Books about ABBA and related subjects

The Australian, September 1, 2001

ABBA's SOS: author reveals band's darker moments

By Jennifer Sexton

In Sweden there's one ABBA tribute band that does OK, but here there are four who are constantly performing.

Australia is also host to half a dozen websites, a few fan clubs and Mamma Mia, the ABBA musical, has been a bumper success, selling a capacity 250,000 tickets since opening in Melbourne in June.

Such is the local ABBA mania that author Carl Magnus Palm has dropped his home city of Stockholm for the launch of his unauthorised biography on the Swedish super-group, and will instead do the honours in Melbourne next Thursday.

He's even dedicated a chapter of his book, Bright Lights: Dark Shadows, to Australia. Why ? "It's not in the Swedish nature to go ga-ga over something like this," Palm said yesterday in Sydney. "If you explore ABBA from a fame point of view, nothing was bigger than what happened in Australia. What happened here on tour in 1976 was just mind-blowing."

And it goes on to this day. Benny is over the attention and wondering when people will start listening to something new, Palm says. But Agnetha - whose farm gate outside Stockholm is to this day a gathering point for fans vying for a glimpse - has been hit hard by fame. "My impression is she really regrets ever becoming a public figure."

Almost 30 years after they first hit the scene, none of the group would agree to be interviewed for the book. "They're not interested in collaborating on any more books".

ABBA colleagues and former friends told Palm that three years after recording their first album, "Ring Ring", the group were "basically over the whole fame bit" but their popularity continued to rise with the release in 1976 of "Dancing Queen". "In reality they wanted to be left alone," he says.

The group's saccharine exterior belied explosive scenes in the studio, where the men would push the women to hit ever-higher notes and the women would scream in protest.

SAYINGS OF THE SUPER-BAND

"I love being an artist, but I'm not sure I'm among those who will survive" - Frida, pre-ABBA in the late 1960s.

"They (Bjorn and Benny) thought the name ABBA (also a Swedish fish company) smelled of canned fish. But it was an excellent name in an international perspective." - Manager, Stig Anderson.

"As individuals, ABBA are just as unknown to us as Adam's pyjamas. That's why Australian's want to know all about you" - Nine network's Lyle McCabe during ABBA's 1976 Australian tour.

"Of course Frida and I are two hot tempered personalities. But we've never come to blows" - Agnetha in 1975