Abba Fans Unite!

Well, after enjoying a full two and a half hours of Abba music at "Mamma Mia" it has confirmed what I probably already knew.  That is, I am a died-in-the-wool Abba fan.  I have "Abba Gold" and "More Abba Gold" at home (naturally), and immediately put on the "More Abba Gold" CD upon returning from the musical on Saturday night.  I have since listened to "Abba Gold" itself on the computer.

The plot for the show was nothing to write home about, really.  It is the story of a daughter who lives in "Melbourne" (for the Australian version) who has booked her wedding at the mother's taverna which just happens to be built on a Greek Island.  Twenty-one years ago Mum had a series of dalliances with blokes, and as a result the daughter has no idea who her father is.  She sneaks a glimpse of Mum's diary from the period, and concludes there are three candidates for father, and invites them all to the wedding using her mother's name.  They all turn up.

During the course of a few days we hear their own stories, have a buck's night and hen's night and have a wedding.  I really loved the way the show would segue into an Abba song.  It was a little corny sometimes, but I really loved the use of the details of the song "Our Last Summer", which has the verse "And now you’re working in a bank / The family man, the football fan / And your name is Harry" which was used well into the second act.  Of course, these details had been setup right from the start of the show.  Sharon asked me on the train on the way back whether these were the original lyrics, and I confidently replied that they certainly were.

But the plot was not the main feature of the show, the star of the show were the great Abba songs.

Since the show, I've spent a few hours downloading as many Abba tracks as possible; there are quite a few available out there, I must say.  Almost all of the songs used in "Mamma Mia" are on the two "Abba Gold" compilation CDs, but not all of them.  There's a very interesting one from Bjorn entitled "Slipping Through My Fingers" which starts off "Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning / Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile" which is a nice little parable about his seven-year-old daughter, which was used in the second act and in the show, is sung by the mother on the eve of her daughter's wedding.  This was one of the last Abba songs ever recorded in 1982, although it was included on "The Visitors", their final album (track 8).

I know all the lyrics to the early Abba songs, however I'm nowhere near as familiar with the later stuff.  I did actually have the album of "Super Trouper" (second last album), but I never had their third last "Voulez-Vous" and last "The Visitors".

After the tour of Australia in 1977, Abba's popularity in the country plummeted.  It was simply because the Sydney concerts were a very wet affair at the Showgound.  We couldn't see a thing from where we were, 3/4 of the way back, and we were shrouded in garbage bags trying to keep dry.  There were many stackable metal chairs in the grounds, and a popular practice was to stack them up ten or fifteen high and climb up on them.  Doing this meant you could see the stage, at least, but did rather block the view of people behind, and was probably quite a dangerous thing.

After this concert, you were considered a pariah if you admitted to being an Abba fan.  It had a deleterious effect on their popularity in Australia, and was the catalyst for the construction of the Sydney Entertainment Centre (which finally opened in 1983).  At last, Sydney had a venue seating 12,000 people out of the rain, which would make enough money for the promoters, but allow protection from the rain for the patrons.  Incidentally, Acer Arena at Homebush Bay is now the largest indoor venue in Australia and seats 21,000 - completely eclipsing the Entertainment Centre.

I have borrowed the DVD of the movie of "Mamma-Mia" from Mum, and will certainly be watching it again shortly.  I've had Abba songs playing whilst typing this, of course!