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| "OK guys, let's try not to be too OTT... ah. Too late." |
When Swedish quartet Abba last recorded music together, I was 15 years old.
I know that, based on my youthful good looks, you’re probably thinking that was about 20 years ago. 30 at a push.Miles out – it was 35 years ago. Following aborted attempts at a ninth album, they went their separate ways in 1983. As they never officially went on record to say they’d split up, you could argue this has just been a very, very, long break. More than long enough for other returnees, such as Take That, to grow up, form a group, have hits, split up, leave it for a while, get back together, have more hits, then gradually shed members.
Arguably still at their peak when they said “Thank You For The Music” and vanished, Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid produced some of the most joyous and infectiously catchy pop music of the 70s and 80s.
As with most music icons, it wasn’t long before they were viewed as cheesy, kitschy, yesterday’s hit-makers. The 1990s saw a turnaround, spurred by the success of the ridiculously successful “Gold” collection, and later the smash hit musical Mamma Mia.
Despite pleas for them to reunite, including an offer of a billion dollars to tour in 2000, the band clearly weren’t interested in the Money Money Money.
The first sign of a public reconciliation came as recently as 2016, when all four appeared together on stage for the first time at the new Swedish production of Mama Mia. Recent work on a “virtual reality” avatar tour (i.e. computer generated) seems to have brought them together again, with the truly surprising consequence being two brand new songs.
They described it as “an extremely joyful experience”, and one of the numbers – called “I Still Have Faith In You”- will appear in a TV special in December, with the digital (and younger) version of the group giving it it’s first outing.
You can’t blame the flesh and blood versions for not wanting to go out and perform it– the youngest of them is 68 now, with the other three all into their 70s.
So far, so spangly-jump-suitedly exciting. But there is one very important question – what if it’s (whisper it)... a bit rubbish? Trawl the albums – there is the occasional dud. I certainly can’t do some of the things I used to do when I was 15 nearly as well now, but the less said about that the better.
What if the mighty Abba spent 35 years keeping us waiting, and then provided us with something distinctly abbarage? Of course, there will be those that will hate it anyway, simply because it’s not ‘classic’ Abba.
There is a precedent, of sorts. When the remaining Beatles got back together with a tape of John Lennon’s “Free As A Bird”, it turned out that the magic was definitely still there. Of course it wasn’t 1960s Beatles. It was still damn good, though.
So - Q: Am I impatient to hear Abba’s new songs? A: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
This post first appeared as the lead piece in my column/page in The Mail and the News & Star, on the 4th of May 2018. The paper re-titled it as the slightly less inspiring "On track for another hit".
Excited much? Ohmygodyes. If you can't wait, here's something rather joyous from a couple of years ago, with a suitably over the top appearance from Rik Mayall, and plenty of the band's lyrics to spot hidden in dialogue, as well as some cameos from Abba themselves. Enjoy!
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