Mikory's ABBA-blog

Great interview with Frida & Björn

A huge thank you to Torgen in Berlin, who kindly sent me the link to his fantastic interview with Frida and Björn. It's great to see someone who is a fan getting the chance to talk to them.

Fun fact: I didn't know Frida made the 1973 Melodifestival outfits (remember the "tent" the highly pregnant Agnetha wore and Frida's canary yellow outfit)! Then again Björn didn't know either, but does he ever? ;)

Björn and Frida in Germany

As most of you know by now, Björn and Frida attended the opening of "Mamma Mia!" in Berlin. Here's a great picture of the pair when they took their walk from Brandenburger Tor to the Reichstag.
     A big thank you to Thomas in Germany for the photo.

In bade taste...

... in my opinion. Swedish author Fredrik Strage (who btw recently got arrested for possession of cocaine) wrote a book called "Fans". Now the book has been adapted into a play and guess who was invited to the premiere:

You guessed right, former fiancee and stalker of ABBA Agnetha Faltskog, Dutch Citizen Gert van der Graaf, here photographed at the  premiere of the play "Fans" at the Orion Theatre (click the link for the theatre and you will see some pics of the people playing stars and fans...) in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 2007. Graaf became a stalker of ABBA-Agnetha and was expelled from Sweden with a court order not to apporach the former ABBA-star.

ABBA idols of 1975

The most popular idols of 1975 in Sweden. From Allers magazine. 

These fantastic photos will sell ABBA to the Soviet Union and Japan

From Hänt I Veckan issue 37, 1978. Now you will be able to see ABBA on TV - twice!

The most requested TV-show in Sweden is ABBA in their own show. And now it's becoming a reality. The pressure from the Swedish viewers has been very strong, ABBA are the last to deny it. It hasn't been a matter of the group asking for too much money, though, but only lack of time.
     But now, Hänt can reveal the plans for a new co-production between Swedish TV1 and British BBC. A 30-minute TV-special will be aired before Christmas.
     ABBA-fans don't have to wait that long though to see their idols. In November TV1 will air the talked about show ABBA recorded with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, The show was aired in the US in May of this year as a start of the campaign of promoting ABBA as "The Swedish Super Group ABBA", which resulted in a huge success: two platinum awards for the albums ABBA Greatest Hits and ABBA - The Album, both sold over 1 million records.
     So now when America has been conqured Stikkan sets his eyes on Japan.
     - Things have started to take off there, he tells us at Hänt I Veckan. In June of this year no less than three ABBA-shows were shown on Japanese TV, among them the Olivia Newton-John show and now we have been invited to Japan to record an hour long show.
     In the middle of November the group will travel to Tokyo, with some quick stops in the US for guest appearances on American shows.
     In Tokyo the Swedish embassy will host a reception for 250 journalists, radio- and TV-people.
     There will not be any concert tours this year. Maybe next year, 1979.
     - We have plenty of offers and it would be impossible to do them all, says Stikkan. We have also received an offer of a Far Eastern tour that we are considering. It would include Bangkok, Hongkong, Singapore, Manila, Tokyo and Osaka. If it happens we would like to end the concert tour in Moscow.
     At the moment ABBA are working hard in their own studio. A new single "Summer Night City" has already been released and the new album is expected to be available in the shops before Christmas.
     The summer of 1978 has been a special time for ABBA. For the first summer in many years they have treated themselves to a proper holiday. Ever since 1974, with their big break with "Waterloo" every summer has been spent travelling around making TV-appearences  abroad and most of all they have worked, writing new material for upcoming albums. In the dark recording studio ABBA hardly notices that there's summer outside. They spend up till 12 hours a day in the studio. Several times Björn has joked with Hänt I Veckan saying that he should have become a teacher instead so he would have been able to have eight weeks free every summer. That would have meant I could have been out sailing now.
     This summer it was decided to plan the work so a long summer holiday would be possible. Since ABBA now have their own recording studio they don't have to wait their turn when they want to record something.
     The summer has mostly been spend on the groups island in the Stockholm archipelago. Benny and Frida started their holidays with a couple of weeks in the West Indies. Agnetha and Björn has spent that time together with their children on the island.
      When the weather has allowed them, they have been out sailing. Björn Ulvaeus is born and raised in Västervi and has always been keen on sailing.
     Benny and Frida live their lives a little more intense and quick, In the middle of July they bought their high speed motor boat for a couple of millions. With their new boat Frida and Benny have travelled around the West coast of Sweden, from the Stockolm archipelago down to Båstad and the West cost.
     Every now and then the two couples have met up at their island in the Stockholm archipelago, where Björn and Benny has made good use of the time and spent some time writing new material together. The result of these summer work we will all be able to hear, before Christmas.

Just one comment from me - Björn what were you thinking when you wore thos red short-shorts...?  :D

Frida attended "Sun Flower Jam" for the 2nd time

As you can see in this picture a very happy and relaxed Frida attended the "Sun Flower Jam" concert in London last week.
     To see pictures of Frida from last year you can go to: http://www.thesunflowerjam.com/the-sunflower-jam-2006.html

Thanks to ABBA-Scots on the ABBA discussion board.

The guy with Frida on the pic to the right is Paul from the UK, you know the one kissing Frida at the 5th anniversary in London in 2004. What a lucky man!

Just one example of how Photoshop is used.

Found this before and after picture of Agnetha circa 1975. This example is very simply executed, but gives you an idea on how much retouching any photo of the Artists of the day ...

:)

ABBA on cover of Dutch magazine

In an article in a Dutch magazine called HP De Tijd from 28 September 2007 the following article accompanied the (very nice - click to enlarge) ABBA photo on the cover:

ABBA
Swedish hitmachine with vocals from Anni-Frid (the dark one) and Agnetha (the blonde one) and compositions from their somewhat incompatible looking men Benny (the one with the beard) and Björn (the other one).
     Back then their music was regarded by experts as commercial trash pop music for infants, but nowadays Benny and Björn are seen as the Lennon & McCartney of the Seventies.
     An ABBA reunion could be the most profitable of all times, but according to insiders that's just as likely as the comeback of John Denver.

Thanks to my good friend in the Netherlands for providing the scans and the translation.

VeckoRevyn 1977: First pictures from ABBA's movie

This article was published in VeckoRevyn on July 6, 1977.

Soon it will be finished - ABBA's movie. The other day one of the last scenes were shot. On a boat on a canal in Djurgården. Now the director Lasse Hallström will have to edit all the footage together, he has filmed thousands of metres. He thinks the film will be ready for premiere in November. The whole world is waiting for the movie. At least that is what Stikkan Anderson believes. Because of that he has spent a lot of money on the making of the film. Spare no cost, is what he has said. The movie is made in widescreen format and with stereo sound.
     Stikkan isn't the only producer though. An Australian company has put up half of the money. The storyline? A radio reporter gets assigned to get an interview with the group. He thinks it will be an easy task, but it turns out to be difficult. There will be a lot of complicating factors and wild chases. It's meant to be entertaining. We will see...

The captions under the pictures read: Frida likes fast cars. She arrived at the shoot in this one year old Maserati. Agnetha cools herself with a Ramlösa. In November she will give birth to her second child. The movie will be ready around the same time.  Benny has made a movie before. With Hep Stars. It ended in fiasco. The film was thrown away. [On the boat] A dramatic scene. Anni-Frid and Agnetha are up to something. We will get to know what in November.

ABBA in French magazine 1977

This is just  a picture of ABBA from a French magazine called "Salut" 1977. I always liked this picture.
      I have the complete magazine left and I found that I paid SEK 4.95 (which was my whole weekly allowance back then) just for a picture in a magazine I couldn't understand a word of. The sacrifices we made for our love of ABBA...