Ahead of the release of ABBA: Live at Wembley Area, Benny Andersson tells Craig McLean why he isn’t interested in an
ABBA reunion.
At the ABBA Museum in Stockholm, all your dreams come true. Via the wonder of digital avatars, you can become the fifth member of the band, singing alongside Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Fridt. At another interactive exhibit, you can create your own mix of one of the innumerable hits that powered the band to 360 million album and singles sales. Or you can make your own pop video to Summer Night City.
If ever a band were ripe for a ride on the reunion carousel, it’s the Swedish super-troupers, who are now being celebrated again, 40 years after their victory at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton. Sadly, this museum is probably the closest any fan will ever get.
Recreated in the small but packed museum is the small suburban kitchen inhabited by Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog in the late Seventies. In the audio guide, Ulvaeus explains how the weight of the foursome’s huge global success undermined this group comprising two married couples, creating all sorts of domestic subsidence.
While his soon-to-be-ex-wife was increasingly craving more time with their children Ulvaeus, alongside songwriting partner Benny Andersson, was a slave to the recording studio. On the audio guide, we hear the result of that: Slipping Through My Fingers, a song about the lyricist’s regrets about not being around to see their son and daughter grow up.
Read the full article here at The Telegraph
Get the new Live LP set here at eil.com
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