Björn Ulvaeus is back where everything started - on a bench in Linköping.
There he met Benny Andersson - and it was the start of 51 successful years with ABBA and his own projects like Mamma Mia.
Now he looks back - and tells us how the Abba members meet today.
"We all saw each other not a long time ago," he says.
On June 5, 1966, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met at a bench in Linköping. The duo was on tour with their respective bands - Hootenanny Singers and Hep Stars - and jammed together on a bench in the park Slottsparken in the city.
It was the start of one of the most successful chapters in Swedish music history - ABBA, phenomenal success with Mamma Mia and a series of side projects.
Last year, the duo was honored for their efforts with a new bench next to the place where they met 51 years ago. The bench plays music and on Thursday, Björn Ulvaeus visited the site.
"If we had not met here, I would definitely have chosen another course in my life. It's one of those things that has been completely fundamental in my life," he says.
Björn Ulvaeus: "Absolutely fundamental"
Björn and Benny began to record music and then involved their respective partners, including the artists Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The super group ABBA was a fact and celebrated great success with hits like "Waterloo" and "Mamma Mia".
Björn and Agnetha got two children together but divorced in 1979. ABBA dissolved in 1982 - but the quartet is still meeting.
"We met not a long time ago. It's only a month since we met all four. We had a meeting about a project called Virtual ABBA, says Björn Ulvaeus.
The ABBA members still meet.
Björn Ulvaeus is glad that they can work together - and that the contact between all ABBA members is so good.
"It is very nice that we have been able to be good friends all four of us. You often read about bands that have become bitter enemies. But we have been able to avoid it altogether. On the contrary, we all feel a gratitude and humility that it became like it became, without realizing why I believe.
http://www.expressen.se/noje/abba-medlemmarnas-hemliga-aterforening/
Video with Bjorn & the bench here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWfJt45lj-a/?hl=es
HERE ABBA WAS BORN
Linköping "My life had become completely different if we had not met here." 51 and 400 million sold records later, Björn Ulvaeus and his guitar returned to the venue next to the old Hotel Rally where he met Benny, and Abba was born. But was it really on a bench, and in Linköping?The big board in the Best Western Hotel at the intersection Drottninggatan and Storgatan tells the story of how Björn and Benny Andersson met. A long text completely without the term "bench"."If we sat on a bench or sat leaning against one of the oaks tribes, as I remember, it may not play such a big part. But we played Beatles songs, we did, "explains Björn Ulvaeus.According to the waitress "Fröjdis" who drove out the long-haired boys for her to go for breakfast, it was under a syrenium.- Things rarely become concrete here but there is no doubt about the matter. It was here we met, unlikely but true. It feels very omnipotent to stand here, said an obviously touched world star in the castle park.In fact, Björn and Benny, Hootenanny Singers and Hep Stars, actually met in the afternoon outside a party venue in Falköping."Our car was on their way out and their in so we just said" hello hello "and so we asked if they would like to come to our farewell party at Hotel Rally in Linköping that evening."Sure," they said, and then we were separated. In the evening, Hep Stars called and asked where we were home for now they were in Lidköping. They threw themselves in the car and burned here."All night I sat and Benny and played Beatles songs on the guitar. If we then asked to leave the hotel or became kicked out, I did not remember but we ended up in the park under a tree.The memory slots can be explained that it was 51 years ago and alcohol was consumed at the party. The morning after, Björn pulled into the lump without sleeping a single nap at night. A week later, they wrote their first song together. As Hep Stars recorded."I'm really sorry that I could not get to the opening of the bench (June 5 last year) because I really wanted to. Now it was so good when I went to Västervik and watched my apartment in Slottsholmen just finished. My daughter Anna is in the Visfestival and then I will visit my sister Eva who lives in our parents' old summer house."I think the bench is really nice and it's a little moving initiative. I am grateful to both the city of Linköping and the others who pushed the issue of a bench.Björn and Benny are still "very best friends"."We continue to work closely together. Right now we are working with the movie "Mamma Mia 2" and are also writing brand new material.
http://www.corren.se/kultur-noje/har-foddes-abba-om4737878.aspx
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