HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ABBAMAIL READERS & SUPPORTERS AROUND THE WORLD

LAST CHART WEEK FOR 2007

Charts for the last full week of the year: 21-28 December 2007.

SWEDEN: Benny Andersson's Orkester: BAO3 - up 1 to #22

UK: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - down 2 to #91

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

A MAMMA OF A MOVIE

Its stage success is unrivalled - and now 'Mamma Mia!' is being translated into a film. Charles Spencer talks to the creative dynamos behind both versions

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Mamma Mia! The Movie
As I sit at my desk, nursing a horrible cold, I'm drinking Lemsip from a mug bearing the pictures of three 50-year-old women. They are all camping it up outrageously, look much younger than they have any right to, and there's a caption saying: "Having the time of their lives!"

These three, close friends as well as colleagues, are the creative dynamos behind Mamma Mia!

And why wouldn't they be doing just that? These three, close friends as well as colleagues, are the creative dynamos behind Mamma Mia!, currently the most successful musical on the planet. Since it opened in April 1999, it has played in 170 cities all over the world, been seen by 30 million people and every week rakes in another $8 million (£4 million).

The three women - Judy Craymer, the stylish producer who had the idea of turning Abba's hits into a stage show, Catherine Johnson, its deliciously bubbly writer who came up with the witty and ingenious script, and Phyllida Lloyd, its rigorous director, who flits with ease between Abba, Wagner, Joe Orton and Bertolt Brecht - all receive a percentage of the profits. No wonder their smiles are so broad. It must be like having a gold mine at the bottom of the garden.

What makes all this particularly galling for an envious soul like me is that all three are incredibly nice and it's impossible to begrudge them their good fortune. I first interviewed them in May 1999, a few weeks after Mamma Mia! had opened in London, and it was becoming clear that the show was going to be a huge and enduring success. I became their Boswell again in 2004, as the show prepared to celebrate its fifth birthday in London, and just before Christmas I was summoned again to Craymer's elegant Soho production office to record another landmark on the show's journey - its transformation into a film, to be released next year.

It stars no less a figure than Meryl Streep as Donna, the plucky single mum heroine who runs a taverna on an idyllic Greek island, with Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters and Colin Firth among the supporting cast. With a $65 million budget and the clout of Universal Pictures behind it, the movie looks set to become the feelgood hit of Summer 2008.

I spent an afternoon watching filming on the vast stage at Pinewood, where they make the Bond movies. The rain was drumming on the roof, but inside a whole Greek island had been created in loving and persuasive detail. There were real olive trees, a cyclorama of a deep blue sea, and a taverna courtyard where you could almost smell the retsina. Meryl Streep was belting out Super Trouper in a preposterous 1970s costume as Donna, along with her tribute group the Dynamos, played by Julie Walters and Christine Baranski. Pierce Brosnan (no stranger to this studio) was surrounded by scores of bronzed, nubile lovelies attending the hen night of Donna's daughter, Sophie.

"This is no place for a middle-aged man," I heard him murmuring as he passed the ranks of scantily clad beauties, and one knew how he felt. The atmosphere of sun, sea and sex was headily authentic, even though it was all being manufactured for a movie.

In the midst of the tumult was Phyllida Lloyd, looking every inch the confident major motion picture director, though her only previous experience was a modest film version of her production of the Britten opera Gloriana for the BBC.

Judy Craymer looks after her own. Normal practice on a big studio movie would be to hire a new writer, or indeed several new writers, and get in a name director with plenty of experience. This might particularly have been the case with Mamma Mia! since Universal recently had its fingers badly burned with the movie version of the Mel Brooks smash-hit stage musical The Producers. That kept the original show director Susan Stroman on board for the film, which received poor reviews and unexpectedly stiffed at the box office, having been judged too "stagey".

The canny Craymer, however, never sold the rights to Mamma Mia!, although she had been courted by Hollywood ever since the show became a hit, and in her partnership with Universal remains a producer. Though Universal "kept throwing logs in our path", she insisted on keeping the original team intact.

You could have sold out your friends, I suggested. "Yeah, I could," Craymer drawled back, "but I might not have lived to tell the tale if I had."

"I was just so pleased that I ended up with the sole writing credit," said Johnson, who has opened the stage show up for the film but remained faithful to its original structure. "I kept expecting to be replaced at any moment by David Mamet or somebody. It's just fantastic that the three of us responsible for the stage show are responsible for the film, too."

The biggest burden fell on the shoulders of Lloyd, thrown in at the deep end as a movie director. Did she have sleepless nights during the 10 weeks of filming at Pinewood followed by a further five weeks on location on the Greek island of Skopelos?

"I got through it by taking up sleeping pills, intravenous caffeine and a certain amount of vodka," she confessed with a wry grin. "To put it in theatre terms, the whole process was like trying to open a show when you haven't finished the technical rehearsal, you've never had a full run-through of the play, everyone's having a nervous breakdown and the audience are waiting to come in. And it's like that every day. It's ulcer-inducing."

The big casting coup was getting Streep to star in her first musical. "Our passion for Meryl and Meryl's passion for the show made it work. She saw the show on Broadway and wrote us a fan letter saying what a great time she'd had. And it all happened rather fast," said Craymer. " We spoke to her agent, her agent spoke to her, and apparently she said: "Mamma Mia!?? I AM Mamma Mia!?" and the next thing we knew, we were on a plane to see her, like over-excited teenagers."

Streep threw herself heart and soul into the project, said Lloyd. "She told us she thought the role would really stretch her - it gave her a chance to be a singer, a rocker, a mother, and to use her looney-tunes farce skills. She finds a line into a character and the way she should be like nothing I've ever seen before, and everyone else just raises their game as a result. Frankly, we're all just a little in love with her."

Better yet, with Streep on board it became remarkably easy to attract a top team. People who had originally pleaded unavailability kept phoning up and saying they had just found an unexpected gap in their diary.

Is Lloyd happy with what she has captured on film, as she begins editing? "There are no excuses for me now," she said. "We've got the most fantastic performances, an incredible score, a wonderful screenplay and beautiful photography. The big question is whether I can put it all together."

I'm sure she will. I was given a sneak preview of the trailer and it makes you want to pack your bags and head straight for a Greek island with Abba playing on your iPod. Highlights include Streep falling spectacularly through a roof, and the leading men - who might all be Sophie's dad - jumping off a 25ft cliff into the sea (though the wimps only agreed to the stunt after Lloyd had done it herself to prove it was safe).

I have a strong hunch that the latest instalment of the Mamma Mia! adventure will be just as enjoyable, just as profitable, as everything that has gone before. But for Catherine Johnson the experience is tinged with sadness.

"There was a point after I'd finished the script when it felt like the ocean liner had left and I was standing on the quay waving my hankie and crying. I suddenly felt it's over, no more Mamma Mia! for me."

The film of 'Mamma Mia!' will be released next summer. Tickets for the stage show at the Prince of Wales Theatre are available online at www.mamma-mia.com or on 0870 850 0393

MAMMA MIA! LONDON EXTENDS BOOKING PERIOD

Mamma Mia! More Hairspray for Ball

Long-running ABBA musical Mamma Mia! has extended its booking period to 25 April 2009. In doing so, the musical shows its intention to celebrate a decade in the West End, as it opened at the Prince Edward on 6 April 1999. It transferred to its current home, the Prince of Wales, in 2004.

Set to the music of Swedish supergroup ABBA, Catherine Johnson’s musical tells the story of a young woman and her mother who find themselves involved in past events on the eve of the daughter’s wedding day. A new film of the musical, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan and directed by the stage show’s director, Phyllida Lloyd, is to be released in 2008.

MORE DENIALS!

http://www.topnews.in/

ABBA star Anni-Frid Lyngstad denies affair with top UK minister

London, Dec 17: ABBA star Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Britain’s Security Minister Admiral Sir Alan West have denied claims that they had an extramarital affair.

The denial came after it was revealed that Sir Alan’s marriage to wife of 34-years was in trouble and that the minister, appointed personally by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to lead the war on terror, had been less than faithful to his wife.

Speculation was also rife that the lady in question was the dark-haired ABBA singer, who has been a close friend of Sir Alan’s.

However, sources close to the minister revealed that while he had indeed had an affair, the woman was not Anni-Frid.

"There is no relationship, absolutely not. I am innocent. Alan is innocent. We are friends. There is no relationship, " the Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

Sir Alan was equally firm that he had not had an affair with the Abba star.

"All I'm going to say is I'm not having an affair with her. I know her, and I've known her for a couple of years. I'm not trying to be difficult but I just don't like talking about my private life, " he said.

"I have a job to do which I'm trying to do very hard for the Government, and that seems to me to be the right focus, " he added.

JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT

Feeling a little nostalgic here at ABBAMAIL HQ on Christmas Eve....flashing back 26 years to the demo instrumental version of "When All Is Said And Done."

KINKY COLIN

Kinky Colin

Colin Firth will appear next year in a big-screen adaptation of the ABBA musical, Mamma Mia!

If nothing else, the film looks likely to finally cast off his Stateside image as a "stiff Brit".

"I am no stranger to Spandex and Lycra," the 47-year-old told me at the premiere of the new St Trinian's movie, in which he co-stars with Rupert Everett and Russell Brand. "It was actually quite nice to get out of a suit for a while, actually, and let it all go."

Dodgy outfits aside, the ABBA singalong is a tough role on two fronts. Firth's part (he plays nerdy banker Harry Bright) also requires him to sing.

"Whether I will regret that I don't know," he added. "There were plenty of notes I can't reach."

http://news.independent.co.uk

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Monique Hoevens, Tilburg, the Netherlands

AGNETHA MENTIONIN WOMAN'S DAY

There is a small article about Agnetha in this week's Woman's Day magazine , the one with Shane Warne on the cover. It reports about her (supposed) "new toyboy", Max Lagerback. Nothing new in there but there is a nice picture of them together and its great to see Agnetha in the aussie press! The report is on page 156.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Lynette Rawes, Sydney Australia

TV PRODUCER WANTS TO TALK TO AUSSIE ABBA FANS

HI there

I am almost completed making a TV documentary about Australian ABBA
tribute shows. I would like to contact some fans for an interview in
Sydney, preferably someone who was at the 1977 shows.

regards

Adrian Alback
Acopperlips Productions pl
adrian.alback@gmail.com
tel 0414 288 256

ABBA & DOCTOR WHO/SARAH JANE SMITH

A very camp video put together by someone who is obviously a fan of both Dr. Who and ABBA!



Thanks to ABBAMAILer Michael Cain, Sydney, Australia

LATEST RELEASE DATES FOR MAMMA MIA! MOVIE

Release dates for Mamma Mia! (2008)

Australia 10 July 2008
Denmark 11 July 2008
Norway 11 July 2008
Sweden 11 July 2008
UK 11 July 2008
Germany 17 July 2008
Netherlands 17 July 2008
Russia 17 July 2008
Austria 18 July 2008
Finland 18 July 2008
USA 18 July 2008
Mexico 8 August 2008
Argentina 21 August 2008
Spain 5 September 2008
Belgium 24 September 2008
France 24 September 2008
Italy 3 October 2008

from imdb.com

CHARTS 7-14 DECEMBER 2007

And here it is again, for the week of 7-14 December 2007.

SWEDEN: Benny Andersson's Orkester: Up 6 to #34.

UK: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - down 1 to #89

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

ABBA ON FRENCH TV

Here is the 1978 show with Drucker saying about ABBA that within 4 years they sold 40 million records, 5 million records in France alone and then he asks them to tell a few words in French

Says Bjorn : You have the best wine and food

Agnetha : Hello, Paris

Frida : I love you

Drucker says it will be difficult to finish the show

Says Benny : I don't speak French

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Pascale Ranson, Strasbourg, France

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT MAMMA MIA! STORY

Thanks to ABBAMAIL's Grant Whittingham, Sydney, Australia

ABBA RADIO SPECIAL REMINDER

Announced in the UK Christmas/New Year Radio Times double-issue:

New Year's Day, Radio 2, 9pm-12midnight:

"Happy New Year - The Ultimate ABBA Chart.

Lyricist Tim Rice celebrates the continued phenomenal appeal of Sweden's top pop music ambassadors with a countdown of the biggest hits from their repertoire of joyously melancholic pop gems, includings singles, album tracks and rare recordings, from Ring Ring to Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A man After Midnight), from Waterloo to The Visitors."

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Graham Piper, Hove, UK

CHARTS DECEMBER 3-10, 2007

SWEDEN: BAO - BAO3 - down 8 to #40

UK: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - drops out of the top 75, down 14 to #88

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

SMALL CHESS IN SYDNEY

Looks like a small version of Chess is returning for a run in Sydney, Australia at the Theatre Royal. I received a pre-sale ticket notification from ticketing-agency Ticketek today.

It's running from the 8th - 17th May 2008, and again from 22nd - 24th May 2008.
Performed by the Bloc Inc theatre-company:
http://www.theatre.asn.au/company/bloc_inc

Here's the blurb and the link:

------

Don't miss the opportunity to see Chess - the acclaimed Rock Opera collaboration between ABBA stars Benny & Bjorn, and Tim Rice

Featuring Top10 Hits "One Night in Bangkok" and "I Know Him So Well", Chess is considered to boast one of the best musical theatre scores ever written.

Taking place at the World Chess Championships between Russian and America, the musical contains a complex love triangle set against the sinister intrigue of the Cold War.

Produced by one of Sydney's leading independent theatre companies, BLOC Inc, Chess will feature a cast of 29 and full 25-piece orchestra.

Don't miss out - 3 performances only!

Tickets on sale now.
http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=CHESS08

and information on the theatre:
http://premier.ticketek.com.au/Venues/VenueDetails.aspx?v=ROY&s=12380

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Michael Cain, Sydney, Australia

FRENCH VERSION OF MAMMA MIA! TRAILER

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Pascale Ranson, Strasbourg, France

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE MAMMA MIA! TRAILER

This time from IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/video/trailer/me60430468/

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Liesbeth Lobato, San Diego, California, USA

FRIDA STORY IN DAILY EXPRESS

dailymail.co.uk

She was born Anni-Frid Lyngstad near the port of Narvik, in the far north of Norway, in November 1945. Her mother Synni had been having an affair with a Nazi sergeant named Alfred Haase since 1943, when she was 18 and he was 24.

The married sergeant seduced Synni with a sack of potatoes - a valuable gift in an occupied country where food was scarce - and their affair continued until he was shipped back to Germany at the end of the war. "I think she regarded our relationship as I did," Haase said decades later after he had retired from work as a pastry cook.

"The war meant the conditions were different. For many of us, it was a matter of living for today, tomorrow we might be dead."

It was a voluntary affair, and not part of the Lebensborn ("fount of life") programme under which SS officers mated with carefully selected Norwegian women in Himmler's human stud farms. Those children were denounced as "mental defectives" by official post-war decree in Norway and were vilified, abused or confined to mental institutions until well into the Sixties. But the reception that awaited the infant Anni-Frid was barely more promising.

Neighbours denounced her mother as a German whore and refused to have anything to do with Synni or her widowed mother, Agny.

Fearing what the future might hold, Agny fled to Sweden with the baby. Synni followed shortly afterwards, taking a job as a waitress, but she fell ill and died of kidney failure aged only 21, before her daughter's second birthday.

Brought up in Sweden by a distant and embittered grandmother, Frida had a lonely childhood.

"I didn't have many friends," she has recalled. "I thought everything about me was wrong - that there was nothing about me that was worth loving."

She knew that her father was German but she had been told he had drowned at sea. It was only in 1977, when the publicity surrounding ABBA enabled one of her estranged German relatives to put two and two together, that she realised Haase was still alive. They had a reunion but ceased contact in 1983.

"It would have been different if I'd been a child but it's difficult to get a father when you're 32 years old," she said later. "I can't really connect to him and love him the way I would have if he'd been around when I grew up."

By that time she had been married and divorced twice. In 1963 she wed Ragnar Fredriksson, the bass player of her Swedish band the Anni-Frid Four. They had two children but she divorced him after she met keyboard player Benny Andersson (the bearded one from Abba). His composing partner Ulvaeus was engaged to a rising blonde singing star called Agnetha Faltskog and in 1970 a quartet was born called The Engaged Couples. That mutated to ABBA when their manager started referring to them by the initial letters of their names (although they needed first to negotiate with Sweden's largest fish canning factory, also called Abba, which eventually wished them well and sent them a carton of tuna).

Soaring to success with victory in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, the clean-living foursome dominated the Seventies with their bubbly, white-jumpsuit schmaltz. They have sold more than 370 million records to date - winning a new popularity in the Nineties with their ABBA GOLD greatest hits album and the worldwide success of the spin-off musical Mamma Mia!

At the height of their fame, the engaged couples married but Frida and Benny were divorced in 1981, and after the break-up of ABBA she left Sweden first for Britain and then for Switzerland, launching a solo career that failed to set the world on fire. Nowadays, she says her interest in music is "non-existent".

In 1992, she married her long-time boyfriend, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen, the part-Italian, part-Swedish head of a former German royal house, who was based in Switzerland. They had been living together in his castle at Fribourg, near Berne, since 1986. Educated in Sweden, the prince was a schoolfriend of King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, and he and Frida took to spending winter holidays with Carl Gustaf and his wife Queen Silvia. But the decade brought twin tragedies. In January 1998, Frida's daughter Lise-Lotte was fatally injured in a car crash in the United States and less than two years later, in November 1999, Prince Ruzzo died of cancer after a six-month illness, aged just 49.

While her former bandmate Agnetha - with whom she never got on - has become a recluse, hiding away on a thinly populated Swedish island, misfortune has not led Frida to shun the limelight. A grandmother and a staunch Green campaigner, she is a prominent supporter of the drug prevention charity Mentor and has attended charity functions such as one at London's Natural History Museum last year, in the company of her friend Queen Silvia and Queen Noor of Jordan.

It is at this kind of function that she is understood to have begun her friendship with Sir Alan, who was ennobled to become Lord West when the Prime Minister appointed him to the Government in June.

West's affair with an unknown woman is being billed as the latest banana skin for Gordon Brown's embattled government - although it is not as embarrassing as the minister's radio interview last month, when he said he did not see any need to hold terrorist suspects for longer than 28 days, only to change his mind an hour later after being summoned to Downing Street.

None of that involves Frida, who now lives in the ultra-chic Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt. When asked at the weekend about her relationship with West, she told a journalist: "It is nothing to do with you. It is my private life. I feel awfully sorry about Rosie and the family. It is very sad. I feel totally sorry. There is no relationship, absolutely not."

When pressed to clarify why she felt sorry about West's wife, she replied: "Go away. I will not answer anything else. Do not ask me any more questions. I am innocent."

No doubt more will emerge about Lord West's private life. But for the moment, the tale of the ABBA princess and her links to an accident-prone minister in Britain's Mr Bean government is just another twist in her extraordinary life.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dionne Kennedy, Colne, UK

FRIDA IN UK SEX SCANDAL!!!

There are 2 stories about a supposed secret love affair between Sir Alan West and our own Frida!

Check out the link, there are some nice Frida pictures. Sounds like a lot of gossip, poor Frida.

http://tinyurl.com/2hmfot

The anti-terror chief, the girl from ABBA, and his secret love affair

Fresh indignity was heaped on Gordon Brown last night after one of the female singers from ABBA was bizarrely dragged into a Government sex scandal.

In the latest blow to the Prime Minister's authority, senior sources told The Mail on Sunday that Admiral Sir Alan West, the Security Minister appointed personally by Mr Brown to lead the War on Terror, had admitted to an extramarital affair.

The confirmation came after intense speculation about Sir Alan's private life had been sweeping Westminster.

Insiders indicated that there was a crisis in his 34-year marriage to Rosie, an artist with whom he has three children.

Speculation was fuelled by the fact that the 59-year-old former First Sea Lord had formed an implausible but genuine friendship with Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 62, the dark-haired singer from the Seventies Swedish supergroup.

And yesterday, with the rumour mill in full flow, high-level sources were forced into action to clarify the situation.

The Mail on Sunday was told that Sir Alan had indeed been having an affair - but emphatically not with the ABBA star.

The admiral disclosed his infidelity "some years ago" during a routine security vetting procedure.

The sources refused to give further details of the affair, including whether it was still ongoing.

The episode was immediately characterised by political observers as a "Whitehall farce", adding to the series of embarrassments engulfing the Government.

It appeared yesterday that Sir Alan's confession to infidelity had become fused in the minds of Westminster insiders with their astonishment at his friendship with ABBA's Frida, as she is known to millions of fans.

He is believed to have met her at a charity function in London in the spring of 2006.

Yesterday, in answer to questions about their friendship, the admiral said: "All I'm going to say is I'm not having an affair with her, you know.

"I know her, and I've known her for a couple of years. So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go there at all."

Asked how they met, he added: "Sorry, but I'm not going to go there. I'm not trying to be difficult but I just don't like talking about my private life.

"I have a job to do which I'm trying to do very hard for the Government, and that seems to me to be the right focus."

He refused to make any further comment. A Home Office spokesman also refused to comment.

Frida told The Mail on Sunday: "I feel awfully sorry about Rosie and the family. It is very sad. I feel totally sorry. There is no relationship, absolutely not.

"I am innocent. Alan is innocent. We are friends. There is no relationship."

It is the latest in a series of setbacks for Mr Brown's embattled Government and is bound to draw comparisons with the decline of John Major's scandal-hit administration in the Nineties.

Initially, Major did well after succeeding Margaret Thatcher, but he lost by a landslide to Tony Blair in 1997 after the economy hit trouble, he was pilloried for his weakness and a number of Ministers were embroiled in sexual and financial scandals.

In similar fashion, after succeeding Tony Blair in June, Mr Brown soared ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. But since then, his ratings have been on the slide.

In the space of just weeks, he has been criticised for his handling of the collapse of the Northern Rock bank and the loss of child-benefit records, and has become entangled in the "Donorgate" affair which erupted when The Mail on Sunday revealed secret donations to Labour of more than £600,000 by wealthy businessman David Abrahams.

Sir Alan was appointed by Mr Brown in June as part of the Prime Minister's personal plan to assemble a "Government of all the talents", known as "Goats" for short.
Mr Brown announced that he was creating a life peerage for Sir Alan and appointing him as a Home Office Minister with responsibility for advising him on the terror threat to the UK.

But the Goats have been hit by a series of controversies: Sir Digby Jones, the former director of the Confederation of British Industry, became a Trade Minister, then immediately embarrassed Mr Brown by failing to pledge his wholehearted support for Labour.

Then 54-year-old former diplomat Lord Malloch-Brown, appointed a Foreign Office Minister, attracted adverse publicity by demanding a grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty Arch and infuriating his 42-yearold boss, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, by describing himself as "the older figure, the wise eminence behind the young Foreign Secretary".

And last month Sir Alan himself embarrassed the Prime Minister by questioning in a radio interview Mr Brown's desire to hold terrorist subjects for longer than 28 days.
One hour later, after a visit to Downing Street, he changed his stance, saying he was convinced by the PM's argument.

He tried to explain away the fudge by describing himself as just "a simple sailor".
Although there is no suggestion of impropriety over his relationship with Ms Lyngstad, eyebrows were raised last night over the wisdom of the Government's terror chief conducting a friendship with the thrice-married pop star, who is a tax exile in Switzerland.

Sir Alan, who declared during an interview in the summer that he "admired" Abba, is believed to have first met the singer at a royal gala for the anti-drug abuse charity Mentor, held at the Natural History Museum in London in May 2006. He had retired as head of the Navy three months earlier.

It was one of a number of parties he attended that year, apparently demob-happy.
Some of them were not particularly high-minded: in March he was pictured at the Oldie of the Year Awards, a famously raffish affair, with his arms round Carol Thatcher and Sandra Howard, and sporting a comedy naval eyepatch.

And in April he was snapped, eyepatch again in place, with his arms around author Kathy Lette at the launch of her book How To Kill Your Husband.

Appropriately, Lette had placed a dagger in the top of her stockings.

In contrast, Sir Alan's naval career was marked by heroism and rapid promotion.
In 1982, aged just 34, he was the commanding officer of the frigate HMS Ardent when it was sunk by Argentinian forces during the Falklands War.

His bravery in being the last to leave the sinking ship earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.

A blip on his seemingly relentless ascent of the career ladder came in 1986 when he dropped classified documents about naval cutbacks while out walking his dog - the contents of which were then revealed in The Mail on Sunday.

But by 1997 he had risen to become Chief of Defence Intelligence, and by 2002 he was First Sea Lord and Aide-De-Camp to the Queen.

His friend Frida amassed a multimillion-pound fortune during her ten-year career singing with Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog.

But the members of the Eurovision-winning band had tortured romances: Frida left her first husband, Ragnar Frederiksson, with whom she had two children, to marry Benny in 1978 - the same year that Bjorn and Agnetha divorced.

Benny and Frida were then themselves divorced in 1981.

A year later, the group went their separate ways. Six years ago they turned down an offer of $1billion to reform for a world tour.

Since 1992, Frida has been officially known as Her Serene Highness after marrying a German count, Prince Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen. He died of cancer in 1999 and she has not remarried.

Apart from a couple of moderately successful solo singing projects, Frida, the product of a wartime liaison between her Norwegian mother and a married German soldier, has kept a low profile since the group's demise, devoting herself to work with drug and environment charities.

She now lives in an apartment in the Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt, where she has a small but close circle of friends. Locals say she likes the tranquillity of her life there. Yesterday The Mail on Sunday spoke to her outside her apartment, which enjoys spectacular views of the Matterhorn and the Vispa Valley.

Dressed casually in a white jacket, snow boots, jeans and a large pair of sunglasses - and sporting a dyed blonde bob in place of her trademark brunette tresses - she walked briskly down the road.

When asked about her relationship with Sir Alan, Frida said: "It is nothing to do with you. It is my private life. I feel awfully sorry about Rosie and the family.

"It is very sad. I feel totally sorry. There is no relationship, absolutely not. I am innocent. Alan is innocent. We are friends. There is no relationship."

When asked to expand on why she felt sorry about Rosie, she shook her hands and replied: "Go away. I will not answer anything else. Do not ask me any more questions. I am innocent."

Frida, who is Norwegian rather than Swedish like the three other members of Abba, moved to Switzerland in 1986.

A spokeswoman for the ABBA Fan Club, which is based in the Netherlands, said: "Since her marriage to her third husband, who was a prince, Anni-Frid has moved in royal circles.

"He has died but she still moves in these circles and she comes into contact with lots of people who move in high society."



====================================
And a smaller report without pictures

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3255719.ece

Lord West, the ABBA singer, and an extramarital affair
A government minister was bizarely linked with one of the singers from the 1970s supergroup Abba last night.

Amid gathering rumours, Admiral Sir Alan West was forced to insist that his friendship with the Swedish singer, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, was "innocent".

But it was subsequently revealed that the married security minister had admitted to an infidelity "some years ago" during a routine vetting procedure.

The revelations about the man hand-picked by the Prime Minister to lead Britain's war on terror are the latest setback to hit his policy of compiling a "government of all the talents".

Lord West has been married to Lady Rosie West, an artist, for 34 years and the couple have three children. The details of his private life emerged amid escalating rumours about his relationship with Ms Lyngstad, whom he is believed to have met at a charity function early last year.

Lord West, who is 59, denied yesterday that they were having an affair. He told the Mail on Sunday: "I just don't like talking about my private life."

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Monique Hoevens, Tilburg, the Netherlands

THIS UK MAMMA MIA! MOVIE TRAILER IS EVEN BETTER!

MAMMA MIA! MOVIE TRAILER

SEE UK VERSION OF MAMMA MIA! MOVIE TRAILER

Click on our website link above to see the UK version of the Mamma Mia! Movie trailer.
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com//m/Mamma-Mia/index-3727185.html

ANOTHER NEW SHOT FROM MAMMA MIA! MOVIE

MAMMA MIA! MOVIE - FIRST NEW PICS

For those who never got around to seeing Mamma Mia! when it hit the stage, or for those who are dying to see it again (I saw it twice, just so you know ...), the widely popular Broadway musical is now heading to the big screen -- and Cinematical has your exclusive first look at images from the film. Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski, Mamma Mia! was written by Catherine Johnson and directed by Phyllida Lloyd (both of whom brought us the staged version). Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson serve as executive producers. Of course, and I shouldn't have to tell you this, the film also comes with more than a few awesome ABBA tunes. Here's a taste of what you're in store for (from the film's official synopsis):

An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna (Streep) is about to let go of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends-practical and no-nonsense Rosie (Julie Walters) and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski)-from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities.

Inspired by the storytelling magic of ABBA's songs from "Dancing Queen" and "S.O.S." to "Money, Money, Money" and "Take a Chance on Me," Mamma Mia! is a celebration of mothers and daughters, old friends and new family found. Mamma Mia! will dance its way into theaters on July 18, 2008. Additionally, Moviefone will debut the first Mamma Mia! trailer tomorrow -- so watch for it!

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/12/12/exclusive-first-photos-from-mamma-mia/

BJÖRN IN LONDON

Friday 6:48pm: I was walking around the side of my theatre (Noel Coward Theatre -
Avenue Q) to go back in after my interval cigarette during the matinee show. I see a very familiar face walking towards me. I glance at him and he glances back at me. Brief eye contact. He knows I recognise him. He continues to walk on, looking around at the theatre advertising posters along the side of my theatre. Funnily enough, as we passed, it was directly as we are in line with the Christmas Mamma Mia! poster on the side of the Noel Coward.

Who is it? Björn! All alone, dressed in a smart, long, black overcoat. No one recognises him, except me. I didn't say anything or bother him, I just let him walk on by. Perhaps he was heading over to the Prince of Wales Theatre. He was walking in that direction.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer resident theatre-scene guru, Richard Knight, London, UK

CLASSIC POP ALBUMS: SUPER TROUPER

by Dawn Collinson, Liverpool Echo

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

1980: Super Trouper, ABBA

Six years after those electric blue platform boots saw Abba meet their Eurovision Waterloo, Super Trouper was the seventh studio album for Swedish foursome Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

Led by the international hit The Winner Takes It All, Super Trouper was the group's sixth chart-topping album in the UK. It was also the best-selling album in Britain for 1980. Typically, it didn’t just spawn one massive single, along with The Winner came the title track, Happy New Year and Lay All Your Love On Me.

Super Trouper has been reissued in digitally remastered form three times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set.

Less impressively, the title track was parodied in a sketch on the BBC comedy programme Not the Nine O'Clock News in 1981 with a song called "Super Duper", including the lyrics:

‘One of us is ugly, one of us is cute

One of us you'd like to see in her birthday suit

Two of us write music, two have way a song

Sorry, in translation, that line come out wrong.’

PROBLEMS BOOKING MUSEUM TICKETS OUTSIDE SWEDEN

The ABBA Museum has been forced to issue a bulletin after problems have been encountered with fans outside of Sweden being unable to purchase tickets:

"Do you need assistance with booking from outside Sweden?

Most events handled by ticnet.se can be booked by residents of foreign countries. You pay directly at the time of booking. If booking of your Premier Package is not possible, please contact

info@ticnet.se or Ticnet Callcenter at +46 77 170 70 70.

(or ticket@abbamuseum.com)

We will assist you!

(The tickets are sent directly to your e-mail, than you print them yourself. It´s for two persons. It´s the easiest and fastest way to get the tickets you have ordered)"

MAMMA MIA! JAPAN

Mamma Mia! in Nagoya, Japan will open Feb 26 2008:
http://taheri.web.infoseek.co.jp/

Mamma Mia! in Japan opened in Tokyo and moved to Osaka and Fukuoka. And now it will be in Nagoya.

It is interesting that they are the places that ABBA live were played in 1980.

Thanks to ABBA fan Mayumi Taheri, Tokyo, Japan

ABBA THE MOVIE BLUE RAY IN RUSSIA

In Moscow they have begun to sell "ABBA" (ABBA The Movie) on the Blu-Ray format. The price is 1390 rubley (around US$57).

Thanks to Dimitry, Russian ABBA Fan Club

ABBA AS CHRISTMAS ELVES?

Check out this camp little animation:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1176269239

Thanks to ABBA fan Lee Gale, UK

AFP ABBA MUSEUM STORY

ABBA museum to open in Stockholm in June 2009

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmKJ_sUl6tMjPBP_qvCEj7-hncNg

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — The world's first museum dedicated to the legendary Swedish disco group ABBA will open its doors in Stockholm in June 2009, the initiators of the project said on Wednesday.

"We're going to open the ABBA museum from June 3 to 7, it will be an inaugural week," Ulf Westman, the mastermind behind the plan with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman, told reporters.

"It will be an international museum with a lot of technological and multimedia aspects," he said, explaining that visitors would be invited to take part in various forms of activities related to the group's heyday in the 1970s.

Visitors will, for example, be able to take the microphone and record their own version of "Waterloo" or "Dancing Queen" in a model of the Polar Studio in Stockholm where the quartet recorded their hits.

They will also be able to show off their moves in a disco room, according to the first drawings of the building presented on Wednesday.

In the wardrobe room, the group's bodyhugging pantsuits, sequined bellbottoms and platform boots that so defined ABBA's image will be on display.

The years 1976 to 1978 will "naturally be given a large space since it's during this period they took the world by storm," Wigenheim-Westman said.

"ABBA the Museum", first announced a year ago, will be located on the island of Soedermalm, in a waterfront building that was once an old customs hall, a short walk from the city centre.

The exhibition will fill three floors and more than 4,000 square metres (43,000 square feet) of material related to the super group. It will also be able to host events and house a cafe and a museum shop.

The old customs building -- Tullhuset -- is a protected heritage site on the banks of the Baltic Sea, not far from another popular tourist attraction, the Old Town.

In peak tourist season, visitors will pay 245 kronor (26 euros, 38 dollars) to visit the museum.

All four members of ABBA have given their backing to the project and will provide clothes, instruments and music.

Despite having broken up a quarter of a century ago, the group still sells between two and three million albums a year. To date they have sold 360 million records, with only Elvis and the Beatles selling more.

The four ABBA members, Bjoern Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faeltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad enjoyed worldwide success with hits such as "Money, Money, Money", "Waterloo", "Fernando" and "Dancing Queen".

CANADIAN PRESS ABBA MUSEUM STORY

Grab your dancing shoes, ABBA museum opening in 2009 in Stockholm

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTPlIMubU1ap056N9WTHkfYUhf7Q

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - ABBA fans may want to book a trip to Stockholm in June 2009 for the opening of a museum dedicated to the Swedish pop group.

Organizers unveiled drawings Wednesday for the ABBA museum, to be built in the Swedish capita, which will chronicle the quartet's journey to stardom in the 1970s and their split in the early '80s.

The band members - Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Reuss - are not participating in the project but have donated their costumes and material for the exhibits.

The 6,500-square-metre museum will include a dance floor, recording studio and wardrobe for visitors to get a sense of what it was like to be an ABBA member. Karaoke-singing of ABBA songs will be part of the experience, organizers said.

The museum will open with a five-day festival starting June 3, 2009, said the founders - Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and her husband, Ulf Westman.

The band members have received invites to attend the opening - as guests rather than performers - but it was not clear if they would show up.

"We just have to cross our fingers," Ulf Westman said.

ABBA is one of world's most successful bands with album sales of more than 370 million. The group has not performed together since 1982 but continues to sell nearly three million records a year.

ABBA MUSEUM OPENING DATE ANNOUNCED

3 – 7 June 2009 Stockholm’s new world attraction opens!

Now the construction of Stockholm’s new tourist magnet, ABBA the Museum, starts in Stora Tullhuset at Stadsgården. 6,500 square metres on four levels, featuring everything about one of our biggest Swedish icons - ABBA.

On 3 – 7 June 2009 the attraction opens with a week of festivities in Stockholm and today, 5 December, the first Opening Packages go on sale.

One year ago the plans for a museum about ABBA in Stockholm were launched. Now the construction starts and on 3 – 7 June 2009 ABBA the Museum, the only of its kind in the world, opens.

- This will be a museum on an international level. Plenty of multimedia and interactivity, and we will tell the story in an entertaining way, with the visitors themselves as part of the attraction. We have succeeded if our guests both sing, dance, laugh and cry and, upon leaving, want to go back in again, says Ulf Westman, one of the two founders of ABBA the Museum.

The opening will take the shape of a glittering ”ABBA the Museum Opening Week” 3 – 7 June 2009, with a festival area from Stadsgården to Kungsträdgården featuring tents at the quays, and stages on land and on water.

- The number of people that may enter the museum at one time is limited, for natural reasons. In this way we will be able to offer many people a wonderful opening week and unite the entire tourist business around one single theme. Everyone in Stockholm will feel a part of this, and the city shall resound with our Swedish “national music”, says Ewa Wigenheim-Westman, also a founder of ABBA the Museum.

It has already been noticed all over the world that an ABBA museum will open in Stockholm, and enquiries about the opening date are flooding in.

- In Australia, for example, the group is still hot and many want their place guaranteed and plan their trip here. That’s why a limited number of Opening Packages for Opening Week are released as early as today, on December 5, at 1 pm (CET), says Ewa Wigenheim-Westman.

So what will ABBA the Museum be like?

Ewa and Ulf are the producers in every step of creating the attraction.

The visitors will follow a linear story from the early years when Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid had separate careers, until they took a break in 1983. The visitors will enter at one place, enjoy the attraction, then reach a separate exit.

We will recreate the Brighton stage, the helicopter from Arrival, the disco aura from Voulez-Vous, the Mamma Mia! success story, and much more. We will illustrate career ups and downs, capture the feeling of ABBA’s world tours, and you will experience what it really was like in the recording studio. The visitors will be a part of the audience, get backstage access, sing like Agnetha and Anni-Frid, dance like John Travolta, and even experience what it was like to be one of ABBA. You get to meet musicians, record a video, sing the ABBA songs, meet the people around the group and, naturally, ABBA themselves in many different ways. How? Well, of course we can’t reveal everything right now.

- “Concert” or “film” is our dynamic concept as we’re creating the attraction. We have an intro, we mix uptempo with ballads, we finish with a finale, and if there is enough applause there might be an encore, says Ewa Wigenheim-Westman.

The entrance will be on the short side of Stora Tullhuset facing Slussen. Apart from the attraction there will be an event space encompassing 600 square metres for external and internal events. The temporary space is also available for different events. Naturally, the world’s largest ABBA store will open here as well.

ABBA MUSEUM - MORE ON TICKET SALES ANNOUNCEMENT

Thanks to ABBAMAILer

FORMATION DANCING TO ABBA

World championships of standard formations 2007

Last weekend, the world championships for standard formations took
place in Stuttgart. - Yes, this is about dancing. I was channel hopping and heard familiar notes. One formation was dancing to instrumental bits of "Knowing Me Knowing You" (regular) and "Chiquitita" (tango), and a vocal waltz version of "Angeleyes".
Interesting mix. I uploaded the tiny bit I did manage to record so you know what I am
talking about (I don't know how popular formation dancing is in other parts of the world).

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Erik Menkens, Wangerand, Germany

MAMMA MIA! RETURNS TO SWEDEN - IN ENGLISH

Recently, while in Stockholm, I saw lots of posters advertising Mamma Mia! I didn't pay much attention to them as the dates were past... or so I thought. It wasn't until I was handed a flyer while traverising Drottningsgatan that I realised that this was a new production in English that was returning to Gothenburg's Scandinavium and Stockholm's Globen stadia next summer.

More info can be found at: www.mammamiatour.se. I'm afraid the site's all in Swedish.

The international tour will visit Sweden during summer 2008. Twenty-three shows are planned for the Scandinavium in Gothenburg (Göteborg) from 22 July until 9 August. A further 23 performances will also be given at Globen in Stockholm from 13-31 August. All the shows will be the original English production and special "theatre sets" are being constructed for both venues which will accommodate an audience of 3000 for each show.

This is the same touring cast that has performed the world over visiting Dublin, South Africa, Estonia, Belgium, France, Switzerland and many other countries. The company have recently toured China as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

According to the website, tickets were due to go on sale from 23 Nov 07, but when I visited www.ticnet.se they were not yet available.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Kyle Lindsay, Kent, UK

BBC RADIO IN ABBA COUNTDOWN

The Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2 has e-mailed me to confirm some information for him.

They're planning to do a countdown of ABBA's best selling singles and albums on New Years Day.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Trent Nickson, Dublin, Ireland.

CHART NEWS

From last week:
CANADA: ABBA - 20th Century Masters, The Best Of ABBA - was off the charts. Well, with 24 new entries on the chart, including about 8 in the top 20, it's not surprising.

This Week:

UK: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - down 6 to #74.

IRELAND: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - back on at #98, week 391.

SWEDEN: Benny Andersson's Orkester - BAO3 - stable at #32

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand

AGNETHA MEETS BJORN AGAIN

Click on pictures to see larger versions.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Harry Ehler, Linz, Austria

SCISSOR SISTERS & ABBA

http://www.spinner.com

On Tuesday, New York pop combo the Scissor Sisters will drop a new documentary DVD, 'Hurrah! A Year of Ta-Dah.' The film was shot by the band and their friends as they toured their second album, 2006s 'Ta-Dah.' In addition to mounds of concert footage, the DVD offers a real look backstage and plenty of flesh thanks to the cameras often catching frontman Jake Shears stripping himself of most of his clothing.

"I'm gonna be like Morrissey when I'm 50. He just keeps slipping his shirt off on stage," Shears tells Spinner during a break from working on the Sisters' third record. "Here's the thing -- when you're backstage, you're in the dressing room, I just don't have time to worry about if there's cameras on. Are there people watching? I just don't care. You take your clothes off. It's no big deal -- it's like being backstage at a fashion show."

The documentary also manages to fit in some rather bizarre clips from European TV shows the band appeared on during their 'Ta-Dah' world tour, including German program 'Wetten Das.' The band appeared on the show alongside the program's host and the German public, who were dressed in somewhat unusual attire.

"We were on with Justin Timberlake [and] Rod Stewart -- it was really fun," Shears recounts. "[The show] asked us if we wanted to sing an ABBA song with the [host]. We thought, 'What the hell?' and we sang it and it was really funny. They were doing this thing live and they had all these people dressed in garbage bags, like out in the streets in Germany."

Sadly, the audio of the group's ABBA cover is absent for the walk down memory lane as the Swedish ensemble wouldn't clear it. Shears isn't totally upset over the loss though, he tells Spinner, he and Scissor Sisters guitarist Baby Daddy recently got to meet his pop heroes in person.

"Baby Daddy and I got to meet Benny and Björn from ABBA a few weeks ago, which was amazing," he enthuses. "We stopped at our record label to say 'Hey!' and [our label friends] were like, come up to the top floor. They're making the 'Mamma Mia' movie, so they were playing 'Mamma Mia' cuts and we got to meet Benny and Bjorn. I absolutely love them. I think that they are two of the most glamorous musicians ever."

Though it was a monumental moment for Shears, he managed to make the introduction fun.

"I think what I said [to them] was, something like, 'You don't know how much time we've spent inspecting and ripping off your music,' No, it was a joke! They were very sweet. They are two of the best pop songwriters of all time," he notes. "I just think they are so glamorous, they're so dapper, so gorgeous. They've done all this stuff and they're super mellow. I have a lot of respect for them."

ABBA MUSEUM TICKETS

Exclusive ticket release for ABBA Museum

1pm Swedish time on December 5, the ABBA Museum will release 3,000 exclusive opening packages for the glittering festive week when ABBA the Museum opens in 2009 (the date for the Opening Week will be revealed on December 5). Tickets at www.ticnet.se

===========

Exclusive ticket release on December 5 at 1 pm, Swedish time!

If you want to be first in line when ABBA the Museum opens in 2009, here is your chance. On Wednesday, December 5, we reveal the opening date and the same day at 1 pm the first Opening Packages for this glittering Opening Week are released. 3 000 packages are released worldwide through www.ticnet.se.

Your Opening Package includes entrance tickets, the right to by-pass the queue and to decide the exact day and time for your visit, and other Opening Week VIP benefits. There are three different packages: Platinum, Gold and Silver.

The Platinum Packages also include invitations to “behind the scenes” events before the attraction opens and the chance to win 2 tickets for the star-studded Grand Opening Party.

All the information about the Opening Packages is available at www.abbamuseum.com.

BENNY TALKS ABOUT ABBA AND MAMMA MIA!

http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=1601

Benny Andersson discusses 'Mamma Mia!' and Abba

Benny Andersson, member of the Swedish group Abba said today that he was unsure "that the musical Mamma Mia reflects the spirit of Abba". The singer will today attend the opening of the show in Barcelona, in which he has written the music and lyrics together with his Abba colleague, Björn Ulvaeus. 'Mamma Mia!' tells a story through the songs of ABBA. The dramatist Catherine Johnson wrote the text, for which explains Andersson "the music of ABBA goes with the spirit of the story".

In an interview with Europa Press, Andersson indicated that he took on this project because "I cannot stop working with our music" even though at first he was a little resilient to the idea "I wanted to protect it because initially it was something big, but I became involved in the production so that I could give my own opinion". "ABBA has a life without 'Mamma Mia!' but perhaps it is present because of the musical. However, many ABBA songs deal with everyday themes such as love", said Andersson.

The songs that will be present in the musical are loyal to the original lyrics, only a few parts of 'Chiquitita', 'Super' and the last sentence of 'Mamma Mia!', the song that gives the musical its title "due to the relevance in the history of it". In this sense, Andersson says "Before the music was more important, now its the lyrics".

NO ABBA RETURN

The return of ABBA to the stage is something that "is not going to happen", Andersson says confidently. The singer considers that "we are too old for pop music"
"ABBA is something that I did more than 20 years ago" he said. Up to now, Andersson has published three solo albums in Swedish and his involvement in the musical has always been secondary to his music as opposed to Björn Ulvaeus.

He has also composed songs for theatre, cinema and even the Swedish National Anthem. In 2001 and 2002, the singer occupied the number 1 spot in the Swedish charts with "The Orchestra of Benny Andersson". ABBA took part in the Eurovision Festival of 1973 with 'Ring Ring' which made it to third place. In 1974 they returned to Eurovision with 'Waterloo' which gave them the victory and international fame.

In this sense, Andersson with regards to the Eurovision Festival says that "It is too much. It is a fantastic format for television, but it is not good for music".

MORE ON AGNETHA & TOYBOY

www.independent.ie

Blonde ABBA legend Agnetha Faltskog (57) has made a sensational return to the limelight after being seen canoodling at a party with a man 20 years her junior.

The famously-reclusive star, who was once a worldwide pin-up, turned her back on all the trappings of fame after splitting from the Swedish supergroup which sold 360m records.

But now she is making a tentative return to public life after falling for handsome TV executive Max Lagerback.

The pair were seen dancing with their arms around each other in a Stockholm nightclub as they smooched along to ABBA cover band Bjorn Again at a bash to celebrate the 20th anniversary of swedish station TV3, where Max works.

"They looked very happy to be seen together -- Agnetha looked radiant," said one source.

Few would begrudge the star her new-found happiness though, given her previous track record. She was previously married for seven years to the group's Bjorn Ulvaeus, with whom she has two grown-up children, Linda and Peter.

She went on to have a three-year marriage to surgeon Tomas Sonnenfeld in the early 1990s before going on to have a two-year relationship later in the decade with an obsessive fan, trucker Gert van der Graaf.

Despite initially reporting him to the police, she was eventually won over by his amorous advances in 1997.

"His courting of me was very intense. . . in the end I couldn't resist him," she said.

He became obsessed with her after she dumped him and she later branded him "mentally unstable".

But although she and Max are insisting they are "just good friends," Agnetha appears to have been lured back into the spotlight through her budding relationship with the hunky TV executive.

Since the band split in 1982, the legendary star has been a virtual recluse and has attracted a reputation for being cripplingly shy.

Unlike the other three members of the Swedish supergroup, she has shunned the numerous reunions and celebrations throughout the years.

When her last long-term relationship ended three years ago, she said she spent most of her days fighting back the tears.

"People who find true love and keep it are very lucky. But it's fine to yearn for true love. I still yearn," she said.

Despite being one of the world's biggest sex symbols as one quarter of the supergroup, Agnetha developed a fear of the public and found ABBA's success very hard to handle.

"No-one who faced a screaming, boiling, hysterical crowd could avoid feeling shivers running up and down their spine," she said.

"There was fever, there was hysteria, there were sweaty, obsessed crowds. I felt as if they would get hold of me and I would never get away again."

It was little wonder then that after the band split, Agnetha shut herself away from the world on one of Stockholm's most remote islands, Ekero.

She also turned her back on music, revealing how she "didn't sing a note for 13 years" and didn't even have a stereo in the house.

But she did embark on a string of passionate affairs including a liaison with ice hockey star Lars Eriksson, designer Dick Haakonsson and psychiatrist HakanLonnback.

She even had a romance with detective Thorbjorn Brander -- who was assigned to protect her after her children received kidnap threats.

Yet Agnetha finally seems to be making a slow return back into public life.

Not only has she got a hunky new man, but she also released an album of ballads called My Colouring Books, showing her desire to rekindle some of her music success.

- Melanie Finn

AGNETHA & TOYBOY

ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog shows she's is a real 'dancing queen'

The 57-year-old was spotted shaking a leg with Max Lagerback, 20 years her junior, at a Stockholm party.

The pair is an item but they still insist that nothing is brewing between them.

Previously, the duo were spotted together at a nightclub, having their arms around each other intimately as they smooched along to Abba cover band Bjorn Again, at a bash to celebrate the 20th anniversary of TV channel TV3.

An observer said that the couple looked very happy together.

"They looked very happy to be seen together - Agnetha looked radiant," the Daily Express quoted the observer, as saying.

Agnetha was earlier married to the group's Björn Ulvaeus, with whom she has two grown-up children.

CHART NEWS

Just two for last week - Canada hadn't updated their charts at the time of writing:

UK: ABBA - ABBA GOLD - down 11 to #68

SWEDEN: Benny Andersson's Orkester - BAO3 - down 12 to #32

AUSTRALIA - Number Ones DVD is off the chart #13 22wks. Platinum

IRELAND - ABBA GOLD is off the chart, total 390 weeks.

Thanks to ABBAMAILer Dean Scapolo, Wellington, New Zealand