Today’s Sydney Daily Telegraph broke a story to set ABBA fans everywhere aflutter: “ABBA will reform” for the Stockholm premiere of the MAMMA MIA! movie on July 4. (read the story here)

Will this happen? Personally, I doubt it. The comment hints at the hype in the lead up to the 5th anniversary of MAMMA MIA! in April 2004, when all four were expected to join the celebration, but only Björn, Benny and Frida were there, Agnetha chosing to decline the invitation.

If it happens, I imagine it will be like the opening of the musical in Stockholm in February 2005: if all four turn up, it will be individually, the four never appearing together.

If indeed it does happen, and the four reunite in public in whatever fashion, I’ll be as happy as anyone else. But I’m not expecting it.

New on ABBA World. You can now read a selection of vintage articles about ABBA. The articles cover the years from 1976 to 2004, from magazines and newspapers around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. Articles from such publications as Variety, Billboard, Reader’s Digest and even Playboy! (yes, that Playboy)

Go to ABBA World, then click on Years to access the Articles page. More articles will be added soon, so come back again for more from ABBA’s history.

Many thanks to my friend Samuel Inglles for transcribing many of the articles and sharing them with ABBA World and ABBA fans everywhere.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

March 3rd marks a significant anniversary for me. In 1977 on this day, I saw ABBA live on stage at their legendary first Australian concert in Sydney.

I feel thrilled to have been at the most famous concert of ABBA’s career. It’s the one concert that the ABBA members have all said they remember.

Its inclusion in ABBA - The Movie ensured its place in history. Not just ABBA history, but also the history of Sydney. After this and other rained-out concerts, government enquiries were held and large-scale indoor venues were finally built in Sydney.

I have some great memories of that night. Waiting in the grandstand for the concert to start, getting wet regardless of the shelter. The guy who kept announcing “you’re gonna get your rocks off!”. The immense noise from the crowd as ABBA took to the stage. The strobe-like effect of thousands of camera flashes for the first ten minutes. The reaction from the audience singing along to ‘Fernando’, and Björn saying everyone sang so well that “we’d like you to come backstage after the show so we can shake your hands and sign you up”. The fire projected on the back wall of the stage during ‘Fernando’ and the silhouette of a palm tree during ‘Sitting In The Palmtree’. Selected parts of ‘I Am An A’ (Björn: “I don’t like to shave”, Agnetha: “you should live in a cave”). ‘So Long’ not being performed. Björn announcing a song for “you to get up and dance to”. The fireworks at the end spelling out “Thank You Sydney - ABBA”.

I missed Frida’s famous slip during ‘Waterloo’ due to a momentary distraction. And my memories of the mini-musical “The Girl With The Golden Hair” aren’t as clear as other parts of the concert, probably because the songs were unknown. It seemed to me that ‘I’m A Marionette’ went on for 15 minutes. Now I know that it was reprised near the end of ‘Get On The Carousel’.

Some memories have been diluted by repeated viewings of ABBA - The Movie and listening to bootleg concert tapes. But others remain as clear as they were 31 (!) years ago.

The photo above right was one that I took of the stage and arena from our vantage point in the grandstand. See here for an exclusive gallery of photos from that night. And visit my site The ABBA Phenomenon in Australia for everything about ABBA’s Australian tour of 1977.

See also: That’s me

The world premiere of MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE will be at the Odeon Leicester Square, London on Tuesday 1 July 2008. Premieres will also be held in Berlin on 2 July and Stockholm on 4 July.

For more MAMMA MIA! movie news, visit the special section at ABBA World.

Source: eBay.

The official opening ceremony 

The official opening ceremony will occur on June 3, 2009, at 8 pm on Stadsgårdskajen outside ABBA the Museum. The other parts of the programme during Opening Week have not been finalized. First visitors to ABBA the Museum June 4, 10 am, 2009.

Will Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid attend the opening? Our answer to that question is simply that all four have been personally invited.

(From ABBA the Museum e-newsletter 23 February 2008.)

General admission tickets go on sale from 13 March 2008. Tickets will be available only from the museum’s website.

ADMISSION RATES
Adults: 245 SEK (about 26 EUR, 38 USD)
Children: * (15 and younger) 180 SEK (about 19 EUR, 28 USD)
ABBA the Museum is not recommended for children under 6 years of age.

Average Length of Visit: 2 – 2.5 hours
Last Admission: 2 hours before closing time

Visiting hours
More information later.

Opening Week
More information about the programme later.