ABBA CD reissues

Just in time for the July opening of the MAMMA MIA! movie, Universal Music is re-releasing the popular compilations ABBA Gold, More ABBA Gold and the 4 CD box set Thank You For The Music.

ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold will be repacked in Super Jewel Boxes. Both have updated liner notes and booklets, especially More ABBA Gold, which was last available in 1999, still in its original 1993 format.

Thank You For The Music will be repackaged in a similar format to 2005’s Frida 4xCD 1XDVD box set. It will contain new photographs and the same essays as the original 1994 set, with some “gentle” corrections.

The disc contents will feature the latest remastered versions of the songs.

Reaction to the news is typically split - some fans see the reissues as a “rip off of loyal fans”, while others see them as repromoting ABBA for new markets.

ABBA Gold has reportedly sold 26 million copies to date, while MAMMA MIA! (the stage musical) has been seen by 30 million people - that’s several million who have seen the musical who haven’t bought ABBA’s most popular CD. Many millions more will be seeing the movie in coming months, and may be inspired to go in search of the original ABBA songs.

I think that anything that spreads ABBA music to new audiences is a good thing.

ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold are released at the end of May. Thank You For The Music is released in early June.

More information at ABBA - The Site.

CHESS revival

The Benny Andersson · Tim Rice · Björn Ulvaeus musical CHESS - Benny and Björn’s first post-ABBA project - is undergoing quite a revival at the moment.

March saw the South African premiere of the musical in Johannesburg, which moves to Capetown in June.

An small theatre group in Massachusetts, USA staged a production in February.

The musical was also stage in Tartu, Estonia in January.

A short run production opens next week in Watford in London.

Next month sees an all-star concert version at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the original London production. Rumour has it this concert may be recorded for CD or DVD release.

May also sees a short-run production in Sydney, Australia, in the same theatre as the musical played in 1990.

Another short run production plays in Harrogate in Yorkshire, England in May.

An all new production opens in Los Angeles in May 2009, apparently with the “world premiere” of a brand new book.

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the original concept album’s release.

An unusual ABBA record #4

Australian fans watching the ABC TV programme Collectors this past week would have seen this unusual single sleeve on their televisions screens.

‘Dancing Queen’ was the first ABBA record to feature ABBA’s famous logo with the first B reversed, which was designed by art director Rune Söderqvist.

And it was the first ABBA single in Australia to come in a picture sleeve.

Apparently an Australian advertising firm had a similar logo, which led to legal proceedings regarding the ABBA logo. In preparation, RCA printed a version of the sleeve with ABBA written normally.

Close examination of the sleeve shows the obvious cut and paste of the artwork - the first B is slightly out of line with the other letters.

It seems that the legal dispute was quickly resolved, as on release day, 11 August 1976,  the single sleeve appeared with the ABBA logo.

But the logo-less version didn’t go to waste, as copies were distributed to record shops. I remember my local record shop had a whole rack of them. Stupidly I didn’t buy one then, but I’ve been lucky enough to find many copies at record fairs and second-hand shops since then.

A 1994 ABBA TV special declared that there were only three of these “misprinted” sleeves, which were worth thousands of dollars. This is patently not true - hundreds if not thousands were in circulation.  The Collectors programme told us it’s worth about AU$10, which is about right these days.

ABBA - The Story, a new book

Author Carl Magnus Palm has written a new ABBA biography specifically for the Scandinavian countries.

ABBA - The Story: Sanningen om supergruppen (The Truth About The Supergroup) is the first comprehensive biography of ABBA written in Swedish.

Though it tells essentially the same story as 2001’s Bright Lights Dark Shadows - The Real Story Of ABBA (the ABBA story is what it is, after all), it is not a direct translation of that book.

The approximately 400 page book will include about 50 colour and black & white photographs.

ABBA - The Story will be published in Sweden, Denmark and Norway in September 2008. See the author’s website for more information.

For English readers, a new edition of Bright Lights Dark Shadows, featuring some updates and a nine page afterword covering events from 2001 to 2008, will be published in June.

New Mamma Mia! movie poster

A new poster for MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE has been released.

It’s the same setting as the first international teaser poster that appeared in January, but features the four male leads as well as Meryl Streep (as Donna) and Amanda Seyfried (as Sophie).

See ABBA World’s MAMMA MIA! section for a larger version plus all the latest news.

Drummer Ola Brunkert dead

ABBA drummer Ola Brunkert has died after an accident at his home on Majorca.

For someone who was relatively unknown outside of Swedish musician and ABBA fan circles, it’s surprising how the news has spread. Hundreds of media outlets have reported the news - as I write this, a Google search finds 362+ articles.

Brunkert played drums on every ABBA studio album, from the first single ‘People Need Love’ in 1972 to the eighth and last album The Visitors in 1981, but not on any of ABBA’s final recordings in 1982. He also played on ABBA’s international tours in 1977, 1979 and 1980, and he was there for other key moments in ABBA’s career, from the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 to the last live television concert in 1981 and the final TV performances in 1982.

ABBA wrote of Brunkert in the Arrival album sleeve notes in 1976 ”one day we’re gonna let you hear him sing”. We never did, though a bootleg recording circulating under the title ‘Ali ABBA’ lets us here him grunt as he drums on an early version of ‘Like An Angel Passing Through My Room’.

The Times obituary gives an excellent overview of his life and achievements, though it contains a few errors (Brunkert is not the drummer on some of the ABBA hits mentioned - Roger Palm played on ‘Dancing Queen’ and Per Lindvall on ‘Super Trouper’; ABBA played five nights at Wembley Arena, not six). ABBA - The Site also pays tribute.

Mamma Mia! full movie trailer

The full length trailer for MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE has now been released. The trailer show a lot more of the movie and all the lead stars, and features music from ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ and ‘Dancing Queen’.

Take a look at it at Yahoo! Movies Presents Just the Facts on MAMMA MIA!

ABBA World blog - the first year

One year ago today I started the ABBA World blog, as an extension of the ABBA World site.

Since then the blog has outgrown its origins, adding news, historical articles, critical reviews and much more. One of the highlights of the first year was seeing the ABBA World blog among the nominees for ABBA Plaza’s ABBA Site of the Year.

If this is your first visit to the blog, or if you’re a regular visitor, why not take a few minutes to revisit some of my favourite posts over the past twelve months. Or just take a browse through all the previous posts.

• DVD overload - about the flood of unofficial releases
• Not like that - why the MAMMA MIA! movie won’t include a new ABBA song
• Still my favourite song - since 1975
• The ABBA flag - decoration at 1977 concert venues
• ABBA Simpsonized - ABBA as Simpsons characters
• The first ABBA record - it wasn’t ‘People Need Love’ and it wasn’t ‘Waterloo’
• ABBA after ABBA - Frida, Agnetha, Benny and Björn revisit their past
• ABBA today - the former ABBA members in 2007
• ‘Dancing Queen’ cameos - ABBA’s classic appears in other songs (which leads into some interesting comments about technical aspects of ABBA’s recording)
• B-sides - lost classics or throwaways? - the songs hidden behind the hit singles
• Thursday, March 3rd, 1977 - ABBA’s first Australian concert
• An unusual ABBA record - a semi-regular series

ABBA the Museum tickets now on sale

Tickets for ABBA the Museum have now gone on general sale.

People who ordered platinum, gold and silver packages last December have been able to book their tickets since last week. Surprisingly, the only sold-out time slots so far are on the first day (June 4th), 10.00-10.45 a.m, 11.00-11.45 a.m, and 7.00-7.45 p.m.

Apparently there were some early problems for buyers outside of Europe trying to book tickets, but this problem was quickly fixed.

ABBA the Museum opens June 3rd 2009 with an opening ceremony at 8 p.m. followed by five days of ABBA celebrations at the Museum and across Stockholm. See the Museum’s website for more information and to order tickets.

Second Mamma Mia! movie poster

A second poster for MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE has appeared this week. This poster appears to be for the US market, and is closer to the original musical poster concept.

I much prefer the first teaser poster that appeared in January. It was vibrant, slightly reminsicent of the musical poster, but featured both female leads. This new poster appears weak and pale by comparison, and aims the movie at people who might see a Lindsay Lohan or Olsen twins film.

See the two posters side-by-side and more at ABBA World’s special MAMMA MIA! section. Click on the poster, then follow the link on the main page.