No
thank you
for the
music
F
orget David Bowie or the Sex Pistols – for some, the
greatest music performance of the 1970s was when
Abba stormed the Eurovision Song Contest with
Waterloo
in 1974, ushering in the disco era of white
suits, platform boots, the Bee Gees and
Saturday
Night Fever
.
For a period, the world seemed to be dominated by
the music and marital travails of the band’s two couples: Anni-Frid
(
Frida) Lyngstad and Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus and
Agnetha Fältskog, whose initials form Abba’s name.
But as Abba The Museum opens this month in Stockholm’s
Djurgården island, it’s tempting to think that the band who sold
more than 370 million albums worldwide (only Elvis, The Beatles
and Michael Jackson have sold more) were instantly loved at
home. In fact, while Abba topped the UK charts nine times, they
only had three number ones in Sweden.
“
They say it’s hard to be a prophet in your own country. It was
a bit like that,” recalls Jan-Erik Ekblom, whose Golden Oldies
Shop – the oldest collectors’ store in Scandinavia – was founded as
the foursome were beginning to sweep the world in 1977. Today it
specialises in Abba rarities. “If you liked Abba back then, it was not
something you were proud of.”
Familiarity may have bred contempt. With their band members
already known for their solo work in the 1960s – songwriters Björn
and Benny were in the popular Hootenanny Singers and Hep
»
As Abba The Museum opens in
Stockholm, we look back at the
time when Swedes weren’t in
love with the band
W o r d s
⁄
C l i v e M o r r i s
I l l u s t r a t i o n s
⁄
D a m i e n W e i g h i l l
n
/ 0 7 1
