|
|
Post by Alan on Apr 1, 2024 16:20:04 GMT
Three stars, though two and a half would be more accurate.
I rarely listen to it. The two main singles I still rate highly. Just A Notion and Little Things are right at the bottom. The rest is just average, though I do still like Keep An Eye On Dan and Ode To Freedom.
I’m still not keen on the mixing, and the fact that the tracks are so short. The Atmos mixes addresses the mixing issue a bit.
I’m glad an album was done. Had we just got the two songs, we’d have been calling for more because the quality of those was so good.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 30, 2024 23:23:00 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 30, 2024 18:49:07 GMT
Oh my god , missed out big style this morning ABBA ANGELEYES/VOULEZ VOUS red vinyl test pressing sold for £145 !!!! Somebody got the deal of year on eBay today 😩😩 take a look guys , the seller obviously didn't know what he had in his hands to let it sell so cheaply . I didn’t see that listing either! Just seen it and a bit confused by the description: “ABBA Angeleyes / Voulez-Vous 7” single on red vinyl - recent pressing. Cover is in used condition.” How can a 45-year-old single be a “recent pressing” unless it’s a fake? The red seems slightly darker than on other photos I’ve seen online, unless it’s just the lighting and background.  Discogs states: “Unique pressing - only ONE copy known to exist! Believed to be a factory custom pressing from the CBS plant when they were testing various colours for future releases. There is also one known copy on yellow vinyl.” Of course, the above might not be accurate though, and there is no mention of the purple vinyl pressing. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 30, 2024 18:42:14 GMT
onlyabba4meagain, you have nothing to apologise to Joseph for. It’s the other way round, he owes you an apology! His rant was nasty and completely uncalled for. I can only assume he was having a bad day and took it out on the wrong person. It’s great that you still pop by and post, there’s no requirement to post regularly!
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 26, 2024 18:48:24 GMT
“More ABBA at the BBC” might not be much to write home about, being as the first one showed some familiar promo videos, simply because they were shown on BBC programmes back in the day. Some ABBA In Switzerland stuff may be included in it, but being as that programme is also in the schedule, even that won’t be interesting.
When ABBA Came To Britain sounds more like it though, particularly if it has some previously unheard interviews.
“When ABBA Came to Britain
With previously unheard interviews with the band and new interviews with those who met them, this is the story of ABBA’s love affair with the UK since their Eurovision triumph.”
Oh, wait, did someone mention the rare once-lost So Long on Top of the Pops being included in At The BBC? It’s on YouTube but it must be the first time it’s been on a BBC channel since its original airing. On a previous forum (A4E), there was a “crowd-funding” to acquire it from whoever had it. They raised the money. I didn’t contribute.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 26, 2024 16:51:48 GMT
Getting a lanyard would be a reason not to go! Can’t stand the things. A modern scourge. How much plastic do they waste? I only have to wear one once a week but that’s enough. And even some school kids have to wear them? I saw some the other day anyway. But yes, I’d like to think someone will ask them a decent question, whatever nonsense they answer it with.  |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 26, 2024 11:52:50 GMT
Yes, a significant one was the Thank You For The Music set in 1994, which contained previously unreleased recordings. It was released on 31 October that year, nearly seven months after the Eurovision anniversary.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 26, 2024 7:29:35 GMT
Did ABBA go to Britain in 1980 or 1981? I don't recall ever seeing any TV footage of those years. They did attend a CBS sales conference in Bournemouth in 1981. There are some photos from it but it was more of an internal record company event and not a promotional drive for ABBA. The ABBA Magazine covered it. I think they just flew in for it and then flew back out again. They were also due to appear on the Mike Yarwood Christmas Show in 1980 (following their 1978 appearance) but it got cancelled late on due to kidnap threats in Sweden made against Björn and Agnetha’s children. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 20, 2024 18:09:55 GMT
I’m sure I read somewhere once who the names in Hole In Your Soul were, but I can’t find anything. It’s plausible that Sam really was their chauffeur. They possibly never even met that Sue as she merely ran the British ABBA Fan Club. Sounds like the Sue in the song led a very easy life, though unless it was an indoor pool I can’t imagine there were that many days in Sweden where she could lie by it!
*Edit - I asked someone about this and they think the names were all connected to ABBA’s American record company (Atlantic). That’s plausible being as The Album is their most American-sounding album. Source for this info is thought to be John Tobler’s ABBA Gold book from 1992. Sam could have been their chauffeur when they were in the US, his daughter Annie at school. Record company bigwig Jerry, and his wife Sue that didn’t need to work.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 20, 2024 17:30:17 GMT
Thanks matt. Definitely not for me, I think I’d only be interested in it if we were to get to hear it. It’s like Benny mentioning the two unreleased Voyage tracks - either let us hear them or keep your mouth shut! I’m assuming he only got to hear them the once, or for a limited time period, and wasn’t allowed a device on him which could have recorded anything. Even so, I do find it quite torturous to read about it! |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 20, 2024 17:11:13 GMT
Will they drag Charlie (Bates?? am I misremembering his surname?), the editor of the ABBA Magazine, in front of the camera? Yes, it was Charlie Bates. I wonder what happened to him? Someone on a previous forum said he wasn’t actually an ABBA fan and it was just a job. He hasn’t turned up in the ABBA-speaking world since, but I wonder if he remained in the publishing industry? If so, I’ve never seen his name crop up. I associated the name “Charlie” with an older person for some reason, and that’s the image I had of him. There was then a photo of him in the final issue and he was clearly in his 20s! Dark photo but here is the page. It always amused me that they were all smiles when in reality they were about to lose their jobs.  |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 20, 2024 16:54:11 GMT
Do these demos actually exist now, and has he heard them? This is where I have problems with it. If they exist and he’s heard them but no one else will, I’m not that sure I want to know about it! Ignorance is bliss and all that… I’m probably in the minority there, and clearly enough people do find it interesting (and thanks matt for posting the info), but I just have real problems with it. You’ve got Björn fibbing his way through an interview and not long after CMP issuing his book and, if he has heard it, being the envy of the fans. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 18, 2024 8:35:46 GMT
Live at Wembley was a major release of the 40th anniversary year, which came out on 26 September 2014, so yes, there’s no reason to expect everything to happen next month.
And if Hit By A Train was finished by 2020, that’s also good as would mean Benny/ABBA didn’t have to complete it post-2021.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 17, 2024 17:46:37 GMT
It’s something of a revelation that Hit By A Train was completed. It had previously been implied that it was one of two incomplete tracks that needed more work. If it is “dark, beautiful and upbeat” it sounds like it should have been on the album instead of Little Things. Or Just A Notion.
As a reminder, the other four songs at that point would be the obvious two, plus Bumblebee and I Can Be That Woman.
I was hoping the book might have dates for all the tracks but it would seem not.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 15:02:43 GMT
Some info from a Discogs user. I would strongly disagree there were only 25 copies though. They turn up much too regularly on eBay for that (including right now!). I also don’t get the bit about the Epic logo not having a box around it. It didn’t on the orange paper labels, only on the sleeves and yellow labels.
“1. Take A Chance On Me / I'm A Marionette Epic S EPC 5950
Rejected test pressing using injection moulded centre. 1978
Epic used this single as an 'example template' as it had already been released, hit No. 1 and left the charts...
This was CBS/Epic's very first forray into injection moulded single centres, looking for a way to cut production costs.
Manufactured at the CBS pressing plant in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, UK.
Thier intitial concept was to copy Polydor's releases in Germany... 'but not too copied...'
Placing title at the top, artist at the bottom meant there was no prominent place for the square company logo itself.
1. Parent company CBS, were unhappy with the Epic Logo not having a box around it (they'd have to register this logo as a new one), and that the white circles were missing as from their orange solid centre designs.
2. CBS were also unhappy in that they could NOT get the Epic logo at the top of the single itself as were normal with previous solid centre releases.
With the singles information being North and South, there was no preferred and prominent place, (north, south, east or west), for the Epic company Logo.
Having the Epic logo offset at a south easterly position on this test pressing was deemed to be totally unacceptable.
3. Epic liked to add as much information to their singles as possible, (eg: Taken from the album... etc).
This test copy of an Injection Moulded centre meant they could not do this to their satisfaction. They deemed the text as 'not prominent enough'.
Therefore free advertising for the album the song was taken from was out.
The whole concept of this test pressing was unacceptable to CBS.
This 'test' was therefore 'dumped' in favour of the regular Orange Paper solid centres.
A shame as they perfected the backward B Abba Logo to perfection on this test pressing and were never able to reproduce it correctly on any other future injection moulded releases in the early 80's.
Only 25 copies were pressed. Many ended up in the waste bin.
CBS/Epic were never able to perfect any of their injection mouldings to any satisfactory standard.
I know. I worked for CBS Marketing from 1974 to 1979”
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 14:49:28 GMT
Finally, the injection-moulded early ones from my collection: Chiquitita I’ve only seen this once on eBay, last year. It was hidden amongst other ABBA singles in the photos, but I worked out that it had to be Chiquitita.  Take A Chance On Me Much more common (as stated earlier, there is one on eBay listed for sale now as a buy-it-now, £4.25).  |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 14:22:15 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 13:22:02 GMT
You might find this topic of interest. All the various UK label variants are included. What you describe as ink jet are termed injection-moulded or plastic in the thread, but refers to the same thing. abbachat.com/thread/1597/abba-epic-single-label-variantsI acquired the Chiquitita one last year. Take A Chance On Me comes up quite often on eBay and appears to be much less rare than the Chiquitita one. There is one on there now at £4.25 buy-it-now. They’re not test pressings though. A couple of blue-label singles even had two versions of it. The most rare UK label variant is I Have A Dream Dutch-pressing. Later singles Super Trouper and Head Over Heels were widely issued on the variant but I Have A Dream is virtually impossible to find. I know someone that has it but they only saw it for sale the once and got lucky. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 10:17:02 GMT
Sorry, 19mark62, but I disagree with you completely on every point. I get that people like to blame the local record company - to me it’s akin to football fans blaming the referee because their team is losing (“Are you blind, ref?” etc). ABBA were winding down and not giving the companies much to play with. CBS were actually helping to keep them afloat by all the picture discs and special issues. If mistakes were made, they were Polar’s/ABBA’s. Have you not considered that these supposed imports may just have been localised? Also, if they were imports, surely they’d retail for more than a UK-issued single would? With no video or promotion, the single was never destined to do that well. Number 7 was extremely respectable, even if it was their lowest since before SOS. I doubt a 7” (import or otherwise) would have helped it that much, except in people’s imaginations. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 10:06:41 GMT
I read the Voyage section of CMPs book and find it very exciting that there maybe a lot more tracks considered for the album. At least they exist in an early stage. And 'Hit By A Train' is really not a rumour anymore! It’s only exciting if they’re going to be released. It would seem that they aren’t. Hit By A Train wasn’t a rumour - Little Boots mentioned it several years ago so there’s no revelation there. I gather that anything in the book about that song is from what Little Boots said. It seems the Voyage chapter was a mere afterthought, and not the primary focus of the book. 45 pages isn’t that much. He isn’t talking or writing in any official capacity (that’s proven by the fact he can’t use the ABBA logo), but my expectations for this year have rather fallen flat now. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 16, 2024 1:33:43 GMT
I am no fan of CMP. His writing style makes reading a telephone directory seem exciting and he had sod all in revelations. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Sadly there seem to be some fans that hang off his every word. He has very little/zero credible competition though, so he has the market stitched up. And having the AT lot onside is a bonus. He knows what he’s doing. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 15, 2024 16:41:31 GMT
The Winner Takes It All 12” was a proper UK issue on Epic, that’s the difference.
I’m sorry, but even if what you say is true, this wasn’t widespread as it’s the first anyone else has heard of it. I’m not sure imports of a different single on a different label could even count towards UK sales or charts. It’s highly questionable that a UK record company would import a single of the same two tracks (albeit reversed) by a completely different record company to supplement their own 12” (which I believe retailed at a similar price?). If it wouldn’t count in the charts, it would harm both CBS’s own sales (Epic was/is merely an imprint label, CBS - now Sony - was ABBA’s UK licensee) and the single’s chart position. A single with the listed A-side of On and On and On is NOT the same.
I would also strongly disagree that CBS made that many mistakes. They often get blamed but mostly it’s the restrictions put in place by Polar that could be perceived as the problem. They could take the odd liberty here and there but mostly had to toe the line (though as with the all the European record companies, they did have some influence).
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 15, 2024 15:26:25 GMT
It’s unlikely that imports would have been extensive. It was a different record company, so CBS would have stamped on them as it would have affected their own sales. Also, it wasn’t the UK licensee’s choice to only issue the the single on 12”. That’s a myth that’s stuck, but the single was only released on 12” in West Germany, France and the Netherlands. It was most likely that Polar didn’t want the single releasing at all (for reasons unknown) so put restrictions in place - no promotion or video - so if the single failed it could be blamed on the 12” format and not any commercial decline of ABBA. I can’t see any 7” issues (other than more recent issues) of Lay All Your Love On Me on Discogs. As HOMETIME says, there was the US On and On and On but that wouldn’t count. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 15, 2024 11:37:01 GMT
In his Recording Sessions book, he sometimes tries to describe something only he will be permitted to hear. It's a fool's errand in many respects, because it relies on the reader being able to reconstruct that description as an imagined sound. Who among us can really do that? I never really understood why they let him do that. To me it was like Jim Bowen on Bullseye [1980s darts-based cheap game show] saying “come and look at what you could have won” and on comes the car or boat that the contestants failed to win. If these songs aren’t going to be released, then why let someone (whose musical knowledge appears to be limited) hear them and try to describe them? That was trolling the fans (and all parties doing that, not just CMP). The fact he has done that before but apparently not with the unreleased Voyage songs does offer a tiny glimmer of hope though… they won’t let him hear them because sooner or later everyone else will. Or maybe not… |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 15, 2024 10:48:39 GMT
Nothing much revealed then. How to spend five years writing a book, take the money at the start, and then finally issue it but have very little on Voyage to say?
Was “My Story Ends With You” as a song title just a myth then, if he’s only aware of Hit By A Train? Has he even heard that song? Guessing not.
I’m curious… how does anyone get excited by his books?
It’s a difficult one… if he had heard them, and given titles, I’d see that as the ultimate trolling of the fans unless they were released. On the other hand, to only have the one title we all knew anyway, and apparently no info on any others, isn’t enough.
I’d be surprised if there’s much info that we hadn’t worked out for ourselves. To be fair, Björn and Benny largely treat the fans as though they think we’re stupid, so can’t fully blame CMP for doing the same. In fact, that’s what the media in general seems to do these days with everything.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 9, 2024 17:27:08 GMT
Michel, you were right, it is in the official photo book. Page 89. Can’t see any differences between that and the front of the box, other than the box has a tighter crop.  
|
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 9, 2024 14:32:38 GMT
A warm welcome to the forum, flynnic. Almost every new account lately has been a spammer so it’s nice to see a long post that isn’t some unfathomable nonsense that I have to delete! Reading through six pages is some commitment! I hope you’re right. It’s too hard to believe that all we’re going to get this year is the Waterloo anniversary stuff that’s merely part of an ongoing series. That would be such a damp squib. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 8, 2024 8:32:19 GMT
The Artwork is part of the heritage of ABBA and it seems to Fall apart. I find it quite alarming. There have been some improvements in recent years. At one point, the entire artwork - text and all - was being scanned. And dodgy scans at that. The text didn’t look as sharp as it would in a re-creation. That issue has been addressed - all text is now recreated (and very obviously in some cases as there are differences between original fonts/placings and new ones) - but it falls down because the photos still - somehow - appear to be scans. What’s even more unfathomable is how The Visitors and Waterloo photos are unavailable/lost on CD artwork, but still used on much larger vinyl albums. A scan of a vinyl cover would be much less obvious if used on smaller CD artwork. To be fair, CDs still use the 2001 artwork, which was reproduced for the later deluxe issues. They won’t issue new CD versions now as the music industry seems hell-bent on killing off the format, but if they did, they might use the original artwork. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 7, 2024 21:02:45 GMT
It’s disappointing to see that thisboycries appears to have deleted his profile along with some posts. The promotion of his book amused me, and I liked johnny’s post because it was a humorous, harmless comment. I didn’t think for a second that any offence was caused. Promotion of anyone’s own creative work is fine, even when it’s blatant, but doing so can invite criticism. |
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 7, 2024 21:00:44 GMT
It’s disappointing to see that thisboycries appears to have deleted his profile along with some posts. The promotion of his book amused me, and I liked johnny’s post because it was a humorous, harmless comment. I didn’t think for a second that any offence was caused. Promotion of anyone’s own creative work is fine, even when it’s blatant, but doing so can invite criticism. |
|
