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Post by wombat on Oct 18, 2016 13:11:32 GMT
Waterloo said:
"Seriously, if B&B don't want anything else to be released, may it be. But these constant re-releases of things we all own multiple times really annoys me as it is not a treat for the fans but a rather mean way to milk the few remaining people who closely follow the group decades after their separation, as it is rather unlikely that the average fan will go for such an expensive vinyl-release."
They've made it clear over and over that they aren't going to open their vaults and release things they did not think were good enough to release before. Collectors are going to have to deal with this fact.
I dont think you can blame anybody in Abba for this endless re-packaging of the same music. The group has been dead for almost 40 years and yet there's still high interest in them.
As long as people keep buying, this stuff will keep coming up for sale.
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Post by wombat on Oct 18, 2016 13:15:18 GMT
OnlyAbbaForMe said:
"Fans both better Audio sound & Bonus Tracks, that are a special treat.
Unfortunately, rewarding 'The Fans' is beyond Benny & Bjorn."
and this is exactly what I'm talking about.
Bjorn and Benny worked their cans off for nine or ten long years to give you the music you already have. Personally, I'm happy with what they gave us, and knowing how much work went into it, how it totally dominated their lives, its enough.
They gave you a museum to go to. They gave you a remixed concert in disc.
I dont know what else "rewarding the fans" means. This obsessive, demanding mindset in some abba fans puzzles me.
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Post by Alan on Oct 18, 2016 13:51:45 GMT
That's absolutely right, Wombat. We are owed absolutely nothing, and therefore there is nothing to reward. We chose to spend our money on ABBA's music and have got far more out of it than we put in. It's a choice to keep buying, and you're paying your money over for a piece of plastic with music on and cardboard. That's it, end of transaction. And if you choose not to then that's great too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2016 16:34:57 GMT
Oh well. Never mind. Fans are fully entitled to their different views on ABBA releases. Some call them 'Milking' & others call them 'Great', & both sets of views are equally entitled to be expressed. As they will continue to be expressed. Let's hope that the 'ABBA Hologram Show' via Benny & Bjorn's contact with Simon Fuller, will actually bring something worthwhile & exciting for ABBA Fans. I find what I've read about that to be 100 times more interesting than 2016's ABBA releases..... LINKwww.contactmusic.net/simon-fuller/news/abba-could-be-reuniting-in-virtual-3d-form_5422506
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Post by foreverfan on Oct 18, 2016 16:50:32 GMT
Hopefully if it comes to fruition, it will be interesting, as long as it's not like the " holograms" at the museum, as for anything new, well we can cross fingers and anything else for that matter, but realistically... no... we wait....as per usual what's 40 years between friends  |
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Oct 18, 2016 16:50:45 GMT
I've recieved the singles boxset, it's amazing but the colours are the only letdown, they are too primary for my liking.
The colours which would've suited the singles better in my opinion would be
Fernando - burnt orange like the fire
Dancing Queen - a lighter blue
Money Money Money - Gold representing coins!!!
Knowing Me Knowing You - beige like the border on the cover
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Post by chron on Oct 18, 2016 21:46:42 GMT
We are owed absolutely nothing, and therefore there is nothing to reward. No artist ever owes anything, or is owed anything (the best art is usually made out of inner necessity and gets created regardless). At the same time there's something somehow distasteful about whipping up expectation for a re-release and then failing to include something substantially new. Bands bigger than/as big as ABBA (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac) have all dug deep into their vaults, and you'd think ABBA would jump at the chance to be associated with this sort of late-career gesture of largess. |
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Post by Alan on Oct 18, 2016 22:41:31 GMT
I'm not sure that much interest was whipped up was it? In any case, these releases have very little to do with ABBA themselves and are merely the record company doing what they are doing for various other acts.
I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't going to be anything previously unreleased with this, but I think I would have felt more aggrieved if there had been. I really didn't want to buy Arrival on CD yet again for one exclusive track (I remember Waterloo on here joking that they might include the soundtrack of a TV performance that didn't use the studio recording).
Two things I'm slightly optimistic about but am not expecting. Firstly the 1977 live album I mentioned in an earlier post. It might not happen but there's a possibility, if ABBA Intermezzo's source is correct.
Secondly, Carl Magnus Palm's new book. He's being allowed to hear everything from the vaults for this purpose. What would be the point in Björn and Benny allowing him this access if nothing comes of it? Why let one lucky fan hear it to then describe it to other fans if they're never going to hear it for themselves? It would be like trying to describe colours to someone that's always been blind and always will be.
We'll see what happens (or doesn't happen!)
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Post by foreverfan on Oct 19, 2016 8:15:14 GMT
I have to agree and live in eternal hope Alan, regarding CMP book, how can just one person listen to everything, complete torture to all of us that have waited 40 odd years, surely something will eventually come of it.. it was was the main reason for not buying the book, to hear him ( CMP ) describe some track that no one has ever heard and he thinks is the best thing since DQ, how are we going to feel....  .. |
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Post by wombat on Oct 19, 2016 13:33:27 GMT
We are owed absolutely nothing, and therefore there is nothing to reward. No artist ever owes anything, or is owed anything (the best art is usually made out of inner necessity and gets created regardless). At the same time there's something somehow distasteful about whipping up expectation for a re-release and then failing to include something substantially new. Bands bigger than/as big as ABBA (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac) have all dug deep into their vaults, and you'd think ABBA would jump at the chance to be associated with this sort of late-career gesture of largess. Abba isnt Fleetwood Mac or the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and its unrealistic to expect them to take cues from what these other bands do, or did. Benny and Bjorn apparently have no intention of releasing half-finished tracks or anything they have determined was not their very best, and as far as I'm concerned, there is wisdom in that. Some fans have the collector thing happening and they will be irritated with that refusal to open the vaults. Personally, I think Benny and Bjorn are just guarding their legacy of perfection and have no desire to taint it. I've heard stuff on bootlegs and its not anywhere near as good as what they released officially. And in the words of Bjorn, on the TV show "welcome to sweden".... he said "Why would I want any more money?" They have no financial need to open the vaults. And Sony or Universal or whoever owns the rights to their old recordings, cannot crack the vault open so its safe to say they may NEVER be opened. And I'm fine with that. |
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Post by foreverfan on Oct 19, 2016 16:10:41 GMT
^^^but surely they have.. if CMP has access, then it's a possibility B and B are open to suggestions, so never say never |
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Post by Alan on Oct 19, 2016 16:43:51 GMT
^^ Exactly. The whole lot has been digitised (or is it digitalised?!) so it's not like there are any dusty tapes to hunt out. All of that has been done already.
I'm struggling to work out what the reasoning is in letting Carl Magnus Palm hear it all and write about it. I've no interest in the book but I do think there are fans that have crowd-funded in the hope that by doing so they are somehow buying into the "vaults". If nothing does come of that, there will be many disappointed people.
Has anyone here paid into the book? We had a topic on the other forum once and reaction was mostly negative, with a few exceptions. As CMP is well in with the AT lot, it resulted in some of us being kicked out of their Facebook group (not that I was all that bothered).
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Post by wombat on Oct 19, 2016 17:14:28 GMT
Was the Abba Complete Recordings book ever updated? I remember he was trying to raise money to support it. He's a great guy and has personally answered a bunch of questions I had... but the original book was a complete disappointment, with only a few recording technique tidbits to offer.
I had no interest in reading a book where he described listening to a bunch of alternate versions of tunes that we would probably never get to hear.
What I'd like, and what will never happen, would be a DVD video where Bjorn and Benny cue up the old multi-track mother tapes of songs and let us hear the tracks isolated, and explain what they were doing, and let us hear all the stuff they recorded for each song that either didnt make the final mix or got buried so far we'd never know it was under there. Benny did that once I think, maybe Ring Ring or something.
Sure, other bands have done that. That doesnt mean Abba should or will ever. One thing to consider is that these other bands that were mentioned up above, Pink FLoyd, Fleetwood MAc... these are active bands. They tour and record. Not Abba. That band is dead. And Benny acts like he wants it that way, he has no interest in spending a lot of time resurrecting it, for any purposes.
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Post by Alan on Oct 19, 2016 18:34:18 GMT
^^ Yes, that's the book I was talking about in my post. He's still writing it.
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Post by foreverfan on Oct 19, 2016 19:04:22 GMT
^^ a friend of mine, whose an avid fan has ordered the book, no doubt I'll get some information from them, so I guess there was enough fans who crowd funded for CMP to go ahead, otherwise it wouldn't be happening.. so no doubt tit bits will filter through.. just imagine, if B & B had done something like a Christmas track, and we no nothing about it, pure torture just to hear about it.. This book could be a double edged sword...  |
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Post by Alan on Oct 19, 2016 20:16:14 GMT
^^ He made two attempts at crowd-funding. The first one failed spectacularly as he got no where near enough by the deadline. The second one had a much more realistic target and was successful, but I think the minimum required from each person was more. I'm sure his fans at AT will love it.
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Post by shoshin on Oct 19, 2016 22:56:50 GMT
...Benny did that once I think, maybe Ring Ring or something... I've come across this, but only with Spanish subtitles over the Swedish dialogue. Still worth watching though. Tretow did DQ too. |
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Post by Alan on Oct 20, 2016 17:11:35 GMT
Carl Magnus Palm has posted on Facebook about his book:
★ ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions: publication date set
• The revised and expanded edition of this book will ship on 31 March 2017.
Important information about this book - please read the entire message:
I'm pleased to announce that all is set for a publication of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions on 31 March 2017. On 28, 29 and 30 March I will be busy signing all the books to those who have pre-ordered, and then the books will be shipped to its recipients from a warehouse in the UK on 31 March. Your personally signed and dedicated copy of the book will be with you in the first half of April.
The size of the book will be 240 x 200mm, number of pages: 448pp. Full colour, with illustrations.
There have also been some further changes to the contents of the book. As previously announced, because there is so much more information about ABBA's studio work than I anticipated, the stories about the single and album sleeve designs had to be removed and published in a separate e-book that will be free for everyone who pre-ordered ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions. I have now found that I have to move even more information from the main book to this "companion volume", namely the vintage review quotes and the detailed stories about how the record companies promoted ABBA's records.
Crowdfunding and self-publishing ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions is partly about trying to see if this might be a way forward for so-called "special interest" titles: ABBA books that will attract a relatively small but highly motivated readership. I had a somewhat over-ambitious plan for expanding the scope of the book for this updated edition, and it turned out that just the "creating the music" stories were more than enough to fill the pages of this book with interesting and fascinating stories.
The readers are the winners here, though: you will get quite a lot for your investment and faith in this project - the recording sessions book, plus a second volume of interesting facts and stories about the record releases. Essentially, this companion volume will be a book about what happened to ABBA's music once they had signed off on the recording studio work. My working title for this second book is "Releasing ABBA", but this will probably change. For those who would prefer to have a printed version of the companion volume, this will also be possible, at a cost. There will be more details about that next year - for now the focus is on finishing ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions.
If you'd like to have your name printed in ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions as someone who has supported the project by pre-ordering, the cut-off date for that is 1 December 2016 (everyone who pre-orders or has already pre-ordered will have their names in the book automatically). Pre-orders of signed copies will be accepted after that, but your name won't be printed in the book. The cut-off date for pre-orders of signed copies is 15 March 2017.
Again, I'd like to thank everyone for your patience and enthusiasm. I'm confident that you will enjoy ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions!
Here's a summary of the most important points:
• 1 December 2016: Last day for pre-ordering if you'd like to be acknowledged in the book.
• 15 March 2017: Last day for pre-ordering a signed copy of the book, dedicated to you personally.
• 31 March 2017: The book ships from the UK and, depending on where you live in the world, it will reach you during the first half of April 2017.
• Later in 2017: "Releasing ABBA" (working title) ebook published. Free for everyone who pre-ordered ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, available for purchase for everyone else. Printed versions of this book also available at a cost. Publication date and other details to be confirmed. I have no more information to share about this book at this stage; more details to follow in 2017.
Your continued pre-orders will help support this exciting book project! Pre-order your copy here: abbathecompleterecordingsessions.comI
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Post by wombat on Oct 20, 2016 18:45:09 GMT
" and it turned out that just the "creating the music" stories were more than enough to fill the pages of this book with interesting and fascinating stories."
what does this mean? Anybody know? Did he have recent interviews with Benny or Bjorn or M Tretow?
I dont want to end up spending money on something like Abba: The Treasures, which I looked forward to, and it was really just the memories of their wardrobe assistant. There was one interesting diagram, the stage set up for the 1979 show, but other than that, not anything I was interested in.
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Post by chron on Oct 21, 2016 13:20:25 GMT
Abba isnt Fleetwood Mac or the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and its unrealistic to expect them to take cues from what these other bands do, or did. Well, they've taken enough style cues over the years; not minting them but appropriating and adapting a number - 'British invasion' pop in pre-ABBA days, Euro schlager, glam and glitter pop, West Coast AOR, disco and electropop - and now they've show that they're prepared to try and ride the luxury/bespoke vinyl wave by putting out this certificated half-speed mastered double disc version of Arrival, so it's not outlandish to reckon on them putting out tranches or exclusive material on re-releases at this stage, rather than the usual tidbits. As you say, ABBA were never a road band, nor were they a studio jam band, and they'd never be in a position to serve up what Pink Floyd have, say, on their various expanded releases, in terms of live recordings or jams or what have you, but you'd imagine that if they were of a mind they could at least stretch to what Fleetwood Mac did with their re-releases of the Buckingham-Nicks era albums, and include a disc of alternate or demo versions of every track on the released-as-was original album. Maybe B&B never used a recorder when they were working in their hut on Viggso; just scribbled the chords and changes down and kept the rest in their heads? |
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Post by wombat on Oct 21, 2016 13:43:18 GMT
Abba isnt Fleetwood Mac or the Beatles or Pink Floyd, and its unrealistic to expect them to take cues from what these other bands do, or did. Well, they've taken enough style cues over the years; not minting them but appropriating and adapting a number - 'British invasion' pop in pre-ABBA days, Euro schlager, glam and glitter pop, West Coast AOR, disco and electropop - and now they've show that they're prepared to try and ride the luxury/bespoke vinyl wave by putting out this certificated half-speed mastered double disc version of Arrival, so it's not outlandish to reckon on them putting out tranches or exclusive material on re-releases at this stage, rather than the usual tidbits. As you say, ABBA were never a road band, nor were they a studio jam band, and they'd never be in a position to serve up what Pink Floyd have, say, on their various expanded releases, in terms of live recordings or jams or what have you, but you'd imagine that if they were of a mind they could at least stretch to what Fleetwood Mac did with their re-releases of the Buckingham-Nicks era albums, and include a disc of alternate or demo versions of every track on the released-as-was original album. Maybe B&B never used a recorder when they were working in their hut on Viggso; just scribbled the chords and changes down and kept the rest in their heads? But again, you're suggesting Abba do what other bands do, and it doesnt work like that. In the first place, Pink Floyd has Dave Gilmour doing hi profile tours where he plays a bunch of Pink Floyd; Paul McCartney does the same thing with the Beatles songs, and Fleetwood Mac is a current recording and touring band. These artists have good reason to mine their back catalogue, as they are currently performing it. Abba is not and more importantly, its pretty obvious that at least one of the members, Benny, has long ago moved onto other things and seems to more or less want to put Abba in his rear-view mirror. He has no reason, financial or musical, to put out material he decided wasnt good enough, 30 years ago. You guys all got some of that with Abba undeleted and the working path to Like An Angel Passing Thru My Room... and it sounds like that wasnt enough for you, now you're all convinced theres a gold mine of fully finished works that you demand to be in possession of. And I'm not sure who owns the rights to Agnetha's old recordings; Cupol, or whoever owns Cupol, does. And a handful of people complaining about it on a web forum isnt going to change Benny's mind. At least I dont think so,,, then again I never expected the Wembley album so what do I know. I cant read his mind. |
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Post by Alan on Oct 21, 2016 21:25:08 GMT
^^ CBS bought out Cupol in the 70s, and as CBS later sold its music division to Sony, Agnetha's Swedish work is in their hands now. Agnetha has recorded for all three of the remaining majors, hence very little chance of a career retrospective boxed set.
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Post by HOMETIME on Oct 22, 2016 8:45:29 GMT
I fully agree that they owe us nothing. We chose to buy the music when it was first released and that's all that was on offer. The transactions with our local record shops or concert ticket sellers ended with us walking away, purchase in hand. Like it or not, we bought products by a commercial enterprise (and let's not bother with the argy-bargy about commercial music: every act who has ever released a record, sold a ticket, sold a T-shirt is, by definition, commercial).
But B&B are playing a disingenuous game with how they curate the ABBA legacy. As far as I'm concerned, Universal are doing a great job within what must be very frustrating limits imposed by The Beards. How much easier would it be for them to release and market previously unreleased music? The digitising of the multitapes and master tapes is a huge exercise... but there's a rule that nothing else should be released. They have to know that letting CMP tease us with written descriptions of things we'll never hear is tantamount to trolling the fans. I'd be far more understanding of their reluctance to release some material if they hadn't already broken that rule. Nobody is expecting an undiscovered Dancing Queen-quality gem. We have survived the horror of Put On Your White Sombrero, the ho-hum of Dream World. They kind of got it right with Undeleted and, to a much greater extent, with From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel. I really think this is the route that sets all of the unreleased stuff in the context of works-in-progress, never seen as viable singles or album tracks. It also makes great sense of the great choices that got commercial release.
A properly exploratory documentary DVD and/or anthology would be a superb jewel in the crown. But, hey, it'd be silly to hold our breath while waiting for something like this. *shrug*
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Post by Alan on Oct 22, 2016 11:27:46 GMT
^^ "Trolling the fans" - I like that! I could have forgiven them if none of it had been digitised and they hadn't allowed CMP to hear it.
Nice enough guy but I can only imagine he's secretly laughing at the fans who have paid into it, and I wouldn't blame him if he was. Being paid by the fans to make a living writing a book that involves hearing everything there is at the touch of a button! I wonder if it really is just him or whether he's allowed to record this stuff for his friends at AT and Ian Cole to hear?
Indeed, are we missing something? Is it possible all the crowd-founders are going to hear it?
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Post by chron on Oct 22, 2016 16:15:54 GMT
But again, you're suggesting Abba do what other bands do, and it doesnt work like that. In the first place, Pink Floyd has Dave Gilmour doing hi profile tours where he plays a bunch of Pink Floyd; Paul McCartney does the same thing with the Beatles songs, and Fleetwood Mac is a current recording and touring band. These artists have good reason to mine their back catalogue, as they are currently performing it[...] I don't basically disagree with you. I'm keeping the debate going partly to help try and prevent this forum becoming the Agnetha Faltskog Internet Photo Archive, and also to go out to bat a bit for those who repeatedly shell out their hard-earned on every ABBA release, even though I'm not one of them (my collection of ABBA stuff is paltry by any standard - I only own a few of the studio albums, and don't care about collecting picture discs or coloured vinyl. There's too little time and too much good contemporary music being put out to keep up with all the re-releases by oldie bands as well). You do wonder how many more tours McCartney and Gilmour and Fleetwood Mac have left in them. They'll all be hanging up their stage-boots before long, but when they have I bet they still continue to put out more generous reissue packages than ABBA have up to now. I'm not suggesting that B&B should feel obliged to do what these other artists have done and are doing; just that it would reflect on them favourably, help mitigate the hard-nosed ABBA-as-brand stuff and offset their reputation for being proscriptive old perfectionists, if they did do something similar. |
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Post by Alan on Oct 22, 2016 17:36:58 GMT
The coloured vinyl singles sets appear to be selling well on eBay. I've just counted around 14 sold at the £60 mark so far, including a couple at £70. Number 1 of the 2000 was sold for just over £300 including postage. Significant as the number might be, is it really worth that?
My £34 one (including postage) is starting to look like a real bargain!
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Post by maxisaxi on Oct 22, 2016 22:10:03 GMT
I'm happy I RECIEVED MINE A FEW DAYS AGO.
Box set 000006
Got the picture disc vinyl as well as the half speed album. I am impressed at the weight of the vinyl so cool to have all we need now is a similar box set from Agnetha
Maxisaxi
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Post by The Rubber Ball Man on Oct 22, 2016 23:05:12 GMT
I would love a box set of her singles too - 3 singles box sets for each album in the 80s
I would include these singles and the colours are just opinionated ( most are similar to the original covers though)
Never Again / Ya Nunca Mas (red)
The Heat Is On (sandy brown)
Can't Shake Loose (pink)
Wrap You Arms Around Me ( purple)
It's So Nice To Be Rich (brill blue)
I Won't Let You Go (pink)
One Way Love (navy blue)
Just One Heart (white)
The Angels Cry (pale yellow)
The Way You Are (marbled blue and yellow) representing Sweden!!!
The Last Time (light blue)
I Wasn't The One (grey)
Let It Shine (red)
La Ultima Vez / No Yo Fo...(marbled yellow and red) representing the Spanish songs.
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Post by HOMETIME on Oct 23, 2016 11:46:15 GMT
I'm happy I RECIEVED MINE A FEW DAYS AGO. Box set 000006 Wow! That is an impressive number. I was chuffed to get box number 16, but you certainly came up trumps.  |
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Post by foreverfan on Oct 23, 2016 15:12:53 GMT
In the U.K. Vinyl charts this week, we have KMKY staying at 5, DQ down 3 at 6, Fernando down 5 at 7 and MMM down 4 at 8. All pretty good seeing limited availability. All spending a 2nd week on the charts Gold falls out of the UK top 100 album charts after 22 weeks. |
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