Monday 30 June 2014

Abba Calendar - July

My 2014 Abba Calendar has a picture of Bjorn to celebrate the summer month of July...

 

Sunday 29 June 2014

1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die

Abba has two entries in the book "1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die" - the first is "Dancing Queen" and the second is "The Winner Takes It All" which is shown below...

 

Saturday 28 June 2014

Collection - French 12" Single

Here is one of my all time favourite Abba records "The Day Before You Came" ; this 12" single was released in France on the Vogue record label during November 1982 where it reached number 38 in the charts.

 

Friday 27 June 2014

Abba Magazine #15

Issue 15 of the Abba Magazine kicked off with an article titled "Holiday Special" in which Benny talked about his recent holidays with Frida to Switzerland, the West Indies and the Virgin Islands.

The magazine also included an interview with one of the groups backing musicians - guitarist Lasse Wellander. In the article he discussed how he taught himself to play the guitar, his musical influences (the Beatles) and how he first worked with the group during the recording of the "Abba" album.

The third major article was titled "Sound City" in which Micke Tretow discussed the design of Polar Music Studio - layout, decor, acoustics, headphones etc. The article also mentioned that the studio had recently been used by Led Zeplin and Genesis.

 

Abba Magazine #15

Issue 15 of the Abba Magazine kicked off with an article titled "Holiday Special" in which Benny talked about his recent holidays with Frida to Switzerland, the West Indies and the Virgin Islands.

The magazine also included an interview with one of the groups backing musicians - guitarist Lasse Wellander. In the article he discussed how he taught himself to play the guitar, his musical influences (the Beatles) and how he first worked with the group during the recording of the "Abba" album.

The third major article was titled "Sound City" in which Micke Tretow discussed the design of Polar Music Studio - layout, decor, acoustics, headphones etc. The article also mentioned that the studio had recently been used by Led Zeplin and Genesis.

 

Thursday 26 June 2014

Collection - Agnetha 12" Single

Here are some pictures of the UK 12" version of Agnetha's 1995 single "I Won't Let You Go" from my collection....

 

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Abba On New Compilation Album

Abba's single "Summer Night City" is the first track on the third CD of a new compilation album titled "Jackie - Long Hot Summer". The album is released on 30th June and also includes tracks by Queen, Boney M, Michael Jackson and Elton John.

 

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Abba Date - 25th June 1976

On the 25th June 1976 Abba released "Mamma Mia" (b-side "People Need Love") as their latest single in Japan.


Monday 23 June 2014

Mamma Mia Love Stories

The Mirror newspaper in the UK recently included an article about all of the real life couples who have found love whilst performing in Mamma Mia - click the image below to read the full piece...

 

Sunday 22 June 2014

Abba Date - 23rd June 1980

On the 23rd June 1980 Abba released "Gracias Por La Musica" which featured 10 of their songs re-recorded in Spanish. In Spain the album reached at number 2 (spending 21weeks in the charts) and in Argentina it peaked at number 3.

 

Saturday 21 June 2014

Flexipop Magazine

In the early 80's in the UK I remember buying a music magazine called "Flexipop" which used to include a coloured flexi-disc on the cover. I recently found a website dedicated to the magazine (flexipop.com) which includes a picture of one of their Abba articles.

 

Friday 20 June 2014

Abba Date - 21st June 1982

On the 21st June 1982 a new Abba compilation album "Love Sounds Special" was released in Japan on the Discomate record label. The album was issued on green vinyl and included the following tracks;
Side 1
  • The Winner Takes It All
  • Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
  • One Man, One Woman
  • My Love, My Life
  • I've Been Waiting For You
Side 2
  • Move On
  • Fernando
  • I Am Just A Girl
  • Chiquitita
  • Thank You For The Music

Abba Magazine #5

The 5th issue of the Abba Magazine was published during 1978 and as usual started with updates from each of the group ; Agnetha mentioned a planned tour during 1979, Bjorn said that they had completed six songs for the next album, Benny was excited as he had just started work in their new studio and Frida mentioned the groups promotional visit to the US where they appeared on the Olivia Newton-John show.

The other major article in this issue was an interview with Benny (titled "Off The Cuff") where he discussed a range of topics ; his favourite books (science fiction), he was looking forward to seeing "Saturday Night Fever", favourite actors (Richard Burton and Jack Nicholson) and his love of music (Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees and Stevie Wonder).