Australia: the bubble that burst.

It is easy to see why they did so poorly that year when you consider what they released (and compare this with what their contemporaries were putting out). Even their music videos in 1982 were bland, uninspiring, and outdated. The "drop" had little to do with exposure (of which there was very little in 1981) and was more about the quality of the music.

I lived in Australia when ABBA were active so can describe what took place during that period.

ABBA was claimed to be 'discovered' by Ian Molly Meldrum who hosted a Sunday TV pop program on the national broadcaster called Countdown. His claim isn't really true as songs such as Waterloo and Ring Ring were played on the radio prior to his involvement. What he did do was regularly play the clip for Mamma Mia resulting in its release as a single. With that success the record company released that song in the UK moving the band's career forward. In Australia older songs such as those mentioned were promoted along with SOS, I Do, Honey Honey etc. Everywhere you went you heard the songs playing on radios.

What happened then was Molly Meldrum turned on ABBA. The release of the Arrival album was a massive event in Australia with feature newspaper articles. At the end of each Countdown show the number 1 hit for the week was played. In the case of both Dancing Queen and Fernando (which spent lengthy periods at #1, I think Fernando still holds the record) after a few weeks he chose not to play them but IIRC Australian songs instead. From then on Meldrum played ABBA hits less often, rarely in full. Others in the music media also turned on the band branding them uncool and rubbishing them. I really don't think that the public were sick of ABBA but rather that the media were.

Even after this with reduced exposure ABBA remained very popular with the public. When the band toured oz in 1977 the scenes were incredible. The only performers that matched them in tour mania were the Beatles in 1964 and Taylor Swift this year. ABBA remained popular till they broke up in 1982 but had much less exposure. Their star had faded a bit as they produced less of the outwardly happy songs of their early years but never totally waned. So while ABBA might have declined due to changes in music direction there was definitely also an active campaign against them by the local media industry. The commentary at the time was quite critical of the Visitors album which some now acclaim - it just wasn't quite the ABBA of old. Would Fleetwood Mac have recieved the same criticism for evolving?

From my perspective my favourite period for ABBA was from Ring Ring to Arrival which in Australia I'd call peak ABBA from the public's perspective. Benny has said the two recordings he is most proud of are DQ and KMKY so even in his mind their seems to be some perception of a peak at this time. ABBA created many fine recordings afterwards but the only one to rival the critical acclaim of those two is TWTIA. From Bjorn and Benny 3 of their best 5 recordings were released from 1975-7, 2 from 1978-82.

Through the 80s their songs were still played on the radio, less often though as they were not current. The tribute band Bjorn Again I think started in oz and Priscilla Queen of the Desert was made in Australia demonstrating that their songs were still much loved.

As to whether the Voyage show would succeed in Australia I think it might only do so with tourists from Asia. ABBA are popular, even known by todays teenagers, but a population of 27 million is not enough of a base. From personal experience I can't say if there is enough interest in Asia to support the show in oz, others would know better.

In my opinion away from London they are most likely to succeed in Las Vegas or the west coast of the US. The show would be supported because of the spectacle and novelty. ABBA hits are better known in the US than what many outsiders think with other artists and critics now singing their praises. If Mamma Mia worked in the US then so too would Voyage.

Yes Molly Meldurm considered himself to be a starmaker and to his credit actively promoted emerging Australian bands. So yes the pushback by him and others against ABBA started before 1977. In 1976 when Fernando was released it was #1 week for 14 weeks and Meldrum refused to play the clip, playing the number 2 songs and not even mentioning the song's name or the band towards the end. The same year for Dancing Queen Meldrum acclaimed the song initially and again would not play the full clip at end of the show. After that he didn't give ABBA a lot of airplay.

Oz is a massive tourist destination for Asians, particularly China. Whether they would travel there to see Voyage is another matter. I am unaware how popular the band is outside of Japan.

From what I remember when Fernando was Number I for about 14 weeks, people in the audience started booing so Molly Meldrum decided to play other songs, then people were upset about Fernando not being played.
The switchboard had a lot of angry phone calls.
with the way things are here in Victoria, The state government spend for different projects while people are struggling for housing and the hospitals are also struggling with Nurses leaving if it would be a good idea to have Voyage here.

If I'm not mistaken SOS was released as a single in Australia in November 1975. One could also argue that most people already had SOS on the ABBA album which was released in September 1975 in Australia and was a mega seller. This didn't prevent SOS from reaching number one and spending almost double the time on the charts compared with KMKY.
KMKY's failure to reach number one is all the more puzzling because its release coincided with ABBA's Australian tour, thus guaranteeing maximum exposure and promotion.

Yes, but I don't think that's a reason why a record shouldn't reach number one. I think a record is made number one not only because of fans but also because of popularity with general record buyers. Here in The Netherlands I Have A Dream made number one for three consecutive weeks in January 1980, almost nine months after the Voulez-Vous album was released and a greatest hits album had been released in between. ABBA fans already had the Voulez-Vous album but the single still reached number one.

I think Johnny's comments are spot on re KMKY you in oz. The Arrival album had massive sales and it was nearly one million in a total population of about 14 million at the time. Having lived through it in oz it was a phenomenon. I would also point out that sales are more relevant that chart position as the latter is affected by the competition - you can have single that tops at #2 outselling over time another that peaks at #1. Out of all the ABBA albums Arrival in oz was a phenomenon. If Dancing Queen had been released after the album's release I have no doubt that its sales would have been significantly reduced.

But back to original point and that is that the media in Australia turned against ABBA from about the time of the release of Fernando and certainly Dancing Queen. Despite the negativity in the media the band remained popular as demonstrated by the sales for Arrival and support of the 1977 tour. It was through the ongoing negative campaign that it eventually became cool to dislike ABBA.

I understand your point Angela but also sort of miss Countdown as it was a good program in that it showcased Australian talent as well as some lesser known or emerging international musicians. It was a stable as was Hey Hey Its Saturday (when it was on in the mornings).

As to Molly Meldrum he was a capable music producer and helped local acts through Countdown. While he certainly helped ABBA his claim to have discovered them was hyperbole and says something about his ego. How he treated them, stabbing them in the back, when they became huge was disgraceful.

Why Molly Meldrum turned on ABBA was perplexing. Maybe something happened where he got snubbed or put back in his place caused his change in attitude.

I have sometimes wondered why ABBA did not become huge in the USA and there may be several reasons. One of them appears to be an incident, confirmed by several music sources (who right now I can't recall), that on the USA tour they refused to have some powerful music moguls have front row seats (they wanted fans to have those seats). As the story goes the band left that city huriedly. That incident (you don't upset those people in the USA) along with their reticence to go on the road and industry pushback against overseas acts in response to Beatlemania may explain things.

That still baffles me. All that money just... blown. A rare top 3 hit and they didn't capitalise on it? Madness. There were (IMO) three further candidates for follow-up single on The Album: an edit of Eagle; One Man, One Woman; and Hole In Your Soul. All very American-sounding tracks (OMOW especially). They even had videos for two of them.

Atlantic refused SNC because the album wasn't ready - bonkers. Maybe they felt Chiquitita wasn't a perfect fit for the US market at that time, and January probably wasn't the right time for a single with the word Summer in its title. But IIWFTN was ready by then, and a 7" edit had even been made and test pressed (it appeared briefly on Discogs in the last couple of years). All of that seems like label incompetence to me, but the biggest crime was not following TACOM within a month or two. And what was the notoriously grumpy and pushy Stig doing during all of this?

Maybe the Against All Odds docu will mention this period?