About My Blog

I created this blog to help share ABBA information with other fans and to show off my new collection items :)


Please note: Collection item photos are from my own personal collection. These are not stock photos. If you wish to use any of my photos elsewhere, please have the courtesy to ask first - Thank you :)

Wednesday 22 October 2014

ABBA Gold 40th Anniversary SteelBox Edition

Well, it's soon to be released and it looks very interesting - especially with the 3D card !

ABBA Gold 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbox !

For Australians, this can now be pre-ordered from JB Hi-fi here:

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/pop/gold-40th-anniversary-steelbook-edition/643085/

And check out the great video advertisement on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENukFOGY43w&list=PLOljPiNfQ36NvUIAkkDReQtIUdIgx3YAq&index=20

Thursday 16 October 2014

ABBA Monopoly Board Game - It's Coming !!


From the Ginza website:

An extremely exclusive ABBA product, namely its own Monopoly. The product is sold in a limited edition and the whole game is created by ABBA classic brand.
Instead of streets to buy the band's albums and playing pieces consist of classic ABBA modified products such as a money bag (money money money), a dance shoe and Napoleon hat. The game language is English to reflect the international status of the band have and to not exclude any consumer.

www.ginza.se/product/abba-monopoly/61229/

369 kronor - which is about $59.00AUD - plus postage from Sweden :)

Release date 5 November 2014

Bengans now also have it listed with release date of 20 November:

http://www.bengans.se/Product.aspx?skivkod=1134838




Saturday 11 October 2014

ABBA Live At Wembley Arena Review

A great review of Live At Wembley by 'Tune In':

http://www.knoxnews.com/knoxville/music/tuned-in-review-live-proves-abbas-strengths-beyond-studio_53794019

‘Tuned In' review: ‘Live' proves ABBA's strengths beyond studio

Thursday 9 October 2014

New ABBA Collection Item - LIve At Wembley Vinyl !

I received my vinyl copy of ABBA Live At Wembley Arena - and it is just beautiful !

Vinyl is my favourite format - and this release certainly does not disappoint :)







Monday 6 October 2014

Trundle ABBA Festival 2015

Tickets go on sale for the Trundle ABBA Festival 2015 in November.

The Festival, held each year, will be at the beginning of May 2015.

Features Bjorn Again performing - plus much much more !

This Festival is growing bigger every year - and I intend to make it there in 2015. Should be lots of fun !!

As featured in the 'Bang A Boomerang' documentary :)

http://www.trundleabbafestival.com/default.html

Sunday 5 October 2014

A Scania Truck Dedicated To ABBA

















Mamma mia that truck, would say looking at the Scania R 520 Topline Streamline the trucking company Swiss Müller Ermensee, inspired by the Swedish group Abba. The occasion is the fortieth year of the group that is an evergreen. And green is the dominant color of this decoration.

It is not the first truck that Müller dedicated to celebrities. For example, one reminds the driver Jo Siffert, who died in 1971 at the Grand Prix of Switzerland. Obviously, to celebrate a Swedish musical group, the driver wanted a Swedish truck and chose the flagship of Scania. In addition, this livery debuted in Swedish Elmia festival, where it won the first prize in its category. "We have received many compliments," says Müller.
The decoration on the side shows the portraits of the members of Abba's Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog on the left, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad on the right. The front, however, shows the message The Winner Takes It All, which is the title of one of the most popular songs of the group. On the back we find all four musicians in a collective portrait. The livery was designed by Marcel Gerber and Urs Christen Hirzel, which took two months to complete the work.
We can see this Scania also on our roads, because Müller is using it to transport food between Switzerland and Italy. The company, in fact, is specialized in the transport of products at a controlled temperature. 2015 will be produced also a model.

www.trasportoeuropa.it/index.php/component/content/article/51-notizie-camion/11460-uno-scania-dedicato-agli-abba

New ABBA Collection Item - Uncut Trading Card Sheet

The latest and most exciting addition to my collection:

New Zealand uncut trading card sheet !

I never would have thought I would find one of these - having the Australian blue trading card sheet seemed like a once in a lifetime find.

But now I have 2 card sheets !

The New Zealand cards were the same as the Australian blue set - except the poster on the back was black and white - and the image is the same as the Australian pink set of cards (which is different to the Australian blue set).

I am over the moon about this new collectible - the trading cards have always been very special to me.

Now I just need an Australian uncut pink sheet - anyone know of one anywhere ??


Saturday 4 October 2014

Mamma Mia! Son of Abba remasters pop beat in Live at Wembley Arena

Ludvig Andersson was born too late to hear his dad's band, Abba, perform live.
The son of Abba member Benny Andersson and his second wife, Mona Norklit, the younger Andersson was born in January, 1982, just a few months ahead of the Swedish pop group drifting apart at the end of 1982.
So, when the chance came up to select and remaster live recordings from Abba's 1979 tour of Europe, Japan and North America for a new album, the 32-year-old didn't hesitate.

A son of Benny Andersson and his second wife, Mona Norklit, has remastered some of Abba's best live tracks.A son of Benny Andersson and his second wife, Mona Norklit, has remastered some of Abba's best live tracks. Photo: Reuters
 
"I think I did it for me, because I wasn't born at the time, so I never really got to hear this," says Andersson, who performs in his own band, Atlas, and works as a music producer.
 
The result of Andersson's efforts is Abba – Live at Wembley Arena, a collection of 25 tracks recorded on November 10, 1979, at the last of Abba's seven sold-out concerts at the British venue.
Unlike the band's previous live album, Abba Live, for which the original recordings were extensively reworked before release in 1986, the recordings for the Wembley album have been digitalised but left more or less untouched.

Bjorn Ulvaeus, left, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson are reborn again in a new album.Bjorn Ulvaeus, left, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson are reborn again in a new album. Photo: AP
 
The album captures the frenzied excitement and energy that surrounded the band on the tour; something that fans who caught their 1977 Australian tour concerts will be familiar with. Its solid performances also help put paid to the myth that Abba's members were somehow stilted when playing live.
Along with standards, such as Dancing Queen, Waterloo, SOS and Fernando, is a previously unreleased song, I'm Still Alive, written and performed by band member Agnetha Faltskog.
While each of Abba's members approved the album, Benny Andersson was most closely involved in its production.

Toni Collette stars in the popular <em>Muriel's Wedding</em>, which features Abba's music.Toni Collette stars in the popular Muriel's Wedding, which features Abba's music.
 
Now 67, avuncular and friendly, he says he is pleased the performances have aged so well.
"This is just exactly how it was," he says. "And I'm surprised that we sing so well. The playing is OK. I'm very brave. I don't remember me being brave."
While it is easy to understand why Ludvig Andersson should be interested in his father's band days – it is, after all, family history – a more intriguing question is why so much of the wider world should share his interest.

Anne Wood, Jennifer Vuletic and Lara Mulcahy star in the stage production of <i>Mamma Mia</i> in Australia.Anne Wood, Jennifer Vuletic and Lara Mulcahy star in the stage production of Mamma Mia in Australia. Photo: John Woudstra
 
Despite 2014 marking 40 years since Abba made their international breakthrough, singing Waterloo at the 1974 Eurovision song contest, there is no shortage of evidence that we remain enamoured with Andersson, Faltskog and bandmates Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
In Stockholm, Abba: The Museum, a permanent collection of band memorabilia and interactive exhibits, has overshot projected visitor numbers by 30 per cent since opening in 2013 and is expecting its 500,000th guest this year. Mamma Mia, the stage musical Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote around Abba songs continues to draw strong crowds worldwide. Earlier this year, it became the ninth longest-running Broadway musical of all time.
Benny Andersson attributes Abba's ongoing popularity to a mix of good luck and good management.
After a slow period in the middle 1980s, recording label Polygram united the licences for Abba's songs, allowing the release of Abba Gold in 1992, an album that would go on to sell more than 28 million copies. British band Erasure's popular covers of Abba songs in 1992 also helped things along.
"Then [in 1994] there was a movie made called Muriel's Wedding, a really good film that was actually based on a girl being really into Abba music," Benny Andersson says, referring to the Australian hit, starring Toni Collette. "And then somebody had this idea of making a musical with the songs as the core. So it all started to roll.
"I would [also] like to think that in the original recordings there is a certain quality, sound-wise and also in the songs and lyrics, everything put together. I would like to think because it's good enough."
Carl Magnus Palm, a respected Abba biographer, believes the band's often talked about attention to detail is a big part of the durability of their sound.
"The reason the music is around today is that they put such attention into recording each and every song," he says.
Palm says Andersson and Ulvaeus would spend weeks writing a single song, only to discard some 90 per cent of their efforts as not good enough.
Songs that made the grade were painstakingly reworked as the backing track and vocals were laid down and throughout the mixing. Even then, the finished product could be rejected by the band.
Mattias Hansson, chief executive of Abba: The Museum, says while the institution's marketing target audience is "43-year-old mums", visitors come from a wide demographic and younger people are continually discovering the band.
"I think we've come to the conclusion that the quality of the songs is eternal," he says. "People keep on rediscovering Abba the same way that they continue to discover Mozart, Beethoven – and Elvis Presley for that matter."

Abba – Live at Wembley Arena is available as a 25-track album set and on 180gm triple vinyl.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/mamma-mia-son-of-abba-remasters-pop-beat-in-live-at-wembley-arena-20140930-10nvy3.html#ixzz3F8DznzNl

Thursday 2 October 2014

New ABBA Collection Items - Australian Pencil Case

Latest additions to my ABBA collection.

Firstly, this great little pencil case from Australia - not in perfect condition, but very hard to find these days:



















And two more jigsaw puzzles from the UK. I think I am only missing one from the set now :)






Frida On Skavlan - Behind The Scenes

A nice little behind the scenes video from Skavlan which Frida appeared on - this was from the photo sessions for the show :)

ABBA Live At Wembley - Ludvig Talks On TV4

Ludvig was on TV4 in Sweden talking about ABBA Live At Wembley Arena :)


ABBA Gracias Por La Musica Deluxe Edition !

Getting closer to the release date now - ABBA Gracias Por La Musica Deluxe Edition: