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Post by Alan on May 13, 2024 22:35:40 GMT
I admit, despite everything, that I've occasionally wondered (much less so now) if, during the Voyage sessions, ABBA might have recorded more songs than they've let on about. They certainly had the time to do so. Well, we know they did. There’s “Hit By A Train” (if that really is its final title) plus one other. And CMP has recently mentioned earlier versions of Ode To Freedom. Ignorance is bliss… I would have been fine believing that they recorded the ten songs on Voyage and nothing else. But Benny had to go and spill the beans. And it’s not like we hadn’t been there before. We knew about Just Like That and I Am The City in 1982. As I say, ABBA may owe us nothing but likewise, we owe them zero in return. It shouldn’t be used to justify anything they say or do or to shame anyone that appears to be ungrateful.
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Post by Alan on May 13, 2024 19:09:28 GMT
Which bit?! Not the “Eurovision is crap” sentence. I’d agree 100% with that.
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Post by Alan on May 13, 2024 11:12:43 GMT
Swedish Television didn't want them there in 1975! That was the problem back then, not ABBA themselves... Btw, it says ABBA not invited to Eurovision in 1975 Wasn’t it mentioned in the Against The Odds documentary that the stuffy Swedish music industry didn’t want Eurovision in Sweden in 1975, and as it was ABBA (this horrible commercial pop group) that brought it there, much of the vitriol would have been aimed at them had they attended. Therefore, they weren’t invited so as to keep the peace.
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Post by Alan on May 13, 2024 9:01:59 GMT
And the long-awaited 10-minute full length version of Little Things at that. I can’t wait. This is so exciting.
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Post by Alan on May 12, 2024 21:12:06 GMT
I’m still not convinced about that. The last two times we entered a good song (Love Shine A Light and Space Man) we either won or would have won but for the invasion of Ukraine. Our other entries have mostly been pathetic, and this year’s was a prime example. I think you’re being a bit naive there? No votes from the public? Seriously? I would agree it’s not a great song and he’s far from being a great singer but he didn’t deserve that. I think it’s time the BBC withdrew from the EBU. Let ITV/STV do it. It’s far more on their level (they are both, along with the BBC and Channel 4, EBU members). Public, licence fee money should not be funding this dross (and OK, I know it funds football and many other sports that many of us have no interest in, but that can’t justify it).
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Post by Alan on May 12, 2024 19:06:57 GMT
I agree with those who state that ABBA owe us fans nothing and I always felt that Voyage was a big EXTRA and perfect end to the ABBA story. There’s another side to that. Whilst I agree that they owe us nothing, that works both ways. We owe them absolutely nothing either. Let’s not forget that. I used to be a big advocate of the “they owe is us nothing” philosophy (applied to anything with a sufficient fandom, not just ABBA) but time and time again I’ve seen it used to justify/excuse anything an artist does. And used to shut conversation down, and (more likely) shut an individual down. How very dare you suggest we’re owed anything?! I’ve been very guilty of that in the past and I hold my hand up to it… I’ve since realised that if an artist is going to take the piss, they deserve any criticism coming to them.
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Post by Alan on May 12, 2024 18:51:30 GMT
I didn't see the voting last night. What was the process? In previous years, the juries have their votes - then after all that, the public votes were added which often changed things. That’s how it was this time, yes. The public vote was added in one go for each country, starting with the country with the lowest jury vote and finishing with the one with the highest. It didn’t change the winner, but a few other countries were affected. The UK did kind-of-OK from the jury vote but zero from the public, proving once again that for some unfathomable reason we remain the most hated country in Europe.
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Post by Alan on May 11, 2024 22:38:22 GMT
Apparently, you saw the ABBATars from the side, but at Voyage you see them face on. And Björn and Benny added some dialogue wishing the competitors well.
If anyone’s getting excited at that, they really do need to get out more.
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Post by Alan on May 11, 2024 21:33:58 GMT
What a pile of crap that was. Shameful.
The ABBATars clip was taken directly from the Voyage show. Nothing to see here.
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 21:11:31 GMT
The Top of the Pops 1983 episode was shown on BBC Four tonight that included Agnetha’s appearance. You do have to wonder why the record company allowed her to appear on it without actually performing the song. Still, I suppose they’d accept what was offered in those dark days of ABBA - The Wilderness Years. Don’t mention them unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 17:42:37 GMT
Gorel has denied this. The members won't participate in any form whatsoever. Someone mentioned on here once that Görel apparently denied just days before the Voyage album announcement that there was anything more than just the two songs. Therefore very difficult to believe anything she says. Or Björn and Benny, at times, for that matter. It’s possible that anything we hear from ABBA could be archive interviews though, and nothing done especially for this Eurovision.
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 17:20:46 GMT
If there’s anything in this, even that’s not exciting. Unless they have something to announce of course.
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 16:59:34 GMT
As HOMETIME has reminded us of what Catherine Tate said…. Not sure where to put this, but hot news I found on facebook this afternoon... Catherine Tate was interviewed this morning on Zoe Ball Radio show. She is about to reprise her role as Donna on Dr. Who. She mentioned that Russell T Davies (Dr Who writer) is a friend of Bjorn and recently stayed with him on a trip to Stockholm. Bjorn told him about the two unreleased "Voyage" tracks and said watch this space for news about their release at a special event.... Not sure Eurovision counts as a “special event”, being as it’s held every year, but even so, unless Catherine or Russell made it up (which I can’t believe, but some element of exaggeration may be present), some hope has to remain.
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 16:11:16 GMT
Just noticed the Official ABBA Fan Club have spelt “Conchita” incorrectly in bjorenny’s link - was that a Freudian slip, I wonder?
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Post by Alan on May 10, 2024 14:16:32 GMT
Oh dear. Is this really the best they can do?
No one seems the least bit bothered about this anniversary, aside from the producers of Against The Odds. The brief seems to be: let’s keep ABBA naff and camp.
And ABBA are apparently happy with this. I doubt Benny really is, but he’s allowed it to happen (Björn, I fear, would just sell out ABBA to anyone that asked - I certainly wouldn’t bet against him appearing tomorrow night).
Then again, I wouldn’t want them associated with Eurovision anyway. Let’s not forget they only did it in the first place in order to pick up a wider audience - a strategy that clearly worked.
The divide between what the hardcore, serious fans want and the general perception of what ABBA is - at least to the lowest common denominator - just gets wider and wider.
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Post by Alan on May 8, 2024 22:31:11 GMT
megb876, as justabba says, the link is showing “not found”. Unless you can provide the correct link, I’ll delete the topic. For now, I have deleted the link.
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Post by Alan on May 8, 2024 16:52:16 GMT
Oh yes. I have seen har, of course. Not good. It’s never bothered me. The design of the sleeve allows for it, it’s not intruding on anything important. Later copies had an actual sticker on the other side advertising the inclusion of I Have A Dream. I agree about the Super Trouoer one though, that one is tacky. The competition closed at the end of 1980 but the thousands of surviving copies are stuck with it for eternity.
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Post by Alan on May 6, 2024 12:38:11 GMT
PS - HMV have special offers on the picture disc singles just now. A bit late for me as I've already bought them though. Go treat yourselves! Also, the Polydor store has 20% off any order for a limited time - Use code '20OFF' at checkout. store.polydor.co.uk/Too late for me as well - once again I went in too early.
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Post by Alan on May 6, 2024 10:37:02 GMT
To detail what happened before Waterloo and ignore the period after 1980 is left with a feeling of being shortchanged. I feel the opposite. I do think that 1981 and beyond has been done to death in these things. How many times can we hear variations on the “standing apart on the album sleeve”, “tense atmosphere in the studio” and “Björn and Benny wanting to write a musical”? For me it would have spoilt it had the documentary gone on to cover that. And I certainly wouldn’t have wanted Gold, Mamma Mia! or Voyage included. We knew it was going to be focussed on 1976-80 and I like the detail included for those years.
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Post by Alan on May 5, 2024 15:55:21 GMT
jj, do we have an exact (or near enough) timeframe of when Benny announced to Frida the end of their marriage (and the reason why?). It was included in the documentary that Björn’s and Agnetha’s effectively ended on Christmas Day 1978 when she left with the children that night (almost certainly pre-arranged that way with the decision to part already having been made before then). We already knew that. With Benny and Frida I’d kind of always thought it was early 1981, after promotion for Super Trouper had been completed (and one of the reasons, along with the threatened kidnap of Björn and Agnetha’s children, that no further singles were released or promotion undertaken).
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Post by Alan on May 4, 2024 20:18:03 GMT
That was by far the best ABBA documentary I have ever seen. Yep, there was nothing I didn’t already know but some of it was a nice reminder (let’s face it, the hardcore fans are hardly going to learn anything from these things). Talking heads were there but you didn’t actually see any of them, and I think everything you heard was from the archives?
That was how it should be done. And I’d definitely watch it again.
The Visitors photo is not the album cover shot (or rather, either of them). Not sure if I have seen it before. If I have I’ve forgotten.
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Post by Alan on May 3, 2024 20:45:18 GMT
Is Super Trouper significant in that it has three songs that have three full verses? Happy New Year, The Piper and Lay All Your Love on Me. I like that. Our Last Summer has a half third verse but that doesn’t count. And The Winner Takes It All is really just a series of verses, but those three songs do it properly. Andante, Andante fails in that regard as the first two verses are joined together without a chorus in the middle.
Do many/any other ABBA songs have three full verses (all with a chorus following)? I’ve never really thought about it until now!
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Post by Alan on May 3, 2024 17:04:11 GMT
I wasn’t saying I saw her as a victim. She did have a few relationships after Björn but none of them lasted. Perhaps that was her choice, we don’t know. It’s her private life and absolutely none of our business.
I actually think she is happy on her own. Certainly when the split with Björn was announced in early 1979, the perception was that she wanted out. If she needed a man she’d possibly have stuck with him. She didn’t, even though she had two young children with him and worked with him.
I would agree, the perception of her as this Greta Garbo-esque recluse and a victim is utter nonsense. I think she’s happy with the life she’s chosen.
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Post by Alan on May 3, 2024 15:27:30 GMT
Agnetha did briefly have a second husband, Tomas Sonnenfeld. They married in 1990 but divorced three years later. She’s not had much luck with men since her split from Björn at the end of 1978.
[It’s claimed on Wikipedia that her second marriage only became public knowledge when they divorced, but that’s incorrect as I distinctly remember it being mentioned in the news on breakfast TV in 1990. It was more of a surprise that anyone from ABBA got a mention on British TV at that point, than it was that she’d remarried.]
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Post by Alan on May 2, 2024 18:27:02 GMT
If we count GGG, it would be around 5. Gimme Gimme Gimme is much more associated with Voulez-Vous isn’t it? I know it was on the 1997 reissue of Super Trouper but it didn’t belong on there, and was soon rectified four years later.
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Post by Alan on May 2, 2024 7:17:35 GMT
There is also a similar take on The Day Before You Came on the same channel. Nothing to do with the video or audio itself, I know, but I wonder why they’ve used a more recent photo of Benny? It looks really odd with 1982 photos of the others!
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Post by Alan on Apr 30, 2024 12:42:06 GMT
Interesting that it looks as though it will be on BBC iPlayer on 4 May, ahead of its BBC One broadcast on 8 May.
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Post by Alan on Apr 27, 2024 16:42:41 GMT
I finally ordered the coloured vinyl singles box yesterday and it arrived today.
It’s quite underwhelming. The red, white and blue have been done before and the two company sleeves are a bit boring.
This is the tail-end of an ongoing series begun in 2016. It was always set to be the most boring of the issues so far, but the fact that it’s the only set of releases in this anniversary year makes it worse. The picture discs are slightly more interesting but you have to wonder why they seem so disinterested in doing much.
(My box is number 1,785. If that means the previous 1,784 have been sold, that still leaves 1,015 left. The issue is limited to 2,800… a pity they didn’t make it 1,815 as that was the year the battle of Waterloo was fought. And would have made it as limited as it perhaps deserved…)
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Post by Alan on Apr 26, 2024 20:10:52 GMT
ABBA - Against The Odds trailer:
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Post by Alan on Apr 26, 2024 18:41:31 GMT
This photo came up on a social today. Not sure if Frida really is asleep or pretending* (otherwise why is Benny laughing?) but it amused me. *My money would be on the latter.
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