waterloo" album, which they had used during the concert. He was totally exhausted and dripping with sweat, he had taken his shirt off. I was so much in "shock" that I forgot to ask him to sign the sheet music, but it didn't matter.

I found this aricle in Wermlands Folkblad recently. This guy who now is a journalist was a student at the school: "It was at the end of 1974 when suddenly Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Benny and Björn were standing there in the cafeteria line at Rudbecksskolan in Sollentuna. Sure, they were famous even then, but no way near the super star status they would achieve later on. So what were they doing among the pimple faced teenagers in a Stockholm suburb? They had rented the school auditorium to rehearse for their upcoming tour. I've always wondered how that would have worked today, 30 years later. Probably not at all. The school would have been sieged with reporters and all doors would have been locked. But this was in the 70's and the Swedish media couldn't care less what ABBA were doing. They even treated the school's students to a free concert and they didn't need any security or fences, no chance of a riot."
     The pictures in this post are from the school and the rehearsals. I have been looking for years to find some, my mother wouldn't let me take my father's camera to the school so I never got to take an pictures...

Comments

[roland]

Thanks for sharing this amazing story, I love it!

[Magdalena]

Oh, God! You were so lucky!