PRIVACY   CONTACT ABBA News Archive 2004 Here are the old messages from our ABBA- News page from the year 2004. Books have been moved to the Book List and obsolete announcements for TV shows and concerts have been deleted. The Music Museum in Stockholm will be closed throughout January 2005. After rebuilding of the information desk and shop, it will open again on February 1 and will have free admission! Agnetha was interviewed in Swedish TV4 by Lasse Bengtsson. We now have an extra page with the interview text for you. Special thanks to Christiane Brämer! Special thanks to Steffen Stolze, who sent us these beautiful photos of Frida's performance in Leipzig from December 16, 2004. Photos © Steffen Stolze After the Spanish premiere, there are now 14 Mamma Mia! productions world-wide. More news can be found on the official Mamma Mia! website. Many thanks go to Thomas Birkenbach (of the Fridashine site), who sent us this photo of Frida in Leipzig. A limited edition 30th Anniversary Original Album Box will be released in Japan only on December 22, including all 8 ABBA studio albums plus a bonus CD. Here is the photo. The CDs are the 2001 releases of Ring Ring, Waterloo, ABBA, Arrival, The Album, Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper and The Visitors, all with the covers and booklets from 2001. These tracks will be on the bonus CD: 1 Åh, vilka tider 2 Ring, Ring (German version) 3 Wer im Wartesaal der Liebe steht 4 Waterloo (French version) 5 Lovelight (West German Single Edit) 6 Waterloo (German version) 7 Eagle (Single Edit) 8 I Am The City 9 I Wonder (Departure)   (Live version) 10 You Owe Me One The box will also contain a booklet with the Japanese translations of the lyrics and liner notes plus the miniatures of the sleeves of 5 Japanese 7" singles. Catalogue number: UICY9501. This photo of Frida was taken on November 24, 2004 in the Europa-Park in Rust, when the ZDF TV "Adventsshow" was recorded. Special thanks to Claudia Menzi from Switzerland! Our UK correspondent Lisa writes: "I have been listening to Elaine Page on BBC Radio 2 today about musicals. She sung the deleted song When The Waves Roll Out To Sea. Beautiful!!! She was sad at the time when it was dropped from Chess in favour of 'Anthem', and would like to record it properly once again with a full orchestra." Swedish Pop Import has a special price for Agnetha's 6 CD Box for all ABBA- visitors. The price is 55 Euro, including postage. Please e-mail popimport@telia.com for further information. Agnetha's CD Box set will probably be released two weeks later, around December 17. Warner Music has informed our UK correspondent Lisa that there will be no more single releases in the UK from Agnetha's album "My Colouring Book", which has sold 46,000 copies in the UK alone. Agnetha's CD Box will be called "De första åren - Agnetha Fältskog 1967-1979" (The First Years). Sony Music's planned Swedish release date: December 1, catalogue number Columbia SME-519 318-2. You can order this box from Pop Import. It will contain the CD versions of her solo albums "Agnetha Fältskog" (1968), "Agnetha Fältskog Vol. 2" (1969), "Som jag är" (1970), "När en vacker tanke blir en sång" (1971), "Elva kvinnor i ett hus" (1975) plus one more CD with these tracks: 1 När du tar mej i din famn 2 Tio mil kvar till Korpilombolo 3 Vart ska min kärlek föra 4 Nånting händer med mig 5 En sång om sorg och glädje 6 Litet solskensbarn 7 Så glad som dina ögon 8 När ska du bli stilla 9 Sjung denna sång 10 Vi har hunnit fram till refrängen 11 Here For Your Love 12 Golliwog 13 The Queen Of Hearts 14 Interview 15 Borsta tandtrollen bort The songs 4 and 9 are duets with Jörgen Edman and track 14 (spoken, with Little Gerhard) has already been released as "Introduktion" on Agnetha's CD "My Love, My Life" (Columbia COL483910-2). It looks like "P & B" is missing again. Swiss watch company Swatch have released a special limited edition watch called "Memories from the North". And they have without any doubt found the best-known symbols for Scandinavia - Frida and Agnetha, a viking and a reindeer! This watch is only offered in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark and the production has been limited to 5.000 pieces. Jon Lord's DVD "Beyond The Notes", including Frida's appearance recorded live at the Cologne concert on October 5, 2004 may now be ordered from Amazon.de, according to their website it will be available from December 13. A big thank you goes to Klaus Will, who sent us these great photos from the Mamma Mia Premiere in Spain. We will show you even more photos in out next ABBA- issue! Klaus told us that Frida danced to "Dancing Queen"! Photos © Klaus Will The CD Agnetha Fältskog: 13 Hits including various songs from the time with Polar Music is now available in Sweden. Catalogue number: Universal 02498656662 1 Wrap Your Arms Around Me 2 Take Good Care Of Your Children 3 Stand By My Side 4 Man 5 Mr. Persuasion 6 The Heat Is On 7 Eyes Of A Woman 8 To Love 9 Never Again (Duet with Tomas Ledin) 10 I Wish Tonight Could Last Forever 11 I Won't Let You Go 12 The Way Your Are (Duet with Ola Håkansson) 13 One Way Love The CD + DVD Todo ABBA has climbed to number 30 on the Spanish charts. Very special thanks to Fernando Perez from Spain, who sent us these great photos of the Mamma Mia! Premiere in Madrid! Photos © Fernando Perez Our Spanish correspondent José reports that the CD + DVD Todo ABBA has just entered the Spanish charts at position 33 according to the official AFYVE sales list. The first reports from Mamma Mia! in Spain are arriving and Frida and Björn came to the premiere in Madrid. The newspaper La Razon praises the cast and especially Mariona Castillo, who plays the daughter. They write that Nina (the mother) has a powerful voice but it sounds too low for ABBA's pop sound. Special thanks to our Spanish correspondent José! French singer Shana Vanguarde has recorded a dance version of ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" which already became a hit in the French club charts. The video is being played on German VIVA Plus TV and the single will be released in Germany by Universal on November 15. Now we have the cover picture for you as well. The CD single includes a Midnight Radio Edit, Crystal-After Mix, Midnight Mix, After Mix plus the song "Overdrive" which has nothing to do with ABBA. Catalogue number: Universal 060249826050. The Mamma Mia! musical will be played in Osaka, Japan from January 2005 on. According to Universal, the DVD ABBA The Movie is planned to be released in the second half of 2005. Agnetha has got a Platinum CD for 60.000 sold copies of her album "My Colouring Book" in Sweden. The book "ABBA Gold: The Stories Behind Every Song" has now been translated into German. It is called "ABBA: The Music Still Goes On", like a book written by Paul Snaith in 1994. As usual, you will find the cover and ISBN number in our Book List. Many thanks to Michael Scheiber from Austria for the infos! Agnetha's next single will be "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming". It will probably be released before Christmas and we will show you the cover picture here as soon as we get it. Special thanks to Stephan Kriegeskotte, who sent us this nice photo of Frida and Jon Lord. It was taken on October 6, 2004 at Jon Lord's concert, when all the participants came on stage afterwards. Stephan wrote us that Frida thanked her fans after her performance, who were cheering with standing ovations. A very special thank you went to Jon Lord and his wife, who supported Frida "in a difficult and painful time and who have helped a lot!" Photo © Stephan Kriegeskotte Frida performed at the Jon Lord concert in Cologne on October 5, 2004 and sang to the playback "The Sun Will Shine Again". She wore the same clothes as in the "Goldene Henne" TV gala. At the end of the show she came back on stage together with all participants. You were not allowed to take photos because the concert was being recorded for DVD release. If we should get some photos anyway, we will show them here. Universal will release a "DVD single" with three versions of Waterloo in autumn in some countries. Catalogue number: Universal 982 091-2 Waterloo (original video clip) Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton) Waterloo (Melodifestivalen version) Ring, Ring (video clip) Thank You For The Music (video clip) Many thanks go to Thomas Birkenbach (of the Fridashine site), who sent us these nice photos of Frida at the "Goldene Henne" on September 22, 2004. Photos © Thomas Birkenbach Universal plans to re-issue the solo albums by Agnetha and Frida as remastered versions. But a date has not been set so far. Jon Lord and Frida performed at the "Goldene Henne 2004" awards in Germany and Steffen Stolze has sent us these photos. He told us that Frida gave autographs in the afternoon and she came to the rehearsals. She got along very well especially with Mireille Mathieu and they hugged each other. "The Sun Will Shine Again" was very much appreciated by the audience - people jumped off their seats of joy. Press photos were taken after the show. Frida and Jon Lord were standing behind Bärbel Bohley, Gyula Horn and pastor Christian Führer. Bärbel showed the Golden Hen to Frida and Frida had a lively conversation with pastor Christian Führer. Then Frida went to the After Show Party together with Jon Lord. At about 12:45 she left the party and some fans had the opportunity to talk to her and take photos. Many thanks to Steffen Stolze! Photos © Steffen Stolze The new DVD "ABBA - Super Troupers" will be released by Universal on October 11. According to the press text, it includes the documentary "The Winner Takes It All" and previously unpublished material like "ABBA At Home", updated interviews from 2004, awards presented to the members plus exclusive footage from the 5th Mamma Mia! anniversary gala in London. Catalogue number: Polydor 982 427-6 Special thanks to Stany van Wijmeersch from Belgium, who sent us this great photo of Frida and Jon Lord at the "Sunday Night Classics". Photo © Stany van Wijmeersch According to the well-known Spanish newspaper ABC, former Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in the late eighties, NINA, will play the role of Donna Sheridan in the Spanish version of Mamma Mia!, to be premiered at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid on November 11th. Other main characters will be played by Marta Valverde, Paula Sebastián and Bruno Squarcia. Nina - born in Girona, Catalonia – is not the most famous entry for ESC in Spain, as her song "Nacida para amar" didn't get good results in the contest. But her career has been connected to the ESC as she has been in charge of the successful TVE programme "Operación triunfo" where the next Spanish entry for the ESC was chosen for 3 years in a row. She applied the auditions in Madrid and she also had to go to London for another audition until she finally passed the test. Thanks to our Spanish correspondent José Luis Juarez! The premiere of Mamma Mia! in Madrid will be on Thursday November 11, 2004. A preview for the press takes place on November 10 and tickets are now being sold for performances from November 12 on. Tickets are available from El Corte Inglés (everything is in Spanish) or the hotline 902 26 27 26 (from within Spain). Many thanks go to Manuela Übler and Bayya Assem for these nice photos of Frida at the Sunday Night Classics! Photo © Manuela Übler Photos © Bayya Assem The new CD and DVD "Todo ABBA" will be released in Spain and other countries on October 25. The liner notes are written by Joaquin Luqui, a DJ from the 70's. CD and DVD contain the same songs. Special thanks to our Spanish correspondent José Luis Juarez! Catalogue number: Universal 0602498248263 1 Waterloo 2 Take A Chance On Me 3 Mamma Mia 4 Dancing Queen 5 S.O.S. 6 Super Trouper 7 Chiquitita (CD: Spanish, DVD: English) 8 Knowing Me, Knowing You (CD: Spanish, DVD: English) 9 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 10 Voulez-Vous 11 Does Your Mother Know 12 Estoy soñando (I Have A Dream) 13 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 14 The Winner Takes It All 15 No hay a quien culpar (When All Is Said And Done) 16 One Of Us 17 Fernando 18 Felicidad (Happy New Year) 19 Thank You For The Music A big Thank You goes to Sabine Thomas, who who gave us some infos about Frida at the "Sunday Night Classics". Special thanks to Manuela Übler for the photo! The audience welcomed Frida with lots of cheers. Unfortunately the recordings of Sunday Night Classics were haunted by bad luck. Trouble with the equipment all the time, the presentations had to be repeated over and over again, the computer kept on crashing, it was a torture not just for the artists. The recordings went on from 8 PM until midnight. Even Frida had a technical problem - she couldn't hear the backing track properly, the microphone failed - there was a small break, which Frida calmly accepted. Anyway the audience was totally enthusiastic about her performance. After the song the host did a little interview with Frida and Jon Lord. Part of it: Host: "How did the cooperation start?" Jon Lord: "We met when we were skiing a few years ago, and we became pals. She asked me to write a song for her, and it took me four years to do it!" (great laughter). Host: "Jon, what is so unique about Frida's voice?" Jon Lord: "She has the ability to put emotions into her voice - I just love her!" This almost sounded like a public declaration of love and the audience met this "confession" with huge applause. Then the host asked Frida some questions. During the first answer she forgot to talk into the microphone, charmingly covered this and said: "You see - it's quite a long time since I have been on stage!" You can watch the complete interview and the performance on September 19 on German ZDF TV. Further information will be included in our next ABBA- issue. German RTL TV's "Die ultimative Chartshow" listed ABBA as number 2 on their list of the most successful pop groups on the German sales charts with 21 top ten hits, only beaten by the Beatles with 27 hits. We are happy to present you the lyrics to the song "The Sun Will Shine Again" here. A big Thank You goes to Jon Lord! The Sun Will Shine Again Inside my mind The world is watching over My every move, Still I am here alone. Uncried tears They will only fuel my fears - Now, it seems they're falling And I feel release .......... An inner peace And realise The sun will shine again. Though this time Feels like its never ending Time will help and heal, These moments will pass. So raise your head, and take up your heart Hold it closely to you And the tears and pain will fall away Like blossom snow You will know That you can be your own best friend The sun will shine again. Only you can know How unravelled you'd become Hold on tight And let it go....... The sun will shine again. Vocals: Frida Piano: Jon Lord Guitar: Paul Shigihara Bass: Urs Fuchs Percussion: Mario Argandona Strings: The Cologne String Ensemble / Albert Jung The ABBA TV documentary "Super Troupers" will be broadcast by ITV in the UK on September 21 at 9 PM. The DVD will be already released on September 20 in the UK, catalogue number Polydor 9824276. You can pre-order the DVD from HMV UK. Digital Classics has confirmed that all four ex-members have contributed new interviews. Thanks to our UK correspondent Lisa! Jon Lord's new album "Beyond The Notes", including the song with Frida "The Sun Will Shine Again", will be released in Germany on September 20. This disc is marked as copy protected, which means that it might cause problems in some players. You can now order the Mamma Mia! Dutch Cast Recording CD plus some ABBA cover CDs from Sound Of Music. These photos of Benny Anderssons Orkester were taken on August 6, 2004 at Skansen in Stockholm. The sold-out concert was a good start for BAO's mini tour, which also included a TV appearance in "Allsång på Skansen". Here is a picture of Frida and Jon Lord recording the new track "The Sun Will Shine Again". A correction: The song was not recorded in Cologne, but in Bonn at the Hansa Studio. The gala "Sunday Night Classics" will be shown by German ZDF TV on Sunday, September 19 at 10:10 PM local time. Frida has recorded a new song called "The Sun Will Shine Again" together with Jon Lord, ex-keyboard player of the group Deep Purple. Frida and Jon Lord know each other for 5 years now and she asked him to write a song for her which he eventually did. They recorded the song together in July in Bonn, Germany. "The Sun Will Shine Again" will appear on Jon Lord's next album "Beyond The Notes". Frida and Jon Lord will sing the song together on stage at the gala "Sunday Night Classics". This performance will take place on September 6, 2004 in Munich. The gala will be shown on German ZDF TV on September 19, 2004. Agnetha's "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" has been on the listener charts of German radio SR1 for 12 weeks! She entered at number 2 and stayed at number 1 for 11 weeks before the track reached the limit and had to leave according to the station's rules. "When You Walk In The Room" is already number 2 right now. You may vote online for this chart. Many thanks to Joachim Lukosz for the news! Many thanks to Klaus Will, who sent us more great photos. You will find even more exclusive photos of Björn and Frida in Stuttgart in our next ABBA- Magazine. Photos © Klaus Will Here are more photos of Frida and Björn from the Mamma Mia! Premiere in Stuttgart on July 18! Frida arriving in Stuttgart in front of the hotel Frida and Björn in the theatre foyer On stage during the final applause Frida, Bubi Heilemann, Bubi's text author Sabine Thomas and Regina looking at Bubi's illustrated ABBA book at the After Show Party Frida with me at the After Show Party 6 photos above © Klaus-Peter Berg This is the Stuttgart cast: Donna: Jasna Ivir Tanja: Franziska Becker Rosie: Iris Schumacher Sophie: Ina Trabesinger Sam: Andreas Lichtenberger Bill: Marc Hetterle Harry: Tilo Keiner Ali: Julia Berger Lisa: Marianne Tarnowskij Sky: Armin Kahl Pepper: Till Nau Eddie: John Ramsten Ensemble: Linda Geider, Katherine Krüger, Nicole Malangré, Tesz Millan, Tanja Schön, Bettina Weichert, Jenny Winkler, Jonathan Agar, Wolfgang DeMarco, Andrew Hunt, Hunter Jaques, Marck Meyer-Stevens, Evren Pekgelegen, Dominik Schulz. "ABBA - Our Last Video Ever" had its world premiere at the live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest semi final on May 12, 2004 and will now be released on DVD. The DVD itself is titled 'ABBA - The Last Video' and Universal has just confirmed the release date July 19. Content: Our Last Video Ever Take A Chance On Me   video clip Dancing Queen   video clip Waterloo   video clip The Winner Takes It All   video clip Making of "Our Last Video Ever"   (bonus track) Photo gallery The first German edition will exclusively include a sticker "The Last Video". Catalogue number: Polydor 9867154 "ABBA - Our Last Video Ever" on DVD can be pre-ordered from HMV UK. Release date: July 19 Catalogue number: Polydor 9867154 Price: £7.99 plus postage Agnetha's single "When You Walk In The Room" has entered the official UK charts at number 34! Special thanks to our UK correspondent Lisa. Frida & Dan Daniell's CD single "Lieber Gott" has sold 835 copies so far. Parts of the proceedings go to an orphanage in Russia. Mamma Mia! in Spain will have its premiere on November 10 or 11 at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid. We will tell you the exact date as soon as we get more news. Catherine Johnson's script will be translated into Spanish by Juan Martínez Moreno and the lyrics by Albert Mas-Griera. You will find many ABBA rarities here:     Stuttgart even has Mamma Mia! buses now. Many thanks to Stephan Köhn for the photos! Official premiere: July 18. The Agnetha documentary shown by German SAT1 TV on June 6 had 150,000 or 4.7% viewers. We now have an extra page with the interview text for you. Special thanks to Christiane Brämer! Benny Andersson's new CD BAO! will be released on June 23rd. It includes 14 new songs written by Benny Andersson, two of them with lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus, two by Ylva Eggehorn and one by Peter Dalle (music from the film "Skenbart"). Helen Sjöholm sings on five songs - including a duet with Kalle Moraeus. Special thanks to Görel Hanser! Many thanks to Annette Kluwie, who sent us these beautiful photos of Frida taken at the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm on May 24, 2004. The German Mamma Mia! Live Cast CD will be finally released on June 14. The Mamma Mia! ensemble from Hamburg sings 22 of ABBA's greatest hits including "Dancing Queen", "Mamma Mia", "Voulez Vous", "S.O.S.", "Money, Money, Money" and "Super Trouper". All these German versions of ABBA's hits were translated by Michael Kunze and authorized by Björn Ulvaeus himself. The live CD was recorded at the Operettenhaus in Hamburg in April 2004 and includes all the lyrics. More than 10.000 copies have already been ordered in advance. After 30 years since the original release of Waterloo in the UK, it has now re-entered at number 20 in the official UK single charts!! Thanks to our UK correspondent Lisa. As we already told you, there will be a CD with German ABBA cover versions in June, sung by musical stars. In the meantime the CD was renamed to "Musicalstars singen ABBA-Hits!" and the cover picture has changed as well, as you can see here. It will now be released on June 2, 2004. We have been able to listen to the CD and it's fantastic. The production is very modern, without losing the typical ABBA sound. The musical stars have wonderful voices. We were especially impressed by the songs performed by Andreas Bieber. Unfortunately Uwe Kröger and Anna Montanaro contributed just one song each - we would love to hear more from them as well. Powerful interpretations were also done by Annika Bruhns, Maricel and Nico Gaik. These German versions are much better than those from the 70's - not just concerning the production, but most of all the fantastic performers. You can order the CD from Sound Of Music (their web shop is in English). The album includes these cover versions: 1 Mamma Mia - Annika Bruhns 2 Hasta Mañana - Andreas Bieber 3 Nur Sieger steh'n im Licht (The Winner Takes It All) - Maricel 4 Ich war zu lang allein (The Day Before You Came) - Nico Gaik 5 Waterloo - Annika Bruhns 6 Ich leb' im Traum (I Have A Dream) - Andreas Bieber 7 Money, Money, Money - Anna Montanaro 8 Ich sah deine Tränen (One Of Us) - Maricel 9 Ich brauch' deine Liebe (Andante, Andante) - Andreas Bieber 10 Sing, wenn du mal traurig bist (Bang-A-Boomerang) - Nico Gaik 11 Fernando - Annika Bruhns 12 Danke für die Lieder (Thank You For The Music) - Uwe Kröger This is the cover of Agnetha's next single "When You Walk In The Room". Spanish TV station "Los 40 Principales" reported that Mamma Mia! in Madrid is now looking for 31 actresses and actors with these skills: energetic, good at singing and dancing, boy/girl next door looks and with good sense of humour. Paul Garrington is in charge of the auditions that started on Tuesday at the Teatro Nuevo Alcalá and will end on Thursday. 1.000 people will try to get a role in the Spanish version of Mamma Mia!. Garrington said that the only changes will be the language and also the names of the main roles, so Donna will now be LOLA in the Spanish version, as he wants people to be identified with the characters in the play. The auditions are looking for men/women between 19 and 40 years. Garrington also said to the EFE agency that for this casting it is easier to find actresses rather than actors, this has been a worldwide and interesting phenomenon which is observed over and over again at this kind of castings. Special thanks again to José Luis Juarez Cabrera, Spain. Digital Classics / Iambic Productions are working on the TV documentary "Super Troupers - 30 Years of ABBA", which will be shown by ITV in the UK later this year. It will feature a mixture of old and new footage, mostly centered around ABBA's 30th anniversary celebrations and the 5th Mamma Mia! anniversary in London. ABBA - Out Last Video Ever will be released on a special "EP-DVD" containing this video from the Eurovision Song Contest semi final plus four original ABBA videos and a bonus section with behind the scenes material and a picture gallery! It will be released in July. Here are the ABBA members' short appearances in the video "ABBA - Our Last Video Ever": Björn has also recorded the greetings shown at the end of the German ABBA Jubiläumsshow in the set made for this video. The picture of Agnetha and Frida has been put together, they were filmed separately. Stage Holding has now announced that Mamma Mia! will have its Spanish premiere in November at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid. Auditions for the Spanish language staging will take place in Madrid in May. Paul Garrington will be the associate director, other persons involved are Leah Sue Morland (choreography), Seann Alderking (musical supervisor) and Stephen Corocket (casting director). Many thanks to José Luis Juarez Cabrera, Spain. We just got a press release from Universal. Please read what Calle Åstrand - writer and director - has to say about OUR LAST VIDEO EVER: It all began three years ago. A friend of mine asked me why I've never done any promos. Because they're boring to watch, I answered. They never tell a story, there's just people miming in front of a camera. Extremely boring. But if you were to write a story and pick a band, my friend continued. I gave it a thought and said Beatles, ABBA or Doors, then. He wondered if I couldn't pick an existing band... A few weeks went by, I was at a shoot in Prague. In a display window I saw lots of dolls. Just like that, I thought. That's the solution. The basic idea came rather quickly. It would be fun if another "ABBA" went for a record contract before the actual ABBA did. I contacted Björn Ulvaeus and presented the idea. He liked it from the start, had his own ideas to the script. His most important opinion was - it must make you laugh! Then he went to the record company and set up a meeting. Why? The record company said. You don't even have any new material. Because it's fun, Björn replied. And besides, we haven't made a promo in 20 years, so maybe it's time. The treatment went for a ride for various approvals, main issue to solve was where, how and why. Until someone came up with the obvious answer: ABBA's 30th Anniversary and the Eurovision Song Contest. Causes for a celebration. So how do we get ABBA into the picture? They do not exist anymore, but they need to be in it. Maybe we could do a Forrest Gump? Have our actors meet the old ABBA. I looked at old films that we could possibly use. ABBA - The Movie had one scene. Only problem was that we needed to find the original shoot, maybe there was a take without the "Reporter" standing in the way of the ABBAs... Also, Lasse Hallström had to be contacted, grant us to use his old material. When the postproduction company then had a look at it all and said "it could work", I took it as a promise and continued writing the script. My producer contacted Hensons Creature Shop and they started to work on the dolls. We discussed what songs we should use. That was a tricky one, there are so many good songs. Waterloo was obvious. Dancing Queen for being the most popular one (at least according to the press). Take A Chance On Me fit the story. As does The Winner Takes It All. We ended up in a meeting with Björn and Benny and they had some queries regarding the different pace and keys of the songs. That could be solved with dialogue between the songs and having the story moving in different environments. Björn brought me to Mamma Mia! in London to see how they worked out these issues. Brilliantly was my opinion. They exploit the dialogue to move into the music in the best possible way, having the lyrics transformed into spoken words. I then read through all ABBA lyrics searching for the right words to use as dialogue. Björn also helped out - his best idea was I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do. During the casting of the film we had two choices - Swedish or international actors. Since ABBA is a Swedish export my opinion was that the actors should be Swedish. The story takes place in Sweden. We were very fortunate to get the best actors in Sweden - Robert Gustafson, Loa Falkman, Micke Nyqvist, Sissela Kyhle, Cecilia Frode and Per Svensson. The record boss being British (Rik Mayall) felt perfect. His character doesn't understand what he's missing. In reality it was sort of the opposite - Swedes didn't appreciate ABBA's greatness but the rest of the world did. And so we're off to the actual shooting of the film, the editing, sound recording and all that jazz. Hope you like what you see. Regards, Calle Åstrand It is now confirmed that a film about ABBA will be shown on the semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 12 called "OUR LAST VIDEO - EVER!" The ABBA members will come together in this humorous film again as puppets for a world premiere where it all began - at the Eurovision Song Contest. The announcement of the broadcast was held at a press conference in Istanbul today. www.abbasite.com has written the following about it: "ABBA – OUR LAST VIDEO EVER is the film about four hopeful musicians in search of a record contract. They pay a visit to the Big Record Company Boss and his oily assistant, performing one hit after the other, cheered on by their manager. But things don’t really work out as planned... Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida look just like they did back then – or perhaps not, after all. Is memory playing tricks with us? Were they really this... small? OUR LAST VIDEO EVER will receive its world premiere during the live broadcast semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul on May 12. The film is a Radical Media UK production, directed by Calle Åstrand. Apart from the doll-size versions of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida, the film is starring Rik Mayall, Robert Gustafson, Sissela Kyhle, Cecilia Frode, Loa Falkman, Micke Nyqvist and Per Svensson, along with a number of interesting extras..." Mamma Mia! in Sweden has now announced the actors: Gunilla Backman (Donna), Nina Lundseie (Sofie), Sussie Eriksson, Charlott Strandberg (Rosie & Tanja), Reuben Sallmander, Bengt Bauler, Bill Hugg (Sam, Harry, Bill), Lisa Östberg, Jenny Miina (Lisa & Ali), Niklas Riesbeck (Sky) and Martin Redhe Nord (Sky's friend). Sussie Eriksson has already played in "ABBA - The True Story" in Stockholm and Lisa Östberg is married to Benny's son Ludvig. Tickets will be available from August 25. Waterloo / Watch Out will be released as a CD single on May 17. The cover says "Special 30th Anniversary Collector's Single". Catalogue number: Polydor 982 053-9 Agnetha's CD "My Colouring Book" is number one of the Swedish album charts! Last week in April she has sold 25% of all chart albums there!! Agnetha's second single will be "When You Walk In The Room". There will be an Almighty Remix of it as well, unfortunately nothing is planned for Germany for the time being. These are the pre-order charts of the German sound carrier retailers published by Amazon.de - Agnetha's album "My Colouring Book" is number one!!! German release date is Monday, April 26. ABBA's anniversary edition of Waterloo is number 7. Agnetha's album is number 12 on the UK charts! Unfortunately Warner Music Germany still has no plans to release Agnetha's single "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind". The reason is that the song allegedly gets too little airplay. Unfortunately the promo CD single was not sent to all radio stations, as we were told. The song is very successful on the stations that do have the CD, for instance the Listener Charts of Saarländischer Rundfunk - Agnetha is number one there (last week 2)!!!!! Special thanks to Joachim Lukosz for these news. Many thanks again to all of you who took part in our big ABBA anniversary competition. The prizes are on their way to the winners in the meantime. As not all of them wanted to be mentioned here, we would like to tell you the countries to which the prizes are going to: 2 x England, Germany, Uruguay and the USA. The first prize - the "ABBA Live In Concert" DVD - went to Hungary. Congratulations! The correct answer was: "Waterloo" was recorded and released by ABBA in the following languages: English, Swedish, German and French. The ZDF ABBA Jubiläumsshow on April 11 had 3.91 million (14.9 %) viewers. Many thanks go to Klaus Will, who sent us his photos from the Mamma Mia! celebrations on April 6 in London. Photos © Klaus Will Frida, Benny and Björn attended the 5th anniversary of Mamma Mia! in London! It was reported that Benny and Björn came on stage after the performance and made a speech, which was received with gigantic applause and cheers. Then Frida lost a shoe when she also came on stage! She said "I haven't been on stage for a long time!" New books released in 2004 have now been moved to our book list. New ABBA / solo releases from 2004: Arrival Sound + Vision catalogue numbers (PAL): Set: 0602498107331 CD: 0731454995320 DVD: 0602498107348 CD: 1 When I Kissed The Teacher 2 Dancing Queen 3 My Love, My Life 4 Dum Dum Diddle 5 Knowing Me, Knowing You 6 Money, Money, Money 7 That's Me 8 Why Did It Have To Be Me 9 Tiger 10 Arrival CD Bonus tracks: 11 Fernando 12 Happy Hawaii DVD  (Region 0, 4:3, Stereo): 1 Dancing Queen 2 Knowing Me, Knowing You 3 Money, Money, Money ABBA Sound + Vision catalogue numbers (PAL): Set: 0602498107287 CD: 0731454995221 DVD: 0602498107294 CD: 1 Mamma Mia 2 Hey, Hey Helen 3 Tropical Loveland 4 S.O.S. 5 Man In The Middle 6 Bang-A-Boomerang 7 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 8 Rock Me 9 Intermezzo No. 1 10 I've Been Waiting For You 11 So Long CD Bonus tracks: 12 Crazy World 13 Medley: Pick A Bale Of Cotton /      On Top Of Old Smokey /      Midnight Special DVD  (Region 0, 4:3, Stereo): 1 Mamma Mia 2 S.O.S. 3 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do Our French correspondent Olivier reports that the hit compilation The ABBA Story now is number 4 on the "Best Of..." charts and number 30 of the French top 200 charts, which had at least 5 new entries among the top 10!   Nothing is planned for Agnetha so far. Here comes the track list for the new double CD ABBA FOREVER with lots of cover versions! The release will accompany ABBA's 30th anniversary and a few TV specials in Germany. German release date: April 8, 2004 CD 1: 1 Westlife:  I Have A Dream 2 Erasure:  Take A Chance On Me 3 The Ten Tenors:  Dancing Queen 4 Mike Oldfield:  Arrival 5 Men Without Hats:  S.O.S. 6 James Last:  Fernando 7 Dagmar Hellberg & Angelika Milster:  Ich kann ihn versteh'n 8 Marianne Rosenberg:  Nur Sieger steh'n im Licht 9 Nana Mouskouri:  Ich leb im Traum 10 Hilton McRae:  Knowing Me, Knowing You 11 B*Witched:  Does Your Mother Know 12 Tanita Tikaram:  The Day Before You Came 13 Steps:  I Know Him So Well 14 The Black Sweden:  The Winner Takes It All 15 Stephen Gately:  Chiquitita 16 Nils Landgren Funk Unit:  Summer Night City CD 2: 1 Peter Cetera with Ronna Reeves:  S.O.S. 2 Steps:  Lay All Your Love On Me 3 Palast-Orchester & Max Raabe:  Super Trouper 4 Angelika Milster:  Jeder gegen jeden: Allein 5 Wind:  Fernando (Und der Himmel war zum Greifen nah) 6 Nils Landgren Funk Unit:  Voulez-Vous 7 Beverly Craven:  The Winner Takes It All 8 Blancmange:  The Day Before You Came 9 Madness:  Money, Money, Money 10 Dr. & The Medics:  Waterloo 11 The Leather Nun:  Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 12 Hilton McRae & Siobhan McCarthy:  I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 13 Martine McCutcheon:  Mamma Mia 14 S Club 7:  Dancing Queen 15 Dune:  One Of Us 16 E-Rotic:  Thank You For The Music This is Agnetha's new album cover! After 17 years, she finally recorded "My Colouring Book", which is co-produced by Agnetha with pianist and bandleader Anders Neglin and drummer/producer Dan Strömkvist. Catalogue number: WEA 5050467-3122-2-7 Her daughter Linda is singing with her on three tracks and ABBA's former guitarist Lasse Wellander is playing as well. The album has got an own website. Here is the track list: My Colouring Book    Music & lyrics: John Cander & Fred Ebb When You Walk In The Room    Music & lyrics: Jackie de Shannon If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind    Music & lyrics: John Cameron Sealed With A Kiss    Music: Gary Geld / lyrics: Peter Udell Love Me With All Your Heart    Music: Carlo & Mario Rodriguez Rigual / lyrics: Carlos Martinoli / English lyrics: M. Vaughn Fly Me To The Moon    Music & lyrics: Bart Howard Past, Present And Future    Music & lyrics: Arthur Butler, Jerry Leiber, George Francis Morton A Fool Am I    Music: F. Carraresi / lyrics: A. Testa / English lyrics: Peter Callander I Can't Reach Your Heart    Music & lyrics: Ted Murry & Benny Davies Sometimes When I’m Dreaming    Music & lyrics: Michael Batt The End Of The World    Music: Arthur Kent / lyrics: Sylvia Dee Remember Me    Music & lyrics: Chris Andrews What Now My Love    Music: Gilbert Becaud / lyrics: Pierre Delanoe / English lyrics: Carl Sigman Universal will not only release the "ABBA In Concert" DVD on March 29 in Germany, but also another 3 track DVD featuring "Waterloo", "Dancing Queen" and "The Winner Takes It All" on April 2, which will be exclusively sold through Schlecker in Germany. Here comes another Warner newsletter from Agnetha's website. Agnetha Makes Radio History! On March 8 – the very first day that radio stations around the world played the comeback single "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" – Agnetha Fältskog made airplay history. In only 24 hours on Swedish airwaves Agnetha took the No. 1 spot of the Music Control Airplay chart! It marks the first time ever in Music Control's existence in Sweden that any artist accomplished such a feat. "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" by Agnetha Fältskog has also been heard on radio stations in countries as diverse as the UK, The Netherlands and Australia. Thanks to Swedish and German TV newscasts and webcasts such as the world premiere play on RIX FM in Stockholm and the UK's BBC Radio 2, "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" could be heard in virtually every other country worldwide! The international release date for the album "My Colouring Book" is April 19. The Swedish jazz trombonist Nils Landgren has already played on ABBA's "Voulez-Vous". Now he and his formation "Funk Unit" will release the album Funky ABBA on March 29, featuring 12 ABBA hits. Even Benny himself is playing on "When All Is Said And Done"! You can play two audio clips on ACT's website. Nils Landgren will also appear at the ABBA Jubiläumsshow on German ZDF TV to perform "Voulez-Vous". Catalogue number: ACT 9430-2 1 Money, Money, Money 2 Knowing Me, Knowing You 3 Voulez-Vous 4 Thank You For The Music 5 Super Trouper 6 Summer Night City 7 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 8 The Name Of The Game 9 Dancing Queen 10 Take A Chance On Me 11 S.O.S. 12 When All Is Said And Done To celebrate the 30th anniversary, the Waterloo album will be re-released with a bonus DVD and 5 extra tracks in April. The 20 page booklet written by Carl Magnus Palm includes many photos of ABBA, rare record covers and ABBA memorabilia. The DVD shows ABBA's Eurovision victory in Brighton, "Waterloo" from Swedish Melodifestivalen, a performance on German ZDF's "Starparade" plus an appearance from Spanish TV. CD: 1 Waterloo 2 Sitting In The Palmtree 3 King Kong Song 4 Hasta Mañana 5 My Mama Said 6 Dance (While The Music Still Goes On) 7 Honey, Honey 8 Watch Out 9 What About Livingstone 10 Gonna Sing You My Lovesong 11 Suzy-Hang-Around CD Bonus tracks: 12 Ring Ring (US Remix 1974) 13 Waterloo (Swedish version) 14 Honey, Honey (Swedish version) 15 Waterloo (German version) 16 Waterloo (French version) DVD: 1 Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest, BBC) 2 Waterloo (Melodifestivalen, SVT) 3 Honey, Honey (Starparade, ZDF) 4 Hasta Mañana (Señoras y Señores, RTVE) Carl Magnus Palm informed us that the new book "Cadillac Madness - den otroliga berättelsen om The Hep Stars" (Cadillac Madness - The incredible story of The Hep Stars) will be published in the end of April. It was written in Swedish by Dan-Eric Landén and Carl Magnus Palm and will be released by Premium Publishing. There is also a new double CD also titled "Cadillac Madness", to be released March 31, 2004. Catalogue number: EMI 72435 973442 2 CD 1: 1 Intro/Cadillac 2 Kana Kapila 3 A Tribute To Buddy Holly 4 Farmer John 5 Donna 6 Bald Headed Woman 7 No Response 8 Rented Tuxedo 9 So Mystifying 10 Young And Beautiful 11 Should I 12 Sunny Girl 13 Hawaii 14 Wedding 15 Don't 16 Isn't It Easy To Say 17 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again 18 Tallahassee Lassie 19 Surfin' Bird 20 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck CD 2: 1 Love Is Coming Back 2 I natt jag drömde 3 Consolation 4 It's Nice To Be Back 5 Malaika 6 Mot okänt land 7 She Will Love You 8 Like You Used To Do 9 It's Been A Long Long Time 10 Sagan om lilla Sofi 11 Det finns en stad 12 Groovy Summertime 13 Let It Be Me 14 Tända på varann 15 The Music Box 16 Holiday For Clowns 17 Speleman 18 Är det inte kärlek, säg? 19 Speedy Gonzales 20 Cadillac 2004 Tracks 1 and 20 on the second CD are new recordings by the Hep Stars, but without Benny! Our French correspondent Olivier told us about the CD The ABBA Story, which will be released in France in March. Universal releases it because of the "ABBA Mania" show playing in Paris on March 4 / 5. There should be quite a lot of promotion for the new CD on TV, radio and in papers. Catalogue numbers Polydor France: CD 981 765-3 / UN 811 MC 981 765-4 / UN589 Limited book edition 981 073-5 / UN 833 1 Ring Ring 2 Waterloo 3 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 4 S.O.S. 5 Mamma Mia 6 Fernando 7 Dancing Queen 8 Money, Money, Money 9 Knowing Me, Knowing You 10 The Name Of The Game 11 Take A Chance On Me 12 Thank You For The Music 13 Summer Night City 14 Voulez-Vous 15 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 16 I Have A Dream 17 The Winner Takes It All 18 Super Trouper 19 One Of Us 20 When All Is Said And Done Universal will release the DVD "ABBA In Concert" at the end of March! They gave out the following press release: Compared to their top-level competition on the international rock music scene in the 1970s, ABBA made very few international concert tours. Their only major outings were the 1977 tour of Europe and Australia and then the tour of North America and Europe in 1979. This last tour was made into a film, ABBA In Concert, which vividly captures the four Swedes on stage at the height of their fame. ABBA In Concert will be released on DVD for the very first time at the end of March 2004, and comes with a number of rare bonus performances, one of which has never been seen before. The documentary scenes in ABBA In Concert, offering an intimate look at the group's life on the road, were filmed in the United States in September and October 1979. The sparkling concert performances were captured at Wembley Arena in London, England, in November. ABBA In Concert, a co-production between Sveriges Television and Polar Music International, was directed by television producer Urban Lasson. The film was first broadcast in Japan in March 1980, and has been seen all over the world since then. This new DVD version of ABBA In Concert comes with three bonus performances, filmed in conjunction with the television special. The Way Old Friends Do was a part of the film when ABBA In Concert was broadcast in Japan and the United States, but was not included elsewhere. I Have A Dream was featured in ABBA In Concert, but in the film the performance is interrupted by rehearsal footage. This bonus track version is the complete version of the song, without the rehearsals. Thank You For The Music, finally, has never been seen anywhere before – the filmed performance was not even edited at the time – and is an exclusive feature on this DVD. The ABBA In Concert DVD contains brand new interviews with ABBA's trusted promoter and tour producer, Thomas Johansson, and with the director of the film, Urban Lasson. In the interviews, Johansson and Lasson share their memories of the 1979 tour and the making of ABBA In Concert. The DVD will also feature a picture gallery and trailers. The booklet for ABBA In Concert is fully illustrated and features a 5,500-word essay by Carl Magnus Palm. Catalogue number: 065 646-9 Audio: 5.1 Surround Extras: Subtitles, 1979 tour programme booklet picture gallery, Interviews, Mamma Mia! 5th anniversary trailer Dan Daniell sent us his new album CD "Liebe ist...", BM Records BM 363-03-022. The CD includes wonderful solo songs by Dan plus the songs "Lieber Gott" and "I Have A Dream", which he recorded together with Frida. The cover shows Dan alone - the inner side has a picture of Frida alone. You have the chance to win the CD among other items in our next ABBA- competition! Carolin Fortenbacher ("Donna" from Mamma Mia! in Hamburg) has recorded a rock version of the Mozart aria "Königin der Nacht", which is now available on a limited edition CD single. You can order it from Sound Of Music, who have specialised on musicals and related recordings. (Click onto the flag for an English version of their website) ABBA Gold is now available as a "Sound + Vision Deluxe" package including the CDs ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold plus the ABBA Gold DVD. The catalogue numbers are 0602498100394 for PAL video and 0602498101315 for NTSC. The Chess på Svenska DVD (Mono Music MMDVD01, 128 minutes, 4:3, Dolby Digital Stereo + DTS 5.1, released in November 2003) includes a second bonus DVD with Mona Nörklit's 80 minute long 16:9 documentary "Musikalen som kom hem", showing the work behind the scenes like stage construction, rehearsals etc. plus a presentation of the ensemble. The "Guldkorn" re-release of the 1987 CD Agnetha & Christian: Kom följ med i vår karusell (WMS-5050466-391223) is now available. ABBA Gold has been released again, this time as a Special Edition with a bonus CD. Catalogue number: Universal 0602498119754 The Gold CD is the usual one and the bonus CD includes the following songs: 1 Summer Night City 2 Angeleyes 3 The Day Before You Came 4 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 5 So Long 6 Honey Honey 7 The Visitors 8 Ring Ring 9 When I Kissed The Teacher 10 The Way Old Friends Do Anders Glenmark has begun working on the Gemini albums re-release now. He is searching through lots of old tapes and they will soon decide between remastering the two albums with bonus tracks or releasing a new "Best Of Gemini" album including rare extra material. The ABBA hits compilation CD The Name Of The Game was released in Europe in February 2003. Now there is a box set including the same CD plus an ABBA key ribbon, with a sticker "Limited Edition mit ABBA Schlüsselband" on it. Catalogue number: Universal Spectrum 064 969-2 1 Waterloo 2 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 3 Rock Me 4 Love Isn't Easy 5 Gonna Sing You My Lovesong 6 S.O.S. 7 When I Kissed The Teacher 8 The Name Of The Game 9 Hole In Your Soul 10 Why Did It Have To Be Me 11 On And On And On 12 Lay All Your Love On Me 13 The Visitors 14 Kisses Of Fire 15 When All Is Said And Done 16 Ring Ring This box set was released in Germany. Frida and Dan Daniell's CD single will probably be released on November 10, 2003. Here is the cover picture. In the meantime we have confirmed information on the new Frida single. Regina had a nice talk with Dan Daniell. Dan is a Swiss artist who has been in the studio with Frida in the end of May 2003. They have recorded the ABBA song "I Have A Dream" (in a different version) and "Lieber Gott". Dan wrote "Lieber Gott" together with a friend and describes it as a "prayer song", with Frida saying the Lord's Prayer in Swedish. A third track is sung by Dan Daniell alone in Swiss-German. An edition of 1,000 copies is planned at the moment, but more CD singles will be pressed if the demand is higher. Dan has said that really everyone who wants this CD single will have the possibility to buy it. The total proceeds will go to charity, namely children in war. Frida and Dan will not do any promotion, press conferences and the like for this single. Frida and Dan are friends and as they both had the idea to help children in need, this project came into being. You will probably already know some of these infos from several websites. Dan was very sad because he got some very angry mails and discussions were going on in internet groups whether these recordings with Frida really existed. Doing something good with the CD was important to him and Frida - under no circumstances should there be resentment among the fans. All the fans were probably worried about the planned edition of 1,000 CD singles. But in any case there will be as many CD singles as necessary. We have deleted some old messages. If you miss some of the older photos, please visit the Photos section. And if you found this page by a search engine, don't miss the whole site!

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