GERMAN TV TO SCREEN ABBA SPECIAL

The private German TV channel Kabel 1 will screen a special show dedicated to the Swedish pop group ABBA, simply called ABBA - die Show, on Wednesday. The show will start at 20:15 CET.

The content of the show is described like this: How was ABBA formed? How did the four Swedish people conquer the whole world? What are they doing now? 'ABBA - die Show' will answer all these questions, starting with the fabled begin of the band and ending with the current ABBA cult.

Comedian Ingolf Lück will host the show. The whole guest list isn't published yet, but it is already known that comedian Wigald Boning and moderator Sonja Kraus will be there.

At 22:30 CET, Kabel 1 will broadcast another ABBA special: Formel 1 - ABBA forever. Formel 1 was a famous German music show in the 80s and Peter Illmann, Stefanie Tücking and Kai Böcking will show the ABBA highlights. Last but not least, at 22:50 CET ABBA - the movie will be screened. The film was produced in 1977 by Lasse Hallström and shows an ABBA tour through Australia and New Zealand. 20 ABBA songs are presented in this movie.

In 1974, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with their song Waterloo. Last Saturday, this song was voted the best song ever in the contest.

From the website www.esctoday.com

====================================

ABBAMAILer Ronnie Mehlis gives us some more information.....

First of all here is the link to Kabel 1: http://www.kabeleins.de/games/?23346

According to an email I got from Kabel 1, one of ABBA is going to make a special appearance on that show that deals with the history of the group. They will show clips from ABBA and have people perform ABBA-songs and also promote for ABBA The Movie on DVD.

Also interesting will be The Best of Formel Eins, a look back at the time of ABBA and after with clips and discussion what made the music popular.

The final thing will be a screening of ABBA The Movie on this ABBA-evening.

ABBA'S ULTIMATUM: THE RESULT IN ADVANCE

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,721608,00.html

ABBA's ultimatum: the result in advance

The dealings behind the supergroup's refusal to attend the schlager fest

ABBA demanded to get the results in advance.

Several sources of the production now tell why the Swedish supergroup didn't accept the prize at the Eurovision Song Contest's anniversary gala.

- It isn't true, says the group's spokeswoman Görel Hanser.

The disappointment and anger was huge among the Swedish TV-viewers last Saturday.

Europe's viewers had voted ABBA's "Waterloo" the schlager song of all time in a live broadcast in the anniversary program "Congratulations".

But no-one in the group was there to accept the prize.

Could have had a secret room

Danish DR (Danish TV) was responsible for the broadcast.

And now several sources in the production team talk about the dealings regarding ABBA's participation.

- Someone in ABBA's staff asked if they could receive any indications if they would win or not. But they were told that it wasn't possible since the voting would take place during the broadcast. However, they were told that ABBA was at the top of the secret vote which had been arranged on the Internet, says an initiated source of the production team.

Sources say that DR was ready to do a lot to get at least Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to Copenhagen.

- There were plans to let them stay in a secret room or somewhere else in Copenhagen during the broadcast. And if they won, they would be taken to the arena, a source says.

ABBA was nevertheless indifferent towards the idea.

During the discussion the idea to let Benny Anderssons Orkester perform during the gala was also presented. But that idea was also rejected.

"Never made a demand"

Görel Hanser, ABBA's spokeswoman, is surprised over the accusations.

She means that they're all based on a misunderstanding.

- I have never made such a demand. On one occasion I asked if they would know the results before the broadcast. But it was only because I didn't know how everything would work, she says.

By Dan Panas and Jan Eriksen

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Claes Davidsson, Orlando, Florida, USA

BENNY IN USA: TICKETS ON SALE

The link is up to order your tickets for the BAO performance in Minnesota on March 18, 2006.

http://www.americanswedishinst.org/special.htm

A Midsommar NightÂ’s Dream with Benny Andersson will take place at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel. Proceeds from this landmark event will benefit the American Swedish Institute. For more information, call Marc Johnson at (612) 870-3354, or order your tickets online through our secure server.

This is a dinner-dance type of event, with tables set up in rounds of 8, and the Sheraton should be offering discounts on the room rate.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Laura Hitchens, New York, USA

NEW BOOK FOR 2006

This is the the cover for a new ABBA book due to be published in September 2006, called "Thank You For the Music: The Inside Story of how ABBA and Mamma-Mia! Rewrote Musical History and had the Time of their Lives". The author is listed as being Benny, though I doubt that is very likely... but I could be wrong!

Anyway, Amazon.co.uk are taking pre-orders for the book:
http://tinyurl.com/9gcsg

Thanks to ABBAMAIL website regular Craig Martin, Ipswich, United Kingdom

AGNETHA CORRECTED REMASTER: HOW TO TELL

I would like to let you know how you can recognise the corrected remaster of Agnetha's CD "Wrap Your Arms Around Me".

On the inner side of the CD there is the Catalogue number and just next to it there have to be the digits 03 (the 3rd edition): 06024 986 876-9 03. Click on the picture above to see a larger version.

If your CD has got the digits 01 or 02, you should contact your local Universal Music company. You will get then a replacement CD.

Thanks to ABBA fan Harald Langmann, Austria

NO MORE ANDERSON RECORDS

The record company of Marie Ledin, Anderson Records does not exist anymore anymore.

The Anderson Records website which was created by ABBAMAILer Rob Beuvig was removed yesterday. Anderson Records' star attraction (and Marie's husband) Tomas Ledin, will be on another record label and will continue making records.

Marie will do something new which has nothing to do with the music business and Rob will work on website for this new project.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Rob Beuving, Assen, The Netherlands

MADONNA'S ABBA SINGLE HITS US CHARTS

Madonna scores 51st entry on U.S. singles chart

By Fred Bronson

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Madonna made her debut on Billboard‘s Hot 100 singles chart 22 years ago with "Holiday."

This week, she scored her 51st chart entry as "Hung Up," the first track from her November 15 release, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," made a lofty entrance at No. 20. It‘s the sixth Madonna song to debut in the top 20, and the first since "Ray of Light" beamed onto the list at No. 5 in 1998.

"Ray of Light," debuted at No. 5 (1998)
"Frozen," No. 8 (1998)
"Rescue Me," No. 15 (1991)

"Hung Up" is already Madonna‘s highest-charting single since "Die Another Day" peaked at No. 8 three years ago. Of Madonna‘s 51 chart entries, 42 have placed in the top 20. If "Hung Up" continues its journey up the Hot 100, it could become the 36th Madonna song to land in the top 10.

"Hung Up" brings two familiar names back to the Hot 100 after an absence of 20 years. Since "Hung Up" is based on ABBA‘s "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are included in the songwriting credits. This marks their first appearance on the Hot 100 since 1985, when Murray Head went to No. 3 with Bjorn and Benny‘s "One Night in Bangkok" (written with Tim Rice), from the musical "Chess."

As songwriters, Ulvaeus and Andersson have a chart span that is now extended to 31 years, dating back to the 1974 debut of ABBA‘s "Waterloo" on the Hot 100.

It‘s been a good week for the two male members of ABBA. On October 22, "Waterloo" was named the favorite Eurovision Song Contest winner of all time by viewers of a European TV special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the competition.

Reuters/Billboard

Thanks to ABBAMAIL website regular Graeme Dempsey, Canada

GOLDS JUMPS BACK IN SWEDEN

Maybe this Eurovision malarkey has had a positive effect. "ABBA GOLD" has crashed back into the Swedish album charts at No. 10.

And the wonderful Nanne's new album "Alltid på väg" has entered the charts at number 7. Her single has also entered at number 7. It really has been a great year for Nanne - and deservedly so.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Grant Whittingham, Sydney, Australia

POOR GERT.................NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Expressen has talked to Agnetha's stalker Gert and apparently he thinks he's being persecuted in reverse. Poor baby... yeah right!!! Here's my translation.

---------------------

http://www.expressen.se/index.jsp?a=459484

The Agnetha-man: I myself am persecuted

The Agnetha-man Gert van der Graaf allegedly is in Sweden again. But he firmly denies it. He himself feels persecuted.

- I haven't been to Sweden in three years, he says to Expressen.

As Expressen reported last Sunday, the police had received information that Gert van der Graaf, the man who was convicted of stalking Agnetha Fältskog, had been spotted in Sweden again.

According to the person who reported it, last Friday he was parked in a white car outside the superstar's home on Ekerö.

"Has a strong alibi"

The information supposedly made Agnetha Fältskog isolate herself in her house.

- It's stressful for her. She doesn't dare to go out, a close friend said last Saturday.

The information has made Gert van der Graaf react strongly.

- I haven't been to Sweden in three years, he says.

He says he has a strong alibi for last weekend and that the information is only meanspirited slander - persecution in reverse.

- It's sensational gossip. There's no evidence.

He's afraid that it may affect his life in the Netherlands.

"Could destroy my life"

- It could destroy my whole life, he says.

Since Gert van der Graaf was sentenced with a restraining order, the ABBA-star's neighbors and the public on Ekerö have called the police several times to report that he had been seen in the surroundings.

- Of course they may be mistaken, a police source tells Expressen.

Gert van der Graaf is also upset with how the information is affecting Fältskog.

- She should receive an apology, he says.

By Terese Cristiansson

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Claes Davidsson, Florida, USA

NEW BOX SET: FIRST REVIEW

Pop CD
ABBA, The Complete Studio Recordings

*** (Universal)

Alexis Petridis
Friday October 28, 2005
The Guardian

The author's photograph in Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung says it all. The late rock critic is fixing the camera with a baleful, distressed glare and pulling open his jacket to reveal a promotional T-shirt. "ABBA," it reads. "THE LARGEST-SELLING GROUP IN THE HISTORY OF RECORDED MUSIC." Bangs may have spent the 1970s championing music every other critic believed unworthy, but clearly even he drew the line somewhere. Thirty years ago, the idea that ABBA might be worthy not just of serious consideration, but of a nine-CD, two-DVD box set collecting their every studio recording and video, would have been both bizarre and hilarious, rather like Ken Burns making a 10-part PBS documentary series about the Cheeky Girls.

Even now, The Complete Studio Recordings seems slightly incongruous. Today, only the priggish would dispute Dancing Queen's place among the greatest singles ever made. Yet ABBA have never been entirely rehabilitated. A faint odour of naffness clings; the spectre of Alan Partridge hovers over their ouevre. Their cause is little aided by TV tributes like Abbamania, featuring Hollyoaks actors reinterpreting their back catalogue in much the same way as the 1906 earthquake reinterpreted the architecture of San Francisco. The few "serious" musicians who dare drop their name make a motley bunch. They include Pete Townshend, the Sex Pistols, the Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie, industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle and Madonna. It sounds like a seating plan for the world's most catastrophic dinner party.

Initially, The Complete Studio Recordings sounds pretty catastrophic itself. Their 1972 debut Ring Ring is unspeakable. In Lukas Moodysson's film Together, ABBA's music symbolises a glamorous life that exists somewhere beyond the grim walls of a 1970s Stockholm commune, but He Is Your Brother and People Need Love sound more like something its inhabitants might enjoy: limp, hippy sentiments over oompah pop, as grey and lumpy as oatmeal. The latter song features yodelling.

Waterloo (1974) has a loveable brashness and, crucially, no yodelling, which counts as an improvement, but 1975's ABBA births songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' signature style: glossy harmonies, subtle orchestration, glam power chords, a melodic sense they claimed was derived from Swedish folk music, a certain fearlessness regarding hooks lesser writers might have considered too obvious, and a predilection for tick-tock rhythms as clipped as Agnetha and Anni-Frid's accented vocals. A year later, Andersson and Ulvaeus were on a remarkable roll, writing songs almost dreamlike in their perfection. Not just the singles - Dancing Queen, Money Money Money, Knowing Me Knowing You, The Name of the Game and Take a Chance on Me - but album tracks too: the glorious, expansive Eagle, the gripping Tiger. And yet Arrival and its follow up The Album still seem less like a product of the 1970s than the early 1960s, when LPs were afterthoughts, rushed out under pressure and padded with filler. One difference: a 1960s album's filler was forgettable, not an adjective applicable to Arrival's Dum Dum Diddle. ABBA had written some weird lyrics before - What About Livingstone? admonished Swedish youth for their disinterest in great explorers, while Sitting in a Palm Tree concerned a man who dealt with romantic rejection by sitting in a palm tree ("I will stay here among my coconuts") - but Dum Dum Diddle is something else. It is a song about a woman who feels sexually threatened by her partner's violin. "You are only smilin'," she alleges, "when you play your violin/ I wish I was - dum dum diddle - your darling fiddle." That was the thing about ABBA. They either made you feel like you had temporarily ascended to heaven or they made you feel like sawing your own head off with embarrassment. The one thing they couldn't do was mediocre.

Ironically, as ABBA began to fall apart, they got really good at making consistent albums. Penultimate effort Super Trouper is a remarkable musical slight-of-hand: beneath the irrepressible melodies lurks one of the dourest records ever to be palmed off as pop music. There's something unsettling behind Lay All Your Love On Me's shimmering disco, while the mind boggles at how many suburban parties on December 31st 1980 must have been blithely soundtracked by Happy New Year, its blissful singalong chorus deafening listeners to lyrics that slump on the stairs, drunk and sobbing inconsolably: "The dreams we had before are all dead, we might as well lay down and die."

Finally came The Visitors - gloomier and more sophisticated still, the last vestiges of schmaltz eradicated in favour of chilly synthesizers. The title track sounds, unbelievably, like Tomorrow Never Knows and Joy Division's Decades being simultaneously fed through some kind of Nordic pop computer. It's a sound far removed from the usual perception of ABBA: platform-booted, lightweight, ripe for reinterpretation by the cast of Hollyoaks. That image may be too deeply embedded to ever be shifted, but along with ABBA's various flaws, The Complete Studio Recordings reveals some startling hidden depths.

Thanks to ABBAMAIL website regular Graeme Dempsey, Canada

ABBA ARE FOR GAYS?

I found this little article in A Dutch gay magazine called "Gay and Night"' ,

-----------------------------
Simple minds singer Jim Kerr says ABBA songs are for gays. The 46 year old singer claimed

Only his gay friends listened to ABBA. Kerr made the statement when a Flemish newspaper pointed out the similarity between the song jeweller on the new SM album and the old ABBA hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!.

The newspaper suggested the middle section of the song had been plagiarised. "that can't be true, I don't have any ABBA at home,"Kerr responded.

On listening to the ABBA track, Kerr admitted a similarity but said that "if anyone had pointed out to me during the recording, we certainly would have changed that part." He claims never to have heard anything by the Swedish popgroup. SM formed back in 1978 and broke through worldwide in 1985 with Don't you(forget about me).
The band sold more than 20 million albums worldwide

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Jeroen Schol, The Netherlands

LEGAL ISSUES UNRESOLVED?

The latest rumour about ABBA - The Movie's non-release on DVD in the USA is that it is because of unresolved legal issues between Universal Music and Warner Bros (who originally were to release their own version in the USA).

We do not have confirmation of this as yet. The full story of the Warner Vs Universal situation is on ABBAMAIL's ABBA - The Movie page.

Graeme Read
ABBAMAIL Administration (with thanks to various ABBAMAIL website regulars and ABBAMAIL mailing list members)

ABBA BOX SET DVDS IN INFERIOR FORMAT

The DVDs included with the $200+ box set, The Complete Studio Recordings, due for release next month, are only available in NTSC format.

Despite ABBA's biggest markets being the UK and Europe which use the PAL colour system, Universal Sweden has apparently decided to only produce the included DVDs in NTSC.

NTSC (often referred to jokingly as "Never The Same Colour" is an inferior colour system with 525 lines of colour compared to 625 for PAL. It pre-dated PAL and became the standard colour system for the USA, Canada, Japan and a few other countries around the world.

Why have Universal chosen to do this? We have no definite information on that at the moment. The decisions on this box set are apparently being made by Universal in UK, not Sweden. It does appear to be a cost-cutting exercise: in creating the DVD for ABBA - The Movie, the film had to go through an expensive transfer process to get it to play at the correct speed and not 4% faster.

Graeme Read
ABBAMAIL Administration (with some info supplied by ABBAMAILer Ian Cole, Sydney, Australia)

IF YOU WANT TO GET THE MOVIE RELEASED IN THE USA.

ABBAMAIL Forum regular Nedd brings us more information about the unavailability of ABBA - The Movie in the USA. And also provides information for those wanting to contact the company...

========================

I spoke with a guy named Todd Leach from Universal Video Distribution corporation in LA, and he told me that 'ABBA The Movie' "had been dumped by the Universal Music Enterprises that planned this release". He didn't know if the release was cancelled or just delayed.

He told me that all inquires should be directed to Universal Music Enterprises - company responsible for ABBA The Movie DVD release in the US.

I called Universal Music Enterprises at 1-310-865-5000 (it's a switchboard and you need to transfer you to a *particular* executive - I asked for sales VP), and spoke with several people who ultimately told me that ABBA The Movie was not listed in their "DVD to be released" catalog. However, no one knew whether it's a delay or cancellation. They, in turn, told me that all inquires should be directed to Universal Music Enterprises Publicity at 1-310-865-9662.

Anyway for those who want to contact Universal Music Enterprises about ABBA The Movie here's some contact information:

Universal Music Enterprises
Address: 2220 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: 310-865-5000

Key People
• President: Bruce Resnikoff
• CFO: Glen Sanatar
• SVP Sales: Richie Gallo

Universal Music Enterprises Publicity:
1-310-865-9662

CHART NEWS

Here are the chart stats for the week of 21-28 October 2005.

SWEDEN:
Cast Recording - Mamma Mia! (Swedish) - up 3 to #35 (Week 19)
Benny Andersson's Orkester - BAO! - back on at #58 (Week 55)

AUSTRALIA:
ABBA - ABBA The Movie (DVD Chart) - stable at #11 (Week 3)

OFF:
New Zealand - The Definitive Collection DVD
Germany - ABBA The Movie (Album chart)

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

ABBA THE MOVIE DVD: NO-NO FOR USA

It seems the USA release of ABBA - The Movie has been cancelled. Or, at the very least, delayed indefinitely.

USA fans can still get the NTSC version from on-line Canadian stores like Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/ and CDPlus www.cdplus.com

Another place is www.absound.ca which is in Vancouver. They have it for $18.99.

Canada has only released the single disc version.

The double disc NTSC version can be ordered from Japan if you're feeling brave enough! It's expensive (around US$50), but they're getting the 2 disc version in NTSC on 9 November:

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=1465220 (ignore the wrong cover
image)

http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/CSfCardMain.jsp?GOODS_NO=896189&GOODS_
SORT_CD=103 (sorry, this page is in Japanese, I couldn't find a link to an
English version of their site, if they have one)

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UIBO-1076

And remember: it's region 0, despite what any sites have listed, so that's not a worry - it will play in any country's DVD players.

Tower and CD Japan are the cheapest of these three.

Graeme Read
ABBAMAIL Administration (with thanks to ABBAMAILers Ian Cole, Abbi Rosen, Rod Reynolds and others)

EUROVISION TODAY REPORTS: B&B RECEIVE PRIZE

From: www.esctoday.com

In a private ceremony held today, 25th October, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson received the prize from Congraulations. Mårten Aglander, Managing Director of Universal Music Sweden, who attended the live broadcast in Copenhagen and received the prize on behalf of ABBA, presented it to them.

In a short statement on the official ABBA website it’s now told that this event has taken place. The very private ceremony took place somewhere in Stockholm without any media attendance. There are also two small quotes from Björn and Benny with their reactions about winning last Saturday:

"To quote Napoleon: Apparently, Waterloo cannot be forgotten", says Björn Ulvaeus. "Personally, I voted for Volare, but I’m happy that so many people voted for us", says Benny Andersson.

Some were disappointed that not even a single member from ABBA showed up in Copenhagen last Saturday. Earlier, Benny Andersson told Swedish media that "it was great fun back in 1974, but we split up in 1982. It's over now, really". Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad have, so far, not commented their victory.

In many interviews during the past years the ABBA members have explained that the Eurovision Song Contest is indeed a great and happy memory, but they have all moved on with their lives and careers and prefer not to look back to often. In a TV-interview on Swedish TV4, earlier this year, Agnetha Fälstskog said that winning the Eurovision Song Contest was one of the happiest memories in my life.

Although history, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are still deeply involved with the music of ABBA, as they are working with the productions of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia worldwide. Earlier this year all the members of ABBA was under the same roof when they attended the Swedish premiere of Mamma Mia in Stockholm. This was probably the last time ever that the world will see all the members of ABBA present at the same place at the same time.

To conclude all of this: ABBA will still and always be a part of the living memory and history of the Eurovision Song Contest, but for the members of ABBA the contest seems to have become history. Esctoday.com would like to add: The history book on the shelf... is always repeating itself!

EUROVISION ABBA BACKLASH REACHES ABBAMAIL

From time to time people send emails to ABBAMAIL HQ believing that we *are* ABBA. We get emails addressed to the individual members of ABBA as well as proposals for ABBA to do concerts, stage Mamma Mia! in various countries and so on.

But we did not expect to be caught up in the anti-ABBA sentiment that is happening in Sweden at the moment after ABBA's failure to contribute to "Congratulations", the celebration of 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest.

We received this email from a very upset Swede last night:


"Vad håller ni på med? jag skäms att vara Svensk.
Är ni så jävla ouppnåeliga så ni inte ens kan samlas och ta emot ett pris som hela Europa har röstat fram.
Jag lovar att radera, slänga alla mina ABBA-låtar och adrig mer nämna ert namn på mina läppar. Det största svek inom svensk musik någonsin.
Fortsätt att spela Gud.
Jag är chockad. ( Fy fan )

Rolf"

The translation reads:
"What are you doing? I'm ashamed to be Swedish.
Are you so fucking unreachable that you can't even get together to accept an award that the whole of Europe has voted on?
I promise to erase, throw away all my ABBA songs and never again will your name pass my lips. The biggest treachery in Swedish music ever.
Keep on playing God.
I am shocked. ( Hell )

Rolf"

---------------------

Hey Rolf (and everyone): we're not ABBA. We're a fan organisation run by people who have been ABBA fans for over thirty years. We see the good sides and the bad sides of ABBA and we report the news as it happens. We do understand your frustration both as Swede and as an ABBA fan.

We also think that the members of ABBA made a major mistake in not contributing to the ESC "Congratulations" telecast in any way. And we also think Benny's comments to Swedish newspapers were very ungracious. But hey, *we're* not ABBA, we're ABBAMAIL!

People: you need to direct any comments like this to ABBA themselves, not ABBAMAIL.

Graeme Read
ABBAMAIL Administration

HUGE UPROAR OVER ABBA'S NO-SHOW AT EUROVISION GALA

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,717964,00.html

Huge uproar over ABBA

Now viewers and TV-management are upset

COPENHAGEN. ABBA declining to attend the schlager gala caused an uproar last night. Now both viewers and TV-management are upset with the super group.

- All fans were worth having them attend, says the European Broadcasting Union-director Svante Stockselius.

Millions of TV-viewers throughout Europe have had their say.

ABBA's "Waterloo" is the best schlager ever.

But neither one from the super group was on location in Copenhagen to accept the prize.

- No, it didn't happen this time, says Benny Andersson on the phone with Aftonbladet after the broadcast.

Should have attended

That ABBA turned down the broadcast caused a huge uproar with the schlager management at the centre.

- It's a shame that no-one from ABBA could accept the prize. It was after all with the Eurovision Song Contest that their career started.

- One single time it's an anniversary and it only takes one hour to fly to Copenhagen, says Svante Stockselius, director of the TV-union EBU which arranged the gala.

He had had long discussions with ABBA, trying everything to make them attend.

"No explanation"

- We had offered various solutions. I haven't received any explanation to why they didn't attend, says Stockselius.

Even Aftonbladet's readers were upset that the group turned down the prestige filled gala.

Benny Andersson says:

- It would have been one thing if all of us could have gone, but if only one or two would have attended, there wouldn't have been any reason to go.

Happy over the prize

He is proud and happy over the prize, but just watched parts of the big gala.

- I watched it on and off. I'm not very interested in schlager anymore. It has become so big and a lot of it and so long, says Benny Andersson.

By Tobias Lindner

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Claes Davidsson, Orlando, Florida, USA

BENNY'S ILL-CHOSEN RESPONSE TO SWEDISH NEWSPAPER

http://www.expressen.se/index.jsp?a=457463

Benny: That's why we didn't come

COPENHAGEN. ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted the best schlager of all time. Still, nobody from ABBA was willing to accept the prize. That made angry TV viewers call Expressen after the broadcast.

Benny Anderson responded to the criticism last night: "We won in 1974. Then it was fun, now it's not fun."

The grand jubilee gala "Congratulations" was broadcast in 25 countries. Last night, millions of Europeans called in and voted for the best song in Eurovision's entire history. When "Waterloo" won, the applause became so loud that the whole arena vibrated.

But the gala ended in an anti-climax.

The audience was anticipating somebody from ABBA, but the hopes were in vain. Instead, a representative of the Universal label, named Mårten Aglander - totally unknown to the public - came on stage to accept the prize. Nobody knew who he was and the applause faded out.

No press conference

Richard Herrey received the big flower bunch and smiled bravely for the photographers. Many in the audience as well as the journalists, were surprised.

Danish TV had prepared a press conference for the winners to follow the gala. It had to be called off.

"It's a shame they've done like this. After all, they got their big breakthrough at Eurovision." said the label's director Bert Karlsson, who was present in Copenhagen.

Last night, Expressen got lots of phone calls from outraged TV viewers who thought it was a disgrace that nobody from ABBA showed up at the gala.

"We split in 1982"

Benny Andersson chose to stay at home and watch TV. When Expressen called and congratulated on the victory, he said calmly:

"Thank you very much, but it's all just a joke."

Many are wondering why you are not here...

"Well, then you can tell them that we split up in 1982."

But you are still there, right?

"Yes, each has a life of their own."

Would you want to be here now?

"If I may choose: no. There's a time and place for everything, as it's written in the Bible. We won in 1974, that's what, 31 years ago? Then it was fun, now it's not fun."
"It's nice that the song is people's favourite, that's what I think. But I don't think it's nice to attend events like this," said Benny Andersson.

* * * *

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Gabriel Zubowski, Otwock, Poland

GERT BACK IN SWEDEN - STALKING AGNETHA

http://www.expressen.se/index.jsp?a=457393

Now she's being stalked - again

EKERÖ. The Agnetha-man Gert van der Graaf is in Sweden again.

In secret he stalks the reclusive ABBA-star outside her farm.

- It's tough and she's nervous. She doesn't dare to go outside, says a close friend.

It's a new tragedy for Agnetha Fältskog, 55, who lives in fear - and who's a prisoner in her own home.

- Things are extra uneasy for her since there's no restraining order for this man anymore, says a friend.

The police have been informed that the Dutchman - which is obsessively in love with the Swedish singer - is back in Sweden.

A couple again

For several years Gert van der Graaf, 39, has stalked and tried to meet Agnetha Fältskog. His goal is that they will become a couple again.

Neighbors out on Ekerö now say that they have seen him drive around in a white Peugeot with Dutch license plates near the exclusive farm by Mälaren.

- He was seen there last Friday. Supposedly also during Saturday, says Expressen's source.

One of the ABBA-star's friends says:

- He hasn't been on the estate yet, but it's uneasy for her knowing he's sneaking around her home. He has no reason to be there, he should go back to the Netherlands.

Yesterday her friends were visiting Agnetha Fältskog's home. They came to offer their support. The ABBA-star is said to be broken down:

- Her neighbors help her and buys her food and other things she needs. She doesn't want or dare to go outside.

A yellow warning sign with the text "Private property, traffic (cars) prohibited" has been displayed at the entrance, which is also lit up. There's also a surveillance camera in one of trees, monitoring all the cars driving up to the house.

Sold the cottage

Four years ago Gert van der Graaf sold his summer cottage which is only a few hundred metres from Agnetha Fältskog's house with a view of Mälaren.

The small white cottage with green trim nowadays has the windows blocked to protect from viewing into it.

- When Gert is in Sweden, his car can usually be seen outside the house, says a source.

By Terese Cristiansson and Magnus Hellberg

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Claes Davidsson, Florida, USA

WATERLOO VOTED EUROVISION'S BEST EVER SONG!

cnn.com reports...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Swedish pop group ABBA's catchy "Waterloo" hit that won the European Song Contest 31 years ago has been voted the best song in the event's history by viewers across the continent.

The legendary Swedes didn't attend Saturday's jubilee show celebrating 50 years of glamour, glitz and catchy pop tunes.

Finishing second to 1974's "Waterloo" was the 1958 winning tune by Italy's Domenico Modugno. His serenade "Nel Blu di Pinto di Blu" is better known as "Volare."

Third was Ireland's Johnny Logan with the hit "Hold me Now" from 1987. Logan won the contest in 1980.

Viewers in 31 countries watched the show live from the Danish capital and cast their votes on the 14 entries by telephone and through telephone text messages -- the same way the winner is selected in the regular Eurovision contest.

The 14 original video recordings -- including many in scratchy black-and-white -- from the annual contests aired during the two-hour show. Some of the past performers appeared on stage at the end of the songs to the cheers.

Visibly moved, members of the Spanish group Mocedades, which came second in 1973, received a standing ovation from the audience of 6,000 at a downtown Copenhagen concert hall.

So did Logan, the four members of British band Brotherhood of Man, which won the title in 1976; and Turkish Sertab Erener, the 2003 winner, among others.

While the votes were being counted, a dozen other past European Song Contest participants -- including Switzerland's Lys Assia, who in 1956 was the first to win the contest -- performed medleys from the annual competition from the past 50 years with Marie Myriam of France (1977), Israel's Dana International (1998) and Greece's Helena Paparizou, who won the 2005 edition.

The show had been titled "Congratulations," after Cliff Richard's second-placed song in the 1968 contest. Richard did not attend the event.

Each year millions of viewers across Europe and the Middle East watch the Eurovision contest, which was created in 1956 by the European Broadcasting Union.

The show is often derided as a showcase of kitsch, and the winners often fade into obscurity -- although it launched the career of supergroup ABBA.

The Swedish band included musicians Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, and singers Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The 1974 win rocketed them to worldwide fame that has outlived the band itself, which split up in the early 1980s.

ABBA WIN EUROVISION 50 YEARS

FROM esctoday.com

Europe has voted; ABBA wins

Congratulations, the anniversary show dedicated to 50 years Eurovision Song Contest. Although the selection method raised the eyebrowes of many, the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest winner can now add a new title to the long, long list; the all-time winner of 50 years Eurovision Song Contest! What else can we say than... Congratulations!

The show
The show itself didn't bring any big surprises. The show's most hilareous moment was Birthe Wilke's intervention in the almost-kiss between Katrina and Renars. Slightly embarrasing was Lys Assia's announcement of Helena Paparizou's song... "what was the song title again?" With all respect for the winner of the first Eurovision Song Contest, of course!

Another remarkable detail was the continuous appearance of Nicole & Hugo in their purple suits; the same fragment of their song Baby, baby was shown four times! On purpose, it appeared after the second voting round, because Nicole & Hugo were there! For the fifth time we had to see them and finally, the sixth time we got the chance to see them for real... in their original purple suits!

The results
Remarkably, fans' favourites Eres tu, Everyway that I can and Congratulations didn't make it to the final five. The songs that made it through the first voting round;

• 1958 - Italy - Domenico Modugno - Nel blu di pinto di blu (Volare)
• 1976 - UK - Brotherhood of Man - Save your kisses for me
• 1974 - Sweden - ABBA - Waterloo
• 2005 - Greece - Helena Paparizou - My number one
• 1987 - Ireland - Johnny Logan - Hold me now

The final results of Congratulations, after the second round of voting, after a medley of many memorable Eurovision Song Contest songs ánd a special Congratulations edition of the Olsen Brother's Walk right back, it was finally time for the results! The grandma on stage with the drums was not the Moldovan one, because the event organisers couldn't find her anymore!

1. 1974 - Sweden - ABBA - Waterloo
2. 1958 - Italy - Domenico Modugno - Nel blu di pinto di blu (Volare)
3. 1987 - Ireland - Johnny Logan - Hold me now
4. 2005 - Greece - Helena Paparizou - My number one
5. 1976 - UK - Brotherhood of Man - Save your kisses for me

6. 2000 - Denmark - Olsen Brothers - Fly on the wings of love
7. 1982 - Germany - Nicole - Ein bißchen Frieden
8. 1968 - United Kingdom - Cliff Richard - Congratulations
9. 2003 - Turkey - Sertab - Everyway that I can
10. 1988 - Switzerland - Céline Dion - Ne partez pas sans moi
11. 1973 - Spain - Mocedades - Eres tu
12. 1980 - Ireland - Johnny Logan - What’s another year
13. 1998 - Israel - Dana International - Diva
14. 1965 - Luxembourg - France Gall - Poupée de cire poupée de son

The full results can be downloaded in PDF-format at the official website, http://www.eurovision.tv/english/2041.htm.

As none of the ABBA members was present in Copenhagen, Mårten Aglander, president of Universal Music Sweden was present to accept the award.

Thanks to esctoday.com and ABBAMAILer Linda Granqvist, Stockholm, Sweden

EUROVISION 50 YEARS

The European Song Contest celebrates 50 years of glamour, glitz and catchy pop tunes with a special jubilee show today that lets viewers in 31 countries pick the best song in the popular event’s history.

Eurovision fans have narrowed the field to 14 songs, including Swedish pop sensation Abba’s 1974 winner Waterloo, Celine Dion’s Swiss entry Ne partez pas sans moi of 1988, and this year’s winner My Number One by Greece’s Helena Paparizou.

The songs will be performed by the original artists or by other performers. Viewers of the show, broadcast live from the Danish capital Copenhagen, will cast their votes on the 14 entries by telephone, in the same way that the winner is selected in the regular Eurovision contest.

The two-hour show will feature performances by British bands Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz, Ireland’s Johnny Logan, Israel’s Dana International, Marie Myriam of France and Swedish singer Carola Haggkvist.

Switzerland’s Lys Assia, who was the contest’s first winner in 1956, also will be on stage along with Paparizou, while Dion will appear in pre-recorded footage.

The show has been titled Congratulations, after Cliff Richard’s second-placed song in the 1968 edition of the contest.

Each year millions of viewers across Europe and the Middle East watch the Eurovision contest, which was created in 1956 by the European Broadcasting Union.

The show is often derided as a showcase of kitsch and the winners often fade into obscurity – although it launched the career of supergroup Abba.

“Either you love or you love to hate it,” Mads Lebech, Copenhagen mayor said on the eve of the anniversary event. ”Anyhow, it’s great entertainment.”

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=160024078&p=y6xxz4784

NEW U.S. DOCUMENTARY IN THE WORKS

There's a new ABBA documentary being made by the US TV network A&E.

Already interviewed for the program are Carl Magnus Palm, Thomas Johansson (ABBA's tour producer), Marie Ledin (daughter of manager Stig Anderson), Lasse Hallström (director of ABBA - The Movie and the group's promo clips), Sid Bernstein (briefly ABBA's American promoter) and Jerry Greenberg (head of Atlantic Records, ABBA's American record company) [Ian's side note: Jerry Greenberg is the "Jerry" mentioned in Hole In Your Soul).

The documentary will apparently be screened in November.

More information:
http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/current/projectsandevents.html
http://www.aetv.com/

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Ian Cole, Sydney, Australia

DVD AD IN MOJO MAGAZINE

There's a half-page ABBA - THE MOVIE DVD advertisement in the November 2005 edition of MOJO magazine from the UK



Thanks to ABBAMAILer Rod Reynolds, Los Angeles, USA

AGNETHA BOX AT BARGAIN PRICE

My favourite cd site now has Agnetha Fältskog - De Första Åren 1967-1979 for 11.95Euro!!

So if you want to get 6 CDs for less than 2 euro each go to: www.cdon.com

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Jack McCarthy, Dublin, Ireland

ABBA CARDBOARD GOLD

Was in the city last night and came across a new release of "ABBA GOLD". It's only a cardboard cover with a plastic CD-holder inside. In the left corner a piece of cardboard is left out so you can easily push the CD-holder out.
On the front a sticker:

"Just The Music"
Original Album Limited Edition
Special Price (No Booklet Included)
12.99 euro.

It looks exactly the same as the 10th anniversary release , 1979 concert picture on the back and it's got the title and ABBA logo on the top and on the side, just like an LP used to have. It's a very nice looking release I have to say, reminds me of the cute DVD-Singles of "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo".

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Lex Corbach, Groningen, The Netherlands

LATEST CHART NEWS

Here are the chart stats for the week of 14-21 October 2005.

NEW ZEALAND:
ABBA - The Definitive Collection - up 1 to #8

SWEDEN:
Cast Recording - Mamma Mia! (Swedish) - down 12 to #38

AUSTRALIA:
ABBA - ABBA The Movie - up 1 to #11

GERMANY:
ABBA - ABBA The Movie - down 43 to #91

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

FRIDA DVD & BOX SET DELAYED!!!

Marie Ledin, head of Anderson Records and co-ordinator of the upcoming Frida Box Set and DVD has advised that they are now delayed until December 5th. The official line given is that more material is to be included and this is what has caused the delay.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Jurgen Parys, Bremen, Germany

MADONNA: 'I begged to use ABBA's song'

Madonna has told how she wrote a grovelling letter to Abba asking if she could use their music on her new single.

The pop superstar wanted to sample Gimme Gimme Gimme for her latest record, Hung Up.

The Swedish band`s songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, rarely let other artists use their tracks.

Madonna told gay magazine Attitude: "I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music, telling them it was an homage to them, which is all true.

"And they had to think about it, Benny and Bjorn. They didn`t say yes straight away. They never let anyone sample their music. They could have said no. Thank God they didn`t."

Andersson said recently: "We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say no.

This is only the second time we have given permission.

"We said yes this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going.

"If it wasn`t any good we wouldn`t have said yes. It is a wonderful track, 100% solid pop music."

The Fugees are the only other act granted the honour, they used a sample from Abba`s The Name Of The Game on their 1996 track Rumble In The Jungle.

Hung Up features on Madonna`s new album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.

"I`m not in the mood for a ballad. I can`t be bothered," she said. "I wanna dance!"

Madonna chose to give her first interview promoting the album to Attitude.

Editor Adam Mattera said: "Madonna is without doubt the biggest gay icon of all time and this album is set to be the biggest of her career. We are thrilled she has chosen to speak to Attitude.

"She opens her heart like never before and had a real laugh with us. Her fans will be back-flipping through Soho when they read it."

The full interview is in the November issue of Attitude, on sale this Friday.

ANOTHER KRISTINA COURT CASE STORY

From the news pages of From Monsters and Critics.com

http://music.monstersandcritics.com

Music News
Former ABBA stars Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus in court

Stockholm - Former ABBA musicians Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus appeared in court Monday as part of a decade-long legal battle over who scripted their acclaimed musical 'Kristina from Duvemala'.

Andersson and Ulvaeus maintain that the script provided by dramatist Carl-Johan Seth was inadequate, prompting them to approach director Lars Rudolfsson to write a different script before the Swedish premiere of the musical.

Seth claims that his script was the original and that he has royalty rights.

Since attempts to resolve the dispute between the ex-ABBA duo and Seth failed, Stockholm district court scheduled a hearing next year to try the case.

Reporters who attended Monday's hearing described the atmosphere between the trio as tense.

'Kristina from Duvemala' was based on Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg's epic story of poor farmers who left famine-stricken Sweden to settle in America during the 19th century.

The tug-of-war over the original script takes place against the backdrop of a possible Broadway launch of the musical. Success there would no doubt considerably boost Andersson's and Ulvaeus' fortunes.

Leaving the court, Andersson and Ulvaeus told reporters they did not know if the pending court case would delay the New York launch.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer George Lewycky, USA

KRISTINA TRIAL TO GO AHEAD

http://www.expressen.se/index.jsp?a=453910

Things set up for trial with Björn and Benny

It'll be a court of law who will decide who wrote the manuscript for the successful musical Kristina från Duvemåla. Benny Andersson and Björn couldn't reach an agreement with the playwright Carl-Johan Seth when both parties met in Stockholm's district court Monday.

The dispute about the manuscript for the musical Kristina från Duvemåla has been going on for more than ten years. Carl-Johan Seth was first hired as a writer and he still regards the productions in Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm to be based on his manuscript.

But Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson claim that the manuscript was deemed unfit for use. They say that the director and the then head of Malmö musikteater, Lars Rudolfsson, together with the playwright Jan Mark, wrote a brand new and independent manuscript six months before the premiere in Malmö in 1995.

Signed an agreement

The clash of opinions between Andersson & Ulvaeus and Seth began several years before the premiere and they were very obvious when they on Monday met in the negotiation room at Stockholm's district court.

- We worked for two or three years without getting anywhere with your manuscript. When Rudolfsson came into the picture, things just started flowing, Björn Ulvaeus said as the lawyers took a moment to catch their breath.

However, Seth's lawyer pointed out that the disagreements weren't big enough to keep the three of them from signing an agreement one month before the premiere, an agreement that made clear that Seth was the writer of the manuscript and he also revealed that Seth so far has received five million kronor in compensation for the productions. According to the opponent, the agreements are worthless since they refer to a manuscript that never was used and that the compensation was paid to give peaceful surroundings conducive to work.

In one year

The dispute will now continue to a main negotiation which is estimated to begin late next year and where it will be up to the court of law to compare the two manuscripts.

The preparations to stage Kristina från Duvemåla on Broadway are currently under way and answering TT's question if the legal process will interfere with that, Benny Andersson replied "I don't know".

By Björn Ewenfeldt/TT

-----------------------

There is also a similar story on Aftonbladet's wbesite at

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,714737,00.html

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Claes Davidsson, Florida, USA

MAMMA MIA! SONGS IN INDIAN BROADWAY TRIBUTE SHOW

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=5908&CatID=7

Mama Mia! It’s ABBA!

Lined up for Mumbai are red-hot performances that light up the town with dazzling highlights from Broadway’s greatest shows. This spectacular musical show is packed full of energy, excitement and wonderful memories of Broadway’s best including the ‘ABBA Medley’ from Mamma Mia!

The story revolves around Sophie and her mother, Donna. Sophie is about to be married and wants her father to give her away at her wedding; Donna isn’t sure which of three possible men he might be. The musical includes such hits as Super Trouper, Dancing Queen, Thank You for the Music, The Winner Takes It All, and SOS. It has been seen by over 20 million people worldwide.

‘Spirit of Broadway’, the compilation of the greatest Broadway hits, will play out at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre from October 20-23.

So get set for this event brought to you by DNA and Tata Group; it’s less than a week away. The show is promoted and produced by Oranjuice Entertainment co-sponsored by Air India and Hilton Towers.

Tickets for the show are available at Rhythm House, NCPA, and St.Andrews auditorium, Bandra.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer George Lewycky New Jersey USA

MADONNA TO GIVE ABBA "THEIR BIGGEST HIT"

Story from Telegraph.co.uk

Thank you for the music! How Madonna's new single will give ABBA their greatest-ever hit By Chris Hastings, Arts Correspondent

In 1979, while she was a struggling singer who had to pose naked to make ends meet, they were the world's biggest band. Now Madonna is set to give ABBA what is likely to be the biggest-selling record of their career.

The single is expected to top the charts around the world

At 5pm GMT tomorrow, the American singer's new single, Hung Up, which heavily samples ABBA's 1979 hit Gimme!, Gimme!, Gimme!, will premiere simultaneously on national radio stations around the world.

The broadcast is part of a multi-million pound marketing strategy designed to re-establish Madonna as the Queen of Pop. But the sales of the single, which is expected to top the charts around the world, could also generate millions of pounds for Abba's songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

The pair agreed to let Madonna use their most famous disco hit after striking a lucrative copyright agreement that observers say will give them a significant share of royalties from airplay.

"Gimme!, Gimme!, Gimme! is the essence of the new song and we have agreed to split the copyright with Madonna and her co-writer," Andersson said. He declined to go into details and insisted that financial concerns were not the primary motive for the decision to give Madonna permission to use the track.

"We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say 'no'. This is only the second time we have given permission.

"We said 'yes' this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going."

Andersson said he thought the new single was "wonderful" and joked it was his favourite Madonna song to date. "Hung Up is really good. If it wasn't any good we would not have said 'yes'. It is a wonderful track: 100 per cent solid pop music."

Madonna, who has enjoyed 54 British top 10 hits including 10 number ones, has sold more singles in this country than ABBA.

Hung Up is regarded as one of the most commercial songs of her career and will easily outsell the 1979 original which reached Number Three in the British charts but was not given an American release.

The worldwide broadcast of the single is part of an ambitious strategy designed to re-establish the 47-year-old mother-of-two as the most successful act in the world. Madonna is to spend an unprecedented £5 million buying up television, billboard and cinema slots for her new album Confessions On A Dancefloor, which will be released on November 14.

The publicity drive also involves ground-breaking deals with firms such as Orange, MTV, Virgin, Vodaphone and Apple.

The companies have become virtual partners in the album's release in exchange for the rights to provide audio and visual downloads of the singer's new material and her huge back catalogue of hits.

John Reid, the head of marketing at Warner Music, said: "Madonna has nailed it with this record and we are rolling it out very big indeed."

Madonna's last album, American Life, which was released in 2003, sold four million copies and was the lowest selling release of her career.

Hung Up's radio debut will mark the first time the record has been heard in its entirety, but it will, in fact, be just the latest stage in a sophisticated campaign. The song has been available as a telephone ringtone since September 19 - the first time a star of Madonna's stature has released material as a ringtone before an actual record.

Madonna's recent riding accident would appear not to have reduced the number of her planned public appearances.

She has declared herself fit and well to perform Hung Up at the MTV Music Awards in Lisbon on November 3, and she is believed to be planning performances in Britain, America, Japan, Holland and Germany.

ORDER NANNE'S ALBUM FROM CD WOW

www.cdwow.com now has Nanne's album "Alltid på väg" to order at a great price and postage is free to anywhere in the world. My order is in. :-)

Unfortunately, they don't have the new Gemini hits CD since the store is primarily for chart albums and major new releases but I have found CDWOW to be reliable, inexpensive and often use them.

I still haven't found any online store with the Frida box set :(

Thanks to ABBAMAIL's Grant Whittingham, Sydney, Australia

GEMINI PROMO

I bought a promo copy of the new Gemini song "Den som sa det var det". I was kinda curious and it was available on eBay. The song is the old "Too much love is wasted" with new lyrics in Swedish by Björn.

You simply can't compare it to the original recording. The new track is much more a country and western track. Very strange, but not bad at all.

I have uploaded two pictures of the promo cd single to my site. And you can also listen to the first 1.57 minutes of the song.

Go to http://www.abbaplaza.com/index.asp?ID=175

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Robert Verbeek, Duiven, The Netherlands

ANDERS EKBORG CD DELAYED

Anders Ekborg's solo CD has been delayed until 2006. Anders, who played Karl-Oscar in Kristina från Duvemåla, has had a song written by Björn & Benny for his new album.

Thanks to ABBAMAILers Paul Carter and Dominic "Ice" Wallis, UK

MORE ON BJÖRN'S UK HOUSE SALE

www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/search/display.var.638989.0.bjorn_sells_uk_home.php


Bjorn sells UK home
by Pat Bramley

One of the superstars of the Swedish pop group ABBA is selling his house in Bucks.
Singer and songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus, who celebrated his 60th birthday in April, bought the contemporary six bedroom house at Cadmore End at the end of the 90s to give him and his second wife Lena a base in the UK.

"The position is ideal for a celebrity who wants privacy," commented Ian Cudworth at the Marlow office of Ballards where the guide price for the property has just been reduced to £1.2m.

The red brick ranch style house, sitting in grounds of just over an acre, is hidden by big wooden gates down a country lane surrounded by fields on the edge of the Hambleden Valley.

"They've used it quite a lot but they have houses all over the world and they're now spending more time in Sweden so they've decided to let this one go," said the agent.

The singer with the group that won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo, the song that went on to be No 1 all over Europe, and more recently had a massive hit with the musical Mamma Mia, first put their country home in the Chilterns up for sale for £1.5m at the beginning of the year hoping to sell it quietly but it didn't happen.

They've now dropped the price by £300,000 and switched the strategy to grab attention.

The house has lots of space for entertaining on a megastar scale. The 38ft drawing room, with its dramatic vaulted ceiling, opens onto the 20ft family room.

There's also a 30ft living room with doors through to an 11ft study and 16ft conservatory that leads into the garden. Elsewhere the 19ft sitting room leads into the 25ft designer kitchen with a 14ft breakfast area.

The Swedish style is evident in the gleaming wood floors throughout and the acres of white paint.

Apart from the six bedrooms in the main house, there's also a self-contained studio in the grounds with a further two bedrooms, so there's a lot of house for just over a million.

Ballards' office in the riverside town is building up a following as estate agent to chart-topping pop groups. Last December Ian Cudworth and his staff sold Little Marlow Manor for Mel B for £4m, almost doubling the price the former Spice Girl bought it for in 1998. "Scary Spice didn't scare me," croaked the agent last week.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Paul Carter, London, UK

ARTICLE: THE PERFECT ABBA PLAYLIST

www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/10/13/bmplay13.xml

Perfect playlist: ABBA

The Swedish quartet dominated dance-floors in the 1970s with their catchy, campy tunes, and their brilliantly melodic songs still have their devoted fans today. Helen Brown picks their 10 finest moments

Waterloo
1974, Waterloo

It is just over 30 years since two Swedish couples, Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida) won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with this stomping, glitter-pop love song using a historical European battle ("wah-wah-wah-wah-Waterloo") as its central metaphor. Produced with Michael B. Tretow's sequined wall-of-sound, the world was charmed by the two divas, a blonde and a brunette, in their am-dram disco gear. Their two songwriting chaps gurned behind their instruments, slamming out the basic, triumphal tune as the girls proclaimed that: "I feel like I win when I lose."

Mamma Mia
1975, ABBA

Beginning with the twitchy "tick-tock, tick tock" most recently used by Gwen Stefani on What you Waiting For?, this is the song that gave its name to the musical Madonna is reported to have seen eight times. Perfectly capturing ABBA's fondness for tripping the light fantastic to shake off depression, the lyrics about being "broken hearted/ooh since the day we parted" are set to a catchy, camp tune. Video director Lasse Hallström shot the two female vocalists' faces - in the now classic ABBA pose - perpendicular to each other.

Dancing Queen
1976, Arrival

Unveiled at a televised party on the eve of King Gustav XIV's marriage to commoner Silvia Sommerlath in 1976, this unusually structured disco anthem always sends dance floors euphoric. John Lydon selected it to precede the Sex Pistols on stage for the band's 20th-anniversary gig to remind their audience how terrible pop music had become pre-punk. The plan backfired when the crowd broke into a spontaneous, arm-waving boogie - who could resist those piano chords cascading downward while the strings crescendo gloriously upward?

Money Money Money
1976, Arrival

The lucre-crazy song, Money, Money, Money was inspired by the show tune Money, Money from the Kander-Ebb musical Cabaret, evoking 1930s Berlin. Harmonies between Fältskog's soprano and Lyngstad's mezzo are brassily perfect, its rhythm impatient for remuneration, while the tone of the song maintains a resentment for the privilege that "must be funny/in a rich man's world". Despite temptations to move abroad, where taxes on their income might have been less demanding, the band stayed in Sweden.

Knowing Me, Knowing You
1976, Arrival

Introducing the theme in gently splayed chords, Knowing Me, Knowing You is the first ABBA exultantly bittersweet break-up songs. Hijacked by comedian Steve Coogan for the theme-tune to his Alan Partridge satire on dim-but-egotistical chat-show hosts, there's no undermining of those brilliantly kitsch echoed words and cheesy guitar solos. The insistent beat, kicking in every time the tune tips nostalgic, mimics the urgency to leave a doomed liaison.

Take a Chance on Me
1978, The Album

Upbeat and bouncy, the a capella opening to Take a Chance on Me is one of the most celebrated in pop music, and has defeated many a Friday-night karaoke wannabe. Ulvaeus and Andersson chant a tongue-twisting "takeachakachancecchance" throughout, as Fältskog and Lyngstad make their gutsy invitation to reluctant suitors: "If you've got no place to go, if you're feeling down/If you're all alone when the pretty birds have flown/ Honey I'm still free." It gave ABBA their seventh UK number one.

Voulez-Vous
1979, Voulez-Vous

Segueing into fever-pitch action with a squiggly guitar riff, the "masters of the scene" strutted their way to a Saturday Night Fever pitch with this funk-twinged call to the thrills of the disco. With the French chorus, the platform-heeled group consolidated their pan-European credentials, while the staggered hand claps in the mix provoked a rush of dance-floor adrenaline. The sax riff flirts with the melody, adding a sense of free-form sleaze to an arrangement tighter than the band's catsuits.

Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)
1979, single

Coolly mulched down by proto-grunge band Leather Nun in 1986, the original Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is a storming glitterball prayer for passion. The opening, raw electric guitar is backed by foreboding strings before the wind section skip into life and the beat pumps into an insistent plea for "a man after midnight". No wonder it became a huge hit on the gay scene, its title pinched for the television sitcom starring James Dreyfus as the gay, "resting" actor and his fag-hag pal (Kathy Burke).

The Winner Takes it All
1980, Super Trouper

Elatingly melancholic in its tumbling piano chords, this is the best of ABBA's divorce songs. Written by Ulvaeus about his collapsing marriage to Fältskog, the song also revealed a raw awareness of the media speculation surrounding their romantic failure: "The judges will decide/The likes of me abide/ Spectators of the show/ Always staying low." Fältskog's low-spoken "but you see" before the final chorus adds to the confessional frisson.

The Day Before You Came
1982, The Singles

Preceding the wry electronica of the Pet Shop Boys, ABBA's bleakest number recounts the lonely, mundane routine of an office commuter the day before love arrives - and, it is implied, the routine to which the singer will return after this failed romance. It is the last song ever recorded by the disintegrating quartet, and prog-synth flutes flutter moth-like against the despair of editorials frowned at on the train, cigarettes at work and take-out food eaten in front of Dallas. "I had no sense of living without aim", sang Fältskog: lonesome, detached, at the end of an era.


Thanks to ABBAMAILer Paul Carter, London, UK

CHART STATS

Here are the chart stats for the week of 7-14 October 2005.


UK:
ABBA - ABBA The Movie - Music DVD Chart, down 8 to #9
ABBA - ABBA GOLD - Music DVD chart, Off.

NEW ZEALAND:
ABBA - The Definitive Collection DVD - stable at #9

SWEDEN:
Cast Recording - Mamma Mia! (Swedish) - down 4 to #26

AUSTRALIA:
ABBA - ABBA the Movie - Music DVD Chart, new in at #12

GERMANY:
ABBA - ABBA The Movie - album chart, new in at #48.

In most cases ABBA the Movie is considered a music DVD, as it contains more than 50% music, this may not be the case on all national charts.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

FRIDA DVD TRACKLIST FINALLY ANNOUNCED!

FRIDA DVD

The following video clips are included in FRIDA THE DVD 1967-2005. The DVD is being sold as a stand alone product as well as part of the new Frida box set due on October 31.

En ledig dag
My Man
Just One Of Those Things
Mad About The Boy
Baby Love
I min blommiga blå krinolin
Kalle på spången
Min soldat
Att älska i vårens tid
Söderhavets sång
Gitarzan
Why Did It Have To Be Me
Fernando
Let's Get This Show On The Road
Can't Buy Me Love
Cry Me A River
Got To Get You Into My Life
Aquarius
Words Of Love
Fire And Ice
Here We’ll Stay
I See Red
I Know There’s Something Going On
Shine
To Turn The Stone
Så länge vi har varann
Twist In The Dark
Come To Me (I Am Woman)
Heart Of The Country
One Little Lie
Ögonen
Även en blomma
The Sun Will Shine Again
Dancing Queen
I have a dream

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Ian Cole, Sydney, Australia

MUSIC IN REVIEW - A REVIEW

Thanks to ABBA fan Erik Liebstaedter from Spain, I've had a quick preview of that Music in Review DVD. (big thanks Erik, much appreciated!)

The booklet: 50 pages, similar in content to The Complete Guide To Their Music book (but not as detailed, and more opinionated - it actually states as much at the end of the book) - a short introduction to ABBA, a quick review of each song on the 2001 remastered CDs plus the Sound + Vision versions of Waterloo, ABBA and Arrival, Gracias/Oro, the DVDs, and a combined review of several high profile compilations.

Lots of pictures, but nothing that I don't recognise. Several websites are recommended, including The ABBA Internet Database, ABBA World and ABBA Plaza (woohoo!!!).

But here's what you're waiting for: the DVD track listings:

DVD 1973-1976 (70 minutes)

Waterloo From Eurovision, Special Japan and Starparade.
Ring Ring Performed by Waterloo
Honey, Honey From Musikladen 1976
Mamma Mia From Musikladen 1976
Hey, Hey Helen Performed by Waterloo
So Long From Musikladen 1976
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do From Sylvester Tanzparty 1975
S.O.S. From Musikladen 1976
Dancing Queen From Disco 1976, Musikladen 1976, Royal Gala and Secial Japan
My Love, My Life From ABBAdabadoo and ABBA in Studio 2
When I Kissed The Teacher From ABBA in Studio 2
Knowing Me, Knowing You From ABBAdabadoo and Special Japan
Money, Money, Money From Special Japan, ABBAdabadoo and ABBA in Studio 2
Fernando From ABBA in Studio 2
Take A Chance On Me From Starparade 1978
The Name Of The Game (Montage with ABBA in Studio 2 extract)
Eagle From Starparade 1978
Thank You For The Music From Mike Yarwood Show 1978 and Special Japan

DVD 1977-1982 (60 minutes)
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) From Dick Cavett Meets ABBA
Chiquitita From video promo
Voulez-Vous From Aplauso 1979
Does Your Mother Know From Aplauso 1979
Summer Night City From Special Japan
The Winner Takes It All From Show Express
Super Trouper From Show Express
When All Is Said And Done
One Of Us Performed by Waterloo
The Day Before You Came From Show Express

But before you all get too excited, on the evidence I've seen (the first 6 minutes or so), the songs are intercut with the interviews, either talking over the songs or cutting away to interview footage with the song playing in the background. Also, it seems that each clip has a copyright notice on screen the whole time. The opening is a montage of various Waterloo performances. By the descriptions provided by Erik above, it seems that others songs are probably combined performances too.

Interviews are with Hugh Fielder, Robin Scott, Les Davidson, Jai Simene, Heather Findlay, Rod Leissle and George Hutchinson. I don't recognise most of those names, but I believe at least 2 of them are connected to Björn Again.

Contrary to what we'd been led to believe, some songs are performed by cover band Waterloo, not Björn Again. Both DVDs also have short picture galleries (10 pics each. There are no subtitles.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Ian Cole, Sydney, Australia

GEMINI TO TOUR!!!

In shock news, Gemini have announced a concert tour to support the release of their Greatest Hits CD next month. Concert dates and venues are listed below. They are also appearing on Sweden's Binglotto TV program on 2 November.

25.11 Eskilstuna, Eskilstuna Teater
26.11 Grängesberg, Cassels
01.12 Stockholm, Maria Magdalena kyrka
02.12 Falun, Kristinehallen
03.12 Karlstad, Scala
10.12 Göteborg, Annedalskyrkan
11.12 Kristianstad, Konserthuset
15.12 Nyköping, Culturum
16.12 Uppsala, Missionskyrkan
17.12 Värmdö, Siggesta Gård

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Paul Carter, London, UK

GEMINI BEST OF - COVER & TRACKLISTING

Release date: November 2, 2005

1. T.L.C.
2. Mio min Mio (Svensk version)
3. Sniffin' out the snakes
4. When I close my eyes
5. Den som sa det var det (Too much love is wasted)
6. Live on the love
7. Just like that
8