Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus were in town last night, and joined producer Judy Craymer and author Catherine Johnson on stage for the curtain call with the cast as Mamma Mia celebrates its 10th anniversary. Now I am not a huge fan of the concept of this show - like We Will Rock You and others of this ilk, it is a musical created purely to fit around a set of (albeit impressive in Abba’s case) songs, and as such leaves me cold.
But these two men are legends, nevertheless - it is 35 years since Abba's Eurovision Song Contest win with Waterloo, and since that time the Swedish super-group chalked up an impressive nine Number 1 hits in the UK - twice they hit the top with three successive releases (Mamma Mia, Fernando and Dancing Queen in 1976, and Knowing Me Knowing You, The Name Of The Game and Take A Chance On Me in ‘77 to ‘78).
It is very easy to take the piss out of Abba’s cod-English, nauseatingly chirpy lyrics and squeaky-clean image, but there are not many other artists in the history of the charts who can say that their earnings were at any stage higher than their home country’s biggest industries...
And on a purely musical level, the late Stig Anderson’s production values have often been compared to classical composition, with his application of ground-breaking multi-tracking orchestral and vocal techniques.
Despite the fact that the group’s public and personal relationships broke down at the pinnacle of their success, all the members of Abba have gone on to varying degrees of success - notably in Benny and Bjorn’s case, the world of musical theatre. In my humble opinion, Chess was a masterpiece, spawning standards worthy of earlier masters of this genre such as I Know Him So Well and One Night in Bangkok, and Elaine Paige’s show on Radio 2 on Sunday was dedicated to celebrating that show’s own 25th anniversary.
And as for the “cult of Abba” - well where would the Aussies be without them? Films such as Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert feature Abba songs and anecdotes as a mainstay of their plots, and Bjorn Again sell out huge venues much as their idols always did!
Abba is, and always will be, a unique phenomenon.
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